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How to make Car Advertisement Mock-ups
In August 2005 I published a few examples of "Car Advertisements" and since then a number of people have contacted me to ask how they where made. So here we go...
BTW: You need to know basic layer and fill commands in Photoshop. For questions refer to the Photoshop manual.
Important: The right base color
Before we start, it is very important to choose a picture, where the car has the right color. We want something that is as close as possible to light-gray.
The reason is that we need to preserve the light and shadows of the original picture. A dark car (like a red car) will distort the areas of shadow, making it very hard to make bright colored graphics. Similar, a white car will have too many areas of light, making it hard to create dark graphics.
Any semi-bright body color will do (because we will convert it later).
Preparing the car - step by step
Before we can start adding graphics, we need to prepare the car. Adjust the lighting and shadows, make reflections, and a layer for the graphics.
We will start out with this:
First select the body of the car - without the windows, headlamps, decals, etc. With the car selected create two new layers with the content of the selection. But, disable their visibility.
Tip: for convenience call these "Car", "Graphics", "Reflections"
Now we got our foundation and the only left is adjustments. We need make 2 major adjustments. The first one being that we make the car white, the second that we create a "reflections" layer.
To make the car white re-select the body of the car and adjust the brightness levels of the original layer. With white do not mean pure-white, but that the car appears to be painted white.
The power of light
Before we make the reflections layer, I want to show the importance of light - in this case the reflection layer. Many people do what we have done so far, and then just added colors or graphics using the "multiply" blending mode.
The result is this. The colors look uninteresting - there car does not seem to shine.
What is missing is light (or reflections of light) - the most important element when creating realism.
To add the reflections turn on the last layer. First change the blending mode to "Screen".
Then open "levels" and adjust the darkness of the layer until lightness of the body paint no longer shows. And voila we got realism.
The graphics
The last step is the graphics, which can be practically anything. Just change the middle layer (the one called "graphics" to whatever you want - or attach additional layers to it.
Tip: Enable "Lock transparent pixels" to lock the layer.
Tip: If you want, add two "lens flares" to turn on the headlights.
Examples
Background graphics from desktop wallpaper by Alisa Schadt
Background graphics from desktop wallpaper by Nicholas Mo
Download:
- Sample file (PSD, 819kb)
Related to:
- Car Design Video Tutorial (Baekdal.com, May 2007)
- Full Cover Car Advertisements (Baekdal.com , August 2005)
- Car, Bus and Airplane Wraps - continued (Baekdal.com , September 2006)
Comments
shaibi - Sep. 14, 2006
great tech and a very useful S.O.P.
Do you have any specific sticker used and does it use a normal graphic printing method?( any special ink used?)
Asraf Suardi - Sep. 30, 2006
good day guys...
can u suggest to me the best sticker for this purpose ( whole car body wrap). The bottomline is the sticker should match the glossyness and shininess of metal. durable. and easy application. please advice.
thanks guys.
Anonymous - Oct. 8, 2006
You must use vehicle wrapping vinyl to avoid problems upon removal and to comply to the curves of a vehicle. It's not just slapping a sticker on. Check out HideYourRide.com for details.
Anonymous - Oct. 12, 2006
can i buy the boss car
Thomas Baekdal - Oct. 12, 2006
Well, the Iosis is going to be the new Ford Mondeo (coming next year - I think), Just buy that and get a print made (remember the copyright issues involving the use of Hugo Boss' trademark)
Robert - Oct. 13, 2006
Can you spray clear cpat pver the vinyl or is that a bad thing. The reason I ask is I have never seen a wrap job that glosy and the only way I think it could be done is with a few coats of clear coat.
Tor - Oct. 13, 2006
To learn how to wrap vehicle go to the
all our installers watch the videos and go to the live hands-on training. And now we do vehicle wraps for a living!
if you have any questions feel free to ask!
Tor
Wrap Master Installer
Chip - Oct. 13, 2006
"To add the reflections turn on the last layer. First change the blending mode to "Screen".
Then open "levels" and adjust the darkness of the layer until lightness of the body paint no longer shows. And voila we got realism."
Which one is the last layer? What color does the last layer need to be? Adjust the darkness of which layer? I can't understand your instructions.
Thomas Baekdal - Oct. 14, 2006
Chip, The "last layer" is the one called "reflections". The layer is a copy of the first layer.
Robert, That is a good question. To be honest I do not know.
Chr1z - Oct. 14, 2006
I want to know this too, its confusing. "What color does the last layer need to be? Adjust the darkness of which layer?"
Andrew Murret - Oct. 21, 2006
I really enjoyed your article! Thanks for the tips. But, I found that after you take your body selection and make a copy (I'm not talking about the graphics part simply the colorizing so I will leave the "graphics" layer out) if you leave the original layer to Normal blend mode and adjust the copy layer to Multiply, and then with only the body outline selected go to Hue/Saturate adjust and check colorize, then adjust the hue... you get a MUCH better, darker and more realistic coloring job.
Thank you for the article, definitely not critizising just noticed your comment about using Multiply mode, but with a few adjustments to the way you use the Multiply mode my results were much more realistic. Your stated way worked good too but the coloring was a bit too light.
Try it out and see what I mean! Take care, and have fun.
iskabible - Nov. 27, 2006
you should post the prices for each of them
gustavo Stephanie Noriega Ragot - Nov. 29, 2006
i love it
Masaru Takekawa - Nov. 30, 2006
I am selling cars online from Japan to Africa. My photos are as bad as one can be. Do you think I can make it different if I follow this? It may be totally out of this site's purpose but couldn't resist asking. Thanks
Anonymous - Dec. 2, 2006
I had a project on manufacing cars and this doesn't help at all this sucks
give imformation on building the cars instaead then all these thigna comes then maybe it wouldd be better for everyone
Emilys - Dec. 6, 2006
WAY COOL!!
Anonymous - Jan. 12, 2007
i want to start
robert - Jan. 26, 2007
cool way
Anonymous - Jan. 29, 2007
coolllllllllllllllllllll
Anonymous - Jan. 29, 2007
it's grate
the falling snow - Jan. 30, 2007
COOL
andrew - Feb. 3, 2007
mypi cool
Anonymous - Feb. 15, 2007
nice
victoria - Feb. 21, 2007
well i want to make my own car like styles and every thing else well somtimes i am wanteing to make a new car like color desigin every thing how can we do that
Rob - Mar. 29, 2007
Great stuff! I love the designs. Contact me if you're interested in some work. We do between 5-10 wraps a month but i'd like to do more and your designs are better than mine.
Anonymous - Apr. 10, 2007
i love these cars
jun salgado - Apr. 21, 2007
a very usefull site for us beginners! thanks and keep em coming!
Albert - Apr. 27, 2007
That is very cool. So what resolution/size do you normally do your designs at if you are actually putting them on a car. Your sample is, I'm sure, small for download purposes.
Thomas Baekdal - Apr. 27, 2007
Albert,
Well, here is the thing. I do not actually make the final graphics. I make the illustrations so that my clients can see how it looks. If they like it I turn it over to the comapny that prints and wraps the vehicles. They create the final graphics based on my designs.
I actually do not know what resolution they use. I would guess it would be something between 25-50ppi (for big wraps like buses), and around 100ppi for cars.
Others, Thanks for all the comments!
Anonymous - May. 11, 2007
This may sound stupid but how to you put the vinyls on in detail please could you say
Daniel & Gabrielle, [L0V3!] - May. 14, 2007
THAT CAR IS SOOOOOOOOO HOTTT!!!!!!!!!!! WHEN DOES IT COME OUT ???? 5 PEOPLE HERE ALREADY SAID THEY'LL BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
vinay - May. 14, 2007
Very Very Use tips but we need the tutorials
thx
Thomas Baekdal - May. 15, 2007
Vinay, I do not understand - this page is the tutorial.
Daniel & Gabrielle: Thanks, The car itself is coming out in late 2007 (I think), but you really need to ask Ford about that. The graphics? Well for that you need a car wrapping company. I just design concept graphics for cars, which is sometimes used on cars (in which case a car wrapping company does the rest).
Anonymous, I have never wrapped a car myself, but as far as I know they put the details on in layers (stickers on stickers). I design the graphic concept, so that my clients can take this to a car wrapping company to get the real thing.
Antony - May. 17, 2007
"Just change the middle layer (the one called "graphics" to whatever you want - or attach additional layers to it."
What do you mean? To ctrl+select the layer and paste into whatever we want? I can't figure out how to insert an existing graphic into there...
Antony - May. 17, 2007
Ok. Forget the above comment. I made it with clipping mask. Thanks a lot, great tutorial :D
keyrat - Jun. 13, 2007
Hey I'm designing a wrap right now and they haven't told me how exactly to create the art. I've got a template in AI showing the van from all sides. Am I supposed to overlay the art on this template? If not, what's the normal thing to do, different images for each side or one big image?
Thomas Baekdal - Jun. 13, 2007
Keyrat, the AI template is usually used to illustrate the look - not the final graphics. It it there to help you create graphics in relation to the dimensions of the car - like this:
My guess is that the wrapping company will create the final graphics based on your illustration (but ask them).
Anonymous - Jul. 19, 2007
Nice, you should do all other kinds of supercars like lamborghini, ferrari mercedes ect ect
Anonymous - Jul. 19, 2007
SHIT I COULD DO BETTA IN SLEEP, just kiddin awesome job
AdamOsa - Aug. 13, 2007
I am an artist and a musician.
I am so impressed about your kindness to offer such elaborate
tutorial for free.
I want to be able to wrap images on vehicles.
Thanks.
AdamO
kim - Sep. 25, 2007
dame dat blue car look good !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! get one soon love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HECTOR ZUNIGA - Sep. 27, 2007
HELLO I WAS JUST WONDERING HOW CAN I GET MY CAR FULL BODY WRAP WITH DALE EARNHARDT LOGOS ?WHAT IS THE PRICE? WHERE CAN I GO?
Thomas Baekdal - Sep. 27, 2007
There are several companies who wraps cars around the world. Search for "car wraps".
Linds - Oct. 16, 2007
Does anyone know what vehicle wrap software is best. I have 'Aurora' but I want some more options. I need something with "rips" or "tears" to put on a truck i'm designing.
Thanks!!
Dave - Oct. 26, 2007
Hi!
I make car wrapping since 2 years for know and when i saw your graphic designs i said WOW!!!!! You are a photoshop master and a realy great graphic designer.
But i want to know where do you take your template?
Do you create it by our own or you find it on the web.
Please let me know.
Thanks Dave
Tuan Vu - Oct. 28, 2007
thank you for your instruction, and i want to ask you some more question. how to print a design on a sticker? do you know printer can make your design become sticker? i want to buy the printer, and do you have any information about that?
Anonymous - Nov. 1, 2007
I wound like to sell advertisment space on my car cound someone let me were i can go to do that.
miss hollywood - Nov. 10, 2007
i dont get it how do we do this
Anonymous - Nov. 21, 2007
yeah
Ryan - Nov. 30, 2007
Thank you for the AMAZING tutorial.
This was my first time ever trying to change a car and my image ended up turning out great. Thank you very much.
Anonymous - Dec. 10, 2007
mad cars
Paul Gettys, EZ Signs - Dec. 15, 2007
Great Designs
we are doing about 2 wraps a week and we have contracts for Transit buses we wrap in the summer
along with about anything else we can get our hands on
Great Article
we are 3m certfied installers
Keep up the great work and keep us busy
Thanks
Paul
Anonymous - Mar. 31, 2008
CAN I BUY ALL
nabiah - Apr. 1, 2008
hey guys get the new 2008 beakdal before getting excited
you need to have drivers licence
Anonymous - Apr. 5, 2008
how are you supposed to make the advertisment !!!!!!!!!!!
Anonymous - Apr. 16, 2008
This is very helpfull
jody - Apr. 23, 2008
Just in case anyone is interested we have a whole set of wrap design templates similar to these. Its called the bad wrap, its a big help if you dont have the time to go through this process..
thanks
Jody
prince - May. 5, 2008
these cars are the best i llllllllllove it
Gary Bach - May. 12, 2008
Hi Thomas, I really like the instructions for "How To Make Car Advertisement Mock-ups. Do you have it available somewhere as a PDF download? I would like to print it out to study the steps with Photoshop open. I guess I will try printing the pages from the web site if you don't.
I have a small sign business in Las Vegas, Nevada. Your article has some great tips for making these templates (which seem to be a trade secret of a few companies that do these kinds of templates for the Wrap Trade, i.e. The Bad Wrap Templates as mentioned by Jody).
You had suggested that someone search for "car wraps" to find installers. However, in the trade, wraps are refered to as "Vehicle Wraps" more often than "Car Wraps", so a better search might be for "Vehicle Wraps"
Vehicle wraps should be installed by vehicle wrap printers and installers. They are called wraps, full wraps, half wraps or parial wraps. They are not stickers. They are printed with large format printers using special vinyl from 3M, Avery, Oracal, and other sign vinyl manufacturers. Generally a roll of wrap vinyl is 54 to 64 inches wide and can be used to print any length of the graphic. The vinyl is then laminated with a clear overlaminate prior to installation.
Installers typically print the vinyl for the whole side of the car in one piece. Then the vinyl is installed on the vehicle with heat and a squeegee. The installer will then trim around the car doors, handles, and body molding using a sharp knife called an Olfa Knife.
You should consider writting a complete book on creating vehicle graphics and car templates. It is a book that is much needed by myself and other small wrap businesses who would like to be able to create our own templates. The closest book I have seen is called "Photoshop Masking & Compositing" by Katrin Eismann. Generally, sets of pre made photographic templates (such as The Bad Wrap) cost in the range of $1,000.00 and up plus the cost of annual updates.
Thank you again for a great article, Gary.
Gary Bach - May. 12, 2008
Hi again Thomas, I hope you don't mind, but, I would like to post the link to my web site.
It is a new site and was actually just created last week (May 7, 2008). I don't consider this spam because I have included lots of valuable information for anyone who would like to hire a company to create and install a "vehicle wrap".
Your designs are very clean! It is easy to read the printed words even though the designs are quite intricate. Many times designers create graphics that look good but are not functional. If you are using your vehicle as an advertising medium, you want to make sure the text is readable. Note: If you are paying someone to do your design work, study the sample designs Thomas has created. You may even want your wrap company to take a look at baekdal.com to see how high quality, functional designs should be created!
There is lots of other information on the Wrap Magic web site about measuring the car, washing it prior to an install, where to find graphics, what types of vinyl to use (cast vinyl) and other information which is very important your readers should consider when designing for vehicle wraps i.e. a drawing or photo template is 2-D (flat) with no curves, a real vehicle is 3-D with curves and shapes. These tings need to be considered before creating a wrap design. Since my business only serves The Las Vegas area, this information can be used prior to hiring any wrap company to do your install Wrap Magic, or any other company.
Anonymous - May. 30, 2008
hi
hey - Jul. 9, 2008
Thomas I was wondering if you could design my car?
Published: Dec. 31, 2005 in Fun
Thomas Baekdal is a Writer, Interaction Designer, Change Advocate and Project Manager.
andy - Jul. 1, 2006
i would like to customize a car