cool pop up cards

Meow

I came across this website with some really cool pop up card templates and tutorials for them. I am not exactly sure how they might could be cut on a cutting machine. They look like they are by hand.
Here is the site: https://sites.google.com/site/kagisippopopupcards2/top/howtomake

Rachel

Crazy_Mr_Zing

You maybe be able to pixel trace the Jpgs or import the pdf
more the likely there will be a little tweaking to do in MTC after that

Di-lite

julie demonstrated how to trace from pdf so I think these files can be grabbed - love the pink tree!

Meow

@Di-lite , was the lesson on tracing in a webinar?

Di-lite

@Meow Yes Julie did discuss it and show in one of her webinars but not sure which one. Sometimes PDF's contain svg file so you can grab them directly in others you have to trace them. Afraid I can't be much help as somehow the information didn't get logged into my brain (think it has sink holes in it). I can have a go at it if you would like but I'm not sure how successful I would be. I put a q in for @juliefes here and see if she can advise you directly. She has a much greater knowledge of this subject.

Di-lite

Definitely not my forte, failed dismally! It brought in multiple lines as if it was a wmf file originally. Would suggest you state which one you want and we'll hopefully get @juliefes to try it for you.

Di-lite

OK so this is not good but I took it into Serif Draw and hardened up some of lines then exported as png and then traced it into MTC Needs a lot of tidying up I used the alpha trace which might have been the correct thing to do in the first place with texturised ticked. Still have no idea how to do it in MTC directly. Anyway it kept me quiet for half an hour as I happen to like the tree. Will now go away and see if I can make a tree similar to this that works for me.

Di-lite

oops forgot the file - holes in the head again!!

Meow

@Di-lite, thank you SO MUCH!! You are so kind! I have gone back to the beginning of the 2014 webinars when PCS was introduced and have begun listening to them. I will look through the descriptions of them to see if it is in there. Since this is MTC I will look back at some of the earlier ones too. I will ask Julie if she remembers.

@juliefes, do you remember which webinar you showed how to trace a pdf? Thanks.

MeFlick

Meow said:

. . .
@juliefes, do you remember which webinar you showed how to trace a pdf? Thanks.

Not Julie - but I can tell you that tracing a PDF has been covered any number of times over the years by Bryan, Julie, and others in Webinars. Tracing a PDF is no different generally then tracing anything else with MTC. You have to learn to try the different settings, mess with the different types of trace options, etc. with that "trial and error" you start to learn what works and what doesn't for the types of traces, images that you are doing. The one thing to understand about PDF files is that some are "vector" PDF files while others are not. If they are "vector" files - that is what MTC works with is "vectors" and they will pull in without having to "trace". If it is not a "vector" PDF, then you will have to trace the file. When you have files like above where you want the "texture" of the file, then they are not going to be only a "vector" file and you will need to do a trace and include the texture with it. Those kind of files can be pulled into MTC to create a cutting file for our cutters, but they will take some work on your part to get them in. Bryan has shown how to do these types of traces many times over the years on similar types of files.

You don't need PCS to create these files since the work has already been done by the designer of the files to do the "layout" - you simply need to get them into MTC by doing a trace and then separating out the cutting and folding lines as needed.

To find old Webinars where this has been done you could start by searching the indexes of the Webinars someone created from the timestamps. (Last I knew, there is not yet an index completed for 2015 however as someone first has to watch all the videos and writeup the timestamps for each one.) There are "indexes" of the different years of Webinars that you can "search" through but the detail provided may not be enough to distinguish what type of "trace' was being done. I believe those indexes are listed in the Webinar recordings thread which is stuck at the top of the forum.

If you would like Bryan to demonstrate how to do with these particular files, you can always add it to the Webinar thread for next week when he adds it for the questions to be added.

Meow

@MeFlick Thank you so much. I think I will add it. However, he has already done 2 questions for me already in the past month so I don't want to hog all the time.

MeFlick

Meow said:

@MeFlick Thank you so much. I think I will add it. However, he has already done 2 questions for me already in the past month so I don't want to hog all the time.

No worries about "hogging" the time - if they think a discussion has been well discussed in the past and shouldn't take up more time on a new webinar - they are not shy about pointing you to the old ones and having you take a look. Plus, usually there are enough new users coming in its good to "review" things - if you are wondering how to do something - there are usually others who don't know and won't ask! That's what the webinars are designed for - for anyone to ask questions to see how something is done with MTC and/or PCS. If you are worried about "hogging" the time - wait a little while after he has posted the question thread for next week to give others a chance to jump on first with their questions before posting yours.

Meow

@MeFlick, thank you.

Andy

Here's that Sekura tree... The PDFs aren't too bad. I imported just the strokes from PDF. To get a 300 DPI raster image, I used Inkscape to export to PNG feature (there is a setting to export at a certain DPI). So, this should print really well.

Meow

@andy, thank you so much. I am still a beginner so I am not sure what Inkscape is. What do you mean by "strokes."? If you want to demonstrate what you did in next week's webinar, that would be so wonderful Can this be imported directly into MTC and dealt with there? I found this two videos by @juliefes on youtube. Does they address how to do this in MTC and in Inkscape ? Here are the links:
Video 1:
Video 2:

Meow

@andy, @MeFlick, @Di-lite , I think I found what I am looking for. It is in the 9/22/2015 webinar. However, I don't have Adobe Pro. When I download one of the files, I don't have any of the buttons at the top of the page to let me copy any parts of it.

MeFlick

@Meow - Inkscape is a free, OpenSource vector graphics program that can be used when needing to do some work that is more easily done outside of MTC. Think Adobe Illustrator/Corel Draw type program both of which are $$$$$ - Inkscape is open source and free. It is what many people used initially when trying to get SVG files way back in the early days of cutters and MTC and SCAL https://inkscape.org/en/

"Stokes" would be just the cut lines - not the actual "texture" or coloring of the image I am assuming is what Andy meant - no MTC on the computer I am presently on so haven't checked his file. He provided the MTC file in his post so you can "see" what he has done. (By the way - just in case you don't know - this Andy is the Andy who created both MTC and PCS programs. )

I will have to look back at the Webinar you are talking about (but won't be tonight) to see what she did there and how she may have been using Adobe Pro.

Yes, the two videos (from a quick glance at the early portions) from Julie's Youtube channel are similar idea/concept of how you would look to bring in the PDF files from the site you shared above.

Meow

@MeFlick Yes, I was very excited that Andy responded. I listened to his webinars explaining how to use PCS from 2014. Thank you. I watched the portion of the webinars that both videos came from. The entire portion from the webinar is not included in the youtube videos so I just went to the webinars. They are the 9/22/2015 and 9/1/2015 webinars. I squinted so that I could see the dates at the bottom right of Julie's computer screen In the first one, she uses Adobe Pro to copy the images she wants to take into MTC. She pixel traces them when she gets to MTC. In the 2nd video she takes a PDF image from Inkscape into MTC by just cutting and pasting. Since she just cut and pasted, I am wondering if I can just do that instead of doing what Andy did? I have never used Inkscape, but what she did did not seem difficult.

Di-lite

@Meow Throw your questions up to the Webinar - people seem shy about putting their questions up so I am sure nobody would think you are hogging the webinar. I put up several questions on the trot so it's nice to have a fellow conspirator! I never thought of using inkscape - it's a free program - it would handle the vector shading which MTC cant. Andy is a real star - so kind.

Meow

@Di-lite I messaged Julie. If I am able to understand without seeing it I probably won't need to put it up, but if not I will. Thank you for your encouragement.

Meow

@Di-lite , I think I am going to post this question for next week's webinar. I got my PDF into Inkscape and ungrouped it. When I select and piece and copy and paste into MTC, I get this big mess. I did the fuse and weld like Julie did in the video, but it does not change. I don't know what I am doing wrong, so I think I need to see it. I would take a screen shot to show what I am getting but I don't know how to paste it into this message.

Di-lite

@Meow You keep hitting problems that I have. First I exported from inkscape as a png and them traced it into MTC to keep the file in tack. To put a screen shot here save it as a jpeg and select 'attach file' below. (I think it will work in paint and click paste and then save altho I use psp)

Di-lite

@Gabe can you help I'm a little out of my depth!!

Meow

@Di-lite, here is the screenshot. The white objects from the pdf came in fine, but the cherry trees are not. I tried fusing and welding but that is not working. I got it pink one time by joining and welding but the cherry blossoms were missing.

ETA: I finally got it in as a png file with no problem, but I just don't understand why I can't cut and paste.

Di-lite

@Meow that was the problem I had - the pink is a vector shaded area made up with a series of nested duplicate to get the gradient colours. I use to do that in Design Works but the saved wmf come out like that it later programs as they cant handle it. That's why I took it into another program and exported it as a png. and then imported it into MTC and traced. Serif Daisy Art handles it better but I am not sure what method is best. I would definitely get Julie to have a crack at it and/or Bryan in the next webinar. It will not only help you but a lot of others who are going round in circles. At least that's two of us and I bet there are others as well. I think may be Julie did it in two parts - one to get the lines and the other to get the colour. The old wmf files were great as you could save gradients of colour and they work so well. Unfortunately Microsoft decided to drop them which means everyone was force to backgrade to less able formats. If you look up in my Bazaar you will see lots of coloured pictures that I originally did in wmf and they have lovely shades and colours but had to convert into more modern formats. It's so frustrating because I think the designer used either corel draw or similar to create the graphics and they translated poorly for our software.

Di-lite

@juliefes can you have a look see to see what you make of these pdf files - we've been going round in circles - help

Meow

@Di-Lite I will post it in the webinar. I got it to import as a png and traced it. I had to go in and put in some cut and fold lines, but I am wanting to understand why it is not just pasting. I will ask in the webinar and direct them to this thread.

Meow

@Di-lite , also for some reason the second page of the pdf is not importing into inkscape. Do you have any idea why? I am looking at the mini sakura tree.

leslie6111

@Meow that person went to great length for you not to cut their programs digitally. Here is the png of the second page. You are going to have a lot of clean up. I have photoshop 13 and the textures come in easily but the strokes in MTC really boggle down my MAC

Meow

@leslie6111, thank you so much. Does photoshop 13 bring in both pages of the pdf? If so, I may purchase it. I was looking and if I am looking at the correct one it is less than $50.

ETA: I figured out how to get the second page using Inkscape.

Gabe

@Meow and @Di-lite, let's review Andy's previous message. "I imported just the strokes from PDF." This means he is not trying to bring in the color or the texture. All he took from the PDF was the lines, which will become vector lines in MTC. So at this point he has the shape of the tree, but none of the color.

To get the texture he said, "To get a 300 DPI raster image, I used Inkscape to export to PNG feature (there is a setting to export at a certain DPI).

So he used Inkscape to read the PDF file and export the color/texture as a PNG, specifying he wanted it to be 300 dpi so it would print out nicely. You can bring the PNG into MTC via pixel trace. Refer to Section 3.14, "Changing Texture" to see how to bring in the tree's texture. You can then combine the strokes you brought in earlier with the texture so you can print and cut the tree.

Please note that I don't use Popup Card Studio, simply because I don't make cards. So I have no experience with it.

leslie6111

@Meow I can bring in all of the pages, but 1 at a time and then I export it it as a png. I have version 13 and now 14 is out. 14 is suppose to be better. I bought it when papergizmo was teaching us how to do his stacked paper pictures. I am not too good with it yet, but it is useful for getting rid of backgrounds and coloring in coloring book pages.

leslie6111

@Gabe - in this case only strokes cause the file is so large that it crashes mtc if you check both strokes and fills. That is not necessary to do with most pdf's. Even when you bring in the strokes - it is so cluttered with lines it will take someone a while to clean it up. If they are giving it away - I do not why they have to make it a nuisance to use! My sheep paper toy was like that - a real nuisance to clean up - it only made me more determined to digitize it.

Gabe

@leslie6111, thanks for the clarification. I sort of think they don't do it to be difficult, but rather they cut with scissors and paper knives and don't realize that what looks so straightforward to them is actually almost unusable by people who use digital cutters. I mean, if I were going to provide cuttable artwork it would be in the industry standard, SVG. Certainly not in PDF, which was designed to make it hard for others to make changes. But that's just me.

Meow

@Gabe and @leslie6111 thank you so much. I finally figured out how to do it. I don't know if it is the best way but it got it done. I imported the pdf one page at the time into Inkscape. Then I ungrouped the designs and regrouped each individual part. I exported each one as a png and then imported each one into MTC and pixel traced them. I had to use the pencil to draw in the fold lines and some of the cut lines on the trees. Interestingly, I could just cut and paste the white portions of the design straight from Inkscape into MTC. The image on the 2nd page of the PDF did not show up very well in MTC. I guess I need to export it at the 300 DPI. However, whenever I tried to do that, the image got larger, so I may not be using the right setting. I thought that after doing all this it would have taken about as much time to just cut it by hand, but this was so much more fun.

MeFlick

leslie6111 said:

. . . If they are giving it away - I do not why they have to make it a nuisance to use! My sheep paper toy was like that - a real nuisance to clean up - it only made me more determined to digitize it.

I don't think that they do it intentionally to make it difficult for someone to bring into to cut with a cutter - I just think they design it as an "artist" for printing purposes and don't even realize that someone can attempt to cut it with a machine and that they way they have created it for printing creates problems for us to bring in to cut.

I can tell you some stories from years ago when I worked with a Company who had large user manuals for electronic equipment that were HUGE manuals with lots of technical drawings and images. We were on the front end of "digitizing" and putting them on line so as to not have to print them and make them easy for a user to "search" them. We kept having problems with the graphics. They were showing up as "huge" data files when to look at them, they shouldn't have been. I had to break some of them down to "see" what the problem was. The "graphic artist" was simply turning images white with white strokes to hide "mistakes" or something that they decided they didn't need. There would be layers of those! They didn't understand why it mattered!

juliefes

Here is my process, using only MTC. Open the PDF and use the Windows Snipping tool if there is not a Snapshot features available in the software that opens the PDF. Use Pixel trace with threshold set to 255, and Texturize path selected. Then continue and pixel trace setting threshold to 200 to get the lines in. Use Layer on the lines to remove the double lines, then break to remove all unnecesary lines. Zoom in close enough to line up the cutting lines over the printable images, and follow print and cut procedure for your cutter.

Meow

@juliefes, thank you.

Meow

@Di-lite I probably won't post this question in the webinar since we pretty much got it figured out. Thanks so much for your help and to @juliefes , @Gabe , @MeFlick , @Andy , @Crazy_Mr_Zing

Di-lite

@Meow Glad you got it sorted. It's solving the puzzle that's the fun part not the time taken. Yes of course you could have just printed and cut with scizzors but it wouldn't have been half as challenging or fun. Anyway it gave us all a lot of fun trying to solve it. Keep finding gems like this and you will have a lot of happy campers going round in circles.