Forza Motorsport 4 Livery Editor Tips and Tricks

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Hey guys. Initially I had this in my design catalog thread but it is probably better suited as a separate thread. Feel free to contribute your own tips and tricks and I'll add them at the bottom of this post. :cheers:

Starting Out / Workflow
Welcome to the livery editor! Before you begin you should develop a workflow for working on a livery. For me, every logo begins in the vinyl group editor. Gone are the days of painting on the roof of a Mini Cooper; the vinyl group editor is a flat space with a grid in the background. You can switch the grid off by pressing L3


GRID.jpg

Starting out​

Above I've included a 720p capture of the blank grid. You can use this to paste logos/stuff on top of so you can get reference points for building your own groups.

Basic controls


options.jpg

Pressing in RS (R3) will give you an option to copy/paste. Note: Unlike insert, paste will OVERWRITE the layer that is currently selected.





You can navigate through your layers either using LS or the D-PAD. LS and left/right will move you back/forward one layer while pressing up/down on the d-pad will allow you go forward/back 100 layers at a time.

Now that you know how to navigate around, you can use RT to select layers. Tapping RT will allow you to select one layer or group but you can also hold down RT to select multiple groups at once. (an example of this is to hold down RT on layer one then press up on d-pad to select the first 100 layers).

When you select more than 1 layer you can create a group by pressing A on the selected layer which will bring up a contextual menu. Grouping layers is a great way to organize your vinyl group. Examples of good groups are individual letters (assuming you aren't using default font), logos, etc.


Using RT and groups to reorder and manage layers


One trick that is very helpful is to use layer select to lock in aspect ratio. Grouped and selected layers are resized by "size" rather than X and Y so you can scale a square, for example, without having to worry about the X and Y dimensions. (NOTE: If your selection is resizing oddly, i.e. stepping up way too fast, just unselect or ungroup then regroup and you'll be able to resize in much smaller steps)


Using RT to resize shapes while maintaining the same aspect ratio


Additional Controls

While inside inside the "apply a vinyl shape" section, you have additional controls. You can press LB and RB to switch between tabs. Pressing X will allow you to change the color and Y will allow you to "stamp" the current shape. Using the stamp tool can allow you to quickly deploy the same shape across your grid. Good examples of this are quickly laying out text or using the gradient/brush shapes to quickly create "brush strokes"



Using the Y button allows you to "stamp" shapes inside the apply vinyl shape section


Applying Vinyls to your car


The final step is putting it all together


After you're done making your logos, it's time to take it to the application center. The controls inside this mode are very similar to the vinyl group creation zone. There are a couple differences:

  • There are multiple paint zones on every car. You cycle through these using LB and RB
  • You move through layers with the left stick and look around using right stick.
  • Pressing in (and holding)LS (L3) will allow you to move left and right with RS and zoom in and out with LS

Some important things to keep in mind:
  • Metallic paint will shine through your paint and give it a different color. You'll want to check on a track or in a direct sunlight homespace to figure out what works best for your design
  • Side and top panels have 1000 layer limit and front and back have 500 layer limits so before you go crazy making vinyl groups keep this in mind
  • You can copy an entire side of shapes from one side to another. Press A on an empty layer and select "Insert all from right/left side" to do this. Note: Manufacturer vinyls cannot be copied.

Speed "painting" videos

References

Shape Spotlights

More advanced techniques
 
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Forza Motorsport 4 Carbon Fiber Method
In FM2 and FM3 the method for making carbon fiber was to layer a set of 1 or 0 wide boxes like |||||||||||| then rotate it to ~45 degrees and copy that set and cross them. It looked pretty good but it was very layer intensive. FM4 has a new community shape that is "carbon fiber" weave. I think this looks as good if not better than FM3 but you kind of have to use it in a certain way.

carbon01.jpg

The most important part is the base paint. You want to use a special paint, not a metallic like in FM3. I think the special paint looks more... special :lol: It will show the carbon weave when in direct light but be darker when not lit up which looks pretty good.


carbon00.jpg

Next is setting up your carbon. There are two methods you can use here. Straight black is probably the most straight forward. Another option is to do the opposite and use light color like white. This can be useful if you want white shapes in your background and don't want the weave to show up on top of it. The third option (do this BEFORE laying out your grid) is to make the shape somewhat transparent. You should experiment with this.


Take your time on this. Imperfections will show when resized/tiled


EDIT: Some people have been having problems with this part so I've worked on a more user friendly version of it. It should only require you to visually match tiles one time.

  1. Press R3 (right stick in) to hide the grid. The grid will give you false positives when visually eyeballing.
  2. Insert the community vinyl. Note: The shape is 128 units x 128 units big
  3. Select the unit and go to change position. Press Y to stamp a copy of the shape and shift it 128 units to the right, hit Y and move that shape 128 units to the right etc. You'll basically be moving it to X: 128, 256, 384, 512, etc.
  4. Repeat for the left side until you hit the limit
  5. Select all layers using RT and group them
  6. Enter change position menu and stamp your group with Y and repeat step 3 but down. Then do step 4 but up.
  7. Now is the tricky part; you've set up a pretty big grid but it isn't long enough for most cars. Select ALL your layers and group them together then move them to the left. Make a copy of the group then move that to the right and line it up. You might want to drop in another community shape in the center and use that as a visual point to line up your two pieces. This should be the only potential visual crease if you took your time... so take your time and make sure you try to avoid it.



Using your new vinyl group


When you load your group, resize it until it barely clips the edges then copy to the other panels. You want the weave to be as small as possible. Also make sure to go to the edges and line up the squares along adjacent panels if you can since it'll look a bit more seamless :) If you want a tighter weave, you'll want to add additional rows to your vinyl group.
 
Getting accurate colors


KNN01.jpg

We're done right?

One of the things with creating logos is that you can lay down all the shapes you want but things sort of fall apart when your colors aren't accurate so we'll go a step further and try to get a bit more authenticity. Luckily, since FM3, we are able to fine tune our colors to get exactly what we want.


KNN02.jpg

Color dropper in photoshop. The values we're looking for are the HSB values in the top left (hue, saturation, brightness)


You'll need to use photoshop or another color selector tool and your original source image. You'll notice that the hue value is in degrees (0-360) while Forza uses 0-1.00. To convert basically divide the photoshop hue value by 360. For the example above you'd use 32/360 = 0.089.


KNN03.jpg

Inputting our eyedropped values. That looks better



KNN04.jpg

adjusted red value. See how different the default color was to our fine tuned?
 
The other carbon fibre trick someone posted for Forza 2,
All credit to who ever posted it way back then.

using Stripes - 30

first layer
X - 0.21
Y - 36.61
spin 28.00

second layer
X - 0.15
Y -36.61
spin 334.70

Tip:
takes a while but place them 1 at a time, seems that doing ten then copy pasting the same ten over and over to speed things up caused them to move and you got spaces and overlaps between each ten spoiling it, not sure if decal movement has been fixed so just in case.
 
Better Rounded Corners




rounded_01.jpg

Forza's rounded corner square shape


Forza comes with a decent rounded corner shape but it is really only viable when your aspect is locked at 1:1. Unfortunately once you start getting to the extremes the corner just stretches out and looks pretty terrible.


rounded_02.jpg

Hey that's not so good anymore!

So that's not going to work. Let's create our own rounded corner using just 6 layers. The beauty of this method is we'll end up with box in any dimension with rounded corners as well as being able to use whatever radius of corners we want.

Step 1
Create a box as wide as you want your shape to be. Make note of the values.

rounded_03.jpg

1.0 Tall 4.0 Wide

Step 2
Copy the layer (LS+Y) and insert a copy (X). We're going to shrink the X axis on this shape and increase the Y axis. Basically you're going to want to make note of these numbers because it will affect the radius of your corners. If you want more round corners, decrease X and Y more.

rounded_04.jpg

0.8 Tall 3.8 Wide box

Step 3
We decreased the second box's horizontal value by 0.2 and the vertical value by 0.2 so now we need a circle with a diameter of 0.2 to fill the corners in.

rounded_05.jpg

Circle with diameter of 0.2 units

Step 4
Move your circles into the corners to fill in the gaps. Remember you can press Y to stamp while in the move interface.

Speed tip: If you finish 2 corners on one side, you can group them, copy and insert and then move that set to the other side

rounded_06.jpg

Half done! Now group, copy, insert, then move to the other side

Step 5 (optional)
At this point I always blow my shape up (select all with RT and then change size) and make sure the curve and lines all match up. This is optional but it'll insure that your shape looks great at all sizes. Sometimes if your shapes don't line up, resizing small will result in kinks in your vinyl.

rounded_07.jpg

Step 5: Quality Control!
 
How didn't I think of the color picker idea before, lol silly me! That's a great idea.
 
Shape Spotlight

I just wanted to highlight two shapes that I've started to incorporate into my workflow. My biggest PITA has always been working with the letter S in text creation. These are both new community shapes that have really helped with that.


shape_spotlight01.jpg

Community Shape 1-18: Good for the middle section of the S. 1-35 is also decent

shape_spotlight02.jpg

Community Shape 2-6 is good for the top and bottom curves of the letter S. There are 2-22 and 2-30 can also work well depending on the S you're creating. Be aware that these scale oddly so they're a bit of a pain to work with

Shapes in action:

shape_spotlight.jpg

 
Shape Overview

Everything you create is going to basically be a combination of shapes. In the beginning things can be intimidating as you have page after page of shapes to deal with and no familiarity with them. Let's get started by taking a look at all the shapes. You can view a gallery of all the shape pages here: Shapes Gallery

Katatak21 wrote a pretty good guide with an overview of what she uses shapes for. I've added a couple of my own things but the majority of the stuff below is Kat's work. I'll continue to do shape spotlights here and there showing the breakout of shapes I use and how I'm using them in context but this is a really good overview for someone starting out or someone that doesn't use a diverse set of shapes.

Livery Editor Shapes Guide by KATATAK21:

shapes01.jpg

11) Great for carbon fiber and also for making nice textures. Personally love this piece.

13) This piece can be used for outlines or filling in for rounded items.

17) Great filler piece.

18) Used this for hairlines and other odd shaped overlaps.

32) I used this to create a ring by highlighting it. It actually can be used for anything that needs a cut-out type center oval.

35) Great for making custom letter S


shapes02.jpg

There are a lot of gradients here. These can be useful for all kinds of projects including fender flares and other misclaneous stuff.

6, 12, 14, 30 are useful for creating S shapes and other curved logo work.

shapes03.jpg

1,2,3,4,8,9) Can be used to outline or background fills.

12) This shape can be used for outlining simple objects or for making custom O's.

20) Can be used to make the base of custom fonts. Outlines that require a slight slant. I used this one quite a bit while making the Mt Dew logo. :) I truly is a nice new piece.

22) This piece can be used to outline custom letters. It is also a nice piece to use as the backing to racing numbers because of the radius corners.

23) Can be used as a backing for highlights such as stars in space or even centers of eyes with the transparencies lowered.

24) Can be used several different ways. It can be used to make face shapes with the rounded edge and it also can be used to create uneven half circular areas when other pieces can't handle the off rouned corner. Use your bean! :)

26-27) Great pieces to use for rounding and also making rounded corners. Remember to use the Skew function to make these pieces really change their shapes.

28) This shape is my favorite for the whites of eyes, and also to give corners that pointy look. This can be used to create hearts and other custom shapes with the Skew function and of course sizing.

29-30) Can be used for outline circles, basic outlining.

33, 36, 37, 38) Can be used to outline misc items. Remember to Skew these also and play with them for a custom fit in tight areas.

39) This piece comes in handy for cartoon or outlining when the bracket (which will be discussed a little further down in the fonts). Skew is a great way to change this shape. Also, this shape can work as a highlight with the transparency set low.


shapes04.jpg


4, 5) These are great shapes for highlight/shading on a misc of areas.

11) Great shape for creating the center to highlight stars.

12, 13, 16) Are great shapes for font gradient fills and shading boxes and other square shapes.

17) I love this piece to make a box look like it has highlights or shadows. It can make a thin rectangle look 3D with this gradient alone stacked on top with it being white and offset to one side or a little off center.

21, 22) These gradients can be used under eyes, noses...corners. Remember to play with the Skew function and the transparency levels.

26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32) Can be used for the center of eyes. Becareful with 31 & 33 because they can be quite strong even if set down as low as 5. You might want to stack 31 with a lowered transparency along with a smaller 33 on top of it with a little higher transparency to make one gradient. Also, Treewick has let us know that you might want to add a white bounding box with the transparency to 80% so you can accurately view how the gradients will show up in the photomode and game.

36) This lightning piece is a great way to highlight hair.


shapes05.jpg


22, 23, 24) Great pieces to use for hair and other stringy type layers. You can add gradients below these to help "fill" the areas and use the shapes to be the center point of what you are desiging.

31) Nifty piece to use for the rising sun or just when you want to add punch but don't have enough layers left to really do anything with. Backgrounds...possibly iris eye piece...


shapes06.jpg


3, 6, 11) Can be used for eyebrows, hair pieces. Skew and transparency is a great way to deform these shapes.

19) I designed this piece to be used for multiple strands of hair, eye lashes or what ever you could possibly think of. It works great as a background piece and highlights. This piece Skews well and can possibly be used for a host more designs. :)

20, 21, 22) Can be used for photo/cartoon/anime eyebrows and other outlines. Also can be used for backlit type designs where it is all black for the base.

24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29) Great pieces to use for hair and other color highlights.

33, 34, 37, 38, 39) Great piece for backlit designs. Skew these also for maximum results.

shapes07.jpg


15, 17, 21 are decent for "fake small text".

The tire marks can sometimes be used as textures.

shapes08.jpg


7, 26) Great pieces for hair also.

28) Texture fills. This piece can be used if you need some texture but don't want it to be easily seen. Overlapping these will bring a nice results. Play with Skew and Transparency too.


shapes09.jpg


35) Great texture piece for life like skin

37) Eyelash piece, or rough outlining.

39) I designed this piece for a spongy effect. It has a further spotting reach than the other paint splat and I've seen it used for skin and also to make cammo. Please remember not to use way too many of these piece or it can make the livery editor run a tad slow.

40) Another great piece for skin texture, backlit designs and covering areas quickly with the transparency set low with overlap.


shapes10.jpg


29) Hair uses

33) Did you see this one hidden here? You can at least change this entire logo and place it on your cars. :)


shapes11.jpg


11, 12) Use these to make quick flowers. Just add a splash of a center and a little highlights & shadows and there you go...bring back the 60's and 70's! :)

21, 22, 23) Treewick showed me these being used as centers for eyes. He really makes the most usage out of every piece he uses. They work awesome!

30, 37, 39) These can work for hair, background designs.

shapes12.jpg

shapes13.jpg


4) This is really good when making custom font R's

15) The o's are great for doing outlines and filling in logos since the regular ring shape gets very thin at smaller sizes.

shapes14.jpg

15) Good for filling in O's while using less layers

shapes15.jpg

shapes16.jpg


31, 32) The brackets are fantastic for true outlining. They can be used to encircle eyes, make anime, or just in a pinch. Remember to try to Skew them and change their transparencies to make the most out of these pieces.

shapes17.jpg

shapes19.jpg


40) This is also another great piece for outlining.

shapes20.jpg

shapes21.jpg
 
Livery Editor Basics: Flipping Shapes







In this example I have painted a fine outline around the bumper vent on the right of the front bumper. Now I am faced with a situation where I need to complete the left side but I want everything to be symmetrical and precise. Luckily we have a tool to quickly mirror a layer or group of layers.

Step 1
Highlight all the layers you want to flip.

Step 2
Insert these layers onto one side of the car.

Step 3
Go to the other side of the car, hit A on an empty layer and select "Insert all from right/left"

Step 4
Cut those layers that you just flipped and you're done.

Notes:
  • This option is only available in the apply vinyls section. If you're working on a vinyl group and you want to flip you'll have to use a car to do so.
  • If you want to flip vertically, rotate your shapes 90 degrees before flipping then rotate them back after you've flipped.
  • If you're flipping an object that has been rotated, you'll usually have to fix the angle afterwards.
  • Because you're working with a layer limit, it is best to do as much of the "base" graphics as you can first since you'll often run into layer problems trying to use left/right sides to flip later
  • Manufacturer logos will not be flipped
  • Left/Right side are NOT perfectly mapped; When you flip a base graphic from one side of the car to the other, make sure that it lines up with the body work because it will often be misaligned.
 
Livery Editor Basics: Outlining Shapes





Unfortunately there is no easy way to outline shapes in the livery editor. Creating an outline will require additional shapes. The biggest concern with creating outlines is that they are layer intensive. Outlining very complex shapes will require a lot of layers so be careful!

For simple 1 layer shapes, the easiest way to create an an outline is to copy your shape( L3+Y). While having the shape you want to outline in focus, insert (X) your shape layer in. Select the layer under the shape you want to outline and change its color to your border color. Go to the size menu and increase the size.

For more comples shapes, the process is similar. Just select all the shapes (I like to group them before copying so that you don't get them mixed up), copy and then insert underneath the shape you want to outline.

Note: To conserve layer space, try to only copy the layers on the outside of your shape.

You don't necessarily have to resize layers on a more complex shape. I usually just move the border layers outwards and then play with the radius on the circles to get the desired stroke width that I want.


-----------------------------


Outlining complex objects, especially default ones can be tricky


Creating simple outlines is easy. You just make the border color behind your shape and then increase its size. What about outlining pre-made or complex shapes though? My strategy for this is to use the complex shape to help build a base and then finish it off with primary shapes. For example, while outlining the number 7, I would use the 2 copies of the number 7 to create a 5 unit outline on the left and right and then I'd go back and add rectangles on the top and bottom portions to finish my border. For curved shapes you can do the same thing but you'll want to increase the size of your border shape to match the larger radii of the outline.
 
Dang, those last 2 tips are great. I mean really.

Did you know just from reading and watching those videos how MUCH time I have saved?

OK, let me put it this way....before I knew you could copy mulitple shapes, groups, and "stamp", I did a livery with over 100 star shapes. All one at a time. All resized. lol.

Thanks so much for these. I look forward to them.
 
Reverse Masking



Some people also refer to this technique as "reverse metallic". The idea is to fill the negative space. You're basically creating a hole in the shape of whatever you want. The disadvantage here is that this technique costs a LOT more layers than regular methods and can be a lot more complex.

Advantages:
  • You can use the reverse mask to shade a shape with gradient shapes without worrying about borders
  • You can have vinyl shapes that are metallic/special paint in color
  • You can have small sections where things have a texture like carbon fiber

In the example above I start out with a black square with a carbon fiber weave on it. To create the reverse mask I basically fill in the area around the space I want with shapes.

Sorry if it is a bit sloppy; I did this quick so the video would be as short as possible.

duplicolor_logo.jpg

Can you guess where the reverse mask is?

You can also see an example of reverse masking in the Duplicolor Logo Speedpainting video.

WARNING Watch out for a "bug" where lighter layer shapes will have a grey outline around them. This bug appears when you have a shape that isn't parallel to the grid lines (i.e. a default square won't have the grey outline but a rotated one will). If you see the grey lines try to mask using squares even if it costs a lot of layers especially if it's on the hood since people will see those "mistakes" in hood view. You can also avoid the grey outline by pushing the edges of your masking shapes off the panel you're working on (resize them so they are huge) Another alternative is to use a soft gradient shape to cover up the grey lines.

  • Another way to avoid this "bug" is to fill your entire panel with a large solid color shape. This means that you can't use special paints or metallic paints though
 
Masking

Masking is a technique that you should start out praticing/utilizing. It's less layer-intensive, easier to manipulate shapes, and great for learning what tools you have available to you. The idea is to create shapes using other shapes.

There are two elements here that you'll need to keep track of: you foreground color(s) and your background color.

You'll basically be using your background color as an eraser of sorts. By laying down shapes that are close to what you want and then using your background color to "cut" from it, you'll basically increase the amount of options you have available to you. To effectively mask, you should be thinking of what you want to create both in terms of what shapes you'll need to make your logo and what shapes will build up the negative space.

TIP: Always color match BEFORE you start. Masking will leave all your foreground colors (aka your shape) out of order so selecting them after will be a pain. :scared:

There are a couple of things that go through my thought process before I start masking.
  • Is it easier to mask than to create the logo with a transparent background? (the answer is usually yes)
  • Am I working on a metallic paint or over a base with a lot of changing colors/shapes? (if the answer is yes, masking is not an option or will be tricky)
  • Will I be using this logo often in the future? (I'll usually try to avoid masking for logos that will stay in my arsenal since it'll be easier to use them without adjustments for projects in the future)


fast_C.jpg

A letter C is created using Racing Icon - 32 and a rectangle to cut


TIP: Try to minimize how far outside of your logo/object you mask with. Keeping the masking area tight will allow you to place logos more closely together without the masking overlapping over logos

Example #1
I'm working on a black car right now and the surface that the logo I'm putting on is solid black and not metallic. I'm probably only going to be using this logo once.

j0U8P.png

This is what we'll be making

The first thing you should do is break down how you're going to create this shape. If we weren't masking it would likely be a lot of rectangles and some tricky curves to get the "puzzle" pieces. Fortunately we have the ability to mask in this situation.

breakdown.jpg

Breaking down the shape into smaller shapes

For this logo we'll be mainly using rectangles. I'll be skewing two skinnier rectangles on each side with one in the center and using a modified outline to basically mask out the inside. After that we'll make the circles with.. circles and the line down the center with another rectangle.



Done with the framework


Now all that's left is the text. I'm not going to go too in depth here. You can kind of see how I work text in my other videos. Basically I start by placing all the vertical lines first and then work on horizontal lines then finish it with the curves. After this I'll kern the text (this is important) to make sure the spacing is visually correct. Since we're masking this logo, don't forget that you can use masking in the words too. For example the U is created using a half circle + rectangle and then cut with a black half circle + rectangle.

finished_logo.jpg

Finished logo with stock font for the smaller text. I resized the background black down after to barely cover the logo

onthecar.jpg

Finished product on the car. Was it worth it? (hint: yes)

WARNING! When you're masking, make sure you put a large solid rectangle to cover the car instead of using regular paint as the background. This is mainly to avoid the border glitch with shapes that will leave a light grey border around your masking shapes.
 
WARNING! When you're masking, make sure you put a large solid rectangle to cover the car instead of using regular paint as the background. This is mainly to avoid the border glitch with shapes that will leave a light grey border around your masking shapes

So does it mean that I must put a large reactangle of any color to the whole side of the body to avoid the glitch?
 
So does it mean that I must put a large reactangle of any color to the whole side of the body to avoid the glitch?

Yeah. If you're going to be doing a lot of masking, you'll want to use a base color. For example if your car is white then put a large white rectangle covering the entire side. I think it's an issue with how the game is rendering edges of shapes against the paint.
 
...

shapes11.jpg


11, 12) Use these to make quick flowers. Just add a splash of a center and a little highlights & shadows and there you go...bring back the 60's and 70's! :)

...

This one is great. I love everything regarding flowers. I will definitely try to design my own flower. Recently I saw such a wonderful flower at florists in Preston. I will try to design a similar one to the one I saw there but more in an 80's look.
 
Getting accurate colors


KNN01.jpg

We're done right?

One of the things with creating logos is that you can lay down all the shapes you want but things sort of fall apart when your colors aren't accurate so we'll go a step further and try to get a bit more authenticity. Luckily, since FM3, we are able to fine tune our colors to get exactly what we want.


KNN02.jpg

Color dropper in photoshop. The values we're looking for are the HSB values in the top left (hue, saturation, brightness)


You'll need to use photoshop or another color selector tool and your original source image. You'll notice that the hue value is in degrees (0-360) while Forza uses 0-1.00. To convert basically divide the photoshop hue value by 360. For the example above you'd use 32/360 = 0.089.


KNN03.jpg

Inputting our eyedropped values. That looks better



KNN04.jpg

adjusted red value. See how different the default color was to our fine tuned?

Whats the name of this photoshop ?
 
Is there any way to put a vinyl over the black part of the Huayra?

There are a few cars you can not do anything with. Huayra is one, Lotus eleven....there are others
Sorry, bugs me too. I get that some sides are plastic and some chrome so you can not paint or decal them.
 
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