How to: Make the cheapest d&d mini's that don't suck - using the official mini art!

[Umadin]

After seeing alot of different variations of some DIY minis I found a way to recreate the official D&D figurines in a way that doesn't involve buying one mini, isn't too crappy and keeps the same official d&d mini art. So I thought I'd share:

1. Buy Inkjet Shrinky Dink Paper. You can order it here or you can go to Michaels or your local fabric store and pick some up.

2. Click on a set, and save one of the official d&d figurines you want HERE.
Example:

3. Open photoshop. New layer. Paste picture in new layer. Turn layer opacity somewhere between 33%-50% (picture shrinks 1/3 size, colors get darker, more opacity lighter color, less opacity darker)

4. Blow up picture 300%. Print. Shrink. If its too small blow picture up more next time, too large, don't blow up so much.

5. Find some sort of base. If your cheap - pennies, buttons, or cut up some thin wood. If your not cheap or too lazy to cut up wood yourself you can get some cheap bases here.

Done. Good number of minis with official mini art for $10ish bucks.

I havn't done it yet so I don't have any pictures but heres some miniatures based on the same concept.... they contain some suck but you get the idea.

None of this is really new news, but I was looking for some fantasy pictures to use for my shrinky dink mini's... but apparently every official d&d mini is perfectly ready for print. Thanks Wizards!


Let me know what you guys think...

 

[Ragnar69]

Sounds great, but I would like see some examples withactual D&D images

 

[Ruined]

Good plan. Although I do get a chuckle out of any cheap, poor man's advice that includes the words "open Photoshop".

 

[GreatLemur]

Huh. Shrinky Dink paper. Now that is one hell of an interesting idea. Never mind those low-res D&D minature photos; you could print anything on that stuff. Hell, I could make minis out of my Spore creatures! Very, very interesting thing to consider...

Good plan. Although I do get a chuckle out of any cheap, poor man's advice that includes the words "open Photoshop".

Replace it with "download GIMP", then.

 

[brexor]

Here's an additional thought. Now you've got Photoshop/GIMP so this should be do-able.

1] Find a pic (any will do) that you think 'is' your character. Crop the image to where only the head and shoulders exist in the image (I usually crop a square that is the width of the shoulders). Resize the image so that the smaller of cross dimensions is about 1.5".

Save this image (you're gonna make two).

Now make that image monochrome (not Black and White, there is a difference). Choose a deep Red as the one color in your image. This will make your Character a "gray-scale" image using only Red.

Save this image under another name.

You now have two roughly identical images one "normal" one "red".

2] Check out http://www.aleatools.com/. They make nifty magnetic circles to help with miniature combat. Anyway. Get you some of thier little magnetic circles and a 1" punch.

3]Print both of the Images you made from step 1. One on label stock, on on regular paper. Punch out both with the 1" punch. Put the paper circle on the sticky side of the magnetic Alea circle, the label circle on the non-sticky side.

Conclusion: You now have a 1" 'coin' of your character. If the character becomes "bloodied" flip the coin to red-side up. My group and I have used these for our last two games, and they work pretty well. Easy to transport, easy to store, and (relatively) easy to produce.

edit: this too

Replace it with "download GIMP", then.

 

[greatamericanfolkher]

You could also use the Art Gallery images from the Monster Manuals.

 

[brexor]

...For example

Front of Coin

Bloodied Side of Coin

 

[RabidBob]

Good plan. Although I do get a chuckle out of any cheap, poor man's advice that includes the words "open Photoshop".

Paint.net

Free.

 

[Klaus]

After seeing alot of different variations of some DIY minis I found a way to recreate the official D&D figurines in a way that doesn't involve buying one mini, isn't too crappy and keeps the same official d&d mini art. So I thought I'd share:

1. Buy Inkjet Shrinky Dink Paper. You can order it here or you can go to Michaels or your local fabric store and pick some up.

2. Click on a set, and save one of the official d&d figurines you want HERE.
Example:

3. Open photoshop. New layer. Paste picture in new layer. Turn layer opacity somewhere between 33%-50% (picture shrinks 1/3 size, colors get darker, more opacity lighter color, less opacity darker)

4. Blow up picture 300%. Print. Shrink. If its too small blow picture up more next time, too large, don't blow up so much.

5. Find some sort of base. If your cheap - pennies, buttons, or cut up some thin wood. If your not cheap or too lazy to cut up wood yourself you can get some cheap bases here.

Done. Good number of minis with official mini art for $10ish bucks.

I havn't done it yet so I don't have any pictures but heres some miniatures based on the same concept.... they contain some suck but you get the idea.

None of this is really new news, but I was looking for some fantasy pictures to use for my shrinky dink mini's... but apparently every official d&d mini is perfectly ready for print. Thanks Wizards!


Let me know what you guys think...

Or, y'know:

1 - Buy Counter Collection Digital (for instance, at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=12265 ).

2 - Open any desktop publishing software, like Microsoft Word.

3 - Import one of the THOUSANDS of images and size it to your needs.

4 - Repeat step 3 until your page is full.

5 - Print, cut, play.

Welcome to the Counter Culture.

 

[Umadin]

Or, y'know:

1 - Buy Counter Collection Digital (for instance, at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=12265 ).

Or yknow. Use beans.

My post was primarily for those people who like visually representative mini's, but don't want to money to buy the random grab bag d&d mini crap... or any other minis for that matter.

Good suggestion for people who don't care about the mini's but still need some cool counters though. Think I might check it out.

Edit: I tried to check it out but I can't see any until I buy it or something.

Anyone know of any decent fantasy tokens that are free?