#Laser Cut Vector

[vector-outlines]

[theheathergreen]

(via Beach Bundle SVG 20 designs Summer SVG bundle)

[sayornispress]

Two author copies delivered! Both for @bropunzeling (AO3 here).

More photos and info under the cut!

I actually did my copies of these a while ago--both in February, one in 2024 and the other in 2023. collide the spaces that divide us was one of my earliest attempts at social media formatting, and one of the last books I ever made with my inkjet printer. I did end up fixing a few things on that one's typeset, but it's nearly identical to my first copy. You may also notice in the photos that I chopped off a bit too much off the edge--I didn't yet know how to use my guillotine, and in all the time that's passed since then, it's become defunct (sharp enough to cut off a hand, but not sharp enough to cut through a stack of paper lol)

It's neat to see such a clear example of how much I've improved as a bookbinder in a year and a half--my copy on the left, author's on the right:

Also, a comparison of color ink (left) vs color laser (right):

Like this, it's easy to see how much more vibrant color toner is than ink. Ink works much better for complex images, but since I don't print a lot of photos, but do make a lot of social media typesets, this works much much better for my purposes.

Soon after that, I bought a black-only laser printer and had a whole new set of challenges. It was in this era of printing that I made only fools rush in. It has one of my most complex title pages to date, as they're not really my forte.

Below are my copy, the title page, and an example of how I did texts in this particular typeset.

My copy has a cloth spine and a different cloth as the cover, with a strip from the endpapers to hide my sins act as a bridge between them. This is one of the binds from last Binderary that I'm most proud of.

The title page is in several different pieces--sort of jigsaw-puzzled together from vectors, Google Drawings, and a few different fonts.

Black-toner-only printing meant adjusting how I did social media formatting, and this is one of my favorite ways I solved that problem. I like the simple, almost minimalist formatting that sets the texts apart but doesn't steal the show.

I'd been meaning to offer author copies for these books for as long as I'd had them, but it's hard to understate how little I wanted to use my inkjet once I got a laser XD It's both slower and more expensive to use an inkjet, so as soon as I got my color laser printer set up, I sent the DM!

I organize my handbound fics by ship--that is, every ship has a set spine cloth and title color--so one of my favorite things about author copies is that I get to be a little more creative about covers!

[nerves-nebula]

oughhh ok soooooo i made these into vectors and im gonna try to laser cut them on tuesdayyyyy and then. idk. probably spend tuesday night gluing them to pieces of paper. we also have a vynl cutter but i can't afford to pay for the printing of that so laser and glue it is. who knows. the top image is going to be the left side of a triptych that includes the bottom image as the center piece.

[levi-venn]

Been having Thoughts about the Mirror Batch! I picture Void and Memento with black hair (like most of the regs), and I picture Headshot with gray hair a couple shades darker than Crosshair's. Do you have any headcanons about what they look like? Or if they have any tattoos?

I'm so happy you asked! Here's your answer below. For anyone curious about these OCs, here is more information on The Mirror Squad

Physical Appearance of the Mirror Squad

Striker

It isn’t often Striker is found without his helmet and his jumpsuit which helps regulate his hypersensitive senses. However, his helmet and suit can’t protect him from the sensory overload of his own hair. For this reason, Striker isn’t just bald. He is hairless. He has pale thin cuts over his body from shakily and obsessively shaving any hair he can find. Circuit crafted a laser hair-removal device for his brother to protect his skin from that dangerous obsession.

Striker has no tattoos.

His eyes are a stormy light gray that constantly bounce around his surroundings, drawn to every sound and flicker of light that isn’t often heard or seen by his brothers.

Circuit

We actually get to see Cryptid-style images of Circuit in the series finale of Bad Batch. While Circuit's hair is cut short here, Circuit's hair tends to be up in a messy bun, his face scruffy from sheer disinterest in personal grooming until Headshot tells him to clean up. His hair is salt and pepper, the white strands borne from the stress of his augmentations. 

Circuit is a brilliant artist and is covered in tattoos he applies himself. The gentle buzzing and the consistent rhythmic pain allieviates the stress of his overactive mind and calm his twitchy body.

While his skin heals, Crunch happily volunteers as his “canvas” and will sit for hours while Circuit tattoos his brother. Circuit's tattoos are a series of colorful vectors, geometric shapes, a strings of lime green binary that spell out things like “I joined the GAR and all I got was insomnia and this tattoo” and “If found, return to Crunch”

Circuit is leaner than his brothers teetering on underweight due to an instable, high metabolism and nausea caused by sleep deprivation.

Crunch

Crunch's pigment is lighter than his brothers, more freckled, with sandy blonde buzz cut and a neatly trimmed beard. His eyes are dark brown that are rumored to turn black when he is in "Rampage Mode", though this is mostly due to extreme pupil dilation.

Most of Crunch's body is tattooed at this point thanks to Circuit. Crunch’s favorite tattoo is on his chest of a Rancor wearing a rainbow party hat sitting next to a broken growth jar eating uj cake. This was a surprise tattoo from Circuit for Crunch's "Growth Jar Day", a holiday only Circuit and Crunch celebrate. 

Void

Void, our Eerily Calm Soldier, has no tattoos as he does not see the point in them. “The body is a decaying vessel, temporary like everything else.” Void does, however, see the point in paying special attention to his hair. In fact, Void is obsessive about his coal-black hair (black hair in honor of Fanfictasia's suggestion!), sculpting it daily into a short, narrow mohawk. His facial hair is meticulously groomed into a devilishly thin mustache with a stripe of hair on his chin.

Void has a multi-branched, red lightning scar on the right side of his chest that travels up his shoulder. The scar is from a mission gone wrong that resulted in Headshot saving his life, earning a permanent scar himself. Void never speaks of that mission, but he refused medical treatment of his own scar, wishing it to be permanent. It was a souvenir of the time Headshot saved his life.

Nothing "moves" Void emotionally, but Headshot's self-sacrifice was a fascinating event he thinks of often.

Headshot (CX-2)

Above is concept art for CX-2 ("Sniper Clone") by Dawn Carlos for the official Star Wars Bad Batch Episode Guide.

Headshot is the only Mirror Squad member that kept his appearance as close to a Regulation Clone as possible. It helped diffuse tension between his brothers and the Regs since the Regs saw him as a “familiar face”. This conscious choice was also part of his larger plan to convince more Regs to defecting from the GAR (a plan that ultimately sealed his and his squad's fate to be put On Ice, their memories wiped, and become CX Troopers).

Headshot's facial scar came from an IG-100 MagnaGuard's electro staff, a scar he earned saving Void from a fatal blow. Under normal circumstances, Void doesn’t aid his squad unless directed by Headshot, but on this mission the injured Void scooped up his unconscious brother and carried him back to base himself. Void nursed Headshot back to health personally, firing warning shots at any medics who tried to approach. 

Most of Headshot’s wound healed, leaving only a single long facial scar.

Void never talks about the incident, but the squad noticed Void was quicker to obey Headshot's directions after that day.

***

Thank you again for the ask @fanfictasia. These characters are so much fun to explore and they develop just a little more with every ask!

[hazard-symbols-that-fuck-hard]

Can you recommend any resources for collections of hazard signs or icons, preferably as vector graphics, so that I can laser cut fun ones?

wikipedia/wikimedia has all of the ISO-7010 symbols in an SVG format

Some of them are constructed a bit strangely, but you should be able to make them all work

[arkkibun]

A wood veneer marquetry picture made for @sraksha from one of her drawings. (This picture is mirrored because I'm dumb and glued it with the wrong side facing up)

Cut with the Acmer P2 33W diode laser out of multiple different 0.6mm thick wood veneers. Most of the species used were in their natural state, but this also includes some through dyed and heat treated woods. (Red dyed birch and smoked oak for example)

Simplified process:

- Draw a new or turn an existing picture into a vector file

- Separate the picture into individual "puzzle" pieces, in the example below this was done in Lightburn.

- Different pieces are cut from the chosen woods with the laser, compensating the cut path settings if needed because even the color of wood changes how well it will be cut.

- The pieces are assembled and taped together into a sheet, which is then then glued on to a board (hopefully the right way around), in this case birch plywood.

- Glued piece is carefully sanded and finish applied.

So many pieces

[aspharon]

Realized I never posted this here: I made Ash's holy symbol in real life! I made it out of laser-cut wood (thanks @thefourthsword for helping me with the laser cutter) as well as some tassels I made myself. Ash is a cleric of Eldath, whose holy symbol is a waterfall plunging into a pool, so that's what the symbol represents.

more (wip) photos below the cut

Here's the vector drawing I made from which the main piece was cut/engraved.

Here are all the pieces :) 5 layers total!

[randomthefox]

Realistically if it were up to me that entire fight scene in that room would've been a comedy bit because Mr Possum is way out of his league ooooh a gun as if shadow or others haven't been shown to dodge both lasers and bullets with absolute ease

Yeah dude it would have been so fucking funny. Have that whole little intro right, this "Clutch arrives and he's fucking pissed" page right?

Like this total "I'm the main character" moment, right?

And then just. Next page. turn the page.

SMASH CUT to all of Clutch's goons being piled up in a heap of unconscious bodies, Rough and Tumble are crying and begging for mercy from Charmy poising his stinger over them, and Clutch suddenly has a " O.O " face as Amy Tails Vector and Espio are looming over him with their faces overcast with shadows and their eyes glowing bright red.

Like, turn it into a total Attack On Titan Episode 5 moment

Shit would have been FUCKING AMAZING.

but naw, this comic hates Sonic so obviously they need to have TAILS AMY AND THE CHAOTIX lose the fight and get removed from the storyline -_-

[for-the-sillys]

not rq, but question !!

how do yoz make the keychains? they look so clean and pretty im so amazed :''DD like wood burning is usually very difficult to get szch a consistent look with, do you use like.. smth like those irons that cartoons show being burned onto cows? (very meam scary thing but i cant think of anothet example sadly)

or is it like a manifactur thingy...? :000

hello!!! questions are welcomed :D

I use a laser engraver/cutting machine! Specfically, xTool D1 Pro Desktop Laser Engraver Cutting Machine! It's like an...exposed printer! That uses a hot laser to cut/etch/burn into wood (and many other materials).

To get a design onto the wood, I first draw them digitally, then upload the design into XTool's software, vectorize it there, adjust some settings, and connect my machine to my computer and tell it to start engraving/cutting!

Unfortunately, the machine itself is pretty expensive. I happened to get mine from a family member. It's an amazing tool tho, so worth the investment if you got cool ideas to make and sell!

hope that answers your question!! :3

[mantleoflight]

Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Everything || Pt 2

The Vex tunnel shone like a distorted Warp space, neon latices forming and shattering, pieces of half-manifest Vex debris appearing and vanishing in an instant. Echo gripped the dual helm sticks she used to steer for all they were worth, desperately trying to keep on course while praying she wouldn’t burst into splinters.

“Echo! I see an end!” Whisper shouted, her guardian barely hearing her over the turbulence. “Keep holding on, we’re almost out!!!”

The cockpit shook violently as turbulence intensified, and for a moment, Echo thought she was going to be crushed by the sheer g forces pushing on her. Then, like the snap of a rubber band, they were out, the light of the Vex net vanishing as they escaped into real space.

The Velocimancer wobbled its wings, it's nose dipping as Echo throttled back and tried to regain her bearings. “We’re not dead?” She asked, blinking stars from her dazzled optics.

“Not yet,” Whisper answered quickly, “but we’ve got hostiles! Dog fighters ahead!”

The shapes of round, black ships with wings like twisted candy wrappers roared and twisted as long, more conventional shaped ships chased and were chased by the black candy fighters.

"What in the absolute-" Echo began when Whisper cut her off. "FIGHTERS UP TOP, DIVE 90-0-23!"

Echo pushed her flight sticks forward and down, sending her ship into a sharp nose dive as two fighters roared passed, swerving to avoid hitting her. Blue light trailed in the wake behind her as she went, but as she looked up from the front, she saw her position had revealed a whole space battle happening above her.

Two huge ships glided through space, trading canon fire like ketches of the Old Crews but bigger. Part of her thought of the large war freighters the Cabal had stationed protectively over the Last City, Psion star fighters ready to launch in their hanger bays, or that the Shadow Legion had stationed on Neomuna with their destructive Nighthawks and tanks.

Around one flew the black, candy-shaped ships, their engines roaring like angry ascendant hive knights. Meanwhile around another flew the white, needle-nosed ships trading red laser fire for green with the black ones. But with them were also odd ships that looked something like an Arcadian jump ship but with no wings and only its engines secured to the main body. What kind of ship was that?

Echo shook her head and glanced at her ghost. "Oh boy, Whisper triangulate our current position and get us the heck away from these guys. I don't want to be part of whatever party these guys are having."

Whisper chirped and extended her scanning reach. "Got it - ECHO!"

"HOLY--" Echo hauled on her helm sticks, maneuvering her ship as she threaded through a knot of fighting forces. In the moments the hunter had looked at the battle and glanced at her ghost, her ship had soared down and around the main part of the conflict only to find herself in the other half of it! Unbeknownst to her, she had come in at a split vector, right through the middle of the main forces of fighting and unfortunately like all dog fights, forces move.

"Hang on!" she shouted and shifted in her seat, weaving and juking as she tried to thread her way out of the battle. Finally, she saw an opening and took it and a whole planet opened up to her.

A planet! Her ship was made for interplanetary travel! If she could get down there, she could do a warp snap perpendicular to it, allowing her to get past the atmosphere and get to cover before she ended up mince meat for these dog fighters.

With that in mind, the long nosed jumpship wove its way through the fray, dodging red and green laser blasts as Echo tried to escape from the battle. With any luck, the other fighters would be too busy to worry about a blueberry like her. After all, from the looks of the war carriers, they had much bigger problems to deal with.

[k00299539]

Disrupt Project Week 5 - Laser Cutting Level 2

I got COVID and was out for three weeks, including the midterm :(

I wasn't totally inactive and I'll share some of the animation work I did during that time in another post. The one good thing is being sidelined for that length of time gave me a new perspective on "Disrupt"

Since I was unable to join a workshop in time, I spent week 5 on Laser Cutting again. Level 2 was essentially just a walk-through of what we'd be expected to know for the final test that is Level 3.

The idea is basically to showcase we know how to operate the machine and it's software correctly, and are able to create a cut, a vector engraving, and a raster engraving. I didn't embed the raster image correctly in Adobe Illustrator, so I guess right off the bat I'm lucky this was Level 2 and not Level 3.

I think I had more fun creating faces out of my laser cut letters than I did actually cutting them... I feel this is still in the spirit of the "Disrupt" theme.

[aoxizu]

day 90 of saving for jing yuan rerun: forgot to post yesterday

it turns out that the laser engraver we have at the school is very fun to play with

i took pictures from wikimedia commons and i'll still need to sand the edges and faces down but otherwise check out my two aces

this is by the way how i won all of that money in my other post

i actually did, in fact, have two aces (:

on a different note i now want to test the limits of the laser engraver and see how well it does with color

i also want to try using a piece of solid wood rather than plywood and see how durable that is, and the answer is probably going to be not at all but it still could be fun

and i want to try engraving card backs on these as well but that might take more precise alignment

next step: plasma cutter

i'm going to try doing the exact same thing but on the plasma cutter, which is more annoying because it requires a specific vector file type, but also it is cooler because it would be metal

but then the problem is trying to keep the capital a in the shape of an a even when cut out

and then once cut out trying to not fatigue the metal when chiselling the dross off so the inside of the a doesn't just fall out

anyways

13 days left until jing yuan rerun, that's less than two weeks (:

[poisonheartfrog]

ID: A fake safety sign. The tops reads "DANGER" in all caps on a red background next to an exclamation point in a yellow triangle. There are two pictograms on the left of the sign. The first is a black dot with many lines radiating out from it, inside a yellow triangle. The second is a vector illustration of a circular blade near a booted foot. The text on the rest of the sign reads "DANGER, I got lasers to cut 'em up like razors, It's flexin' season and I got flavor."

Proper safety procedures should be followed around both lasers and razors

[roseshark]

🌿Majora's Mask 🌾

I made a bunch of laser-cut wood things in college, and I got the idea the other day to make him a proper frame! The vector file

[k00214627]

Week 6 - part 2

I used the end of this week to apply the latex skin to my monoprint of internal organs.

I attended the Level 2 Laser Cutting workshop to learn about vector and raster engraving, which can be useful for printmaking, though too late to implement into this project. The gradient did not come out well on acrylic either.

I carved this lino print with intent for simplicity from my artist research of Claire Harrup. I did not end up liking the result and would have liked to spend more time practising these kinds of designs.

Lastly I created this lino print, inspired by further artist research from a previous post. The first iteration was done at home with stamp ink, which left the print quite patchy, but worked as a preview. The press in the printing room really helped get the entire design onto the paper. I attempted to double print the design in the rightmost version for a fuzzier effect. If I had more time I would have liked to create a reduction print.