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Larry Bratton
04-17-2007, 6:49 PM
Here is the latest black marble plaque I just finished. I made this for my wife to send to her friend in Canada's family. The pictured lady passed away from lung cancer last year. The engraving turned out pretty nice with the exception of one detail. If you look closely on the front of her head, you will notice a faint white line. I power clipped the photo to get rid of the infamous white box. Although it supposedly put all of the bitmap in the container, it left a tiny bit out. I fixed it with a black sharpie before it went out. I filled the lettering with acrylic artist paint to make the white pop out. It did :D .

David Harvey
04-17-2007, 7:06 PM
Larry, that is probably one of the 'better' engravings I've seen on marble. Congratulations on a fine job. I'm sure it will be treasured!

Thanks for showing...

Joe Pelonio
04-17-2007, 7:11 PM
Very nice work, Larry. Black sharpie, the laser's friend.

Mike Null
04-17-2007, 9:16 PM
That's about the best I've seen. Would you mind telling us how you went about it?

Frank Corker
04-17-2007, 9:23 PM
Yep that is a nice job. Sometimes those edges need to be there to give the final finish. Looks brilliant, I'm sure the girl that passed would have been happy for that as a permanent reminder

Larry Bratton
04-17-2007, 10:26 PM
coming from all you guys that are real pros. I appreciate it.

Frank,FYI, the lady was from the UK but lived and passed in Canada. I think she would have liked it.

The process. First the photo was sent electronically via e-mail. It was good resolution. I resampled it to 300dpi first. Converted it to 8bit GS. It was color originally. I resized it to fit what I wanted on the plaque (knowing you can't resize after you process with Photograv)

Then on to Photograv. Nothing special there. Opened the file, loaded the Blackmarble parameter, and autoprocessed. I save the engrave file and the simulation, so I can design the plaque around the simulation.

Then laid out the plaque. Used the simulation for layout etc. Built my text around it. After I finished it, I let the "customer" (my wife) approve the fonts etc. After approval, I imported the engrave file I created in Photograv. I zoomed in on it and using the bezier tool and placed a path all around it, fitting it fairly close. Once I closed the path and had an object, I used the node editing tool to move the nodes to where I thought they should be to hide that awful white box. Then moved it away and powerclipped the engrave bitmap file to it. (Be sure take careful measurments on the plaque to be sure you have everything in the proper place). The I placed the powerclipped file in the proper spot on the plaque.

I first engraved the bitmap at 300dpi and I used the Epilog recommended speed and power settings. I think it's like 25spd and 100pwr. Then I rastered the text at 600dpi and whatever that recommended setting it. I only ran it once.

Out of the machine now, we cleaned it to get any leftover dust off it. I touched up some of defects in the marble that made the lady look like she had some kind of skin disease, with a plain old #2 pencil. I worked on that little white line around her head which was a remnent of the white box with a black sharpie. Then I took acrylic artist paint and put a fairly liberal amount on the text with my finger,taking care to get it down in the engraving. I then took a microfiber cloth and wiped off the excess. (get them at Walmart in RV-Auto section-12 in a bag for about 5 bucks. Very soft and great for cleaning.)

That's about it. I didn't keep up with the time. I would guess computer work on the graphic layout etc.,maybe an hour. Engraving, touch up etc, probably another hour.

Hope this helps someone and it not too long. ;)

Mike Null
04-17-2007, 10:58 PM
Larry


Thank you. That little trick on the text is well worth remembering.

Belinda Barfield
04-18-2007, 7:42 AM
Very nice tribute Larry, and very well done. Thanks for posting the processing info as well - that's a big help to those of us still learning.

Brian Robison
04-18-2007, 9:41 AM
Tell me about the power clipping!

Larry Bratton
04-18-2007, 2:39 PM
Brian:
I know your bound to be using Corel Draw. I am using X3. Powerclipping is under Effects. First, simply use one of the shape tools to make a vector outline around the outside of the subject in the bitmap. You follow the profile. I use the bezier tool, which to me works the best. You place the nodes fairly close together and follow your curves in the outline as close as you can. Go all the way around it, and when you get back to the first node where you began, place that last node on top of it and click. You should then see a new curve showing up in the object manager. (as your adding nodes, each one will show up as a new curve, but you want to end up with a closed path and one curve.

Once you have the new object (curve), select it and move it away from the bitmap. Then reselect the bitmap (at this time, you should have imported your Photograv processed image) click on Effects, Powerclip from the drop down. An arrow will pop up and instruct you to select the container. When you put the arrow on the object you created, it will put the bitmap inside the object. No more white box.

It will then show in your object manager as a powerclipped group and you can move it around as you need to. I take the shape tool and zoom in real close and if need be, manipulate those nodes to try and be sure you have it all inside the container. That's it, not hard to do, just kind of slow, but the results are worth it.
Good luck :cool:

Mike Null
04-18-2007, 11:02 PM
Larry

I am missing the point of power clipping. You have removed the white box with the shape tool (you could also use the eraser or cutout lab in PP). What purpose does the power clip serve?

Larry Bratton
04-19-2007, 10:23 AM
Mike:
First of all, I can't stand that PP cutout lab thing. Pain in the neck. I just prefer to deal with it in that manner. To each his own. Tell me your procedure other than cutout lab. I have difficulty knowing when it is actually gone, because when you resave from PP as a bitmap, you create another box.

Mike Null
04-19-2007, 11:37 AM
Larry

I'm a fan of cutout lab but I understand what you're saying. One thing you should try is to bring the cutout lab result into CD and use the bitmap color mask tool. If your box is white set the color to be made transparent to white with a tolerance of 50. That should make the box transparent. If you're dealing with other colors then it becomes more tedious.

If I think that method won't work I use the shape tool in CD to bring the lines of the white box to the photo adding nodes where necessary. If I'm going to vector cut the image I use the boundary tool and color the outline red. (my cut color)

I still haven't figured out what the power clip does for you.

Dave Jones
04-19-2007, 12:16 PM
Why not simply paint the background black in the image before sending it to Photograve? It's simple and works perfectly. Anything that you paint as pure black in the original will become white after photograve, and won't laser, which leaves unlasered black stone on the final piece, looking just like the original that you painted the background black on.

http://www.redtengu.com/images/raw/marylin_tile.jpg

Mike Null
04-19-2007, 1:54 PM
Dave
I'm drawing a blank. How did you do it?

Larry Bratton
04-19-2007, 5:37 PM
Dave:
That's a good idea. Tell me if I'm right. I would use a mask on the original color and black fill. Magic wand tool in PhotoPaint etc. If not that, then how?

Dave Jones
04-19-2007, 5:54 PM
Mike, do what? Paint the background black? There are several ways. Simply open the photo in PhotoPaint, Photoshop, or whatever paint program you use and use the brush tool to draw a black line around the head, then use the paint bucket to fill or use a larger brush to draw the rest of the background.

Or, on a seperate layer paint over the image. That lets you touch it up before merging it with the photo.

Or use the magic want to select the background, if it's already a solid color. You might need to touch up the selection with the lasso if you do that.

I usually just magnify the image and paint.

Once it is painted black then run it through Photograv as normal, which inverts it for marble, leaving the background white and the image negative. Then place that in Corel and laser. The background being white at that point won't laser and the stone is left alone in that area.

Dave Jones
04-19-2007, 5:59 PM
Larry, there's several ways. See my previous post. Some of the semi-automated methods, like using a selection tool, may or may not work well depending on what the background is. I prefer to simply zoom in and draw an outline to get a nice edge around the subject. Then I use a larger brush and quickly draw over the rest of the background.

Sort of like painting a room where you use a small brush for the trim and edges, and then a big one or a roller for the walls.

Using this method you can also paint vignettes or blends so the whole image is in a circle that fades to black, or a different shape (like a heart). Just use a soft brush and the image fades along the edges you draw.

Larry Bratton
04-19-2007, 6:16 PM
Mike:
If I just leave a path around it, then I have to be concerned about the outline. With the Epilog, it recognizes a hairline outline as a vector. If I have other vectors that I want to process as a combination, I would have to exclude that vector, unless I wanted to cut around the photo. When I powerclip it, their is no outline, so no worries there. I guess their are other ways to get to the same place as far the box goes. I think Dave's idea is a good one.

Mike Null
04-19-2007, 8:57 PM
My use of and experience with PP is limited but as near as I can tell each of the options requires hand drawing the object of the photo by using the shape tool, eraser, cutout lab, masking tools or paint brush.

In terms of time spent I don't see a lot of difference.