Not sure where to start with vectorising

[tonystarks131]

Not sure where to start - i've done heaps of liveries in Forza, but didn't really get into it for GT Sport.

I've researched the basics and somewhat understand what I have to do with converting to SVGs.

My question is, if I as an example wanted to recreate the design shown here:

Even breaking it up into small components to "regroup" on the car later it loses detail and quality when converted to SVG due to pixellation.

I suppose the question is, how do you guys recreate old/obscure/poor quality base image/bad angle decals? For something like this:

How should I approach it? It's a huge, visible decal but the only image I have is tiny.

Do I need to redraw the entire thing? I have access to Photoshop but I am not good enough to clean the image up adequately. Perhaps I am getting caught up obsessing over things that will be practically invisible on the car.

Any help or advice is appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[Nuschel01]

Do I need to redraw the entire thing?

Ideally that's what you will need to do. With Illustrator though, not with Photoshop.
I'd suggest to start with tracing some basic logos to get a hang of it and then tackle some more ambitious projects like the Autobacs one. Text is ideally just done by finding the (or a similar) font. For example the Petronas number board should be reasonably easy to do, the Petronas logo is widely available as an SVG, the Text below and the number 5 you can recreate by finding a font that matches that one. The EON logo you can either also find as a vector file already if you're lucky or, coming back to the start of my post, try finding a big bitmap image of it and hand-trace it (or find a matching font again).

 

[MatskiMonk]

Do I need to redraw the entire thing? I have access to Photoshop but I am not good enough to clean the image up adequately. Perhaps I am getting caught up obsessing over things that will be practically invisible on the car.

The short answer is yes, you do need to redraw it, ideally from scratch - not via 'converting' or autotracing. I say ideally from scratch, because if you're not sure what you're doing, it's really easy to make a valid vector file, but one that GT7/GTS won't display correctly, or one that has a needlessly high file size. I know it might seem like a bit of hassle, but if you come to a point where you can do it, you'll start to realise why it really is the best option for quality and compatability.

The Petronas logo is a good starting point, but first you need to find a suitable application... photoshop is not it - and unless you're really familiar with the Adobe interface, I'm not sure illustrator is the way to go. Inkscape seems to be the preferred free one, although I use a 15 year old copy of Corel draw, and that works almost perfectly. In any case, I recommend getting on to YouTube and finding some basic tutorials for whatever application it is.

It only needs to be a basic tutorial because even for something like the Autobacs logo, you're only going to be using the following; a line tool (or polyline), a curve tool, a rectangle and or circle tool, a fill tool, a text tool, and a gradient fill tool, to actually draw something. Tools like 'weld' or 'union', add, subtract, outline... are also really useful, and in their basic form are easy to use. Depending on the application, functions like Fillet/Scallop/Chamfer, and Contour, are really useful, but not necessary for basic stuff.

It actually requires very little artistic skill to recreate a logo. Once you understand how those tools I mentioned work, you'll be surprised how much you can make, and it'll be way crisper, better looking, and a smaller file than anything you will make from 'converting'. With more practice you get quicker, and find more efficient ways of doing stuff.

 

[Nuschel01]

I use a 15 year old copy of Corel draw

* laughs in Illustrator CS2 *

 

[MatskiMonk]

* laughs in Illustrator CS2 *

Damn... you beat me buy 10 months.

CS2: April 2005
Corel X3: January 2006

 

[Haremking_765]

Got Gran Turismo 7 and I'm still struggling with Inkscape to make my decals. If only there's an easy way to have it under 15kb, which I was hoping that GT7 would increase its limit, but nope.

 

[Nuschel01]

@Haremking_765 got an example of what you're struggling with?

 

[Haremking_765]

@Haremking_765 got an example of what you're struggling with?

 

[Nuschel01]

That needs to be split up into ~7 individual decals. Delete parts, save as, undo deleting, delete other parts, repeat until the whole decal can be assembled from the individual parts.

 

[tonystarks131]

Thanks for the help and advice. I also have Illustrator CS2 so i'll forget about Photoshop and will have a muck around with it a bit.

Thanks again