Need help with gradient for wrap

[biggmann]

I have a customer that we are working on a design for and the design itself is hes ok with but hes looking for a orange to yellow gradient and a purple swoosh as he calls it on the back. The problem is the gradient, I give him several samples and none are what he is looking for all I get is he saw a race car that had that gradient and the color purple. Does anyone know how to get the right colors, perhaps done any race cars. I am beyond frustrated, I know it isnt a simple orange to yellow its going to be several colors but nothing is what hes looking for. As well as a purple, any thoughts.

 

[player]

Show him how to use Google images or sit down with him until he sees exactly what he is looking for.

What printer do you have? If it is 4 colour you may have trouble with orange...

 

[rjssigns]

Need a visual.

 

[Patentagosse]

Maybe the car he saw was PAINTED... inkjet technology has some limitations.

For example, if you do a gradient from black to red, it will result in a weird color shift in the middle. You won't see it on screen but it will look terrible on the print. If you paint it with automotive paint (premium urethane), you'll get a true red to black fade w/o lighter shade in the middle because you will truly overlap the colors.

What I've found to avoid this is creating a vector gradient with dot pattern. I bought the VectoRaster software and now I can control my fighting colors' gradients. Yes, you'll see the dots but from 10ft away, it will turn perfect.

On this one, my black gradient turned "greenish" in the middle, even when printing over silver metallic film, so I recreated the dot fader in vector. From there, you can assign the exact colors you want, even dot by dot!

 

[biggmann]

That dot gradient works well from a distance but I know he would never go for that (he is getting way to picky). I have had trouble with red to black gradients but I throw another colour in the middle for the transition and it seems to help but this orange to yellow is becoming near impossible. I know the colours hes looking for I have seen it at the track before and I am sure it was painted but you are right print and paint technologies are totally opposite. I just sent him an email asking him to send me a picture of anything like what he wants and if he does Ill post it up and see what we can come up with.

 

[biggmann]

That dot gradient works well from a distance but I know he would never go for that (he is getting way to picky). I have had trouble with red to black gradients but I throw another colour in the middle for the transition and it seems to help but this orange to yellow is becoming near impossible. I know the colours hes looking for I have seen it at the track before and I am sure it was painted but you are right print and paint technologies are totally opposite. I just sent him an email asking him to send me a picture of anything like what he wants and if he does Ill post it up and see what we can come up with.

 

[Cyw]

Too bad that VectoRaster software is only for Mac!!!

Rasterbator (free) or Astute Graphics Phantasm plug-in both work for PC halftones. Not sure if these pictures will do each program's result justice but both will produce crisp, clean vector dots

Whoops, I'm on an iPad, hold on I need to move the jpgs

 

[biggmann]

Just checked my email and he has sent a picture, I see the look hes going for not sure if our printer will print this or this purple, never really tried that color before.

 

[Driving Force]

We have had success with gradients like this if you render that part to a bitmap. Vector gradients behave differently than raster gradients. I don't think I would have too much problem with that one. If the purple isn't metallic, you should be able to get pretty close.

 

[Patentagosse]

Too bad that VectoRaster software is only for Mac!!!

Like you say... 'contacted the guy and replied he has no plan to move it on Window platform. Luckily for me, I have both at work but it's a waste of time having to create the gradient in PC, tranfert it in the Mac, do the things in Vectoraster, save it as EPS, tranfert it back in the PC to play with it in Flexi... well, it only happens once in a while... fortunately.

 

[Patentagosse]

'Just looked at the picture... it's a pretty job but obviously, done with paint. If you want to get a bit of magic in your print, once you've set the colors, try to print it on pearlescent or ultra-metallic film (white). As our inks are translucent, you'll get a nice effect shining through colors. I do this sometimes for the "WoW!" effect in customers' face. There's also metallic laminate films but from what I know, they're not made of cast, they are calendred (Mactac). There's a place in Netherland where I import some amazing color-change films and I think they have cast laminates with pearlescent and metallic sparkles. That would be great for race cars...

My 0.02¢: try working in RGB color space, your colors could be more vivid at the end. That's what I do here for that kinda jobs, especially for reds and blues...

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