Painters solution to unfindable logos.

  • You DO NOT need an account in order to download the content that we host....ONLY make an account if you plan to be an ACTIVE member.
  • We DO NOT Allow Multiple Accounts, those people found to have more than one linked to their IP address Will be Banned.

John-Ross Stein

Active Member
Hot Pass Member
Jun 11, 2019
368
53
Out of curiousity and having bumped into this problem multiple times, What do you when there is a major sponsor logo (example being a primary hood sponsor) that you cannot find anywhere. Do you just use the closest you can find, crop off released car images, or is there something else you do to solve the problem?
 

DaleTona

The Professor
Hot Pass Member
Aug 16, 2016
1,636
113
Out of curiousity and having bumped into this problem multiple times, What do you when there is a major sponsor logo (example being a primary hood sponsor) that you cannot find anywhere. Do you just use the closest you can find, crop off released car images, or is there something else you do to solve the problem?
I usually try to find a good reference, then try my best to recreate it myself. If you look in my showroom at my 2005 Eric McClure #73 car, A lot of those logos were scratch made.

It is a bit of an advanced skill, but eventually in the pursuit of perfection you will end up having to scratch make things, especially with older cars and backmarkers.

I do sometimes crop off of images or find/ make something close, but only for small associate sponsors nobody would notice
 

Rollo75

Well-Known Member
Hot Pass Member
Dec 1, 2018
1,403
113
No.
You learn very very quickly what various fonts are and then build logos from scratch at about 5x the size that they need to be.

You can always shrink a logo, it is very very hard to expand one.

image_2022-03-09_145557.png

Addenda:

What do you do in the case of companies which no longer exist, in a country which no longer exists? You look at photos from more than 30 years ago and guess.
 
Last edited:

psugorilla

Well-Known Member
Staff member
VIP
Paint Crew Member
Moderator
Jul 19, 2016
1,039
93
So what I do is typically recreate the logo. Hopefully I can find a clear enough reference image to base it on. I use Illustrator or Flexisign for the recreation. That way I can have it in a scalable vector format In fact, whenever possible I try to keep as much of my design in vector as I can.
then when it comes time to put it on the car I copy it from Illustrator and paste it into photoshop as a smart object. By doing that, it has a couple of advantages. First it retains the vector information so I can scale it up or down without losing quality. If I realize I made a mistake with a color or need to make a change to the logo or graphic I can easily double click on the layer icon in photoshop and it will open the layer in illustrator. I can make my change and click save and it automatically updates it. Only downside is that if you use duplicate layer in photoshop then when you save changes in illustrator it will affect the other duplicate layers that maybe you didn't want it to.
 

psugorilla

Well-Known Member
Staff member
VIP
Paint Crew Member
Moderator
Jul 19, 2016
1,039
93
yeah sometimes just getting the product works. I can't really do that most of the time due to generally making retro schemes. Sometimes you really have to dig and look in places you wouldn't think. I have pulled magazine and newspaper scans from the web before to use as visual reference. I have had access on occasion to some old "logo books" that designers used to buy that came with CD Roms of corporate logos before websites like Brands of the world and seeklogo existed. I have a library from 1996 that has a number of logos from various racing sponsors in vector format thanks to those books.
 

Lastlap

Well-Known Member
VIP
Hot Pass Member
Feb 2, 2018
1,721
113
yeah sometimes just getting the product works. I can't really do that most of the time due to generally making retro schemes. Sometimes you really have to dig and look in places you wouldn't think. I have pulled magazine and newspaper scans from the web before to use as visual reference.
For my retro rides, I was buying old race programmes looking for the ads to scan, lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Highbank

Lastlap

Well-Known Member
VIP
Hot Pass Member
Feb 2, 2018
1,721
113
I forgot to mention, also try searching for Company press/user manual PDF's etc

When working on my '98 stuff, I found the correct year/era logo from a user manual for Power Wheels by Fisher Price, lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Highbank

John-Ross Stein

Active Member
Hot Pass Member
Jun 11, 2019
368
53
I know this is a dead thread but i have a follow up question. What do you do when there is a realistic texture that doesn't have an image (for example, the bacon design on Harvick's 2022 All-Star Race)?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Highbank

mtblillie

Well-Known Member
VIP
Hot Pass Member
Dec 3, 2016
659
113
This is why painters say "make it yourself," it's not because we are trying to be jerks, it is because 1 you appreciate how much work is put into it and 2 you can only learn these tough skills by doing; trial and error.

As for your follow up question, one way is to find an image that matches the texture (such as bacon) and then arrange it on the base to match the real car. The hardest part is matching up the edges of the template, sometimes you gotta do some warping or filling to make it fit correctly. You also start to learn where the actual connections on the template are. A lot of times the outline is just an approximate to the actual merging point
 

ncrd1331

Well-Known Member
Hot Pass Member
Painter Extraordinaire
Jul 2, 2019
3,578
93
That's a good point. There used to be a program back in the day, that I was just talking to some younger painters about... It was called NRStretch. It was a godsend for wrapping fenders and having complex shapes and Oversized logos traveling over those template gaps.

I wonder if anyone more programmer savvy than I am would be able to mimic that program for different mods...
 

psugorilla

Well-Known Member
Staff member
VIP
Paint Crew Member
Moderator
Jul 19, 2016
1,039
93
yeah. I have tried before to reach out to the guy who originally made that program and asked him about releasing the code or explaining how it worked so that we could maybe update it for newer mods but he doesn't want to do that. Which is totally fine. He made it, he can control that aspect all he wants. I tried again a few years later and he pretty much ignored me. His email no longer exists.
As for a newer version, the two best options are if you have an older version of Photoshop (2019 back to CS5 or 6) you can open an OBJ of the car body copied out of 3dsmax and you can paint directly on that but it's not necessarily the easiest thing to use. You have place your logos and such flat over the area of the car you want it and then merge it down onto the car which will warp and distort where needed to to make it seamlessly line up but then you can't really modify it from there. A better option (one I don't have yet due to my PC being too old to run the program) is 3DCoat. There's a video tutorial here at Stunod showing how to set up the model in 3dcoat and how to use it. It's really cool. You are able to paint directly on the model itself and load in your logos and move them around with them displaying the wrapping in real time. I think there may be a few other similar softwares out there. Substance Painter might work the same but I haven't done any real research on it.
I need to though so I can finish the Timmy Hill Sam Bass Tribute car. I'm at a point where I just can't get some of the images to line up manually across 3 intersecting panels of the template.
 

ncrd1331

Well-Known Member
Hot Pass Member
Painter Extraordinaire
Jul 2, 2019
3,578
93
yeah. I have tried before to reach out to the guy who originally made that program and asked him about releasing the code or explaining how it worked so that we could maybe update it for newer mods but he doesn't want to do that. Which is totally fine. He made it, he can control that aspect all he wants. I tried again a few years later and he pretty much ignored me. His email no longer exists.
As for a newer version, the two best options are if you have an older version of Photoshop (2019 back to CS5 or 6) you can open an OBJ of the car body copied out of 3dsmax and you can paint directly on that but it's not necessarily the easiest thing to use. You have place your logos and such flat over the area of the car you want it and then merge it down onto the car which will warp and distort where needed to to make it seamlessly line up but then you can't really modify it from there. A better option (one I don't have yet due to my PC being too old to run the program) is 3DCoat. There's a video tutorial here at Stunod showing how to set up the model in 3dcoat and how to use it. It's really cool. You are able to paint directly on the model itself and load in your logos and move them around with them displaying the wrapping in real time. I think there may be a few other similar softwares out there. Substance Painter might work the same but I haven't done any real research on it.
I need to though so I can finish the Timmy Hill Sam Bass Tribute car. I'm at a point where I just can't get some of the images to line up manually across 3 intersecting panels of the template.
That's good information. It's a shame that he wouldn't be receptive to at least opening it up for the "continued" use of it.

As for the other programs, I'll have to look into them, that sounds really neat. Never knew there were programs that would allow you to work over the top of the .obj itself.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Highbank

Mystical

Always 110%
VIP
Member of the Year
Render Partner
Hot Pass Member
Moderator
Dec 21, 2017
1,505
93
That's a good point. There used to be a program back in the day, that I was just talking to some younger painters about... It was called NRStretch. It was a godsend for wrapping fenders and having complex shapes and Oversized logos traveling over those template gaps.

I wonder if anyone more programmer savvy than I am would be able to mimic that program for different mods...

Not a NR2003 program but 3D Paint tools we have today such as 3D Coat and Substance Painter are pretty much NR Stretch on steroids:

Done in 5 seconds in 3D Coat:
XJykRD1.png


Exported layer from 3D Coat to your typical paint program, ready to go base layer:
5hX8oJ5.png


The most tasking part is just creating a tiling texture or placing a logo on the model and exporting. I use 3D Coat for most of my paint schemes where the base design is overly complex or a logo will span across several UV seams.
 

Hot Links