Virmir-Cards Project

[Virmir]

22/54

[Virmir]

Okay, the test run came in!  Some pics:

http://gallery.virmir.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1791
http://gallery.virmir.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1795
http://gallery.virmir.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1798

Overall, some mixed feelings.  But most of it is stuff I can fix.

First, card quality is quite nice.  You can definitely play with these without fear of damaging them.  However they do not "feel" like normal playing cards.  Think... the title deeds from a Monopoly set.    Still, they're toughly built and you'd still be able to play poker with them just fine.

I was kind of hoping for rounded corners... but they are square.  Oh well.

As for the color quality.... you can see a just a bit of grain in flat colors if you look really hard, but it's nothing noticeable.  A lot of the colors came out too dark unfortunately.  This is mainly my fault, as I have my Tablet PC's colors set too bright apparently (this has been pointed out to me in the chat a few times).  This is something I need to adjust on my end for all of my art, so I will be doing this this weekend, and then very likely adjust the colors for all of the cards-- especially the Virmir ones which need the most tweaking. (Also it could be the lighting in my bedroom, but my gray fur seems to have come out just a tad purplish... phooey. )  The Fennec is the brightest of the bunch and he looks awesome.

The borders on the front of the cards came out a tad too subtle.  It looks like a solid color unless you look more closely.  I think I'm going to fancy these up a bit.

The backs look awesome!  I was a tad too hesitant to have content spill over into the borders, so I think the border on the edges came out a tad too big in the actual printing.  I'm going to resize these so the borders are a bit smaller.

And finally, the HUGE facepaw moment...

Totally did NOT realize that I inverted the blasted numbers in the corners from where EVERY other playing card has them until I fanned them out in my hand and said, "Waaaaait a minute..." *facepaws*

So... will be swapping the numbers to opposite corners too.

So in short, looks promising, just need to do a fair amount of work on my end.  I'll make some changes this weekend and send out another test run.  Probably going to have a ton of rejected cards lying around before I get everything juuuuust right.

[Tvorsk]

Well, photos seem to agree with you on all points, including the slight tint on the gray... I'm not 100% sure how much of these is the CCD noise of your camera, but comparing the (indeed, dark and with visible color printpoints) VirBot with that regular card next to it seems to be saying "not much".
On the other paw, Mara seems to have almost a fluorescent glow, but this might be caused by the lighting. Backs are epic... and GREAT.
Said that, your images always seemed bright enough to me, tho might be that both of us have the screens set to hi-brightness and 6500K white temp.

Btw, you may want to email or otherwise ask if the printing company would be happier with a CMYK-colorspace images, as used for printing, and if so, switch Photoshop to that mode - IIRC it has a print proofing mode that warns you if you use colors outside of safely printable range... but of course, that's a complex function neither of us knows how to use properly, so... might not actually be so great of an idea.

In any case, good lick! *slurps*

PS. Who cares about numbers being in opposite corners? Be Different!

[Jonas]

How pointy are the edges? I find that to be an important issue with square cards. Pointy affects both how easy they are to crease and cause the lamination to peel off. Also, pointy cards can HURT!

[Virmir]

They're not so pointy as to injure you, but it's a good right angle.  Probably don't want to poke people in the eye, anyway.   Tod says his cards have rounded corners though... so I will contact them this weekend and ask why mine came out square.

The printers need the files in RBG format.

As far as opposite corners, they look just fine until you fan them out in your hand... that's when I noticed.  I'm used to having the number in the upper left, so instinctually place the cards so that corner is visible.  Everyone who has ever played cards will do this as well, and it will infuriate them (myself included), if the numbers are on the opposite sides.

[LurkingWolf]

Making sure, they are laminated, right?  When I think monopoly title deeds, I don't think they're laminated much at all, just glossy.  Most playing cards are laminated, and that's how you get the nice, smooth feel.

[Virmir]

Hmm, I'm not sure, actually.  They are definitely smooth to the touch and shiny.  But I'm not entirely sure if that means they're laminated, though.

[Virmir]

Okay, new cards are up!



I overwrote the old ones, so hit refresh if the old ones still show up (on art.by.virmir.com).  Changes:

- Reduced border size on the card backs, so detail is a bit larger.

- Flipped the blasted numbers.

- Doubled the size of the detail on the borders of card fronts (it looked like nearly a solid color on the test print)

- Tweaked brightness, contrast, and tint on all the images.  In general, they're all lighter.  This is just a guess based how the printed cards look in my hand.  Will be sending a few variations of two or three cards in to get it just right too.

Next step is to order test deck number two, and then back to drawing.

[Virmir]

And, one for tonight, for good measure.



23/54!

[Virmir]

Skipping number four for now.



24/54!

[Virmir]

25/54!

Starting in on the diamonds next.  Will pull a few stock images, but will be mostly new art.

Also good news on the rounded corners.  The printing company said it was a mistake due to their older printing suppliers they are dropping and refunded my money.  So all cards will have rounded corners.  Plus I got a free test print, so it all turned out well.

[Dragyn]

Good news, indeed. 

Also, can't wait for the rest of these.   (Who's the skipped number 4, I wonder...)

[Virmir]

All right, a few stock images to start things off.



Older drawing style (gah, old feet!), but still like these enough to use them.   Rest of diamonds will be new art.

28/54!

[Jonas]

*twitches at the sight of the ball-toes*

Also, why not try redrawing the feet?

[LurkingWolf]

The one complication I can see is that it's already colored and shaded.  Might be able to drop it back down to line art and pull it off, but it would be a good bit of work.