Large stickers - how to recreate?

[Halo]

I have a cabinet which has large stickers on both sides. They're a little tatty, but theres enough between the two of them to end up with one complete version. I can then get a friend to touch up / colour match on his Mac. My question is this: How do I go about 'capturing' the stickers? Is there a movable scanner type thing that I can run down the length of the cabinet? Or is the only realistic way to make stencils or something? How do other people capture large cabinet images to reproduce / touch / fill etc?

Thanks

[Rahzel]

Take a picture with a digital camera and enlarge it on screen to actual size, then trace it in Illustrator if you're vectorizing it.

[BobbyG66]

Take a picture with a digital camera and enlarge it on screen to actual size, then trace it in Illustrator if you're vectorizing it.

Yep, just make sure when you take the picture you are 'centered' in the middle of the sideart. This will help eliminate any distortions or angles...

When tracing in Illustrator, you can use any size image. Once it's vectorized, you can scale it to what you need.

[mahuti]

If it isn't the type that can be vectorized, your best bet is a combination of the following.

Taking a centered photo at high megapixels, then taking detail shots on a grid... maybe 9, that can be reassembled in photoshop.

[Halo]

Thanks very much for the help, appreciated

[neuromancer]

There are large format scanners. I had some scans done a few years ago and it only cost $1 a sheet or something like that.

If you use a camera, you need to be aware of something called "distortion." Almost all digital camera lenses have distortion that makes straight lines into curved lines.

Your friend can download a plugin for photoshop from epaperpress.com that will correct barrel and pincussion distortion. It comes set up for a variety of cameras.

Make sure to shoot straight at the artwork, and have very "flat" lighting. I'd suggest taking photos before you try to remove the artwork.

Bob