Photoshop to printing is fairly challenging... If your wondering about print sizing for "precision" go here:
http://auctionrepair.com/pixels.htmlI have seen all sorts of things printed and what usually stands true is anything at 300 DPI with width of over 1000px X 600px can be nearly printed at any size... The Teletran stuff is sitting at 200DPI so should easily work even as big as 20"x30" or even bigger... (Resolution is over 3000px wide on some of these...) I would recommend if your really going for quality do it through a good printer. MPIX Pro or even attempting at home on a nice laser jet... (You can get paper that prints larger than 8x10's...) Walmart/Walgreens/SAMs tend to skip colors and often times reduces quality before printing...
I am probably going to look at two scales... With the unfortunate nature of Transformers Scale seems to be in three fold. Legends (Works well with Metroplex...) Deluxe (Which happens to me more favorable to me...) and then Human Alliance / Leader / Master Piece (Seems to fit on its own scale)
So yea probably do a Deluxe scale, and then a Leader / MP Scale. Though I may change the colors a bit to be more grayscale / more metal based.
What I want to avoid in my displays is making the "Toys" seem "Fake" or not "fit." Having seen them stand up against Styrofoam painted, and other sets that are way to "real" makes the toys look really fake, and even cheap... There is a guy on Transformers Columbia who has an awesome display that he has been working on that he has made out of Styrofoam and other materials, but my only compliant is G1 Omega Supreme looks really bad up against it. (In my opinion most of the G1 toys look pretty bad due to lack of paint / color choices... Which is probably where something like the backgrounds on tfw2005 would help...)
I am going to look at taking two fold routes here -
1) Plastic such as VHS tapes, Chain Bases (For parts that need more details)
2) Styrofoam for more detailed sections but painted with a heavy metallic paint.
3) "FLAT" paper printed (Glossy might shine to much if photographed or to much light is thrown at it...) using this for backgrounds and certain details...
I am still researching LED's I did just purchase 500 LED's for $8.50 (Thank you Hong Kong / Ebay!) Power sources are a bit funny when it comes to electrical. I have a few electrician friends, and engineering friends I am going to hit up on this very subject. Whatever I make needs a power source with a few switches... Initially thinking sticking with 9v batteries as that way I do not risk burning my house down to badly...
For my Space Bridge I am looking at couple options at the moment (Thinking BIG... 12" - 18") A company sells a liquid material that is for model kits that you can do all sorts of work with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1BX4OI9rtk I actually had similar idea as you to start with a base graphic and then use this liquid on top of it to give it a bit more "depth." Along with placing an LED light source (Even defusing it so floods the whole water/interior piece...) and some sort of rotating motor (not sure what I will use yet, but there is some kits out there that can accomplish this...) Concept would be to be able to remove this piece in the event I do not want the bridge "on."
The bridge structure part I am looking at card board or styrofoam.
Picture below is first draft at it. Thinking about doing more "points" to go from 1 to 9. (Cybertronian numbers...) In the picture I did 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9... I need to pick myself up some graph paper too line up my straight lines a bit better... (This is what I do when its coloring time with my kids!)
Cobotron wrote:KnightAero, this is awesome. I glanced over it the first time you posted. I down loaded it last night. Thanks.
What scale are you going for? This prints at a size that is perfect for MP's and Alternators, but I'm going for Classics scale-ish. You wouldn't happen to know anything about sizing in photoshop, would you? I use it all the time to draw and paint,but unfortunately I know very little about sizing things.
I'm also wondering about plug in power sources for LEDs. That vid you put up used a PC power source, which is a good, cheap method, but the thing takes up a lot of shelf space. Any insight there?
KnightAero wrote:Nice! I still haven't had the time to go out and look. I did draw some designs for a Star Gate / Space Bridge... My new concept is to have a bridge between "Cybertron" and "Earth" to break up the displays into parts.
Ill post some stuff later that I found recently on this "Space Bridge" idea...
This sounds AMAZING.
I was thinking about a space bridge too. I definitely want to have a door in the back. I was thinking either one of those cool toon backgrounds or trying to find a screen grab of the Space Bridge from the Prime cartoon. You know the way it opens right in the doorway of their base? Also thought it would be cool to print the image on acetate or heavy paper and back light it with an LED.