Tutorial - Photoshop TS

Creating a TurboSliders track using PhotoShop tutorial, by dede

http://www.turbosliders.com

Creating a TurboSliders track using

PhotoShop Tutorial by dede http://www.turbosliders.com

1. Getting started

Let's create a new PhotoShop document (File -> New). Width and Height can be freely

adjusted, and they can be also modified once the document has been created (Image -

> Canvas size).

PhotoShop has many panels and tools, but we need really few of them.

In this image I highlighted three important panels. The yellow one (n. 1) is the Tools panel;

the blue one (n. 2) shows our document using the zoom factor showed below (green

rectangle, n. 3). Thats where were going to paint and do all the actions listed in this

tutorial. The panel number 4 is very important: we are going to use the Layers and Paths

panels. The black panel (nr. 6) displays options for the selected tool (Options panel). At

last I highlighted the Brushes button (violet, nr. 5). If this button isnt visible, you can enable

it by clicking Window->Brushes.

2. Creating the track shape



Now that we know where tools and panels are positioned, we can start making our track.

If you have already a image of the track you want to make, you can import it in your

document and adapt its size to your document size. Now lets rename the current layer to

Background, and lets create a new layer (Ill rename it to Track Shape). Obviously if

you dont have any image of your track, you will have only a single empty layer called

Track Shape.

Now lets select the Pen tool from the Tools panel and lets track a pen path. Each

mouse click will generate a new anchor point. Anchor points can be added or removed

later (right mouse click), so your pen path can be modified if its not working correctly.

Check my pen path made over the background image. As you can see Im adding

anchor points right before and after a curve.

Now select the Convert point tool (you can select it by keeping right mouse button

pushed over the Pen tool button). With this tool you can select each anchor point and

modify the pen path you just created. If curves cant be made how they should be, you

can add and remove anchor points. Lets just focus to the track shape, pit lane will come

later!



As you could probably notice, I needed to modify my pen path adding and deleting

anchor points, so that the shape is smoother and more accurate.

Now lets make the Background layer hidden by clicking the eye button in the Layers

panel (I added a red circle around it, in the picture).

Lets move to the Paths panel (near the Layers panel) and lets rename the current path

to Track Path (by default its name is Work Path).

Its now time to set up the Brush tool. Select it from the Tools panel. Lets click the

Brushes button (first picture, violet nr. 5). From Brush presets select a Hard Round brush,

and set Master Diameter to your favorite track width (I will use 62px). Move to the Brush Tip

Shape menu and set Spacing to 1%. Disable everything else except Smoothing.



Hide the Brushes menu and move to the Paths panel. Right mouse click to the path we just

created (Track Path) and select the Stroke Path option. Select Brush as tool, and click

OK. Track shape is now designed. Its color doesnt really matter now, because we are

going to overlay it with a different color or with a texture later. Check if your track is

smooth enough, otherwise you might consider modifying the Pen path and stroking it

again (thats exactly what Ill do with my own shape, because its not smooth at all).

Once you reach the perfect shape, you can move to next step: select the Layers panel

and double click the Track Shape layer. Use either the Pattern Overlay or the Gradient

Overlay to make it look like real tarmac. These are the settings Im using:

Its also possible to create your own pattern for different tarmac effects.

Now that we have our track painted, we can create track edges (white lines). Create a

new layer, and move it under the Track Shape layer. I will name it Track Edge. Now

select white as foreground color from the Tools panel, then select the Brush tool and

set a width of 64px (naturally if you used a different track width, add two pixels to that

size). Now lets just use the Stroke Path option again (over the Track Path path). If you

followed all instructions correctly, youll see a white line all around your track. If you want

bigger edges, just use bigger brush size.

I also want extra tarmac outside edges, so Im going to create a new layer called Extra

Tarmac positioned right behind the Track Edge layer. Just repeat the Stroke Path option

again with the favorite size (Im going to use 66px). In order to keep the same style of the

tarmac, you can copy Track Shape layer style (right click over the layer, Copy Layer

Style) and paste it to Extra Tarmac layer (right click, Paste Layer Style).

3. Adding Kerbs



Adding kerbs to the track is quite tricky. But first lets create a new layer, Kerbs

Background, positioned behind the Extra Tarmac layer (or the Track Edge layer if you

dont have that one). Now select the Brush tool. Set a size of 16px more than Extra

Tarmac (Ill use 82px), or the size you prefer. So go to the Paths panel and lets stroke the

Track Path path with a white brush (or yellow, or the color you want to have as kerbs

background color).

Now select the Extra Tarmac layer. With the Magic Wand tool select the track.

Obviously if you dont have the Extra Tarmac, do that with the Track Edge layer.

Lets move to the Paths panel, so click the Make work path from selection button.

That will create a new path, and I will rename it to Kerbs Path. You will probably notice

that its not accurate at all, so you might have to modify it with the Convert Point tool if

kerbs wont look precise. But lets do that later, only if kerbs wont be precise.

Lets now create a new layer, named Kerbs Foreground. Its position should be between

the Extra Tarmac layer (or the Track Edge, if you dont have the Extra Tarmac layer

wont repeat that anymore from now on) and the Kerbs Background layer.

Now we need to create a new brush preset, for drawing the kerbs foreground. Lets open

a new PhotoShop document (width 10px, height 50px). Lets fill it with black color, then

click Edit->Define Brush Preset and save it as Kerb. Close this document without saving,

and go back to the main document.

Select the Brushes button. Select the preset we just created, and set everything like

showed in the pictures.



Now select the kerbs foreground color, and go to the Paths panel. Right click over the

Kerbs Path path and select the Stroke Path option.

Make sure that no path is selected now. Lets move to the Kerbs Background layer, and

select the shape using the Magic Wand tool with the Anti-Alias option selected. Then

select the Kerbs Foreground layer again, click Select -> Inverse. So just hit the DEL button

and remove those extra kerbs. Merge the two Kerbs layers into a single one (right mouse

click, Merge Up/Down). Also add some style effects. Here is an example:



Now its time to delete all those kerbs we dont need using the Eraser tool. Lets also fix

bugs.

In order to be more accurate, you can add a temporary black background layer.

4. Adding the pit lane

Once the track is ready, we can proceed adding a pit lane. Lets select the Paths panel,

create a new path (Pitlane Path) and use the Pen tool to draw it.



When the path is ready, go to the Layers panel and select the Extra Tarmac layer. Select

the Brush tool and click the Brushes button, so select a Hard Round brush of 30px with

1% spacing. Just stroke the Pitlane Path with that. Now select the Track Edge layer and

repeat the same action with a 28px brush. Same goes for the Track Shape layer, with a

26px brush. This way the pit lane should be almost ready.

Lets just add with the Brush tool the space where cars will stop for refueling, in the

Extra Tarmac layer.

Your pit lane is now complete!



5. Adding details

Your track is almost ready. You can add any kind of detail now, creating new layers, new

brush presets, and using all the tools we used in this tutorial.

For example I created a brush preset for pit lane spots, and one for dotted lines.

Im also adding skid marks: create a new layer between White lines and Track Shape

layers. Now, create a path of the ideal line and stroke it with a Soft Round brush of the

size you prefer (Im using a 30px brush). Then work with the layer opacity to make a good

effect.

Naturally its possible to add lot of details to the track, or even make the track completely

using PhotoShop. Thats not recommended, though, because the image would become

quite big (load time in TS would be terribly high).

Here is my final result:



6. Saving the track

Once the track is finally ready, click File->Save for Web & Devices. Save it as PNG-24

with transparency. Damn, mine is over 1MB.

7. Creating a pattern file

In order to make a TurboSliders tile with our track shape, we need to create a pattern file.

This has been a very odd thing for me, because I couldnt realize how it worked for ages.

But after all, its very easy!

Lets save the track again, like we did at point 6. Now well save it as PNG-8. This file will be

our pattern image. Load this file in PhotoShop. Click Image->Mode and select Indexed

Color. Click Image->Mode again, and now select Color Table.



This is the color table. Those colors are identified by IDs (those numbers I wrote). These IDs

are used by TurboSliders for identifying terrains. Open terrains.ter (which is inside the

TurboSliders /data/ folder) using notepad, and you will notice that each terrain is identified

by an ID number. Null terrain has ID 0, grass has ID 1, tarmac 2, sand 3, ice 4, snow 5, water

6, etc.

You can set the color table manually or load it from some other Turbo Sliders pattern files.

First of all, fill the whole document with the color which has ID 0 (in my case, its # 000000 -

black).

Now we need some fast and precise way to create our pattern file. I got one, no worries!

Lets go back to our main PhotoShop document (the one we used for creating the track

image).

Select the Kerbs layer, click the Magic Wand tool and make sure that the Anti-Alias,

the Contiguous and the Sample All Layers options arent checked. Now click to a

transparent part, so click Select->Inverse. Now click Select->Save Selection and name it

Kerbs.

Repeat the same actions with the Extra Tarmac layer, and save the selection as

Tarmac.

Now lets go back to our pattern file, click Select->Load Selection and select the Kerbs

selection we just saved. Fill (Shift+BackSpace) this selection with the ID 15 color, which

matches with TurboSliders Track Edge terrain.

Then load the Track selection and fill it with the ID 2 color (TurboSliders Tarmac terrain).

If you followed my instructions correctly, you should have something like this (colors might

be different, if color table is different):



Now I will add two more colors to identify the refuel area (ID 77) and the pitlane which

should have slowdown tarmac (ID 84). As you can notice, those IDs dont match to any

kind of terrain in the terrains.ter file. In fact well need to define our own terrains in the .trk

file.

My pattern file is ready to be saved and closed.

If everything is fine, were done with PhotoShop! Save all files and close it!

8. Creating a TurboSliders tile with our track shape

(Wow, creating a tutorial is really boring! I hope I did not forget anything!)

Its now time to create our own track. Here is what my .trk contains (I added comments in

red):

# This is a Turbo Sliders track file

# Do not change the order of the following lines!

Size td 6 2000 1700

Hash 7d6e274f 228c9b09 96a29c3c 38e9db1f

Maker Ippon-dede & [fS]Janne

FormatVersion 1 I use FormatVersion 1 so that its compatible with the old editor, for positioning the track tile in full

screen mode.

Pattern TSE_Tutoring-pat.png

Include tiles2.til

TileDefinition Tutoring-pat.png Tutoring.png Here starts the definition of our track tile.

Tile 911 0 0 2000 1700 0 0 2000 1700 911 will be the number of the track tile, 2000x1700 is the size of my

images.

End Here ends the definition of our track tile.

Terrain Pitlane This is the definition of the Pitlane tarmac, which has ID 84.

id 84

isWall 0



viscosity 1.0

acceleration 0.5

braking 1.0

grip 2.0

steering 1.0

skidMark 1

tyreMark 0

red 120

green 120

blue 120

End

Terrain Pit This is the definition of the Pit tarmac, which has ID 77.

id 77

isWall 0

viscosity 1.0

acceleration 0.5

braking 1.0

grip 2.0

steering 1.0

skidMark 1

tyreMark 0

red 110

green 110

blue 110

pit 1 Pit 1 means that its a pit tarmac ;) But remember also to add a small pit area using the

editor!

End

Terrain Grass Here Im overwriting the Grass tarmac with the one used in TSB tracks.

id 1

isWall 0

viscosity 2.0

acceleration 0.5

braking 0.5

grip 0.3

steering 1.9

red 55

green 85

blue 30

End

Terrain Sand Here Im overwriting the Sand tarmac with the one used in TSB tracks.

id 3

isWall 0

viscosity 5.7

acceleration 0.5

braking 0.5

grip 0.3

steering 0.8

red 170

green 130

blue 80

End

Terrain Sand2 Here Im overwriting the Sand2 tarmac with the one used in TSB

tracks.

id 49

isWall 0

viscosity 3.0

acceleration 0.7

braking 0.5

grip 0.5

steering 0.3

red 200

green 170

blue 130



End

Terrain Dirt Here Im overwriting the Dirt tarmac with the one used in TSB tracks.

id 50

isWall 0

viscosity 1.2

acceleration 0.7

braking 0.3

grip 0.3

steering 0.2

red 90

green 90

blue 80

End

ControlPoints 0

End

Lightmap 1 7 40 1.300000 490

End

Please note that the green part will be removed when saving the track (editor bug), so

you will need to place it back manually.

The tile should be working now, so have fun with the editor (sorry if Im not describing how

it works, but Janne will take care of creating the rest of the track!).

It took some time to write this tutorial, but now everybody should be able to create a

PhotoShopped track!

Thanks for reading!

dededededededede

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Tutorial - Photoshop TS