OT: Make your own T-Shirts

[dean]

I've been playing around with the idea of making my own T-shirts, just with Iron-on transfers.  But because I haven't had the time I've been putting it off.

But now that I have some free time I'm thinking of giving it a shot.

Basically I'm thinking of mainly pop-culture/film driven shirts, but I would really like to incorporate some good B-movie images on a tshirt of some kind, though at the moment I'm not too sure what [my first thought is one of the images of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space, or a Zombie pic from Dawn/Day of the Dead]

Mofo Rising reminded me about this because I've been playing around with the idea of doing a 12 Monkeys based shirt as well.

Anyway here are some possible ideas, I'm trying to keep them simple however, so they aren't exactly too flashy, and probably need to be cleaned up a bit before I use them:

First off a classic family guy image:


Followed by a bit of Campbell goodness:


And the above mentioned 12 Monkeys idea:



Saw a different version of this image in one of the 'Hush' Batman comics, which the Joker was wearing, which I thought was pretty silly and I liked it:


I'm also playing around with an Exorcist idea with this image on the front:


And this one on the back:


Anyway, they are some of the vague, crappy ideas I have so far, but I'm looking to expand into some B-movie fare, though as of yet I haven't really thought too much about it [though I remember someone mentioning a Flash Gordon tshirt a while ago which was pretty cool]  

So does anyone have any suggestions for a good type of tshirt to create?  Got any vague and relatively unknown images from a film you've seen which you liked?

[Scott]

Don't know much about the legalities, but it would be fun.

Guess you could copy the images of public domain films and put them on TV shirts. You could find hundreds of great images from those type films.

Otherwise you would have to pay the rights to use the image I would imagine, but that wouldn't be so bad if you could still make a profit after getting the rights.

I'd like to start my own little production company using good digital camera equipment and software and labeling which would use my own created images based on my own created film work. Have a lot of ideas, just need a little know how before money can be put out towards it. I believe it can make money by just spinning off copies of my own ideas on DVD. Once you get to making them you can make duplicates as needed. Your very own stuff. Anyone know the price of quality digital video cameras and good production software? I haven't taken the time to really look into it, but it is what I'm interested in doing.

[odinn7]

I don't know exactly what you're looking for but I thought I'd add this in case you didn't know. I get shirts made for our group from cafepress.com. They let you design your own shirt online with your own pictures and they even let you open an online "store" for free. The price of shirts is great and I highly recommend their services. I am not sure, however, if they will print images such as you have shown simply due to legalities.






Post Edited (11-18-05 21:15)

[dean]

Well the legalities thing I can't imagine would be a problem, since I was going to do them just for myself, and not sell them, so therefore I'm not making a profit etc.

Its incredibly small time, and I really don't see anyone making a fuss about it at all.

It's really just a personal thing I've wanted to do for a while now.  I'm just a fanboy looking to tell the world: "Look at me, I have a tshirt on with a cool picture."



Scott wrote:


> I'd like to start my own little production company using good
> digital camera equipment and software and labeling which would
> use my own created images based on my own created film work.
> Have a lot of ideas, just need a little know how before money
> can be put out towards it. I believe it can make money by just
> spinning off copies of my own ideas on DVD. Once you get to
> making them you can make duplicates as needed. Your very own
> stuff. Anyone know the price of quality digital video cameras
> and good production software? I haven't taken the time to
> really look into it, but it is what I'm interested in doing.

What exactly do you mean?  What sort of created film work were you thinking of dong [ie short films, info films etc.]  Because I'd imagine the equiptment you need really is dictated by what you are trying to achieve.  That being said, the phrase 'we'll get it in post' is quite true, since many people

For me, for example, I am a wannabe filmmaker who works with a zero budget, a sony digital camera that cost me about AU$1,200 three years ago, Adobe Premiere Pro version something which I have a copy of for free, and some other editing software which came with my computer [which I don't use for editing, but works well for recording onto DVD]  Also I use a couple of music making programs in order to make my own music, and a cheap midi keyboard hooked up to it as well.

That all works fine for what I'm trying to achieve, that is, low budget, home-made films, but I'd imagine that for a classier image quality you may need a better camera/ lighting etc.

I don't use labelling software, though I have recently bought blank dvds which are inkjet printable, so I guess that could work.

Since some of the better programs are a bit expensive [as to how much exactly, I'm not too sure], I have to say that I'm happy to stay with the copied versions I have [which may or may not be something you are willing to do], though I'm sure the legal software that came with my firewire card would work reasonably fine depending on what you are doing.

But yeah, having your own production crew/company would be fantastic and would be something I'd love to do myself as well, though the people I'd want to work with [my friends] are mostly too busy with their own things to devote too much time to it.

[Ash]

I do like the 12 Monkeys design.
I think that the big red monkey logo would look good on the back of the shirt.
On the front, the words, "12 Monkeys" on the left breast.

Now that's a shirt I would buy!

[dean]

ASHTHECAT wrote:

> I do like the 12 Monkeys design.
> I think that the big red monkey logo would look good on the
> back of the shirt.
> On the front, the words, "12 Monkeys" on the left breast.
>
> Now that's a shirt I would buy!


What's good is that on the DVD they have alternative pictures of the 12 Monkeys design and there were some pretty good other options.  Maybe I'll dig up a few later and post them just for interests sake.

Oh and odinn7, I had a brief look at the site you reccomended and it actually gave me a few other ideas for some other ones, but realistically I'm probably going only to do 4 or 5 shirts [however many transfers come in the pack] and leave it at that unless it works out really well.

But don't let that stop you guys from coming up with cool ideas!!

Come on, a General Zod for President tshirt would be pretty snappy don't you think? :-P

[Ash]

dean wrote:



Come on, a General Zod for President tshirt would be pretty
> snappy don't you think? :-P

I want one of those "Captain Spaulding For President" shirts like in "The Devil's Rejects".

[Shadowphile]

If anybody out there is a fan of the 'Poison Elves' comic book, you'll recognize the quote.

ELF: THE OTHER WHITE MEAT

of course it needs Par's face on it.

Gotta love Lusifer and Par.......

[Scott]

Local stuff, travel stuff, unique subjects, and who knows maybe even a legitmate movie one day.

Would like to get the names of the best equipment, sofware, and prices. Along with the right computer to handle it all.

[ThadC]

What about something from Blue Velvet, or Lost Highway. Even something from Hawk the Slayer, and The Warrior and the Sorceress would be kinda cool. I also liked the Captain Spalding idea too..... just ideas

[dean]

Ideas are great, and Blue Velvet is definitely a good idea.  Frank's picture with his oxygen mask on a tshirt would be enough to freak most people out I'd imagine. I have yet to see Lost Highway properly so I can't really talk about that, but perhaps a pic of that creepy guys face would do nice! :-p

I also really like some of the movie poster/video covers of some movies, for example the Barbarella poster [big surprise there though, it's great] in which the picture is painted.  Those sort of pictures would make great tshirts, and the more wacky and silly the movie, the better!



I also seem to like symbols as ideas for tshirts, such as the 12 Monkeys symbol, or for a more geeky one, symbols from Star Wars etc.

Or 50's monster movie posters like THEM and such, adapted somehow to suit the tshirt form...

[Shadowphile]

There are a number of old movies that are now public domain.  Feel free to pillage from them as well.  As far as symbols go, the Transformers and Decepticons are always a favourite.

[ThadC]

Scott...
If you are looking for a computer to do screan print work, I would say build one your self for that purpose. I built one to handle my ploter machine for decals. I had a Mac at first, and it worked pretty well at first, but some of the stuff I was working on got too big, and too complicated.

[ErikJ]

There are legal problems depending on what image you want. My wife was trying to have a shirt made for me that was simple. I hate Mickey Mouse, so we came up with the simple image of a silhouette of the back of Mickeys head with cross hairs on it.
Any place we took the idea to wouldn't do it because of the legal ramifications.

[dean]

ErikJ wrote:

> There are legal problems depending on what image you want. My
> wife was trying to have a shirt made for me that was simple. I
> hate Mickey Mouse, so we came up with the simple image of a
> silhouette of the back of Mickeys head with cross hairs on it.
> Any place we took the idea to wouldn't do it because of the
> legal ramifications.
>

Well that's just plain silly.  I'm not sure how strict they are here, but I don't think it will matter since I'm probably just going to put them on iron-on transfers which I can print up in the safety of my own home.  Like I said earlier, I really doubt there will be any problem at all with that way of doing things.