Vehicle Design ( Need help! )

[Tanner T]

So I've been asked to help in designing some bodywork and color scheme for a Ice cream company

I've never really done much vehicle design... anyone have some recommendations for getting started etc etc? any good tutorials?

they will be driving these exact trucks:

[arenhaus]

Get a copy of their corporate style book. They should provide you with one, if they have it. Or some other reference for their logo and colors, at least.

Find a technical drawing of the truck. Side, front, back. Top as well, preferably. Print out twenty copies.

Take markers and start generating ideas right on those technical drawing printouts.

[Velocity Kendall]

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ca...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[Tanner T]

Get a copy of their corporate style book. They should provide you with one, if they have it. Or some other reference for their logo and colors, at least.

Find a technical drawing of the truck. Side, front, back. Top as well, preferably. Print out twenty copies.

Take markers and start generating ideas right on those technical drawing printouts.

I actually get to also create the logo Im more knowledgable on logo design and that, but never done any sort of vehicle design/bodykit work stuff like that.

I guess slap it on some 2 point perspective and get to work


@ kendall

Thanks!

[Velocity Kendall]

are they going to build a bodykit for the van? or just paint it.

[Bai Fan]

WOW! I want one of those vans. It looks like you can trick them out pretty nicely.

You have to try a couple of designs with a roof rack sculpture.

http://www.eggplante.com/wp-content/...2/DSC_0002.jpg

[Tanner T]

@ Kendall, the company has a " body " dude that can do anything for them! So either paint or add some bodywork if desired.

@ Bai , is that twisted metal haha? I for sure need to add some sort of ice cream cone thing! Hes using some sort of liquid nitrogen ice cream food service. Not sure how it works but its cool nonetheless!


also, anyone got any tips for drawing cars/metallic textures? its always been hard for me to nail down vehicle design with different panels etc etc

[Velocity Kendall]

also, anyone got any tips for drawing cars/metallic textures? its always been hard for me to nail down vehicle design with different panels etc etc

for design work, just draw a label to something saying this area is to be painted shiny.
spendign days figuring out shiny reflections is a bit of a waste of time, espectially if you are also designing body kit extensions.
design it in matte is my advice.

if you absolutely HAVE to make it shiny, you need to find or shoot reference, but i think glossy reflections are the downfall of many designers, theyre a distraction.

[Tanner T]

@kendall

All of my drawings and concepts and work will be presented to investors and shown on kickstarter.... so its not only for the body guy, but also to see if this company is going to get a good jumpstart ;/

[Tanner T]

Was finally able to lay down some paint.

changing the red on the truck to blue tomorrow

[bill618]

Google ‘Divco milk truck’.



http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/divco.htm

http://www.google.com/search?q=divco...=1249&bih=1409

[zephyri]

Bill's got a fair point... you're trying to paint the actual truck it seems when there might already be a decent ref pic you could use as a base, which would give you a much better starting point. If you want to keep going with your current design, my advice would be at least use photos of tyres.. no one will call you on it just for a visual concept. Also from a graphics point of view, be wary of putting text over joins in doors like that too.. it's likely small text like that will loose at least two or three letters in the space between the doors.

And the super blurry background is really distracting. If you want the van to pop out, try just greyscaling the background, or drawing it in linework with flat colours.

[Velocity Kendall]

its a mistake to go into renderings right off the bat.
you need to do lots of sketches from reference, like the stuff Bill hinted at, and draw it from all angles. spending loads of time rendering an ice cream guys face, or all the bricks on a house, or a load of trees, is just time down the toilet.
you need good reference and printer a load of paper and a biro. print out 4 shots of the van from different angles and trace over them, getting used to the proportions. then you can trace THOSE and start making body work changes. Youll want to do about 20 before you even think about rendering.

as for shiny paint, youre trying to dance swan lake before you can walk, and so again need reference to get it right..

[LaCan]

Here's how a professional car graphics presentation ought to look like:



That and an additional photo-montage, superimposing the design on a photo of a real vehicle, similar to photos bill googled for you. Use a view that emphasizes strengths of your design.

[Lightship69]

Hi there

I hope you dont mind But I messed with the original image a bit to get a better view and to help get a look at the outline of the van.

I gave it a mild respray to have a look at the details on it and get a handle on its apparent size.

The sketch will help you mess around with the roof line and side windows, I think I would raise the roof a little and allow a little more room inside for a guy to stand and move around.

Here are the bits I messed with, its intended to help so if you want me to stop interfering just say so and I will!





I hope this helps a little with the thinking process and gives you something to play around with.

all the best with it mate.

Lightship69

[Velocity Kendall]

Here's how a professional car graphics presentation ought to look like:



That and an additional photo-montage, superimposing the design on a photo of a real vehicle, similar to photos bill googled for you. Use a view that emphasizes strengths of your design.

oh yeah thats totally true, if you dont need to learn to draw the van ie do body modifications just design the graphics like this and get a wrap made.