-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Making Vehicle templates
- Thread starter Wheeler
- Start date
FrankenSigns.biz
New Member
njshorts
New Member
Art Station's collection is more accurate than Pro Vehicle Outlines.
now that it's been 5 months, time to report: very happy with my purchase. it was a great investment, and they're actually REALLY accurate. I still doublecheck measurements, but they've always been dead-on. also, their customer service was great... the day I bought em, I had two wraps to layout, so I asked if they could FTP the collection to me instead of sending a disc- a few hours later, they were all on my in-house ftp server.
Signed Out
New Member
what about the bad wrap any good?
SightLine
║▌║█║▌│║▌║▌█
We have been using Pro Vehicle Outlines for years and also bought the Bad Wrap "Hard Drive" a couple years ago. Neither are perfect in my opnion but Pro Vehicle Outlines is usually "close enough". Where is has the most problems is on the hight of things like rear side windows. For full wraps or large graphics you want to double check measurements and adjust as needed prior to print. The guy that owns it Christian, has always been very helpful in the past. For a couple of years he pretty much merged with Mr-Clipart "Car n Truck" collection and dropped the print catalog which also in my opinion sucked. Things were not as well organized and much harder to find constantly looking through a massive PDF catalog. I more often than not found myself opening my 2008 version printed catalog to find something unless it was newer. I did not get 2009 but 2010 which was the new one with no printed catalog and fully combined with the Mr-Clipart collection. I vocally complained to Christian and a lot of others did as well. In the newest version you can finally get it WITH the full print catalog again and the "Car n Truck" collection seems to be sold separate from the Pro Vehicle Outlines collection now..
I did find it amusing that on his old site he dogged on Mr-Clipart templates then merged with them... http://www.digitalauto.on.ca/dal_prodInfo_pvoDiff.php
Now it seems you can still get them through Mr-Clipart as well as a new dedicated site.
http://www.pro-vehicle-outlines.com/ hhe original Pro Vehicle Outlines from Christian only.
or
http://www.digitaldesignware.com/int/index.php which has both Pro Vehicle Outlines and the Mr-Clipart "Car n Truck" collection. Keep in mind the "Car n Truck" collection is much more about the European market than the US market with all of the European brands.
As far as the Bad Wrap Templates. They are pretty sweet and make for great customer presentation layouts but they are not perfect. What can help is every template does include a file with actual photos of the vehicle with hand written (mostly accurate) measurements. The working Photoshop files are based on actual vehicle photos and are setup nice to lay graphics and/or wraps on. I've not bothered with updating my Bad Wrap though. Pricey and it's a very limited selection of vehicles... Also easy enough for customer presentation to simply bring a Pro Vehicle Template into photoshop, add an outside background, slight tint for glass with perf etc. too.
Makign custom templates - as mentioned - stand way way way far back from the vehicle. Do NOT frame the vehicle to fill the frame edge to edge. The closer it is to the edge of the frame the more lens barrel distortion there will be. Better to crop a ton of background out of the photos and yes - either have a measure on display in the photo or take a couple of reference measurements (like exact width of a door seam in one spot and hight in another) because you will still need to adjust the photo some to make it just right.
I did find it amusing that on his old site he dogged on Mr-Clipart templates then merged with them... http://www.digitalauto.on.ca/dal_prodInfo_pvoDiff.php
Now it seems you can still get them through Mr-Clipart as well as a new dedicated site.
http://www.pro-vehicle-outlines.com/ hhe original Pro Vehicle Outlines from Christian only.
or
http://www.digitaldesignware.com/int/index.php which has both Pro Vehicle Outlines and the Mr-Clipart "Car n Truck" collection. Keep in mind the "Car n Truck" collection is much more about the European market than the US market with all of the European brands.
As far as the Bad Wrap Templates. They are pretty sweet and make for great customer presentation layouts but they are not perfect. What can help is every template does include a file with actual photos of the vehicle with hand written (mostly accurate) measurements. The working Photoshop files are based on actual vehicle photos and are setup nice to lay graphics and/or wraps on. I've not bothered with updating my Bad Wrap though. Pricey and it's a very limited selection of vehicles... Also easy enough for customer presentation to simply bring a Pro Vehicle Template into photoshop, add an outside background, slight tint for glass with perf etc. too.
Makign custom templates - as mentioned - stand way way way far back from the vehicle. Do NOT frame the vehicle to fill the frame edge to edge. The closer it is to the edge of the frame the more lens barrel distortion there will be. Better to crop a ton of background out of the photos and yes - either have a measure on display in the photo or take a couple of reference measurements (like exact width of a door seam in one spot and hight in another) because you will still need to adjust the photo some to make it just right.
rjpjr
New Member
AGREED!!!
http://artstation-vehicletemplates.com/
It's been quite a few years now. I'm curious if this method still holds true. Or with the advancements of phone cameras, maybe new techniques are needed? Or are there newer techniques for creating templates usable for printing and cutting?
myront
Dammit, make it faster!!
Powerclip = CorelDraw term
Clipping Mask = Illustrator term
I use a simple macro in corel to scale actual images of the vehicle. The templates don't work for me. Too many variances with body moldings and such. Slap a 1" & 12" magnet to the side of the vehicle use that to scale in Corel. Import/copy/paste the image, draw a rectangle over the magnet part as close as possible, now set the exact dimensions of that area (1" x 12") run the macro and the photo scales as needed. Now using the pen tool begin draw the perimeter of the wrap area, the becomes your powerclip/clipping mask. Do not do this in photoshop! You can include raster elements but keep them within coreldraw. You can easily use photopaint to adjust those raster elements much like using illustrator & photoshop. I also draw in any lines that show where the design may have a breaking point like door seams and such. I'll also add various shadows to make it appear as realistic as possible.
Clipping Mask = Illustrator term
I use a simple macro in corel to scale actual images of the vehicle. The templates don't work for me. Too many variances with body moldings and such. Slap a 1" & 12" magnet to the side of the vehicle use that to scale in Corel. Import/copy/paste the image, draw a rectangle over the magnet part as close as possible, now set the exact dimensions of that area (1" x 12") run the macro and the photo scales as needed. Now using the pen tool begin draw the perimeter of the wrap area, the becomes your powerclip/clipping mask. Do not do this in photoshop! You can include raster elements but keep them within coreldraw. You can easily use photopaint to adjust those raster elements much like using illustrator & photoshop. I also draw in any lines that show where the design may have a breaking point like door seams and such. I'll also add various shadows to make it appear as realistic as possible.
JethroMc
New Member
https://mr-clipart.com You can find templates for most vehicles here in AI or CRD format.
myront
Dammit, make it faster!!
powerclip is CorelDRAW's term for clipping mask. As for the "most people" comment. I think not.
In corel I import my photo use a macro to scale it accordingly, then I begin to manually draw the vehicles shapes and body lines. The contour shape becomes the powerclip. I can then add lines representing door seems, handles and such. I even go as far as clipping out certain body shapes that will not be covered.
Never trusted the templates. They're too generic and don't always represent the exact model you're working with. Templates don't always show certain plastic trim that we'd otherwise avoid.
truckgraphics
New Member
Been using ArtStation for more than 10 years. It's really, really good. Nothing compares. It's very accurate.
vikinglander
New Member
Disagree. and I can easily prove it....
vikinglander
New Member
Actually, it ain't so.
Boudica
I'm here for Educational Purposes
That is what we use 99.9% of the time, and they work great. Never any issues with the templates. 1% of the time I have to make my own template - using photos and measurements, and Illy.
Scotchbrite
No comment
The only additional step I take is to zoom in as far as possible with the optical zoom. Seems to work fine with my cell phone. I still make the final production art based on actual measurements.
Stacey K
I like making signs
I use Mr. Clipart to get the artwork started. Many times I get started before I have the vehicle in-hand or a photo of the actual vehicle. Once I have a decent photo I upload it and scale it to the template. I can get everything close enough for the proof to be approved. When I have the vehicle in-hand then I take detailed measurements and cut/print at that point. My final proofs look similar to Accent Signs. Customers really like to see the artwork on the actual vehicle vs. a generic template.
Boudica
I'm here for Educational Purposes
Same here. I often have to lay something out for my boss to quote it - because the customer doesn't know if they want a full wrap, or a partial wrap... I might use the template to show a couple of options. It's true an actual photo mockup is more appealing, but since I primarily use the art station templates, It just takes me extra time to lay the artwork over a photo. So, much like plastic forks nowadays, you only get one if you ask. People rarely ask.
Stacey K
I like making signs
What is Art Station? It sounds like they have vehicle templates or do you create them and use Art Station?
Scotchbrite
No comment
If you have FlexiSign software there are Art Station vehicle templates you can download thru the Sign Design Elements in the cloud tools.
Boudica
I'm here for Educational Purposes
They are templates, they come in vector format. I use Adobe illustrator, so I just open them up in illy and go to town. They look like this: