Author Topic: My first CMYK job.  (Read 10097 times)

Offline blue moon

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #15 on: February 08, 2015, 08:57:02 PM »
Thanks to Starchild and Pierre for the help and pointers.

We aren't over the top proud of it, but given the time crunch we were given it didn't come out too bad.

This also has a high light white on it, trying to bring to make that canopy a little smoother... meh.

Of course that's a spot purple as well.

So all said and done we were rocking cmyk + white (flashing in that head) + purple spot... still rocking it out at 22 dozen an hour and this was a full print (we also had our logo as a tag below the color).

First one is the original JPG.  This one was cleaned up on around the edges as they had done a hack job and just sent us the original scan.  Ended up using their version as a selection to crop out of the scan of the painting their "version" of the state's shape.

2nd one is an actual t-shirt... sorry for the not so great photography... helps hide the flaws. ;)

That looks very nice! That is an impressive first go at it. Mine wasn't half as good as that.

Pierre
Yes, we've won our share of awards, and yes, I've tested stuff and read the scientific papers, but ultimately take everything I say with more than just a grain of salt! So if you are looking for trouble, just do as I say or even better, do something I said years ago!


Offline bulldog

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #16 on: February 09, 2015, 08:15:50 AM »
Nice print man... I just ran my first 4CP and got so frustrated I ended up pulling it off press and running the job on the DTG.  Yours looks way better than mine did though.

How many shirts did you run before giving up or drastically changing things?

Pierre said 20 shirts to get the build up going.  I can promise you the first 5 were wretched, the next five weren't much better, but there was a hint at "progress"... Then it started looking a little more like it was moving in the right direction and giving us an idea of where to start tweaking.

This may be a stupid question but what do you do with the "first 20" or whatever? Are they not sellable? Do you keep them as shop rags/donate them? Do you build the loss into the price quote?


Offline blue moon

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #17 on: February 09, 2015, 08:48:53 AM »
Nice print man... I just ran my first 4CP and got so frustrated I ended up pulling it off press and running the job on the DTG.  Yours looks way better than mine did though.

How many shirts did you run before giving up or drastically changing things?

Pierre said 20 shirts to get the build up going.  I can promise you the first 5 were wretched, the next five weren't much better, but there was a hint at "progress"... Then it started looking a little more like it was moving in the right direction and giving us an idea of where to start tweaking.

This may be a stupid question but what do you do with the "first 20" or whatever? Are they not sellable? Do you keep them as shop rags/donate them? Do you build the loss into the price quote?

use scrap shirts .. .

pierre
Yes, we've won our share of awards, and yes, I've tested stuff and read the scientific papers, but ultimately take everything I say with more than just a grain of salt! So if you are looking for trouble, just do as I say or even better, do something I said years ago!

Offline Gilligan

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #18 on: February 09, 2015, 09:53:59 AM »
We printed at least 3 times if not 4 on those shirts... So we consumed at least 5-8 shirts... In reality, since we added the high light white after a few test prints it was probably more like 10.

We had added a little in the art fee to account for those shirts.  We have "free" setups, that's why we called it art.

Offline Dottonedan

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #19 on: February 09, 2015, 08:42:54 PM »
Nicely done on the seps. A little over compensated on the black but only in come areas, but very well controlled. It's a hard balance when you have large rich solid black areas and others with obvious dark color shadows that need to be controlled. Pretty good match to original.
Artist & high end separator, Owner of The Vinyl Hub, Owner of Dot-Tone-Designs, Past M&R Digital tech installer for I-Image machines. Over 35 yrs in the apparel industry. e-mail art@designsbydottone.com

Offline Gilligan

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #20 on: February 10, 2015, 12:12:42 AM »
We fought to lay enough black down for that top left corner while not over powering the rest.

Offline Sbrem

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #21 on: February 10, 2015, 01:18:22 PM »
Not too shabby Mr. Gilligan, a lot better than my first try in the early 80's. It looks like the "reds" are running a little hot, not too uncommon. But good job, be proud, and keep going.

Steve
I made a mistake once; I thought I was wrong about something; I wasn't

Offline Gilligan

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #22 on: February 10, 2015, 03:03:11 PM »
Yes, finding that rust color was hard... We never got what I really wanted there. I was surprised at how bright/hot magenta is.

Offline Sbrem

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #23 on: February 10, 2015, 03:59:28 PM »
In earlier times, when we got our seps from outside, we'd find the magenta too heavy, and would cool it down by adding Rhodamine to it; not the ideal situation, but it worked as we didn't have any other options. Now, we can go into PS and adjust there...

Steve
I made a mistake once; I thought I was wrong about something; I wasn't

Offline UltraSeps

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #24 on: February 10, 2015, 04:49:15 PM »
"Very" nice, especially for your first process job.  IMO, you made the right decision using process for this art.  Doing simulated would have been difficult.  Art such as this is ideal for process.  Keep up the good work!  :D
Developer of UltraSeps and QuikSeps Color Separation Software. 
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Offline jonbravado

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #25 on: February 15, 2015, 08:49:37 PM »
a lot better than MY first process job.  Great work - not bad at all.

Changing print order on CMYK helps too on saturation sometimes, for us.

But very good for your first time out.  You should be proud.

J
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Offline 3Deep

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Re: My first CMYK job.
« Reply #26 on: February 15, 2015, 11:54:59 PM »
I'll say turned out nice as well, my first cmyk job was very much to red, but at the time you couldn't hit me in the azz with a red apple, because I thought I knocked it out the da box.
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