The Art of Livery Creation
Liveries are what makes racecars memorable...or sometimes not. They need a certain eye for design, logo use and color matching. Anybody can make a livery, doesn't mean it will always look good which most of the times seems to be the case. There are a lot of mistakes I see on liveries made by people, the most common (and painful one) to see is excessive use of manufacturer decals. Most of the time is the result to fill "dead space" on the design, which always ends up looking awful.
So! I want to make a fun and easy to follow guide on what to do, think about and how to map out your potential livery designs. I am using FM2023 here for the visuals, but honestly this can be applied for anything that allows you to design liveries, whether externally or internally on what you're playing.
The Basics
I'm going to be using my #23 H&R Honda Civic Type R I designed as the example here. It's simple, good decal layout and I believe it will convey my train of thought when making a design.
When making a base design, less is more is my thinking. Simple stripes, two tones will always be a good design direction with colors that compliment one another. The most overused color combination being red, black and white with most virtual/e-sports racing teams, so my original livery ideas tend to stay away from those colors unless I am making one for somebody else and they specify those colors. Also when figuring out a base design, always keep in mind if whatever stripes, designs, etc will clash with the main logos that will go on the car or if you can make adjustments to the main logo to help it stand out/not blend in with the base colors used, an example would be to make a bolder black outline on the logo.
Matching Existing Sponsors
On any game/sim you're making designs for, especially if it's any sort of full on racecar like a GT3, TCR, etc, is that the car will more than likely have actual brand name parts/logos on them. As seen on the Civic TCR here, it is using branded wheels, brake calipers and tires. One thing I always consider adding to the list of sponsor decals to utilize on the car is these things, so the Civic here got Michelin logos since the tires are branded as such. Now I did not use OZ Racing logos or Alcon logos, but if I were to use wheel and brake company logos I would very much use those. Every car can be different, whether it's different tire brands on the tires, different wheel brands on the car itself or branded brake calipers, like Brembo, AP Racing.
League/Racing Organization Decals
If you're in a small organized league for races, most of the time you will encounter their logos that will be mandated on places on your design, usually on the front and rear of the car. Every league is different, but if you're aiming for something related to a real life racing association, look up on what mandatory decals they use, whether it's IMSA, FIA, etc. It adds to not just the details of your design but the believability of your original design possibly being a real team. Maybe not everybody will notice but it certainly is a satisfying feeling seeing somebody ask if your design is based off a real racing team.
Other Safety Decals
Another touch to liveries that can help with making them feel more "believable" is adding safety decals, such as extinguisher (the circle E logo) and cut off (usually a tringle with a lightning bolt in it) and tow hook arrow decals, especially if they are like the Civic TCR displayed here that has actual tow straps modeled. For production cars that do not have those, not even related to Forza here, you can always make/use tow hook/strap logos in places where on the bumper a tow hook can be screwed in. Really helps add to the motorsport feel to your design on a regular production car.
Decal Placement
Decal placement is another thing I will think about a lot in reference to the base design and even the car's design itself. Also what factors into where the secondary decals go is where the main one will be. If the main one is more upwards towards the side of the vehicle, I will run the decals decently spaced along the bottom of the sides. If it's more like the H&R logo shown here, I will place them more towards the edges of the doors and spaced away from the primary decal. I also will put secondary sponsors along the edges of the front and rear bumpers, usually decals that are not horizontally long. I also will ensure space for number boards and league/organizer decals as well, same with number boards on the hood if needed.
Other Details
When it comes to color choices for your design, it all depends on what your team colors are, what the primary sponsor colors are, etc. I typically also prefer white wheel colors, as the majority of designs I see usually have black wheel colors. Other good neutral colors for wheels are silver, gunmetal and even brushed aluminum. Other details you can do if you're making a design that will be apart of a multiple car team, is giving each car its own accent color that is very minimal, or utilize the car's mirrors to be different colors to tell the team cars apart from different angles. If the game allows it, brake caliper colors I tend to go for an anodized colored look as most racecars don't have brightly colored calipers, adding to the small details of believability I enjoy putting on my designs.
Another crucial thing to keep in mind is to not use conflicting manufacturer sponsors! If you use one tire sponsor, you will not use any other. Same goes for other specific brands/parts. Like motor oils, braking systems, even non car related things like drinks and fast food chains. My rule of thumb is to always make sure you have one of each. When it doubt, search up what the company names are so you don't add conflicting sponsors!
So, that is pretty much it when it comes to my thought processes when it comes to livery design, I may make another post on how I recreate manufacturer decals in Forza specifically, as that game has hardly any default manufacturer decals to choose from and downloading other decals uploaded to the storefront will only lock your livery and make it not shareable. Granted it is an archaic decal design system, I do know my way around it to make whatever I need.
Until then, see ya next time!