It is no secret that I’m a HUGE fan of dimensional signs. It’s all we do. But I am also a he fan of including a sculptural element on the signs. It makes them POP! In my case, more often than not this sculptural element will be a dimensional cartoon character. It is what I love and what I have gotten very good at.
As various areas in the adventure park are completed it is time to begin the installation of the many signs. Today was that day for three of the many signs we are working on in the shop. In order to complete the timber and rock work under the Buckin’ Bronco booth we needed to install the sign today. The crew will attach the lath around it and then we will do the sculpted concrete work
The rain poured down today making it the perfect day to do some painting on the many signs in production in the shop. The smaller and relatively flat dimensional signs got their first two coats of base colors today. One more coat and they will be ready for the glazes. The Happy Horse Saloon sign received it’s final touches to make it ready for installation
I tool pathed the slices of the ship two different ways. For the middle two slices of each half I used only a 3/8″ ball nose bit at 80% overlap. The large tool made short work of the hull pieces. The smaller section of the hull with the window needed a little more detail so I roughed it at 50% using the 3/8″ ball nose bit and then did a finish pass using a 1/8″ ball nose bit with a 80% overlap. The six hull pieces were arranged to fit onto a 1/3 sheet of 2″ thick Precision Board I started the file on the router shortly after lunch and then went outside to do some tractor work in the yard
Building seemingly complex files in EnRoute is something I enjoy immensely. It came hard at first but as I became familiar with the program and what I could do with it I enjoyed it more and more all the time. The key is to first learn and understand the program functions. Then, if you learn to visualize what you want and what happens inside EnRoute virtually anything is possible.
It is hard to believe but after almost a year of work, the concession and ticket signs are the last signs to be routed for this project. As always we started with vectors for the signs. I did a little kerning of the lettering to get things spaced right and then drew up the broken board border. The sign chaps were created as a flat relief. Wood grain was then added using the sandblasted wood bitmap from the TEXTURE MAGIC COLLECTION. The letters were then created as separate reliefs, nudged into position vertically and then merged (highest) with the base relief. As quick as that the files are ready to have tool paths and be sent to the MultiCam.
We are down to the small utilitarian signs. The first are the washroom signs. These are the most important signs and hopefully by making them easily readable the staff won’t have to constantly answer the most common question guests will ask. I did a search online to locate the symbols and then hand vectorized them in a few minutes. I sized them and placed them on a rectangle of the right size. I then replaced the rectangle with a rough cut board shape as the signs are for the western area of the park
One of the most fun signs of our current project has been a very long time in building. I first conceived of the design about twelve years ago. I reworked it a little for this project adding the leaning pole that had been chewed by Bucky. I designed the sign in EnRoute ad laminated it over a welded steel frame. The post was welded up in our shop. Bucky the beaver was hand sculpted and then we attached the wire mesh to the frame.
Corporate signs are something we do very seldom. They present little opportunity to be truly creative. But every once in a while we need to build such a sign. Our theme park project, Skallywag Bay Adventure Park in Trinidad is owned by a second company, Starburst Parks