User Decals - A Tutorial On How To Make .SVG (Request in separate thread)

  • Thread starter daan
  • 1,493 comments
  • 384,288 views
I Love colorful logos, its a shame my method just creates a messy fail.
Any suggestions how to reecreate this 'one trick zebra'
View attachment 705340

Funny story... must have made a start on figuring out how to draw this... then drank a bottle of whiskey... just realised I uploaded this...

4683822792334935568_1.png


https://www.gran-turismo.com/gb/gtsport/user/decal/3518385/4683822792334935568

... okay, so it's not a funny story, and it's not a zebra, but since I uploaded it anyway, I may as well share it!
 
Might I inquire on how you did that? I seem to have trouble with doing this on logos that are white with a different colored stroke.
Yeah I very much have the same question, because I had to upload this image in several parts to make it work:
006Charizard-Mega_Y.png

Like so:
Decals.PNG

Here it is on a Nissan GT-R GT3:
dYBweOC.jpg

I don't want to do this for every decal I upload. Saving 6 individual files is a pain.
 
Last edited:
Yeah I very much have the same question, because I had to upload this image in several parts to make it work:

I don't want to do this for every decal I upload. Saving 6 individual files is a pain.
Indeed. But I think the ultimate pain is to get them perfectly aligned and sized & rotated equally in GT Sport since you cannot rotate by angle or resize by %. That is why I usually pick one object (well, path) and leave that object in all partial decals so it easier to get the partials aligned.
 
Yeah I very much have the same question, because I had to upload this image in several parts to make it work:
View attachment 706735
Like so:
View attachment 706737
Here it is on a Nissan GT-R GT3:
dYBweOC.jpg

I don't want to do this for every decal I upload. Saving 6 individual files is a pain.
I just try to edit the file in Inkscape to bring down the number of nodes, whilst trying to keep the basic shape. Anything (Inkscape, Vector Magic etc) that scans a bitmap to make a vector will put in way too many nodes.

Also, try to use layers so that if there's a major colour in the image, try to make it one shape that the other colours sit on top of. With my Dan Gurney image, the black part was scanned in as loads of separate sections but it is now just a circle underneath most of the other sections.
 
I just try to edit the file in Inkscape to bring down the number of nodes, whilst trying to keep the basic shape. Anything (Inkscape, Vector Magic etc) that scans a bitmap to make a vector will put in way too many nodes.

Also, try to use layers so that if there's a major colour in the image, try to make it one shape that the other colours sit on top of. With my Dan Gurney image, the black part was scanned in as loads of separate sections but it is now just a circle underneath most of the other sections.
I understand what you're saying but I just don't know how to do it.
 
I understand what you're saying but I just don't know how to do it.
Here's a comparison between the Dan Gurney image as scanned, and the finished one. You select an area, then click on the 2nd icon down on the left, and it shows you all the nodes. The nodes on view are solely the ones governing the black area of the helmet. It originally followed the lines of the goggles and the strap, hence all the nodes, but what I ended up doing was to make it virtually circular, and lowered the object so it was below all the other areas, but above the white circle in the background.

inkscape.PNG


Click on a node to select it, like the red one in the image below. It's not needed as there are ones either side that can do its job. Press delete to get rid of it, then manipulate the circles on the nodes either side to make the line still follow the same contours. (The one to the left of the red one went too.) Rinse and repeat. It took me 2 hours to get the Dan Gurney image down to the 15kb limit. It seemed like there were thousands of nodes that I had to delete in this image.

inkscape2.png


Here's a before and after of the grey bit at the top of the helmet.

helm1.PNG
helm2.PNG


It went from loads of nodes to 3. I've just noticed that it is also a different shape, but that was just me not paying attention and it wasn't really important for that bit.
 
Last edited:
I've found I've had this issue for several of my decals, lo and behold it's risen it's head again on the attached. Problem for me is circles in inkscape. 9 times out of 10 I can never get them to appear in game. On the decal up-loader they look fine. They are most definitely converted to paths, so no issue there. Someone please help, it's driving me nuts.

PS: MatskiMonk, feel free to answer by all means, but dude, I've been hassling you enough via PM, thought I'd annoy someone else for a change!
 
I've found I've had this issue for several of my decals, lo and behold it's risen it's head again on the attached. Problem for me is circles in inkscape. 9 times out of 10 I can never get them to appear in game. On the decal up-loader they look fine. They are most definitely converted to paths, so no issue there. Someone please help, it's driving me nuts.

PS: MatskiMonk, feel free to answer by all means, but dude, I've been hassling you enough via PM, thought I'd annoy someone else for a change!
Had that issue with a couple of mine. Converted to path and then added a node to the existing path. Seems to have worked as a fix and does not appear to affect the file size in any significant way. (EDIT: Credit to @eclipsee for the solution :cheers:)

This looked fine on the website but the eyes did not show in-game. Did the above and it looks as it should.

4684404423383875584_1.png
 
Last edited:
Had that issue with a couple of mine. Converted to path and then added a node to the existing path. Seems to have worked as a fix and does not appear to affect the file size in any significant way.

This looked fine on the website but the eyes did not show in-game. Did the above and it looks as it should.

4684404423383875584_1.png

Many thanks, I'll give it a try and report back.
 
Here's a comparison between the Dan Gurney image as scanned, and the finished one. You select an area, then click on the 2nd icon down on the left, and it shows you all the nodes. The nodes on view are solely the ones governing the black area of the helmet. It originally followed the lines of the goggles and the strap, hence all the nodes, but what I ended up doing was to make it virtually circular, and lowered the object so it was below all the other areas, but above the white circle in the background.

View attachment 707055

Click on a node to select it, like the red one in the image below. It's not needed as there are ones either side that can do its job. Press delete to get rid of it, then manipulate the circles on the nodes either side to make the line still follow the same contours. (The one to the left of the red one went too.) Rinse and repeat. It took me 2 hours to get the Dan Gurney image down to the 15kb limit. It seemed like there were thousands of nodes that I had to delete in this image.

View attachment 707056

Here's a before and after of the grey bit at the top of the helmet.

View attachment 707068 View attachment 707069

It went from loads of nodes to 3. I've just noticed that it is also a different shape, but that was just me not paying attention and it wasn't really important for that bit.
OK thanks! I'll try that.
 
I've found I've had this issue for several of my decals, lo and behold it's risen it's head again on the attached. Problem for me is circles in inkscape. 9 times out of 10 I can never get them to appear in game. On the decal up-loader they look fine. They are most definitely converted to paths, so no issue there. Someone please help, it's driving me nuts.

PS: MatskiMonk, feel free to answer by all means, but dude, I've been hassling you enough via PM, thought I'd annoy someone else for a change!

No worries man, hopefully I've provided results, if not solutions, via PM.
 
I've found I've had this issue for several of my decals, lo and behold it's risen it's head again on the attached. Problem for me is circles in inkscape. 9 times out of 10 I can never get them to appear in game. On the decal up-loader they look fine. They are most definitely converted to paths, so no issue there. Someone please help, it's driving me nuts.

PS: MatskiMonk, feel free to answer by all means, but dude, I've been hassling you enough via PM, thought I'd annoy someone else for a change!
Post #489
 
You can do it but it doesn't work well out of the box with GTS. From what I understand the current solution is to edit the actual XML to put it into a format that GTS will read correctly. Search this thread for "gradient" as someone posted up how to do so.

EDIT: Here it is, post 455.
 
You can do it but it doesn't work well out of the box with GTS. From what I understand the current solution is to edit the actual XML to put it into a format that GTS will read correctly. Search this thread for "gradient" as someone posted up how to do so.

EDIT: Here it is, post 455.

Yup. I agree with this. Inkscape does a horrible job of writing gradients to SVG that GTS will understand. I'm using an old version of Corel, and I have to manually edit the XML to get it to work, but it's less work than inkscape.
 
I assume that other programs work without the extra steps. Adobe? Affinity? Others? Or is there something like SVGOMG that will get the format straightened out?
 
I assume that other programs work without the extra steps. Adobe? Affinity? Others? Or is there something like SVGOMG that will get the format straightened out?

Don't know. I'm thinking Illustrator will do a bad job of it, @Belifant probably knows more about Affinity.

SVGOMG won't remove tags like Matrix transform, so if that's something that's cause a problem, it won't help, though in re-writing the styles in a file it *might* sort out some other gradient related issues.

Edit:

FWIW: Gradients work when they're handled like this...

Notepad.jpg
 
I did look, but it's 20 pages so may have missed it if it's here

Does inkscape do gradient fills?
Inkscape makes linear, radial, conical and mesh gradients, but only the two first are supported in GT Sport.

Don't mess very much with the radial gradient, you'll get a headache if you move the center of the gradient.

The one that works best is the linear gradient, but with two golden rules:

1.- Once the gradient is applied, don't move nor scale the object/path.
2.- Every object/path needs its own gradient, if you copy or share that gradient with another object/path they will appear in black in game.

If you follow these two rules you can make any linear gradient you want without the need to edit the XML code.
 
The one that works best is the linear gradient, but with two golden rules:

1.- Once the gradient is applied, don't move nor scale the object/path.
2.- Every object/path needs its own gradient, if you copy or share that gradient with another object/path they will appear in black in game.

If you follow these two rules you can make any linear gradient you want without the need to edit the XML code.
I will need to try this. I have been working on something with 6 different gradient but I think I have moved things around. I assume that moving/adjusting the blend nodes would be OK? Would the same apply whether it is colors or transparency?
 
I threw a simple linear gradient on a logo in Autodesk Graphic and it worked no problem. I also added a drop shadow to the text and (knowingly) it didn't show in game, but equally it didn't break the file.
 
I will need to try this. I have been working on something with 6 different gradient but I think I have moved things around. I assume that moving/adjusting the blend nodes would be OK? Would the same apply whether it is colors or transparency?
You can add, move and edit the blend nodes as you want, the problem comes if you move or scale the path/shape.

Actually, you can duplicate the same gradient to another path.

As example, you want the same gradient in "B" path than in "A" path:

(Save your file before doing this, maybe you could lose your gradient)

1.- Click on "B" path and create a default gradient
2.- Click on "A" path (the gradient to duplicate)
3.- Click on "+" icon in the gradient list (this will duplicate the gradient)
4.- Notice that in the gradient list there's the copy of the gradient with a random number and next to that number there's ID 0, this ID number means how many paths are using this gradient, none in this case.
5.- Click on "B" path
6.- Click on the ID 0 gradient (gradient list)

Voilà, you have duplicated the same gradient in another path, now you have to place the gradient end nodes as you wish.
 
Tried to upload an .svg file from Inkscape, and it tells me 'Invalid SVG Format'. Anyone know what the problem is here?
 
Back