Hey there everyone and thanks for joining me for another edition of In Focus in which we take a look at the stunning paintwork of SnakeEyes Friex and announce the winners of the Wk 13 In Focus Photo Contest.
If you’re in any way involved in the Forza paint scene, then the name SnakeEyes Friex will surely be familiar to you. Boasting a rich and diverse portfolio of liveries stretching back across numerous Forza titles, his is one of the richest catalogs of work out there in the community, and it’s my pleasure to be able to feature him this week.
Congrats on the feature, spent a good half hour looking through your FM2 gallery. There were so many paints I wanted back then compared to the few I had.
Good to see you featured. Snake. As a top notch painter and outstanding member of the Forza community, it’s well past time for you to be recognized by the PTB.
Like Windswept, I also have been browsing your FM2 gallery. I remember how impressed I was by the “paint by numbers” design back in the day.
If you’re talking about the PBN design with the mystique image on it, that outline was done by Neosync I was honored to be able to ‘fill it in’ as CTpenok (if I remember correctly…) was actually the person who should have done it…
The talent and ability on show is stunning. ( I still haven’t graduated from drawing matchstick men).
If I may ask a question or two…not sure if the artist will be about to reply to it but here goes…Just wondering how long does it take from start to finish to create something like the Rocket Racoon livery? (which is very cool btw)…do you begin the process of creating a livery with pen and paper or some other way?
GT: Blibby
Unicorn: Ferrari Challenge Stradale for FM4
Hey Blibby,
Thanks for your questions and comments!
I didn’t time the rocket raccoon design but it did take me more hours then I thought it would… It had more logo’s on it then I had ever done on a fantasy livery… On last gen consoles I could ‘paint’ 250 to 300 layers per hour on average when recreating an image… I take (need) more time for layouts… so the hood image of rocket probably took me around 10 - 12 hours, side image I think around 6 hours (I had to change most of the colours when my second image was done…) every logo 30 minutes - 1 hour… so in total I think around 20 - 22 hours??
I try to find images that i like and that give me a design idea, then I go dirrectly into the editor to make that happen OR I try a couple things in photoshop first to see if it’s worth doing…
I have recreated the forza grid in Photoshop and use that as my source image (so i can put the image i want to recreate behind the grid in PS), unlike the livery editor where the grid is behind the layers (…) So i build the image piece by piece, If I would put done an entire silhoutte first I wouldn’t be able to see where to put certain things because the grid wouldn’t be visable anymore…
Thanks for the reply Snake…would never have thought to use Photoshop to create a reference.
Having read one of your later replies about Wife ,Children and Job affecting the time you have available…having a family of my own and a busy Career would it be safe to take the hours put in you quoted and multiplying by a factor of 4 (minimum) to get actual days?
Thanks for adding the Video link and taking the time to reply (off to search FM5 AH for Rocket Raccoon ).
GT: Blibby
Unicorn: Ferrari Challenge Stradale (FM4)
Yes, I do get requests quite often, In FM2 I took on a lot of requests, But now with the busy day job, my wife and 2 kids and other games to play, I only take on a request if I REALLY like the source image(s)…
Snake eyes, thank you very much for answering our questions so far. Your designs are phenomenal. My personal favorites are the old school cartoon designs. Do you have any advice for new aspiring painters such as myself? I would love to enter the July livery contest but I’m a bit intimidated by the work of some of the more accomplished painters. Just had a couple questions as well if it’s ok…
How do you achieve a good airbrush effect using the gradient shapes? Going to the airbrush guy at the beach is a ritual for my wife and I and I’d like to recreate the airbrush effect on cars. I saw one recently where someone made some amazing airbrush flowers.
When drawing a cartoon character such as your Darkwing Duck, where do you begin? Do you start with his silhouette or with interior details such as the facial features?
Also how do you simulate the colored carbon effect visible on many paint jobs?
– I Always like to show/tell people how I work and hopefully get them inspired, so …
How do you achieve a good airbrush effect using the gradient shapes? Going to the airbrush guy at the beach is a ritual for my wife and I and I’d like to recreate the airbrush effect on cars. I saw one recently where someone made some amazing airbrush flowers.
Gradientshapes and transparancy are key to the airbrush effect (imo), also keeping it clean i a huge part of it. Don’t let the gradiënt shapes ‘bleed’ over.
When drawing a cartoon character such as your Darkwing Duck, where do you begin? Do you start with his silhouette or with interior details such as the facial features?
I Always start on the silhouette, then add the basic colours,the gradients and then the details…
Also how do you simulate the colored carbon effect visible on many paint jobs?
I’ve seen there is a trick to that… i haven’t tried it yet (nor want to)… I think putting a big square over the car with low transparancy could work aswell… (I did do this witk my darkwing design (making the carbonfibre a bit darker…)
Some Awesome Paint’s job’s! Great job everyone! I’m stunned by the amount of work that goes into some car’s, just makes them look overly awesome, I’m Definitely Inspired here to work on a few paint job’s i can call pretty close to a real livery. or as close to perfect as i can get anyways. think i already picked my first 3 car’s i want to paint up, & i’v learned so much here & have much more to learn, i still have to set some time aside to paint though cause i’m always racing! LoL!!!
[Mod edit - off topic removed, create a thread - Worm]
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