Buggy Designing for Beginners

Buggy Painting for Beginners

This tutorial will help you understand the basics of buggy designing. It is designed for the beginner designer. It will not go into the more complicated aspects of designing.

First you will have to have a graphics editing program such as Paint Shop Pro or Photo Shop. I will be using Paint Shop Pro 8 to illustrate this tutorial. It is wise to know about graphic editing when you begin designing. I will assume you are familiar with Paint Shop Pro for this tutorial.

We are going to go in reverse since you really need to know how to use the Previewer before you do anything at all. You will be using this a lot while you build to check on your design. In the examples used for this tutorial, we will be using my “Very Ugly Buggy” created specially for the purpose of teaching.

The Templates

The templates you will be looking at when you design are:

T005bg_2 personpurple.jpg

Or…

The wire frame which I don’t use…I will be showing you why in the pages ahead.

This is the wire frame template.

This window is the one you can put any color you want to on. Don’t worry about the texture you see on it. Just paint right over it.

t0011bg_window.jpg

This window part is the transparency. It is the part that makes the window transparent or not, and it is a grayscale texture. The darker the color (from a white to black scale) the more transparent the color will be. I often use a medium to dark grey. Again, don’t worry about the texture you see here—just paint right over it.

t0011_windowtrans.jpg

You need to know WHAT you are looking at, otherwise you will be confused. We will look at the different parts of the buggy, and where they end up going on the buggy once viewed in the previewer.

Open the Previewer by clicking on its icon. It is best to keep it at the bottom of your screen in the task bar for easy access at all times.

There are four basic files you will open for the buggy shown on the previewer:

The first is the model: m201bg_two seater01.model. This will be asked for when you open File at the upper left hand corner of the previewer. This is where you will find the model, and open it.

Next is in Materials (to the right of File), and is the body: t005bg_2personpurple

By opening the File, and the model, it will bring the above picture up. It will be the basic buggy. Now you need to add your own texture that you have created. To the right of File, you will see Materials. Click on Materials, and you will see three choices. The first one is the one you want for the main body.

You will not be using the Opacity or Cutout textures. Lt is On, and Two Sided is Off…these are the default settings. Do not change these.

Find your file by using the browse button and bring it into the previewer. You will now see your own design. Click on Accept, and ok.

You will now see something like this:

Note that the headlights that are on the texture are not there, and neither is the coloring for the windshield.

How do we get them to appear? This seems to be what confuses a lot of people, and I know it did me when I first started.

The lights ( t005bg_2personpurple_lit ) (You will bring up your main template texture again for this—it is not a separately painted texture, and will not be asked for in submission. That is why when you submit, there are only three textures asked for). This confuses many people.

You will notice there are three files under materials. It is the second file named t005bg_2personpurple_lit

Simply click on it and it will bring up the screen where you will browse, and find your main texture once again. Once you find it, open it, and click accept, and ok. It will bring it up on the screen.

Now you have lights, and the beginning to a REALLY UGLY buggy!

But where is the windshield, you ask? Take a look at the picture just above this one.

The windows (t004_window.jpg ) which is the one for putting color on, and (t0011bg_windowtrans.jpg ) which is the part of the window that will make it transparent.

Go to Materials. The windows are the third texture under materials.

Now you have the main texture up. Now you will notice there are two more possibilities. Which one do you choose? Don’t choose the cutout texture. You will be using the familiar picture under Opacity texture. All you have to do is browse for your own window transparency texture now. Once you find it, open, apply, and click ok.

Now you have the complete, and very ugly tutorial buggy.

Now the key is to practice and experiment.

Now to Design the Buggy…AND Make It REALLY UGLY just for kicks!

Designing Your Buggy

You should have three textures ready to be painted: The buggy body, and the two window textures.

Take the templates and turn them into 1000 resolution, but the same pixel size…For example: The original template might be 256 x 256 by 72 resolution…Turn it into 256 x 256 by 1000 resolution. Also any artwork you use, do the same. Also any artwork or photographs you use should be at least 600-1000 resolution. By doing this, it will help your pictures to be sharp and clear. As you learn how to design, you find many methods of sharpening and defining your images.

When you work on the template you will magnify it with the zoom tool to whatever works best for you. Sometimes I don’t zoom in, but 99 % of the time I do—especially for doing fine detail.

I will also show you why you don’t want to use the wire frame—at least I don’t.

On the picture below, it shows you where things go. I forgot to put that the window frame is above the floor board. Two pixels down from the top just above the window frame should be colored the same color of the tires. This is part of the tire. I will show you a better illustration of this in another picture. Also you may notice some words have been written backwards or are upside down. That is how your text should be to appear in world correctly.

Wire frame

This is the wire frame painted. I painted each part with a different color or texture so you can see where they go once we view it on the Previewer.

Take a note of the area painted a light green on the upper right hand side of this picture. This is the two pixel area that was mentioned above. If you do not paint this the color of the tire, and say you paint that area the color of the window frame, you will have a line on the tire that color.

This is a good illustration of where things go, but as far as using the wire frame for a buggy, I will show you what happens. If you paint inside the lines exactly, the buggy will have “missing” areas, so it is best to paint on the other template, or practice on this one until you know what goes where and how it is placed there. As a beginner, you might not notice these things, but your experienced designer or buyer will.

The wire frame painted by sections, and inside lines.

If you paint inside the lines of the wire template you will end up with something like this with slight spaces every where (the lights are not shown here). If you paint the window frame, and follow the inside of the lines, this is what happens.

Study the painted template and the pictures, and see what you can learn from them.

Now for the template that has the purple buggy on it already painted.

For this illustration I lightened the whole template so it is easier for you to see. Then I painted each part with a different color or design. Refer to the template with the writing on it so you know what the parts are.

Note that the tire wheel is slightly squished. If you do not squish it, it will be an odd shape and will not look right in world or in the previewer. This sometimes takes a bit of practice, but you will find yourself creating great wheels in a short time.

Note: Since the new buggy templates came out, I don't know if you still have to squish the tire. Sorry. I have not created a buggy

since the 4 seater came out. Someone said you don't have to squish the tires anymore, so you should plan to experiment.

The first step in designing is to have your artwork ready to use. You can use picture tubes, textures, and patterns to paint your buggy. You can get pictures of headlights, grills, wheels, and the tire treads off the web, and alter them. If you have a camera, go shoot some pictures of the things you want to use. Some people use masks to mask things off, however I do not.

Once you have your artwork prepared, you can start using them. I think the prep work is the most time consuming.

Some designers turn the template into a grayscale and lighten it up. That might be a good idea for you as a beginner so that you will become familiar with the buggy. As for me, I have never lightened the template, except for this tutorial. I guess I like to work in the dark…lol

There is a tutorial on http://www.glassliondesign.com/tutorial.htm that may help you with creating your own buggy, but it is not as detailed as this one is, and it is for Photoshop. Their method is different from mine.

Once you have played with the creation of your own buggy, you will develop your own style. Don’t get discouraged…Nothing comes of anything worthwhile with out practice and experimentation (and a bit of frustration).

At this point I hope I don’t have to tell you to download the templates and Previewer. However, if you do need them, go to There, and go to the developer page, and download all the files. You have to sign up to be a developer in order to use the developer pages.

Your files should be kept in a folder called There. You can keep your templates anywhere on your hard drive, but the place that has been best for me, is in the There folder.

You should have your buggy template in front of you now.

Don’t forget to change the resolution.

Create a normal layer above the background layer.

Do you have your artwork ready?

Zoom in so you can see better. It will be a bit blurry, but you will get used to that. When you want to see what it looks like as a clearer image, you can zoom out, and also you can view it on the Previewer.

If you have text or something that needs be centered (the stripe is a great guide), create it first so you can see where it goes, then do the body. Create a layer or two above the body. For each part you design, use a new layer, and name it. Always create your artwork above the back ground layer. There are many ways to do this, so don’t be afraid to experiment.

On this buggy, I created a layer for each part, however the lighter blue layer is on one. It is best to put each part on a separate layer. And then a separate layer for each part of the design…For example: You have placed the stripe on the second layer, and called it Stripe…then you put another design on top of it. You need to put that new design element on another layer just above the stripe and call it whatever it is. You can also eliminate the stripe all together if you want to, but use it as a guide to center your work at first, and then eliminate it by designing over it.

Now all you need to do is paint each part with the design you want to use.

Sometimes I end up with over 100 layers +.

Make sure you save your work frequently. I save my work as three files: .png, .psd (photoshop), and .jpg….Why? I save it in Photoshop because I have both programs, and PSP allows me to view both PSP and PS. When I am done in PSP, I save it to PS, and take it into PS to sharpen the image, and save it as a .jpg. PS has a clearer image. However, if you don’t have Photoshop, save it as a .png to view it, and once you have your final image, save it as the .jpg…jpg (jpeg) will lose it’s quality if you open it too much, where a .png won’t…Also make sure you always save in .psd or .psp when you save your other file types so you can go back and change things if your computer decides to die. When I first started designing, I made the fatal mistake of not saving in the .psp or .psd file format, and now I regret it.

As you do your work, check your work out with the previewer every layer or so. This way you won’t go too far into your work, and find you don’t like it.

Once your work is done, and you are satisfied with it, take a good screenshot of it, and make sure it is 190 x 135 pixels. Save it to your file, and remember where you put it if you don’t put it with your textures. I always keep it with my textures. Make sure you call it something different from the name of the buggy. For example: My buggy is named UglyBuggyTexture….I would call it UglyBuggySnapshot. If it is named the same file name, it will not go through submission. You will notice that on File when you go to submit, there is also a place to click snapshot. This is a There snapshot, and is easy to use if you don’t want to use your own. Once you click submit, you will be taken to another screen where you will see places to put all your textures and snapshot.

The picture below shows what it looks like to submit before you have the snapshot and Texture #1 included. Make sure to enter Texture #1 which will be your buggy design, and of course, make sure the catalog image is enter too.

Kit: Enter Buggy Painter.

Product: The type of painter (buggy).

Product Name: The name of your buggy.

Product Description: The description of your buggy.

*Note: You have a 30 character name allowance.

You catalog image is your screenshot or theres.

Texture #1 is the body.

Texture #2 is the window that has the color on it.

Texture #3 is the window that is the transparency.

Texture #4 Just leave this alone…does not apply to your buggy.

Now click ok, and the submission process is on its way. It takes a minute to get you to the sign in page. There you will sign in, and it will take you to the submission page. This is where you can edit your description, etc. Be sure to check both boxes that need to be checked, and submit. You are now on your way to having your buggy in world. Congratulations on your first buggy.

Key points reviewed: You have to squash the tires slightly, IF the newer buggy templates still call for that.

Be sure to paint two pixels from the top of the template on the right hand side just above the window frame, the color of the tire. For it is part of the tire. This has baffled many a designer. It took a long time to discover where that “funny line” on the tire was coming from. So if you are getting a “funny” line running across your tire, this is the area it is coming from.

That is a very basic and simple tutorial for buggy designing. The key to designing anything with the There templates is practice and experimentation.

If you have any questions about basic buggy building, please contact me at dreamweaver@sti.net and I will try to help you.

I hope this helped you. I know it is very basic, but it should give you a good start on creating your own buggy. Best of everything to you J

DreamWeaver

About DreamWeaver….

I came into world without a clue how to design clothing or buggies. At the time I entered world, I had no one to turn to in order to learn how to paint textures, or how to submit. I learned everything on my own by experimenting and practicing. It will be a year in April of 2004 that I have been designing, and I am still learning something new everyday.

Don’t get frustrated, and just keep on practicing. I wrote this tutorial so that perhaps you will not have to go through some of the frustration I did.

If you need a Stylemaker Tutorial, you can go to the Developer page, sign in, and see the Stylemaker Tutorial.

Best of everything to you…

DreamWeaver

http://DreamWeaverIsThere.com

http://McKimsonConnection.com

No copy of this tutorial may be published anywhere without my express permission.