The September update is set to be one of the busiest periods for Le Mans Ultimate since its launch back in February. Two new cars in the form of the Alpine A424 and Isotta Fraschni Tipo 6 Competizione will be backed up by over 25 fresh, new liveries. Spread across the new Hypercars, with unique versions from Le Mans, Sao Paulo and COTA as well as brand new designs from the 2024 LMP2 grid – these are all on the way to you next week.
Moments after the virtual paint became touch dry from that set, we sat down with Stephen Haley – our Texture Artist and livery guru – one of the people responsible for making those colours really pop on Le Mans Ultimate!
Thank you for joining us Stephen, we know you are a busy chap. You are one of the team who help bring the cars to life. Tell us – how long have you been adding the colour, vibrancy and magic to virtual race cars?
It actually started on the original rFactor. Like many I loved playing Gran Turismo on console – but when I moved to a PC, I was really intrigued by rFactor and all the news before it was released. Shortly after release I started to play and I delved a little deeper and realised you could mod and paint cars – so I started to have a go and have a play, as I wanted to replicate real liveries. This evolved into other titles including rFactor 2.
You have been doing it for a while then! Have things changed much for you over time?
It really depends on the title and what you get given as a starting point in terms of FBX or 3D templates. It’s been a while since my first few mods and liveries on rFactor but on rFactor 2, with the showroom, that made things quite simple. It enabled the basics to be done easily, giving you the chance to spend time on detail and with more and more software, methods and techniques its only getting easier to do more advanced liveries. Every day is a school day and you always find new ways of doing things!
The one thing I pride myself in, is making things as 100% accurate as possible. I will spend two or three hours on one simple panel to make sure it lined up correctly with the next – that’s what I would do to give it that level of quality.
Working with the guys at Studio 397 – the base files I receive, the models from the car team and the texture tools from the art team have really made the difference to get the liveries absolutely spot on for Le Mans Ultimate.
When did you join the Le Mans Ultimate team?
I was approached after doing some work on the Porsche Carrera Cup models for rFactor 2. I was brought straight in at the end of last year to work through the LMP2 liveries on the ORECA at first. It’s not a car I had taken much notice of as I wasn’t hugely into sports car racing – but with its variety of colours, shapes and textures I quickly fell in love with it.
How does the process start?
Reference material is massively important. We have a good photo bank of hi-res images from events so I can see and visualise how that would translate digitally before I get the car model. I also see if I can watch videos of the races to just again see how the car moves and how light hits the livery at different times of the day.
Some teams provide Illustrator or PDF files from the art team or livery artist which is a big help. Anything I can lift, particularly vector shapes – that’s normally my go to first. But most of the time I look at the real car and then do things by eye and from scratch. Sometimes a preseason livery is completely different from round one or even later into the year so that is always factored in too when looking at the overall job.
The Alpine A424 is one of the most recent cars, so I was looking at the reference photos and started making some of the basic elements and shapes before the model arrived, so when it did, I had things to put onto the car straight away and then I could focus on the detail and texture in the short period I had.
I have a catalogue of decals, sponsor logos and shapes which I can pull from in seconds if I have used them before. For example, the two Cadillacs from Le Mans this year were, on the whole similar to the 2023 cars, but needed a few tweaks so that didn’t take too much time – allowing me to focus on newer cars or more challenging liveries.
I mentioned before, we have a really good small team and we all work together to improve the cars. The Alpine is a lovely metallic blue, and the default setting didn’t look quite right, so I had a play with the texture and material settings. The look of the Alpine when you take it out on track is testament to the wider team to really make that blue – represent the real blue on the car. I think we nailed it and got it spot on – which we were delighted about. Let us know what you think!
How do you get the look of the car spot on?
I primarily use Photoshop and Illustrator, but to view the model while I am painting is a program called KeyShot so I can view the car in all angles in real time whilst rendering. That gives me a general idea – I then take it into the sim and it can look slightly different. For the Alpine – the darker blue, I used a darker base colour, then added a second coat with the metallic flake treatment we have and lighten the colour slightly to give it that depth and that gives me a great starting point.
Then it is a case of backwards and forwards to the sim to see what it looks like at different times of day, at different circuits with the ‘drone’ camera to get different perspectives of the light hitting the colours and how the shadows look and react. I have a particular attention to detail and this can sometimes be the thing that takes the time.
So how long does it take. What’s a typical timeline for a livery?
It depends on the car. If it’s a WEC into Le Mans branding – that doesn’t take too long as it is check over the car and replace sponsors, number boards etc, but if it’s a new livery on average a week from start to handing it over for approval. Some might take a day, couple of days but a challenging one would be over a week. Just so I can get it right and the backwards and forwards to check on the sim can take an extra few days.
What has been the most challenging?
There are two cars that stand out really. The BMW Art car and the 2024 Peugeot 9X8. The Peugeot camo paint was a real challenge and the one I sweated the most on, but we had a lot of good references from Peugeot themselves. The BMW Art Car was a massive team effort to turn that around in less than two weeks as that was a car that was hand drawn in real life so hard to get any references – other than photos.
Most rewarding?
In the same breath the Art Car was perhaps most rewarding as it was a challenge, but also we had a time crunch to get it in game, as the livery was an exclusive for Le Mans Ultimate – that was a real team effort. Recently the Alpine is also up there, one of the most realistic liveries to date as it really does just sparkle!
On the 2024 LMP2 cars, Rexy’s cousin Spike – the purple dragon on the AO Racing car is something really different and just love the details on the car.
Favourite livery in Le Mans Ultimate?
The AO Racing ORECA – I really do like Spike. I also like the colours of Racing Turkey – that dark, rich red. I also have a soft spot for the Panis Racing car there are some really nice looking cars in this next drop. Although the teams might be the same, and have similar design elements from last year – all 16 liveries are different and all have changes, some are completely new!
Dream livery from Le Mans Ultimate would be taking the texture, graphics and detail of the dragon scales from Spike with the colours of Racing Turkey – that would be my favourite if I could fuse a few together.
And finally, how does it feel seeing your work in public?
It gives a good sense of pride and I am really happy to see the delight and reaction to them as people love them as much as I do. It’s nice to see fruits of your labour go public.
I love looking at the photos people take – some of them on Discord make the hairs stand up, as they are stunning and just take my work to the next level. I can’t wait to see what people come up with, with the next batch of content!
Sim racers will be able to wishlist the second pack on Steam ahead of going on sale later this month. Those not yet on the grid can take advantage of the base game introductory price of £24.99/ €29.99 / $32.99 until the 30th September, when the price will then be set at £29.99/ €34.99 / $37.99 to reflect the increase in content and game play features. The base game features all of the Hypercars and circuits from the 2023 Centenary season as well as the classic LMP2 and GTE cars. Those already clocking the hours can also download the 2024 BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercar for free via Steam today.
For further news, teases and updates, be sure to follow the Le Mans Ultimate social media accounts as well as www.lemansultimate.com
