Jump to content

Can someone teach me how to make a Luminator Sign or Train Sign?


Recommended Posts


There are two stages to being able to make an LED-style bus or train sign; making the frames and then animating them. For making the frames you have three different options:

 

-Use a preexisting font like 24 LED or some of the MBTA-style fonts that are floating around the Internet. I don't remember the site for the MBTA fonts, but there's a link to it somewhere on these boards; if all else fails PM me and I'll see if I can send you the font files from my computer.

 

-Build a dot-matrix grid of the size you're looking for (for instance, 24x200 for Luminator Titan signs), get a LOT of photos of those signs in action, and assemble each letter by filling in dots until it matches the photo.

 

-Same as #2, only compile the characters you generate that way into customized fonts you use for sign building and save the fonts and the template grid on the computer.

 

#1 is the easiest, #2 is a lot of work and really only a good idea for a one-off (one sign, and no more), and #3 is more work than #2, but it's what guys like ConeyIslandAv7 and RTS CNG Command do to produce the signs you can request and I'd advise it over #2 if you plan to make multiple signs simply because making every frame of every sign dot-by-dot gets incredibly tedious and time-consuming. If you want instructions on how to do #3, you should talk to one or both of them and/or IRT Bronx Express about it because they're the experts; I just do #1.

 

Once you have the frames assembled as separate image files, you can use a number of programs ranging from Photoshop on the high end to Web-based gif animators on the low end to animate them. One last tip, though: no matter how tempting it may seem DON'T use anyone else's templates unless you've had a conversation with them (here on the forums, face-to-face, whatever) and they sign off on it; otherwise you'll be asking for trouble when they find out. Besides, they're generally pretty good people and they probably have more than a few pointers for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
  • 3 years later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.