Question making graphics/decal from outline templates

Yes. We do it all the time - there will always be a template or two that's not perfect or is out of whack... But for the most part it works.

Get as straight as you can photo of the vehicle. Get the template.... Blow the vehicle up to the template size, and see if it's accurate. The picture you take while be a little off due to fisheye, but for the most part it should be good enough to let you see if it'll work or not.


It should be fine, I think out of the 10+ vehicles we did only one was out... and that was because it was a pickup truck that had 10 different templates for 5 different trims, and we unluckily picked the wrong one. We learned to search via the VIN after that.

 

I have no idea how ikarasu is doing it, but I wouldn't trust most templates to be accurate to a 1/4" tolerance. Even with an elevation-style template (i.e. no perspective/fisheye), you still lose the accurate shapes of the body when projecting 3D to 2D.

A template will work if you're doing a narrow stripe that you can "steer" as you apply it, but not for the example in the first post. IMO the best way to do that one would be to either make a paper template, or install it with a large bleed and trim on the vehicle with a steady hand or knifeless tape.

 

We do three strips - 1", 1/2" and 1/4" All along a vehicle. We've done it to about 5 different pickup trucks, 4 different cars and a few huge street sweepers. I think out of them all 1 was a bit off.

We'll generally blow up a photo of the vehicle and overlap it with the outline - If it looks right...we'll run with it. If it's a job where we're doing 10+ of a vehicle... we'll print out the dimensions and go take a few measurements also. Having a photo allows you to see grooves/slopes/indents and other items that the template doesn't show, and adjust your artwork.

A template isn't a one fits all solution though. If you want a nice line thats running across grooves... the only really good way is to use knifeless tape and cut the line afterwards. It all depends on what your trying to accomplish.

The templates aren't always 100% accurate... But usually if you have a reference photo / measurements you can use that to make sure the sections you're doing work.

I don't think we've ever had it be more than a quarter inch out though.