Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
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Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
Please help. I have asked before and still am a little (actually more than a little) stuck on the graphics end of my design. This is my steps. Is this what everyone uses/does? I currently use photoshop to do the computer graphics end. I would appreciate any advice.
-im having this biggest slow down and problems with my art.
-i draw it on white paper.
-then i put tracing paper over it and copy it.
-then i scratch all on the back of the tracing paper with a pencil.
-then i retrace my lines in order to transfer an image onto nice inking paper.
-then i ink the picture. then i erase the pencil markings. then i scan it.
-and then it looks not so pretty so i clean it up to the best of knowledge.
-then i was planning on retracing with a graphics pen so all my lines were nice smooth graphic lines.
-then i would seperate each layer.
-most likely i was planning on when digitally tracing just starting a new layer everytime i traced a new color.
-then i would have 3 or 4 or whatever layers.
-then printing each onto emulsion paper stuff.
-does that sounds normal/correct in your opinion?
Re: Do You Do All Graphics And Silk Screening Yourself?
Quote:
Is this what everyone uses/does?
Everyone doesn't do the same thing
Some people do all the designing and printing themselves.
Some people just do the designing.
Some people just do the printing.
Some people just come up with the ideas, then send those ideas to a designer, then send those finished designs to a printer.
But as to your other question about your graphic design steps before you print the films, hopefully someone else can answer that. I'll edit the title of your thread a bit so that it matches your question better so people with the answer will be more likely to see it
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Rodney Blackwell - T-ShirtForums.com PrinterListings.com: a place find, rate, and review custom t-shirt printing businesses
Re: Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
Yeah I saw that you edited the title, thanks Rodney for the time and help. I understand everyone does it their own way. By no means am I trying to cut corners, it just seems that what I am doing is taking bloody forever. If it should take a super long time then so be it I have no problem. Basically, I guess, I'm just looking for a little additional advice on everyones steps, in a way, regardless of what part they do. Any pitch-ins will be helpful. As always thanks for your input it means a lot to me for people to give advice. Take care.
-austin
p.s. additional curiosity: Any idea if I should get a graphics pen will it help, or is it pointless? Should I convert the pictures using a filter or something or should I (in your suggestion) trace over the image using some sort of pencil tool with the graphics pen? Keep in mind, in my opinion, my drawings are not bad I spend a lot of time on them and they look near flawless to me. But once scanned I see every little spot where my pen stopped, etc.
Re: Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
If you plan on tracing in the graphics program there is no need for all the tracing. Just scan in your initial drawing and start tracing in the program using the various tools
If you trace your sketch with a good drafting pen on parchment paper you should get a good scan when scanning in as black and white. After tracing to vector you will need to clean up the lines. depending on how wel your trace was as well as the scan.
Re: Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
ok thanks this helps a lot im experimenting with a vector program and toying around with this in between hw breaks, lol. so much college stuff the last two weeks of school. blah. thanks for the advice i appreciate it sounds like a big time saver. i think though that if i ink it how will i seperate my colors once scanned? do i need to ink each color on a different page. like thats why i was tracing. or if i do on the computer then i could create a new layer each time i start tracing a different "color".
Re: Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
if silk screening i just disregard the color though right. so if im going to silk screen a bus, i guess, with yellow bus and black wheels, wont i just make a layer that is pure black and white with the wheels all black. then i would make a layer for the yellow and everything i want yellow i would make black also? will it help if i post an example drawing of what im trying to do and where i stand?
Re: Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
ultimately yes, the plates will need to be black or greyscale in order to print films for burning screens. Normally you create the design in full color and edit/separate later for creating your films. In a nut shell you are correct.
Re: Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
o ok cool. would you suggest seperating my layers (by color) during drawing or on the computer. does it matter which way i do it? in other words i could just draw my original then trace each layer on a seperate sheet of paper then scan. or i could somehow seperate on the computer. also i was trying to you a program called inkscape (similar to illustrator) to somehow convert my scan into nice smooth vector lines. is something like this feasible/possible or would i need to spend a super lot of time learning the program?
also i have access to illustrator on my campus. i have like every program imaginable on all open access labs. is there a way to achieve what i am doing with programs? or should i just purchase a graphics tablet and trace my layers digitally?
i guess thats my main question because if i can do it with some program then it would save me $150. if you think it will be easiest to just get a graphics tablet and do it that way then please suggest so. i just dont want to go out and buy one then 3 months from now figure, hey i could have done this easy using illustrator or something.
thanks for all the help and advice. im happy im at least grasping this all. [:
Re: Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
If you have access to Adobe Illustrator cs2 you may want to fool around with the new live trace feature. It allows you to change bit map to vector in a snap. I've been getting into it my self and I'm actually starting to get pretty good results. You want to start with a nice dark drawing scan it in and bump up the contrast in photoshop if need be. Then place it in a new project in Illus. Live trace has several presets and you can try them all but I have found Black and white logo works pretty well.You can see instently what your image will look like with preview on. Once you get it close to what you want click on expand and you will see all the paths around each vectored shape. And then the not so fun part you get to go in and fix any areas that look funky.Make sure to work on a new layer when making ajustments. The simplyfy path command comes in handy.
Re: Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2kids2cats
If you have access to Adobe Illustrator cs2 you may want to fool around with the new live trace feature. It allows you to change bit map to vector in a snap. I've been getting into it my self and I'm actually starting to get pretty good results. You want to start with a nice dark drawing scan it in and bump up the contrast in photoshop if need be. Then place it in a new project in Illus. Live trace has several presets and you can try them all but I have found Black and white logo works pretty well.You can see instently what your image will look like with preview on. Once you get it close to what you want click on expand and you will see all the paths around each vectored shape. And then the not so fun part you get to go in and fix any areas that look funky.Make sure to work on a new layer when making ajustments. The simplyfy path command comes in handy.
thanks for the superb advice. answered my curriosity and showed me how to get started thanks a bunch i will start fooling around with it.
This is a discussion about Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion? that was posted in the Graphics and Design Help section of the forums.
Steps from design on paper to printing films / emulsion? 
Re: Do You Do All Graphics And Silk Screening Yourself? 
