Help to design decals

[Outlaw66]

Hi guys. I was away from hobby, but I'm trying to return. There are a lot of projects that I need to finish. New kits are released, and new projects appear.

I love race cars, they're my first interest in hobby. One thing that I ever want to learn is how to design decals to race cars from pictures. I tried to search in Google, and my best choice was a graphic program called Inkscape. But the render process is a too cumbersome work, and a good picture taken in a parallel perspective is necessary. It's difficult you find easily these kind of pictures. Is there some free software that I can use to simplify the task ??? I'm looking for some software that I can use a picture taken in any angle, and may simplify the task of cutting out parts of the decals easier.

I'll be grateful by any help...

[Helico]

Photoshop or at least Illustrator maybe? Try GIMP If you need something free. Sponsor logos shouldn't be too hard to find on internet, but difficult livery needs custom design. I doubt there is a software that can render a 3D graphic from a single angled shoot.

Or you can simply spend some money and have a pro doing all the work for you: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul....php?t=1074928

I hope this helps.

[Outlaw66]

Thnks by the tip...I'll send an e-mail to him...

[robdebie]

Originally Posted by Outlaw66

One thing that I ever want to learn is how to design decals to race cars from pictures. I tried to search in Google, and my best choice was a graphic program called Inkscape. But the render process is a too cumbersome work, and a good picture taken in a parallel perspective is necessary. It's difficult you find easily these kind of pictures. Is there some free software that I can use to simplify the task ??? I'm looking for some software that I can use a picture taken in any angle, and may simplify the task of cutting out parts of the decals easier.

I have a webpage on Design your own Alps / OKI custom decals. I suggest you download some logos from the 'Brands of the World' website (linked on my page) and start playing with them. Designing decals from scratch could then be the next step. But start easy!

Rob

[ICMF]

I'll second the above. There's no way to make decals from pictures, and especially not from off-angle photos. You're pretty much going to have to draw some sort of vector image (Illustrator, Corel Draw, Gimp, whatever) to get decent decals. Photographic references are invaluable, but ultimately, you've got to do the artwork yourself.

But, it's a useful skill to learn, a fun way to expand your enjoyment of the hobby, and handy to know for all sorts of scale modelling purposes. The same basic skills will let you draw templates and patterns for scratchbuilding, and even sketch up the artwork to make your own photoetched parts.

[robdebie]

Originally Posted by ICMF

I'll second the above. There's no way to make decals from pictures, and especially not from off-angle photos.

It can be done, but it's a lot of work, and involves some guessing. I've done a number of Indycar decals, including the 1993 Kevin Cogan car. On the engine cover was a 'Checkered Flag' decals of which I could not find anything. Therefore I cut out a piece of the reference photo, deformed it until the surrounding decals suggested it was horizontal and more or less square, and then I started drawing over that in vector, using pure circles and squares to further reduce errors due to angles and perspective.



I now see some errors, but back then I was glad it looked more or less like the photo.

Rob

[Outlaw66]

My sixth sense said to me that this task could be impossible or too difficult to do...

My plan is to design a decal to make the 2010 Le Mans Ford GT MarcVDS. I entered in contact with Sergio (Pippin1974), and he said that is possible to do it. In the perfect world, I could find pictures in parallel angles (up, front, back, left and right sides), but only using internet as source, it's impossible. In Marc VDS official website I found almost all sponsor logos, but there are some figures and badges that is particular from the car (as robdebie said). I saw on the Dominos website that Similr have plans to release this car (item code 141103), but the 2011 FIA GT1 version, not the Le Mans version, what is really a pity...

Cristiano.