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Originally posted by Chris Cline:
I am doing cards for all the living voice actors from Disney movies

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Originally posted by cheifbrody:
I know this is a boring question, but how do you set about making your own customised cards ?

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Originally posted by rwn410:

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Originally posted by cheifbrody:
I know this is a boring question, but how do you set about making your own customised cards ?

I've never actually sent out any of the mock ups I've ever made through the mail, but fundamentally you just need a photo-editing programme - Photoshop, Photoimpression, Fotoflex etc. These aren't that expensive to legitimately get hold of contrary to what you may think, and I'd say they were well worth it. I'd recommend Photoshop (though only because I have to use it for general work and am biased), 'Photoshop Elements' is a lite version that is quite cheap and definitely more than capable of doing anything you'd ever want card wise. Adobe also had issues with the Photoshop 'CS2' version (quite old now but still perfectly capable of producing anything your imagination can design) and made it available to download for free on their own website - but they did that only out of necessity and they prefer if you morally opted not to. Additionally, you can download 30-day trials of Adobe products if you want to test them out - both Photoshop CC and Photoshop Elements are available to that's 60 days of free card designing to your heart's content!

Then you need to print them in some capacity - I can't say I've ever resolved that one beyond printing myself (and I think that's always worked out more than fine for the sketch card blanks I have made) but you can get some companies who will print custom playing cards, or most print companies should be able to trim regular print outs to the required size. Microsoft Publisher (or preferably Adobe InDesign) should be useful in making sure they print out at the correct sizes.

Then in theory you find some addresses through the internet/go to conventions and you should be good to go I've been considering sending some custom X-Men cards to the set of Apocalypse, but I've read about success rates with the majority of actors on it and feel Ian McKellen would be the only one likely to respond (he has a fantastic reputation for it) so I'm thinking I will wait until he is filming something in the UK to make postage easier.

EDIT: Or Chris' post on the previous page is fairly thorough I probably should have just read that first. Alas. Hope this is still useful!

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Cline:
ok here is wow i make my cards. I am doing cards for all the living voice actors from Disney movies and started working on Hercules yesterday so I will use that as my example.

So I am going to make a card for James Woods.

First here is the site I use

http://fotoflexer.com/

It is a free site and easy to get around in.

Next I need to find a background that I want to put my picture on. Using Google a found a nice background shot from the movie or if you want you can also get a screen shot off of a dvd.



Next I find a good picture of the tittle of the movie that I can cut out and place on the card.



Then I find a shot of James Woods from the film again you can use Google or a screen shot.



Now I am ready to begin.

1. Open up fotoflex and upload the background.
2. Upload the title picture. This will let you play with the sizing of the background. I have a standard inkworks auto card that I am using to try and make sure that the size is about the same. Just pull the edges to match the inkworks card and you should be fine. Once this is done you can start cutting out the title.
3. To cut out the title click on the title picture to bring it to the front and hit the tab that says Geek. This brings up a list of 7 differant ways you can play with the picture. What we are looking for is Smart Cutout. Click on it and it will up a new window with just the title picture in it. There are two buttons to use one is Keep and the other is Delete. When you use Keep it will make any area you want to keep in green. When you use Delete it will mark the area in red. You can re-size the picture or the brush to get in as tight as you want, but I find that just getting close is often good enough, you don't have to be precise because you can go back and fix things in the next step. Once you have the basic out line hit the button marked Predict Unknown Area. this should clean off anything in red and leave what was in green. Now you can use the Keep and Delete buttons at will to add or remove items back into the picture. If you cut off a small bit just hit Keep again and you can re-brush that bit of the picture back. Also this will allow you to clean up the edges by deleting things you missed. To clean up logo's I zoom in to 300% which lets you remove pixels and really make it look nice.
4.Once you have the title just as you want it hit OK and you will return to the main screen.
5.Now you can re-size and move the title to any where you want it.
6. To add a place for the star to sign hit the Decorate button then the Text button. This will place a text box which you can re-size and place where ever you want.



7.To add a picture of the actor in our case James Wood. You need to hit the Layers tab and then Add Images. This will drop the picture of James on the top of the stack so to say.

8. To cut out the star you need to go back to the Geek tab and now you can either use Smart Cutout like you did for the title or you can use Smart Scissors. Smart Scissors are great for picture will well defined edges. Click on the pic then hit Smart Scissors. You can now begin at any edge and "cut" around the picture you want to remove. You must go completely around the object and connect the "dots". Once that is done hit Create Cutout, and your star should be free of its background.
9. Now you can re-size and move the star to any place on the card.
10. The last step I do is to add another text box this time with the actors name and the part they played.
11. If at any point you need to move the layers around just hit the Layer key pick the picture you want to move and hit Pull Foreword or Push Back.This will let your picture of the star be up top of the signing area or however you want to do it.

My finished card for him looks like this:



Now as far as printing and what goes on the back that is up to you. I get mine printed from artcow. They have a set of 54 black cards that they will add pictures to and print up. Here is the link to the cards.

http://www.artscow.com/photo-g...-cards-rectangle-394

for these cards I am putting this picture and the back.



But you can do anything you want. I made a set of Supernatural Season Four cards which look like this:

Picture on the front:



and text on the back:



So there you go hopefully this helps I really am not that good at computers so I hope I didn't make this to hard to understand. If something is not clear just ask and I can try and help.

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2. Digital file, part II. You'll obtain the nicest quality when you get to printing your cards by sticking with at least 300 dpi. Create your basic card front and back templates at 300 dpi ... so for a 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 trading card you want a 'canvas' of 750 x 1050 file (2 1/2 x 300 dpi = 750, etc.).

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Originally posted by cheifbrody:

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2. Digital file, part II. You'll obtain the nicest quality when you get to printing your cards by sticking with at least 300 dpi. Create your basic card front and back templates at 300 dpi ... so for a 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 trading card you want a 'canvas' of 750 x 1050 file (2 1/2 x 300 dpi = 750, etc.).

What does this mean for those of us who do not speak spy ? I got this when I try to make cards, I collect images and put them to actual trading card size, then when I go the site to create them I get a yellow exclamation saying, try 300 ?

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Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
Thanks for all your tips on making cards at home.
I'm seriously considering making a set of cards of my ancestors for the family. A family tree in trading cards. (When I get the time) But your tips and stage by stage guide make it very simple.
Thanks again!

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Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
I have ideas for groupings in the family too...the shoe makers, the pub landlords and the World War One soldiers etc. And with all the birth/marriage/death info on the backs. Maybe places that were special to the family too. Coats of arms. Gravestones. The list is endless...

It's a big project, but I hope to take it on one day in the near future, with this guide as a huge help.
I've even considered facsimile autograph cards for the instances where I have a signature or example of an ancestor's writing.

No stopping me having the ideas...it's getting around to trying it all that will take time.

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Originally posted by cheifbrody:
how do you set about getting care of addresses to ask for autographs ? a lot of the people I want have their own website, you can send messages but send me your address I don't think would be replied to, what's the best way ?

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Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

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Originally posted by cheifbrody:
how do you set about getting care of addresses to ask for autographs ? a lot of the people I want have their own website, you can send messages but send me your address I don't think would be replied to, what's the best way ?

Let me Google that for you.

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Originally posted by Juelle Lou:
For me the problem is getting them printed, I'm not keen on using playing cards with the rounded edges but my printer is definitely not up to the job of printing high res quality images.

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Originally posted by cheifbrody:

quote:

Originally posted by Juelle Lou:
For me the problem is getting them printed, I'm not keen on using playing cards with the rounded edges but my printer is definitely not up to the job of printing high res quality images.

I agree, going for a card set it really wouldn't work using playing card style, but I have excepted that they look ok for a auto set.

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Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
This outfit prints custom playing cards, but in an offline email, they said they could leave them cut square-cornered instead of rounded. They do good work -- I've had them make some playing cards for me for my magic hobby.