There’s millions of shops, at-home and production level, producing stickers. With such a daunting level of competition, questions arise about how to contend. How do I make my sticker business stand out from the crowd? What can I offer that other shops won’t be able to replicate? Today, I’m offering a short, easy crash course on a product I’m calling “3D stickers.”
What are 3D stickers?
Adding a layer of gloss buildup already adds a ton of value to your vinyl stickers. But what if we could use this to add dimensionality and make our stickers come to life? I’m going to break down the process for multi-layered gloss buildup, which will create a cool 3D effect that lets us separate our subject, background, and anything in between.
I was inspired to create a sticker like this from Mimaki’s 2.5D texture buildup feature in their RasterLink software (and unfortunately for me, I’m pretty sure the name “2.5D” is protected by copyright). But rather than using a grayscale file to automatically generate gradations, we’re going to do it the old fashioned way.
Step 1: Color Layer
All great stickers start with a solid design, preferably vector-based. Working with vector shapes will give us the freedom to layer our design as we wish. For this example, I’ve created this design; a skeleton dude chilling on a flamingo, in a small little pool that I sketched out with the pencil tool. This design has some “3D sticker” intent behind it: an intentional dimensionality, with elements at different perspectives to give depth.
It’s not necessary, but I like to use only a few colors when I create stickers like this. You can always change them up later, but being able to select colors with the magic wand as we layer our gloss will be much easier with a limited palette. Now that we have a good foundation, we can select certain elements for buildup.
Step 2: Gloss Buildup
Choosing areas for buildup should feel pretty intuitive. In my case, I will almost always add gloss buildup anywhere that the vector shapes include vivid colors, text, and any focus area of your choice. Since I’m printing on holographic vinyl, I’m also going to be laying down white ink on any spots in my design that are white or black.
For this example, we’re going to print three different gradations of buildup to get the 3D effect we’re looking for. Picture your gloss layer split into three distinct planes of focus. Background elements will get the least buildup (1 layer), followed by midground (3 layers) and foreground (5 layers). To begin, we’re going to save a layer with all of the buildup elements as “gloss 1” (or whatever you want to name it. Sometimes I don’t even name them if I’m feeling lazy).
The next layer we’ll save is “gloss 2.” This will include all of the buildup layers EXCEPT for the background. In the example sticker, this means removing the “Roland” text and the water underneath the skeleton. It might seem backwards to save the files this way, but we’re basically removing certain elements from being overprinted. It’ll make a lot more sense once we print.
Lastly, we will save our final buildup layer as “gloss 3.” Only our foreground elements will be included in this layer. This will feel 5 times thicker than the first layer that we send, giving us that 3D feel. All that’s left is to save our files, three in total. One file will include color (and white if you’re printing on specialty media) and “gloss 1,” followed by a file each for the remaining two gloss buildup layers by themselves.
Step 3: Print Setup
We’re all done with the file setup, so now we’ll move into setting up this print. In this example, I will be using Roland’s VersaWorks RIP software. The specific steps will vary depending on your software, but the basic idea is the same.
We will be sending four jobs to the printer, one after the other, for our finished product. Set your first print up for normal color printing, and include a white spot color if your file includes one. Set this print to rewind, and duplicate the file, this time activating special effects to print your first gloss layer.
For your next two gloss layers, set them to overprint twice. This will give us our one – three – five series of gradations we set up. You may need to slow the printer down so the lamp is exposed over the UV ink longer, giving a more solid buildup. Check out my settings if you’d like to get the most out of your gloss layer.
Final Product
And just like that, we’ve got a 3D sticker! I’m sure there’s a better name for this type of product, but I’m not in marketing. What was once our flat, unassuming design has been elevated into an eye-catching sticker that sets us apart from other sticker shops. You can build off this process to create some pretty unique designs. Some printers allow you to produce as many as 7 overprints per job, so your only real limit is how high your machine can print.
Hopefully this crash course gave you some inspiration to create your own 3D stickers. Paired with a speciality media like holographic or metallic vinyl, these products can offer you something a little more sublime than your run-of-the-mill sticker.
I would also like to take this time to point out that this process is legally distinct from Mimaki’s 2.5D texture printing. Reflected in the name, my process is 0.5D better.
