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

Download:

Related to:

1
andy

andy

i would like to customize a car

2
mohdismail

mohdismail

whoaa...useful tips

3
shaibi

shaibi

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?)

4
Asraf Suardi

Asraf Suardi

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.

5
Anonymous

Anonymous

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.

6
Anonymous

Anonymous

can i buy the boss car

7
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

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)

8
Robert

Robert

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.

9
Tor

Tor

To learn how to wrap vehicle go to the

Wrap Academy

all our installers watch the videos and go to the live hands-on training. And now we do vehicle wraps for a living!

vehicle wraps installed!

if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Tor

Wrap Master Installer

10
SpiffyJ

SpiffyJ

This is pretty cool!

11
Chip

Chip

"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.

12
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

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.

13
Chr1z

Chr1z

I want to know this too, its confusing. "What color does the last layer need to be? Adjust the darkness of which layer?"

14
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

Download the sample file :)

15
outsourcing

outsourcing

so cool! thanks!

16
srigangsta

srigangsta

cool cars

and nice design!....

17
Andrew Murret

Andrew Murret

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.

18
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

Andrew, Thanks - I will try that

19
iskabible

iskabible

you should post the prices for each of them

20
gustavo Stephanie Noriega Ragot

gustavo Stephanie Noriega Ragot

i love it

21
Masaru Takekawa

Masaru Takekawa

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

22
steve

steve

very very cool!

23
Anonymous

Anonymous

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

24
Emilys

Emilys

WAY COOL!!

25
Anonymous

Anonymous

i want to start

26
Zach Jennings

Zach Jennings

COOL!! WAY COOL!!

27
robert

robert

cool way

28
Anonymous

Anonymous

coolllllllllllllllllllll

29
boby

boby

i love it

do you

30
Anonymous

Anonymous

it's grate

31
the falling snow

the falling snow

COOL

32
andrew

andrew

mypi cool

33
Anonymous

Anonymous

nice

34
victoria

victoria

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

35
Rob

Rob

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.

36
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

Rob, thanks! I will keep you in mind if I get some spare time.

37
Anonymous

Anonymous

i love these cars

38
jun salgado

jun salgado

a very usefull site for us beginners! thanks and keep em coming!

39
Albert

Albert

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.

40
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

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!

41
Anonymous

Anonymous

This may sound stupid but how to you put the vinyls on in detail please could you say

42
Daniel & Gabrielle, [L0V3!]

Daniel & Gabrielle, [L0V3!]

THAT CAR IS SOOOOOOOOO HOTTT!!!!!!!!!!! WHEN DOES IT COME OUT ???? 5 PEOPLE HERE ALREADY SAID THEY'LL BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

43
vinay

vinay

Very Very Use tips but we need the tutorials

thx

44
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

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.

45
Antony

Antony

"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...

46
Antony

Antony

Ok. Forget the above comment. I made it with clipping mask. Thanks a lot, great tutorial :D

47
ejat

ejat

good info..

thanx!!

48
keyrat

keyrat

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?

49
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

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).

50
Anonymous

Anonymous

Nice, you should do all other kinds of supercars like lamborghini, ferrari mercedes ect ect

51
Anonymous

Anonymous

SHIT I COULD DO BETTA IN SLEEP, just kiddin awesome job

52
AdamOsa

AdamOsa

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

53
kim

kim

dame dat blue car look good !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! get one soon love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

54
HECTOR ZUNIGA

HECTOR ZUNIGA

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?

55
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

There are several companies who wraps cars around the world. Search for "car wraps".

56
Linds

Linds

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!!

57
Dave

Dave

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

58
Tuan Vu

Tuan Vu

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?

59
Anonymous

Anonymous

I wound like to sell advertisment space on my car cound someone let me were i can go to do that.

60
miss hollywood

miss hollywood

i dont get it how do we do this

61
Anonymous

Anonymous

yeah

62
Ryan

Ryan

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.

63
Anonymous

Anonymous

mad cars

64
Paul Gettys, EZ Signs

Paul Gettys, EZ Signs

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

65
shaz n maz

shaz n maz

wow that is soo cool we r gana do it to our cars!

great tips dude

66
Anonymous

Anonymous

CAN I BUY ALL

67
nabiah

nabiah

hey guys get the new 2008 beakdal before getting excited

you need to have drivers licence

68
Anonymous

Anonymous

how are you supposed to make the advertisment !!!!!!!!!!!

69
Ejat

Ejat

good tutorial.. congrats

70
Anonymous

Anonymous

This is very helpfull

71
jody

jody

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

72
prince

prince

these cars are the best i llllllllllove it

73
Ejat

Ejat

great effect on my car's pictures..

thanks bro..

74
Perindu

Perindu

good tutorial

(thumbups)

75
Gary Bach

Gary Bach

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.

76
Gary Bach

Gary Bach

Hi again Thomas, I hope you don't mind, but, I would like to post the link to my web site.

http://www.wrapmagic.com/

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.

77
Anonymous

Anonymous

hi

78
hey

hey

Thomas I was wondering if you could design my car?

79
Rachel

Rachel

Awsome can't wait to use this on my next promo ad.

80
clara

clara

this is not e-co friendly why?

81
clara

clara

this is not e-co friendly why?

82
Omar

Omar

Great tutorial!

it is actually jut as good as the other guys who sell the templates for 1k. the only detail you left out if the scale and resolution fneed for actualt print files. but i guess that was not the intent of this tutorial in the first place.

Again Awsome work!

83
Sheila | Vehicle Graphics

Sheila | Vehicle Graphics

I will have to try that technique in Photoshop...love it!

84
Matt

Matt

Thomas,

I am trying to complete this tutorial and am having trouble adjusting the color other than the white. Why do we adjust the bottom layer to make the paint look white (which I have done successfully) if it gets covered anyways? Doesn't the graphics layer end up covering it up anyways? When I try to adjust the levels of the reflections layer, the only thing i can do is make it look whiter, which just washes it out and no color shines through. The only color that makes it through the screen is extremely faded (example: reds look white-pinkish). Is there a step that I am missing?

85
bilal

bilal

how can i open psd file.need i any programs to open this file?Pleaz help me.

86
bilal

bilal

how can i open psd file??

87
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

PSD is a Photoshop file

88
perindu

perindu

Nice photoshop tricks!

89
Anonymous

Anonymous

wicked il love it

90
ragini

ragini

i want to create a simle advertisment on a F1 car[its information too] but i dont know how to

91
Lily Grace | Pink Boutique

Lily Grace | Pink Boutique

That is absolutely beautiful. I'm going to make mine pink with my logo.

92
anĂ´nimo

anĂ´nimo

Nao consigui nao entendi muito bem

93
eu

eu

gostaria di saber como faz os graficos e nao intendi nada da pintura

94
franc

franc

Can i buy them

95
charles timmons

charles timmons

Looking into car advertisement

96
lucky

lucky

how r u , i don't know ; but u r give me some titoriol for making own car . i requesting u.plz

97
Tomas

Tomas

Hello Thomas,

Do you have any idea where I can find the templates of different car designs (front , back, sides). Or do i have to make them myself?

Where did you get the ones you work with?

Thanks!

98
Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Writer, Project Manager and Interaction Designer

Try:

A lot of car templates

http://www.digital-designware.com/eu/cars.php

A complete wrap software package (+ templates)

http://www.taylordigital.ca/products-and-services.php

Fellers - Wrap supply company

http://www.fellers.com/

99
rinine

rinine

do ur neo how to make a control car i m doing that for my bro

100
bob

bob

alsome

101
og

og

i like your cars

102
Vajt

Vajt

Cool one, Im from czech republic and simillar servis is offerd by http://www.reklama-auta.cz maybe you would like to cooperate with them. If I would have a chance to have on may car this advertisement i would go for it

103
lanie

lanie

your cars are so awesome!!!

104
MANA

MANA

Its rely CoOOl

105
BG

BG

How did you do the rims?

The rest seems identical.

106
Anonymous

Anonymous

can i make my own car

107
carlos

carlos

how do yow make cool cars like fast and furlous

108
Anonymous

Anonymous

im only 10 an my dream is to make a car, can you please help me

or identify yourself via:

Connect via Twitter Connect via Flickr Show Settings

What is your Twitter Name

What is your Flickr ID (note: Your Flickr ID is not your username, but you can find it here)

 

name

Anonymous (EDIT)

Note: We have two simple rules here on baekdal.com.
Do not post offensive comments, and stay on topic. Thank you!

 

Tell-a-Friend

 

Baekdal.com is (nearly) everywhere. Check out our social profiles: