Custom shield decals?

[wmyers]

I guess if you’re not selling them and they are out of print and it’s only for your own personal use, could a person scan them and then print?!

Copyright law here states you can make copies for your own personal use (music, videos, books, etc), but selling becomes piracy.

But that’s not very fair for a company who is currently selling the items.

[Fremitus Borealis]

I guess if you’re not selling them and they are out of print and it’s only for your own personal use, could a person scan them and then print?!

Copyright law here states you can make copies for your own personal use (music, videos, books, etc), but selling becomes piracy.

But that’s not very fair for a company who is currently selling the items.

I think if you're "borrowing" images (well, bits of images) from what was already a fan mod of a video game (Europa Barbarorum in my case), it gets even murkier. Obviously for personal use no one is really gonna care, but selling them? Who knows? In this case it seems it would be nearly impossible to track down the original creator of a specific shield of a specific unit, in a fan made mod where things were credited to someone's user name on a message board thatay not exist anymore, or they haven't posted on in ten years!

[wmyers]

What may be very easy is to draw the design by hand in a larger than scale size and then scan it in and then convert it to vector or just leave it and then fill in various areas with colours and reduce it in size to match the template.

When it’s printed the scale reduction will reduce any imperfections as well.

[Pinno]

I think if you're "borrowing" images (well, bits of images) from what was already a fan mod of a video game (Europa Barbarorum in my case), it gets even murkier. Obviously for personal use no one is really gonna care, but selling them? Who knows? In this case it seems it would be nearly impossible to track down the original creator of a specific shield of a specific unit, in a fan made mod where things were credited to someone's user name on a message board thatay not exist anymore, or they haven't posted on in ten years!

True, but if you send a message we will get a email.

I know this because I was a skinner and modeller over 8 years for Roma Surrectum 2 (Rome Total War mod) and also work for Europa Barbarorum 2 and several mods for Medival II Total War.
All roman shields in Roma Surrectum 2 are my creations and everyone who asked me to use them with my name in credit list could use it, but mods (or people) who used it without permisison were banned (not talking about personal use).

I am not active  since 2013, but gave a lot of permissions in the last few years. 😉

[wmyers]

Have you ever made any tutorials on how to make shield designs?

None of the ideas I have have I seen online.  That's why I was thinking of just drawing them.

It seems a lot of the designs available commercially are just too perfect.  Exact flipped copies on the opposite side of the shield (ie Celtic and Dacian designs). 

When one looks at reenactors' shields, they are not that perfect.  Mind you, perhaps with more time available in ancient times and perhaps with artists employed it would have been really good.  But I look at tanks and aircraft (when they were hand drawn and not printed with use of computers and vector graphics) and they are not perfect nor photo realistic, by a long shot! 

An examination of contemporary artwork shows, possibly, what artwork may have been like during the era. 

Greek shields and art are far and above some of the Roman stuff.  Late Roman designs look absolutely ... retrogressive. 

[Pinno]

Have you ever made any tutorials on how to make shield designs?

None of the ideas I have have I seen online.  That's why I was thinking of just drawing them.

It seems a lot of the designs available commercially are just too perfect.  Exact flipped copies on the opposite side of the shield (ie Celtic and Dacian designs). 

When one looks at reenactors' shields, they are not that perfect.  Mind you, perhaps with more time available in ancient times and perhaps with artists employed it would have been really good.  But I look at tanks and aircraft (when they were hand drawn and not printed with use of computers and vector graphics) and they are not perfect nor photo realistic, by a long shot! 

An examination of contemporary artwork shows, possibly, what artwork may have been like during the era. 

Greek shields and art are far and above some of the Roman stuff.  Late Roman designs look absolutely ... retrogressive.

No, I didn't make any tutorials. I am afraid that there are no tutorials about this... but you can find a lot how to make some effects, damages...
I started with GIMP in 2005 (it was a free software, not sure about it now). In general you can do all in Gimp what you can do in Photoshop. Now I use Photoshop.

I agree about existing shield designs for Barbarians.
I don't like to see dekorative shields in my Gallic warbands, because only nobles and some elite units had them. That is why I made my own shield designs to fit Victrix shield models. Designs are simple.

Don't get me wrong... I really like LBMS transfers and have few houndreds of them. I also have some Veni Vidi Vici roman decals.

These are some designs created for Claymore Castings pavisier few years ago... the pic with units is a David Imrie's picture from Saxon dog group (with my designs).

EDIT:

Link of my shields.


https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=106909.msg1333209#msg1333209

[wmyers]

Gorgeous. 

I guess if I had one question to ask, it would be how do you make the template shape to be the right size?

Obviously you must measure the shield off the mini and then draw in the borders OR do you scan the shields?

[Pinno]

Gorgeous. 

I guess if I had one question to ask, it would be how do you make the template shape to be the right size?

Obviously you must measure the shield off the mini and then draw in the borders OR do you scan the shields?

Thank you.

Yes, you need to take a measure of the model, make some test how it fits and then create final shape.
It is impossible to scan a shield correctly because mostly they are curved.

[Fremitus Borealis]

Thanks for the info, Pinno! I was wondering this myself, as since hoplite/phalangite shields are just circles, most other ones have a different shape. I was thinking I would base any other designs (Thracians', for instance) on LBMS transfers I already have, since while the designs are of course proprietary, the sizes are not.

[Jjonas]

Could I sell this centaur design shield transfer? Sure.
Will I - probably not.

Shield transfer companies often add extra details that make their designs more copyrightable.

Obviously scanning and printing and selling other people's sheets is totally against copyright.
Doing the same for personal use is not against copyright. Obviously copying from the actual sheet means you lose quality and sharpness, but that may not be an issue if simple repetition of designs is desired. Scanning and placing from existing sheets will still need testing as dpi and scaling of your software may not actually give you a 1:1 scan placement (so be forewarned).

Generally decal/transfer companies make their products cheap enough to buy what one needs.

My problem is what happen if they don't offer the common and more simple designs in numbers that I want?
That's why I embarked on this process since often hoplite "store bought" decals are way too over the top either with colors or busy-ness or both.


The reenactor's shields I used as reference below:

https://www.ancienthoplitikon.com/thumbnaillarge/CENTAURASPIS28s29.jpg

The decal after being scaled/warped and retouched:

http://www.ancientbattles.com/HeroesOfGreece/hoplite_decals_transfers_jjonas/Sparta_Shields_003s.jpg

This design is based on vase art of centaurs with tree branches:

https://www.theoi.com/image/O12.1Kentauroi.jpg

[wmyers]

I would like to do something completely original if I was going through the process, anyway.

Like to and ever getting around to it are 2 different things...

I was thinking of purple background Praetorian designs.