Jenia

The easiest and legally free method is rather simple: You'll need to download an image editor such as Gimp (which I recommend, it is a free application that is pretty resourceful if you ask me...). Once downloaded, you can start with new templates for models.
 
Step 1 - Obtaining your template
Most car mods include the template of that very car. Open it with Gimp. Now the next optional step depends on your own needs/preference. Note that every car is different, so if you want to make (just an example) a template for Pete's CVPI, chances are that that skin won't work on Henry's CVPI. 
 
Step 2 - Resolution. This isn't Minecraft, so ditch the low res (optional)
You can choose to make a 4K model. If you want to do that, just stretch the image in Gimp, giving it a 4096x4096 resolution. 2K is also possible, just give it the 2048x2048 resolution. The reason to choose for this is that it just appears more detailed. The higher the resolution, the more detailed (important for small details like decals or logo's) skin. The downside to this is that (I speak from experience) your saved Gimp file (not the exported image file but the saved templates) can go over 1GB per skin.
 
So personally I'd go with the 2K or just the regular resolution the template comes in, to practice/start with. 
 
Step 3 - Layers? Layers.
Once you've opened your template and (optionally) changed the resolution, you're able to start the texture! Please note that this step is VERY important if you want to be able to edit mistakes. In my personal experience, this is the most made mistake in the skin making business. 
So you've got your texture file in Gimp, but there is this one step you need to take before you can start. You'll notice that (if you didn't close it :-P) there is a 'Layers' window. (If you've accidentally closed it, no worries, click Windows->Dockable Dialogs->Layers, or simply press ctrl+L). Here you'll see your template image. 
Create a new Layer by right clicking in the layers window and clicking 'New Layer'. This has to be the same resolution as your template image. In the 'Layer Fill Type', select White. 
 
Now the reason that you just created a new Layer, is that you want to make a new skin, and not edit the template. If you edit the template, every stripe and color in the template will appear on the vehicle in game. You don't want that. You want the stripes/colors/logos/whatever the heck you want on your vehicle. That's why we just created a blank overlapping layer, on which we'll edit the skin.
 
Step 4 - Making the layer editable
No worries now, I know that your whole Gimp screen is white. That's because the opacity of the layer is 100. We'll change that to around 30%. You can also make this 10%, 0% or whatever you find easy to use. The important part is that you can see what you are editing. 
Okay, let's imagine a scenario here. You want to make a difference and think that a pink police car is awesome. No offense, if it gets you happy I'll download it and use it for a day, but that aside, you want a pink car, period. 
That's alright, but you have just made a white layer. 
Step 4.1 - Creating the template color
Really, we can give this job to the kids in kindergarten, this is the easiest step of the whole guide. In the toolbox - the other window that is open - you'll choose the little bucket. (You closed that too? Silly. Go to Windows->Dockable Dialogs again and select the 'Toolbox'). Next, click on the two colors just a little below that bucket, and select the color you want. Pink in our situation. (Don't complain, you wanted a pink car.) Make sure that your newly created layer is selected (Which is again VERY important, you don't want to temper with the template file, as it won't be visible in our car), and just bucket fill the whole thing in your preferred color. 
Step 4.2 - A little insider's tip
What I always do, is create a new layer for every single part I edit. I.e. a layer for the right side of the car, a layer for the top, a special unit number layer. This comes in useful when you want to change a little thing. Also, it makes it easier to find things that you're looking for. Editing is all about structure and logic.
 
Step 5 - It's time...
Oh yes. Here we go. We're making our skin. Choose a point that you want to start with, let's say the right side of the car. If you've got a very creative mind and a good idea, you can, of course, do it from your head, but most of the people that make a skin use a picture of a real police car to base their skin on. So let's look at our picture or look deep into our minds on what it is that we actually want. Good luck making the skin!
Step 5.1 - Folders to organize all of our work
Let's suppose that you want to make a vehicle that has a number written on it. Of course, you can create text with Gimp, just click the little 'A' in the toolbox. But another small tip that I've got for you is naming it. Just edit the name of the layer in your layers window. Also, you can create folders in your Layers window. This is especially nice to put all the text in. Right click in the layers window, and click 'New Layer Group'. Here you can put all your text in, which if you're making a detailed skin, floods your Layers window. 
 
Step 6 - You done yet?
This is taking forever man, speed it up a little. I'm joking, of course. A nice skin often takes hours sometimes days to make. But for a start (or if you are a talent) 30 minutes will do. If you actually are done, let's finish this thing!
Step 6.1 - Let's save things
Saving is important, let's be completely honest here. How many times you had a project that you worked all night on and it was gone because your laptop ran out of power? Or your PC decided to stall on you? No? Never? Me neither, I guess I watch too many series.
But; back to work. We're saving, mate. I think you might be familiar, but if you're not, press ctrl+s to save. (I know, revolutionary, right?)
Saving the Gimp file in its own extension will make sure that you can edit everything that has to do with layers. If you just export the file to an image file, the layers are gone. So I'd say, save it as a Gimp file AND export it when you're done.
Step 6.2 - Preparing the export
First of all, you are going to want to make sure that your template is not visible. You can either do this by clicking the template layer and setting the opacity to 0% or making sure it's under all the other layers. If you did this, make sure all the layers that you want to be visible on the car, are at 100% opacity. You did this? Awesome! Let's export this thing!
Step 6.3 - Ready for testing!
Exporting. You've GOT TO export the file to make sure it's usable on a car in the game. Click 'File->Export As' and make sure you save it as a PNG FILE. Jpeg's won't work. save it somewhere that you can find it back, not in the deepest roots of your documents. 
 
Step 7 - Installing the skin on your car
Open your RPF file that your car is installed on. If you don't know what I mean by RPF, or don't know how to use OpenIV, look up a tutorial on google on how to install car mods in GTA V. Go to the car ytd file. We're taking the Police slot as an example. So we're going to the police.ytd file. Open it, and find the image named {this varies)_sign_{sometimes a number}. Click 'replace' in the top of the window, and choose your skin. Click save, and press Ctrl+Shift+R (Or find the defragment option somewhere in OpenIV). Defragment it, and launch GTA V
 
Step 8 - Lemme see it!
Allright. We're in GTA V now, welcome. Spawn the car that you installed your skin on. (So we're spawning the Police car), and enjoy your livery! If you see another skin on the car, or no skin at all, go to your trainer and find the Car Livery Menu. You can cycle between different skins there. 
 
So yeah, that's basically it. You had a short question; here is your 8000+ length tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know :-)
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Daniel

Funny how protesters claim Trump is going to destroy America, as they go out and destroy America. 

We are proud to present a new addon that will be bundled with the RDE download: RDEmergency!
While Fire & EMS are not the main focus of our mod, we felt that we could improve how they look like, mainly by including separate jurisdictions - just like for law enforcement. The addon features new Ambulance models made by Lt.Caine and new skins for Ambulances and Firetrucks, that thanks to our new small script, will only spawn in their jurisdictions.
From top left to right - Los Santos Fire Department, Los Santos Fire Department LSIA Crash Rescue, Blaine County Fire & Rescue, Los Santos County Fire Department (Not all skins pictured)
The mentioned script works very similarly to the Area Livery Mod for GTA IV (by Sam), and can be configured to support any model, number of liveries or zone. By default, it will only be installed with the RDEmergency addon and configured for the Firetruck and Ambulance. Separate download is possible to appear soon.
Another new exciting and unique feature we are preparing is the custom RDE .OIV Creator - RDE will be installed as an OpenIV package, but this custom program will prepare a customized package, where you can select, in a similar style to Skyrim/Fallout FOMOD/Nexus installers, which addons, configuration and optional files you want to have in your game, and simply install the created OIV package with OpenIV. No more hassle with files! Manual installation will still be possible.
Aside from this, we are still working on the script. While we have squashed most of the bugs (and vehicle AI works great!), the performance badly needs improvements due to all the new features we've added. Right now, we have stutter and FPS drop issues. But don't worry, we have top men working on it. Top. Men. 
Content wise, there are a few minor touch-ups to be done, and we are looking into switching the military juggernaut model into something more menacing. 
As usual, not giving an ETA.
As an apology for being so silent for so long, have some new screenshots :)
 

Progress update:
Lots of progress with improving maritime traffic stops! 
Integration with LSPDFR+ to alter traffic stop questions and ticket offense reasons for watercraft Improved player ped behavior on boats Added more ambient boats to make up for the disappointingly low numbers of boats found ambiently in the game by default Working on making arrests work at sea - this is still a major deficiency due to how LSPDFR runs the arrest animations. I've figured out the right approach to fixing it, but a fully functional solution is still a ways off.  Created a Coastal Callouts menu with lots of useful options (all functionally implemented unless otherwise noted). 
Boat menu: Spawn boat on trailer Anchor your boat Anchor nearby boats Save your boat Helicopter menu: Spawn helicopter. Menu automatically lists all possible law enforcement helicopters available in the game. Checkbox allows searching through all helicopter models. Spawns at nearest appropriate heli landing location. If you come from far away it'll already be on the ground when you arrive, if you're nearby the helicopter will fly over and land as you approach.  Hover mode, to force helicopter into a steady hover.  Rappelling functionality: Still doing lots of testing and experimentation with ropes. Not fully integrated into the core mod yet, but will be.  Seat switch: Not yet full integrated. Will let you switch to any seat and will set up a copilot to fly while you aren't in the pilot's seat.  Additionally, I've put together some custom code to replicate the trailer attachment behavior seen in default trailers in game. There's no way that I know of to put a boat on a trailer with the default game mechanics. Now you'll be able to attach a boat to a trailer manually through the menu, and when you back the trailer into the water, the boat will detach automatically. You can also back a trailer into the water, drive a boat up onto it, and the boat will be attached to the trailer automatically. 
So as you can see, there has been a lot of progress, but there's quite a bit more work left to do. If you have any suggestions or ideas, let me know and I'll see what I can do about implementing them. At the moment I'm primarily focused on developing the core functionality to make LSPDFR work on the water. I have a good list of callout ideas that I plan to implement after I get the core mechanics working. Callout ideas of course are still welcome, but please do check previous comments here to see if it's already been suggested. 
 

I'm going to through my 2 cents in for OpenIV, just in general more user friendly and powerful.

I have been adamantly observing this situation, as I often do with controversial situations like this across the country, and  by far the most appalling aspect of this whole thing is people's reaction; particularly on this thread. The level of insanity it takes to justify and defend the response to the looting, protests, and/or riots is astronomical and puts national security at far greater risk than the "War on Terror" ever has. While the militarization of police is nothing new, the War on Terror amplified the actions and scale of these operations which have been ongoing for the better half of three decades now. The "Police State" which is the next step resulting from the war on terror will ultimately cripple our nation as a whole as the tolerance for a demand of obedience will no longer become acceptable resulting in a civil war between civilians and the government and large corporations whom of which influence and in many cases operate our government's standard operating procedure. As our wise founding father Benjamin Franklin once said "those  who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty no safety."
 
I do not claim to know what exactly happened in the events of Michael Brown's death as the rest of you don't either. However, these polarized opinions have many flaws to them just as they did during the shooting and death of Trayvon Martin in Florida. Whatever your view on that particular incident may have been, this is what I feel the situation was based off what we KNOW happened: 1) Zimmerman followed him despite orders from local law officials not to 2) Martin realized this and became disorderly at which point the two became involved in a struggle 3) Martin overpowered Zimmerman in which case he shot him in the chest in self-defense. In that particular case both individuals were at fault so I hold no sympathy for either of them. Now as I mentioned what I said is not necessarily FACTUAL, but there is good enough evidence to suggest that that's what took place. However, if I were to speculate I would imagine the events are similar to that of Trayvon Martin only flipped where the struggle happened earlier on, but still ended up in bloodshed, which could be attributed to a number of things, rage, temporary insanity, etc. That said, the local law enforcement's response to the looting, riots, and/or protests is just as inappropriate as the first two aforementioned activities. Even if the rioters and looters had weaponry (which the police has yet to show any evidence that there has been; yes there is property damage, but to my knowledge no one has been injured as a result of these unruly activities) - it DOES NOT JUSTIFY SHOOTING AT CIVILIANS, IT IS A VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW.
 
The militarization of police is nothing new, but the amplified actions and scale of these operations is a symptom of the police state in which we reside. Are there situations where the use of S.W.A.T. teams are necessary? Sure. However, the prefix in S.W.A.T. "Special" is becoming less and less so to the point where standard arrest warrants are being handled by "Special" Weapons and Tactics. To be fair, people were not paying attention when the National Defense Authorization Act was ratified, which allows military personnel to detain anyone for an indefinite period of time without due process. They may not be military personnel, but they sure as hell look like it and many cases receive the training for it, so in their eyes they already are soldiers. Many departments and federal agencies advocate for policies that facilitate these occupy-esque operations in the name of "securing freedom." How are we free if every time someone feels oppressed or commits to civil disobedience (i.e. protests, etc.) that G.I. Joe comes along and treats everyone as a prisoner? One thing you can count on, push a man too far and odds are he'll start pushing back. This is the Ferguson community's way of pushing back after all their alleged years of oppression. Not the rioting and the looting, but the protests. Even if they did not have to proper documentation to protest, are you really going to tell me that a community of oppressed people are going to go to their municipality and ask them to relieve the oppression to speak their grievances? You have got to be INSANE to believe that.  Yes, the rioting and looting is unacceptable and should be condemned, however, it is also unacceptable for police to be using excessive force by using rubber bullets, tear gas, etc INDISCRIMINATELY on ALL protests. This is not a bank robbery with automatic assault rifles, this is not a bomb threat... THESE ARE PROTESTS!
 
Regardless of how you view the situation surrounding Michael Brown, I have one question for all of defending this barbaric kind of behavior... how long? How long? How long is it until your local law enforcement decides that EVERYONE in your neighborhood is too dangerous and therefore begins occupation and/or martial law with indefinite detention, which can be enacted under the National Defense Authorization Act? Unlike ordinary citizenry, law enforcement are guaranteed weapons, people are not. If and when gun control many victims of mass shootings cry and howl at the moon is put into effect along with the militarization of police whom answer to no one, we will effectively become no different than Russia or China and that if anything should make you take a second look at these kind of situations!
 
Sincerely,
Mr. Cyborg 

If zombies eat brains, that means that Washington DC is the safest place! 

Rockstar knows that a lot of the money will be coming from people who want to mod the game, not just have it on PC. It would be a big mistake for them to not allow mods. 

It was just announced at E3 that GTA V is coming to PS4. Perhaps PC is soon to come?
 
Apparently it's announced for Xbox One and PC as well.
 

 
Can't find the official source, but it was Tweeted by Boogie2988 on Twitter.
 
There we go
 

LSPD:FR here we come :O

Nevermind I got ninja'd
 
 

2008 Ford E-450:
===============
 
2875 0.38 80 0.0 0.05 -0.18 0.0 5 0.122 1.0 160 0.25 0.55 0.5 33.0 1.4 1.3 11 0.09 0.47 3.0 0.7 0.7 0.1 -0.08 0.0 0.56 2.0 1.0 2.2 2.5 0.0 22000 440010 0 2
 
optimized for Lt.Caine's Ford E-450 Ambulance

The abrupt response is because "when will it be released?" is a question that modders get asked all the time; as ineseri said, in this very thread, people have asked that very question. Often, there is no answer; even when a timeframe does exist, it's often not revealed to the public, because doing so commits the modder to finish it in a certain timeframe. Modding is subject to random delays. The modder can take a break to do other things he finds more important or interesting (e.g. friends, school/work, a new TV show). Even if the modder doesn't do this, there's often no good way to tell how long something will take; this is especially true for scripting, as it's almost impossible to accurately estimate the time it takes to debug code.

Now, if a modder posted a release date, people would hold them to it. If Caine said "I'll release this on April 20" and didn't, people would be mad. There's no reason why Caine *should* commit himself to a release timeframe; he isn't being paid a penny for ELS, and has no obligation to release anything.

It'd be one thing if "any idea on a release date?" meant simply "I would like a rough estimate on when you think you might release it; it's fine if this changes, but I just want a vague sense of the timeline." But that's not how it comes across in this situation. It comes across as "I don't like waiting; hurry up and finish it already!" People take a dim view to being hurried along, and don't like deadlines. There are some special cases where questions about a release date don't imply impatience. For instance, if you're working on a mod that goes along with ELS, that's a good reason to ask - if ELS will be released soon, then you might hold off on your mod until you can update for the new version, while if ELS will be a while, you might go ahead and release as-is. Likewise, especially with a new modder, you don't necessarily know what their view is on release dates. If someone posts a new WIP thread, it's reasonable to wonder if they'll be willing to share a ballpark release date. However, it's also reasonable for them to say "no".

Furthermore, people don't like being asked the same thing multiple times. If a question is asked and answered in a thread, then unless there's good reason to believe the answer has changed, asking it again is a waste of everyone's time. Doing so will make it look like you couldn't be bothered to read the thread. This can be unfair, because sometimes the info wasn't clear in the thread. People will react better if you explain why you're asking again and give some indication that you've read the thread.

Much of the time, pressing someone for a release date when it's been explained before that none will be given makes people view you as impatient and rude. Calling someone an asshole for not giving a time frame does little to change that impression. It actually makes it look like you feel *entitled* to an estimate, and that you feel more special than all those other people who didn't get an estimate.




If you don't want to read my wall of text, Neil Gaiman expressed a similar sentiment, and did it much, much better than me.