How do you make paper props?

If you want to CREATE something well you're going to need photo editing softwares and good reference material such as high def. movie stills.

If you want to make a copy of something that's already been offered here well you need a good printer and the appropriate type of paper to reproduce the original document in the most accurate way.

A guillotine would also be much appreciated to make straight cuts.
 
Mr. K said:
A guillotine would also be much appreciated to make straight cuts.
Click to expand...

Yep this one is the best :lol
istockphoto_2662649-guillotine.jpg


You also might need to learn how to age paper with tea/coffie/klorine/dirt.....
 
+1 with the aging techniques :thumbsup

And that's what I meant :



Is it not called a guillotine in english ?
 
Also metal ruler, metal triangle and other metal instruments along with a utility cutter or hobby knife (like X-Acto) and a surface to cut one are the most useful stuff you can get.

Take glue as well.
Regular and super glue also.
 
Also, don't forget that printing out a paper prop made from someone else's artwork doesn't make you the owner of the said prop (even if you have tweaked/enhanced it).

Selling such items without the author's permission is considered recasting.
 
paper props are the easiest to create with little knowledge of illustrator programs and photoshop like programs. Learn about Fonts , Vector graphics and the printing processes and you'll get a big start. Good images is always the hardest to pin down.
Also share your work from time to time . The paper props section is for everyone to print for their personal use and not to sale. Contributing to it helps everyone out.
And since the RPF arms stretch all over the world, selling paper props are not only stupid but a bad idea for community interaction.
Look at Kurtyboy and jedifyfe threads as they are two of the best here at paper props,,among many others.
 
The HPLHS offers tutorials and the highest quality paper props found online and most of it's free. See HPLHS Prop Arkham Library Card

They also offer period fonts for free HPLHS Prop Fonts

Lot's of specialty paper is your friend, label paper is great for labeling wine bottles, luggage, anything... I made a Miskatonic University label to put on he violin case for my Tommygun.

Old photo's can be made by gluing them to larger pieces of cardstock and spraying them with shellac.
 
I myself have a Photo Trimmer that has an interchangeable cutting head, which not only includes a straight blade, but includes a blade that can create the perforated cuts in paper (like how you have a paper bill that you can pull apart, or like the stub and an airplane ticket which can be separated) and a "postage stamp" blade (which creates the edges of the postage stamps). It even has an LED light in there so to light the paper underneath for a clean cut. I picked it up from Big Lots for only $10.

Normally, when I need a really close cut (like when I needed to make four full size movie poster replicas for a classmate's short film), I use a metal ruler and an Xacto knife.

I also have a laminator I picked up from a K-Mart that was closing down, that I got for half the price (I got it for $12), but I haven't really had a real need to use it (as I haven't had a need for an ID prop for a short or a replica ID I could do, though I know there are a lot).

I also have heavy weight cardstock and some HP Desktop Inkjet paper.

Most of the paper prop creation I do uses Photoshop to create (such as the BSG paper prop replicas I've posted and the Wanted poster for The Terminator).
 
Wintersoldier95 said:
Hi guys, i'm pretty new to this...

Just wondering how you make paper props because some of them are great and i just dont get how you do it?
Click to expand...

Pick a paper prop you would like to make for yourself and make it. Learn how to edit photos in photoshope or paint shop pro.

I started by wanting to make the 2015 USA Todays form BTTF2, so I found reference photos online and screen caps, bought a large format printer and I was off an running.
 
When i make paper props, which i usually do in illustrator. I devide the total in 'sections' and work on each seperate section and put them together. Layers in illustrator make this very easy.

For instance. When i restored the high res scan i got from the Sutter Cane books from 'In the Mouth of Madness' I retouched the front artwork of the covers first in paintshop pro. I then imported it in illustrator as layers and added the text sections in several layers as well: the Sutter Cane logo, the printhouse logo and the titles were done by recreating them as vectors, the text on the back was standard text in the correct font.

Then by layering it all correctly i had complete and very clean covers.
 
By the way...

Where can someone find tutorials for the illustrator about about making symmetrical designs, like the paper-prop makers do?
 
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