Sharper Lines w/ Photoshop

[spreilly 10]

I'm doing a repaint on an RV-7. The paint itself is done, but the lines that I have made on it look very blurry. Anyone know how I can make them sharper?

 

 

[J G 927]

I use GIMP myself. your lines are at 400% and 300% magnification so that will amount for some of it.

 

What are they like at 100%?

 

Resolution in the GIMP is at pixel level and so cant really be made smaller. I don't know how FSX handles large images, but one answer might be to make a larger image an see if FSX reduces it to fit the model.  If it does, then you can effectively increase the resolution and therefore the smoothness of the lines in your image.

 

 

[stu7708 244]

In 300 - 400% zoom most things look slightly blurry in my experience, but not quite as bad as your first shot.

 

I assume you painted it using the brush or pencil tool. Try using the Pen, or even the Freeform Pen tool to draw your shapes. That should give you a smoother result.

[Kevin Firth 114]

I always create a path, make that a selection and then manipulate the selection however I want. Always get sharp lines and smooth curves, which it's easy to change to get right.

[spreilly 10]

In FSX, it looks extremely blurry. I made a work path, filled it in, then copied it twice and filled in different colors. I did it once, the other two are copies.

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

im curious to know if you looked at it in fsx or your just turned off by the jagged lines in PS

from my work with painting aircraft; well heli's mostly

some lines look jagged when zoomed in PS but not in FSX

there are layers and filters that loads in fsx as well;

bump layer; alpha layer etc...

this will not be visible in fsx

[spreilly 10]

I looked at it in FSX, and it is blurry. Maybe it is the antialiasing. I have it set to Trilinear, with antialiasing on. Should I set it to antroscopic? (I'm not at my pc, so forgive me if I spelled that wrong)

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

antistrophic should make lines less jagged for you; I’m not sure about blurry

but those lines should definitely not be jagged when rendered in fsx

even though you see them as such in PS

there could be other masks or layers you may need to edit in order to get the right effect

as im writing this; im thinking you may have some alpha mask hiding somewhere in one of the textures to give you that effect

making a design on that area without editing the alpha out will result in blurries or many other undesired effects

[spreilly 10]

They're not jagged in fsx, just very blurry. Other aircraft (including other paints on the same aircraft) have clear and crisp lines.

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

than you must have alpha layer in one of the textures you also need to edit

or

you may have damaged existing alpha and prob need to recreate it or start from scratch template

[mutley 4,495]

Are you using the NVIDIA dds plug-in for Photoshop? 

 

Make sure you have mip maps disabled when saving the textures.

[spreilly 10]

Nah, I convert using DXTBmp (which might be the problem, as it's a hella old program

[spreilly 10]

Fixed the alpha

 

Now my lines are jagged. This is now a photoshop issue. Anyone help?

 

 

[mutley 4,495]

Shane, 

Even using DXTBmp, uncheck the include bitmaps when saving option as you will definitely end up with blurry textures with it switched on.

 

Joe

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

lol, you messed them up didnt you
you can ask DXTBmp to make one for you; or import your own
than export alpha to  editor, edit...
reload after edit and save in DXTBmp

[jankees 917]

looks like a photoshop problem to me. How did you draw those lines?

If you use the pen tool, they should be perfectly straight since these are vectorlines. OK, if you zoom in to 400%, they do get a bit blocky, but nowhere near as bad as yours.

[needles 1,011]

Just a wee thought from me, did you use any sort of feather when you were selecting an area to paint?

If you had a feather setting above zero, you will get a blurred edge.