As we all know, the single-most-important aspect of any race car is looking the part. You can't go out there and win races with sturdy, light-weight roll cages; well-engineered suspension; a great engine builder backing you; and tons of experience behind the wheel if you don't have a really convincing paint or vinyl livery.
So, how do you guys go about designing and then implementing a cool-looking livery on your own cars? Let's say, hypothetically, that you're starting off with a silver Audi wagon? I feel like the vinyl scheme can be utterly simple, and then the decal placement will sort of fill out the design, making it seem more complex. But I don't have a clue what I'm doing--I just want to go get a roll or two of some blue and yellow vinyl and try stuff out. Covering all that silver meh with some excitement would be fun.
My 2c:
Look at other cars for inspiration. And “other cars” can mean cars with cool liveries–think JGTC, vintage FIA, etc.
Simple and clean can be your friends.
And think big: big numbers, big logos. I often see numbers and graphics that just look too small and wimpy. (The BRE Datsuns, for example, had huge numbers on the doors, right?)
My first race car I created a coloring book style line drawing of the side profile on the computer, put several copies on a page, and started doodling until something looked right. Transferred that to masking tape and sprayed on color. I liked how it turned out. Nice and bold, but simple.
The second racecar (van) I decided to duplicate a Stormtrooper helmet and we free handed it in the hotel parking lot the night before the $2016 Challenge. It was fun to do, but didn't look as good as I hoped. The front came across more mustache than anticipated.
A couple of years later I decided to strip that paint scheme off and go epic. And like David suggested, I took my inspiration from other race cars and modified it to work on mine. Again, I started with sketches on some line drawings of the van to see how it might look. Then transferred that to paint on the van. You can read about my process here in the build thread.
- Sean
Do you have a racing game with your car in it? Lots of them allow you to import custom liveries. Its useful to visualize how it will look. Assetto corsa has a ton of free street cars out there and you can do custom liveries. Assuming you're already proficient with photoshop at least.
I've done a few for iracing-
https://www.tradingpaints.com/profile/837834/Brian-Wright12
Lacking that'd I'd just got shoot some pics and draw designs on in photoshop to get an idea of what I wanted. You should have an idea of what type of wrap you want. A full printed wrap is pretty expensive. Rolls of solid color vinyl to put on some strategic stripes is pretty cheap and much easier to DIY.
Some strong ideas in this thread about JDM Nissans. A trend I see: big, bold designs.
In reply to ShawneeCreek :
I was getting ready to post something but I think you've nailed it better than I could!
Here's a question I have about vinyl - can you put it on a car and then cut pieces out to remove? Or does that basically involve high risk of severe damage to the paint?
I used to design a lot of liveries in Forza. In fact, heh, I did the GRM logo for a bunch of GRM forum members back in the Forza 2 days when we raced Spec Minis. :) But sadly, nobody designing racing games is all that interested in old-ish station wagons. Also, I had no idea we could custom make liveries in iRacing! I need to make a serious push to get into that. I keep getting sucked back into Beamng.drive. (Nice job on yours!)
That van is incredible, ShawneeCreek, and the BMW looks an awful lot like my favorite Super Decathelon plane livery. Nice job!
David, that thread is what prompted me to bring this up. The one that Colin linked to is silver and blue, and I kind of dug it. https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/HERITAGE_COLLECTION/sunny_1996.html Big and bold.
I have been occasionally forcing Gemini to come up with designs for me over recent weeks. I tried it today, and it might have come up with a winner that might be easy enough to implement. I'll see if I can post the image in a little while... it's pretty neat.
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:
Here's a question I have about vinyl - can you put it on a car and then cut pieces out to remove? Or does that basically involve high risk of severe damage to the paint?
I've been wondering that, too! There's a tape that you can put down on the paint, before you put the vinyl on, that has a very thin wire embedded in it. It's called knifeless tape. You put the vinyl on, then find the end of the tape and pull it up. It should slice through it.
confuZion3 said:
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:
Here's a question I have about vinyl - can you put it on a car and then cut pieces out to remove? Or does that basically involve high risk of severe damage to the paint?
I've been wondering that, too! There's a tape that you can put down on the paint, before you put the vinyl on, that has a very thin wire embedded in it. It's called knifeless tape. You put the vinyl on, then find the end of the tape and pull it up. It should slice through it.
I'm wondering if you could use dry erase on vinyl and have it clean up. Hang the vinyl with painter's tape, draw the design, and then use the knife tape to actually cut it.
That's a good thing to try out, too. Why not? This isn't a show car, so no matter what I do, if it's a little better than when I started.... cool. 120 feet at 120 mph!
Tape, lots of tape experimentation. It lets you see the design in 3D and is easy to work through different options.
Photoshop doodle.
Tape!
Different rear treatments.
Change to the roof.
Get it out of the garage because when you're driving around you approach from unusual angles.
Change to the front!
Detail changes to the stripes, specifically a taper.
Final result showing the evolution from the original doodle.
Here's an example that Gemini made that I like.
It looks do-able. The end result would be different, but close.
The tape idea is a good one, too. And it made for a nice looking Miata!
