Need Help Odd shaped acrylic face, how to digitize accurately?

[JM4Designs]

We're redoing acrylic trim cap faces for a chain of stores that were made by someone else, and the faces are an odd shape. Mostly a circle, but with other flourishes coming off the circle. Our process thus far has been: Get a rubbing of the existing face, hand cut new face. This is where it gets tricky- They get a full coverage digital print, and adjusting their artwork to fit has proven difficult. We don't have a large scanner, and some of them are big enough that it would take forever to piece together scans. What I've been doing is to lay our new face on a large square piece of paper or vinyl, take a pic as straight on as possible with my phone, and then open in photoshop and correct the perspective using the square paper background. Seems like a good idea in theory, but it's always off enough that I still have to spend a lot of time adjusting the artwork. I know there has to be a better way, any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

[hummboxx]

I am assuming the acrylic is clear, or no? If you have access to Illustrator you can try the Adobe capture app. It's nowhere near perfect, but it has helped me several times in the past, as it creates vectors instantly that are then transferred to your Libraries tab in Illustrator/Photoshop. But again, your perspective has to be pretty solid. Just another option to consider.

 

[JM4Designs]

I am assuming the acrylic is clear, or no? If you have access to Illustrator you can try the Adobe capture app. It's nowhere near perfect, but it has helped me several times in the past, as it creates vectors instantly that are then transferred to your Libraries tab in Illustrator/Photoshop. But again, your perspective has to be pretty solid. Just another option to consider.

It's white acrylic, but my main issue is the perspective, or whatever distortion that's going on with the photo that makes my vector innaccurate. Thanks for the input!

 

[shoresigns]

Print a 1" grid on cheap removable vinyl, apply to the odd-shaped panel, then photograph it. Use the Lens Correction filter in Photoshop to get the grid as straight as possible, then trace it in Illustrator. That should get you close enough for the odd job that needs more precision.

Sometimes the Lens Correction filter won't get everything straight, in which case you can also try the various warp tools in Photoshop.

 

[unclebun]

Are you trying to use the old face as your artwork?

 

[Dennis @ Sign FX]

I know this is an older post but this may help someone down the road. Take a GOOD camera (NOT a cell phone camera), set it to the highest resolution, take the picture from a good distance and do not zoom in on the object. This will get the "fish eye effect" beyond the object. Once imported in your designing software, you can zoom in on the object.