[u]Derby 671: Animal Warfare -[/u]
Calling all creature commandos: Operation Derby #671: Animal Warfare is about to get underway. Entries should feature animals of all stripes (or scales or spots or whatever) at war with each other, be it paw-on-claw combat, or something a little more psychological. We’re going to allow cats in this derby, but let’s all try a little harder than the old, tired tropes like cats vs. dogs or mice tropes. Or guerrilla/gorilla warfare. We can do better. The only rules: no politics or cream tees.
Okay, I have a technical question for Woot (or anyone else who can answer with authority).
I am working on a design for the the Animal Warfare derby, and I am trying to recreate a watercolor-type effect (something like Walmazan did recently with his Go Away shirt.
The question is this. In this new DTG printing world, do I need to still half-assedly convert that effect to halftones? Or can DTG print that effect as is?
And since I’m asking questions, how exactly should we be preparing Print Files? Do we still put each individual color on a separate layer (and name the layer by its Pantone color)?
Can’t find it now but I think it was in an email that we should still separate our colors. I’m not sure how you’re creating the watercolor effect, but you can use transparencies as long as it’s over top of another color, and not printed directly on the shirt.
Separate your colors, but you only need to halftone elements that will overlap the t-shirt directly. A blend/gradient on top of a solid color does not need to be halftoned.
I know this is a big ask. And it’s not an immediate thing, but it might be good if woot created their own best practices graphics tutorial video for the new DTG printing process.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how many words a 10 minute video might be!
