I've found when prepping seps in Illustrator, and especially working with client's art, the Pathfinder "Crop" (bottom row, fourth one in from the left) tool helps clear out clipping mask bullshit, Object > Expand - All to outline strokes, and then running Pathfinder "Divide" (bottom row, first one) on everything. Then I just Select > Same > Fill Color for each color and use Pathfinder Shape Mode "Unite" (top row, first one) to group everything individual color and combine shapes.
Yes PLEASE! I'm a print designer who badly needs to understand and create art files for screen printing for my current job and I'm having a heck of a time wrapping my head around the process.
One way to deal with shadows and highlights and avoid the masking is to use black and white for highlights and shadows and change the blend mode of the those shapes to soft light. When you're done with the shadows and highlights go to Object and flatten transparency and drag the slider all the way to Vector. This will make the soft light blend mode shapes into solid colors without having to use opacity. I hope this make since and helps as well. I'm not sure if it will work for screen printing tho
That GiGi chillin and relaxin? Thumbs up just for that 👍🤘. Dude, keep up the awesome vids. I long ago stopped the silkscreen side of my biz, but guddamn, watching your vids actually makes me almost forget the mess that can be screening and start it up again.
I have a trick to create an underbase...So when everything is ready to print, I select all layers together, copy and paste, then merge them together will pathfinder. then pull it to the bottom layer. Boom underbase. Not sure if it makes sense to do this but I do my seps a bit different so I don't know if this will work for everyone. Love the channel and vids Cam.
Holy shit! After watching this video a year later. I am assuming that those watching this know their way around seps in illustrator. Ooops, Illl do a update to this soon that is simpler.
Hey man great tutorial as always. Thanks so much. Can you please make separate tutorial video about the black overprint thing you handled here? We have been receiving graphics such as these lately but the sep process is becoming a pain. There's no decent vid that explains this. You seem to have mastered it so appreciate if you can make a vid on this for us who are still in the dark 👍
you all probably dont care at all but does anyone know of a method to get back into an Instagram account? I was stupid forgot the account password. I love any tricks you can give me.
I know this is a couple moths old but I hope you see this Comment anyways. Something I do to make my process faster is set up actions. So I have a action to Center and scale my art work to the fullest size of my art. Also for you going into recolor I would make that into and action as well. The cool part about actions is that you can have it do multiple things and then assign a Quick key to it so that you wouldn't have to do it every time.
Thank you for this! Can I ask a question? In color separation, its so hard to grasp solidity and why we use it if it doesnt affect printing. I know nothing about it lol. I am new bee-. I just dont understand. thank you
Thanks for the video cam..I need to work on my color separation on illustrator.. this will help. Also saw you watching swagg getting down on call of duty haha
I made a script which can recolor all colors to PMS. Its part of a logo packer extension tool i helped create. I was checking the blue and pink color and noticed my Illustrator cc 2018 gives a different return using recolor. BOth my script and recolor return PMS 679c, which looks more closer than then pale look 5523c?!
Hey Cam, I love your videos! Thanks so much for sharing the knowledge!!! I'd love to drive out to Phoenix and shadow you for a day if you'd be cool with that? I have so much to learn about this business
Hey cam I’m a beginner and I worked with the Heat transfer but completely lost with the photoshop to get my film print any help would be appreciated thanks
And I think I would make the 30 percent black 10 to 15 to compensate for dot gain. Great tutorial there are so many ways to sep. You showed me some different ways i didn't know
Hi!! great video as always. Many thanks. I want to ask something and tell if i am wrong!!! As you sed Acurip is expensive!!! You have your design ready, converted to spot colors. instead of choosing the acurip driver choose the postcript driver and save as .ps file!!! with separations, controlling the output and so on. Then passing the .ps file from acrobat distiller and create a pdf file. Then printing the pdf directly to the printer. I think is the same process from my 90s DTP experience!!!! Forgive my English!!! Thanks again.
Why do you have to choose the Pantone colors when assigning spot colors? I had to change the color theme of my image because the Pantone color book didn't have colors close to the original image. Is there another option for color choices? Thank for making these videos! You're helping me learn so much!
I feel that pain on the clipping masks! I hate those M Effers! Creating screen printer friendly art is so specialized and such a small niche compared to every other application it's tough to get graphics that are done right for your need unless they come from an artist that actually designs for screen print
Hey Cam, First of all, I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the things I've learned on your channel. Thanks for all the time you spend teaching this craft. I am an old turd of 63 trying to learn this stuff. Can I use Affinity Designer instead of Illustrator to do color separations?
Kinda tip. Astute graphics does some awesome plugins that make creating shit in Ai a breeze. Oh, and abuse the Shape Builder tool - probably Ai’s most underused tool I reckon. Gareetings from Souf Africa.
Super helpful video, the one thing I am still confused about is where you mention registration mark fill. I am not exactly sure how to make the reg marks print on each film by only using one spot color?
Anything that is filled with the registration black swatch color will print on each film. So fill those with reg black, and use every step he does in the setup and illustrator will automatically add them.
hello, i think i missed somethin'.... when you start separating colors, "HOW and WHERE do i start?.... i follow all your settings, and then when....... WHAAATTTT????? the A.W is already in there... you already done some of the steps.... BUT THANKS ANYWAY.... its also help me and i still follow subscribed...
Completely new to this...but what is the reason as to why you have to output to AccuRip rather than only turning on each layer you want to print and sending directly from Illustrator to the printer?
The rip increases the quality of the film, you are able to make the print much denser and it automatically converts the transparency to halftone for you.
hi i do screen printing but i have a real hard time on sizing the image. I have been not able to master this. i have a canon x1620 and my print comes really small. any tips?
So, you’re design was already separated into layers, what do you do if your image is just one layer? For instance if you used the PlaceIt website your mentioned?
Yes he does, After Alex left It is way to distracting to film during business hours, when I get someone back on the phones, I will bring the crew back into the videos.
AccuRip converts it to halftone. Basically any pantone that isn't 100% is converted to halftone. Technically you are sending the file to AccuRip, not the printer, then AccuRip rips the artwork in the background and then sends the image it created to the printer.
Hey there so I'm a beginner and my art work has all kinds of funky going on...so I may need to just start all over but my question is can you separate a font with 2 colors they have a stroke and a fill
I figured it out!!! Yeah really need to dig into this program it's really cool!!! I can't wait to actually print something...my husband bought everything I need to do it and I have no clue what I'm doing ha ha but I will get there with the help of people like you...thanks
What kind of dog is that in the video? Mine (half pekinese, half shih tzu) looks almost identical with the exception of the color and, ironically, also tries to climb in front of my keyboard.
HI. I FOLLOWED YOUR SPOT 3 COLOR SEPARATION IN PHOTOSHOP VIDEO STEP BY STEP, AFTER SAVE PHOTOSHOP DC.2.O EPS. IN ILLUSTRATOR I HAVE GOT A MESSAGE(( DCS EPS files cannot be opened or embedded. please place this file using the link option)) when i try to open or embed. please help me
Also this particular image dosnt need a choke or trap we butt register top colors, if the black wasnt there we would choke the base .5 I'm still gonna do a second vid showing how I do it.
I have been watching a few videos about screen printing but felt the illustrator tutorials a little too fast (I am not familiar with illustrator). I'm wondering what do you use to print films? I do not have a printer and most printers will only print A3 sized paper at most, with anything that prints larger costing exponentially more than a normal printer (in both cost and consumables). So I will likely take the file to a print shop for them to print it, and to save cost I will have them print the films over 2 sheets of A3 sized transparencies (because the cost for 2 A3 sized transparencies is much lower than the cost for a single sheet twice the size of A3). So how would I do the color separations where I do not really have control over how their printer prints? Is there a way to print to a pdf file and so their printer will print exactly what it sees?
This is an interesting question I have never tried anything like that but I'm sure it can be done. Let me look into it and I'll make a video after I figure it out.
I hate illustrator. Not that its bad, but i cant do shit in it. Granted most of my time has been learning photoshop. I use sep studio 4 for my separations now, and ive had great luck with it.
I hate illustrator. Not that its bad, but i cant do shit in it. Granted most of my time has been learning photoshop. I use sep studio 4 for my separations now, and ive had great luck with it. Most of the things i make are halftones though.
I've found when prepping seps in Illustrator, and especially working with client's art, the Pathfinder "Crop" (bottom row, fourth one in from the left) tool helps clear out clipping mask bullshit, Object > Expand - All to outline strokes, and then running Pathfinder "Divide" (bottom row, first one) on everything. Then I just Select > Same > Fill Color for each color and use Pathfinder Shape Mode "Unite" (top row, first one) to group everything individual color and combine shapes.
God damn it! This is the information I need! I’m setting up my work space now! 😂
Thank you my man for this knowledge. I have recently started living my dream and its because of inspiration like you and many others.
Cam, would you do a few more tutorials like this, possibly a little series starting from a simple 1 color separation, up to a 6 color with gradients?
Yes I can do that.
I posted a single color sep video make sure you check it out, let me know what else you want to see.
@@ThePrintLife Please make a video on separating gradients cause it's pretty damn confusing.
@@mohsenlawaty this^^^^
Yes PLEASE! I'm a print designer who badly needs to understand and create art files for screen printing for my current job and I'm having a heck of a time wrapping my head around the process.
I saw this video for the first time and i already started liking you
3:09 is the exact thing that I am missing at home to get back into the swing of things for screen printing.
One way to deal with shadows and highlights and avoid the masking is to use black and white for highlights and shadows and change the blend mode of the those shapes to soft light. When you're done with the shadows and highlights go to Object and flatten transparency and drag the slider all the way to Vector. This will make the soft light blend mode shapes into solid colors without having to use opacity. I hope this make since and helps as well. I'm not sure if it will work for screen printing tho
Interesting. I'm not sure becouse we want opacity becouse our rips convert transparency to halftone dots.
Thanks much bro, just wanted to do basic set and have you much help 🤗❤️🙏💯👍
Magic wand tool.....pathfinder....and ctrl+c and ctrl+f(place in front). Object-path-offset path for base white
I like adding a cmyk stroke to my base to create the choke, so that we can adjust it in the fly.
That GiGi chillin and relaxin? Thumbs up just for that 👍🤘. Dude, keep up the awesome vids. I long ago stopped the silkscreen side of my biz, but guddamn, watching your vids actually makes me almost forget the mess that can be screening and start it up again.
Awesome video!! I am a newbie to these stuff and love your vids!!
I have a trick to create an underbase...So when everything is ready to print, I select all layers together, copy and paste, then merge them together will pathfinder. then pull it to the bottom layer. Boom underbase. Not sure if it makes sense to do this but I do my seps a bit different so I don't know if this will work for everyone. Love the channel and vids Cam.
This is basically my trick. Expand and merge all your colors, then copy and merge all your colors that need based. Then apply your choke. Easy peasy.
@@brianlane7925 yes. Once everything is built and ready for printing I expand everything, This is exactly what I do.
Holy shit! After watching this video a year later. I am assuming that those watching this know their way around seps in illustrator. Ooops, Illl do a update to this soon that is simpler.
Much appreciated! This helped me tremendously!
Biggest thing missing is trapping. Aside from that, this is a great video!
I'll do another video on trapping.
Nah just don’t bother trapping. Butt life. 😜
@@brianlane7925 Asses to asses, butts to butts
cam yet another great video thks a million
Hey man great tutorial as always. Thanks so much. Can you please make separate tutorial video about the black overprint thing you handled here? We have been receiving graphics such as these lately but the sep process is becoming a pain. There's no decent vid that explains this. You seem to have mastered it so appreciate if you can make a vid on this for us who are still in the dark 👍
I'm still just as clueless as when I first started this video. 😅
it does take time
you all probably dont care at all but does anyone know of a method to get back into an Instagram account?
I was stupid forgot the account password. I love any tricks you can give me.
@Corbin Adam Instablaster :)
the dog in the beginning lmao 😂😂
This is so amazing, thank you. Is it possible to make a video to show how you made the spot colours.
As always, thank you for the info
Keep em coming bro..🤘
very helpful!!
I know this is a couple moths old but I hope you see this Comment anyways. Something I do to make my process faster is set up actions. So I have a action to Center and scale my art work to the fullest size of my art. Also for you going into recolor I would make that into and action as well. The cool part about actions is that you can have it do multiple things and then assign a Quick key to it so that you wouldn't have to do it every time.
Great stuff.
4:12 *cries in graphic designer*
Yeah over print was much much easier to create an underbase
Thank you for this! Can I ask a question? In color separation, its so hard to grasp solidity and why we use it if it doesnt affect printing. I know nothing about it lol. I am new bee-. I just dont understand. thank you
Thanks for the video cam..I need to work on my color separation on illustrator.. this will help. Also saw you watching swagg getting down on call of duty haha
Yea man, call of duty is awsome. I dont play very often but I like watching others play.
Thanx for the DIY tip when I called you Cam. Good looking out bro.
what printer would you recommend for a 13x19 transparency print?
THANK YOU SIR
I made a script which can recolor all colors to PMS. Its part of a logo packer extension tool i helped create. I was checking the blue and pink color and noticed my Illustrator cc 2018 gives a different return using recolor. BOth my script and recolor return PMS 679c, which looks more closer than then pale look 5523c?!
I stayed watching it because of the dog :)
Cool video. What do you use to print the graphics?
Hey Cam, I love your videos! Thanks so much for sharing the knowledge!!! I'd love to drive out to Phoenix and shadow you for a day if you'd be cool with that? I have so much to learn about this business
I have a question . Can I use photoshop to create the art for my shirts to do silk screen ?
Hey cam I’m a beginner and I worked with the Heat transfer but completely lost with the photoshop to get my film print any help would be appreciated thanks
You can halftone the base by using the transparency as a knockout
And I think I would make the 30 percent black 10 to 15 to compensate for dot gain. Great tutorial there are so many ways to sep. You showed me some different ways i didn't know
"Let's rock & roll" 🎨🖌️✒️⚡🤘
What’s the best printer 2021?
Hey bro print life fammmm
Can you do this in photoshop as well?
Great video, I actually learned something.
Really helpful tips #ThePrintLife
Hi!! great video as always. Many thanks. I want to ask something and tell if i am wrong!!! As you sed Acurip is expensive!!! You have your design ready, converted to spot colors. instead of choosing the acurip driver choose the postcript driver and save as .ps file!!! with separations, controlling the output and so on. Then passing the .ps file from acrobat distiller and create a pdf file. Then printing the pdf directly to the printer. I think is the same process from my 90s DTP experience!!!! Forgive my English!!! Thanks again.
Whats that plastic name that u printed and colour tye plz
Sweet
PS dont you need to clean the file using Merge with pathfinder and then clean oath?. I believe this design has many overlapping path items
Ive already subcribed
Hey cam, this is a great video, I was just wondering what pri9nter you use/recommend for printing your own film positives
How long does it take to learn all these steps in Adobe ? Wow!
Why do you have to choose the Pantone colors when assigning spot colors? I had to change the color theme of my image because the Pantone color book didn't have colors close to the original image. Is there another option for color choices? Thank for making these videos! You're helping me learn so much!
I feel that pain on the clipping masks! I hate those M Effers! Creating screen printer friendly art is so specialized and such a small niche compared to every other application it's tough to get graphics that are done right for your need unless they come from an artist that actually designs for screen print
I agree completely. The clipping masks are the worst of all of them though.
Hey Cam, First of all, I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the things I've learned on your channel. Thanks for all the time you spend teaching this craft. I am an old turd of 63 trying to learn this stuff. Can I use Affinity Designer instead of Illustrator to do color separations?
Ik not sure never tried Affinity. Thanks for the comment, you da man
Kinda tip. Astute graphics does some awesome plugins that make creating shit in Ai a breeze. Oh, and abuse the Shape Builder tool - probably Ai’s most underused tool I reckon. Gareetings from Souf Africa.
Sweet I will check em out.
Big second on Shape Builder. That thing's magic.
Naice man
Dude awesome learning for separation. Can I get a copy of your color will flex?
You are awesome
Super helpful video, the one thing I am still confused about is where you mention registration mark fill. I am not exactly sure how to make the reg marks print on each film by only using one spot color?
Anything that is filled with the registration black swatch color will print on each film. So fill those with reg black, and use every step he does in the setup and illustrator will automatically add them.
When you print transparencies does it automatically come out black?
You don’t ever need an under-base for black? also are the white cards a separate positive or just part of the under base
hello, i think i missed somethin'.... when you start separating colors, "HOW and WHERE do i start?.... i follow all your settings, and then when....... WHAAATTTT????? the A.W is already in there... you already done some of the steps.... BUT THANKS ANYWAY.... its also help me and i still follow subscribed...
If you do a lot of repetitive actions you can automate some of it with Actions
are there actions in illustrator? if so great tip. Need to record some actions soon.
Great video. Do you not overlap the screens a little (like 1pt)?
Thank mr
Completely new to this...but what is the reason as to why you have to output to AccuRip rather than only turning on each layer you want to print and sending directly from Illustrator to the printer?
The rip increases the quality of the film, you are able to make the print much denser and it automatically converts the transparency to halftone for you.
@@ThePrintLife Thanks for the reply! And thanks for doing these videos...they are extremely helpful and awesome. I am excited to get started.
@@betweenthestars You are welcome, Thanks for commenting, you da man!
hi i do screen printing but i have a real hard time on sizing the image. I have been not able to master this. i have a canon x1620 and my print comes really small. any tips?
So, you’re design was already separated into layers, what do you do if your image is just one layer? For instance if you used the PlaceIt website your mentioned?
Where did you find that phat design ?
What do you recommend better Adobe vs Acu rip ruby Software?
You need both accurip is just a rip that allows you to control your printer.
@@ThePrintLife good to know thanks.
Cam, jesse still works for Monument? We are missing your crew.
Yes he does, After Alex left It is way to distracting to film during business hours, when I get someone back on the phones, I will bring the crew back into the videos.
@@ThePrintLife Thanks, man. We’ve learned a lot from your channel and hope for the long life of your success in business.
I got a little bit lost with the halftone, how did u get it on the print?
AcciRIP does it for you when you hit print. That’s why it’s needed and costs a lot.
First congratulations on the excellent tutorial .. My question is how you printed the halftones directly from the illustrator
AccuRip converts it to halftone. Basically any pantone that isn't 100% is converted to halftone. Technically you are sending the file to AccuRip, not the printer, then AccuRip rips the artwork in the background and then sends the image it created to the printer.
Hey cam! WhAt printer do you use to print film?
For a new screen printer who is just trying things out. How would I print out the screens?
Oof there is to much to un pack there.
The Print Life potentially new video?
I have one check out some of my other vids takes you through the screen making process.
Do u charge to make a Pantone color if so how much?
Hey there so I'm a beginner and my art work has all kinds of funky going on...so I may need to just start all over but my question is can you separate a font with 2 colors they have a stroke and a fill
I figured it out!!! Yeah really need to dig into this program it's really cool!!! I can't wait to actually print something...my husband bought everything I need to do it and I have no clue what I'm doing ha ha but I will get there with the help of people like you...thanks
How to convert this vector to cmyk?
Pake papan banting bisa teu mang?
What kind of dog is that in the video? Mine (half pekinese, half shih tzu) looks almost identical with the exception of the color and, ironically, also tries to climb in front of my keyboard.
HI. I FOLLOWED YOUR SPOT 3 COLOR SEPARATION IN PHOTOSHOP VIDEO STEP BY STEP, AFTER SAVE PHOTOSHOP DC.2.O EPS. IN ILLUSTRATOR I HAVE GOT A MESSAGE(( DCS EPS files cannot be opened or embedded. please place this file using the link option)) when i try to open or embed. please help me
Do you get your images from a website
Got a link to your registration template or is that part of the krabby patty formula?
You are better than the Udemy course I paid for. Why don't you bundle your videos into a Udemy course and make some cash?
This is a good idea. I should create some courses.
i hope you are doing well sir?
I noticed you did not apply any trap to this image, how do you deal with that?
Part 2 comming soon
Also this particular image dosnt need a choke or trap we butt register top colors, if the black wasnt there we would choke the base .5 I'm still gonna do a second vid showing how I do it.
I had to give a 👍 once he said he didn't give a shit...lmao..
👍
I have been watching a few videos about screen printing but felt the illustrator tutorials a little too fast (I am not familiar with illustrator). I'm wondering what do you use to print films? I do not have a printer and most printers will only print A3 sized paper at most, with anything that prints larger costing exponentially more than a normal printer (in both cost and consumables). So I will likely take the file to a print shop for them to print it, and to save cost I will have them print the films over 2 sheets of A3 sized transparencies (because the cost for 2 A3 sized transparencies is much lower than the cost for a single sheet twice the size of A3). So how would I do the color separations where I do not really have control over how their printer prints? Is there a way to print to a pdf file and so their printer will print exactly what it sees?
This is an interesting question I have never tried anything like that but I'm sure it can be done. Let me look into it and I'll make a video after I figure it out.
I hate illustrator. Not that its bad, but i cant do shit in it. Granted most of my time has been learning photoshop. I use sep studio 4 for my separations now, and ive had great luck with it.
i have the cat here! is that works well too? 🙆
Nice video very cool guy, but way too fast to understand anything, how can I learn to design from the beginning one color first maybe letters only
19:27 anyone know this printer model? or what is the actual name of this machine(printer)?
Have you ever made screens with forever paper?????
No sir what is it?
The Print Life it’s a sheet you heat up over a print I’ll comment a link to a video of a guy I know who does it
The Print Life ruclips.net/video/LBvL4Sl9R18/видео.html guys got some pretty sick stuff check it out!
Wait, which minute you make 30% opacity into halftone? how it became halftone?
AccuRIP does it automatically
i always wonder why nobody is using illustrator for scren pritning
I’m more confused than I was before man.
That sucks, you'll get it, or you wont.
I hate illustrator. Not that its bad, but i cant do shit in it. Granted most of my time has been learning photoshop. I use sep studio 4 for my separations now, and ive had great luck with it. Most of the things i make are halftones though.
Yea it has a much steeper learning curve nut I te s sweet once you get it.
Same
What did I just write???
@@ThePrintLife I'm not 100% sure but I think I understood it in some strange way...lol
We must be on the same wave length. Partially illiterate folks understand each other.
My Brian hurts.