I have recently gotten hooked on Forza Motorsports 3.  Our friends at Turn 10 & Microsoft Game Studios have really hit a homerun with the sequel to my favorite racing sim on the 360.  I was pretty addicted to FM2, and painted a bunch of cars, so when I saw how much they’ve expanded and improved Forza Motorsports3 to suit decal painters, I was instantly drawn in.  The first thing I had to do was make a Robot Entertainment logo!

Here’s a few words about the editor.  Considering the tool to create custom art (a game controller), the folks at Turn 10  were sort of limited, but the solution they’ve evolved over the course of three games has made something that works pretty well.  A piece of custom art can be a solitary paint job on a vehicle or a Decal Group that is saved separately, and treated like a singular logo you can paste on your creations.    Generally, a decal group is a piece of art you can create utilizing up to 1000 layers of primitive shapes.   Here’s a rough step-by-step demonstration of how I created the Robot Logo.   Working back to front, I created the “strokes” around the letters first, then layered the other colors on top.

1.    Basic Shape selection
2.    Creating the black “t”
3.    Black complete, creating the blue “r”
4.    Blue complete, creating the white “b”
5.    Blue gradients in the center of both “o” shapes, and final touches on the red “r”
6.    Complete!

…and a few shots of the logo on a suitable looking car.

Of course this was only my feeble attempt, there are many more fabulous examples of the FM3 editor’s prowess out in the game’s Storefront & Auction house.  As an example, here’s a cool youtube video of the FM2 editor put to very good use by a talented painter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIzXh0HP72w&feature=related


If anyone else has had fun with the Forza 3 editor and wants to share,  post up your Gamertag so we can see your stuff.

Here’s mine - Pyxlwyz