Vehicle outlines question

[Trip59]

Not directly wrap related, but I figure the vehicle outline thing fits better here than just vehicle graphics, apologies to all if I made a boo-boo

Have a few vans to do for a contractor, got in a fight with my method and rather than burn more time, I decided to buy a pair of outlines. Now, what I did was to lay tape on the vehicle, outside edges 12" exactly, then photograph and import into Illustrator (CS6 if it matters) Well, I scaled it using guides set 12" apart, but when I plotted the design on paper, it was way oversized.

I'll be ordering the full PVO disk in a month or three, but needed to do this now, so I ordered the one by one from the other side of the business. Set it all up in AI as before, designed to fit the outline nicely, then scaled, plotted and damned if it wasn't a few inches off in size. Yes, correct year, correct model, correct options.

If these are designed for folks doing wraps, where it needs to be precise, how can a block of lettering look perfect in AI on the outline, but be 3" too wide on paper. Several other areas fit exactly as designed, so some of it must be on track?

Trip

 

[Sign Works]

I find PVO to be quite accurate but I always rely on one of these to be sure.

 

[Fred Weiss]

There are two issues in play.

1. You may be getting some minor errors due to curvature and/or irregularities in the surface of the vehicle (3D) vs the flatness of your Illustrator text or a photo (2D).

2. More to the point, you can generate some major errors from small errors in measuring if your scaling object is based on two small an object. For example, let's say you set your 12" object somewhere on the template and then scale up your photo to match a vehicle that is 18' in length in the real world. But your camera shot has an error of .125" for your 12" object on the plus side and when you measure it you get a measurement of .75". So you will be enlarging the entire photo to 1,600% (12 / .75 = 16). The resulting error is magnified by the enlargement to 2" (16 x .125 = 2).

Now, if instead you measure a larger section of the vehicle, ... I usually go from the taillight to the opening of the front door, you will then have a larger measurement to absorb the same .125" error because you are measuring typically an 8' section. So when you enlarge, using an object that is 8 times larger, your error is reduced from 2" to .25" (2 / 8 = .25).

Sign Works is mostly correct about the accuracy of most templates. I, however, have seen templates where there were discrepancies of 3" to 6" of an overall body length between one view and another of the same vehicle.

 

[phototec]

Not directly wrap related, but I figure the vehicle outline thing fits better here than just vehicle graphics, apologies to all if I made a boo-boo

Have a few vans to do for a contractor, got in a fight with my method and rather than burn more time, I decided to buy a pair of outlines. Now, what I did was to lay tape on the vehicle, outside edges 12" exactly, then photograph and import into Illustrator (CS6 if it matters) Well, I scaled it using guides set 12" apart, but when I plotted the design on paper, it was way oversized.

I'll be ordering the full PVO disk in a month or three, but needed to do this now, so I ordered the one by one from the other side of the business. Set it all up in AI as before, designed to fit the outline nicely, then scaled, plotted and damned if it wasn't a few inches off in size. Yes, correct year, correct model, correct options.

If these are designed for folks doing wraps, where it needs to be precise, how can a block of lettering look perfect in AI on the outline, but be 3" too wide on paper. Several other areas fit exactly as designed, so some of it must be on track?

Trip

Fred is correct, I to believe you started with the 12" and that is to small, I typically tape a tape measure along the vehicle and use BLACK electrical tape to mark the 12" mark (left side of line and then another piece of Black electrical tape at the 132" (11') mark, on the right side of the line (very close to the lines), this gives me a 10' (120") reference measurement.

Then using a 12MB digital camera with a long lens (100mm to 150mm) so NOT to add lens distortion to the image, place the camera on a tripod centered on the vehicle left to right, and get as close to center of the height, and take a photo, yes you need to be rather far back from the vehicle.

Bring that image into Photoshop and enlarge it to scale or full size, I have the computer power so it's no problem going full size. Now, you size the photo to scale or full size, and IMPORT the vehicle template into the Photoshop image (as a smart object) and you will see how close it matches, most of the time it's close, but many times I find if off a bit, so I use the combination of both images to create my final FULL size images.

I know many on here don't like to do it this way, they like to create small files and have there RIP enlarge it to size, however as Fed has explained, this creates errors.

I have done 45' trailer wraps at FULL size, big files sizes yes, but always 100% dead on, no deviations at all from panel to panel.

 

[rjssigns]

We use StickyYard from time to time and find it works well. More often than not I take a photo, measure a rim then scale off that rim since they are a perfect circle. I also verify overall dimensions using the mfg's. website.

 

[SightLine]

If you are using photographs you are going to have some lens distortion no matter what lens you use. There is a Photoshop plugin that is very inexpensive and works great for overcoming this. Much better than Photoshops built in tools for correcting lens distortion. Look into PTLens from ePaperPress..... worth every cent and probably has your camera already setup for it.

 

[Trip59]

Well, regarding the lens distortion, it is something I hadn't accounted for, however, the difference was well beyond that, the graphics were almost double the size they should have been. I was working full size, one thing I am not lacking in is computer power. I will say, I do like working in the 1:20 with the outlines, keeps everything nice and peppy, full size was causing a bit of a lag, even with all the processors and RAM thrown at it.

I guess the main thing is, I really wanted to use the outlines, it'll be a big time saver the next tractor I have to do, or when the next contractor has 5 different model vans... I was just really concerned with their accuracy. Seems like what you folks are saying is they're pretty good overall, but may have a little variance here or there. I may just run out a line drawing for each to verify, I accidentally bought enough 48" paper to last a good while.

Thanks for the input and thank you Fred for the detailed explanation, makes perfect sense thinking about it now.

Trip

 

[SIGNTIME]

just throwing it out there but if you put an arch or some other effect on the lettering you cut did you expand it? .... i did this once and forgot to expand and i was shocked when the text wasn't arched

 

[Trip59]

Indeed, expand/expand appearance used as needed. My favorite is forgetting to mirror before running transfer material, wasted out about 3 yards last weekend.

The ones that weren't the right size from the PVO file were just three lines of text, single word each. Designed to fit between the door handle recess and the door edge on one side and a body line and filler cap on the other. Looked great in the file, but were too big when plotted. The main graphic above that came out spot on, that's what confused me.

Trip

 

[letterman7]

I do the photo shoot 100% of the time and import those images into Corel. I make my measurements from readily identifiable points on the vehicle and scale accordingly. Occasionally I do run into the lens distortion (didn't think about the telephoto lens option - good point, Ptec), but I have my measurements to back them up. I find that the vehicle outlines don't always show critical body lines or options of the vehicle that you're about to decorate.

 

[Gino]

Since you can't seem to do this, why not just use the outline forms to get your basic layout and approval from your customer and when the trucks get to your place, you physically measure them, enter in the actual sizes and cut accordingly ?? Doing it in real life is always gonna trump using software you don't know how to use or get around in.