Paint scheme ideas

[lostpilot28]

OK, this is more of a philisophical question. Is it "bad" to copy or plagiarize someone else's paint scheme?

From what I've read elsewhere on the 'net and VAF, it's not a big deal...maybe even flattering to the original designer. As long as credit for the design is given where it's due, it should be OK. Or am I wrong?

The reason I ask is that I have very little creative sense. I can look at paint designs and think "wow, I really like that"...but I'd never be able to come up with it on my own. Frankly, I don't mind not being artisticly talented.

What do you all think?

[flyvans.com]

hi sonny,

as far as i've followed the discussions it's no problem to copy or get inspired by someone else's design. as long as you don't do it without asking and then flying around his hometown airport, thereby "stealing" the others identity ;-)
almost always, there will be some differences, there's no exact lookalike unless intended.

feel free to get inspired by some early drafts and then the final version of ours:
http://www.flyvans.com/subproj/pj_draft1.html
http://www.flyvans.com/subproj/pj_draft2.html
http://www.flyvans.com/subproj/pj_draft3.html

http://www.flyvans.com/subproj/final_hbymt.html

rgds, bernie

[pierre smith]

...on the belly .

Regards,

[chrispratt]

Sonny:

If the design you are interested in is truly unique then I believe it would be appropriate to at least ask the person who owns the plane about copying the design. Some folks have paid designers to make their schemes unique as a way of personalizing the airplane. They or the designer might not be flattered by someone copying their scheme, but then again they might offer you the diagrams. It will vary from person to person so I think courtesy should guide the way.

I have found in my years as a marketing professional that usually quiet, rational people can become very emotional about brands and logos and similar symbols. I suspect aircraft paint schemes might fall in the same emotional range. In fact I would be rather perturbed if someone made an exact duplicate of my scheme, not so much for my sake as for the designer who spent quite a bit of time and creative energy coming up with something unique.

While I don't know if there are any legal rulings on the matter, I would think paint designs are like photographs and are copyrighted by the designer or photographer unless they specifically give up the rights like Doug Reeves sometimes does with his work for the forums.

Just my opinion of course, and I hope it helps. It's nice of you to ask the question.

Chris

[JakeLewis22]

Originally Posted by flyvans.com

hi sonny,

as far as i've followed the discussions it's no problem to copy or get inspired by someone else's design. as long as you don't do it without asking and then flying around his hometown airport, thereby "stealing" the others identity ;-)
almost always, there will be some differences, there's no exact lookalike unless intended.

feel free to get inspired by some early drafts and then the final version of ours:
http://www.flyvans.com/subproj/pj_draft1.html
http://www.flyvans.com/subproj/pj_draft2.html
http://www.flyvans.com/subproj/pj_draft3.html

http://www.flyvans.com/subproj/final_hbymt.html

rgds, bernie

Bernie,

What program did you use to create your final scheme? Very nice!

[JetMech72]

Look on this page.

PSBlue Design Study

That seems like a really nice way to test out paint schemes.

[flyinmonque]

Maybe you could just use your favorite color or two tone with your wifes.

[flyvans.com]

we did rough drafts on a simple sideview fuselage, as you can see on the first 3 pages. they were done based on a sideview bitmap straight from the van's website. edited in photoshop, layered and background replaced by clouds. then it was just rough drawing, for each design a layer or two so they could be compared.

once we settled in one direction, we started developing it in 3d and looking at the details (wingroot fairing, gear legs, empennage fairing etc...) you want to try to keep color transitions mainly on the bigger parts of the airplane. that makes painting e.g. the bottom wing access covers, wingroot fairings, elevator trim tab etc... much easier if they're one color only. and sometimes by shifting one line just a bit you can save quite a few headaches.
in our case we ended up going for all blue flaps and ailerons as well as all blue gear legs just to keep it simple.
also, we found that a dark bottom/light top greatly helps to take away a bit of the rv "boxy" look. same goes for some kind of wave/forward slant main element. a forward slanted line will suggest "speed" kind of like a dragster.

then we started transforming the idea into 3d. this was done using the original paintkit supplied by the now defunct "flightfactory simulations". they had a small payware RV-7A model for fs9 (microsoft flight simulator 2004), which although not top-end quality in every aspect, was pretty good and certainly good enought for this purpose.
basically, almost every flightsim model can be "repainted". in this case this was however simplified and a better quality achievable since the company also released a "paintkit" for the model, which included all the original layered photoshop files. so we were e.g. able to draw our design below their superimposed rivet lines making for a perfect quality repaint.
also, although the final files are in bitmap format, the layered psd's allowed to use vector paths, making shaping and tuning and modifying the curves easy.
then the combined bitmap had to be exported into flightsim format, and a new "variant" of the model added in the flightsim aircraft.cfg file using the new textures.
when the new flightsim X came along, the model wouldn't automatically install and the panel/gauges no longer work. i however managed to at least get the external model ported and working for the paint design purpose.
the advantage of having the different variants now in fs-x was that with a simple switch in the aircraft selector, the different repaints could be tested against all kinds of backdrops, from every perspective angle and even sunrise/sunset/weather conditions.

of course there are easier ways to get to a visually pleasing paintjob ;-) but as with everything in airplane building, sometimes the way is also part of the goal ;-)

if anyone wants to try it themselves, feel free to contact me for additional help.

rgds, bernie

[rv9av8tr]

OMG.... makes my head hurt just thinking about complicated all that sounds!!

[Jim P]

I went the FS9/ FSX route myself and found it a lot of fun. It does require some knowledge of graphics tools, but the how-to is easily found on the web. Unfortunatley, FFS is now defunct but there's another very impressve model on it's way from a 3rd party developer. This page has some interesting, or not so interesting variations over 6 years of building..http://adap.com/rv7/paint.htm