Custom Motorcycle Painting

Forevermore paintjob (By Duranu Razorfen) on a CC Custom Chopper Nemesis

 There are numerous motorcycle builders in Second Life that provide one of my favorite options on any bike. The ability to paint the bike yourself with virtually any texture and even have others paint it for you, for a truly one-of-a-kind, custom look. 

Some of the major builders that I know of that allow this feature (in some form or another) are: MLCC, HSCC, CC Custom Choppers, JeffCoyote, T&S, and Coyote Bikers, just to name a few. As more builders begin to include this feature, the popularity of custom, one-of-a-kind paint jobs will continue to rise. 

As for what this particular page is for, I’ll be listing those Second Life businesses who provide custom painting services. I’ll detail whether or not they’re “approved” by specific motorcycle builders (i.e., MLCC approved, or CC Customs approved, etc.), as well as what their costs may range. Keep in mind that many builders will do custom paint jobs for you (on their own bikes) if you provide them with either the textures or at least a good idea of what you want on your bike (usually at an added cost). What this list is going to contain are those people/business that provide the service for more than just the bikes they build (if they build any). If you yourself like to paint bikes, but don’t exactly have an established “business” within Second Life, let me know and I can still list your name down here. Be ready to provide examples to people inquiring though, as unfortunately my space is limited on this blog and I can’t provide examples for every painter. Obviously, those with actual businesses in Second Life, I’ll provide a link for. Those that I just list by name, you’ll have to contact in-world or send a notecard. 

Second Life Custom Motorcycle Painters (in no particular order):  

Duranu Razorfen (Me, myself, and I) - I’m no real artist so therefore I do fairly simplistic paint jobs. My service/ability is primarily being able to take the images someone wants on their bike, and doing all the grunt work for them. Resizing, slight manipulation, positioning, and light detail work like racing stripes and text. Because of that, I’m not exactly the most expensive around although I get on average about L$1500 per paint job depending on complexity. Examples can pretty much be found all over this blog.

Ace Graphics – A nice gallery showcasing their various works can be viewed here, unfortunately I wasn’t able to dig up much information on my arrival. The only major note that I saw was that they specialize in detailed pinstriping. Hopefully I’ll be lucky and be able to provide further information. In the meantime, I would assume to contact AceX Landar for questions. 

Blood Moon Paints (By Werewolf Resistance) - An MLCC approved painter, custom paint jobs start at L$2000 on up depending on the complexity of the paint job. I didn’t see a landmark on the notecard I was given, but was indicated to send a notecard to Werewolf Resistance for details. For a notecard with examples, one can be found inside MLCC Headquarters. 

Jett Custom Paint - An MLCC approved painter, prices start at $2500 depending on complexity (50% deposit up front). He also does profile pics, custom logos, signs, clothing, and more (samples are in his showroom). 

Six Shooter Custom Graffix - One of three MLCC approved painters, prices start at $1800 and will vary depending on complexity. Paint jobs are truly one-off customs and are said not to be sold to anyone else other than the original buyer it was created for. Unknown whether or not bikes from other manufacturers can be painted. With no known place of business, a notecard describing services and including an order form can be located at MLCC Headquarters. People to contact – Six Denimore,  Howie Parkin, Cameron Couturier.

East Coast Customs - A prominent bike store in their own right, they also provide detailed custom paint jobs, not only for their bikes, but for any paintable or mod bike you wish to have a paint job done on. Prices start at L$500 and will vary depending on the complexity of the paint job and the bike. 

Hollywood Graphics and Dezign – Started by Howie Parkin (a previous parnter and painter to Six Shooter Custom Graphix), he’s started his own business providing exclusive, one-of-a-kind paint jobs for people wishing to get something unique that no one else will ever have in SL. Understanding the fact that while custom paints are popular, people sometimes have a hard time deciding on particular jobs. Taking this to heart, numerous examples are given at his shop to give potential customers an idea of what’s possible and maybe even give a little inspiration to those that aren’t sure of what they want. Of course, if you really like one of the example paint jobs, he’s willing to sell those too. Prices may vary depending on difficulty and detail of the paint job involved. Contact Howie for details.

Rabid Graphics - Opened shortly after Motor Loon introduced iPaint for his motorcycles, making them one of the first, if not THE first custom paint provider for paintable motorcycles on Second Life. MLCC, HSCC, and CC Custom approved, you’ll find many examples of custom paint graphics around the store. Prices will vary depending on complexity, generally topping approximately L$2500 for a full paint job on the entire bike. Contact Leogoth Ulrik or Krimson Christensen for details.

Tips on painting your own bike: 

This concentrates mainly on those bikes that use a special script to apply paints. Things like IPaint, or U-Paint-It, or other scripts along those lines. Bikes without those scripts need to be modifiable in order to paint, and are painted similarly to anything else that you’d want to put a texture on. This also assumes that you’ve read the instructions regarding painting the bikes normally given by the bike builder (should be located in the same folder with your bike, or the builder can provide those). The instructions provided will walk you through on how to access the painting feature on your bike and how to navigate it, which really isn’t hard and will differ depending on the script used. 

If you’re using a simple texture, it’s fairly simple as all you need to do is upload the texture (if it’s not already uploaded), then copy the UUID of the texture. This can be done by right clicking on the texture in your inventory, then clicking (Copy UUID). Then depending on the script (IPaint, U-Paint, etc.) you would select the part of the bike to paint, then paste the UUID into local chat. If you’re trying to place specific graphics in specific areas, this gets a little more complicated, and requires some knowledge of a graphics program (i.e., GIMP, Photoshop, Paintshop, etc.). 

For those more complicated jobs, you’ll first want to acquire a template. Most builders that use a painting script on the bike should also have a template available. Sometimes these will be included in the folder your bike is in. If not, you can either get it directly from the builder, or (as in CC Custom Choppers) it may be available for download via website. There should be a number of different templates per bike. You’ll find a template for the fuel tank, fenders, and sometimes oil tank, seats, etc. What these templates do is assist you in the placements of the graphics you want on your bike, giving you an idea of where things should go so that they appear properly on the bike itself. You’ll want to open the templates in the graphic program of your choice, and go from there. As graphic programs will differ, this parts all on you. There’s a little hit or miss involved in placement as you have to sometimes account for bike parts that might get in the way of your graphic (and these parts aren’t always accounted for on the template, so it’s a guessing game). So the next tip might come in handy, or at least save you some money. 

When you’ve got your graphic all ready and you want to apply it to the bike, the first thing you need to do is upload it. Stop right there. If you’re not using the Emerald viewer, this may be something you want to try because I don’t know if it’s available on other viewers. Normally it costs L$10 per upload and when you’re painting a bike for the first time, uploading and re-uploading textures (because placement isn’t perfect, color is off, etc.) can get really expensive, really fast. When you’re testing a paint job for the first time and are ready to upload, make sure, then when you upload your graphic, that you check the “temporary” box on the preview screen. This is only available when you upload one picture at a time, but can save you tons of money in the process. When you check that box, and proceed to upload, it uploads a “temporary” file into your textures folder (appears like any other file except in italics). This temporary file is free, instead of costing you the usual L$10 to upload. What you can do however, is copy the UUID of the temporary file, and apply it to the bike like you would any other texture file. This way, you can do an inexpensive preview of the texture on the bike to make sure everything is in order and it looks right to you. Because this is a temporary file, it won’t last forever though, so you’ll still need to do a regular upload once you’re happy with how the graphic looks. Done! Now you can ride and show it off!