Hi there my name is Flávio and I'm a huge Uncharted fan. To get more Uncharted related items, or more pop culture stuff, please follow me on my youtube channel where I show the entire process from the conception to having it on the palm of your hand.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuRhb0hZJBax_Gai0VDxBhg?view_as=subscriber

Step 1: Introduction and a Bit of Background Story

This guide will show you how I created the Uncharted 2 Journal Replica with all the steps to accomplish it.

I have been a huge Uncharted fan since the first game was released on the playstation 3, back in 2007, loving everything about it, the plot, the adventure, the gameplay, pretty much everything. But when I experienced Nathan Drake going through is attic on Uncharted 4, just going trough every item that he collected during is adventures, I decided that I wanted to recreate every item that we owns. So that thought led me in to make his Journal from his adventures in Shambala.

The entire process took me just around 1 month, but I'm very pleased with the out come, and decided to share with you all.

Step 2: Materials

The materials I used were these ones:

A5 Hardcover notebook;
120 gr A4 White Paper;
Glossy Photo Paper A4;
Transfer Paper A4;
2D Printer;
X-Knife;
Scissors;
Black marker 0,5 mm;
Pencil;
Glue stick;
3D Printer;
Flowers;
Transparent duct tape;
Duct tape;

Step 3: Collecting Photos/drawings

To make the journal in the most authentic way possible, I used the photo mode from the ps4 to capture the photos from the video game "The Nathan Drake Collection" while Nathan was using his journal. This method allowed me to get some HD quality photos so I could recreat them in my journal. After the photos were taken I uploaded them to my pen drive and paste them in to my computer so later I could work on them.

Step 4: Edit/Adjust the Photos

With all the photos taken, it was time to work them to look closer to the ones we see in Nate journal.

To do it, I used the photoshop software and imported every image so i could edit them and tweek it.

Depending on the photo, i used different approuches, if it was a document, like a manuscirt that he took from an old book or some photos like the Elena portrait or Sully's. I used the transform tool to get the right shape, since the photos from withing the game were a little bit tilted because of the angle that Nate was holding the journal. And that was the process for that type of photos.

If it was a drawing, I used the same method with the transform tool, but addictionally, I change the colors on the image to make it black and white. Doing this I was able to remove the color noise and get only the tracing of the drawing.

This part was the one that took longer to make, because I had to do it, for every image, every page, and make it look right.

But now, looking back, it was all worth it.

Step 5: Printing the Pages

When every image and photo was done, it was time to print it and to do it I used 3 different types of paper. For the photos I used the glossy paper, for the drawings I opted to use the transfer paper and finally for the manuscrits and plane tickets, etc, I used the 120 gr paper, which gave a better felling to those items, making them feel more realistic.

Step 6: Creating the Journal

When every page was printed, it was time to move to recreating the actual notebook.

Before i started glueing the pages and drawing the images, i divided every printed page into to separeted sheet to help me organize the journal, and it was also helpful when I had to trace over the drawings.

To create the journal, I decided to go page by page, and only moving on when the page was complety done, either if I had only to glue the image or make some drawings, execpt when the page included the flowers or the coins. I opted to make those later.

In this process the thing that took longer was when I had to trace something over. When I had to glue something, I decided were the image should be placed and place it. But when it was a draw, I had to use the transfer paper and trace over the image, and most often then not, I had to trace it over again, using with the black marker, to give more definition on the draw, like the outlines, and some expressions.

The flowers I used were real, and I took them from my garden :)

Step 7: Creating the Coins

To make the journal more realistic I decided to model the coins and then print them, so they could look like the ones we see in Drake Journal. I did the modeling process in the software SolidWorks and used the photos from the video game to guide me through this process.

When the modeling was done, I printed them in my Anycubic i3 Mega and paint them with a gold spray can.

I will make a separeted video, on modeling, printing and painting, and will give away the STL so you can have the El Dorado coin as well.

Step 8: Final Result

And here we have the final result of 1 month of working on this journal. I'm really happy with the result and I can gladly add it to my Uncharted collection.

Hope you liked it and inspired you to create one of your own, or at least play the Uncharted series :)