Dear FM.net Community,
Dragnet and I are proud to present our gallery for Turn 10’s Livery Artist and Photographer Team Competition. This was a great opportunity for us to combine our efforts in creating a gallery that showcases both of our work, so we’re thrilled that we had a chance to participate!
Each of my liveries is presented below using photos and banners expertly prepared by Dragnet. Each livery is also presented with some background information as I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you the story behind each livery’s creation.
We hope you like the photos and the liveries. Enjoy!
nahos
After seeing that race livery options for the Volvo S60R were very limited, I widened my search to include all Volvo race cars. The first livery I found was the STCC "Volvo Green Racing" Volvo C30. However, thanks to some helpful advice by members of this forum, I quickly realized this livery had fantasy elements that were beyond my skill level.
I went back to Google, and after a fairly thorough Google search, I found some source photos for the 1997 BTCC "Volvo S40 Racing" Volvo S40. What set this livery apart from the others was its blue and yellow color scheme. There was just something about that color combination that I found appealing. Well soon after I had decided to paint this livery, a crazy idea popped into my head: make the blue portion of the base metallic. As it turned out, the metallic blue base was probably the most well-received feature of the paint, and so I learned a very important lesson early on: incorporate metallic when possible!
I remember Jamesways and many of the other seasoned painters have said over and over again that the details matter, so that’s something I kept in mind, particularly when I made the decals. The painstaking process of making accurate decals is often times a frustrating ordeal, but I quickly learned that the time and effort required is well worth it.
Before I move on to my next livery, I must thank a few people who helped me immensely with painting and releasing this livery. This comes as no surprise to those that know him, but the first person is Chris (aka Viperlite), who gave me invaluable advice on making decals and thus made something that is typically very difficult for a beginner like me a bit more manageable. So thank you Chris!
The second person is Megawind. I had reached the stage where I was ready to apply my custom decals when I discovered a nasty little glitch on the right side of the car that completely scrambled any decals loaded to that side. This is when Megawind came to my rescue and offered a relatively simple method for loading decals on the glitched side without having to completely remake the decal layer-by-layer. I can’t even imagine how much time I saved because of your help, so thank you Megawind!
The last person is Sneaky. In the middle of the painting process, I approached Sneaky with the ridiculous idea of re-releasing his Volvo S60R tune (the tune I loved so much) with my paint. To my surprise, Sneaky actually agreed despite the fact that I had not even finished the paint yet! This was a wonderful opportunity since, as many of you know, the key to getting your paint out to more people is to pair it with a quality tune and release it in the Tuning Marketlplace. The release went very well, beyond my expectations in fact, and allowed me to present my work to a wider audience. So thank you Sneaky for giving an unknown, untested painter like me a chance!
I came across the Super Taikyu "Exedy H.I.S. ings Z", and I knew instantly that I had to make a replica of that car. I was doubtful that I had the necessary skill, but it was just too stunning to pass up!! And so began my journey to replicate this paint as best I could!
There are a few important features of this livery that I want to highlight. The first is the decals. For an accurate replica, almost all of the decals had to be outlined. If layer count is not a concern, stamping to create outlined decals is a perfectly viable option. However, I had to fit so many outlined decals on the car that I needed to use a less layer intensive approach. So instead, I created two copies of the decal and started adjusting each layer of the bottom copy individually in both size and position to get the desired outline. This method of outlining actually gave better results and used fewer layers for custom outlined decals, and although this was not a novel technique, it was a very useful exercise for an aspiring replica painter like me.
The second feature is the colors. The light and dark blue colors that were used on the car were not from the color wheel; instead, they were glitched from other cars, the light blue from the Countach and the dark blue from the Evo VI GSR. These colors are brighter and more vivid than their color wheel counterparts, and it's amazing what a difference that can make!
The third feature is the hood vents. A while ago, someone had posted a thread asking for some advice on making widebodies, and Dunkee suggested that using darker and lighter shades of the main color for the gradients would give better results than using black and white alone. He is one of the best at incorporating bodywork into his designs, so I heeded his advice without hesitation! Thinking about my hood vents reminds of RC Squadra Corse’s excitement at seeing them for the first time. It was really encouraging to receive that kind of feedback from a top-notch painter like RC.
Before I close this discussion on my Fairlady Z, I need to thank Sneaky again for a couple of reasons. First, Sneaky worked his butt off to fit his build and tune to the paint, rather than the other way around. The final version used the Top Secret front bumper and the INGS skirts and rear bumper. Without those body parts, the car simply would not have looked the same, so I was very fortunate that Sneaky was so accommodating. Second, once Sneaky saw the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the paint, he worked his butt of yet again to make a handling tune for those people that wanted the paint but did not enjoy driving missile tunes. So thank you yet again Sneaky!
The team’s response to that livery was very positive. In fact, Bravo offered to tune it before I even had a chance to start the paint! It was very encouraging, to say the least, that an awesome tuner like Bravo showed no hesitation at all in wanting to work with me on my first GEARBOX release, so thank you Bravo!
Of all the various DTM Audi liveries, I was attracted to this one the most because (1) it was different, (2) its orange and dark grey color scheme was striking, (3) it featured metallic elements, and (4) it was not decal intensive. The last part was important because it allowed me to focus on other details, such as the bodywork. At the time, Kartman had already done a stunning job with the bodywork on his DTM livery for Tuning AG’s S998 S5 release, but knowing that it was possible to create realistic-looking bodywork inspired me to attempt my own version. The bodywork, particularly the side exhausts, turned out much better than I had ever anticipated, so I’m glad that I gave it a shot!
Since this paint was so simple, it was extremely important to get the main features, such as the stripes and the number "2", as accurate as possible.
With the stripes, there was a choice. One option was to make the thin outer white stripe and thick inner white stripe separately so that the blue stripe in between would be metallic. The other option was to make the stripes with three different groups, one group of layers for the thin outer white stripe, another group for the thin blue stripe, and the last for the thick inner white stripe. Since layer-shifting is always a problem, I decided to use the latter option, in the hopes of reducing potential layer-shifting.
Despite its simplicity, this was a enjoyable car to paint, so thank you Aenyn for allowing me to help!
After nearly three months of neglecting my pledge to Chris, I finally began work on the livery. The first step was to come up with some ideas for improving the concept livery. I decided to use the two most recent Team Vodafone liveries, as well as another concept livery, as inspiration for a base design.
Once the base design was done, I went to work on the decals. However, since the livery was not decal-intensive, I realized that I should do my best to make them as detailed as possible. For example, the Vodafone symbol is such an important part of the design that adding gradients to give the decal more depth yielded a much improved livery. The same held true for the Sony Ericsson and the number "888" decals, so I kept this in mind when I prepared them.
To end, let me state that Chris and I did not truly appreciate the controversy that surrounds Craig Lowndes, Holden, and Ford, so we apologize if we offended any Holden fans by adapting a Ford livery onto a ‘Holden’ or vice versa. No harm was intended!
In addition, I noted any decals where in-game font could be used instead to reduce the total layer count further. Although using in-game font reduces the accuracy of the decal, it is hardly noticeable if the decals are small. For example, the tiny "YOKOHAMA" in the ADVAN decal can be made using in-game font without any significant loss in accuracy.
The next step was to work on the large Sequential decal. I had to make this decal as accurately as possible since it is the largest, most visible decal on the car. This was the first time I had ever attempted to replicate such difficult text, so I again decided to use a methodical approach to get the proportions right. I ended up placing a grid on both the source photo and the roof of the Mini, where the decal was made. Doing this allowed me to compare both much more easily!
Before attempting to outline the Sequential decal, I decided to make the metallic base first. Again, I used a grid to help replicate the flames onto the car from the source photos. One detail about the metallic flames that I think is worth noting is the added light blue highlights on the edges of the flames. This subtle detail gave the flames some depth and, in my opinion, improved the overall look of the livery.
Once the base was complete, I turned my focus back onto the Sequential decal. There are two versions that were necessary for the car: a double-outlined one with gradients and a single-outlined one. The majority of my source pictures showed the car with the double-outlined decal on the sides. However, this was not possible unless I completely removed some decals. I did not want to sacrifice these smaller decals, so I ended up using the single-outlined Sequential decal. Fortunately, I was able to find another source photo that justified my decision to use the single-outlined version.
So I guess the main lesson that I learned from replicating this livery is that a methodical approach can be quite useful when layer count is a concern. I would not have been able to pull off this livery without it!
GT: nahos81 |
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