Quote Originally Posted by Eddie_the_Hated View Post
Hey Space, got a couple questions about your vynil decal technique. I'm a visual thinker, so sometimes the explanation isn't enough.

A certain somebody pointed me in the direction of a vynil decal source, but I'm uncertain about how exactly to go about deciding what to send to him.

First question. If I want a photograph/film clip/complex drawing turned into a template, will I have to alter my photo to polarize it, so it can be turned into a decal, or does that all get taken care of on his end?

IE. What did you send out to get

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...aveVersion.jpg

That.

Second question, I'm having a hard time visualizing the templates themselves, especially on some of your multicolored, higher-detail pieces.

IE, for your Galaxy plate, did you get a "Super Mario Galaxy" relef decal [solid vynil with text cut out], and then smaller sticker-style decals for the letters? How do you go about doing that? Any photos, even just a few decals laid out, so I can see how you go about that would be greatly appreciated.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...LegoandSMG.jpg
Shockwave first. I got his pic that he photoshopped for his avatar:


I played with the contrast until I got it so it was only black and white with no grays:


Then finally, I had to go into the picture and remove some of the detail or the vinyl cutter could never have cut it.


I peeled out the parts of the sticker that look white in the pic (they whole sticker was black vinyl). I used transfer tape to put it onto a black-painted plate, sprayed it white, let it dry, and removed the sticker to leave the image.

Here's the image I used for SMG:


I painted the the plate white and attached the sticker (the letters weren't removed yet), then painted the plate black. I flicked paint onto the plate with a toothbrush for the stars.

Once dry, I masked off the rest of the plate except the sticker, and then removed the "Super" and "Galaxy" letters and painted them gold. I covered them up again, and then just pulled out the "MARIO" letters one at a time and painted them each with their respective colors. Once those were painted, I removed the sticker to show a white outline with gold letters and multicolored MARIO letters, on a black background with white stars. I sprayed the whole thing with a polyurethane sealer.

I cut a little piece of 3/4" PVC pipe and glued it to the power button, then glued the coin to the top of that. You can't see the pipe and pressing the coin still works the power button.