I just wanted to publically thank EricB for making the RSTPerformance.com RX8 a reality inside the Gaming world! I don't have a clue how he did but you have to give him credit, he created my car and I honestly think it is amazing If you have Forza4 please feel free to download it and tell your friends that have Forza4 to get it as well. He made it for everyone to enjoy so please do so!

If you visit my website (RST Performance Racing - Home) you will see some pictures that show just how close it is to perfect!

 

Thanks Stephen, the way the painting in forza works is very... caveman-esque.. were given a multititude of generic shapes (squares, triangle, right triangle, circle) and then more complicated shapes (curved line that kind of looks like a parentheses , a squiggly triangle etc etc) also some gradients and some "ricer stickers" as i like to call them, quite a few of them unfortunately (flames, tribal patterns, checkered flags) and 4 or 5 different types of font.

painting in forza is definitely something that needs to be thought out due to its limits. For example take the side of Stephens rx8, pretend it is a flat piece of paper.. and then think about how to replicate the design using basic shapes and overlapping techniques.

I started with metallic silver as the base color, (only complicates things, since there are no metallic stickers) Starting with a metallic base color does 3 things:
You can create a metallic shine effect that standard colors dont provide
As a trade off you have to create almost an outline of the design which can be difficult with using minimal shapes to create smooth lines
Sometimes a hinderance, and sometimes a help.. after a few laps the metallic base coat will shine through the applied vinyl and start poking through.(in Stephens case, i made the car have a metallic base to allow light to hit the car and give a more dramatic effect and also that after a few laps the metallic silver will mix with the blue and white vinyls to make the vinyls appear slightly metallic.)

in order to get the proportions correct i marked with an star on the car in the game some of the "key points" in the design.. then i use wayfinders to know exactly where something is.. for example the top of the green square is about the same height as the fender vent. i think i also marked the starts of the silver squares and the end at the bottom (i didnt worry about the individual squares just yet)

Since were overlapping pieces of color, and putting a color over another piece that is the same color creates almost like a joinary.. we can do some pretty neat things.. after painting in forza since 2007 i can work pretty efficiently and found quite a few tricks to do some cool stuff.

in order to create the curved line of squares i created a curved line that approx matched the real line, then did it to the other side. Then i made the other squares going in the other direction using the same technique.. then i filled in the perimeter and filled in the green under the other layers using the blue as a clean edge. After that i made rectangles to match the size of the silver squares..

after the main design is complete its time to work on the decals, if you want your work to look good you have to custom make everything. For me.. i hate making custom font.. for example to make font with serif's ( like times new roman ) it takes approx 5-10 extra shapes perfectly aligned to make the serifs alone. pain in the ***.

LUCKILY Stephens car wasnt difficult at all, it only took about 3 or 4 hours i want to say. My longest project took about 30 spread out for a few days.. if i have some time ill edit this post of some of my other designs ive created over the years.













this is just about 1/3 of what ive done.

and im throwing this here because i honestly think this shot is amazing.

 

Nice!

 

Amazing work!

 

Damn EricB, you got mad skills

 

Wow that is awesome. Very impressive!