BLiTZ's Liveries - Latest Update: #1 Nissan ALTIA GT-R '99
- Thread starter BLiTZ
- 75 comments
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- 736
- Selby
- spooned12000rpm
Thanks for all the comments guys! I'm not sure when my next update will be as I've not even booted the game since I posted this. (I'll log in to get this week's paints but I don't think I'm going to have time to do any work).
I think the next update's title will be along the lines of "Looks simple enough..." as what I thought would be a quick job for my next livery has proved to be a pain!
Right now I'm not sure what's worse, knowing what all the decals are but finding that I'll have to make almost all of them from scratch or not knowing what they are, spending days researching but then finding the company has a nice PDF with the logo in? Either way I've got about half the decals I need and have identified almost all of the others and now have a desktop full of crappy 90's internet low res images to have to make into vectors!
I think the next update's title will be along the lines of "Looks simple enough..." as what I thought would be a quick job for my next livery has proved to be a pain!
Right now I'm not sure what's worse, knowing what all the decals are but finding that I'll have to make almost all of them from scratch or not knowing what they are, spending days researching but then finding the company has a nice PDF with the logo in? Either way I've got about half the decals I need and have identified almost all of the others and now have a desktop full of crappy 90's internet low res images to have to make into vectors!
Once we've settled on a final design I'm sure me and @JKcreativeworks will get them shared. I've made about 4-5 different versions now, this latest one is essentially the Super Taikyu board with CC logos and class system. There's already a few ST boards shared in the game if you're looking for something to use in the interim 👍Do you have a link to the numberboards used for your new Clubman Cup? I might not be qualified to enter but I’d like to make a livery and play around all the same
Btw that blue GTR is my favourite looking GTR, the blues really set it off
- 736
- Selby
- spooned12000rpm
...Finally!
Welcome to to mySeptember October November December update! It's only the thick end of 3 months late and comes in just over a year since I first signed up and started this thread.
If I think back, I'm not entirely sure where the year's gone. As I'm sure many of you here will agree, GT Sport has taken up a lot of that time (perhaps too much?) and whilst I can't boast the number of shared liveries and followers of some of my peers, I'm satisfied with the quality of the work I've shared, and like to think I've had a small contribution to the 'art' with my Carbon Fibre pattern which still grows in popularity.
I've been 'penning' this post in my head since I first started work on my latest livery. I'd planned to keep it short and sweet, but with nearly 3 months worth of thoughts, observations and insights into my 'process', I've somewhat poured the contents of my head into the keyboard. This post also serves as a way of closing the book on one project, clearing my mind and freeing up some space for the next, so apologies for the length of it.
If this introduction doesn't come across with the usual upbeat tone its that this latest livery has been a bit of a pain in the ass, a true test of patience and I often found myself un-motivated work on it. As I'd alluded to in earlier posts, this project had me questioning if I'd pushed too far, had the quest for perfection turned what is normally a 'fun challenge' into a 'work-like chore', was I doing this because I wanted to or was I doing this because I had to?
- - - - -
Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II Nür (R34) '02 - #1 Nissan ALTIA '99
Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "ecr" "altia" "r34" | Version(s): (ver 1.02) | Link: Download Here
Work on this livery started in September, shortly after sharing the Nissan Prince Chiba R34. As I said at the time, the NPC R34 had been a relatively easy project (as I'd already made many of the decals for the earlier R33) and it had been a pleasure to finish a replica in under two weeks. Around the same time, the latest addition to my model car collection arrived through the post; Ignition Model's 1:43 scale model of the 1999 Super Taikyu 'Nissan ALTIA' GT-R.
Whilst I wasn't as big a fan of it compared to the Falken-backed Super Taikyu machines, the ALTIA car has a great livery, satisfying my love of the 80-90's style of Japanese racing cars and the model, which I picked up at a bargain price on eBay, pairs nicely with the NPC R34 that I already have.
It wasn't until I had the model in-hand that I started to look at it from a livery making perspective. What initially intrigued me was that Ignition Model (much like EBBRO and KYOSHO before them) had decided to render the vehicle in it's 'Launch' specification wearing entirely stock bodywork (sans the smaller aftermarket door mirrors). I find that odd, as the car only appeared in this guise briefly before it was fitted with the aftermarket ALTIA front bumper and high level rear wing which it wore until the end of it's Japanese career (and continued to wear during it's stint in the US). What's even more odd (and that I was soon to find out) is that reference material for the car in this configuration is next to non-existent! The flip-side (and what convinced me to have a go), is that the stock bodywork makes it possible to replicate more accurately in GT Sport.
Since working on the NPC R33 I've started working with a livery checklist. I open TextEdit (Notepad for you Windows folk) and list all the car's decals, working front to back, top to bottom, grouping them by area: Bonnet, Front, Side, Rear, Roof, Mirrors and Spoiler. Not only does this help to make sure you don't miss anything (surprisingly easy to do on more complex designs) it also allows you to track progress.
After I've listed everything, I use a bullet point system to identify them; 'Decals I have', 'Decals I recognise' and 'Decals I need to identify'. At first the list has a few gaps and question marks but as I complete my research the list slowly fills out and by construction time it's 'usually' complete.
Researching this livery was what nearly stopped the project in it's tracks. After weeks of trawling the internet I only ever found three images of the car in the configuration I was replicating as the livery was changed about a bit when the car was fitted with it's aftermarket aero so most of the (later) photos I found didn't help all that much. The first of those images came from Ignition Model's initial preview of the model and whilst grainy and badly shadowed showed most of the front 3/4. The second, a (luckily medium-high res) shot of the side came from the 'Nissan GT-R Supercar Born to Race' book and the third (a rear/side view) from the cover of the the Desmond Regamaster wheels catalogue which I found by accident when trying to find a high res image of the Desmond logo for this livery.
Whilst the livery looks simple (heck its a red car with a few white stickers what are you complaining about?!), there are in fact 30 different sponsor logos and in usual 90's Japanese race car fashion most of them are from totally obscure companies that are either long gone, have a totally new corporate identity with no reference to their older branding. But thanks to sheer determination, some creative Google searches, lots of use of the Wayback Machine (got to love that early 00's internet!) and even going through my old HyperREV books, by the time I'd finished the livery I'd identified all but two, Gazelle and Nagata.
Identifying companies is one thing, but finding suitable copies of the logo is another. Like many of the Super Taikyu cars I've tackled, some of the logos were only ever used on this car, hybrids of different parts of a company's branding, or limited in use at the time and therefore hard to get clear images of. There's also the age-old period-correct issues, with many of the brands changing their logos around the same time again making it hard to find the right logos.
What also didn't help is that the majority of the team's smaller sponsors were 'behind the scenes' suppliers to the the automotive industry (such as the company that makes plastic bumpers for Nissan) who don't really have an internet presence.
Don't get me wrong, I relish the research stage, call it thrill of the chase or even some neo-futuristic hunter-gatherer instinct, but I genuinely find satisfaction in finding this sort of information from the bowels of the internet. However this one was tough, many of the resulting images were not great and with so many logos to complete, I knew decal making was going to be hard.
All in all, research and 'initial' decal making took the best part of a month.
With the decals made, construction was fairly easy. I always start with the number boards as these serve as a great tool to help scale the rest of the decals. Once I've determined the correct size and position I create a 'scaled' version of the number board (using the scaling technique that I've shared before), meaning I can keep the scale of the boards correct across the livery. Once the boards are down, the larger decals can be placed and the livery starts to take shape.
It's then that I start to add all the little details. Whilst you'd be hard pressed to tell, the whole car is in fact painted K1 Aluminium Metallic and masked off so I could replicate the metallic NKPro. decals on the sides. There's also a number of 'curved' decals that I made to combat the stretch and skew that results from the way the game projects over certain surfaces. The side number boards, Nissan, Dainippon Ink & Chemicals and VESTEC decals took days of work to map correctly to the surface.
The VESTEC decal took more like a week of trial and error to get right and whilst still not 100% perfect it as close as I can get. The decal is applied over a complex multi-curved surface and had to be distorted from a number of angles to get a realistic appearance. Thank god for the newly introduced 'Replace Decal' option which made substituting different versions of the decal much easier!
There are even some details that look like mistakes, but are in fact intentional, such as the 'blocks' around the BP decals being a different shade of green and the Tu-Ka and Giken logos being a darker shade of grey.
I even went as far as to recreate the small scrutineering sticker seen on the front wing (fender). I was unable to identify which track had issued the original small green and white sticker, so I decided to add a little easter egg and make my own 'GT Sport Technical Inspection' version instead.
Whilst most people won't appreciate (or even care about) the amount of time and effort it all takes, I'd like to think it's that sort of attention to detail that sets my liveries apart from the rest.
Unfortunately the livery isn't without its compromises, the first is the wheels. The real car ran on ALTIA N1-EX's (and occasionally white Desmond Regamasters), a fairly unique looking wheel, perhaps best described as a more angular stock BCNR33 rim. The Work XSA-04C's are close but it would have been nice to change the chrome finish to a more muted silver.
As a rule I normally try to avoid placing decals under badges, but that was going to be unavoidable on this one with the Nissan and V-spec II Nür badging fouling the NISSALCO and ADVAN decals. I'd considered moving them, but as there's so few decals on the rear it would have totally changed the look.
The final 'rule-breaker' was the addition of the sun strip. Again unless the car features a Gran Turismo banner in real life I normally leave the top of the windscreen bare. I agonised over this for a day or so, but in the end felt that adding the banner made the livery feel more complete.
The final part of the livery was a spur of the moment addition, a matching suit. Having found a couple of shots of the drivers in their suits I made the additional decals needed to make my own version. The limits of the Suit Editor mean that the resulting design is not an accurate replica. Unable to place decals on the lower sleeves or get the chest design as large as I'd like means this is more of a 'tribute' livery, but its a nice touch and was a bit of fun towards the end of the project.
I'd hoped to get the livery out with a single release. I hate releasing a livery, spotting a flaw and having to re-share so I did a lot of Scapes before hitting share. This was helpful as it highlighted that the red I'd initially chosen was far too dark (I often get this issue and blame playing in HDR). I also spotted a few spacing and scaling issues that weren't so apparent in the editor.
Sadly even after that initial bug fixing I still managed to spot more issues hence the 1.02 release. It's a massive shame that you can't update an existing livery without having to delete and re-share. Touch wood, this will be the final version for a while.
After a lot of work I can confidently say that this is my most accurate livery to date and whilst initial numbers show a lack of interest from the public, my hope is to get some personal use out of it in Online Lobbies. Though I'm yet to make anything public, I do have a few ideas for a 'Historic' Super Taikyu league/lobby which this would slot nicely into.
What's next, well I don't know. I shared a couple of unreleased R33 street liveries, updated my personal helmet design and made a couple of tweaks to the '91 Falken R32, but aside form that, I'm out of ideas. With non of the proposed DLC floating my boat I might take a break from liveries and spend a bit more time racing as I've totally abandoned that side of the game of late.
Once again I appreciate the support, and if you've read this in entirety, thank you!
Welcome to to my
If I think back, I'm not entirely sure where the year's gone. As I'm sure many of you here will agree, GT Sport has taken up a lot of that time (perhaps too much?) and whilst I can't boast the number of shared liveries and followers of some of my peers, I'm satisfied with the quality of the work I've shared, and like to think I've had a small contribution to the 'art' with my Carbon Fibre pattern which still grows in popularity.
I've been 'penning' this post in my head since I first started work on my latest livery. I'd planned to keep it short and sweet, but with nearly 3 months worth of thoughts, observations and insights into my 'process', I've somewhat poured the contents of my head into the keyboard. This post also serves as a way of closing the book on one project, clearing my mind and freeing up some space for the next, so apologies for the length of it.
If this introduction doesn't come across with the usual upbeat tone its that this latest livery has been a bit of a pain in the ass, a true test of patience and I often found myself un-motivated work on it. As I'd alluded to in earlier posts, this project had me questioning if I'd pushed too far, had the quest for perfection turned what is normally a 'fun challenge' into a 'work-like chore', was I doing this because I wanted to or was I doing this because I had to?
- - - - -
Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II Nür (R34) '02 - #1 Nissan ALTIA '99
Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "ecr" "altia" "r34" | Version(s): (ver 1.02) | Link: Download Here
Work on this livery started in September, shortly after sharing the Nissan Prince Chiba R34. As I said at the time, the NPC R34 had been a relatively easy project (as I'd already made many of the decals for the earlier R33) and it had been a pleasure to finish a replica in under two weeks. Around the same time, the latest addition to my model car collection arrived through the post; Ignition Model's 1:43 scale model of the 1999 Super Taikyu 'Nissan ALTIA' GT-R.
Whilst I wasn't as big a fan of it compared to the Falken-backed Super Taikyu machines, the ALTIA car has a great livery, satisfying my love of the 80-90's style of Japanese racing cars and the model, which I picked up at a bargain price on eBay, pairs nicely with the NPC R34 that I already have.
It wasn't until I had the model in-hand that I started to look at it from a livery making perspective. What initially intrigued me was that Ignition Model (much like EBBRO and KYOSHO before them) had decided to render the vehicle in it's 'Launch' specification wearing entirely stock bodywork (sans the smaller aftermarket door mirrors). I find that odd, as the car only appeared in this guise briefly before it was fitted with the aftermarket ALTIA front bumper and high level rear wing which it wore until the end of it's Japanese career (and continued to wear during it's stint in the US). What's even more odd (and that I was soon to find out) is that reference material for the car in this configuration is next to non-existent! The flip-side (and what convinced me to have a go), is that the stock bodywork makes it possible to replicate more accurately in GT Sport.
Since working on the NPC R33 I've started working with a livery checklist. I open TextEdit (Notepad for you Windows folk) and list all the car's decals, working front to back, top to bottom, grouping them by area: Bonnet, Front, Side, Rear, Roof, Mirrors and Spoiler. Not only does this help to make sure you don't miss anything (surprisingly easy to do on more complex designs) it also allows you to track progress.
After I've listed everything, I use a bullet point system to identify them; 'Decals I have', 'Decals I recognise' and 'Decals I need to identify'. At first the list has a few gaps and question marks but as I complete my research the list slowly fills out and by construction time it's 'usually' complete.
Researching this livery was what nearly stopped the project in it's tracks. After weeks of trawling the internet I only ever found three images of the car in the configuration I was replicating as the livery was changed about a bit when the car was fitted with it's aftermarket aero so most of the (later) photos I found didn't help all that much. The first of those images came from Ignition Model's initial preview of the model and whilst grainy and badly shadowed showed most of the front 3/4. The second, a (luckily medium-high res) shot of the side came from the 'Nissan GT-R Supercar Born to Race' book and the third (a rear/side view) from the cover of the the Desmond Regamaster wheels catalogue which I found by accident when trying to find a high res image of the Desmond logo for this livery.
Whilst the livery looks simple (heck its a red car with a few white stickers what are you complaining about?!), there are in fact 30 different sponsor logos and in usual 90's Japanese race car fashion most of them are from totally obscure companies that are either long gone, have a totally new corporate identity with no reference to their older branding. But thanks to sheer determination, some creative Google searches, lots of use of the Wayback Machine (got to love that early 00's internet!) and even going through my old HyperREV books, by the time I'd finished the livery I'd identified all but two, Gazelle and Nagata.
Identifying companies is one thing, but finding suitable copies of the logo is another. Like many of the Super Taikyu cars I've tackled, some of the logos were only ever used on this car, hybrids of different parts of a company's branding, or limited in use at the time and therefore hard to get clear images of. There's also the age-old period-correct issues, with many of the brands changing their logos around the same time again making it hard to find the right logos.
What also didn't help is that the majority of the team's smaller sponsors were 'behind the scenes' suppliers to the the automotive industry (such as the company that makes plastic bumpers for Nissan) who don't really have an internet presence.
Don't get me wrong, I relish the research stage, call it thrill of the chase or even some neo-futuristic hunter-gatherer instinct, but I genuinely find satisfaction in finding this sort of information from the bowels of the internet. However this one was tough, many of the resulting images were not great and with so many logos to complete, I knew decal making was going to be hard.
All in all, research and 'initial' decal making took the best part of a month.
With the decals made, construction was fairly easy. I always start with the number boards as these serve as a great tool to help scale the rest of the decals. Once I've determined the correct size and position I create a 'scaled' version of the number board (using the scaling technique that I've shared before), meaning I can keep the scale of the boards correct across the livery. Once the boards are down, the larger decals can be placed and the livery starts to take shape.
It's then that I start to add all the little details. Whilst you'd be hard pressed to tell, the whole car is in fact painted K1 Aluminium Metallic and masked off so I could replicate the metallic NKPro. decals on the sides. There's also a number of 'curved' decals that I made to combat the stretch and skew that results from the way the game projects over certain surfaces. The side number boards, Nissan, Dainippon Ink & Chemicals and VESTEC decals took days of work to map correctly to the surface.
The VESTEC decal took more like a week of trial and error to get right and whilst still not 100% perfect it as close as I can get. The decal is applied over a complex multi-curved surface and had to be distorted from a number of angles to get a realistic appearance. Thank god for the newly introduced 'Replace Decal' option which made substituting different versions of the decal much easier!
There are even some details that look like mistakes, but are in fact intentional, such as the 'blocks' around the BP decals being a different shade of green and the Tu-Ka and Giken logos being a darker shade of grey.
I even went as far as to recreate the small scrutineering sticker seen on the front wing (fender). I was unable to identify which track had issued the original small green and white sticker, so I decided to add a little easter egg and make my own 'GT Sport Technical Inspection' version instead.
Whilst most people won't appreciate (or even care about) the amount of time and effort it all takes, I'd like to think it's that sort of attention to detail that sets my liveries apart from the rest.
Unfortunately the livery isn't without its compromises, the first is the wheels. The real car ran on ALTIA N1-EX's (and occasionally white Desmond Regamasters), a fairly unique looking wheel, perhaps best described as a more angular stock BCNR33 rim. The Work XSA-04C's are close but it would have been nice to change the chrome finish to a more muted silver.
As a rule I normally try to avoid placing decals under badges, but that was going to be unavoidable on this one with the Nissan and V-spec II Nür badging fouling the NISSALCO and ADVAN decals. I'd considered moving them, but as there's so few decals on the rear it would have totally changed the look.
The final 'rule-breaker' was the addition of the sun strip. Again unless the car features a Gran Turismo banner in real life I normally leave the top of the windscreen bare. I agonised over this for a day or so, but in the end felt that adding the banner made the livery feel more complete.
The final part of the livery was a spur of the moment addition, a matching suit. Having found a couple of shots of the drivers in their suits I made the additional decals needed to make my own version. The limits of the Suit Editor mean that the resulting design is not an accurate replica. Unable to place decals on the lower sleeves or get the chest design as large as I'd like means this is more of a 'tribute' livery, but its a nice touch and was a bit of fun towards the end of the project.
I'd hoped to get the livery out with a single release. I hate releasing a livery, spotting a flaw and having to re-share so I did a lot of Scapes before hitting share. This was helpful as it highlighted that the red I'd initially chosen was far too dark (I often get this issue and blame playing in HDR). I also spotted a few spacing and scaling issues that weren't so apparent in the editor.
Sadly even after that initial bug fixing I still managed to spot more issues hence the 1.02 release. It's a massive shame that you can't update an existing livery without having to delete and re-share. Touch wood, this will be the final version for a while.
After a lot of work I can confidently say that this is my most accurate livery to date and whilst initial numbers show a lack of interest from the public, my hope is to get some personal use out of it in Online Lobbies. Though I'm yet to make anything public, I do have a few ideas for a 'Historic' Super Taikyu league/lobby which this would slot nicely into.
What's next, well I don't know. I shared a couple of unreleased R33 street liveries, updated my personal helmet design and made a couple of tweaks to the '91 Falken R32, but aside form that, I'm out of ideas. With non of the proposed DLC floating my boat I might take a break from liveries and spend a bit more time racing as I've totally abandoned that side of the game of late.
Once again I appreciate the support, and if you've read this in entirety, thank you!
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- 736
- Selby
- spooned12000rpm
Are you still out of ideas? Nothing for the AE86es or S13? I‘ve always loved your liveries and their introduction posts here and really miss that
Yeah, sorry for the lack of updates, my life's been somewhat **** for the last few months, my wife walked out back in July and at the same time the company I worked for (the last 8.5years) changed hands and things weren't going to work with the new owner. So between divorce paperwork, sorting through my wife's stuff, looking after the housework, interviews, starting a new job and generally trying to keep myself sufficiently busy enough to stifle the crushing feelings of depression due to being alone and having no friends, motivation has been understandably lacking...
I haven't completed given up. You probably saw my updated Calsonic GT-R and the couple of road liveries I released recently, but I'm only really going on the PS4 once or twice a month at the moment.
- 736
- Selby
- spooned12000rpm
Thank you.I « liked » it, but this is support...
Good luck to go through this, we have all ups and downs.
I like to see that you’re still around the forums and the comps, at least for voting...
Keep it up!
Ultimately it's all for the best in the long run, things weren't great between us for a while and there were deeper issues that meant we things would never really work.
On the job front I should have moved on years earlier, I'd spent the last 6 months living on the promise of a promotion and increased responsibility but at the same time the risk that the business didn't sell and I'd be out of a job (this was also part of the reason my relationship broke down) but I've been lucky to have the new job land at my feet. A great bunch of people, employers that care about their staff, a great deal of respect and an interesting field of work.
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- 880
- Groningen
- JKcreativeworks
- 736
- Selby
- spooned12000rpm
Thanks mate!
- 736
- Selby
- spooned12000rpm
I keep saying I'll do a write up for the stuff I have made this year, there's at least 3-4 liveries I could talk about.
I've got a couple of unfinished projects on the go, but these have hit the stumbling blocks either with time, not being able to achieve the desired quality or easily find the required decals that bring into question the amount of time investment required vs the outcome.
I've got a couple of unfinished projects on the go, but these have hit the stumbling blocks either with time, not being able to achieve the desired quality or easily find the required decals that bring into question the amount of time investment required vs the outcome.
Wow, I mean where do I start?? What a a great livery thread. So much passion, dedication and attention to detail. Your replicas are absolutely fantastic, they really are. I got back from work last night and sat down, logged in here and seen you had given a response to my R33 GTR LM colour question and I was eagerly anticipating the answer btw, thanks very much. Your blue was a bit darker than the one I had come up, I based my colour on the numerous google searches. I had mine as H59 S100 V84.
Then I got towards the end of your thread and felt sad because of the struggles you were facing at the time and I've had similar problems myself. Around 4 years ago I split from my partner and mother of my 2 boys, we had been together 13 years. After the split, I found life difficult, I realised I didn't have many friends for support and I just felt very lonely. Anyways lol I hope things got better for you and I hope you are doing well now.
@BLiTZ
Then I got towards the end of your thread and felt sad because of the struggles you were facing at the time and I've had similar problems myself. Around 4 years ago I split from my partner and mother of my 2 boys, we had been together 13 years. After the split, I found life difficult, I realised I didn't have many friends for support and I just felt very lonely. Anyways lol I hope things got better for you and I hope you are doing well now.
@BLiTZ
Last edited:
- 736
- Selby
- spooned12000rpm
Cheers @DaveyFT1 , thanks for the kind words. Things have settled down a bit now, the divorce went through a couple of months back and aside from the court signing off on the financial agreement I finally have a sense of freedom back. My new job's going great and has been a good distraction.
However, as I'm sure it's been noted, I haven't been overly active on here or in-game for a while. I've lost motivation with a lot of my hobbies and interests and just don't 'feel it' at the moment.
I did spend a week or so over lockdown perfecting my GT-R GT3 livery for Sport Mode but since then I've only been on GT Sport a couple of times when I've fancied a race.
As for the colour matching, Champion Blue is a bugger to match as it looks different in every photo and I was about 12 when I last saw an LM Limited in the flesh so cant remember exactly what it looks like IRL.
I found that it's very close to 'Calsonic Blue' (some say it's the same colour, but I was unable to substantiate that) but after I remade my Calsonic BNR32 my LM Limited liveries looked too pale so I updated them to match.
- 90
- United States
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