The snapmarks were a LIFE SAVER when I realized I couldn’t upload the whole image and I’d have to chop it up. There would have been no other way to align it.
I taped two small pieces of scrap in the top corners and scored the snapmark logos there. Then I could remove them easily at the end of the job without needing the snapmark on the final product somewhere.
There was what looked like a single line that didn’t print between each section. You can tell if you zoom in. One missing row is about 50% down, then another about 75% down. I don’t know if that’s a snapmark issue or an issue with how I cropped and separated the image. It’s noticeable up close, but not too noticeable from farther away.
This was done with the HD Graphic settings for proofgrade maple ply (then I changed the focus height). I used this instead of Draft or HD Photo because those settings wouldn’t seem to load. Whenever I selected them then hit the side arrow to change the focus height, they all just showed 1000 speed/full power.
I had to do a TONNNNN of photo editing on the source picture to get it to work this well. Huge shoutout to this tutorial Glowforge made (you can find it in the Support section). I had played with contrast and curves before, but the gamma settings and exposure were new to me. One other critical tool that wasn’t in that guide - the Burn and Dodge tools to lighten up certain areas. I spent a lot of time dodging Thrawn’s face, the awards and shoulder pads on his uniform, his raised hand, and some of the shadows in his uniform. This really helped the Glowforge go easier on those sections so more detail would shine through.
The red acrylic is transparent, and it looked weird to see the LEDs behind the eyes. So I ended up leaving the masking paper on the back of the acrylic eyes. That diffused the light, getting that awesome glow effect, and also meant you couldn’t see the LEDs.