Using Photoshop (or the like)

Advice and guidance on repair and restoration techniques.
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coppinpr
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Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by coppinpr »

Topic moved - Site Admin.

We often talk and suggest using a good photo enhancing software to rebuild or create new machine glasses, payout card and allwin backgrounds but no one seems to actually look at the process and point out some of the pitfalls and bonuses of using these programmes. So I thought I'd post progress reports on the glasses I'm rebuilding using Paint Shop Pro (which I much prefer to Photoshop).

!!RAYOF!! Here is the top box glass from my latest project. As you can see, it's pretty bad. In this case I've decided to rebuild the artwork rather than try to repair.
topbox glass start.jpg

My plan is to scan the whole glass, separate the scan in to several sections, rebuild the sections, print the sections on to Safmat clear printing film and attach to a new glass (or perhaps the old glass if I decide to remove all the old paint from it) having sprayed the background of the glass silver first as in the original.

I've decided on three sections, the coin denominator, the blue section and the stars.
The blue section is now well on the way but not finished yet.
Most of the rebuild has been done with a clone tool. This allows you to keep the original colour although I may flood the background in the end to smooth it out.
I've removed the black writing as it was badly damaged and in fact served no point as the other wording is clear enough. The two large beer mugs were interesting to do. They are the same size, so it was possible to clone large sections of the left hand one and transfer to the right hand one to replace the damage, then, to a lesser degree, I was able to clone parts that remained good on the right and transfer to the left jug.
Large areas of the yellow writing needed to be rebuilt, often down to single pixel level although as a basic rule always use the largest brush size possible as it smooths out better that way. I could have used a text tool to replace the white writing but it was more accurate to rebuild the damaged text than replace it. So far so good, any tips much appreciated.
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top-glass-a.jpg
widget2k4
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Re: Using photo shop (or the like)

Post by widget2k4 »

Fantastic job so far. !!THUMBSX2!!
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gameswat
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by gameswat »

Very nice job. Exactly how I do it too. Worth taking the time I think as those old graphics and lettering were usually hand drawn or at least hand set, so the fonts are often all over the place. I can spot reproduced computer set lettering a mile away as too perfect and never quite the same style - just looks wrong to me and ruins the whole machine!
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slotalot
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by slotalot »

Gameswat wrote:Very nice job. Exactly how I do it too.
Yep!!! Me too..... !!JUNK!!
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coppinpr
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by coppinpr »

Having decided to totally remake this top glass I thought it might help others to see what I did and where I went wrong (and where I got it right).

I decided to use Letraset "Safmat" self adhesive computer printing film. I've used it on small jobs but never on a whole glass before, so I knew there would be problems.
fsamat.jpg

Considering it's made by Letraset and is not cheap to buy it has some very basic faults, the biggest of which is the gurus at Letraset don't tell you which side is the peel off side and it's impossible to tell by looking. You need to pick at a corner till you raise an edge - not ideal. I thought there might be a clue in the instructions, but I don't know because there aren't any!! The other big problem is it's very faint when printed so you need to set the colour level at max on your editing software before saving/printing the image.
I scanned the old glass and set to work with my preferred software (Paint Shop Pro x6). This takes time and the tools I use most are the clone brush, the paint brush, and the flood tool.
fold top.jpg


top glass.jpg

I had a new glass cut which was dearer than usual as it has a large notch cut out of the top to allow for the coin entry. To enhance the film printout I sprayed the inside of the glass white in the corresponding place but this was a total failure. As the film needs to go on the outside of the glass it made the finished product too pale and thin so it was much better to spay the top of the glass white and add the printed film direct to it. If it had been possible to "mirror print" the image I could have attached it to the back of the glass and sprayed over it. This, I think, would be the best option but I couldn't work out how to get the image converted through my software. Anyway, it actually worked out great the way I did it.

Next I designed a new coin denominator. I should have used the old one but it was such a simple design I could have made an exact copy with the software. In the end I made a couple of small changes but kept the original colours. I printed it on to the film, cut it out and attached it to the outside of the glass. This time I DID paint a white coat on the back of the glass and it gives a great 3D effect but I still have to adjust the size of the white backing coat to made it perfect.
I extracted the stars from the original scan and built up a page of stars of different sizes as a fresh image. I then printed them onto film and cut out the exact shapes and stuck them onto the glass, I did not back paint these as they were too small for it to work well.

I then sprayed the glass with several coats of glitter silver (from the back), the original also being silver. Then I applied a final coat of matt white to reflect the silver. This has worked well but if I was to do it again I'd add a lot more coats of the glitter first as it produces a very thin coat in itself. The end product is very good, not perfect and there are still a few edges to clean up. If I attempted it again I would know where I'd gone wrong this time.

The main belly glass I will repair as the artwork is too complex and damaged to try and re-build just now. I have scanned it and may well try a new glass at a later stage. I already have the blank glass ready.The final photo does not really do it justice as it's hard to photo the glitter finish.
fready.jpg


fnewtop.jpg

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topbox glass start.jpg
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arrgee
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by arrgee »

Nice job coppinpr

One word of caution, I have used safmat and similar products in the past but some of these films are not designed to be used in a laser printer owing to the heat generated in the powder transfer process, we had an occurance once of a sheet being melted to the hot drum of a laser printer, fortunately we were on contract so the copier company picked up the heavy bill for replacing the drum !
pennymachines
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by pennymachines »

coppinpr wrote:If it had been possible to "mirror print" the image I could have attached it to the back of the glass and sprayed over it. This, I think, would be the best option but I couldn't work out how to get the image converted through my software.
In PaintShop Pro (X6) with Image Editing active, use the Image menu: Image/ Flip Horizontal.
In Photoshop use the Image menu: Image/Image Rotation/Flip Canvas Horizontal.
widget2k4
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by widget2k4 »

Nice work mate. Now I know where to send mine. :)
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coppinpr
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by coppinpr »

In PaintShop Pro (X6) with Image Editing active, use the Image menu: Image/ Flip Horizontal.
:dammit: I should have known that!! I had it in my mind that "flip" would just reverse the order. Stupid of me to think anyone would need that.
tazmantic
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by tazmantic »

Wow really nice maybe that's what I should be looking at doing....... just need the software :lol:
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gameswat
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by gameswat »

Am I right in thinking the background was originally mirrored? If so then I guess you could've used a thin piece of polished alloy sheet or plastic mirror etc. behind the glass to replicate this; though problematic if you want light to shine through in various places.

As for the need to paint the background white behind the decals, I prefer to use the water decal paper that comes in white or clear. It has a perfect opacity for replicating silk screened graphics like pinball plastics etc. that need to be backlit but also makes the graphics colour pop when printed.
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by tazmantic »

Well, downloaded a trial of Paint Shop to give it a go and scanned an old award card to see how I get on. I must admit the software is rather good and though it's a very slow process I am making a tatty award card look better, :D so tonight I thought I'd try and scan my very sad looking front glass off my Princess to see if I could do anything with it, but every time I scan it the image comes out blurred. :#: Is it because the image is behind 6mm of glass? :!?!:
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by widget2k4 »

Try taking a good high quality photo of it and use that. That's what I do with stuff that won't fit in the scanner.
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by pennymachines »

Aha - widget got there first, but I was going to suggest the same:
Yes, the image surface needs to be closer to the glass. Some scanners let you adjust the focal point in advanced driver settings etc., otherwise your best bet might be to use a digital camera in macro mode. You need even lighting and a tripod or such to keep the camera rock steady. Then you can correct lens distortions in the photo editing software.
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by tazmantic »

Cheers guys Ill give it a go, so I take it if you want to do a full front glass you need to do it in bits.....
chris rideout
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by chris rideout »

Gameswat wrote:Very nice job. Exactly how I do it too. Worth taking the time I think as those old graphics and lettering were usually hand drawn or at least hand set, so the fonts are often all over the place. I can spot reproduced computer set lettering a mile away as too perfect and never quite the same style - just looks wrong to me and ruins the whole machine!
I had some fun with fonts when I realised there was no exact font for the Jennings TIC TAC TOE or the Sega BAR. I had to make my own by scanning the original and finding the nearest match out of nearly 900 fonts on my PC. After I had done that, I added serifs and made other adjustments such as letter spacing, etc until I had a "forgery" of the original. I did this with all the symbols using Corel Draw X4. The orange was easy. The cherry took several days. The melon had to have all the pips in the right places. Several symbols have light and shade effects on them; that added more work for me but I did it eventually. Unfortunately, I can't show you the evidence because a Corel Draw image won't paste into the window. The extension ".cdr" is not recognised. :(
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Re: Using Photoshop (or the like)

Post by pennymachines »

Hi Chris - it seems a shame not to share the fruits of all that labour. If you email the file to Image, I'll convert it and put it in Resources.
Alternatively, you can convert a .CDR to .JPG online here.
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