Help with Skins

I'm working on making some skins for myself, and I can't get them to work. I'm trying to add decals so that they are independent of the color of the base car, but I keep having problems.

When I edit just the diffuse map, I get the image I want but depending on how I set the chrominess of the paint, it won't show up properly. No chrominess=full image ->full chrominess=no image.
Here's a screenshot:
And the diffuse map:

When I edit the other thing (roamer_c) I get more problems.
Screenshot:
And the roamer_c image:

I'm in a hurry right now, so I can't add more details, but i will when I get back. I'm using paint.net as my image editing program.
Thanks for any help

 

do it as a decal like the van

 

How Exactly would I go about doing that? I tried to do it like it it was setup in the van, but I just made a mess of everything.

 

What image editor are you using? It seems it's not saving the _c.dds transparency.

 

i have no idea lol

 

-You need the roamer_d and the roamer_c file and a programm where you can edit the RGB and the ALPHA channel. I don't know if it's possible in paint.net...you should google for a tutorial or search for another program.(I use Photoshop)
I put some example pics for better understanding.

-roamer_d
1. paint the skin on the RGB channel (just like you did)
(this will determine the color of the vinyl)

Example:
RGB channel of my DelSol_d http://i.imgur.com/YvJfsVx.jpg

2.paste your skin(the logo etc.) in the ALPHA channel and paint it grey.
(The shade of grey will determine the reflection value of the vinyl...If you paint it white you'll get a matte result...if you paint it black you get pure chrome.)

Example:
ALPHA channel of my DelSol_d http://i.imgur.com/PEQT6gF.jpg

-roamer_c:
-paste your skin(the logo etc.) in the ALPHA channel (not RGB channel like you did!!) and paint it black
(What this does is to hinder any bodycolor to be aplied to that area.)

Example:
ALPHA channel of my DelSol_c http://i.imgur.com/QCG7WrH.jpg

It now should work with every color!
http://i.imgur.com/IYRO64U.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/dBVcv3D.jpg

I hope this helps...good luck

 

This seemed to help a lot, thanks. I got gimp and now I just need to get better with it now.

Edit: After some time messing around, I abandoned gimp and instead used paint.net with some plugins, and now everything is working 100%. Thank you though for alerting me to the existence of the alpha stuff though, that was what I was missing.

paint.net, though after SoHigh00's advice, I moved to gimp, which seems to be better for what I'm doing.

Edit: Paint.net was able to do everyhing, albeit with a few plugins.