Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Hello,
I am trying to get into this hobby, but every time I try and make the decals fit my model, they get really fuzzy and start to look horrible. I am just curious how everyone can get their decals to look good, and not so fuzzy and 'cheap' looking. I use adobe photoshop, but figured I would ask the people who know it best...any help would be appreciated...

Justin

I assume the fuzzy part comes when you resize the image on the computer? What you probably need to do is create your decals using vector shapes in photoshop. That way they can be resized without losing any quality. When you try to resize a object you will lose some quality when resizing. I hope this makes sense, but if not let me know.

If the decal is fuzzy because of the printer or when being applied, I'm not too sure what to do, as I haven't reached that stage yet. I'm still in the process of creating my own decals too.

Yeah, resizing on a computer. Printing looks exactly like on the computer, fuzzy and not crisp. When you say "vector shapes" what do you mean about that? Do you have any samples you can send me? I just want to make a decal look good for once and not like I made it in paint... let me know if you can help!

Thank you

Justin

Yeah, resizing on a computer. Printing looks exactly like on the computer, fuzzy and not crisp. When you say "vector shapes" what do you mean about that? Do you have any samples you can send me? I just want to make a decal look good for once and not like I made it in paint... let me know if you can help!

Thank you

Justin
Images are typically made up of pixels, little colored dots. When images are stretched beyond their original resolution, the image doesn't have more data to use to fill in the additional pixels. Therefore, the image appears fuzzy.

Vector are made up of geometrical equations, rather than pixels. Therefore, they can be resized and shrunk to your heart's content.

greenlead got it right on the ball.

I don't use Photoshop, but I use a similar program (Jasc's Paintshop Pro) and what you need to do is to use the "shapes" tool rather than the "paintbrush" tool to create your decals. It will take a lot more time, and does take a bit more experience, but once it's done, you will get very crisp decals, and you will be able to easily resize, and also adjust your drawings with ease.

Unfortunately I do not have any samples yet, but if you are interesting in learning using PaintShop Pro this tutorial is great for basic vector drawing:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/paintshoppro/ss/rlvectorbasics.htm

But I still say the best way to learn is just to fool around, and make lots, and lots of backups. Just try things, and see what it does. That's how I taught myself to use these graphics programs.

I understand about pixels, and figured that was the reason, but what I do not get is how to make vector shapes, or where they come in. Is that a adobe illustrator thing, or a photoshop thing....so I bascially will use the circle tool, or the triangle tool and just make a bunch of little ones instead of the paintbrush tool? Thats it? thanks!

Yes, that's exactly it.

If you need to create a line, instead of drawing it, create a vector line or a narrow rectangle. If you need to bend the line, you can do so by adjusting the nodes or using the "transform" tools. It'll take a bit of getting used to, but in the end, the quality and ease of resizing, will pay off.

I get it! I was playing around today and I will really play around tomorrow, will show off my first car once I figure this out! I cannot thank you guys enough! Thank you!

edit: should I redraw the entire decal, or just the part that needs to be redone? Thanks!

Justin