8 color sim process animation showing color over color

[Dottonedan]

8 color sim process animation showing color over color.
http://www.davenestler.com/

230 mesh on base white. 305 mesh on all top colors. 55lpi halftone @ 22.5degree screen angle and ellipse dot shape.

[ZooCity]

That is a bad ass post Dan, thanks!

Could we get a word on that black plate?  There's an intense amount of information on the black alone.  And it's presumably going down onto 6 other wet colors?  How do you control gain in this situation?

[Fresh Baked Printing]

Great post!

[Dottonedan]

Actually, that black screen is showing up twice in the rotation. Don't know how that happened but it was printed with only one black. I will fix that.

The black was printed very light. The pressure was suggested to start out with just enough pressure to clear the screen.
305 mesh with a 70/90/70 angle almost vertical ...with the off contact being as low as we can .....with high tension screens.  The hardest/most solid areas are knocked out of each color under it. I like to take the darkest color next to black and add some halftone (around 15-25%) under my most solid areas to assist in coverage. (thats just in those most darkest areas). It helps fill in the shirt weave gaps so it does not look so airy when you print black ink straight to the light garments.

[screenxpress]

Pretty awesome Dan.  I did have a question on the brown plate in the hair.  What is the reason for that, or is it a trade secret?

[Artelf2xs]

Sweet Dan!

[Dottonedan]

Pretty awesome Dan.  I did have a question on the brown plate in the hair.  What is the reason for that, or is it a trade secret?

It's not a trade secret, it's just something I use. I don't know if I had been taught this or if I read it or just did it on my own. I usually like to try to give credit where some of my techniques came from but on this one, I'm not sure. When you look at the reason behind it, it does make sense.

It's similar to making a rich black in process color for light garments. In CMYK, you want your blacks to contain percentages of the other colors (including a large portion of black in the process black screen). On paper, this helps greatly just using straight CMYK % to make a rich black.  On garments, it can still leave the black a little brownish muddy black rather than a deep black. If you just print straight black with not CMY under it, it looks airy. To improve on that, some people will print what they call a skeleton black or a HARD black to fill that area in that is to be darker/more solid coverage.

If you do not have room for another black or are trying to save on the cost of an additional screen, you can as an option, use one of the other colors in the art that is also dark to help fill in the garment weave a little and make a deeper black. (The deeper black part comes as a result of helping to block the open areas of the thread weave). I do this with about 20-25% of the next darkest color. Sometimes the next darkest color is not real dark so you can't always do that as a rule. You need to decide if that next darkest color (is dark enough). If not, it can play an adverse role and lighten or muddy up your black. That's one of the reason I make sure not to use too much. 20-25% is fine.

[screenxpress]

So if I understand, just using the hair as an example, you take the black channel, clip out the hair, duplicate it on a new channel with a 20 - 25% fill and then merge it in with the brown channel.  Is that about right? 

Then can the black be printed without flashing the brown first since it's laying right under black dots?   

This is just so far past my level of immediate use and application, but it's quite interesting.  I'm so far from an 8 color print it's not funny.

TIA

[Sbrem]

Great post, Dan. I just love Stratocasters, though I'm partial to a rosewood fingerboard.

Steve

[tonypep]

Nice tut Dan.........BTW based on what I'm seeing this could work as discharge.
tp

[Command-Z]

Very cool. Fun to watch.

[Dottonedan]

So if I understand, just using the hair as an example, you take the black channel, clip out the hair, duplicate it on a new channel with a 20 - 25% fill and then merge it in with the brown channel.  Is that about right?

Thats about right. I would elaborate on the fact that I copy the black screen and adjust that using curves. Not just a hard clip, but a soft S curve. I adjust that down very far to just leaving the very darkest areas. You don't want brown peaking out in gray ares of the black. Then select all pixels (control or Command click on adjusted black channel) and drop in a fill of 20-25% on to the brown screen.

Then can the black be printed without flashing the brown first since it's laying right under black dots?

Yes. Thats another reason not to add too much ink on the brown. You dont want to get too much "total ink". The total ink is based on the amounts of each screen that print over top each other.  15, 27, 80, 100  all add up to the total ink limit and in apparel it's around 260 but is different for each shop.

In fact, with sim process, it's typical to print everything wet on wet. remember, typically, you are using high mesh for your high end work. 230's are a minimum (usually). It's common to use 305's and occasionally 350's and on every blue moon, a 400 mesh. The higher the mesh, the less ink buildup you have and the less you have to flash in between. You can always tell when someone has flashed in between colors. The dots are very HARD and CLEAN and do not blend into each other but simply lay next to other colors or overlap. Very easy to see.

Some high end printers do this, but as most know, it also leaves a more bullet proof feel.  You are typically printing on a sheet of white base that is almost solid. One that comes to mind is TARGET graphics. He does very good printing. He can do 4 color process on black garments using this method...but I'm not fond of it. I don't like the feel all that much. It's just not my taste. He also touts doing 80 lpi on those prints and he does, (but not a full tonal range).  They do TONS of work tho.  Literally TONS LOL.

[screenxpress]

Thanks for the follow-up, Dan.  I think I understood most of it.   

[Chadwick]

Awesome Seps.
Awesome Art.
That Dave Nestler kicks butt.

Seems I forgot to comment before.
This caught my eye: all add up to the total ink limit and in apparel it's around 260 but is different for each shop
Someone told me a similar number once ( Brent? ), but I couldn't recall what it was.

Thanks fer the insight you typed out in your replies.
Cheers.

[sportsshoppe]

Impressive....!!! and you were the one who said you could not make a video to post online ?