Overall this was a quicker project and all imagery used is in-house product photography.
Showing posts with label F-150 truck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label F-150 truck. Show all posts
February 07, 2017
AM F-150 Rugged Ridge Rebate
I created a few graphics for a Rugged Ridge rebate for the AmericanMuscle F-150 site. The rebates and details can be found here at AmericanMuscle.com. Below is the on-site banner featuring the Rugged Ridge rebate. The following image is another on-site banner that viewers are directed to from the rebates page. An email graphic was also designed based off of this creative.
Overall this was a quicker project and all imagery used is in-house product photography.
Overall this was a quicker project and all imagery used is in-house product photography.
January 12, 2017
Raxiom Site Updates
Part of my on-going duties is to maintain and update house brand websites. The Raxiom brand continues to expand as more products are created for various vehicles including Mustang, F-150 and Wrangler. As new products are added, I like to continue to add them to the Featured Products section of Raxiom.com. This month I added ten new products to the top of the featured section and worked with the web development team to execute the additions.
Updates for this section are pretty simple, as I pull the assets, arrange them in the grid and slice them up. I also provide the sort category (vehicle type), product name and the type of Raxiom product (ie: Performance Lighting) that appears on hover. The sort function is what I think is the highlight of this grid of products, as you can see different parts for different vehicles and the boxes rearrange accordingly. This site is responsive and so is that functionality. Check it out here: Raxiom.com/featured.
Updates for this section are pretty simple, as I pull the assets, arrange them in the grid and slice them up. I also provide the sort category (vehicle type), product name and the type of Raxiom product (ie: Performance Lighting) that appears on hover. The sort function is what I think is the highlight of this grid of products, as you can see different parts for different vehicles and the boxes rearrange accordingly. This site is responsive and so is that functionality. Check it out here: Raxiom.com/featured.
June 13, 2016
AmericanMuscle F-150 Top Summer Mods
Brand new AmericanMuscle F-150 Catalogs are being delivered today that showcase the F-150 and dirt bike creative on the cover for our Top Summer Mods campaign. About a month ago I showed an image from the photo shoot our in-house photographer and I worked on, and the creative is also live on the AmericanMuscle homepage. I'll backtrack a bit to walk you through how the image evolved from conception to completion of the entire campaign creative.
In our monthly meetings the creative team brainstorms creative concepts based on the marketing campaigns and copy the marketing team creates. I personally pull a lot of inspiring imagery from motorcycle related publications and websites, so incorporating a dirt bike with an F-150 was a natural idea. Being that this creative would be for the AmericanMuscle F-150 Top Summer Mods campaign, I found it fitting to create an image that showed the power of an F-150 and the lifestyle of someone heading to the racetrack in the summer time.
The initial idea was approved so then I found a photo that had been taken before of a rolling F-150 with an angle that would show off the bike as well as the truck.
I knew the creative would be used for web graphics and a catalog cover so that affected composition decisions and I knew I needed a wide back plate to accommodate horizontal and vertical graphics. I roughly clipped out the rolling shot I found and used several stock images to use with the original 2015 rolling shot in order to compose a background for the truck. Below are the several stock images I used.
I found a low-res dirt bike image to use for the rough mock I had approved through the various departments. Once approved, I worked with the in-house photographer to get the composition as close to the mock as possible.
Our photographer shot the dirt bike in the 2015 and 2009 F-150 in the company parking lot, making sure to match the lighting in my original concept image. With the matching lighting, it made the entire photo composite go much more smoothly since lighting reflections and shadows would be more accurate to fit the scene.
I clipped out each photographed truck with the bike in it and added it to the scene. For the 2015 I was able to use parts of the initial rolling shot I used as inspiration to get accurate motion blur on the vehicle and especially the wheels. I added a number plate to the bike as well as some AmericanMuscle branding to the graphics on the side of the bike. A few environmental elements such as photo filters, lens flares, reflections on the truck, and dirt kicking up was added to complete the Photoshop composite. Below is what each truck looked like in the scene when completed.
Because I needed to include a wide background scene to accommodate the variety of graphics this would be used for, a lot was clipped off in the actual graphics. Essentially, no graphic showed the entire background as shown above. Below is what the on site graphics look like currently at AmericanMuscle.com
This creative spanned across various web graphics, email newsletters and social images. The 2015 also was used as a cover on our AmericanMuscle F-150 catalog below:
I don't believe I could have been happier with how these graphics turned out throughout the entire campaign. It's always gratifying to develop an idea from conception to completion and have it turn out exactly how you imagined it. Not only did this creative reach the digital channels but it also made it to a printed form, which cannot be said for all of the campaigns we create. Be sure to check it out either when the catalog hits your mailbox or online.
In our monthly meetings the creative team brainstorms creative concepts based on the marketing campaigns and copy the marketing team creates. I personally pull a lot of inspiring imagery from motorcycle related publications and websites, so incorporating a dirt bike with an F-150 was a natural idea. Being that this creative would be for the AmericanMuscle F-150 Top Summer Mods campaign, I found it fitting to create an image that showed the power of an F-150 and the lifestyle of someone heading to the racetrack in the summer time.
The initial idea was approved so then I found a photo that had been taken before of a rolling F-150 with an angle that would show off the bike as well as the truck.
I knew the creative would be used for web graphics and a catalog cover so that affected composition decisions and I knew I needed a wide back plate to accommodate horizontal and vertical graphics. I roughly clipped out the rolling shot I found and used several stock images to use with the original 2015 rolling shot in order to compose a background for the truck. Below are the several stock images I used.
I found a low-res dirt bike image to use for the rough mock I had approved through the various departments. Once approved, I worked with the in-house photographer to get the composition as close to the mock as possible.
Our photographer shot the dirt bike in the 2015 and 2009 F-150 in the company parking lot, making sure to match the lighting in my original concept image. With the matching lighting, it made the entire photo composite go much more smoothly since lighting reflections and shadows would be more accurate to fit the scene.
I clipped out each photographed truck with the bike in it and added it to the scene. For the 2015 I was able to use parts of the initial rolling shot I used as inspiration to get accurate motion blur on the vehicle and especially the wheels. I added a number plate to the bike as well as some AmericanMuscle branding to the graphics on the side of the bike. A few environmental elements such as photo filters, lens flares, reflections on the truck, and dirt kicking up was added to complete the Photoshop composite. Below is what each truck looked like in the scene when completed.
I don't believe I could have been happier with how these graphics turned out throughout the entire campaign. It's always gratifying to develop an idea from conception to completion and have it turn out exactly how you imagined it. Not only did this creative reach the digital channels but it also made it to a printed form, which cannot be said for all of the campaigns we create. Be sure to check it out either when the catalog hits your mailbox or online.
May 03, 2016
F-150 Upgrade Shop
AmericanMuscle's F-150 product line has been rapidly growing over the past few months. Along with that comes new marketing campaigns and more graphics for the design department to create. Since the AM Mustang and ExtremeTerrain Wrangler Upgrade Shops have been proven to be a successful way for customers to shop various products, there was a need to add an F-150 Upgrade Shop. This required a similar logo design, yet one that was slightly unique from the previous two. The F-150 Upgrade Shop launched on 5/2/16 and is currently on the homepage as the main image. Below is the 2015-2016 version:
Each upgrade shop comes with a specialized landing page that includes 10 categories of products. This requires 10 unique lifestyles for each generation of F-150. We currently have products for the 2009-2014 and 2015-2016 body styles of F-150s. Below are their unique landing pages with various lifestyle images. The photos included in these are a mixture of in house photography and vendor photos.
Each upgrade shop comes with a specialized landing page that includes 10 categories of products. This requires 10 unique lifestyles for each generation of F-150. We currently have products for the 2009-2014 and 2015-2016 body styles of F-150s. Below are their unique landing pages with various lifestyle images. The photos included in these are a mixture of in house photography and vendor photos.
When a customer clicks one of the categories, for example "Most Popular", the shopper is then taken to a page of products that represent that category. Each category gets a banner to match the original icon from the previous page at the top like below.
As you can imagine, each upgrade shop requires a large amount of graphics due to the variety of categories. This creative includes various on site graphics, several email graphics, social images and display creative. Overall I believe this is a nice addition to the AmericanMuscle F-150 site as it continues to grow. View the 2015-2016 Upgrade Shop here, and view the 2009-2014 Upgrade Shop here.
Below are the original base images I had started with. The red 2015 F-150 was the original shot that I retouched in Photoshop and added a few additional aftermarket products on the truck (ie: the grille). I ended up changing the color to "Blue Jeans" to add variety to our website since most of the web graphics are typically this dark red. To create the 2011 F-150 version, I removed the 2015 from the scene in Photoshop and selected a similar angle from our various in-house photographs. I manipulated the shadow and lighting while added aftermarket parts (ie: grilles & headlights) to the 2011 as well so it fit well in the scene. Having this image with a lot of background included in the shot, allowed this image to translate well to the various sizes and dimensions of the graphics needed for this campaign.
April 19, 2016
I thought it might make for an interesting post to break down one of my recent photo composites I have done. About four years ago when I began working at Turn5 I had zero compositing skills. Since then I have created quite a few composites using a variety of resources including photography, stock imagery, 3D renders and various Photoshop tools and techniques. I've posted the final versions of this specific AmericanMuscle F-150 campaign before, however, here's how it all came to life, more or less.
The top image was the initial rough concept to represent spring mods. This is a photo with a few Camera Raw adjustments that was taken by our in-house photography team. One of the first edits I made to this image in order to make it feel very seasonal, was to remove the one boat with the tarp. I also tidied up the environment to remove any distracting pieces.
Now that the majority of the environment was cleaned up and feeling seasonal, my next step was to focus on the F-150. Since AmericanMuscle is an aftermarket automotive business, it would make sense that the truck be a bit more modded than when it was photographed. Our vehicles tend to transform over time with mods and at times they appear less modded than others. When a vehicle appears to be less modded, it doesn't hurt to add a few in post that transform the entire look of the vehicle.
Above you can see the addition of the upper and lower grille on the 2015 F-150. Essentially, I could call this composite complete and begin placing it in the variety of web, email and display templates along with the campaign copy, however I decided to take it a step further below with some foreground elements.
One of the nicest additions one could make to a photo composite is foreground elements that fit within the depth of field with the photograph. I chose to add some greenery to the bottom left of this image that matched the out of focus boat. These blurred out blades of grass overlap the front tire of the F-150 to make the overall image more convincing (especially for when I show you the next F-150 year that was not shot in camera). I personally thought more green would only help the overall concept of spring for this campaign.
Finally, this 2015 image is ready to be placed in the variety of templates, however the project is not complete until the image is made generationally. Currently AmericanMuscle sells products for 2015-2016 F-150s and also 2009-2014 F-150s. Those products represent two very distinct body styles that we refer to as generations. So in order to complete this project, I first began to remove the 2015 that was in camera to get a nice clean backplate.
Above is the cleaned up background. There are definitely some highly visible imperfections that reveal I used the clone/stamp tool to copy and paste elements from the image. With this I wasn't concerned with making it perfect since I knew the new F-150 would cover up those imperfections. The next task was to find a different in-house photograph of a 2011 F-150 at a similar angle that would fit my scene.
Not only is a close angle important when compositing, it is crucial to use images with similar lighting and environments. The 2011 F-150 above had similar elements and as you can see is also outside on gravel, surrounded by trees. After retouching the truck and clipping it out, it fit pretty nicely in the scene.
After retouching the truck and clipping it out, it fit pretty nicely in the scene above. I made sure to take the shadow from the original image and tweaked it slightly so it lined up well with the new 2011 F-150.
Above shows the upper and lower grille mods that I also added to this truck to transform it and make it look more unique than other modded trucks we have shown in our previous campaigns.
Finally, I use the same layer that includes the foreground grass in this composite as I had in the 2015 version to make it a complete and finalized image to use for the spring campaign. Compared to where we started with the original 2015 photograph, I think both vehicles turned out well visually and fit the campaign direction nicely.
The top image was the initial rough concept to represent spring mods. This is a photo with a few Camera Raw adjustments that was taken by our in-house photography team. One of the first edits I made to this image in order to make it feel very seasonal, was to remove the one boat with the tarp. I also tidied up the environment to remove any distracting pieces.
Now that the majority of the environment was cleaned up and feeling seasonal, my next step was to focus on the F-150. Since AmericanMuscle is an aftermarket automotive business, it would make sense that the truck be a bit more modded than when it was photographed. Our vehicles tend to transform over time with mods and at times they appear less modded than others. When a vehicle appears to be less modded, it doesn't hurt to add a few in post that transform the entire look of the vehicle.
Above you can see the addition of the upper and lower grille on the 2015 F-150. Essentially, I could call this composite complete and begin placing it in the variety of web, email and display templates along with the campaign copy, however I decided to take it a step further below with some foreground elements.
One of the nicest additions one could make to a photo composite is foreground elements that fit within the depth of field with the photograph. I chose to add some greenery to the bottom left of this image that matched the out of focus boat. These blurred out blades of grass overlap the front tire of the F-150 to make the overall image more convincing (especially for when I show you the next F-150 year that was not shot in camera). I personally thought more green would only help the overall concept of spring for this campaign.
Finally, this 2015 image is ready to be placed in the variety of templates, however the project is not complete until the image is made generationally. Currently AmericanMuscle sells products for 2015-2016 F-150s and also 2009-2014 F-150s. Those products represent two very distinct body styles that we refer to as generations. So in order to complete this project, I first began to remove the 2015 that was in camera to get a nice clean backplate.
Above is the cleaned up background. There are definitely some highly visible imperfections that reveal I used the clone/stamp tool to copy and paste elements from the image. With this I wasn't concerned with making it perfect since I knew the new F-150 would cover up those imperfections. The next task was to find a different in-house photograph of a 2011 F-150 at a similar angle that would fit my scene.
Not only is a close angle important when compositing, it is crucial to use images with similar lighting and environments. The 2011 F-150 above had similar elements and as you can see is also outside on gravel, surrounded by trees. After retouching the truck and clipping it out, it fit pretty nicely in the scene.
After retouching the truck and clipping it out, it fit pretty nicely in the scene above. I made sure to take the shadow from the original image and tweaked it slightly so it lined up well with the new 2011 F-150.
Above shows the upper and lower grille mods that I also added to this truck to transform it and make it look more unique than other modded trucks we have shown in our previous campaigns.
Finally, I use the same layer that includes the foreground grass in this composite as I had in the 2015 version to make it a complete and finalized image to use for the spring campaign. Compared to where we started with the original 2015 photograph, I think both vehicles turned out well visually and fit the campaign direction nicely.
April 05, 2016
F-150s at AmericanMuscle
AmericanMuscle recently added F-150 aftermarket parts to their line of products and the amount of creative has definitely skyrocketed in a good way. I can definitely say that I am proud of the print catalogs and web graphics that we continue to pump out of the creative department. The quality has increased along with quantity, so be sure to check out the F-150 portion of our site. One of the most recent F-150 projects I have designed that is currently the large homepage banner is Top Spring Mods. The blue 2011 F-150 is an in-house photograph that I retouched and added some additional spring elements in the foreground. Our 2011 was photographed primarily stock, so I composited one of our aftermarket upper and lower grilles onto the front. From there I wanted to make a 2015 version so I removed the 2011 in Photoshop to create a back plate, found a similar red 2015 angle and composited that into the scene. With some lighting/contrast/reflection adjustments and of course a new shadow, I believe the 2015 fits in as nicely as the 2011. The 2015 also has aftermarket upper and lower grilles added to appeal to our modding customers. Below are the images of the two generations of F-150 trucks.
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