User Decals - A Tutorial On How To Make .SVG (Request in separate thread)

[GTvsForza]

I'm new to SVG's, so I don't know what that means

 

[Nuschel01]

I'm new to SVG's, so I don't know what that means

It's literally explained in the second post of this thread

 

[MatskiMonk]

I'm new to SVG's, so I don't know what that means

SVG's are vector files. A list of instructions that tell the end software how to draw an image. These instructions are mathematical in nature and can be scaled perfectly.
JPG's, PNG's etc are bitmaps. They contain colour/alpha information for each pixel, and compress/encode those values in a certain way.

You can put a bitmap into an SVG file... the SVG file just looks for the Bitmap and shows it where it's told to. It'd work in your browser, but it's not compatible with GT7.

To give you an idea what what an SVG file looks like.... consider this decal (Aston Martin Le Mans Art Car)...

The SVG 'code' that creates that, is this...

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 600 1200" width="600" height="1200" >

<rect x="0" y="0" width="100" height="600" fill="white"/>
<rect x="100" y="0" width="100" height="600" fill="orange"/>
<rect x="200" y="0" width="100" height="600" fill="blue"/>
<rect x="300" y="0" width="100" height="600" fill="black"/>
<rect x="400" y="0" width="100" height="600" fill="cyan"/>
<rect x="500" y="0" width="100" height="600" fill="yellow"/>

<rect x="0" y="600" width="100" height="600" fill="cyan"/>
<rect x="100" y="600" width="100" height="600" fill="black"/>
<rect x="200" y="600" width="100" height="600" fill="blue"/>
<rect x="300" y="600" width="100" height="600" fill="orange"/>
<rect x="400" y="600" width="100" height="600" fill="white"/>
<rect x="500" y="600" width="100" height="600" fill="yellow"/>

</svg>

When you look at it, you can see, all it is, is an instruction to draw a bunch of rectangles, of a certain size and colour, in a certain position. Granted, it gets more complex than that with most decals, but that's the principle.

 

[Mugo]

Thank god for this thread. Just been trying to create a decal with 9 radial gradients in it, only took a good hour to do with multiple revisions seeing if it works "in game". I found the key to be each radial gradient being in it's own layer.

 

[eykxas]

The Gradients are formated with transforms, Im not familier with the Class path formating so I dont know enough to know if it works in GT as is,

The Transforms are quite extreme so Ive had a difficult 20 mins scratching my head about how its been transformed so much, Ive managed to get the formating correct so it shows ingame as colour but the transform has thrown the gradient stop handles several thousand units around the page for some reason.

Ive managed to get the handles somewhat back to where they should be but its not 100% in the correct position, But it does work ingame at the moment.

Thank you so much ! it works perfectly !
What have you done exactly ? (for doing the same)

 

[Vectra4]

Thank you so much ! it works perfectly !
What have you done exactly ? (for doing the same)

Im using inkscape for my decals, Gradients are a pain to untransform so I try to avoid making them transforms by adding the gradients dead last in the process.

Make the decal without gradients --- Run through SVGOMG reducing size to ~13kb depending on how much your adding --- Add the gradients without moving paths/nodes to avoid transforms.

Should the gradient become transformed I use https://gtswiki.manony-failure.tokyo/decal/fix-gradation.php? To untransfrom it but it can move gradient nodes about unexpectedly like with your decal but I think that was more the transforms being absurdly massive for some reason.

 

[huff]

Hi folks,

I've created a few "taxi" images from Vectormator Pro, then I've run those png files through covertio.pro and saved them as <15kb .svg files files and they are still showing up as blank when I upload them to GT7. Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I use Vectornator iPad, same though I am pretty sure. Export as .svg to files. Then use svgomg to reduce size.

 

[GTvsForza]

Well, I'm a stupid...

I forgot I had the Adobe Cloud, but I was using Photoshop and XD mostly for schoolwork. But now that I'm done, I can just reinstall Illustrator.

EDIT:
Okay, I am about to pull out my last hair follicle on this! I followed the instructions on the OP and it still won't work!

 

[concernbagel]

Okay, I'm having issues with simple gradients showing up black ingame when I upload them. I'm using Inkscape, and I'm just trying to make a simple line with a simple, two-color 90 degree gradient from orange to purple. I've tried things stated upthread-

don't mess with the path, do the gradient last. Didn't work.
Ran it through SVOMG- didn't work.
Changed some other properties like going from mm to px- didn't work.
I'm definitely missing something- what exactly am I missing? It's literally just a line. I attatched the .svg for clarification.

 

[MidnightRun85]

Hi everyone, I'm back at trying to make my own SVG's when I can find the motivation to do so, and I've decided to make one that's simple at the outset but a bit more challenging than I had initially anticipated. Question: how can I make a bunch of concentric circles as thin lines? Making a livery based on the BASF M1 Procar for the E92 from a Profiart design, and I've used the side profile and cut it back so I've got the bones of the design in place - I now want to trace over it to make the circles but I'm not sure on the best approach to get the circles all equal and placed correctly.

Preferably a nice and repetitive task which isn't too labourious would be best - I've got to do this for both sides of the car plus the bonnet/hood.

 

[Vectra4]

Okay, I'm having issues with simple gradients showing up black ingame when I upload them. I'm using Inkscape, and I'm just trying to make a simple line with a simple, two-color 90 degree gradient from orange to purple. I've tried things stated upthread-

don't mess with the path, do the gradient last. Didn't work.
Ran it through SVOMG- didn't work.
Changed some other properties like going from mm to px- didn't work.
I'm definitely missing something- what exactly am I missing? It's literally just a line. I attatched the .svg for clarification.

Save the file as an optimized svg,

Inkscape normally saves gradients splitting the ID in two.

<linearGradient id="a">
<stop offset="0" stop-color="#f60"/>
<stop offset="1" stop-color="#800066"/>
</linearGradient>
<linearGradient xlink:href="#a" id="b" x1="4.8828" x2="283.1511" y1="154.6383" y2="154.6383" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"/>
</defs>
<path fill="none" stroke="url(#b)" stroke-width="1.1" d="M5 95c110-24 271 120 278 122"/>
</svg>

GT doesnt like that, Saving as optimized gets rid of the Xlink and makes all the id's =b.

 

[Nuschel01]

Preferably a nice and repetitive task which isn't too labourious would be best

Idk what programme you're using but mine has x and y axis position markers and height and width settings for decals. So what I'd do is place the smallest circle on a fixed x/y-point and then place another one at the same place, just a tiny bit bigger, depending on how thick I want my circle line to be. Then I'd turn the two circles into a combined path to get the center small to be substracted from the big one, leaving me with the thin line circle. Then I'd repeat the same for the next circles at the same x/y positions and with the increments of upscaling staying the same for all circles.

 

[concernbagel]

Save the file as an optimized svg,

Inkscape normally saves gradients splitting the ID in two.

<linearGradient id="a">
<stop offset="0" stop-color="#f60"/>
<stop offset="1" stop-color="#800066"/>
</linearGradient>
<linearGradient xlink:href="#a" id="b" x1="4.8828" x2="283.1511" y1="154.6383" y2="154.6383" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse"/>
</defs>
<path fill="none" stroke="url(#b)" stroke-width="1.1" d="M5 95c110-24 271 120 278 122"/>
</svg>

GT doesnt like that, Saving as optimized gets rid of the Xlink and makes all the id's =b.

Wow... it really was that simple. You're a lifesaver.

 

[MidnightRun85]

Idk what programme you're using but mine has x and y axis position markers and height and width settings for decals. So what I'd do is place the smallest circle on a fixed x/y-point and then place another one at the same place, just a tiny bit bigger, depending on how thick I want my circle line to be. Then I'd turn the two circles into a combined path to get the center small to be substracted from the big one, leaving me with the thin line circle. Then I'd repeat the same for the next circles at the same x/y positions and with the increments of upscaling staying the same for all circles.

I'm using Inkscape. I'm unsure if there's a way to uniformly scale things and work from a centre point.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Hi everyone, I'm back at trying to make my own SVG's when I can find the motivation to do so, and I've decided to make one that's simple at the outset but a bit more challenging than I had initially anticipated. Question: how can I make a bunch of concentric circles as thin lines? Making a livery based on the BASF M1 Procar for the E92 from a Profiart design, and I've used the side profile and cut it back so I've got the bones of the design in place - I now want to trace over it to make the circles but I'm not sure on the best approach to get the circles all equal and placed correctly.

View attachment 1157606

Preferably a nice and repetitive task which isn't too labourious would be best - I've got to do this for both sides of the car plus the bonnet/hood.

You could try this as a template.

 

[MidnightRun85]

You could try this as a template.

Nice one! Thanks, that's a helpful start for sure!!

EDIT: tried it and it'll make a good template. Thank you! I'll use the side profiles to "cut out" the areas which are not shown in the image I listed earlier - they're matte black....

 

[seadog777]

Hi everyone !

I want to upload a logo, but nothing works. All I get is a full black vector. I tried with Affinity designer, Illustrator and Inkscape... please help !

I don't understand what's I'm doing wrong.

I stumbled on something today by trial and error in Affinity Designer. I've uploaded gradients using Graphic that worked fine. But in AD I would always get a message that the SVG format wasn't supported.
Fixed that today by making sure the "Preset" value at the top is SVG (for export) not any of the other 3.
Works like a charm and greatly reduces file size too!




EDIT - OK, sorry, forget what I said above....... this is how they look after uploading the decals at the GT site:




But when you open in GT7 it's just two black squares. 🥵

 

[huff]

Affinity Designer for iPad is only $21 US, I was wondering if anyone uses it. I am using free Vectornator, it’s ok but it has zero auto trace ability. I am wondering how affinity does. Any feedback is appreciated. The cost is not bad for Affinity and there is no monthly fee, so if it can trace better that alone would make it worth it for me. This is the only design work I do at this time, although I could start making decal sheets for my 1/24 and 1/25 model cars I build.

 

[krisduv]

I stumbled on something today by trial and error in Affinity Designer. I've uploaded gradients using Graphic that worked fine. But in AD I would always get a message that the SVG format wasn't supported.
Fixed that today by making sure the "Preset" value at the top is SVG (for export) not any of the other 3.
Works like a charm and greatly reduces file size too!

View attachment 1173454


EDIT - OK, sorry, forget what I said above....... this is how they look after uploading the decals at the GT site:

View attachment 1173464


But when you open in GT7 it's just two black squares. 🥵

I was surprised by your first post. I've used AD for 2 years now (on iPad) and I know it doesn't work like this, you have to edit manually the svg after exporting it for the gradients. MatskiMonk made a great google sheet to help by just copy/paste values.

Affinity Designer for iPad is only $21 US, I was wondering if anyone uses it. I am using free Vectornator, it’s ok but it has zero auto trace ability. I am wondering how affinity does. Any feedback is appreciated. The cost is not bad for Affinity and there is no monthly fee, so if it can trace better that alone would make it worth it for me. This is the only design work I do at this time, although I could start making decal sheets for my 1/24 and 1/25 model cars I build.

it's a great software to use with the pencil. A bit annoying with the gradients but like I said above, some editing will make them work.
But if you want to autotrace, you can't do it in AD. And you can't bend objects. For whatever reason, the editor isn't interested with this basic function.

 

[huff]

I was surprised by your first post. I've used AD for 2 years now (on iPad) and I know it doesn't work like this, you have to edit manually the svg after exporting it for the gradients. MatskiMonk made a great google sheet to help by just copy/paste values.

it's a great software to use with the pencil. A bit annoying with the gradients but like I said above, some editing will make them work.
But if you want to autotrace, you can't do it in AD. And you can't bend objects. For whatever reason, the editor isn't interested with this basic function.

I have been watching some videos just now, and it really is a much better interface than vectornator and way more capable. Auto trace is not critical, just makes simple projects easier.

Two questions for you.
Are you manually tracing all the decals you make?
What do you mean when you say it cannot “bend objects”, can you explain this to me.

Thanks for helping out with your knowledge, I am leaning towards getting Affinity for the better UI.

 

[krisduv]

I have been watching some videos just now, and it really is a much better interface than vectornator and way more capable. Auto trace is not critical, just makes simple projects easier.

Two questions for you.
Are you manually tracing all the decals you make?
What do you mean when you say it cannot “bend objects”, can you explain this to me.

Thanks for helping out with your knowledge, I am leaning towards getting Affinity for the better UI.

If I can't find a decal on the company website, I usually trace it manually, with some exceptions. I use inkscape for autotrace from time to time, but it's on an old laptop, so it's faster tracing it on AD.
Bending objects:

Spoiler: Turn this

Spoiler: Into this

You can trace a line, bend it, and write a text on that curved line, but you can't bend an already existing object.


I forgot to mention the most annoying thing with AD. When you make an object with a negative space (I think it's how it's called but not sure) like a ring. Sometimes you have to select the inner curve and reverse it. Or you could have just a plain circle, not a ring.
Now I always trace clockwise without even thinking about it and reverse the inner part to avoid that.
Sorry if the explanation is a bit confusing

 

[huff]

If I can't find a decal on the company website, I usually trace it manually, with some exceptions. I use inkscape for autotrace from time to time, but it's on an old laptop, so it's faster tracing it on AD.
Bending objects:

Spoiler: Turn this

View attachment 1173530

Spoiler: Into this

View attachment 1173531

You can trace a line, bend it, and write a text on that curved line, but you can't bend an already existing object.


I forgot to mention the most annoying thing with AD. When you make an object with a negative space (I think it's how it's called but not sure) like a ring. Sometimes you have to select the inner curve and reverse it. Or you could have just a plain circle, not a ring.
Now I always trace clockwise without even thinking about it and reverse the inner part to avoid that.
Sorry if the explanation is a bit confusing

Thank you for taking the time to help, your explanation is perfect. I thought that was what you meant by bending an object, but I was not sure. For fonts, I assume you are tracing or using the closest font you can find?

 

[krisduv]

Thank you for taking the time to help, your explanation is perfect. I thought that was what you meant by bending an object, but I was not sure. For fonts, I assume you are tracing or using the closest font you can find?

I almost never trace fonts manually anymore. So yes, closest one, but for modern replicas, which is what I do most, it's pretty easy to find the exact font.

 

[huff]

Ok another weekend, another question. I made a Puma Formstripe mask with stitched lines, but it shows up in game as solid lines. Is this an error with the way made it, or will the game not accept the dashed line? Thanks.

 

[krisduv]

Ok another weekend, another question. I made a Puma Formstripe mask with stitched lines, but it shows up in game as solid lines. Is this an error with the way made it, or will the game not accept the dashed line? Thanks.

No you can't use advanced stroke properties. GTS/7 don't allow it.. That would be great..

 

[huff]

No you can't use advanced stroke properties. GTS/7 don't allow it.. That would be great..

Any time saving tricks to achieve this look? All I would know is to make a rectangle, place, dupe, move, adjust repeat a few hundred times…
Edit: maybe hyphens in bold on the path?

 

[Nuschel01]

You could just cut up the paths you already have, shouldnt be too much of an issue

 

[huff]

You could just cut up the paths you already have, shouldnt be too much of an issue

Not easily with vectornator, I guess it is time to upgrade to affinity.

 

[krisduv]

Any time saving tricks to achieve this look? All I would know is to make a rectangle, place, dupe, move, adjust repeat a few hundred times…
Edit: maybe hyphens in bold on the path?

I'm not sure if there's an easy way. I like the hyphen idea though. I tried it and got a 80kb decal

edit: try that if you want

 

[huff]

I'm not sure if there's an easy way. I like the hyphen idea though. I tried it and got a 80kb decal

edit: try that if you want

I did end up using these, did you just change my path to hyphens, split two off to a new decal and SVGOMG both layers? As usual, thanks for the help and advice.