Designer at the cemetery

When I got a job, at first I enjoyed the following dialogues:
- You got a job? - Yes!
- And where do you work? - At the cemetery!
- OH MY GOD!

I was involved in the memorial plaque of Valery Lobanovsky, which was hanged at the entrance to the main building of ONPU .
In the process of printing, I almost screwed up the top badge, and Lobanovsky's suit. But I found out who he is. But I do not understand why this label is for the Polytech, but I don’t really care.

However, I want to say that I do not feel “terribly negative energy” in the cemetery. On the contrary, the first salary, for example, caused a wild delight in me! In the future, I became Gundet, that this money is not enough for me, but now is not about that.
')
Yes, and I have a job with a free schedule, in the winter I come for a salary, which is paid to me steadily, no matter what, so it's generally a good place.

But the work is dusty (granite dust is everywhere), noisy (portraits, letters are beaten out in the workshop, my machine tool buzzes), and it is difficult to get there, yes.

“And what does the designer do at the cemetery?” You ask.
“The same that almost all designers do.” - I will answer - “I make pictures.”

TRIDE TABLETS



I, for example, make sketches of monuments for clients. I see the customers themselves very rarely, all through the boss. He draws me on the leaves, what is needed, says what stone is made of, which booms are kolevochki, what form what and how.

I do it all in conjunction with Rhino + Maxwell Render, I print, I carry a leaf to my boss, he expresses his satisfaction or dissatisfaction, after which I either go home, or go to rework, or to engrave. And my main task is to draw pictures for their further engraving with a machine on granite slabs. So…

Engraving



On my shoulders are pictures of something that is somehow connected with the dead. For example a fisherman died - draw a river bank with a bridge and reeds. Sailor - draw a ship. The man had a Lada - Lada draw. Pilot aircraft. Lands for peasants, plants for workers.
I don’t do portraits (I made only a couple of pieces including Lobanovsky), fine work, people are very demanding of portraits. The machine cannot provide such quality, and if it is also a glucan ...

How is the image?

Polished granite stone is black. Without polishing - gray, rough.
With the help of a diamond needle, the machine creates small grooves on a polished monument (knocks down the polish). The light in them is not reflected as from a polished surface, due to which we see the silhouettes.



The machine goes from line to line image line by line, it is called “Panel-Count Leader 600”, it was built back in 2006 (there is no guarantee for 4 years, but it still works), at that time I was even a couple he did not skip, and even more so he had no idea what work awaited me.
The machine is connected via LPT port to the computer. The machine is controlled directly from the computer, the machine, in turn, does not even have its memory. When a demanding application is enabled (for example, Unreal Tournament 3 or rendering in Maxwell Render), the machine starts to twitch, “blunt”, which degrades the picture quality. Do not force the computer during engraving.

What to do in Photoshop?



When preparing the image it is worth remembering that the color rendition of the image on the granite slabs is still rather weak, the shades of gray are poorly obtained. Therefore, it is important to bring all the contours, the details should be dazzled with contrast (from black to white) on the screen, otherwise the plate will have a solid gray daub. Soft transitions most often look stained. Better to avoid images with depth of field.

The finished result must be saved in the format bmp, grayscale, 8 bit.
The machine control program does not perceive anything else.
Resolution: 85 ppi. The max image size is 58x36 cm.

Difficulties
I will not describe everything that a designer may encounter when working with an engraving machine. Let me just say that the image should be there where it is necessary, not to miss, not to print upside down (there was a case), all the details should be well delineated, the needle should not be strongly pressed or released (she can scratch or not finish off). fixed (also was the case). And it’s better to quit than to kill, let the brightness be a little less, you can manually finish it.
And no one is immune from some sudden glitch, everything happens.
And if you slipped a shitty cord, then there could be much more interesting things from bad contact.

Emotional aspect
People die on earth, so it is in nature. There is nothing scary or surprising. But there are really sad cases that you usually don’t think about. Children die, parents are asked to draw a sleeping angel on the plate.

Now, nothing will surprise you.