ZBrushCentral

Posters?

ZBrush Artworks
#1

Several members over the past months have mentioned prints and posters and stuff…I have a question…
:b4: If you wanted a let’s say 2 foot by 4 foot poster created of a piece…

  1. What would be a good resolution to work your image at…or maybe what is the minimal resolution you would want to work at to make a nice poster?

  2. Who prints these size images? Anyone know of a good resource for this?

  3. Has anyone had a poster printed up of their work and how much did it cost you to have it done?

  4. And for anyone who has had this done, can you offer tips and pointers that you may have wished you had done when unertaking the task of having one created?

  5. Glossy v/s matte finishes? Large cost differential between the two?

All input in this will be greatly appreciated…

also the same info on just smaller prints? tips/ advice / what is a good size smaller print? What type of stock do you prefer to print on?

Thanx
ron

#2

hmm, I can only answer a few questions out of the list, but I’ll try

  1. What would be a good resolution to work your image at…or maybe what is the minimal resolution you would want to work at to make a nice poster?

The higher the better generally. The higher the resoultion it was created at, the more comfortably it can be resized. Generally 1500 x 1500 is a great place to start if you want a fair bit of levy when resizing. But then again it all depends on what size you are planning having it blown up to.

  1. Who prints these size images? Anyone know of a good resource for this?

Unfortunately no. I do all my poster printing myself. I havn’t had it done for years However if you don’t mind, you can always send me what you would like blown up and I can do it personally for you. Might be a bit of sending back and fourth but it will save you a bob to two

  1. Has anyone had a poster printed up of their work and how much did it cost you to have it done?

Back when I got it done, It was pretty expensive. a few hundred dollars if I recall.

  1. And for anyone who has had this done, can you offer tips and pointers that you may have wished you had done when unertaking the task of having one created?

Ensure to them you want MAXIMUM quality once the image is resized. Too many people will try to save their company a buck or two and cut on quality.

  1. Glossy v/s matte finishes? Large cost differential between the two?

Yes, extremily large from what I can remember. But the glossy look ALWAYS looks far better. So It’s really a big trade off.

I hope some of this helped

#3
  1. You need very high resolutions for printing in poster size; at minimum i would say about 2500 x 2500. The larger you make it the bigger the poster will be.

2)Zazzle is the best place that i have found thus far.
Zazzle

3)I had a poster printed of mine. I got the largest size about (5000x4200; i think the size was) it cost $25.00 w/o shipping. They do offer smaller sizes that go for about $6.00 to $10.00. They also now offer printing on canvases which cost a lot more. I think about $70.00.

  1. I wanted the largest size poster so badly, I rendered my image at 4000x3000, and it was cropped on the largest poster. I could have probably fit it on the $10.00, rather than the $25.00 size. ;). The image I used certainly tested the quality of detail, and it printed better than I could have imagined.
    smaller size of poster I printer

edit: They’ll also let you make Z-shirts
:smiley: :smiley:

#4

Damn. Where the heck did you go? Mine cost a few hundred dollars?!? Damn. Mine was about 2 metres squared when printed.

#5

now I have already made ztshirts on my own…and even with my cheapo HP deskjet 850c they came out great…and snicker…my wife just made it home…the tornado didnt get her…grrrrrrrr :wink: :wink: guess I have to keep paying that monthly life insurance policy…muahahahahhahahahah

#6

Hi Ron . . . :slight_smile:

In my area, California, there’s Kinko, Office Depot & Office Max. I know there’s more, but I can’t think of the names right off hand, but the prices are very reasonable, maybe $15 to $50, depending on how big & other factors. I’ve never had anything from ZBrush printed out in “Poster Size”, due to the fact that your final rendered size has to be very large, to get the best results for enlarging the image to Poster Size, & being that I’m only running a PIII 500 / 512 mgs ram, it’s not powerful enough to work in large image sizes. Generally speaking - the larger the final rendered image, the better & sharper the enlarged image will be. Also remember that your image, before sending to print has to be much larger than 72 dpi, which when converted to a larger dpi, will actually shrink the overall image size. I was just asked to submit one of my images, from another software program, for print in a magazine, & they wanted the width no less than 2400 pixels wide / by 300 dpi. & the printed image was going to be less than 8 inches wide. :wink:

Have a good one my friend . . . :cool: Mark.

#7

I’ve had a couple images printed up through my girlfriend’s work. As luck would have it, niether cost me a dime; they were tagged onto the end of another project the shop was already printing.
What I did, though, was ask the fella who handles the digital printing what resolution would he need for a decent print. His answer was minimum 85 dpi. The last image I had done was printed at 20"x20" with only 150 dpi. It turned out great. Since then, however, I’ve been using higher resolutions for the images I might want printed; at least 300 dpi.
This is a postwork thing, as ZBrush, and other graphics software (Bryce, 3dsMax etc) save out at 72 dpi. I think that rendering at higher dpi settings would strangle computer, hence the 72dpi “standard.”
About the only advice I think of here, Ron, is plan out the image, start to finish. I recall reading something Ansel Adams wrote. He envisions the final image, and plans the shot with that in mind. Good approach. “I want a 2x3 foot image, so what do I need to do, right from the start…”
One thing I found, having done a fair bit of photo finishing, is that the information has to present from the start for the enlargement to work.
Hope this helps, even if just a little bit.

#8

Lots of good info here, but hey, I’ll throw in 2 cents as well.

Thanks to software/hardware technology, printing large scale has gotten cheaper and WAY easier. Thanks to Rippers, gone are the days of CMYK, 4 color processing (well not gone, but not necessarily necessary).

Costs are more associated with the paper, and manpower than anything else.

If I’m doing a digital print without a 4 color seperation, and I have no spot colors to deal with, no bleed lines, or watermarks, then I just email a nice TIFF in CMYK @ 150 ppi to my printer. I leave crop marks in the file for their benefit.

I build to 1/4 scale normally. 300ppi is really only necessary if you are doing a 4 color seperation anymore. It’s overkill UNLESS you are doing a large scale print job. If I’m doing display work (5 foot by 5 foot and larger) then I submit as a EPS or PSD at 300 at 1/4 scale, CMYK.

But if you are just taking it into your local print company (Kinkos, Pip Printing, or your friendly mom and pop) you can walk in with an RPG file @ 150 and you will leave with what you expected. Their software supports an RPG filter to Pantone/CMYK translation with no loss. (normally)

Poster size (34 X 23) I usually build to size @72 ppi in CMYK. Any bigger I jump to 1/4 build at 150 ppi in CMYK for my printer.

Kinkos and Pip have good costs and usually will give rates on larger orders. (multiples of the same file).

You can email me directly if you want a list of size to ppi to file format ratios I use.

:smiley: :+1:

#9

Thanks for the information. I have been getting the run around for months now. Ron thank you very much for asking these relevant questions. I am sure a lot of members have benifited from this post.
DeeVee

#10

hey no problem joe and thnx everyone for the info…and Kat I usre would ike the ratios if ya dont mind…that would be kewl…I am thinking of having a couple of posters made and this is turning into a very very informative thread for me…yall are super :+1: :+1: :+1:

#11

Be careful when you say the days of CMYK 4 color process printing are done and gone Kat. :wink: Those processes are still alive and well and not only necessary but also in very high demand in the container packaging business…at least until they find a way to slide a bottle or a corrugated carton through a high end image setter in a FAST and EFFICIENT way. I worked in the Flexographic printing industry for nine years and it is alive and well. Most people however don’t even know that industry exists. They see the packaging and the boxes but they don’t really realize the processes that went into the creation of those glorious packages. :smiley:

Ron just keep in mind this simple concept. Your screen displays 72 dpi period. If someone tells you the image needs to be 300 dpi then multiply that by the actual printed output to get the screen size you will make it in. Example…30" x 40" poster at 300 dpi will be 9000 pixels x 12000 pixels on your screen. Now in my experience you can get away with making it a little smaller and blowing it up. You won’t really notice the difference unless you hold the two versions up to each other and compare. Unless of course print quality is an absolute must…in that case you can’t afford to deviate from the minimums. My advice would be to go with 2500 to 3000 screen res and print it out at tabloid size (11 x 17) just to see how it looks. You may find that will fill your needs nicely. :wink: