My coro snowpeople :)
- Thread starter ShellNZ
- Start date
kevr
Full time elf
Great job they look fantastic!!
Would love to see a "How To" and have a bash at some for the display.
Kev
Would love to see a "How To" and have a bash at some for the display.
Kev
ShellNZ
Senior elf
- Thread starter
- #18
Thanks log, they look better in real life than my iphone video thankfully
Kev...I shall try a how-to, here goes...
HOW TO MAKE CORO-PEOPLE OR CORO-ANY PICTURE
1. Find some basic pictures that you like and save. Doesnt have to be any particular size, though the bigger the less pixelation when blown up.
2. Go to http://www.blockposters.com. Put your picture in, decide how big you want it. I only had halfsheets of white coro so I had to fiddle around with my sizing to get it to fit each character on (hence snowladys liposuction). If you have a full sheet of coro then you can basically make it any size you want. It will then blow up the picture that is spread across a grid of A4 sheets. Download and save the PDF that it creates then print out.
3. Once printed out you will need to put it together. You will see that when piecing the puzzle together you will need to trim some edges. Cellotape the puzzle together piece by piece then cutout the picture.
4. You can do the next step 2 different ways. First you cellotape the cutout picture onto the coro and draw the outline with pencil. Then you can either you can draw the inner lines freehand or you can also turn the picture over and using a thick pencil rub over the outlines, then turn over, cellotape in place, get a pen and draw over the outlines. The pencil will of course then rub onto the coro
5. I used both a stanley knife and a hotknife to cut it out, pretty much ended up using the stanley knife permanently as the hotknife leaves a bit of a melted mess around the edges.
6. I then got the medium tack adhesive tape which I purchased from signwriter. Its a bit like masking tape but thinner. If you have purchased signwriting vinyl then just grab a roll of tape from them. Pick a part of the body that you want to start on. Lightly lay a piece of adhesive tape big enough to cover the part on your drawn paper character. Try not to press down too hard when tracing the design. Stick your tape that has drawing on it onto the color vinyl of your choice and cut the shape out with the adhesive still stuck on it. Do this for all the parts of your character/drawing.
7. Get a water spray bottle and a squeegee, or a hand works just as well. Very lightly spray the first shape area with water then carefully peel off the back of the signwriting vinyl and stick onto the coro. Press from side to side with the squeegee. Then do the next shape one by one, leaving each one for a couple of minutes to adhere before peeling off the mediumtack adhesive thats still on top of it. Give it a bit of a rub with your finger afterwards to make sure its stuck well. The water spray does 2 things, allows you to reposition easily and you also are unlikely to get air bubbles under the vinyl.
8. After putting all parts on and peeling off the tack adhesive sit back and smile and know yer at least halfway.
9. Cut 3" strips of black coro lengthwise so the ridges of the coro are horizontal on the strip. You will now need to bend the strips. Heres a snipit of David from Holidaycoro cutting the bends for the candy canes.
VimeUhOh
You will be doing the same thing but of course may need to bend the other way as well, going by the bends of the shape you chose. You will likely need quite a few lengths of coro to get around the whole shape.
10. You will need quite a few lengths of coro to get around the whole shape. I found its best to cut and glue/silicon it down strip by strip rather than cut ALL the strip first as you kinda get lost as to which one bends which way. From here just silicon and/or hotglue down in place. Unlike the candy canes I did where I was trying to get the sides perfectly on the edges with these I just made them close to the edges. When light is on inside you will see shadowing if you have it too far out from the edges though.
11. Place your coro-character with sides onto the black coro and trace around the edge. I just used a pencil as on black it does show up. You can either make it perfect size or have the black backing an inch or so bigger so that you can hang it somewhere. Cut out the black coro.
12. Next I cut a hole at the bottom of the black backing for the connector to go through.
I used dumbRGB strips that I had in different lengths. Slice and dice the strips and stick them onto the black backing. I only use approx 1.5m-2m of strip per character as strip is pretty bright. I then got 4wire cable and just soldered the strips one by one. This is where I really wish I had of remembered to take a picture of all the strip in place and glued down....I was on a roll so completely forgot. I basically just put a few vertical strips up the large areas then a small bit of strip up the arms.
13. Next be sure to test the lights are all working and you have soldered the wires onto right colors e.g R, G, B and +12v. I used just a spare power supply (it was actually a PS3 power supply) to touch the solder and make sure they were all working and turning the right colors.
14. As hotglue dries too quickly I used silicon to glue the coro-characters down to the backing. Once dry bobs yer uncle!!!
IMG 1589 on Vimeo
Kev...I shall try a how-to, here goes...
HOW TO MAKE CORO-PEOPLE OR CORO-ANY PICTURE
1. Find some basic pictures that you like and save. Doesnt have to be any particular size, though the bigger the less pixelation when blown up.
2. Go to http://www.blockposters.com. Put your picture in, decide how big you want it. I only had halfsheets of white coro so I had to fiddle around with my sizing to get it to fit each character on (hence snowladys liposuction). If you have a full sheet of coro then you can basically make it any size you want. It will then blow up the picture that is spread across a grid of A4 sheets. Download and save the PDF that it creates then print out.
3. Once printed out you will need to put it together. You will see that when piecing the puzzle together you will need to trim some edges. Cellotape the puzzle together piece by piece then cutout the picture.
4. You can do the next step 2 different ways. First you cellotape the cutout picture onto the coro and draw the outline with pencil. Then you can either you can draw the inner lines freehand or you can also turn the picture over and using a thick pencil rub over the outlines, then turn over, cellotape in place, get a pen and draw over the outlines. The pencil will of course then rub onto the coro
5. I used both a stanley knife and a hotknife to cut it out, pretty much ended up using the stanley knife permanently as the hotknife leaves a bit of a melted mess around the edges.
6. I then got the medium tack adhesive tape which I purchased from signwriter. Its a bit like masking tape but thinner. If you have purchased signwriting vinyl then just grab a roll of tape from them. Pick a part of the body that you want to start on. Lightly lay a piece of adhesive tape big enough to cover the part on your drawn paper character. Try not to press down too hard when tracing the design. Stick your tape that has drawing on it onto the color vinyl of your choice and cut the shape out with the adhesive still stuck on it. Do this for all the parts of your character/drawing.
7. Get a water spray bottle and a squeegee, or a hand works just as well. Very lightly spray the first shape area with water then carefully peel off the back of the signwriting vinyl and stick onto the coro. Press from side to side with the squeegee. Then do the next shape one by one, leaving each one for a couple of minutes to adhere before peeling off the mediumtack adhesive thats still on top of it. Give it a bit of a rub with your finger afterwards to make sure its stuck well. The water spray does 2 things, allows you to reposition easily and you also are unlikely to get air bubbles under the vinyl.
8. After putting all parts on and peeling off the tack adhesive sit back and smile and know yer at least halfway.
9. Cut 3" strips of black coro lengthwise so the ridges of the coro are horizontal on the strip. You will now need to bend the strips. Heres a snipit of David from Holidaycoro cutting the bends for the candy canes.
VimeUhOh
You will be doing the same thing but of course may need to bend the other way as well, going by the bends of the shape you chose. You will likely need quite a few lengths of coro to get around the whole shape.
10. You will need quite a few lengths of coro to get around the whole shape. I found its best to cut and glue/silicon it down strip by strip rather than cut ALL the strip first as you kinda get lost as to which one bends which way. From here just silicon and/or hotglue down in place. Unlike the candy canes I did where I was trying to get the sides perfectly on the edges with these I just made them close to the edges. When light is on inside you will see shadowing if you have it too far out from the edges though.
11. Place your coro-character with sides onto the black coro and trace around the edge. I just used a pencil as on black it does show up. You can either make it perfect size or have the black backing an inch or so bigger so that you can hang it somewhere. Cut out the black coro.
12. Next I cut a hole at the bottom of the black backing for the connector to go through.
I used dumbRGB strips that I had in different lengths. Slice and dice the strips and stick them onto the black backing. I only use approx 1.5m-2m of strip per character as strip is pretty bright. I then got 4wire cable and just soldered the strips one by one. This is where I really wish I had of remembered to take a picture of all the strip in place and glued down....I was on a roll so completely forgot. I basically just put a few vertical strips up the large areas then a small bit of strip up the arms.
13. Next be sure to test the lights are all working and you have soldered the wires onto right colors e.g R, G, B and +12v. I used just a spare power supply (it was actually a PS3 power supply) to touch the solder and make sure they were all working and turning the right colors.
14. As hotglue dries too quickly I used silicon to glue the coro-characters down to the backing. Once dry bobs yer uncle!!!
IMG 1589 on Vimeo
DeeJai
Is that Magic Smoke?!?
would love to know what kind of vinyl and where you got it from etc.
ShellNZ
Senior elf
- Thread starter
- #21
Hmmm, at a guess....a day or so for each one.
The Snowkids are just 1 prop, the kids are joined, so theres only 3 there.
Matt, the signwriting vinyl is 75micron, there are heavier but really no need for the cost difference.
This is the place I got mine from...
http://www.trademe.co.nz/business-farming-industry/retail-hospitality/signage/vinyl/auction-588052486.htm
This is the medium tack adhesive tape.
I grabbed the 210mm width.
Heres what Ive found on ebay aussie so far - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-X-SIGN-VINYL-ROLL-FILM-CUTTING-PLOTTER-choose-colour-/330584194857?pt=AU_Business_Industrial_Printing_Equipment&hash=item4cf85a7f29
You could ask them if you could have a metre each of diff colors. As mentioned I only got a metre of each color and pretty much have near the whole lot left. Used about 5cm of each color.
The Snowkids are just 1 prop, the kids are joined, so theres only 3 there.
Matt, the signwriting vinyl is 75micron, there are heavier but really no need for the cost difference.
This is the place I got mine from...
http://www.trademe.co.nz/business-farming-industry/retail-hospitality/signage/vinyl/auction-588052486.htm
This is the medium tack adhesive tape.
I grabbed the 210mm width.
Heres what Ive found on ebay aussie so far - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-X-SIGN-VINYL-ROLL-FILM-CUTTING-PLOTTER-choose-colour-/330584194857?pt=AU_Business_Industrial_Printing_Equipment&hash=item4cf85a7f29
You could ask them if you could have a metre each of diff colors. As mentioned I only got a metre of each color and pretty much have near the whole lot left. Used about 5cm of each color.
kel
Dedicated elf
I'm heading to BNE/Ipswich on Friday to pick up some corflute and vinyl (oh, and to go the the M&G at Steve's place) ... looking f'wrd to attempting this or similar project
Thanks for the 'How to'
Thanks for the 'How to'
I made myself a couple of characters (and a few extra items) thanks to this thread. While I was making them, I thought about the possibility of saving time and just getting the completed figures printed from a signwriter and stuck onto the corflute.
Today I went into a sign-o-rama store, and showed them the pics on my phone. I asked about the cost for 1 figure or 60cm * 90cm and the cost to print was just under $80. When I asked about printing 10 of them, the cost was the same. The lady said that because the printer is so wide, they have to waste the same amount on a roll to print 1 as printing 10. I then asked how much to provide the stickers already stuck onto 5mm corflute, and the total cost for 10 characters 60 * 90 cm worked out to just under $200 (making each character $20 each). You would still need the black corflute rear and sides, plus the purchase of the EPS files (about $5-7 each) and then lights to put in (set of 20 modules from Ray = $12).
I have probably spent around 5-7 hours on each character from printing, tracing the back, tracing again onto the corflute, going over it with permanent marker, then tracing the adhesive, then cutting the colour and sticking it on,.
I've already reached my quota for corflute for this year, but this may help others that may want to take the easy road instead.
Today I went into a sign-o-rama store, and showed them the pics on my phone. I asked about the cost for 1 figure or 60cm * 90cm and the cost to print was just under $80. When I asked about printing 10 of them, the cost was the same. The lady said that because the printer is so wide, they have to waste the same amount on a roll to print 1 as printing 10. I then asked how much to provide the stickers already stuck onto 5mm corflute, and the total cost for 10 characters 60 * 90 cm worked out to just under $200 (making each character $20 each). You would still need the black corflute rear and sides, plus the purchase of the EPS files (about $5-7 each) and then lights to put in (set of 20 modules from Ray = $12).
I have probably spent around 5-7 hours on each character from printing, tracing the back, tracing again onto the corflute, going over it with permanent marker, then tracing the adhesive, then cutting the colour and sticking it on,.
I've already reached my quota for corflute for this year, but this may help others that may want to take the easy road instead.
mborg10
Michael Borg
I'm glad you said you copied the idea cause I'm going to copy it. The guy who sits next to me does sign writing on the side and has a computerized cutter for the vinyl. As long as I draw it up in cad he will cut it for me. I might just do 1 character and make like 8 of the same. I'm thinking penguin
Damicka10 said:
The only other issue with getting the lot printed is its done on white adhesive. Should be ok over the corflute, but may reduce the light a little. It's easier to spend a couple of $$ on buying the eps file that someone has already drawn. You could still edit it to change the colours around.
mborg10
Michael Borg
burner said:
It won't be printed it will be cut so each color will have to be stuck on separately. I looked at a penguin cause it has a big white belly and big white eyes with some black on the sides. Shouldn't block touch light with white coro. I'm a draftsman so cadding it up for the cutter is no issue.