No previous knowledge of modding required to get going!  

Here's some basic skinning using Photoshop 7.0.

First of all you need to get the PICPAC conversion utillity from Microprose which includes most PCX files from the game!
Hoping this link will last you can find it here as well as a few othr usefull tools:

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/CharlesEAW/AddOnsPage.html

Included you will fine LowRes skins which have allready been converted to the proper palettes and if you are new to skinning it is best to start experimenting with one of these. Besides that they are the only ones which can use the full spectrum of colours.
Load one of the planeskin PCX files into photoshop and switch to the IMAGE>MODE tab. Notice that the tab shows INDEXED and 8 BITS CHANNEL. Underneath is RGB and these are the modes you will use. When still in INDEXED scroll down a bit furhter and click on COLOUR TABLE. You will then see the INDEXED PALETTE I have been writing about. It is this palette which is needed by EAW and there are quite a few of them as you can see in the files in the ZIP. You can LOAD/SAFE palettes from the COLOUR TABLE as an .ACT file. As the default skins only use half the palette there will be no change when you load one of the ACT. files in the ZIP but you will see about twice as many colours in the table. This is a conversion without changing the PIXEL INDICES, it means each pixel will still point to the same INDEX as before, but the palette has changed and is now attached to this PCX. If the loaded PALETTE is entirely different then all PIXELS will adapt entirely different colours because an INDEX which for instance was occupied by blue now holds green or another colour, but this index is still used by the pixels.
Switch to RGB mode first and understand that you are now working in TRUE COLOUR as opposed to a 256 colour INDEX.
Under the IMAGE tab go to ADJUSTMENTS. You will now see the basic edit features for changing COLOURS. Simply try a few out on the picture and notice what happens. If you think you have done enough set IMAGE/MODE to INDEXED again and note that you get a choice for PALETTE options. The system may choose a setting by default but I want you to use LOCAL PERCEPTUAL. This setting will try to make a palette out of any RGB picture which best matches on screen visual. Note that after ticking OK the picture has changed slightly as it now has lost quite a few colours switching to only 256. Now look at IMAGE/MODE/COLOUR TABLE and have a look at the PALETTE which now should have changed considerably.
As exercise safe this PALETTE to a folder called PALETTES or ACTS for later use, in a convenient location (MyDocuments).
After that you go to EDIT and choose UNDO..... or STEP BACKWARD. This will put you back into RGB mode again and you can try as many UNDO's and REDO's as you like to get the hang of it. Apply a few FILTERS if you like and screw up the picture, hehehe. Now switch IMAGE/MODE to INDEXED again but this time choose the option CUSTOM and note that the PALETTE immediately becomes visible (probably showing the one you last used/modified). Now comes the tricky bit, the conversion to EAW's palette! If you loaded a Me109E you MUST load the Me109E.ACT from the files in the ZIP. Anyother palette will lead to errors. After loading the proper ACT and clicking OK, the program will try to convert your picture as best as it can to the colours specified in the ACT and as there aren't too many of them the picture will again slightly change. Your picture is now ready for safing and conversion to TPC. Choose FILE/SAFE AS, type a file name you will recognise easily and underneath set the FORMAT to PCX.
Create a MYSKINS folder in a convenient location and safe the file (or safe it to where you have your tools for EAW and PICPAC so you can convert it to a TPC straight away)
Tell PICPAC to convert your new skin but make sure you set the -P option. In the DOS version you need to type the following command line in NOTEPAD:

PICPAC -P MYSKIN.PCX MYSKIN.TPC

where MYSKIN stands for any slotrelated name used by EAW (i.e. PSP2A or P109E)

and safe the file as a CONVERT.BAT into the same folder where PICPAC is LOCATED. Double clicking will then do the conversion and the file can be copied straight into your EAW folder. Ofcourse if it was another planeskin you modified the text must be accordingly altered to match the search criteria of the game. This is where the basic lesson ends. All you now need to learn is what you can do with PHOTOSHOP to modify these basic skins or any other skin you can find. I hope it was instructive enough to get you truely going.

VonBeerhofen

http://www.sandbaggeruk.com/vb.html 