The Card Art Thread

[Strife]

I'm going to have to empathize with Teow on this one. While the misunderstanding with the card removals was bad enough, the past couple of posts have been reeking with vibes of "Never mind, we don't want your artwork afterall." And that's not really something that's sitting right with me at the moment.

Granted, I probably should have kept my mouth shut about the Underdeep ooze, but I only meant it as an observation, not a criticism. If I were in Teow's shoes right now and I had made a ton of artwork for a project only to have them turn around and (essentially) say that they don't need it afterall... Well, I would feel like my time was better spent with other things, to say the least.

This isn't helping our overall situation with the TCG. We're trying to bring people into the TCG, not push them out. <.<;;

[Scar]

Sarn and I agree. Teow did a lot of work and was treated pretty crap. First half of her art was supposedly made redundent, then retired and now its back, only she's deleted it from her photobucket. Then on top of that she's told she got the wrong colour. It is rather cruel, not that its anyone's fault.

Teow, if you're reading this or any of the PMs I sent you, your work is so very appreciated and we are all so sorry that you got hurt over this, Sarn especially. If you would ... we would love to have you back. On th ematter of Petrifying Ooze, its a simple colour modification and really shouldn't be too much trouble to edit. But we do understand if you don't want to, just know that the TCG loses a great asset and wonderful person in you.

[Deleted]

Guys, to prevent anything like this from happening again, I've set aside a place in the card list thread to list information about the actual cards themselves. I've only just started and it'll take me a while, but I would really love it if people could pitch in information about the origin of canon cards.

Link: Here

Also, the names of the cards will eventually become links to relevant sources of information, though I haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Draco]

Jun 15, 2010 6:45:39 GMT -5 @adoqhina said:

Guys, to prevent anything like this from happening again, I've set aside a place in the card list thread to list information about the actual cards themselves. I've only just started and it'll take me a while, but I would really love it if people could pitch in information about the origin of canon cards.

Link: Here

Also, the names of the cards will eventually become links to relevant sources of information, though I haven't gotten around to it yet.

In a way this would be a good opportunity to gather info to put on the NTWF Wiki (is that still around, I forgot XD). After all, the majority of the canon cards would fit into the Wiki

[M is for Morphine]

The list of information for all the cards is very cool. I think it will make things a lot easier. I'm sorry I flipped out earlier. I'm putting the previously completed images back on PB since it was pretty immature of me to take them down in the first place.

I'm going to take a break and chill out for a while. In the meantime, good luck to everyone involved.

[Deleted]

Jun 16, 2010 7:39:46 GMT -5 M is for Morphine said:

The list of information for all the cards is very cool. I think it will make things a lot easier. I'm sorry I flipped out earlier. I'm putting the previously completed images back on PB since it was pretty immature of me to take them down in the first place.

I'm going to take a break and chill out for a while. In the meantime, good luck to everyone involved.

I don't think anyone would blame you after what happened, so please don't feel bad. It was your art and you had the right to give and take as you pleased. <3 Take all the time you need and in the meantime I'll keep working on that card origin post.

On that same note, I do need some help from folks. If you made the card, please give me some info on it. ^^ And I'll prod Hunty to update her first post with a link to it so that artists can have some sort of reference. :3

[Killix]

Marvir Bomb is a black Marvir with a short fuse accessory.
Marvir Statue is a gray gargoyle/golem styled Marvir.
Starfishi is Adopt-A-Marvir's fishing exchange NPC.
Devimarv and Valimarv are both NPCs for the Marville Marathon.
Merrymint Marvir is the winter holiday NPC.

Octo Pie was something I created on one of the 'bloids a few years ago. There was this whole living food invasion thing that a bunch of the magic-using people accidently created. Octo Pie was a freshly baked octopus pie, complete with writhing tentacles and ink filling. It lured people in with its sweet smell and then strangled them. XD (and I think someone ate it by the end of that whole thing)
I've recently tried tracking down the thread, but I couldn't find it. I think the whole thing must've been eaten in an old bloidsplosion. :/

[Amneiger]

Canon check. =D

SPOILER: Click to show

Robotics Lab Assistant - I just guessed that there might be a few hanging around the Spacefleet labs.

Spacefleet Security - another guess; since Spacefleet has areas for civilians with shops and such, there should be security guards there, right?

SPOILER: Click to show

Generic Card - Not canon. I just made this up to try to plug gaps in the elemental card numbers.

Mini Hovertank - Not really canon. If it is canon, it'd be as a set of conceptual blueprints somewhere on Amneiger's desk. I kind of made this card because I wanted something with guns that shot down other attacks. >_>

Spacefleet Pilot - Probably canon, although I still don't know how a pilot who's on foot can use missiles.

Known Tabloider - Canon. xD Also made so that there were more Earth Uncommon Fighters, but still canon. xD

Minitank - Amneiger's main form of offense and general combat in Guild events. Very canon. xD They're supposed to be for protecting Spacefleet members, which is why they have the Suppressive Fire special ability; there's nothing like the threat of being shot to keep attackers away.

Android Shopkeeper - Maybe not canon. I just imagined that Spacefleet might actually have one of these around.

Spacefleet Soldier - They show up in Guild roleplays. They definitely have the laser rifle, although I'm not sure if they actually have small jets that let them do assisted jumps.

Spacefleet Medic - Maybe not canon. Again, I just imagined that a military organization like Spacefleet would have medics around for healing their troops.

Underdeep Squid - Maybe not canon. I just made it up because there needed to be more Water Uncommon Fighters, and people used to say creatures like squids were monsters, so hey, why not?

SPOILER: Click to show

Uber-Generic Card - again, made up because there needed to be more Colorless Rare cards.

Spacefleet Starfighter - They do exist, although you probably only saw them in the Redemption RP.

Legendary Tabloider - Canon, and we needed more Earth cards.

Spacefleet Marine - Spacefleet has rocket launchers.

Spacefleet Commando - Spacefleet also has big laser cannons and heavy armor.

Spacefleet Surgeon - See Spacefleet Medic.

Underdeep Leviathan - A bigger version of Underdeep Squid, made for the same reasons as Underdeep Squid.

SPOILER: Click to show

Amneiger - Basic version of Amneiger. Dazzler is canon.

Professor Amneiger - Amneiger's made weapon turrets in roleplays. Emergency Beacon is there because Amneiger still isn't really a fighter in Guild canon.

SPOILER: Click to show

Botched Healing Potion - Not really canon, unless you want to consider the possibility of an inept mage apprentice.

Pirate RCP - Oh, very definitely canon. xD

Tactical Deployment - Not really canon; I just wanted a card that let you sneak attack from your bench.

Accounting Error - Probably not canon, unless you want it to mean errors in TCG accounts. >_>

Dropship - A reference to Spacefleet dropships.

Mind Trick - Made because I thought it would be awesome. xD

Critical Existance Failure - A TvTropes reference.

Spacefleet Encryption - Made just because, and also because I thought Spacefleet should have encrypted files somewhere.

Force Shield (originally Power Armor) - Again, just because.

Self Sacrifice - A third time, just because.

[Deleted]

For the record, all forumer cards are canon because ... well ... theyr'e forumers! xD And just to let you all know that some of the cards you think are canon aren't actually so. That list we were going to cut was actually a lot smaller than what some people wanted to have cut out (it included just about every "guild" card and anything that couldn't be pinned to a specific forum "thing" ... so the Tabloid cards would've mostly been gone and whatnot.

For this project, I'm going to try to include as many cards in the canon list as possible but unless I can link to a specific place here the thing is described, used or even -mentioned- outside the TCG, then it won't be considered canon. Hence why this thing is going to take such a long time to complete, because I'm doing a lot of research before deciding where some random card should fit. Also, if you're wondering, I copied the list into the non-canon card list and am only selecting ertain ones to move to the canon list. I am by no means done with the common fighters, you'll know I am when I move on to the uncommons. =3

[Celestial]

It has been a while but after a long struggle with the forest background, I present to you, Solitary Mage.

SPOILER: Click to show

[Deleted]

Celest, that's amazing. ^______^ I added it to the card art list a while ago but haven't found the time to compliment you until now. =D I love the detail you put into these. <3

[M is for Morphine]

Testing out the by-product of some goofing around.

[M is for Morphine]

Huntress, I imagine, is still outrageously busy. I do not think it is fair to expect her to do all the work, so I have made a little attempt at a template pack, based on her hard work.

Here is a link to my pdf template, for photoshop. Now with better file hosting!

Card Template

Icon Pack

Issue: Fonts.
I have no idea what font Huntress uses. I also do not know if we want to stay with that font, since people have been discussing readability issues.

Possible Solutions: Let's test some out and see what we like. The one I used is Courier. It is ok, but I'm not married to it.

Issue: Colorless/Events
Colorless background should be black or grey to match the icon. Events are already grey. Black gradient looks like like grey, causes reading problems.

Possible Solution: Make even cards brown. I've included a brown in my template pack. That is just one idea. I hope to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

Else:

People were suggesting a mark for rarity. I have included different borders for different rarities.

Here is an example of a card created with this template, with a rare border. Totally placeholder.



I've included an expansion symbol for Fablequest in the doodad pack. I thought it would be nice to mark these. Please let me know if vital icons are missing.

Input wanted.

[Deleted]

Hunty used a mixture of Lucida Calligraphy and Kartika.

[M is for Morphine]

Thank you!

How to Make A Card (Photoshop Version)

Making a card in photoshop doesn't take long. I created the file in Photoshop Elements, which is the cheap version of the software that can be found bundled with cameras, tablets, etc.

Open up your template, and look to the right. All of the backgrounds and borders that you need will be there in the layers window. Clicking the box to the left of the layer will make it visible or invisible.



Make sure the background you want, the border you want, and layer three are all visible (layer three is just a white backing). The border labeled 'Uncommon Border' is the standard grey border that is used on all the cards at the moment.

My next step is to see what icons I will need, and place them on the card. I select them with the lasso or marquee tool, copy, and paste into the template. You don't have to icons first, but I find it helps me figure out how much space I am going to have to put the text in. You probably want to do this step before you bring the card art in, because pasted items like to jump to the middle. It makes it hard to grab the little ones.

Icons are jerks.

The pasted icon will create it's own layer. Just make sure you drag it above the background, so it doesn't get covered.

I do not have Lucida Calligraphy or a correct-looking Kartika, so I will just use a placeholder for now. : /

I don't have much to say about text. Just use your better judgement to make it look nice and readable. I like to start with the largest font that fits, and then scale it down as needed.

Just paste your card are in if you haven't already (222 x 146 is the standard size, if you have to resize), and you are ready to save! Use the 'save for web' option, and pic your favorite extension. I like PNG because it's not huge and the image quality remains good.



You've probably made a whole bunch of extra layers in the template, so just close it without saving and you are ready to start over from scratch without having to go through and manually delete them. XD

That's everything I can think of. I hope I didn't leave anything out. If you have a better way of doing things, please let me know! I'm totally not an expert at Photoshop, or making cards, so there is certainly room for improvement.