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Need Help Any ideas on how to make this??

FutureSigns

FutureSigns

New Member
I have to letter an ambulance to match others but here is the kicker... They do not have the artwork. So I am trying to reproduce this lettering. Tried Eye candy with no luck. Any thoughts?????
 

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bannertime

Active Member
Combine TimToad's post with this and you'd be golden.

Make your text, add a thick outline. Separate and expand it. Add a thin outline around the text. Then make one more outline that is slightly smaller than the thick one. Separate and expand it. Then make 0pt paths on the corners, expand, and then use it to cut the middle outline apart. Apply the gradients to them parts. Then use the tutorial above to create the middle effect. That took me about 5 minutes and that included trying to remember how to do it.
 

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equippaint

Active Member
bannertime said:
Combine TimToad's post with this and you'd be golden.

Make your text, add a thick outline. Separate and expand it. Add a thin outline around the text. Then make one more outline that is slightly smaller than the thick one. Separate and expand it. Then make 0pt paths on the corners, expand, and then use it to cut the middle outline apart. Apply the gradients to them parts. Then use the tutorial above to create the middle effect. That took me about 5 minutes and that included trying to remember how to do it.
Click to expand...
You'll have to match the halftone in the bottom half too or it wont look the same.
 
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TimToad

Active Member
FutureSigns said:
Thank you for the information!! I will give it a try! :)
Click to expand...

If there is a chance of your company doing more of these vehicles for this entity, I'd put your best effort into it and make it known to them that you now have the asset in your archives for the future. That should give you an edge against anyone else they go to that would have to do the work from scratch again. Shouldn't be more than an hour or so at the most to do a first rate job of duplicating it. Hell, I'd try to improve upon it and sell them on a better representation of that effect.
 
FutureSigns

FutureSigns

New Member
That's a great idea!!! My problem is I don't know crap when it comes to illustrator. My background is in photography so photoshop has always been my go to. Currently I use signlab 10. Love it but I can not reproduce this easily.... What a headache...
 
kcollinsdesign

kcollinsdesign

Old member
I used to do these with a program called Typestyler, which was super easy to use. The whole pattern looks familiar.

I use Illustrator these days, but it will be a challenge for a beginner. Good way to learn, with a paying job. It will take a while if you aren't familiar with the tools and process.

Millions of ways to do this Photoshop, all kinds of third party filters. It won't be vector, but that may not be a problem.
 
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Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
I can't tell enough from the type sample, but if the base typeface has no curved segments in it (such as ITC Machine) then the effect would be relatively easy to reproduce all in vector format without having to settle for pixel-based Photoshop type stuff. There is no one-button click simple solution to it. Gotta be willing to spend a little time on it, especially for anything that looks good. Still, it's not hard to do. Using CorelDRAW for instance you would start with the contour tool to create the face or outline of the beveled letters (adjusting the results if necessary). Then you use the snap to object functions to create all the individual parts of the bevels. From there you just refine the line work and fills.

Regarding halftone effects, it's not necessary to use Photoshop for that. Astute Graphics' Phantasm plug-in can produce vector-based halftone effects (among some other neat functions) in Illustrator. The latest version of CorelDRAW has a new Pointillizer tool than can produce very good vector halftone effects from geometric shapes (like circles) or other source objects.
 
kcollinsdesign

kcollinsdesign

Old member
FutureSigns: yes, of course a Gerber Edge Font. All the fire engine manufacturing companies had an Edge (probably still do). I knew I has seen something like that before (course halftone, almost comic book look, peculiar hump in horizon line). It's been years since I had an Edge, but as I recall they had pre-set "filters" for producing popular effects. This was somewhat of a novelty at the time. Gerber fonts were around $200.00 each (so if you wanted both Helvetica and Helvetica Bold, you had to pony up $400.00). This all changed in the late 1980's when vector based drawing programs and PostScript fonts started to become popular.
 
FutureSigns

FutureSigns

New Member
Funny you say comic book. I was thinking the same thing. I am going to give it one more try then maybe I will pay someone to do it! hahahaha!!!
 
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oel10

New Member
Looks pretty easy to remake with photoshop. Someone mentioned typstyler I rememebr this software lol. Corel has quick built in plugins you can try with. I'm more of an ilustrator guy
 
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burgmurk

New Member
I'd personally try and get away with skipping the halftone 'effect'. I think that's more a byproduct of the old printing method than a design feature, and if you explain it that way most clients would be cool with it.
Looks like a fun couple of hours work! :)
 
FutureSigns

FutureSigns

New Member
We still have composer on a old computer. Do you think that program could produce this effect? Customer wants to match and I can not get it close....
 
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