I used to just take a picture of the customers vehicle and scan it in and do the layout on it.

Now I use a digital camera.

Just a suggestion for an alternative method.

If ya dont have a digital camera, I guess you can just add in the cost of some film and 24 hour photo processing.

The easist way is still Car'nTruck Collection at only $59. While the CDs contain over 5000 vehicles, it was never thought that anyone would need all of them. Rather, to the extent possible, that it'll have whatever you need, instantly.

Moreover, each template has precisely scaled vector drawings of all five sides ... front, back, left, right and top. The time it would take to photograph and edit a single vehicle ... on just 4 sides, let alone 5 ... easily justifies the cost of the collection ... IMHO. If you do 10 to 15 a year, I think Car'nTruck Collection is a virtually no-brainer.

If a 5000+ vehicle outline collection still seems like overkill, you can purchase individual templates at www.mr-clipart.com.

Best Regards,

However it falls short when you want to design & layout accurately. Photographing a vehicle from all sides is often a real problem (there is usally never enough space to do this), measuring, scanning, & scaling, really have its draw backs too. Its time consumming, has inaccuracies, lighting problems, not to mention shooting polariods (don't have a digital) in -35 degree weather (not good) and more then often objects such a key hole and door handles, even thoughs protruding running panels strips often don't show up in the picture or brend in with the vehicle paint..........and then this all becomes a real surprise if you have pre-cut graphics...........I don't have shop for doing vehicles so I have to pre-cut everything and take it to a client's shop or rent space.

So experience has told me this:
(1) photograph for presentatation & the sell job

(2) use templates for jobs where graphics need to be pre-cut or especially for large graphics, cause you really want to design around the tough spot wherever possible.

I'm by no means an expect in the vehicle graphics area or in any area for that matter, but there is nothing like good old screw-ups to teach you a lesson.

Really appreciate all your comments folks.

Any surface that's not perpendicular to the "camera" will be out of scale and not accurate at all as the templates do not take curves and inclined surfaces into consideration, and how often do you see flat panels on a vehicle?

So, you scan a photo and then scale it. That doesnt take anymore than a few seconds, all you need is one dimension.

When I do vehicle graphics, I dont take door handles, trim, emblems and all that junk into consideration when I'm doing the artwork.

Yes, I will try to avoid that stuff when possible but most of the time I design right over it.

When it comes time to install the graphics, that's when the emblems, trim pieces and door seams get cut out. I run the graphics either right to the edge or right over the obstacle then trim it out with an X-acto after the fact.

And your right, Mike. You never know where all those handles, manufacturer's logos, gas cap covers and all the other things come from, cause they don't show up on the Collection data.

I still like the Car & Truck Collection because it gives me a reference to start with.