Idea here is for some of our more experienced members to be able to give away some tips and tricks for template making / designing. It may help with people poaching template pieces and what not, and should give beginners some what of a reference or port of call for techniques and things they might otherwise miss.

I understand that people might not want to give away their best ideas and things, but any help, no matter how small, i'm sure would be appreciated by the members on here.

I'll go first


This is one of my best tools I use, have used it countless times and I think others on here would find it excellent too. Ever had a small jpg of a logo that you want really need a vector of, either to blow up in Photoshop, or to use in Illustrator. This tool is what you want, and has other uses too which i'll explain below. It is sort of like the "Tracing" options you have in Illustrator, but is a programe dedicated to that one task.

Vector Magic - Precision Bitmap to Vector Conversion.
vectormagic.com/home

Simply register and use the tool online (You get two free uses per email, then pay for its use), or get the desktop version and have it at your disposal whenever you need it.

I wanted a quick template made yesterday, and didnt want to spend all day on it, so tracked down a large res blueprint (Use SMcars or The-Blueprints), cleaned it up in photoshop, and fired up Vector Magic. Below is the result:



For a quick turnaround you can't go past it, that template took less than an hour to have fully set up in Illustrator. While I wouldnt blow it up to life size, on screen and printed (Tested on A3) it looks fine and I wouldnt hesitate in using it. Also just about every car i've posted on here has a logo on it that has been taken from Google Images and vectorized in seconds. Very handy especially in this part of the world where there are a lot fo smaller businesses that don't have vector logos on websites.

So, thats my first handy little tool, who's next?

Hey guys,

I occasionally post V8 custom liveries on the site. I enjoy designing the cars. I have been using paint.net for the cars. I now have Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and to be honest don't have much of a clue how to use the programs properly.

So what I am asking is if any of the experts on the site could give me a small guide to just get started using Illustrator/Photoshop and with that helpful information I'm sure I could bring my liveries to the next level.

It would be much appreciated.

hsvr1 wrote:

i can give you a heads up on templates give me a pm mate

Hey how do you make templates correctly i tried a few times but they never seem to work

Thechad wrote:


yeh same i tried to make templates but i failed its ok but not as good as i want it how do i make it better