How to apply a livery share code in Forza Horizon

A livery — the game usually calls them designs — is a custom paint job. But it is not a single flat image. It is built from stacked layers of shapes, logos and vinyls, arranged and coloured until they form a finished look. A single design can hold hundreds or even thousands of these layers, which is how artists recreate real racing liveries or draw detailed illustrations right on the bodywork.

Because a livery is made from those layers placed on a specific body, it is tied to the exact car it was built for. The shapes are positioned to fit that model's panels, curves and dimensions. That is the single most important thing to know before you start: to use a livery, you need the same car the creator used.

Before a code will do you any good, make sure you own the car the livery was made for. Most well-organised code listings tell you the make and model up front — on this site every livery is filed under its car — so check that first.

If you do not have the car yet, you will need to buy it from the in-game car sales area or acquire it however the current game allows. A livery code for a hatchback will not paint your muscle car; the game simply will not offer the design for a body it was not built on.

With the right car in your garage, head into that car's customization or designs area — the part of the menu where you change its paint and appearance. Somewhere in there you will find an option to browse or search community designs, and a field to enter a share code directly.

Enter the code exactly as it was shared. The game looks the code up on its servers and, if it resolves, pulls the matching design straight into your game. This is a download, not a copy-by-hand — nothing is pasted or imported from a file. Once it finishes, the design is saved to your collection for that car.

If a code does not resolve, double-check for mistyped characters, confirm you are entering it in the design search rather than a tune or event field, and make sure the current car matches the one the livery was built for.

Downloading a design does not automatically wear it — it adds the design to your saved options for that car. To actually put it on, select the downloaded design from your list of paints or designs and apply it. Your car repaints instantly with all of the creator's layers intact.

From there it behaves like any of your own paints. You can keep it as-is, save it to that car, or duplicate it and tweak layers yourself if the game lets you edit downloaded designs. Applying a livery has no effect on how the car drives; it is purely cosmetic, so you can mix any livery with any tune you like.

Some creators also share vinyl groups separately from full liveries. A vinyl group is a reusable cluster of shapes — a logo, a number roundel, a sponsor decal — packaged so you can drop it into a design you are building yourself. You download these the same way, through the code search, but instead of a whole car wrap you get a component to place inside your own work. They are a great way to add a clean logo without redrawing it layer by layer.

Whichever you download, treat the artist well. Rate the design and credit the creator when you share screenshots or use their work in a video. Never re-upload someone else's livery under your own name — passing off another artist's hours of layering as your own is the fastest way to sour the community that makes all these codes possible. Building on a shared vinyl group is fine and encouraged; claiming a whole design you did not make is not.