glory of llama
01-11-2015, 01:42 PM
I'm looking for someone of decent skill with image editing who can craft some specific items for me using materials I've gathered.
I am making a custom deck of poker cards with fronts and backs designed after the Magic: the Gathering card game. It is almost a standard 54-card deck (two jokers), however, as magic has 6 colors (White, Blue, Green, Red, Black, and Artifact), I'm making all of them into their own suits, so that the poker deck, much like MTG, can be customized, and you can have your own combination of colors being the suits. The colors and corresponding mana symbols are replacing the standard poker suits entirely.
Inspiration- my brother and our friends used to play MTG back in the 90s (I think the last time they bought cards was right before the Mirage set, they're mostly familiar with Ice Age and Legends and such), but pretty much stopped right after high school, though it remains a fond memory, and we had lots of good times and memories. Since then, we've all been extremely fond of poker card based games, and our families have all had various card games as the focus of game nights (variations on Rummy, Spades, we play Euchre, Cribbage, etc). So my plan is to gather them all together for a game night, and bring out what appears to be a deck of Magic: The Gathering cards, which will turn out to be poker cards with all the images replaced with ones from MTG. I think they'll really enjoy them.
What I have done already- I have figured out all the aspects of the project (what goes where, what font the numbers/letter will be in, what the backs will look like) including the fact that there will only be 4 actual artworks for each color- for the face cards, jack through king, and the aces. Jokers will consist of two "gold" cards from joke set called Unhinged.
What needs to be done- Actually copying and pasting, cropping, placing, and editing the images for the cards, as well as sizing the images to look good in the manner they'll appear on the cards, and finding suitable mana symbol images to use in the 2-10 cards in the same manner as they appear in a standard poker deck. Preferably those mana symbol images would be altered somewhat to fit the style and visual themes of the project.
Why I'm offering this job, and why I'm coming here to amvhell- To answer the second question first, this is one of the very few communities i involve myself in on the internet. The only one, in fact, that deals with art in any respect, the others are all about gaming. Plus, y'all actually have some pretty strong ideas on work ethic when it comes to artistic endeavors. The amount of good and bad criticism offered on video editing here is pretty impressive, and I'm sure at least some of you hold similar standards on other forms of art in which you partake. As to why I'm offering the job at all- I'm an idea man. I have some ideas, but none of the skills or talents to put them into action, apart from little stuff like gathering some images on the web and putting them in folders. I've made a few very crude image edits, but none were more sophisticated than "cut and paste, spend 2 minutes in paint trying to remove stupid off-white color surrounding the desired image making it look like ****" or "play with the stylizations in photoshop". That's the extent of my skills. I'm willing to pay money for someone to do the actual semi-artistic job of making the final product, and I don't want to go to a professional art place because it's not that kind of serious art and so I don't want to spend THAT kind of money. Basically, all that's left to do is probably fairly basic stuff that simply takes time and a bit of effort, and I'm willing to pay someone to do that.
What I'm offering in payment: Your choice. I will pay straight up cash, through paypal or whatever, or games on steam, or future favors, or whatever else. Name me a price you think is fair for the work: 13 cards per color, 6 colors, plus 2 jokers and 2 card backs, is 82 total images, the size of poker cards, with the majority of that work being "make a template image, paste mana symbol X number of times, rinse repeat" with 4 actual artworks per color that don't really need to be altered, merely sized, placed, and faded/brightened to fit the overall look of the project.
In fact, let me list my expectations of the actual individual aspects of the project in the spoilers below:
Cards consist of-
-Card Back:There will only be two card backs, so that there can be two distinctly separate decks that can be merged for certain games requiring multiple poker decks in play at once
-Card Front, consisting of:
--Outer Border: MTG cards all have different colored borders depending on the set they're from, but for this project's purposes, there is only one color- Black
--Number Field: the 2 through 10 cards will all have the border, then an off-white field in which the appropriate number of correct mana symbols will be arranged
--Number/Letter: In the Top Left and the Bottom Right (upside down obviously), the card will have the number or letter displayed in a specific font (Satan's Minions, in case you're wondering :D)
--Face Card "Faces": In Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces, specific images will be shown twice (once reversed), all of which will be the artwork found on specific MTG cards, edited to remove the color border found on the MTG cards but retaining the Name and Mana Cost and summon type and expansion symbol (more detail given once project is started)
--Artist Credits: in the space on either long side of the card between the images of face cards and the Outer Border, the original card artist's name will be displayed (this project's artist may have a credit somewhere in the card or on the deck box as well, or perhaps as a separate card included with each deck)
Deck Boxes: This can be a separate project or an additional cost in this project, to design a deck box designed for 54 cards and an additional one for the extra two colors not in play
Basic List of Operations:
-find appropriate mana symbols
-alter or adjust mana symbols to fit with the style of the project
-make a template card front consisting of the black border and off-white interior field
-crop, edit, and fade the face card images to include desired elements and exclude undesired elements (as said above) and maintain homogeneity of the color fade (nothing looking washed-out or too bold/dark)
-size the face card images to allow for room for the artist's credit while still looking good and maintaining the style of the project
-use the given font to place the Numbers and Letters
-find or craft Joker symbols to fit the style of the project (working idea is to use the given font's "S" combined with the symbol of the card set from which the joker cards are taken, "Unhinged" which is a stylized "U")
-combine the above elements for each color/suit
-get paid and get a free copy of the finished product
I already have a custom playing card vendor chosen to produce the physical decks, www.makeplayingcards.com. I would use bicycle, since it seems they offer the same service, however the times I tried to use them, their site was down or something, so I'm a little put off by them. If MPC seems too shady or iffy, I'll try to use biycycle unless other options present themselves.
As you can see, there is almost no artwork creation involved in the project, only image editing with artistic choices being limited to colors and some image choices and some edits that require artistic skill. Primarily, this project requires time and attention to detail, combined with skilled use of digital editing software. This project is almost like what I imagine actual work for some graphics stuff to be lol...
Again, this project means a lot to me, to give this to my friends, and I'm willing to pay appropriately for it.
Lastly, in no way, shape, or form would this be any form of okay with Wizards of the Coast. I'm pretty sure if they caught wind of this they'd send a cease and desist to me faster than I can draw a card. But since they don't offer MTG poker decks, I gotta get it done myself somehow, so here we are. I NEVER plan on selling the finished product, it is purely a gift to my brother and friends. I take on all financial and legal liabilities.
On the off-chance some form of legal action (which would likely be nothing more than a C&D), THEN I'll have to ask for parody images of the card artworks I've chosen and come up with parody names, and THEN I'll attempt to market and sell the finished project in order to recoup the substantially increased costs, purely out of spite for Wizards of the Coast who are almost as big of IP nazis as the NFL.
Please post below with any questions, offers of acceptance of the commission, ideas for the project, or other comments. Suggestions of other sites or people to offer this commission to would be greatly appreciated, though amvhell gets first dibs. If multiple people are interested in the project, I recommend creating a sample face card with your own choice of MTG card image and the best sample gets it, or if they all look good, then the first person gets it.
I am making a custom deck of poker cards with fronts and backs designed after the Magic: the Gathering card game. It is almost a standard 54-card deck (two jokers), however, as magic has 6 colors (White, Blue, Green, Red, Black, and Artifact), I'm making all of them into their own suits, so that the poker deck, much like MTG, can be customized, and you can have your own combination of colors being the suits. The colors and corresponding mana symbols are replacing the standard poker suits entirely.
Inspiration- my brother and our friends used to play MTG back in the 90s (I think the last time they bought cards was right before the Mirage set, they're mostly familiar with Ice Age and Legends and such), but pretty much stopped right after high school, though it remains a fond memory, and we had lots of good times and memories. Since then, we've all been extremely fond of poker card based games, and our families have all had various card games as the focus of game nights (variations on Rummy, Spades, we play Euchre, Cribbage, etc). So my plan is to gather them all together for a game night, and bring out what appears to be a deck of Magic: The Gathering cards, which will turn out to be poker cards with all the images replaced with ones from MTG. I think they'll really enjoy them.
What I have done already- I have figured out all the aspects of the project (what goes where, what font the numbers/letter will be in, what the backs will look like) including the fact that there will only be 4 actual artworks for each color- for the face cards, jack through king, and the aces. Jokers will consist of two "gold" cards from joke set called Unhinged.
What needs to be done- Actually copying and pasting, cropping, placing, and editing the images for the cards, as well as sizing the images to look good in the manner they'll appear on the cards, and finding suitable mana symbol images to use in the 2-10 cards in the same manner as they appear in a standard poker deck. Preferably those mana symbol images would be altered somewhat to fit the style and visual themes of the project.
Why I'm offering this job, and why I'm coming here to amvhell- To answer the second question first, this is one of the very few communities i involve myself in on the internet. The only one, in fact, that deals with art in any respect, the others are all about gaming. Plus, y'all actually have some pretty strong ideas on work ethic when it comes to artistic endeavors. The amount of good and bad criticism offered on video editing here is pretty impressive, and I'm sure at least some of you hold similar standards on other forms of art in which you partake. As to why I'm offering the job at all- I'm an idea man. I have some ideas, but none of the skills or talents to put them into action, apart from little stuff like gathering some images on the web and putting them in folders. I've made a few very crude image edits, but none were more sophisticated than "cut and paste, spend 2 minutes in paint trying to remove stupid off-white color surrounding the desired image making it look like ****" or "play with the stylizations in photoshop". That's the extent of my skills. I'm willing to pay money for someone to do the actual semi-artistic job of making the final product, and I don't want to go to a professional art place because it's not that kind of serious art and so I don't want to spend THAT kind of money. Basically, all that's left to do is probably fairly basic stuff that simply takes time and a bit of effort, and I'm willing to pay someone to do that.
What I'm offering in payment: Your choice. I will pay straight up cash, through paypal or whatever, or games on steam, or future favors, or whatever else. Name me a price you think is fair for the work: 13 cards per color, 6 colors, plus 2 jokers and 2 card backs, is 82 total images, the size of poker cards, with the majority of that work being "make a template image, paste mana symbol X number of times, rinse repeat" with 4 actual artworks per color that don't really need to be altered, merely sized, placed, and faded/brightened to fit the overall look of the project.
In fact, let me list my expectations of the actual individual aspects of the project in the spoilers below:
Cards consist of-
-Card Back:There will only be two card backs, so that there can be two distinctly separate decks that can be merged for certain games requiring multiple poker decks in play at once
-Card Front, consisting of:
--Outer Border: MTG cards all have different colored borders depending on the set they're from, but for this project's purposes, there is only one color- Black
--Number Field: the 2 through 10 cards will all have the border, then an off-white field in which the appropriate number of correct mana symbols will be arranged
--Number/Letter: In the Top Left and the Bottom Right (upside down obviously), the card will have the number or letter displayed in a specific font (Satan's Minions, in case you're wondering :D)
--Face Card "Faces": In Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces, specific images will be shown twice (once reversed), all of which will be the artwork found on specific MTG cards, edited to remove the color border found on the MTG cards but retaining the Name and Mana Cost and summon type and expansion symbol (more detail given once project is started)
--Artist Credits: in the space on either long side of the card between the images of face cards and the Outer Border, the original card artist's name will be displayed (this project's artist may have a credit somewhere in the card or on the deck box as well, or perhaps as a separate card included with each deck)
Deck Boxes: This can be a separate project or an additional cost in this project, to design a deck box designed for 54 cards and an additional one for the extra two colors not in play
Basic List of Operations:
-find appropriate mana symbols
-alter or adjust mana symbols to fit with the style of the project
-make a template card front consisting of the black border and off-white interior field
-crop, edit, and fade the face card images to include desired elements and exclude undesired elements (as said above) and maintain homogeneity of the color fade (nothing looking washed-out or too bold/dark)
-size the face card images to allow for room for the artist's credit while still looking good and maintaining the style of the project
-use the given font to place the Numbers and Letters
-find or craft Joker symbols to fit the style of the project (working idea is to use the given font's "S" combined with the symbol of the card set from which the joker cards are taken, "Unhinged" which is a stylized "U")
-combine the above elements for each color/suit
-get paid and get a free copy of the finished product
I already have a custom playing card vendor chosen to produce the physical decks, www.makeplayingcards.com. I would use bicycle, since it seems they offer the same service, however the times I tried to use them, their site was down or something, so I'm a little put off by them. If MPC seems too shady or iffy, I'll try to use biycycle unless other options present themselves.
As you can see, there is almost no artwork creation involved in the project, only image editing with artistic choices being limited to colors and some image choices and some edits that require artistic skill. Primarily, this project requires time and attention to detail, combined with skilled use of digital editing software. This project is almost like what I imagine actual work for some graphics stuff to be lol...
Again, this project means a lot to me, to give this to my friends, and I'm willing to pay appropriately for it.
Lastly, in no way, shape, or form would this be any form of okay with Wizards of the Coast. I'm pretty sure if they caught wind of this they'd send a cease and desist to me faster than I can draw a card. But since they don't offer MTG poker decks, I gotta get it done myself somehow, so here we are. I NEVER plan on selling the finished product, it is purely a gift to my brother and friends. I take on all financial and legal liabilities.
On the off-chance some form of legal action (which would likely be nothing more than a C&D), THEN I'll have to ask for parody images of the card artworks I've chosen and come up with parody names, and THEN I'll attempt to market and sell the finished project in order to recoup the substantially increased costs, purely out of spite for Wizards of the Coast who are almost as big of IP nazis as the NFL.
Please post below with any questions, offers of acceptance of the commission, ideas for the project, or other comments. Suggestions of other sites or people to offer this commission to would be greatly appreciated, though amvhell gets first dibs. If multiple people are interested in the project, I recommend creating a sample face card with your own choice of MTG card image and the best sample gets it, or if they all look good, then the first person gets it.