getting DIY screen painted, wich one? - have samples/pics inside.

Ok folks, this may end up being a tad too long, but hope to see what others think.

First off, i have a hd70 and using a fixed frame 100" blackout cloth.
I was enjoying the picture for a while now on this BO and it seems ok to me, but this weekend i was bored and wanted to improve on it.
The colours seemed good to me, but i wanted more blacker blacks, so anyway, i went to my local paint shop and got 5 different colours + the BO.

1). BO
2). matt white (it had a sticker on it saying for home theater use)
3). stone white
4). white shaver
5). silverstone grey
6). grey pail

To me, the worst was the matt white wich was noted to be used for home theater!!!
While i very much liked the silverstone grey and white shaver.
My decision is on those two favourites, and i cant decide, but please do comment on teh other colours as you see fit or your preferance..

Silverstone grey shows much deeper blacks/less crushed dark colours/better during the day or lights on, but whites arnt as white.
While white shaver has better whites/brighter, blacks and dark colours are crushed compared.

Here are some pictures now to demonstrate what im talking about.


these are the colours im talking about... look at the bottom two at teh left, much deeper blacks, yea? to me teh BO on it sown is better then even the matt white!


same picture, just without all the writing.


Look at the hand of king kong, see the difference in colour as it goes from silverstone grey to white shaver?


here is star wars, look at the jacket colour on young skywalker!


this image i think shows the best of the silverstone grey colour, out of all teh colours, in this image i prefer the silverstone 100% much cleaner/sharper it seems wich richer darker colour, look at her shirt transition.


Now, here is teh perfect example of teh whites im talking about! the silverstone doesnt have that bright white colour as the white shaver... but then again, look at the skin tone on the white shaver, seems too bright?


the snow on the white shaver is much nicer... but the vehicles on the silverstone is much cleaner.


just another picture detailing the skin tone and the white colour on his shirt.

Now... id like to know what your preferances are in these pictures you see? i know pictures dont do it justice, but ive tried capturing it as closest to what i was seeing, so its teh best i can do for showing people.

Would you go for darker blacks and sacrifice whites to be duller or have a slightly better blacks(compared to the BO) but still a touch washed out compared to silverstone.. but in doing so, have nicer whites and brighter image?
I will be watching it a bit more in the following days to be sure what i prefer, and ill hopefully make up my mind in a few days.

Thank you for any feedback and any advice you may have, appreciate it.

hi,
i can only provide what it states on the tin, wich is:

1). white shaver.

base: white: \\ 0.25litre
B 0y 0n 0.75
C 0y 0n 0.25

2). silverstone grey.

base: white \\ 0.25litre
B 0y 1n 0.5
C 0y 0n 0.5
i 0y 0n 0.25

im pretty sure they are not the numbers you want? and i have no way of knowing how to get these numbers, unless i ask in store!

3). the flatt white one is a brand name : british paints, and is called ultra flat white.
There are no codes or numbers on this tin.

I have no idea what teh numbers mean, i just went to the store, picked a few colours that have a slight grey/silver in them and wanted to see if teh blacks would be better.
Id love to try some of the colours that are recomended on this site, like rs mudd etc.. but i have no way of getting that kinda exact paint/brand here.

cheers

Tiddler, wow! thank you so much for a very detailed reply and source of information, greatly appreciated.

I am very new to paints especially when talking poly/mica/pearl etc.. as i dont understand what each paint does, tho you have explained in very great detail and lenghts but i am remember, still a noobie when it comes to this.

So from what i understand, in laymans term, i basically am looking for the right choise of colour/shade at the moment, when im happy with my blacks and white, as well as colours i pick that colour, wich could be a direct paint or a mixed paint with other that achived such a result.
Then, your recomending to put another layer of water based poly satin over it... what will this poly satin do? will it give better whites or is this the boosting of gain your talking about?

Id rather do a simple diy screen solution for now, and when im feeling more confident, i will go ahead with the more harder metalics/pearls and so on...

For now i just would like to understand teh simple basic version.. base colour(white or gray), then add water based poly satin on top? and for the third base, your saying put clear over the poly?
I understand the 1st step, just confused with 2nd and 3rd step.
If satin gives me better whites, does that mean clear coat gives me more gain?(or do i have this the other way around?)..
Just trying to go little at a time.

Btw, tonight i have mixed and matched a few shades to my favourites, silverston and white shaver.
I added a touch of black to teh white shaver and did a section, then also i added a little bit of matt white to my silverston and did another section.
Just letting it dry now and will see what comes up.

If i could get just a bit better whites with teh blacks remaining teh same on the silverstone, id prefer that.

Again, your reply was much appreciated and a great help, im reading all your threads to get a better idea of the paint mixes and trying to learn from it

cheers,
Danny

Tiddler,
yes, your reply sure did give me the answers i needed, and will greatly help me in my diy screen paint, thank you.

tonight, i found another mix that i really like.
I used silverstone and mixed pure white with it to give it a bit of a lighter shade, and the result of it was the blacks were just a bit deeper then (white shaver) but the whites and skin tone remained almost the same as the white shaver, so now i have a slightly deeper black with same whites as white shaver, wich i was very happy with.
The biggest bonus of this mix tho, was on a dark scene, lets say the sky with stars was that there was much less grainyness/hayziness, it was much more cleaner with teh same resulting colour, if you know what i mean, almost as if it had that extra bit of gain(wich it might, as its a different colour mix, where i added that pure white wich has i believe teflon in it and some other additives perhaps).

I will look for teh matt polly tomorrow and will do that on top coat, and if that brings out teh whites even more.. then im set

Thank you for going through with me on this, it sure is fun trying out all these different mixes and its interesting to see what happends during all the different colours.

Ill post again if/once i find a polly coat.

thanks

hey Tiddler,
The past two days ive tried looking for water based matte or flat poly, and cant seem to find any.
I can find oil based matt poly, but im guessing that is no good since i did my screen with water based paints?

Another thing, when i asked for it, one of the store managers said to use water based matt clear, wich was acrylic.
He said it has the same affect, can you tell me if this poly is actually clear? or is poly something totally different? if its the same thing, id use that as i can get that easy, but there is no mention of poly in that bottle at all!

cheers

andy,
yes everyone just nods they're heads and shakes.. no such thing!

Anyway, i took tiddlers advise and i bought 2 types of clear.
1). matt acrylic clear(water based)
2) wattyl estapol clear satin(water based) wich is the one you just mentioned

I took a sheet and tried both, half of matt clear , the other half the satin clear.
Put it up against the custom silverstone i had my BOC done with.

1).The matt clear gave me pretty much same blacks/dark colours, while whites were a touch lighter, not a great deal but whiter never the less, wich was great since i was happy with the already whites on teh custom silverstone mix.

2).The satin clear gave me a much brighter image, and whiter whites again, great ay? well...not so to me!
It has a slight shine to it wich gives this brighter whiter shine, correct? BUT, and this is what spoiled it for me... you MUSt look at it direct on, meaning as soon as i moved even a slight bit to teh left or right, teh brighter/whiter image dissapeared and teh colour was back to how it was originally.
Im not sure what you call this term? but your seating must be head on and the uniformatty would suffer across the screen it seems, like, you will have nice bright image in teh center, but not on teh very ends...

I will try and post pictures later as i took some.

I then, mixed 50/50 of teh matt and satin clear and tried that.
With that mix, i hardly got anything from it, ended up being pretty much the same as doing nothing, no difference to the image.

So, i ended up painting my screen with the MATT acrylic clear water based, wich i was happier with
All in all, im pretty much to teh stage where im very happy with the picture, and i think i will leave it for a few months to see how i like it.
Its too easy to paint over it again when im feeling a bit adventurouse, so who knows what ill try next time.

andy, got any pics to show the colours?
Does yours shine straight on and then teh shine dissapears as soon as you move?

cheers

Ok,
i took some pictures to show the difference between my custom mix silverstone grey(background screen), then custom mix silverstone grey with matt clear, and custom mix silverston grey with satin clear.
Here we go...

1). Here is a pic with the outlined colours i did, just so you can see wich mix is what.

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2). here is the original pic with no outline.
You can see the matt clear is pretty much the same darkness as the silverstone mix, while the clear satin is giving out too much shine and crushing the blacks, this being on a pretty much direct view.

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3). Now look at the satin, little bit of angle and the shine is pretty much gone, good but not so good when looking straight on.
While the matt is still the same colour throughout all angles.

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4). You can see in this shot, both are giving a brighter skin tone, more pop and pretty even when on an angle.

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5). Now with straight on view, the matt is is much whiter then silverston, but less whiter then satin,. but the satin gives that shine/sparkle i am talking about, that you get on straight view only( look at the skin tone on the satin, much brighter, but compromises on the darker colours giving out too much shine, like in the above car picture).
The matt is doing a very good job tho, look at the shoulder/arm colour of white, compared to the silverstone white

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6). Here is another shot to show of the whiter whites of the matt clear, very good i say


So, by adding the matt acrylic clear, i gained whiter whites, while retaining the dark and black colours, with no hazy or grainy coloures as before, and the colour is uniform across the screen...
While the satin gives out whiter whites, it does it on straight view only, while compromising the blacks with its shine, and not uniform across the screen.

tiddler,
both, the matt clear as well as the satin clear were done as top coats, meaning it was rolled over the already painted silverstone grey.
It was just an experiment, and now i know i cannot do a satin like that, but as you say, need to mix it to a certain percentage.

bud16415 ,
you are correct, that the experimenting im doing is mostly to suit my envireoment and settings, and its mostly to show others what im doing and getting out of my setting the way im doing it.

Since i just got my projector, not even 10hours on it, id like to enjoy it now instead of experimenting too much, i believe i found a point at wich im happy with and will use it until im hungry for some more potential, and keep reading on these forums to keep track at what becomes available.

Im sure at some near future, i will again try and improve upon my screen and try the metalics or pearl that you speak of, if i dont stop now, ill never stop

This forum has been a great help, people such as yourself and tiddler helped by already experimenting doing this kind of thing, and now it makes it easier for us.

Now, all i have left is to make a black border and start enjoying my new 720p
P.S. your screen/picture looks amazing

cheers

well, ive finally finished my screen and already watched a few movies/shows..
One things tho, now on the bigger scale, it seems i have not rolled the paint on perfectly, as you can see paint roll lines!

I mean, its barely noticeable, and most people cant see it, but i can
Its the lines from when you move your roller from one position to the next, it leaves kind of a line, even tho i was overlapping the previous wet paint.
I tried all kinds of ways to roll, and went over the painted surface a few times to eliminate this but it seems it didnt work.
I understand the best way would be to spray paint it, that would solve the issue 100%, but ive tried to avoid that way, plus it raining here and too cold for spray painting.

1).Would i be able to sand it lightly without affecting the picture quality and without needing another coat of matt clear?
2).Any tips on how to do this properly? i used the finest roll i could fine, it is like a fine sponge type roller.

other then that issue, very happy with the picture.