Ms Pacman Stencil update...

[More Cowbell]

I may be in for a set despite being disgusted at Joymonkey for his non-slacking. 

[JoyMonkey]

I'm slacking as hard as I can, I swear. Watch this...






























... see?

[ChadTower]

I think the mushrooms on my salad are weird.  I swear the coconut in your avatar is staring at me.

[JoyMonkey]

Honestly, I am working on it.
Getting the black layers to a stage that's usable for stencils is a lot of work though. There's a lot of vector artifacts and various layers in most artwork that you don't notice; these aren't usually a problem for print media, but for vinyl overlays or paint-stencils I need to make sure each color layer looks perfect in its bare wireframe view.

[ChadTower]

We have faith.  Make sure when you finish you build a reasonble profit margin into the price... would this project be better off in a smaller forum?

[JoyMonkey]

Done for one night...

[WunderCade]

I agree with Chad about pricing. You're probably going to get slammed with orders and if the profit isn't decent, offering these will get old quick. We've all been waiting so long, so we respect the need to make it worth your while.
  

[WunderCade]

Done for one night...

 

<caped emoticon with big S on chest>  JoyMonkey.

Wow Bro!!! 

[ChadTower]

It's clean.  It's cold.  That's high quality H2O.

WunderCade, he's doing all the work upfront... once that is done it will be a matter of just getting cutting time to make more stencils... it's old now, but once he has one, he can make a bunch more without much more trouble.  I'm more worried about it getting unwanted attention and getting him a bit of trouble.

[WunderCade]

It's clean.  It's cold.  That's high quality H2O.

WunderCade, he's doing all the work upfront... once that is done it will be a matter of just getting cutting time to make more stencils... it's old now, but once he has one, he can make a bunch more without much more trouble.  I'm more worried about it getting unwanted attention and getting him a bit of trouble.

Kewl

[ChadTower]

A vinyl cutter like him at a sign shop like his?   He is local to me.   

[WunderCade]

I'm actually getting goosebumps at the thought of finally getting some stencils to finish this project. People talk about their Holy Grail....I thinks these stencils have been on many peoples' wish list for a long, long time now.

[JoyMonkey]

I finished the stencil artwork today and did a test run of the yellow layer with a spray-can on a scrap piece of melamine. The stencil worked perfectly, but I really suck at spray-painting (went a little too heavy in some areas).
I'll try to get the pink and black test layers done this week.

[WunderCade]

I finished the stencil artwork today and did a test run of the yellow layer with a spray-can on a scrap piece of melamine. The stencil worked perfectly, but I really suck at spray-painting (went a little too heavy in some areas).
I'll try to get the pink and black test layers done this week.

Your the man.
 

[ChadTower]

I finished the stencil artwork today and did a test run of the yellow layer with a spray-can on a scrap piece of melamine. The stencil worked perfectly, but I really suck at spray-painting (went a little too heavy in some areas).
I'll try to get the pink and black test layers done this week.

Awesome!   

[JoyMonkey]

[shardian]

Awesome work Joymonkey. It would be really neat if you could overthrow twobits as the exclusive supplier of Namco stuff since your stuff is better.

[JoyMonkey]

I'm not trying to compete against anyone; these are just a few sets of stencils to help out of couple of people that would prefer to go the hardcore stencil/paint route rather than prints.

Edit:
And I wouldn't necessarily say that these stencils are 'better' than TwoBits prints; it's a just a different way of going about it.

[ChadTower]

Dude, seriously, give it up for Sammy the Salmon.  That video is awesome.   

I need to get an actual Ms Pac cab now... the empty Pac cab I have won't cut it.  Gotta be real.

[shardian]

Do you have an idea of a price point yet?

[JoyMonkey]

Do you have an idea of a price point yet?

It should run at about $100 per set (includes 2 sides and 1 front, 3 layers each), though I'll need to do a few more tests to be sure.
Some vinyl masks are prone to slight shrinkage - that's not good news for multi-layer artwork like this since I've only got 1/32" tolerance between colors - so I'll have to test out a couple of different masks and see which one shrinks less.
I'll need to take deposits to help fund the initial cost of materials. Once I finish the tests and determine which paint-mask to use, I'll post the final price.

[ChadTower]

I'll need to take deposits to help fund the initial cost of materials. Once I finish the tests and determine which paint-mask to use, I'll post the final price.

I'm in, so let us know how much and when, and you'll start getting deposits.

[More Cowbell]

Looking good, JM. Those will make some amazing cabinet art. 

[WunderCade]

The video...

[WCBoudreaux]

Just an update... I'm all in! Let me know when you're ready for the deposit, or full amount whichever, and I'll paypal it over to you... I'm DEFINATELY in on this one!

 

Love the vid by the way... Damn song is stuck in my head now... Thanks! 

[JoyMonkey]

The pink layer tested good, but it'll be the black layer that confirms if everything is working together okay. The yellow and pink layers might need to be adjusted because the teeny 1/32" tolerance between colors might be too little, but we'll see later today...

[WunderCade]

That looks pretty good. Is the problem that the pink needs to be painted separate from,  instead of overlapping - the yellow?

  ...good work bro. Nothing like it anywhere else.

[Zeno]

 

[JoyMonkey]

The black stencil turned out fine too 
I rushed the paint-job though (I suck) and here's a few things I did wrong...

The pink paint I chose didn't like being painted straight onto the melamine surface (which I didn't clean beforehand either). My pink layer was too light, I peeled the pink stencil too late and I didn't let it sit long enough before doing the black layer on top of it (I probably had two hours between the pink and black stencils). So it lifted a little with the pink stencil and then removing the black stencil lifted more of the pink areas.
The black layer's vinyl took a long time to prep and I rushed it and the paint-job. As a result I missed a couple of spots where the stencil wasn't fully stuck down and ended up with some under-spray.

I'll include a few small test stencils with the sets, so everyone can do a test before tackling the real thing.

Anyways, here's a video of the pink layer...

[rockin_rick]

That looks awesome, great work!

Are you going to be able to achieve the 'fine detail' of the black, such as the 'shading' (the small (roughly) 1/8" x 1/2" 'lines') on the large ms pac's shoes and on the large ghost?

Rick

[JoyMonkey]

That looks awesome, great work!

Are you going to be able to achieve the 'fine detail' of the black, such as the 'shading' (the small (roughly) 1/8" x 1/2" 'lines') on the large ms pac's shoes and on the large ghost?

Rick

The fine black details came out perfectly; I even added a lot of tiny elements that aren't in the artwork currently in the Artwork Library. Once I do some stencil sets for a a few people here and recoup my expenses I'll add my file to the Library.

Edit: One thing I should mention though; because these elements are so small they have a greater chance of lifting when removing the stencil. So the black stencil is probably better off being removed while still wet.
Note to self: wear gloves next time.

[JoyMonkey]

Here's the video of the black layer test:

[rockin_rick]

The fine black details came out perfectly

They sure as hell did!

How long will these keep before being used?  Maybe this is a non-issue but your mentioning of them shrinking just made me wonder if these will shrink/warp over time (and heating/cooling)?  Is cut vinyl better when freshly cut?  I want a set but I don't plan on painting it until next summer (since it's too cold here now).

Rick

[WunderCade]

Not only are you effing amazing at the artwork and stenciling, but the vid handy work was too cool.

Many thank you's JoyMonkey for your hard work and effort here. 

What else is there to say.... you da' man!!!!!

 

[JoyMonkey]

How long will these keep before being used?  Maybe this is a non-issue but your mentioning of them shrinking just made me wonder if these will shrink/warp over time (and heating/cooling)?  Is cut vinyl better when freshly cut?  I want a set but I don't plan on painting it until next summer (since it's too cold here now).

The vinyl I used for the sample probably wouldn't hold up well over a very long period; but then again, if it's stored flat, with the transfer-tape on it and at room temperature it probably won't shrink at all.
I haven't bought the sample vinyls for testing yet, I'm going to get a few different kinds and put them in a fridge to see which one shrinks less and then run with that one. By the time I get these to the shipping stage it'll be pretty cold here, so I'm going to ship them flat (not rolled up in a tube) to be on the safe side too.
I'm not going to offer these after the initial orders are done, but I'll be making the files public so any vinyl sign shop should be able to produce a set easily using my artwork.
So you can get a set from me, keep it stored nicely and it probably won't shrink (I'm not making any guarantees though), or wait until next summer and get your local sign shop to run a set for you.

[Zeno]

Keep up the great work JM.



Zeno

[eccs19]

OK I've got a couple questions. 

1. Are those video's sped up?  I hope so, because you can weed a HELL of a lot faster than I can.     (I've got a small 24" cutter, so I play around a little.

2. The vinyl you use, is it just regular vinyl, or is it a special vinyl specifically for masking?  I've always found that when I put vinyl on, it's a bugger to get off afterwords, so just curious on this subject.

Oh one other thing, Excellent job!  Those look beautiful. When you finally post the files, will you merge them together, or keep each color separate? (Perfect for guy's like me who know little about Illustrator, and have no idea how to separate them.   

[JoyMonkey]

1. Are those video's sped up?  I hope so, because you can weed a HELL of a lot faster than I can.     (I've got a small 24" cutter, so I play around a little.

2. The vinyl you use, is it just regular vinyl, or is it a special vinyl specifically for masking?  I've always found that when I put vinyl on, it's a bugger to get off afterwords, so just curious on this subject.

Oh one other thing, Excellent job!  Those look beautiful. When you finally post the files, will you merge them together, or keep each color separate? (Perfect for guy's like me who know little about Illustrator, and have no idea how to separate them.   

1. The videos are sped up between 150% and 200% in places, but I did really rush these tests and missed a few spots (like the pink area on ghost's right eye). The black layer ended up with far more fine detail than I expected, but the yellow and pink layers are pretty quick to weed.

2. That's Oracal Oramask 810, it's made for stenciling and uses a low-tac adhesive that makes removing it easy. Oracal have a few different types of mask, I think I might end up going for their rigid blue one since I get the impression it'll shrink less than others, and it's perfect for flat surfaces. http://www.oracal.com/products/search-category.asp

3. I'll post the files with each color separated, and another version with them merged together.

Just out of curiosity, what is the timetable you are working on for when these will ship.

I'd say that I should be able to start shipping the first sets by the end of the month, depending on how much free time I can afford to spend on them.
I'm hoping to get some kind of order form today. It'll probably be a simple PayPal thing, but it'd be good if people could let me know if they need the stencils soon or if time isn't an issue, so I can get stencils to the guys that are waiting on them first.

[eccs19]

2. That's Oracal Oramask 810, it's made for stenciling and uses a low-tac adhesive that makes removing it easy. Oracal have a few different types of mask, I think I might end up going for their rigid blue one since I get the impression it'll shrink less than others, and it's perfect for flat surfaces. http://www.oracal.com/products/search-category.asp

I'm going to have to get myself some of that to play with.  Thanks for the info.

[Neilyboy]

this is absoluetly amazing!! joymonkey you are the man.

neil