Creating Guardian Cards, Part Three: Icons, Text, and File Format

See part one here
See part two here

We've now completed the border and image. Let's move on to icons. Open your card and the icons.psd file (that came with Phil's templates) side-by-side. Each icon has its own layer, so make sure the proper layer is selected whenever you're going to copy something.

Use the Selection Marquee tool to draw a selection around either the red bar or green bar, depending on whether or not your creature can receive channeling.

Select Copy from the Edit menu. Select your card and then select Paste from the Edit menu. This pastes the icon into its own layer. Rename the layer so you know what it is - red bar or green bar will do nicely. Now use your Move tool to move the bar from wherever it is floating in you image, down to the little shield in the bottom right corner, just above the "CMP" lettering.

Repeat this procedure for any bribery icons...remember to select the correct layer when copying and to rename each icon layer that results from pasting into your image. Bribery icons go next to the off-color bonus box in the lower left. Here is what War Angel would look like with a beer bribery.

Since Angels don't have bribery, I remove it from card by simply deleting the layer. This is true for any icon you wish to remove - delete the layer.

On to text. Since I don't have the font style Phil calls for, I use Times New Roman. First let's create the name of the card. Select the Type tool and click in the title box under the artwork. You'll notice in my screen captures there's a little window below the layers window. This is the Character window and is useful to have open for text. To display it, go to the Window menu and select Character. Now, in the character window, make sure the font size is 8, and that the horizontal and vertical type scales are at 100% and the color is correct. Type the name of your card. In my case of course, it's War Angel.

Move to the creature size area. Click there to automatically create a new layer. Change the font size to 9 and type the size. For War Angel, a M is typed for a medium creature. You can use the Move tool to align your text within the box.

Repeat the above procedure to enter F for flyers; channeling value if your creature can channel, then enter Vitality.

Enter your card text with a font size of 6 and the horizontal and vertical scales set to 110%. Enter the creature class with a font size of 6. Finally, enter the artist by-line with a font size of 5. If you do not have a size 5 for Times New Roman, use size 6 with horizontal and vertical scales set to 85%.

If you're giving your creature a Stacking Penalty, size 9 for both Vitality and Stacking Penalty won't fit...you'll need to use size 8. Click and drag across your Vitality number to highlight it, then change the size from 9 to 8, and move it the word "Vitality". Then create a new text layer right below it for Stacking Penalty. Change the color to red by clicking the color selector in the Character Window. Finally, our last text to enter is the off-color bonus. This is also a size 9 font, but requires me to change the color since an Elemental's off-color bonus is white.

That's it! Make sure you save your file as a Photoshop file (.psd). Our original card size is 754 pixels wide by 1046 pixels tall. For web posting, go to the image menu and select image size, then re-size the card to 370 pixels wide by 510 pixels tall. Now save this version as a jpeg. You'll lose your layers but that's ok, this version is for display only. Select the jpeg quality as 10 (maximum), then save. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - IF YOU CLOSE YOUR IMAGE, PHOTOSHOP WILL ASK IF YOU WANT TO SAVE CHANGES TO YOUR CARD...IN MY CASE, WAR ANGEL.PSD. SAY NO!!! OTHERWISE, IT WILL SAVE THE LOW RESOLUTION JPEG OVER YOUR ORIGINAL PHOTOSHOP VERSION AND YOU'LL LOSE NOT ONLY HIGH  RESOLUTION, BUT ALSO ALL YOUR LAYERS!!! Sorry to yell, but trust me, you don't want to do this. I did it once by accident and had to re-create a card again from scratch. Not fun.

So here's my finished Elemental, War Angel:

And that's all there is to creating a creature card. Not too bad, right? In our final installment, we will look at creating other cards such as Terrain, Shields, Upgrades and Downgrades, Strongholds, Magic Items, Spells, and Events.

Creating Guardians Cards, Part Two: Border & Image in Photoshop

After we've moved past card design, we're ready to start making a card. For the purpose of this illustration, I've chosen the following Brom image, which I've named War Angel:

                                             

Since this is an Angel, it's going to have to be an Elemental, so we pull the image and the Elemental template into Photoshop side-by-side.

Use the Selection to determine which part of the image you want to move over. Sometimes, to make the image fit better, you may have to select a portion that won't be visible on the card, to maintain a proper proportion and not make the image look badly stretched.

Copy our selection, then go back to the Elemental template and Paste. You should have 2 layers now, the frame and the image.

Make sure you save your progress frequently so that you don't lose any of your hard work. Remember to use Save As and rename your file so that you don't save as Elemental and overwrite your template!

With the image layer selected, use the Move tool to position the image so that the portion you want to appear to come out of the frame is close to the edge. In this case the sword tip is positioned near the top and the wing is positioned near the right edge. Use the Free Transform tool to resize the image further, avoiding too much expansion or compression that would distort the image. Note that perspective is very important here...in this image the opposite wing appears farther in the distance. If that wing were made to "stand out" with the nearer wing behind the template frame, it wouldn't look right. The part of the image that you want to "stand out" should be closer, in perspective, than other parts of the image.

                                    

Use your Selection tool to select the part of the image that will "stand out". It's ok if you select part of the image that is not going to be covered by the template frame, since we are going to be working with a copy.

Make sure the image layer is selected, then select Copy from the Edit menu, then Layer Via Copy under the  Layer -> New menu. Now drag the image layer below the template frame layer. Your image is now under the template, while your new layer appears on top of the template frame.

Select that new layer, then select your Eraser tool and start erasing all the background around your element where it lays on top of the template frame, but do not erase the element that you want to "stand out" itself.

Zoom up in magnification and select a small Eraser brush size to make fine erasures if necessary.

  If you make a mistake, use your Undo or Step Backward to try again. You should be left with something like the image below, where my element is the wing. I erased all the whitish background over the template frame, leaving the wing "standing out".

Repeat this process for any other part of the image that needs to "stand out". In this case, I have a created another new layer and erased it so that the sword appears over the top of the template frame.

When you are finished it should look a little something like the image below. Note that we haven't altered the Elemental template frame or the original image, only copies of parts of the image. If you decide you want to start over, simply delete any new layers you added and you'll be ready to give it another try.

We've now achieved that eye-popping 3-D look that is a Guardians staple! Note that while most cards have this effect, some Spells and Magic Items don't, so it's not always necessary with those cards. Other types of cards like Terrain, Shields, and Strongholds never use this effect, so it's not appropriate for those card types.

Save your work again. In the next installment we'll add all the other stuff like text, channeling, bribery, and so on. We'll also talk about the appropriate format for sharing your card with the Guardian online community. Until next time, work on what we've covered here, and let me know if you have questions...

Creating Guardians Cards, Part 1: Tools & Design

This topic comes from a suggestion by Mr. Yves-Arnaud Jouret, who wanted to make his own cards but had no idea how to go about it. I agreed that some kind of tutorial might be helpful to the Guardians community. Now, I'm no expert on Photoshop, and there may be easier or better ways to do things...but my cards seemed to have impressed a lot of you, so I must be doing something right. The methods I use I basically figured out on my own. Those with more expertise are encouraged to step in with suggestions.

Ok, on to the tutorial. You'll need a few things to get started. These are as follows:

The card templates from Phil's site. Without these templates everything I've done would not have been possible. You can find the templates here. The templates include borders for Mortal, Elemental, External, Event, Magic Item, Spell, Shield Terrain, Standard Bearer, Stronghold Upgrade and Downgrade, and Terrain. Also included are icons for all three type of bribery, red and green channeling bars, and the command card symbol. The template shows the use of the Weidemann font, but I did not receive that with my version of Photoshop and I didn't want to pay for it, so I used the Times New Roman font instead. This required slightly different sizing methods than are listed on the template, but we'll cover those during design.

Photoshop. There are several other paint programs, but Photoshop is the industry standard. It's a little expensive, the only Windows copy I found on eBay is $400, if you use a Mac there are a few cheaper copies.. I bought mine just for Guardians work but I use it for so many other things now, it has been worth it. There are several versions of Photoshop; I'm using version CS2. If you're using a different version you'll have to figure out the equivalent commands. I have used Photoshop Elements in the past, it's good for digital photography but not as powerful for art. I can't say whether or not it will work for this.

Although you can use a mouse to paint, I decided to buy a Wacom graphics tablet. The precision of the tablet is crucial to making your image look good. The techniques I discuss will involve using the tablet. I bought a midrange model that cost me about $250 (with a student discount) from a school supply internet store; here is the same model at Amazon.





Finally you'll need some artwork. Always remember that artwork belongs to the artists and is their means of income. If an artist states the artwork is not to be used without permission, it is best not to use it. I try to support the artists whenever I can; I have bought several art books or calenders from Brom, Parkinson, Maitz, Hildebrandt, etc.

Once you've got Photoshop and graphics tablet installed, it's time to create the card. Sometimes you have the idea for a card and have to go find the artwork, like CJ's .sig cards. Sometimes you have a piece of artwork and you have to design the card around the artwork (like most of the Champion's Odyssey cards). I started with a book by Brom that had lots of great artwork, and I had to think of all the stats and text that support that art. At first I was just making cards that could destroy something. That is too easy and often makes cards overpowered. A better card design is to try to think of something that hasn't been done yet, like Zeenah, who blanked out Standard Bearers, or my Standard Bearer that negated immunities. But always keep in mind not to make cards TOO powerful. They unbalance the game and can make it less fun.

Determining whether or not a card is too powerful depends on the context. For instance, a couple of people complained that Destroying Angel was too powerful. After reading their arguement I agreed and changed the text. A whole shield of Destroying Angels couldn't be beat. Wraith Lord, on the other hand, was changed slightly after some complaints but was still very powerful. My reason for doing this was simple: every set includes at least one creature capable of taking down a Guardian. I wanted my set to do the same, so Wraith Lord was unchanged. But Wraith Lord is really the ONLY card in the set powerful enough to defeat a Guardian, so in the context of the entire set I felt the ability was fine. I also felt a Wraith Lord should have been more powerful than a Wraith. So that's what I mean by context.

A helpful guideline for card design was provided by Luke Peterschimdt, on Phil's site. He said the following:

"The basic "formula" for the average card is this.... Vitality = X, Off-Color Bonus = 1/2X, one Bribery icon, no channeling, red CMP bar, no ability. So if you create a card with Vitality 12 and only give it an off color bonus of 2, it should have a good ability."

 I've run up against a time limit and I'll have to continue in the next post. I'm sorry I didn't get into the actual Photoshop design but that will be next. Until then, get your materials and designs ready to go!

Hi-res card template

In one of my previous "Bringing Homebrew Cards To Life" posts, I describe how printing the Seven Seas PDFs result in cards smaller than standard cards. The size of a standard Guardians card is roughly 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. A Seven Seas PDF card measures 2.25 inches by 3.125 inches. It's a noticeable difference.

To make a 3 x 3 printing of standard cards, you get a total measurement of 7.5 inches by 10.5 inches, which should fit on a standard sheet (8.5 inches by 11 inches) of paper. But not so fast! Many printers can't print to the edge of the page...you should allow for at least a .25 inch margin on each side of the sheet. That brings the total measurement to 8 inches by 11 inches, which barely fits. That also means the cards must be up against each other with no gap between them. Therefore the PDFs will have 9 cards, arranged in a 3 by 3 grid, with no space between them. If people are against this, please let me know before I get too far, and I'll lay out a different grid (maybe 2 by 4).

I'll post some images of this concept soon.

Bringing Homebrew Cards To Life, Wrap-up

As promised, photos of my results...

A Seven Seas Terrain card, with a Dry Heaps card for comparison:



The backside of both cards:



There are some color differences, and the edges of the Seven Seas card are a little ragged from cutting. Still, it's kind of cool to see the Petrified Valley as a real card...

Bringing Homebrew Cards to Life, Part 2

This continues the discussion about how to bring homebrew cards to life.

Part 1 can be found here

A trip to Fedex Kinkos revealed that color copies are $.59 each. For 50 pages of Seven Seas cards, that's $30. Add Event cards and Champion's Oddyssey cards and it's less than $50...but that's just for one set. Printing 4 sets would cost almost $200. I could try to squeeze more cards on a page to drive that down, but it's a moot point. My friend was right - Kinko's refused to print the copyrighted images without some kind of written permission from the copyright holder, which isn't going to happen.

As an alternative, I looked into purchasing my own color laser printer. The price needed to be under $300 and have very good customer reviews. However, after searching, I couldn't find anything I was comfortable with for that much money. My roommate had ditched his Epson R1800 for a new Epson Color Stylus 1400, which makes beautiful prints, but won't take the cardstock thickness.

In the end I decided to print at work and reimburse the company if they complained about my printing. However, I still wanted to reduce the amount of printing, which would cause fewer problems and use less paper. A "real" Guardians card is about 2.5" by 3.5". So I came up with a new layout, the 4 x 2 which looks something like this:



It only prints 1 less card than the 3 x 3 Seven Seas PDFs, without any resizing or printing errors, and the size is the same as a "real" card.

The most important things to consider when making the layout are:

1. Make the document size 8.5" x 11", rotate 90 degrees, and print landscaped.
2. Keep the distance from the edge of the document to the edge of the cards the same for opposite sides. I used .5" from card to edge on all sides.
3. Put the edges of the cards up against each other so that when they are cut, there won't be any white showing if the cut is slightly off.
4. When copying images into Photoshop, copy the images from the PDFs rather than the large jpegs (they seem to be higher quality with less noticeable defects).

I then created a backside single border sheet:



And a backside double border sheet:



You merely print the front side, flip the paper over, then print the backside.

Once you have your sheet, use an Exacto blade and a ruler to cut the cards.

The corners are still sharp, though. So you'll need something like this from Fiskars:



It's called "Round the Corner" and it works really well. You can get it at most craft stores in the scrapbooking area. You stick one corner of the card in the slot of the punch and line it up to the "V", back it out slightly, then press the handles together to round off the corner. If you don't back the corner out slightly, the punch will cut off too much card. You'll still have a rounded edge, but if you place next to a "real" card you'll see it cut off too much.

I'll add some photos later tonight to show how the finished homebrew card looks compared to the "real" cards...

Bringing Homebrew Cards to Life, Part 1

Seven Seas. Event Cards. Champion's Odyssey.

All are homebrew creations, in that they do not exist as an official release by FPG, and do not exist in the physical world. They exist only as virtual images.

The purpose of this post is to document my efforts to bring these cards from the virtual world to the physical world.

I started with the Seven Seas cards I downloaded from Phil's site. I downloaded the 3x3 pdf files, and also the jpegs of each card. I was ready to start printing, right?

Well, not quite. If you want them to look and feel like other cards, you need thick paper. A trip to the local Office Max was fruitless - the thickest paper I could find was glossy photo paper. The cards have a sheen to them, but they are not glossy, suggesting they have more of a matte finish.

Luckily, there was a FedEx Kinkos not too much farther away. There I found card stock, made by Neenah Paper. The part# is 04961. It is Ultra Bright White, with a Smooth finish, 28.76 M weight, and one pack has 250 sheets. Total price was somwhere between $20-$40 (I can't find the receipt).

I got home and immediately printed a sheet on my Canon MP210. This is a combination inkjet/scanner that helped me save desk space and up until now had suited my needs. Imagine my disappointment when the black levels printed out poorly, giving the image a washed out look. The black background of the Seven Seas Guardian Kam'ron actually looked dark gray when compared to a Guardian from the game. Poor black levels seem to be a common problem for inkjets from reading around the internet. No amount of changes in Photoshop could make it better

My roommate has a high-end inkjet, an Epson R1800. So I tried that, thinking my printer was too cheap. Same problem - terrible black levels, although the images were not as washed out. Bummer!

The next day I went into work early, and when no one was around, I printed the images on a HP color laserjet. Success! Great black levels, and the finish had the matte look I wanted.

But now a new problem had occurred. The printer gave me a warning that the Acrobat 3x3 sheet would not fit on the page (this seemed to be unique to the HP because my Canon never gave me that message). Changing the margins when printing still gave me the same warning. Cropping the image would cause some of it to be lost, so I had to use the "fit to page" option. The printed images showed that they were noticeably smaller than regular cards, probably due to choosing fit to page.

I decided to make my own template for printing, making the layout 2x2 instead of 3x3 to make sure I had plenty of room to print without the fit to page issue. I have Photoshop installed on my home computer, so I had to bring my old unused copy of Photoshop Elements into work and install it on my PC. Once I had Elements running, I created an 8.5" x 11" new image (use 300 dpi, not the default 72), then I opened up 4 of the jpegs.

Starting with the first jpeg, I used the retangular marquee tool to select the entire jpeg and selected Copy from the Edit Menu. Then I selected my new image (I'll call it my image template) and selected Paste from the Edit menu. I repeated this for the 3 remaining jpegs until all 4 were in my document. Each jpeg was a layer in my template (this is by design - do not merge layers). I turned on the Grid (in the View menu) and Snapped them to the grid (Also in the View menu). At this point it looks something like this:



Printing worked great! For some reason I still got the "some areas are outside the print range and will be lost" message, but I printed anyway and the results were perfect. I saved the template as a photoshop image so that the layers would remain intact. I called it "Seven Seas sheet 1".

Next, I opened 4 more jpegs, and repeated the steps above. I pasted each new image into the template, giving me 8 layers. Using the Move tool, I would drag a new image over the top of a previous image. When I was done I had only the 4 new images visible, as the 4 previous images were hidden underneath. I then deleted the first 4 layers, leaving me with only the new images. I printed and saved as "Seven Seas sheet 2".

I kept creating sheets, but stopped printing them. Once you do the math, printing 4 cards per page will take almost 50 pages for Seven Seas, and then there's Event cards and my homebrew cards...in other words, I'll get in trouble printing that many pages at work (they keep track of that sort of thing). So I have 2 options: take it to Kinkos, or buy my own color laserjet. A friend once told me Kinkos refused to print images he brought in because they were copyrighted. If so, buying a laserjet is my only option. Also, how much does Kinkos charge for a color print? $0.10? $0.50? $1.00? If it's that high, it might be worth it to buy a color laserjet, as they have become pretty affordable.

After a trip to Kinkos, my efforts continue in part 2...