Vector help (PolePos wheel centre)

[Minwah]

I want to vectorise the steering wheel centre logo from a Pole Position wheel...

I have an Atari logo in .ai format, and the rest looks quite simple but I'm not sure how to achieve the 'blue' parts.

Here's a bad pic of what I'm trying to copy, anyone have any ideas how I can do the blue areas using Illustrator?

Thanks

[Oddfeld]

Not really sure what you're asking here - the blue areas just look solid blue. If you're struggling to achieve that pattern of black 'spokes' I would probably do it something like this:

1. Draw a blue circle (or whatever shape that thing is meant to be, not sure if it's perfectly circular from that photo).

2. Draw a black circle on top of this, centred on the same point (to centre it to start with without using the align tools, have smart guides turned on and position the cursor so it shows you're centred on the first shape, then hold down ALT as you draw the second circle, so it draws the object  from the centre).

3. Draw a thin black rectangle centred on that same point, extending out beyond the outer circle - this will form the top and bottom (or leftmost and rightmost or whatever) 'spokes'.

4. Have that rectangle selected and double click the rotate tool to bring up the options window for that tool (rather than rotating freehand). By default, it'll rotate from the centre of the object, so key in a rotation angle appropriate for the number of spokes you'll need - 10 degrees or whatever (can't count the number of spokes from that folded over pic), then (most important bit) hit 'copy' instead of 'ok'. This'll make a duplicate object using those transform options while leaving the original where it is.

5. Use 'transform again' (hit CTRL-D) several times to make multiple spokes.

6 If you want to be tidy, you can remove the sticky out bits of spokes with pathfinder divide or with a clipping mask (not really necessary since you'd trim them off the printed artwork anyway).

7. Slap your vector Atari logo in the centre black circle.

[mahuti]

I don't remember what the command is, but Illustrator has a step and repeat command somewhere (that's a printing term, not an Illustrator one)

If you can locate that command, you can draw one of those blue bits, and have it automatically create all of the other ones for you in the correct positioning.

It's a pretty useful command, but the last time I was looking for it, and found it was about 5 years ago. Since when, everytime I casually look for it, I can't find it. Maybe someone else here has a clue.

[mahuti]

yeah, what he said will do.

[RayB]

Ummm, Ilustrator has a dashed line feature which should work better here. Min, do you have a better photo of that thing? Could you maybe flatten it under glass and take another snapshot? I reckon it would take me 5 minutes to whip this out.

~Ray B.

[Minwah]

Thanks guys, I used Oddfeld's method and it has worked very well

[Minwah]

RGB colour mode seems to do it...

[RayB]

Looks good, but your blue shapes appear to have a thin outline. Make sure you turn off the outline on those shapes.

~Ray

[Minwah]

Looks good, but your blue shapes appear to have a thin outline. Make sure you turn off the outline on those shapes.

Hmmm, I see what you mean...I don't think the outline is really there tho, it looks different in the one I posted to how it looks in Illustrator - I think it could be resizing and jpg artifacts.

Here's a snapshot from Illustrator @ 2400%:

[RayB]

Weird. I still see a thin grey line around the blue shapes. 

But in your close-up I see something else. Your blacks are not black. I see two subtle shades of almost-black.

 

[Minwah]

But in your close-up I see something else. Your blacks are not black. I see two subtle shades of almost-black.

You're absolutely right...I turned my brightness up and now I can see it 

Seems the line colour and fill colour were different (I had made one of them 'rich black').  Hows this:

[Oddfeld]

The little exclamation mark thingy is Illustrator telling you that the colour you've picked is out of gamut for CMYK (it can't be accurately reproduced in CMYK).

If you're having this printed onto adhesive vinyl, chances are it'll be done on some big poster printer thingy. Now, many of these are high-end colour proofing devices that can produce colours with a wider gamut than CMYK allows, since they have additional inks (they often have a light cyan and a light magenta in addition to process cyan/magenta/yellow & black). You may be able to print that blue more accurately, but you would have to specify it in some sort of colour model that the printer's RIP can understand, which probably means specifying it as a Pantone spot colour.  If you know anyone who works in design/print, they could probably match the blue for you, by holding the original label up to a Pantone swatch book, or you could just take the original label along to the printer and get them to match to it. You'd have to physically compare the original label, you can't go from a photo since the photo is probably not colour accurate, as you've already discovered.

To reproduce the silver you'd have to do one of a number of things:
- have it printed using a proper spot colour metallic ink (prohibitively expensive for a one off print).
- print it onto a metallic stock (or print it onto clear film and mount it over a metallic stock)
- get just the Atari logo produced as a metallic rubdown transfer - many printing companies that specialise in producing packaging mockups will be able to do this. They scratch off though, so you'd have to get it laminated or something.
- or just put up with it being white or grey.

[Minwah]

The little exclamation mark thingy is Illustrator telling you that the colour you've picked is out of gamut for CMYK (it can't be accurately reproduced in CMYK).

There's a heck of a lot of blues in this category!

If you're having this printed onto adhesive vinyl, chances are it'll be done on some big poster printer thingy. Now, many of these are high-end colour proofing devices that can produce colours with a wider gamut than CMYK allows, since they have additional inks (they often have a light cyan and a light magenta in addition to process cyan/magenta/yellow & black). You may be able to print that blue more accurately, but you would have to specify it in some sort of colour model that the printer's RIP can understand, which probably means specifying it as a Pantone spot colour.

[mahuti]

Yeah, there are a lot of blues in that category. Purples and blues are notoriously difficult to reproduce vividly in CMYK.

My suggestion about getting the color right... take the actual original to the printer. Have them match that.

For silver, you could look into one of those craft metal kits. That would probably work well, and cost less than $20.

[Minwah]

For silver, you could look into one of those craft metal kits. That would probably work well, and cost less than $20.

Do you have a link?  I'm not exactly sure what you mean...

Thanks