+DocDiTTo Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Just curious as to what software is used to design the coin images I see floating around here. Photoshop? Are there any templates available to help someone get started in designing a coin? Quote Link to comment
+Team BO Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Jasc Paintshop Pro... Ben Quote Link to comment
+Quiggle Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 You may find these two recent threads helpful: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=119374 http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=119424 Quiggle (just passing through) Quote Link to comment
+fox-and-the-hound Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 (edited) Photoshop, Illustrator, and 3DStudioMax. Have to say though, the best designs I've seen would never have been made if they were limited by a prebuilt template. Parents of Sam's new coin is an excellent example. A simple idea introduced to the community quickly became a coin that generated a lot of interest! Maybe you could post your idea as well and our community can help out the same way. Edited January 13, 2006 by fox-and-the-hound Quote Link to comment
+BackBrakeBilly Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 We use a OLD version of Paint Shop Pro but we want to upgrade soon...... Quote Link to comment
Not So Lost Puppies Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Paint Shop Pro v7 Quote Link to comment
+Saving Shiloh Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 this is kind of off this topic, but i have artwork wanting to be made on the computer and was wondering if any1 could try it for me? Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Pencil and Paper and a lot of text. I can't work the computer drawing programs but I can pretty much push a pencil around and capture the idea. Quote Link to comment
+Kealia Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 As RK said - I use paper and a pencil and then rely on the coin mint's artists to actually make it pretty. Quote Link to comment
+DocDiTTo Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 Sounds like Paint Shop is the weapon of choice for most. Guess I'll have to dig that up somewhere and take a look. The Illustrator stuff sounds intriguing, but I'm not a graphic artist and have no clue as to how to put it all together. Thanks for all the replies so far! Quote Link to comment
+The Blind Acorn Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 I'll echo the two who said pencil and paper. I can sketch out rough ideas of what I want and hope that the artists at the coin place can do the rest. Quote Link to comment
+frogcement Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 I can't believe no one uses the GIMP !!! I use The Gimp for everything, way better than Photoshop IMO. And no I don't say that because I cant afford Photoshop, I do have Photoshop installed right along side The Gimp, and I can't find anything I can't do for free(The Gimp) vs. what $600 for Photoshop? Give it a try http://www.gimp.org/ enjoy.... Quote Link to comment
+Teamhawaii1981 & blueicyrose Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 I can't believe no one uses the GIMP !!! I use The Gimp for everything, way better than Photoshop IMO. And no I don't say that because I cant afford Photoshop, I do have Photoshop installed right along side The Gimp, and I can't find anything I can't do for free(The Gimp) vs. what $600 for Photoshop? Give it a try http://www.gimp.org/ enjoy.... I love The Gimp; but I still can't figure out how to draw simple shapes likes sircles and squares as simply as in somethign like MS Paint. For squares I usually end up having to create new files the size I want and paste them within each other. Quote Link to comment
+AV Dezign Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 I use Illustrator CS2, and it works great for stuff like this. Quote Link to comment
+M i k e B Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 I can't believe no one uses the GIMP !!! I use The Gimp for everything, way better than Photoshop IMO. And no I don't say that because I cant afford Photoshop, I do have Photoshop installed right along side The Gimp, and I can't find anything I can't do for free(The Gimp) vs. what $600 for Photoshop? Give it a try http://www.gimp.org/ enjoy.... I love The Gimp; but I still can't figure out how to draw simple shapes likes sircles and squares as simply as in somethign like MS Paint. For squares I usually end up having to create new files the size I want and paste them within each other. I used Illustrator years ago at work, but don't have access to it anymore. I like GIMP also, but last night I started screwing around with another open source program that works with vectors called Inkscape. Like GIMP it's also GTK+ based. At least making squares is easy in Inkscape Check it out at Inkscape.org Quote Link to comment
+DocDiTTo Posted January 15, 2006 Author Share Posted January 15, 2006 Since posting this I've taken the recommendation of a number of you and tried out Paint Shop pro v10. Definitely a learning curve, but after a couple hours of screwing around, trial and error, and reading some (often outdated) tutorials on the web, I did manage to come up with this "design". It's not something I'd make into a coin, but it does incorporate a number of features that might be used in coin design. (NO rants about micro haters here please, like I said I was just screwing around) Thanks to all for the software suggestions and good advice. Sounds like there are a lot of options when it comes to coin design. PSP 10 wasn't too hard to pick up, but getting the bottom text inverted did prove challenging. Quote Link to comment
+crake Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 (edited) Illustrator CS2 with Live Paint is my tool of choice. Its all about vector manipulation! Now if I were REALLY fancy, I'd draw some objects in a 3D CAD program so I can rotate in XYZ before rendering the 2D vectors. Illustrator is available for cheap if you're a student. That's how I got my copy around 10 years ago. Then I upgraded to CS2. Edited January 15, 2006 by crake Quote Link to comment
+Go JayBee Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Since posting this I've taken the recommendation of a number of you and tried out Paint Shop pro v10. Definitely a learning curve, but after a couple hours of screwing around, trial and error, and reading some (often outdated) tutorials on the web, I did manage to come up with this "design". It's not something I'd make into a coin, but it does incorporate a number of features that might be used in coin design. (NO rants about micro haters here please, like I said I was just screwing around) Thanks to all for the software suggestions and good advice. Sounds like there are a lot of options when it comes to coin design. PSP 10 wasn't too hard to pick up, but getting the bottom text inverted did prove challenging. I like it... How about: "If this Coin Won't Fit....I don't give a ***t"? Quote Link to comment
+DocDiTTo Posted January 16, 2006 Author Share Posted January 16, 2006 (edited) Since posting this I've taken the recommendation of a number of you and tried out Paint Shop pro v10. Definitely a learning curve, but after a couple hours of screwing around, trial and error, and reading some (often outdated) tutorials on the web, I did manage to come up with this "design". It's not something I'd make into a coin, but it does incorporate a number of features that might be used in coin design. Update: Here's a pretty good tutorial I found on using Paint Shop Pro to do text like you'd find on a coin. If you follow the whole tutorial, you'd pretty much have one side of your coin designed when you were done. Link to tutorial Edit: Thought perhaps actually including the link would be a good idea. Edited January 16, 2006 by DocDiTTo Quote Link to comment
+Crop Circle Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Now if I were REALLY fancy, I'd draw some objects in a 3D CAD program so I can rotate in XYZ before rendering the 2D vectors. I'm a Mechanical Designer and that is exactly how I designed my coin. I used a 3D Modeling program called SolidWorks to create my coin. It is so much cooler to see what your coin will look like in 3D before you have it minted. The 3D program I use allows you to take the design and translate it so anybody can open it. It is a .EXE self executable file. If anybody would like to download it and check it out here is the link. Crop Circle 3D You should be able to click on the link and it should bring up the download box, if not then right mouse click on it and click "Save Target As". It is in a ZIP file so you will need to Unzip it before opening. Warning!! File is just over 5 Megs so if you have a slow connection it will take a while. Quote Link to comment
+Chaos A.D./aka Arlsdaddy Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Now if I were REALLY fancy, I'd draw some objects in a 3D CAD program so I can rotate in XYZ before rendering the 2D vectors. I'm a Mechanical Designer and that is exactly how I designed my coin. I used a 3D Modeling program called SolidWorks to create my coin. It is so much cooler to see what your coin will look like in 3D before you have it minted. The 3D program I use allows you to take the design and translate it so anybody can open it. It is a .EXE self executable file. If anybody would like to download it and check it out here is the link. Crop Circle 3D You should be able to click on the link and it should bring up the download box, if not then right mouse click on it and click "Save Target As". It is in a ZIP file so you will need to Unzip it before opening. Warning!! File is just over 5 Megs so if you have a slow connection it will take a while. Cool! Quote Link to comment
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