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In lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade, Tommy Armstrong wrote:
> If you can photograph it, you can get it printed directly onto a LEGO piece in 4
> color 2400 dpi printing.
> There are limitations to this method in that it has to be printed onto a white
> part. But for exmaple I can print the whole brick red and just have the white
> showing through.
> Comments welcome.
Thanks, Tommy. So, it is a 4c process but needs to be printed on white elements
only? Is that correct?
If so, is there a 5c process available where the 5th color could be white and
the 4c printing would print over it?
Another question: Why couldn't the 4c printing be done on another color brick?
Is it just a matter of the reproduction being wonky due to show-thru of the
brick color?
I look forward to your reply.
Best,
Jonathan
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In lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade, Jonathan Lopes wrote:
> In lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade, Tommy Armstrong wrote:
>
> > If you can photograph it, you can get it printed directly onto a LEGO piece in 4
> > color 2400 dpi printing.
>
> > There are limitations to this method in that it has to be printed onto a white
> > part. But for exmaple I can print the whole brick red and just have the white
> > showing through.
>
>
> > Comments welcome.
>
> Thanks, Tommy. So, it is a 4c process but needs to be printed on white elements
> only? Is that correct?
>
> If so, is there a 5c process available where the 5th color could be white and
> the 4c printing would print over it?
>
> Another question: Why couldn't the 4c printing be done on another color brick?
> Is it just a matter of the reproduction being wonky due to show-thru of the
> brick color?
>
> I look forward to your reply.
>
> Best,
> Jonathan
They do indeed have a 5 color process that prints white also, but it uses UV
light to cure the white "basecoat" and then prints to the white and uses a uv
cure for that also. With that process they can achieve higher film builds since
UV will cure film from top to bottom instantly. Regular ink dries by evaporation
of solvent. I saw one at the factory and it was pretty kewl, but was over
$100,000.
A bit out of my range--lol. This machine was at the limit of my credit at the
bank. It can print on items up to 5" high and on slightly curved surfaces.
Resolution is outstanding so for example could print a logo, email address,
name, and phone number on a 1x6 brick.Minifig cards could now be possible,
although of course way more than a printed card one--but bricks could be almost
reasonable to hand out as a calling card for special customers/contacts. How
many people would throw away a printed brick? And do away with the roladex--just
stack them on top of each other--lol
The ink simply does not have the hiding capacity to cover in one coat at the
thickness of the film printed to achieve coverage. Much like painting a wall in
your house. If you are going to paint with any clear color such as yellow--you
need to paint the wall with white first.
Color reproduction can be tweaked, but of course takes some time. Many times
though acceptable right from the .eps file or .jpg file. For a photograph pretty
much need to do the same thing as if manually printing in darkroom and do a
test, make modifications, another test,etc. Once settings done, you are good to
go.
So at least for me, printing on colored bricks will have to be done by engraving
and filling with paint. It is my intention, and I did not test this out, to
match colors of bricks for background so would blend with bricks and you would
print the entire brick except for the text, logo, picture with the matching
color. Of course the sides and back and top would still be white.
But I think there are plenty of possibilities to keep me busy even being limited
to white only. And I am confident that you AFOL's will come up with a plethora
of things that I have never thought about. This is really new tech and really
does, I believe open up wide possibilities for all kinds of things. The machine
of course was not designed with LEGO in mind, but things like golfballs, pens,
lighters, tin cans, boxes--one step 4 color is new concept for these items.
Tommy
www.brickengraver.com
now also in future
www.brickprinter.com
For example could do a plate with a little white border around it, background
green, and graphics or letters whatever color.
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> But I think there are plenty of possibilities to keep me busy even being limited
> to white only. And I am confident that you AFOL's will come up with a plethora
> of things that I have never thought about. This is really new tech and really
> does, I believe open up wide possibilities for all kinds of things. The machine
> of course was not designed with LEGO in mind, but things like golfballs, pens,
> lighters, tin cans, boxes--one step 4 color is new concept for these items.
>
> Tommy
> www.brickengraver.com
>
> now also in future
> www.brickprinter.com
>
> For example could do a plate with a little white border around it, background
> green, and graphics or letters whatever color.
Tommy,
Out of curiosity, what about printing on clear window panes? would that work?
I would think that you might be able to print on both sides of a window pane,
giving 2x capacity. (not to mention all the fun LEGO scenes you could "draw" on
a window pane...town or otherwise!) let your imagination run on that
possibility.
Have you tried using a non-white brick to see what it does? I know from some of
my limited art education classes, when we had to paint a gallery wall from dark
to light, it was required that you put a sealer on the existing paint, which
prevented the dark color from bleeding through the light color.
Granted, I'm applying paint logic to printing, but it's something to experiment
with.
Scott
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>
> Tommy,
>
> Out of curiosity, what about printing on clear window panes? would that work?
> I would think that you might be able to print on both sides of a window pane,
> giving 2x capacity. (not to mention all the fun LEGO scenes you could "draw" on
> a window pane...town or otherwise!) let your imagination run on that
> possibility.
>
> Have you tried using a non-white brick to see what it does? I know from some of
> my limited art education classes, when we had to paint a gallery wall from dark
> to light, it was required that you put a sealer on the existing paint, which
> prevented the dark color from bleeding through the light color.
>
> Granted, I'm applying paint logic to printing, but it's something to experiment
> with.
>
> Scott
I did not have time to actually test clear parts. They said it would not work,
But did say that would create a nice stain glass effect--which makes sense. And
could be actually used for some very nice effects. Clear panels very well might
print with black ink since it has the highest hiding power and I think that
printing with a color that is the exact opposite of the underlying brick color
might work. For example a little violet with the black to make it hide better
over yellow (yellow and violet are opposites). Black and yellow make green, but
with violet in it, it very well might kill the yellow that makes the green and
therefore achieve a true black. That kind of thing. Same with red over green
and vice versa. I will be fun trying to figure out what it can really do. I
think in the next 3 or 4 years you will see a lot of these things around and
prices will of course drop.
Another thing would be that if the pattern was printed over a brick one could
very well get what is akin in the decorating business as a faux finish. Where
one puts a glaze coat over a base coat with sponges or feathers or cheesecloth,
etc. I used to do that kind of thing for a living a long time ago. The glaze
coat would be analogous to the semi-transparent ink. That kind of thing.
But a stain glass creation with infinite variations in color could make for some
interesting artwork.A new media for artists--not necessarily for LEGO AFOL's.
And the transparency could be turned into a good thing instead of being a
limitation.
Just thinking and waiting for it to arrive.
Tommy
ashamed in NC
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