:::::::::::::::::::BIG CARS:


The first thing I did was open a new picture in Photoshop exactly 4 times the size of the final car.
I drew a flat medium gray version of the car with no details or shading.  Just to get the right proportions.  I use a plugin that automatically makes a mirror image of everything on the left side of the screen.  I have the plug-in set up as a Photoshop action so I can just whack a function key to mirror everything.  You can get the same effect by selecting half the screen, doing a copy and paste the flipping the selection horizontally and moving it into place.  It's worth the time spent looking for the plugin.

:::::::::::::::::::MIRROR PLUG-IN:

It's part of Filter Factory A and it's called Mirrormirror.  Once it's run you have to set it for 255,255,0,255,255,255,0,255

Next thing to do is do the windshields.  Usually I make them with the angular lasso tool and I fill them in with dark gray.  Don't make them totally black or you won't be able to dodge them later.  Just make them really dark gray.

Next is the seams.  Just use the line tool set to a single pixel.  You'll have to draw the lines over and over to make them dark enough, but using a 2 pixel brush kind of sucks.  Add a grill if applicable and rough out where the headlights go.  Keep mirroring the image the whole time to make sure it looks right.

Once you're satisfied with it, you can move on to preliminary shading.  Remember, the car shouldn't be too white.  A medium gray will be easier to shade.

:::::::::::::::::::FRONT SHADING:

No colour yet!

The trick with this step is to do as much shading as you can while you're still able to mirror the car.  Obviously you can't shade from the side yet since you're still going to be mirroring the car for a while.  So, use the dodge and burn tools to make it look like the light is coming from the FRONT.  Don't make the light so intense that the back bumper is totally black.  Pay close attentions to the seams (trunk lines, door frame)  Use a small brush to dodge and burn it so the seams look 3D. Sometimes I cheat and use the line tool with white (low opacity) to make the seams stand out.  Remember that the light source isn't directly in front of the car, it's above the car a bit.  Don't just brighten up the front of the hood ; figure out where the light would reflect upwards off the hood.  Same goes for the roof.  Shadows?  Don't go too dark yet, save that for later when you can't mirror anymore (you are mirroring the car once in a while, right?)
Don't shade the windshield yet.  You can use dodge to make the appearance of a dashboard and some stuff for the rear window.  Don't go too crazy with the detail, it should just look like a suggestion of something being there. 

No colour yet!

Okay, last chance to fix everything up before you can stop mirroring the car.

Now...  No more mirroring! 

:::::::::::::::::::SIDE SHADING:

It's time to do the side shading.  Use the dodge and burn tools to make the car look 3D.  I prefer making the left light, but some prefer the right.

You can dodge the windshield, but don't make it too glossy yet.  Just make it look like a frosted window for now.  Now you can add any cast shadows that might be needed. 

On certain kinds of cars you'll have to do some 'sculpting'.  For example, a hood with a geometric shape like a Dodge Daytona will need some work to make it look 3D.  Go in and shade the details.  Add highlights on the seams, cast shadows if applicable and shine everything up.

Does it look great yet?  Oh yeah, it's still gray.

:::::::::::::::::::COLOUR:

Use the paintbrush in 'color mode' along with the colour your choice and a big fat brush and paint over the whole car.  Windows and all, just paint it all over.

Select black and colour in the chrome with your 'color mode brush'.  It'll end up looking like dull pewter, but that'll be remedied later.

You can do the same with the windows unless you want them to be tinted.

Now your car should look like it's made out of anodized aluminum.

:::::::::::::::::::HUE SHIFT:

The first thing to do is crank the saturation down a bit.  Still looks like it's made of coloured foil, right?

A common problem with a lot of cars is coloured highlights.  Cars are usually painted, right?  Paint has white highlights, not coloured.  With metallic paint, the colour stays saturated around the highlight.  Sometimes metallic paint causes a bit of a hue shift 'halo' around the highlights.  If you don't want the paint to look metallic, don't do the hue shift.

Choose image, adjust, replace color.  Select the brightest paint colour such as the highlight on the hood.  Set fuzziness to about 40 and play with the hue setting.  Don't shift the hue more than +25 or -25 or it'll look goofy.  Sometimes it looks better when you raise or lower the saturation.  Using the same technique, you can give the paint a 'rich metallic' look if you shift the hue a bit on the shadows.  It works really well when you're trying to make 'hunter green' if you shift the shadows toward blue a bit.  If you want candy apple red, shift the highlights toward yellow and the shadow just slightly towards purple.

:::::::::::::::::::HIGHLIGHTS:

The first thing to do is turn down the brightness on the whole car.  It seems like a strange thing to do, but just crank the whole thing down.  Use image, adjust, brightness/contrast and crank that baby down.  Now you should have a dull tin foil car.
For an example of this have a look at the alrge image included with my Dukes Of Hazzard car.  For some reason I didn't save a large version with the highlights but you can see what it looks like without the white highlights.  It looks like it's been sitting in a driveway for 6 years covered in dust. (I do a hue shift because the dukes car doesn't have metallic paint)

Use the airbrush in normal mode with pure white.  Only use NON-FUZZY BRUSHES!  The top row of brushes, not the nice fuzzy 
ones.
Make pure white highlights.  Think about where you'd see a nice big blob shaped highlight and put it there.  Don't go totally out of control with these things.  You can use the smudge tool SPARINGLY.  Don't blur them out too much, they should have nice hard edges.  If you dodge around the highlights with a fuzzy brush you can make the metallic halo around the highlights that I mentioned earlier. Do some highlights on some of the seams, but don't go too crazy on them.  You don't want them to look like they're sticking out a mile. While you're at it, do a nice glossy highlight on the windshield.  When you shade a windshield, think about how the glass curves.  Some windshields are like a bubble, some are flat and most modern cars look like a truncated cone.

:::::::::::::::::::CHROME:

Now you can make the chrome look like real chrome.  Use big tacky highlights, but don't make those dodge halos around them.  Use the smudge tool to smudge the highlights along chrome bumpers.  Make small highlights in directions other that the light source on the rear chrome bumper if applicable so the bumper isn't totally shrouded in darkness.

:::::::::::::::::::KILL DEEP SHADOWS:

Almost done.  Use a giant dodge brush on the back of the car if the shadows are too deep.

:::::::::::::::::::SHRINK & SHARPEN:

Save your large version somewhere then shrink the picture to a quarter the size, sharpen if desired, convert to 8 bit and you're done.   Wait a minute.  The palette's a bit messed up, isn't it.  Use an 8 bit program such as Pro-Motion (www.cosmigo.com) to repair the transparency that Photoshop always messes up and do some emergency clean up.

I won't go into detail about making deltas because there are instructions elsewhere on this topic.

Cheerz,
Ray Larabie