If you've seen pictures of the custom gobos we have manufactured at Gobosource, then you're probably wondering how we're able to maintain so much detail in the projected images, particularly when they involved full-color photographs. With each project, we try to recreate the artwork that our customers send to us using a number of techniques that lend more sharpness, color matching and smoother gradients to the resulting gobo.
For gradients, our gobo images are produced using a process called stochastic screening. For standard screen printing, gradients are made by printing nearly microscopic dots of alternating colors. Up close, it looks like a polka dot pattern, but from far away, the viewer simply sees the merging of different colors. However, rather than adding colors like in print, gobos produce colors by taking opaque material away to let a certain color through, it's a kind of negative print. When used on gobos, the linear pattern process sometimes produces visual aberrations called moirés. With stochastic gradients, rather than having the dots in a linear pattern, they are generated randomly so that such aberrations do not appear.
In order to accurately reproduce the colors that are used in our customers' designs, we combine shades from our standard color palette, which is made up of sixteen standard hues plus a number of additional colors to fit certain artworks.. By combining these colors in up to four different glass plates that are separately etched, we can recreate just about any shade. It's important to remember that your gobo may look slightly different when it is projected due to factors such as ambient light situation, projection surface color and the color temperature of the gobo projector.
To make sure that your color gobo looks the way that you want to, we need to know the color temperature of the projector, which is usuallt defined by the projector model. If you order standard gobo sizes, which can go into many different projectors, please let us know which color temperature the fixture lamp has. Gobosource will create electronic proofs that you can verify to ensure your artwork projects the way you want it to.. We won't charge you for proofs that you don't like, so you don't have to worry if it takes a couple of tries to get your custom gobo proof just right. If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call!
