Making decals and artwork is a time consuming task and we are lucky that the decal sets have rarely changed since FM4. They have just been added too over time so there is no reason what these tutorials can’t work in any of the platforms from FM4 until now.
This guide uses various notes from an old thread from the legacy forums (can’t remember if was Little Vixen or Katatak who started it sorry!) as well as my own notes along with a number of great tips from DamMe2006 (Thanks Dave!) In time we’ll have a few screenshots and mini tutorials added as well that will help better show idea or tips.
Along the way ask questions!
Its a big old thread with many uses above and beyond what have been listed so if you have more useful tips or random vinyls you’ve found a use for share your insights so we can gather a quality definitive guide for all levels of painter.
[ Contributors so far ABGRAPHICS, DamMe2006 ]
01// P R I M I T I V E S
Probably the most used set of vinyls you will always need!! Master these in your own way and you can do anything.
[#01]
Square. Or is it a square?, more often than not it’s stretched to be a thin line or used to form part of a font. When painting it’s often just useful to be able to change the background colour that you’re painting against. So just stretch a square large enough to fill your screen as your base layer and change the colour as and when required.
[#01, #03, #08, #11, #16, #18, #21, #31 & #38]
What I would call the ‘core shapes’ especially in constructing livery and typography. Useful in wide variety of applications, typography, structure, fantasy designs and everything else you could think of!
[#03]
Half circle - when a whole circle is just too much. On a more serious note, Could be part of a font (P’s & R’s that sort of thing), part of an eye (often the whole pupil isn’t visible and using a full circle might intrude upon some other part of the design).
[#06, #15, #16 & #32]
Can be used as a backing for highlights such as stars in space or even centrers of eyes with the transparencies lowered.
[#08, #18 & #30]
Corners on typography, both internal and external and also for adding serifs #20 is perfect.
[#11]
‘Circle’ Numerous uses in Fantasy Designs Pupil and Irises of eyes as well as just filling in rounded/ curved outlines or areas.
[#05, #16, #22 & #23]
Race number boards work great using these vinyls on each corner piece. Also you can use [#23] and infill with [#01] for a tighter radial curve or align a few side by side if the corner radius is too great.
[#16]
Rounded Cornered Square - I probably use this more than I use the regular square. Great for filling in larger areas of outlines you’ve painted. Works well for a lot of fonts with a bit of masking can create some neat fonts.
[#25]
Awesome for the smile on smiley faces!
[#27]
The sharktooth - very flexible shape for making curved edges (both inside and outside) good for filling in those niggly awkward bits on outlines. Also can be good for font serifs.
[#27, #39 & #30]
Great in cursive or script text (see also Community Vinyl 1 for others #1 or #34)
[#30]
Handy for cartoon works or outlining when the brackets (See Letters 01-11) or #39 aren’t workable. Skew is a great way to change this shape. Also, this shape can work as a highlight with the transparency set low.
[#33 & #38]
Custom letter O’s or Zero’s (Also Try Uppercase ‘U’ in Letters 1 or 11)
[#36]
The Jellybean - another good shape for curves inside and outside of shapes. It can be used to make face shapes with the rounded edge and it also can be used to create uneven half circular areas
[#37]
This shape is my favourite for the whites of eyes, and also to give corners that pointy look. This can be used to create hearts and other custom shapes with the Skew function and of course re-sizing.
[#39]
Very good at making circles where you can’t use masking technique, and if #33 is too wide of a stroke to use (Tutorial Coming)
02// C O M M U N I T Y _ V I N Y L _ 1
[#01, #11, #24 & #34]
Great for custom text and especially cursive/script typography.
[#12 & #13]
Fantasy: Need Eyes?! Perfect Shapes
[#13]
For all your Easter egg needs! Also great for fantasy designs, heads body framework etc…
[#20]
Bodykits: Creates a simple Carbon effect in very low layers and because of it you can use transparency. Great to use if you want to carbon a side skirt or part of a front bumper. [ Tutorial Link
[#24]
Typography: Hate making custom ‘S’ typography, try this! It works wonders when used right. (Typography Tips Tutorial To Follow)
[#25 & #35]
Seeing stars on your design?! These will do as a good start when used with a few layers spun around and use of transparency and a gradient effect star [Gradient #??]
[#29]
‘Speedometer’ - Won’t help you go any faster as its busted on the same speed but could be useful if you like time attack inspired designs!
[#30]
Carbon Fibre! Takes a little effort to create a full car but if you using masking on the cars and want a carbon door, is perfect vinyl for you! (Tutorial To Follow)
[#33]
Typography: A very good shape for putting serifs on design when ‘Skew’ is used. and also for creating letters as is the same X height as the Square #01.
[#39]
Stopwatch - Unfortunately the batteries ran out so it doesn’t move!
03// C O M M U N I T Y _ V I N Y L _ 2
[#05, #15, #25 & #35]
Great quarter curve for base designs and logotypes when ‘Primative #08’ is too wide of a stroke thickness.
[#06, #07, #16, #26 & #36]
Fantasy: Could all potentially be used as leaves or gothic style trimmings
[#09 & #19]
Bodykits: Useful for gradients on wheel arches, venting and general widebody use.
[#10 & #40]
Fantasy: Handy shapes to use on eyes in shading the iris.
[#39]
Textures: Circular coffee stain effect, rotate and stamp/group to create a single textured circle.
04// C O M M U N I T Y _ V I N Y L _ 3
[#01, #02, #11, #12, #21, #22 & #31]
Fantasy: Hair texture (see ‘Community Vinyl 4’ for the gradient effect version)
[#03-07, #13-17, #23-24, #26, #32-34 & #36]
Fantasy: Probably the best textures to use in fantasy painting. So many uses as textures, skin tones, metal work effects
[#05, #08-10, #18-19, #28-29, #38-39]
Repeating patterns very easily using a bit of alignment on an axis and then duplicating.
[#35]
Bodywork: Could be used as a starting framework for a bodywork vent.
05// C O M M U N I T Y _ V I N Y L _ 4
[#01, #02, #11, #12, #21, #22 & #31]
Fantasy: Hair texture (see ‘Community Vinyl 4’ for the solid version)
06// G R A D I E N T _ S H A P E S
For fantasy painters and the bodykit designers this is the page of vinyls you will use as much if not more than Primative!
[#4]
The fading square - handy for backgrounds and such - just be mindful of colour matching the rest of the car if your design is going to have to go from one side of the car to the roof or bumper etc.
[#6]
Fantasy: The fading triangle - I’ve found this quite useful on a number of occasions when painting eyes - if you put these point first in to the corner of the eyes, they can produce a nice shading effect over the Sclera (white part of the eye).
[#17 & #37]
Fantasy: The Gradient circles - These are just the most flexible vinyls in the game in terms of creating images. They can be used for adding highlights or shading to solidly painted objects or used to ‘paint’ the object or indeed person from the ground up just with these shapes.
[38 & #48]
Fantasy: Gradient stars - I use these quite often for making up the Iris of eyes. Take one a little smaller than the circle you’ve used for the iris itself and pick the eye colour you want to create - reduce transparency to say 0.20 (20%), stamp, spin, repeat until you have something close to the look you’re trying to achieve. You can even change the colours in between stamps to create some interesting combinations.
[#31, #27, #18]
Bodykit: Useful in shading body kits especially areas like wheel arches/fender flares.
[#25]
Need a carbon texture in small areas or around doors or panels? Then this is a good choice for a vinyl.
[#04, #17, #33 & #37]
Probably the most used gradients you will use. Great for most uses in shading lettering, body kits or background textures to fade colours in /out.
[#33]
Bodykit: Useful for shadows in venting and body work this is perfect shape,
[#32]
Simple faded flag effect. If you want similar effect but more control over the flag shapes build in solid vinyls then overlay gradient in same base colour.
[#06 & #16]
Bodykit: Vent work… are handy to get that fine detailed highlights & shadows. Use ‘Skew’ for the best effect. (Tutorials to follow on Venting/Bodymods)
[#08, #17, #27 & #37]
useful again in body mods for creating areas around wheels, body work bolts and many more. Im sure great for Eyes, and shading on fantasy designs.
[#10, #20, #30 & #40]
Want that ‘hot’ rod look with Flames?! Awesome. Use transparency and a few colours to build layers and epic flames!
07// S T R I P E S
[#05]
Bodykits: Great for creating mesh in small areas by stretching/skewing vinyl. Also makes a wonderful Carbon effect (Tutorial to follow)
[#07, #08, #16, #26, #36 & #37]
Fantasy: Can be useful for making hair - specifically the odd random hair you want to just have showing at the edges of your head of hair. Chances are you’ll only need a couple to give the illusion that the solid mass on top of the head is actually hair at all.
[#15]
Bodykits: Can be used for making checker plate. If you just want a small area rather than using in the in game texture for the whole car - some of this over a primitive can be quite effective in a small area - say patch above the exhaust as a heat shield.
[#34]
Bodykits: Mesh work on bodykits where you use masking. Drop this behind and your have great effect! Add a few side by side drop the colour to a dark grey with a metallic back or black vinyl behind.
08// T E A R S
[#11, #25 & #35]
Fantasy: Hair again. Shape #11 in particular can be very useful in creating the illusion of hair stretched fairly thin and laid on as highlights (Picture Explaining Coming)
[#10, #16 & #30]
Typography: I’ve used shapes 10,16 & 30 when creating fonts that needed to look a little rough around the edges or if you want to have hand rendered Kanji on the design.
09// R A C I N G _ I C O N S
[#02]
Creates decent custom sized flag effect if you need tile any number together.
10// F L A M E S
They pretty much speak for themselves - but can be useful for things like horns (shape #32 I’m looking at you here) or shape #40 again wispy barely seen edges of hair.
11// P A I N T _ S P L A T S
Can do just what they say on the tin. Probably more used as blood splats in a lot of designs (should you have an evil twisted side, or like halloween or slasher films!)
[#30 & #40]
Fantasy: Texturing of skin or fabrics with much reduced transparency - these get used quite a lot when trying to create more detailed almost photo real images.
12// T R I B A L
Useful shapes as part of patterns in clothing or in larger areas or as what they set out to be (tribal shapes!).
[09]
Your Handy Single Colour Forza Logo!-
13// N A T U R E
[#03 & #13]
Fantasy: ‘Lightning’ but could also be fine veins such as in the sclera (white bit of the eye) or giving that zombie the dead look of visible veins - just try not to over use them to the point where it becomes obvious that you’re just stamping that shape over your image as that will lose the illusion of what you’re trying to create.
[#6, #16 & #26]
Fantasy: Center’ for the Iris in Eyes.
[#18, #10 & #30]
Fantasy: These can work for hair & background designs.
[#20]
Who doesn’t like white fluffy clouds?!
[#23 & #33]
Use these to make quick flowers. Just add a splash of a center and a little highlights & shadows and there you go…bring back the 60’s and 70’s!
14// LETTERS 1-11 UPPER/LOWERCASE ETC…
Letters 1 to 11 Upper & Lowercase images will follow…
Lower Letters 2
Shape 35/36 - brackets - marvellous things for doing cartoon outlines or just creating the right sort of tricky curve. I’ve used thousands of them over the years,
Have any more to add?.. Add to the list by all means!
[AB]
