Jump to content

Designing Coins...


DocDiTTo

Recommended Posts

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. :D

Edited by fox-and-the-hound
Link to comment
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? :laughing:

 

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.

Link to comment
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? :laughing:

 

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

Link to comment

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 Definitely a learning curve, but after a couple hours of screwing around, trial and error, and reading some (often outdated) tutorials on the web, I did manage to come up with this "design".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)

 

351df8b1-7e32-4279-ba9c-8d6e1a8d74ad.jpg

 

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. :laughing:

Link to comment

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. :tired:

 

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 by crake
Link to comment
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)

 

351df8b1-7e32-4279-ba9c-8d6e1a8d74ad.jpg

 

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.  :tired:

I like it...

How about: "If this Coin Won't Fit....I don't give a ***t"?

Link to comment
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. :grin:

Edited by DocDiTTo
Link to comment
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.  :grin:

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.

Link to comment
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.  :grin:

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!

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...