[Russell Sobie]

For the most part if you are only going to work in 2D and you only plan on making a single skin for a particular car, I would recommend staying away from doing stuff that will require you to span across non-adjacent panels. Getting logos to line up, or having accurate racing lines going down the entire side of the car can be a real pain in the ass if you are not familiar with the mapping for a particular 3d model. Besides... if you are just starting out, you'll probably want to keep things simple anyway. Trying to replicate a real-world livery might put you off the entire process!

What I started with when I was doing 2D only was pick a color scheme I liked (Black/Red/White) and stuck to patterns instead of lines. I collected a few logos and used those on all the cars I did. Maybe do a drawing on the biggest panel in the texture map for some artistic flare.

Another tip would be that you can bring in other existing liveries for the car you are working on and put them on layers above the layers you are working on and set their opacity to 20% or something. Maybe you can "barrow" a particular racing line from one of the other liveries to clue you into where they need to join up on other panels.

[Michael Martin]

Good tips.
When i started out i used to use existing skins like Russell has said. It's quite easy to identify a hip line on some cars one of the reasons i went for the BMW first.

I'll keep the first guide to the basics get a car colour and add a few logos.

Then add to it after with more advanced stuff.

Sounds like you have got to the limits of 2d stuff. The cars with the yellow lines took about 5 hours each to do in 2d.
This is the .psd for the 911 cup
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I_wuAP...qfefsmwsLj

Videos coming along
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...YYmEYOoTcy

[Andrea Aru]

Videos coming along
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...YYmEYOoTcy

Great stuff dude, solved most if not all of the doubts I had (like how to get a .dds file, didn't know gimp had native compatibility... or does it?). "Skin police"... looks like you would have a fair amount of work to do if you wanted to arrest everyone who's stealing them 

[Michael Martin]

Gimp doesn't have native support for .dds files but there is a plugin that you can download to make it support it.

*note to self
Video how to open a .dds file in gimp.

[Gordon Jacobson]

Eagerly waiting for the final product!

Thanks so much for doing this!

[Michael Martin]

First version done.
Can somebody try it and left me know if it's easy enough to follow. If the pictures are too small just zoom in.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xVcrMW...cqtCoFsk1M

[Igor Relja]

First, one disclaimer: I already know everything you've covered, so for intended audience (first time users and total beginners), experience might vary. And i skimmed through the videos, didn't watch every second of them.

With that being said, I find it easy to follow, and well explained. Brief explanations, straight to the point. Good job!

[Michael Martin]

Thank you for taking the time to go through it Igor.
I'm going to steal that intended audience bit as it sounds good.

Is there any car in particular you were wanting a line guide for?

[Russell Sobie]

Here's my comments:

• Mix in some bullet points or numbered lists where appropriate. Makes it easier to read and keep track if you are doing things step by step.
  
• Part 4 you say to flatten your image. I'm pretty sure you can export to DDS without doing any flattening, which saves you the step of disregarding changes when leaving GIMP. If that's not the case... well... invest in Photoshop.
  
• Part 7: you can make a livery as big or as small as you want, so long as it is a power of 2, I think. Some of mine are 128x, some are 64x.
  
• You have "size >10mb" but it should be "<10mb"
  
• You might also touch on the .json files that clue AC into what your skin is called and what your Driver and crew wear during the race somewhere.
  

And here's just some general tips you could include or not... I just find these helpful:

• I assumed everyone uses Content Manager at this point. Are you not? Did you want to just keep it simple for the tutorial to use the default AC launcher? If you don't use CM you totally should. The CM Showroom will update LIVE as you save texture files into your skin folder, so you can literally keep the showroom window up on your desktop as you make changes. I found this impossible to live without when doing 2D only, as you are.
  
• More CM love: you can make your own templates using CM Showroom. It's just clicking on parts of the car, looking at the material/diffuse and exporting both the AO and the Wireframe. This is useful for cars that aren't by Kunos or that specifically don't have templates (a few of the Ferraris don't have templates... probably because of legal BS).
  
• When making your skin folder, instead of starting from scratch, just pick an existing skin folder containing a skin that looks similar to what you are going for and just copy/paste the folder then rename it to your name. This will clue you in as to what the file names need to be for everything that you might want to customize. Just export your DDSs and PNGs right on top of what is in your new skin folder. The Kunos templates seldom let you know what those file names are! 
  
• Editing the livery.png and the skin file first will let you more easily find your skin in the Showroom too.
  
• For each of the PSDs you make, I like to name them based directly on the export file name they will be exported to. So in the case of your BMW's "skinbase.dds" name the PSD "skinbase.psd". This helps me remember where to export the DDS to.
  
• In your workspace, create a folder shortcut to the skin folder under the content/cars/[whateverCar] folder. This'll make exporting to the right place easier.
  

[Michael Martin]

Thank you

• Will add in the bullet points
  
• In gimp for some reason you need to flatten or merge the image. I prefer to flatten as the map lines up with the model. Some times if there is a gap around the edge and you merge it stretches the image and doesn't fit.(But Gimp is free so can't have everything )
  
• Useful to know, I just kept it the same size as Kunos use to keep it simple.
  
• <>10mb was there as a reminder to me. If more than 10mb how to reduce the size of the files. Still needed to do that bit
  
• I thought adding the .json was adding an extra layer of complexity. Thought most people just wanted to get their skins to show up on the stream. Only us die hard skinners go the full hog and add helmets,gloves,suites and crew. Not found any instance where the .json is required to get the skins to work.
  

I'm a CM convert and swear by it. Should be mandatory for anybody using Assetto Corsa. Your right i kept it to as simple as possible. This is the absolute minimum to get your skin in game and for minimal financial outlay. Paying for PS/Mudbox when your only going to do a few skins isn't worth it for everybody. 

I was going to include your bits about making your own templates then thought i'd have that as an additional guide. Or I may just point them to yours
Again i did the folders in the way i did to keep this as simple as possible. The shortcut in the work space is going to be added.
I do the same with the .psd file names. Again CM makes this easier as you can just find what it's called.