V for Vendetta: the Banknotes

[Mike J.]

Months ago, when the movie came out, the production's graphic designer Henning Brehm showed some bits of his work on his website: http://www.design-tourist.de/portfolio/v_for_vendetta.html

One of the things he shows is a Norsefire banknote, loosely based on current English pound notes.

About a week ago, knowing the film would soon come to DVD, I resolved to try to replicate the money...

Earlier today I posted my first draft in the big V Props thread:

Since then, I've tweaked the design, making it more accurate (a finer moire pattern, for example).

I waited for the DVD release so I could get screencaps, in case there were any differences between what Brehm posted, and what is shown on screen. I found no visible differences. As a pleasant surprise, I noticed there was in fact a distinct reverse side to the bill (as opposed to being the same on both sides) and there was a second visible denomination (20 pounds). Evidence of hard work on Mr. Brehm's part.

I am currently building the 20 pound note. Hope to be done by some time tomorrow.

In accordance with ancient RPF custom, this is not and cannot become an 'interest thread.' Please do not post here saying 'I want to buy this.' If and when I am ready to sell replicas, I will create a new thread in the Junkyard with details, and link to it from here.

Thanks for reading,


-Mike

 

[Kylash]

wooo, awsome.

 

[dropshipbob]

You should have the title, "The hardest working man in graphic design prop replicating".

 

[Mike J.]

Honestly, I owe a great deal to Mr. Brehm, for showing us his work.

I did start on this a while ago, it's not something I came up with overnight

But I do appreciate the kind words

Finished the 20 last night, just have to tweak the size — British banknotes increase slightly in size as the denomination increases. That could be considered a helpful feature for the blind, but given the sizes (plust 5 or 7 mm) it seems tricky.


-Mike

 

[Mike J.]

Version 3:

Still a few more tweaks needed.


-Mike

 

[Mike J.]

20 preview:

Design & color are supported by screencaps available in the big V props thread.

... Now all I need is some nice paper ...


-Mike

 

[Walter]

Mike,

Is there anyway for you to tone down the photo quality to the Prime Minister's image? Maybe through live trace or something like that? The actual prop just has a little more contrast on the shadow on the right hand side.

Just a thought.

Overall, like all of your designs, I am very impressed and it looks great.

-Bryan

 

[Mike J.]

I got yer contrast — right here.

*Ahem*

Ah ... I see what you're talking about.

Brehm said he ran the photo through Photoshop to give it some engraved effect, but I can't tell what (if any) filter(s) he used.

Therefore, I'm going to respectfully decline to tweak the image any further. I think you'll be happy with the way it looks printed out, and if you really want it to look higher contrast, just squint.

From a design standpoint, I believe that a more detailed portrait seems more realistic. Certain currencies do have a weird ASCII-art-like effect applied to the portraits (Swiss Franc & Israeli New Sheqalim), but there is no evidence of that here.

This ends up being one of those decisions that 'we' have to make: an identical replica of a flawed original prop, or a clean, more idealized version? I have tried to take a middle-of-the-road approach, given my abilities and resources.

I claim no exclusive right to duplicate this particular prop, and anyone is welcome to make more accurate versions, or versions with backs, or higher denominations, or whatever.

Thanks for the compliments, Bryan.


-Mike

 

[Walter]

<div class='quotetop'>(Sith Sheriff Brody @ Aug 3 2006, 07:21 AM) [snapback]1293020[/snapback]</div>

I got yer contrast — right here.

*Ahem*

[/b]

:lol

That was great.

I see where you are going with this and I can now appreciate it. I played around with a similar photo last night in photoshop to try to recreate the effect. I got close, but not close enough to the original to be satisfactory (aka I was pretty ticked I couldnt figure out exactly what the bean did).

I agree now that I look at it now from your perspective, the more photo realistic looks more like the new Hamiltons or the new Jacksons.

Outstanding job as usual.

-Bryan

 

[Mike J.]

Yeah, I had some trouble with 'coloring' the photo, too.

Ended up making the photo grayscale (desaturate), then making a blue layer above it, and setting that to 'lighten' (blend mode). Then flattened, and placed another blue layer above and setting it to 'color'. Flatten that, and I think it looks pretty close.

At least, that's what I have scribbled down on a sticky-note.


-Mike

 

[dr_slurpee]

Nicely done, it's looking good.

For adjusting the colour of the photo you could have just got to hue/saturation and clicked the colourize check box, it'd then be a monotone image and you can adjust the colour with the sliders.

I also see what Bryan was saying about the photo, I think you could just adjust the levels of it so that the white point was a little more white and less light blue, would bring it a little closer to the original but still maintain the photo look of it.

 

[Mike J.]

John, I think I tried 'colorize', but I was not satisfied.

I just went and tweaked the levels a wee bit... Can't pull up the white without pulling up the black, too, otherwise the whole thing will just get lighter (since there's no black).

Thanks for the critique, guys


-Mike

 

[dr_slurpee]

Yeah the colourize can be finicky when you're trying to get JUST the right colour.

I quickly did this with the pics you showed to show what I meant about the levels, using the white point eyedropper gave the result you see here.

 

[Walter]

I did exactly what Mike was doing... I need to pick up Scott Kelby's Layers book.... darn it...

 

[8 perf]

In re: to the photo adjustment, have you tried the "cutout" filter, or the "smart blur" filter? Maybe a combo of both.

 

[Mike J.]

It's too late. They've already been printed. Aieeee.


-Mike

 

[Mike J.]

http://www.therpf.com/index.php?showtopic=114877


-Mike