Hey guys, Calligaris here, rookie GPSL driver and thankful follower of these forums.
As I previously stated in another thread asking for modding advice, I am very thankful for the work many of you put into creating modding tools, models and even full mods.
Thanks to all of this content I was finally able to privately run my personal fantasy F1 championship now in its third season.
Now getting to the point...
As I see the great liveries some of you create, especially each season in the GPSL. I was looking for some advice ton improve my own craft as I am a beginner, I'll probably post some of the liveries I've made to show my level. I apologise in advance for the amount of questions asked ad thank those who will answer for their patience one or more questions.
Firstly, some technical questions.
I use MDBSnake's models and paint them with Gimp, while using Zmodeler to keep an eye on the final result. Problem is Gimp isn't very useful when it comes to Alpha channels, I haven't used alpha channels much for now, but it is necessary as cars tend to become mirrors with realistic skyes. I have another program (DXTBMP) which I use to modify Alpha channels usually, but it isn't the most practical thing, and liveries tend to become a little bit transparent when i darken the Alpha channel.
So my questions regarding this are, would you advise me to use a different image editor altogether, which one would you recommend. ? Do you use a separate editor for the alpha channels, how dark do you usually set them to be and do your liveries get a bit transparent as well ?
Now some less technical and more artistic questions (although i realise the answers to these will be more dependent on personal taste)
I have a slightly hard time drawing lines and curves across different car parts, making the transitions smooth and the lines straight (for example while drawing a line starting on the sidepod and going all the way up the engine cover). Do you have any advice on how to help the process if there is any way of doing so through handy tools or techniques (although i do realise it is in the end down to patience and perfectionism).
How sponsor-filled do you like your liveries to be ? My championship has a sponsor system, teams sign contracts with sponsors to increase their budget and those sponsors appear on the liveries. I started with three sponsors per team, but the cars felt a bit empty (i will post examples), so i upped the number. Now each car shows 5 sponsors,the engine provider logo,the team logo,the nose number and at list either the number again or the pilot's name (again, i will post examples).
Out of curiosity I wanted to ask how do you guys make those awesome renders i often see.
No other precise question comes to mind, so I'll just post a few liveries and see what advice the experts have. (I'll put the oldest livery attempts first and the newest later, hopefully saving the better attempts for last).
Some cars from season 1, my very first attempts.
Spyker-Mercedes
Livery based on actual Spyker liveries of course.
Brabham-Climax
Based on the 1992 pink brabham
Surtees-BRM
Based on 1970-71 Surtees TS7
Shadow-Vanwall
Based on historical Shadow Liveries
Übermacht-BMW
(A car manufacturer from the GTA games) based on nothing in particular, liked the colors.
A few attempts from season 2 now
Ferguson-Toyota
Based on the 1961 Ferguson P99 entered by Rob Walker Racing at the British GP
Übermacht-Ford
Attempted to improve previous year livery with some inspiration from BMW liveries
Vaillante-Renault
Based on a French comic book racing team.
A few more attempts from the 3rd season
Brabham-Maserati
Based on historical Racing Green and Gold liveries
Lec-Renault
One of my favourites despite it being very VERY simplistic, based on historical Lec F1 team
RAM-Yamaha
Based on RAM F1 liveries
Surtees-Supermarine
Based on historical Surtees TS16
And finally (i promise) current season, my most recent attempts
Cisitalia-Ferrari
inspired by several AGIP racing liveries
Escuderia Real-Vanwall
The livery this one is based on needs no introduction
Ferguson-Honda
Inspired by 1985 Brabham Livery
Vaillante-Matra
based on retro Vaillante livery (again from the same comic book)
Thank you for reading, race on!
Edited 13 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2019 04:21PM by Calligaris.