This is a "how to" guide to show you how easy it is to create your own images to use in TrainPlayer 3.3.  The image will be created and saved in MS Paint – a simple but effective drawing program packaged with either Windows XP, Vista or 7.0.  You can find Paint under :Start: All Programs\Accessories\Paint.

This is the basic opening screen showing, on the left side, the various tools available to you and at the bottom – your basic color tray which can be significantly expanded

 To begin our new warehouse project, first select the Line tool

We want to select the 3^rd line width available to make our building foundation.  Once you have selected the width, select the square/rectangle tool and draw something like the following

Now, using the same tool, divide the wide rectangle into some smaller units.  Use the crosshairs to line up the new section accurately.  There is no need to be evenly divided between units.

Detailing your image

Now we’re going to do some detailing for each “unit” roof top.  First enlarge the image by selecting View\Large Size and then 400% or whichever size you want

 Then go back to the Line Tool to select a finer line profile. Next go to the square/rectangle tool and draw some smaller boxes to represent a roof mounted air conditioning system

 Moving onto the next unit, select the Circle tool with a fine line profile like so:

 Once you have drawn a circle shape that you’re pleased with, locate the Select Tool in the top right of the toolbox below

Using the select tool, draw a tight square around your new roof vent. 

Use a right mouse click to bring up a submenu which will allow you to copy your roof vent.  Right mouse click again and then click on Paste.  This action always places a copy of the selected image in the top left of the open Paint window with an “active” box around the image. You can now click and drag that image and locate it wherever you want on your drawing as shown below..

To add a bit more detail to the roof vent, select the Brush tool which gives you 3 shape profiles, each with 3 width sizes.  Select the smallest angle brush and use both a left and right profile to produce the “vent stack” seen in the drawing above.

Now we are going to add a small alcove on the left side of our warehouse, using just the Line tool to do both the straight and angles sections.  With that completed, lets connect the alcove. Select the Brush tool with the medium width and use White in the Foreground color to remove the wall section in the alcove.

Next we want to add some shadow effect along the Roof line. Double click on your basic Black colour to bring up the enhanced color tray below

Use the slide bar on the right hand side to select a nice charcoal gray look and then press “Add to Custom Color” to add it to your Color Tray

Use the Line tool set a width2 and add the shadow line along 2 walls of each unit’ as seen below

Next select the Fill Tool (ink bottle) and pick the light gray from your Color tray.  Use Fill to paint two of the roof tops light gray and then select the darker gray to fill the other two roof tops.  For the roof fixtures, use the appropriate contrasting gray color to help that feature stand out.

Saving your new image

At this point or sooner, go to File\Save As and from the choices, select 24 bitmap BMP as your format and then name your object.

Next locate your Scenery image files which are generally found here:

 Windows XP  “C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\TrainPlayer\Scenery\(folder)

 Vista: C:\Users\(your name)\AppData\Roaming\TrainPlayer\Scenery\(folder name)

Your final image may look something like this:

 You’re done...take a deep breath and start on your next creation!!  Enjoy….