You can follow a video (Blender 2.80 and later) of this guide. It may be helpful to refer to both the video and this text.
You can open this start file for Blender 2.80 and later (may work with 2.79 and earlier, but has not been tested) and skip this section Follow these steps to prepare for previewing liveries
Blender Render
to Cycles Render
in the dropdown to the right of the topmost menu bar.Object Mode
and select Material
+ New
Material Editor
Node Editor
Principled BSDF
or Diffuse BSDF
with its BSDF
output connected to a Material Output
by its Surface
input. If so, skip the next three steps. A
then delete if this does not clear the Node Editor)Add > Output > Material Output
and click anywhere in the Node Editor to place the nodeAdd > Shader > Diffuse BSDF
and click anywhere in the Node Editor to the left of the Material Output node to place the nodeBSDF
output of the Diffuse BSDF
node to the Surface
input of the Material Output
NodeAdd > Color > MixRGB
and click in an empty space to the left of the BSDF node to place itAdd > Texture > Image Texture
and click in an empty space to the left of the Mix
node to place itColor
output of the Image Texture
to the Color 2
input of the Mix
Alpha
output of the Image Texture
to the Fac
input of the Mix
nodeNode Editor
, click the icon and select 3D View
A
to select all (press until orange outlines are seen)Delete
and click on the confirmation popupFile » Save
, or File > Save Startup File
as this is a good starting point for previewing liveriesFile > Import > Wavefront (.obj)
Import OBJ
Material
tab on the Properties
panel, click the ball icon next to + New
and select the material created earlier. If you are using the start file linked above, view uv.000
or view composite
is good for most livery making. Base Color [Mix]
Fac [Image Texture]
Open
Open Image
Instead of repeatedly opening the livery texture file every time you make a change, you can install a plugin that will automatically reload it every time the file changes.
File > User Preferences…
Add-ons
then Install Add-on from File…
at the topInstall Add-on from File…
user
under Categories
on the leftSave user settings
Auto-Reload Images
Timer
button (with a clock icon) in the Context
tab of the Properties
panel