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Hello everyone.

Today I'd like to share with you all my workflow for (re)creating logos in Forza games. This is a method that a few veteran players may already know of but for those that don't here's a short guide.

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What you'll need:

• A Windows 10 PC and the Xbox app.
  
• An application called Glass2K.
  
• An Xbox One and your Forza game of choice.*

* If you're playing Forza Horizon 3 on Windows 10 this guide may change. I play on Xbox One so I'll be writing from that perspective.

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What is Glass2K and why do I need it?

• Glass2K is a small application that allows you to change the transparency of your windows on any Windows PC.
  
• We will be using this to create an overlapping screen so that we can work directly on top of a reference image.

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Step 1: Prepare your reference image.

• Choose a logo to replicate. For this guide I am using a retro Tic-Tac logo that I had already saved for another project.
  
• There are many places to find images of logos that you want to replicate. Google is the obvious choice but you can also look up logo repositories like Brands of the World.
  
• You will want an image that is reasonably high resolution, ideally around 700px tall at the very least. This will allow your Forza version to be more accurate when it comes to the smaller details.
  
• Once you have your image ready, save it to the Desktop and open it.

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Step 2: Prepare your in-game editor.

• On your Forza game, go to where you create a new Vinyl Group. In Forza Horizon 3 the menu path is [Autoshow] >[Garage] > [Designs and Paints] > [Create Vinyl Group].
  
• Press {RS} until you have a dark background with no gridlines.
  
• On your PC, start up Glass2K if you haven't already.
  
• On your PC go to your Xbox app and {Right Click} anywhere on the screen.
  
• You should now see a box with a list of percentages. Choose somewhere between 50% and 80%, this will make your Xbox app window transparent, allowing you to see the logo from [Step 1] behind it (See first image below).
  
• Still on the Xbox app, select [Game Streaming] and stream your Xbox One to your PC. Be sure to select the highest quality setting if you haven't already.
  
• If your screen now looks like the second image below, you're ready to make your logo.

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Step 3: Create your logo in-game.

• There are no shortcuts for this, you'll need to use the various in-game Vinyl Shapes to make your logo. Every Forza painter has a different set of core shapes that they use to make everything, and you'll find your preferences the more you work with the tool.
  
• During this step you should only use whites, blacks and grays for the various elements of the logo. We're focusing on shapes right now and not colour.
  
• Using your reference image, try and get your ingame version as close to the real logo as possible. This will take varying amounts of time depending on the complexity of the logo and the experience of the painter. For reference, I've been a Forza painter for about 6 years, and a logo like this would take me about an hour to complete.
  
• Once you've gotten the logo to a level of accuracy you're happy with, you can stop streaming from your PC and send your screen back to your Xbox One.

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Step 4: Apply accurate colours.

• Go to this website.
  
• Upload your reference image from [Step 1].
  
• Use the Eyedropper tool to pull various colour values from the image.
  
• Back in Forza, select a group of layers that you wish to colour.
  
• Open the colour picker and press {X} to open [Colour Fine Tune].
  
• Input the values you obtained from the website.
  
• Repeat the process for every colour in your logo.

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And there you have it, a simple method to guarantee you have the most accurate in-game versions of real-life logos possible.

Edited by user Sunday, March 12, 2017 9:58:03 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

that's sort of similar to the way I do it, but mine is much more primitive- I have my xbox hooked up to my monitor, and I print the logo and tape it to the monitor. then use that to work with.

I used to do it that way, but I'd rather not tape up the new TV I bought over the holidays, so I looked into a more elegant solution :)

Intriguing concept! Followed your instructions, but couldn't get it to work. I was able to stream xBox One to my PC, but not the other way around.

Streaming Xbox to PC is how it's supposed to work. The one thing I learned early on is that you need to make your Xbox app transparent BEFORE you turn on Game Streaming, as right-clicking won't work while your game stream is running.

Thanks, got it figured out.

Edited by user Sunday, March 12, 2017 7:01:09 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Cant use it feels like cheating! lol

Good help to some i'm sure

[AB]

That's funny! I was thinking the same thing.

Edited by user Monday, March 13, 2017 2:16:00 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I have used this method a couple times sofar... but only to get base shape in (like the black rock shooter first wip...) the rest was filling in from looking at the source pic on my iPad....

It does feel a bit like cheating.... (but it saves me a couple minutes/hours of of designcreation time.... Plus less pain in my neck from looking at source material to tv and back and so on... :P )

great tool though!!

Edited by user Monday, March 13, 2017 2:30:06 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

That's one way to look at it, and I'm not here to change your opinions on the matter, but I see it differently.

When it comes to logo work, accuracy is the most important thing, as an inaccurate logo can break the immersion factor of an entire design. We all use reference images to replicate these elements, this is merely a way to allow the reference image to have a greater influence on the final in-game version.

While the reference factor does lend a helping hand, there is still a lot of skill involved in Forza painting that cannot be aided by external tools:

• A painter will still need to know the best way to manipulate shapes in order to recreate a referenced element.
  
• A painter will still need to be smart with layer management, ordering, grouping, layer count saving etc.
  
• A significant time investment still needs to be made in order to make a logo in-game.
  
• This method is only really effective for logos that have clean edges, and the majority of fantasy work is well beyond the scope of it.
  
• A painter will still need to have a good design sense when it comes to full liveries on a car.

The way I see it, we spend a lot of time making logos in this game (the lack of gifting means we have to create everything from scratch) so we may as well spend that time doing them as accurately as possible ;)

Hi PJ,

I tried a few logos last night and had some great results so thank you for this guide.

The one thing I noticed is that the colour palet tool which you have advised doesn't work. The colours which it gives in-game are always a lot brighter than what they actually are on the logo itself. Am I doing something wrong? I tried it with about 10 colours and always the same.

Cheers,

G1BB51

You might want to look at your TV's colour and brightness settings, as they could be set at a level that makes everything appear more vibrant to you. I bought a new TV recently and did a lot of calibration work to it to make sure I was getting "true" colours the majority of the time.

Stream to your PC and compare that to your TV image. If you see any differences you might want to tweak your settings.

Thank you for sharing PJ. Your guide is as good as sliced bread, lol. I started this weekend and I am addicted to moving the editor shapes into 99.9% accurate logo's. Forza has new life because of this information you have shared. Thank you!

Didn't know this is possible on Xbox too, I've been using same method on PC version by making the game window transparent. Even when making your own logos it's much easier to first make it in Photoshop and then copy over to Forza.

Hi... first comment here ;)
I'm new at this amazing Forza Horizon universe and I wonder if there is any other way to upload a group of vinils beside inside the game... can't we upload logos from this forza website? Should be more easy if they implement some feature that could do something like that...

I'm afraid not. Pro Evolution Soccer (2015 and onwards, PS4 only) is the only console game that I know of allows you to upload files to use as in-game textures or elements. There are many reasons for this, both technical and philosophical, and it is unlikely that any future Forza title will implement such a tool.

You'll have to learn the hard way just like the rest of us. Fortunately there are many guides available to get you started, and if it's too much work you can download other people's work for private use on your own cars.

Edited by user Tuesday, August 15, 2017 6:00:42 AM(UTC)  | Reason: .

Thank you for this, I used this a lot. For a very long time I was wondering how to do it. Thanks

Is there any way to do this with Windows 7? Or does it absolutely have to be a win 10 PC ? Also do you think this will work in Forza 7?

It will work with any Forza game that's capable of being played on Xbox One.

If you can find a way to stream your Xbox footage to your PC then it'll work on Windows 7, however the Xbox app and its built-in streaming tools are exclusive to Windows 10.

I didn't know tutorials like this existed. For almost a year I've been doing it the primitive way because I don't have a Windows 10 pc or the app for that matter. I will definitely look back on this. Thanks for the advice.

Tried this out today on a redbull logo. Super happy with the results. I’d recommend this to anyone trying to make replica liveries. Excellent app to utilize if you have a pc at your disposal

Wow, this was really helpful. I've been trying eyeball everything before thanks for this tip!

Very good and all, but how do you turn off Glass 2k? I'm trying to use FLS and whenever I right click, it comes up with the Glass 2k thing. Help me please.

I dont have PC can i paint like a pro

If I'm playing FH4 on PC, can i simply use Glass2K to make Forza semi transparent and cut the xbox out of the equation , or does glass2k not work with games?


edit.
oh damn, i realised i'm on the fh3 forum.. sry

Edited by user Tuesday, April 2, 2019 2:24:49 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified