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Car Design Software
- Thread starter Pete
- Start date
sammi
Nitro Member
I teach bitmap, vector and 3D graphic arts at a high school in the Inland Empire.
Adobe Photoshop-great for manipulating images and adding graphics to existing images. Most of the photos you see in National Dragster are run through Photoshop (or Lightroom) for cropping and image correction. You can draw with Photoshop, but accuracy is a struggle. You can create very cool text based graphics with Photoshop.
Adobe Illustrator-My students just finished their car projects. Great for creating nearly photo-realistic images. Easy to learn, very difficult to master. You don't draw, per se, with Illustrator, you create pieces. Also, gradients are far more controllable (after a huge learning curve) and realistic. My advanced students, who come from a year of Photoshop, absolutely hate Illustrator for their first three weeks using it, then refuse to use anything else.
Adobe Fireworks-A great bitmap/vector program that has useful features from Photoshop and Illustrator in one fairly economical package. Adobe is rumored to soon be phasing this program out.
Autodesk Maya-A terrific 3D package that allows one to model, shade, light and render extremely realistic 3D images. Expect a learning curve that is referenced in terms of years. My avatar is modeled in Maya and 2D rendered.
Be prepared for a very lengthy learning curve. Hand on pencil is one thing. Hand on mouse or draw pad is another matter entirely.
Adobe Photoshop-great for manipulating images and adding graphics to existing images. Most of the photos you see in National Dragster are run through Photoshop (or Lightroom) for cropping and image correction. You can draw with Photoshop, but accuracy is a struggle. You can create very cool text based graphics with Photoshop.
Adobe Illustrator-My students just finished their car projects. Great for creating nearly photo-realistic images. Easy to learn, very difficult to master. You don't draw, per se, with Illustrator, you create pieces. Also, gradients are far more controllable (after a huge learning curve) and realistic. My advanced students, who come from a year of Photoshop, absolutely hate Illustrator for their first three weeks using it, then refuse to use anything else.
Adobe Fireworks-A great bitmap/vector program that has useful features from Photoshop and Illustrator in one fairly economical package. Adobe is rumored to soon be phasing this program out.
Autodesk Maya-A terrific 3D package that allows one to model, shade, light and render extremely realistic 3D images. Expect a learning curve that is referenced in terms of years. My avatar is modeled in Maya and 2D rendered.
Be prepared for a very lengthy learning curve. Hand on pencil is one thing. Hand on mouse or draw pad is another matter entirely.
M Jones
Nitro Member
I am a custom painter from many years ago, I also rely on Illustrator for most of my design work for my wraps, have been working on learning both photo shop as well as illustrator for over 8 years, I agree with mark that illustrator is best to use for most of your design, photo shop can be used to add special effects also, Adobe has a monthly fee to have access to all adobe products and I have went to that, also they have some new versions of illustrator that I am looking forward to using in the future, it took a long time learn to paint with a mouse but it was worth the time, good luck with your new hobby, any advice I can give you fell free to pm me. I have posted some of my work in my photo album here on the mater
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what about a tablet, say a wacom tablet?
Draw 3D
Nitro Member
Are you wanting to design a car or just illustrate it?
If it's really design, it's going to cost a bunch, else just illustrate, you can use various software.
You will need to decide 2D or 3D or both. I use is Cinema 4D for sculpting and rendering and Illustrator/Photoshop for materials, wraps and post-processing.
If it's really design, it's going to cost a bunch, else just illustrate, you can use various software.
You will need to decide 2D or 3D or both. I use is Cinema 4D for sculpting and rendering and Illustrator/Photoshop for materials, wraps and post-processing.
cantdrive55
Nitro Member
To be honest, when I was taking graphic arts classes my instructors told us all the time to use sketches to start with, i.e. pencil & paper, or colored pencils if you chose. Not sure if you're looking to have the Junior painted, or wrapped. But, in either case you don't necessarily have to "draw" it on a computer, or spend the $$$ to purchase the software in order to create a paint scheme. Not to mention having a computer capable of running the software. I know that pencil & paper are back to basics. But, if you've never used Photoshop, or Illustrator, sometimes it can be a tough learning curve. Not trying to discourage anyone, just saying there was pencil & paper before there was Adobe.
Personally, I don't think you need a 2D/3D model to design a paint scheme. Sure it looks cool, but a model is a bit overkill just to design a scheme. Not to mention modelling software can be more expensive than Adobe products.
Whichever route you decide, just remember to have fun with it. Just curious, but what's your time frame on this?
Personally, I don't think you need a 2D/3D model to design a paint scheme. Sure it looks cool, but a model is a bit overkill just to design a scheme. Not to mention modelling software can be more expensive than Adobe products.
Whichever route you decide, just remember to have fun with it. Just curious, but what's your time frame on this?
Hi Keith,
We'll be doing this as a Winter project. We got the car done, then she got hurt cheerleading (yes that wasn't a typo) and she cant drive until next year.
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