The situation
Custom gobos are a steady add-on for wedding, corporate and venue lighting, and they come with the same problems every time. The couple sends a monogram as a phone screenshot. The sponsor's logo has a white box behind it that would project as a bright square. Thin script lines disappear on a dark dance floor, and nobody knows how big it will land from the truss.
Lighting companies need the art cleaned up the way projection needs it, a proof the client can approve between meetings, a picture of how it will actually look on the floor, and a file the gobo maker accepts without a second round of emails.
The aiKit tools for this job
- Gobo Proof Studio: Checks the logo, makes the gobo design the way you ask, sizes it for the room, and produces a proof link and a CMYK print PDF.
- aiKit Hub: A Hub card links the gobo job and shows its status next to the rest of the event.
- Graphics Library: Saves the proof, the mock-up or the print file with the client's other files.
Step by step
Start the job
Name the job, add your job number and client, and pick the gobo size: 37.5 mm (the default), 53 mm, 54 mm, 86 mm, or another size.
Gobo Proof Studio →Add the room and the files
Optionally enter the distance, the width and height it should land at, and the lens. Drop up to 12 logo files (PNG, JPG, SVG, PDF, AI, EPS and more), up to 60 MB each.
Gobo Proof Studio →Say what to change
Type it in plain words, such as "make the black parts dark gray". Left empty, a white background usually turns black so only the logo projects.
Gobo Proof Studio →Check how it projects
See the customer proof, an As it projects view on a dark floor, and the print file on its black disc, with zoom up to 8 times for thin lines and small text.
Gobo Proof Studio →Send the link, download the files
Make the proof link and send it in your own email or text. Download the CMYK print PDF, the proof, or the whole job as a ZIP.
Gobo Proof Studio →
Examples
A wedding monogram from a phone photo
Silverline Event Lighting, an invented company, gets a couple's monogram as a phone photo. The resolution check grades it Low, the artist redraws it as clean shapes, and the proof shows it 6 ft wide from a 20 ft mount. The couple approves from a phone that evening.
Sponsor logos for a gala
Brightstage AV receives one PDF with three sponsor logos. Each becomes its own design in the same job, with its own proof and print file, and the event planner approves all three from one link.
A size the lens will not reach
A venue asks for a logo 12 ft wide at the entrance. The calculator shows the standard lens tops out short of that size at the mounting distance, and offers the lens or the distance that works before anything is ordered.
Tips
- Enter the mounting distance and the lens; the proof then shows the real projected size instead of a guess.
- Ask for thin script to be thickened; fine lines that look elegant on screen often vanish in projection.
- Use your own job numbers; you can find old gobo jobs by them later.
- Check Recently deleted before redoing work; jobs and designs stay there for 30 days.