[sbindley]

Hey, all,

Echelon Autosports has offered a free custom wrap for the charity Solstice and I am going over there tomorrow to discuss and look at samples.

We thought it would be really fun to let the kids a the hospital choose the color of the car that will be raffled off on their behalf.

Question: If I post or email a photo of the car, can anyone do a decent Photoshop of it in five different colors for the kids to choose from? This will likely be something that is printed and displayed in the hospital for a period of time.

I'll narrow the choices down, and the PS does not have to be an exact match. I'll likely make up my own colors that the kids will respond to, like, "Raspberry Red," "Banana Yellow," etc.

Anyway, if someone out there could do this, it would be a big help to the project. I want to get the car in asap for the body work, hood install, wrap, etc., and then get to the stereo, interior, coilovers, brakes, etc.

Thanks in advance!
Scott

 

[Seltzinator]

I could do that for you, and I'm sure others would be able/willing. Just post the pics up here and what colors you'd like.

 

[chickenwire]

Members helping members - it's a beautiful thing!

 

[sbindley]

Thanks so much! I'll take some photos today and post. Seltzinator, I'll PM you and get your email if sending a bigger photo file is better. I should be with the wrap guys today to get an idea of colors.

Really cool to see the support here.

 

[TX08manualGXP]

Yep, that's awesome.

 

[sbindley]

Here is the car. I just met with the body shop and wrap guy and am narrowing down the color choices.

 

[Seltzinator]

Gonna be tough to do it with a dark color. I was hoping for red or yellow. I'll see what I can do, though!

 

[sbindley]

Yeah, I thought the black might be tough to pick up the details. Actually, for this purpose, any GXP vert will do. The wheels don't matter. Let me nail down the colors and let you know.

Thanks again.

 

[Seltzinator]

Okay, there's no way I can make that into a light color. Best I can do is a different dark color, like this:

I thought going into this that you had decals or something on the car. Since it is just a plain old Solstice, why not just google pictures of Solstices in your favorite colors and use those?

etc

 

[sbindley]

That looks pretty good, actually. The idea is to choose colors that are not normal Sol color choices, so it is more unique.

 

[Seltzinator]

That looks pretty good, actually. The idea is to choose colors that are not normal Sol color choices, so it is more unique.

I gotcha. Well here's what I meant about using a lighter colored Sol. You can't restore color depth to dark shadows and blacks, but you can easily alter colors that are bright.

If you want to use your car, try to take a picture of it where the sun is behind you a bit, to reduce shadows, and have the surface its on be something light colored, like dirt or cement.

That will make it a lot easier to 'shop.

That yellow Sol I linked above would be easy to make any color:

 

[sbindley]

Here are the five colors I'll let them choose from.

Let me see if I can get a better shot of my car. I do like the wheels...

Gloss Bright Orange

DSCN2540_zpsa4480f57.jpg Photo by echelonauto | Photobucket

Gloss Blue Metallic -

DSCN2546_zps14480701.jpg Photo by echelonauto | Photobucket

Cherry Red Metallic

DSCN2489_zps6ce3c8b1.jpg Photo by echelonauto | Photobucket

Grass Green

DSCN2503_zpse9567df3.jpg Photo by echelonauto | Photobucket

Gloss Bright Yellow

DSCN2541_zps308c2588.jpg Photo by echelonauto | Photobucket

 

[TX08manualGXP]

wow, that blue car is actually the yellow one. that's cool. I'd like to learn how to do that. awesome.

 

[Seltzinator]

Gloss Bright Orange

Gloss Blue Metallic

Cherry Red Metallic

Grass Green

Gloss Bright Yellow

I did my best with the metallic colors. Its hard to simulate those little reflective flecks. If you want to use your car instead, just let me know. These should be fine to use for whatever purpose you're planning, though not for any for-profit uses. If you want to use your car, the metallic colors might look better. Just remember what I said about lighting (the sun is above or behind you, so that the car's shadow is being cast straight down, or away from the camera) and surface (cement, pavement, light-colored dirt are good; asphalt bad).

 

[sbindley]

I think this should be fine for us. Really cool of you and so appreciated.

 

[TomatoSoup]

Just a thought here... I know it'll be fun for the kids to choose, but a bad color choice might well put a prospective buyer off and kill the whole intent.

Maybe it might be better to do the wrap after the auction - with buyer's choice?

 

[TX08manualGXP]

those turned out cool. now I know what color to go with if I ever decide to re-paint. One of these days you will have to tell me what program you used to do this.

 

[Seltzinator]

Just a thought here... I know it'll be fun for the kids to choose, but a bad color choice might well put a prospective buyer off and kill the whole intent.

Maybe it might be better to do the wrap after the auction - with buyer's choice?

That does sound like a much better idea.

those turned out cool. now I know what color to go with if I ever decide to re-paint. One of these days you will have to tell me what program you used to do this.

Its just Adobe Photoshop. I'm not super-sophisticated with it like some, but this operation is relatively simple.

If you have photoshop, I basically just took the original image and made a hue/saturation adjustment layer above it, then masked off the rest of the photo except for the paint of the car. I then adjusted the hue to match the colors he wanted as best I could.

For the metallic colors, I created a metal fleck effect by creating a new file (about 3 times bigger than the image of the car) and doing Filter > Render > Clouds (in black/white). Then I did Filter > Noise > Add Noise, and I checked the Gaussian and Monochromatic boxes.

I then dragged the result into the car file, just above my other layers and scaled it down to the size of the image, and then applied the same layer mask from the paint. I then set the layer blend mode to Screen and Opacity to 10%. I then copied the layer and changed the blend mode on the new layer to Multiply.

Anyway, that may seem like a lot if you're not familiar with Photoshop, but its pretty basic after you've been using it awhile. I'm sure plenty of people could make the colors more true-to-life.

 

[sbindley]

It's a raffle, not an auction. Way more potential this way.

 

[TomatoSoup]

Ahhh, OK then, never mind