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TCG Fakes Yog's Image Fakes
- Thread starter Yog
- Start date
Some process for those interested. Screencaps were pulled from the anime, since I rightly suck at poses from memory. Color and finity are kind of irrelevant to how I work, so for instance, here is Mable, and as you can see, rough af around the edges and the colour is haywire due to her lighting. Some of the girls just didn't have the poses I was after and Celosia hogged all the best ones, so a lot of changing around needed to be done. Here is the direction I was heading in early.
For this style of work I like to use illustrator for the ease of use of tweaking vectors. Each "part" is it's own layer set to a clipping mask the shape I want, so something like Mable's shoulder pad is one.
Inside that layer then is a flat fill and a deeper shadow, a stroked edge of an appropriate thickness, plus any other linework like the shaping here. Each and every part of the main figures on these cards can be broken down into smaller pieces like so, with some masking near edges where I didn't want the stroke.
Once I am happy with the cut out, it's over to Photoshop to add a background and the text and whatnot. Most of this stuff is covered in other guides in this very subforum so I won't get into it too deeply. I have found Humanist to be the best font, but do play with the kerning to get it to the right settings, and Aschefield101 (linked above) to provide the best card templates. The backgrounds are just random abstract wallpapers taken from around the net and some filters, blurs and distortion applied.
Any questions, ask away.
This is mostly just for illustrator practice. And no, I don't do commissions for free or for peanuts sorry :/
For this style of work I like to use illustrator for the ease of use of tweaking vectors. Each "part" is it's own layer set to a clipping mask the shape I want, so something like Mable's shoulder pad is one.
Inside that layer then is a flat fill and a deeper shadow, a stroked edge of an appropriate thickness, plus any other linework like the shaping here. Each and every part of the main figures on these cards can be broken down into smaller pieces like so, with some masking near edges where I didn't want the stroke.
Once I am happy with the cut out, it's over to Photoshop to add a background and the text and whatnot. Most of this stuff is covered in other guides in this very subforum so I won't get into it too deeply. I have found Humanist to be the best font, but do play with the kerning to get it to the right settings, and Aschefield101 (linked above) to provide the best card templates. The backgrounds are just random abstract wallpapers taken from around the net and some filters, blurs and distortion applied.
Any questions, ask away.
This is mostly just for illustrator practice. And no, I don't do commissions for free or for peanuts sorry :/
Hi Yog! Welcome to the creative sector of PB! Just so you know, I merged the three posts you made with a card in them, as they were made in close proximity with a little time gap. You may also like to edit your first post to put a spoiler around each card, as they are a little large. 
Anyways, I really like these Full Arts, and especially the art, which I could see used on a real Full Art! You're quite talented in the shading especially, which is something great to see! I also like the card effects, particularly due to the immediate link you've made between the three.
Also, there's a few technical things I noticed with your Full Arts, which you may want to fix for maximum realism. Firstly, Full Art supporters never use a shadow, interestingly enough. Secondly, you're missing the illustrator credit a set/promo number at the bottom of the card. Thirdly, if you're looking at continuing image faking, you may want to download the correct fonts collected by @Blui, link here, for free and without any worry of viruses! The correct font to use for a card effect is Gills Sans Regular at 16pt, while the correct font for the name is Gills Sans Std Bold at 28.5pt, squished lengthways slightly. You can find an image-based font and placement guide for the XY era (the era your Full Arts are from) made by @aschefield101 here for further details or a guide made for Photoshop with some placements such as name and bottom credits usable for Full Art Supporters made by Metagross101 here.
An edit you will need to make is to add an illustrator credit (even if the illustrator is you!) on the card, as per the PB Creative Works rules.
Anyways, I really like these Full Arts, and especially the art, which I could see used on a real Full Art! You're quite talented in the shading especially, which is something great to see! I also like the card effects, particularly due to the immediate link you've made between the three.
Also, there's a few technical things I noticed with your Full Arts, which you may want to fix for maximum realism. Firstly, Full Art supporters never use a shadow, interestingly enough. Secondly, you're missing the illustrator credit a set/promo number at the bottom of the card. Thirdly, if you're looking at continuing image faking, you may want to download the correct fonts collected by @Blui, link here, for free and without any worry of viruses! The correct font to use for a card effect is Gills Sans Regular at 16pt, while the correct font for the name is Gills Sans Std Bold at 28.5pt, squished lengthways slightly. You can find an image-based font and placement guide for the XY era (the era your Full Arts are from) made by @aschefield101 here for further details or a guide made for Photoshop with some placements such as name and bottom credits usable for Full Art Supporters made by Metagross101 here.
An edit you will need to make is to add an illustrator credit (even if the illustrator is you!) on the card, as per the PB Creative Works rules.
From April's CAC. Theme "Colours". Electric Typhlosion. Collab with @Jadethepokemontrainer
Judge: @Jabberwock
Anything that auto-paralyzes without any drawback at all (say, shuffling the user into the deck, or being a GX attack) is very, very dangerous territory. It’s not balancing to make the attack cost just slightly more prohibitive, as there’s always, in any format, some way to work around that. The only real drawback, I’d say, is that it’s on a Stage 2 with otherwise relatively low damage output …
… Except for that GX attack! [R] for 180 is also very, very dangerous. Incineroar-GX does only a little bit more damage for two more Energy. Giving it to this Pokémon lets it work around the one thing that would otherwise hold it back––now it can OHKO that pesky Keldeo-EX or Virizion-EX that was preventing its Paralysis lock from taking hold.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s nice use of Xous’ art and a cool design process, but it’s just too unbalanced to be playable without being broken. As an aesthetic thing for future reference (which I won’t dock points for this time around), regular-art GX’s never have lightning-style effects going over the blue bar that holds the GX attack, also also never below where the bottom gradient begins.
Wording errors:
- “Energy” should be capitalized. x2 [-1.5 points]
- “defending” -> “your opponent’s Active”. x2 [-1.5 points]
- “opponents” -> “opponent’s”; “active” should be capitalized. [-1.5 points]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- Close enough.
Creativity/Originality: 11/15
(Cool thought process behind the attack.)
Wording: 10.5/15
(See above.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Looks fine.)
Believability/Playability: 3/5
(Auto-paralysis and very good GX attack.)
Aesthetics: 3.5/5
(Turned out nice.)
Total: 38/50
This oughtta be Jade's part but I left it too late so I will try to explain the idea here. The bigger attacks are pretty straight-forward. 130 for three (R) attachments is a nice solid number to hit for, for the price. Can be sped up with Blacksmith in Expanded or the many "attach a (F) energy" attacks of other Fire Pokémon. Yet it's not OP to the point of ridiculousness. You will be hard pressed to make this a regular OHKO attack.
The GX is more powerful and much cheaper. Buuut, that's a big risk to have a coin-flip on the single GX attack you get to use in a game. Big risk, big rewards if it pays off.
The first attack is the bread and butter here and the most interesting. With a DCE it's a straight 40 damage. Not great. With a (F) attached you can inflict the Burn status - and suddenly the 40 plus potential 30s is hitting some numbers you'd be quite happy to see. Add a (L) card to the mix and now you're getting to the whole point of the card. Guaranteed Paralysis is a rare thing indeed in the TCG - and indeed, potentially OP which is why it's limited to usually very specific conditions. Here that condition is that you need to attach a mixed energy card that has no synergy with the other attacks on the card. You can try it with Rainbow Energy of course, but that leads to it's own problems. The fact that it is a Stage 2 in the first place will make it difficult to get to a point where you can manage it too. But get to a point where you are paying with (F)(L) and suddenly Typhlosion is extremely difficult to knock out of it's groove.
Hopefully that's a good balance between risk and reward. (And hopefully I've explained Jade's thought process well )
The GX is more powerful and much cheaper. Buuut, that's a big risk to have a coin-flip on the single GX attack you get to use in a game. Big risk, big rewards if it pays off.
The first attack is the bread and butter here and the most interesting. With a DCE it's a straight 40 damage. Not great. With a (F) attached you can inflict the Burn status - and suddenly the 40 plus potential 30s is hitting some numbers you'd be quite happy to see. Add a (L) card to the mix and now you're getting to the whole point of the card. Guaranteed Paralysis is a rare thing indeed in the TCG - and indeed, potentially OP which is why it's limited to usually very specific conditions. Here that condition is that you need to attach a mixed energy card that has no synergy with the other attacks on the card. You can try it with Rainbow Energy of course, but that leads to it's own problems. The fact that it is a Stage 2 in the first place will make it difficult to get to a point where you can manage it too. But get to a point where you are paying with (F)(L) and suddenly Typhlosion is extremely difficult to knock out of it's groove.
Hopefully that's a good balance between risk and reward. (And hopefully I've explained Jade's thought process well
)First thought is Oh man I suck at deadlines
I learned a lot this month though, which is why I try to take part in these even if I'm short on time. Even the slog of tracking down the right source image is more difficult than I'd have thought. It's a beaut though, full credit to Xous. The most interesting part for me was seeing exactly how the GX cards & their effects layer up. Like where the splash goes over the borders, and which bits sit to the front and how something is sharply outlined on the main but only tinted in front of something lke the bar for the GX attack. The lightning crackles are created from scratch too, quite proud of those.
In very general terms I wanted to try create a card where he is really bursting out of the frame in flames and lightning. I think I achieved that much.
Hopefully the text is free of errors. I caught myself on about 15 different ones already but all fixed now. ..I think.
I learned a lot this month though, which is why I try to take part in these even if I'm short on time. Even the slog of tracking down the right source image is more difficult than I'd have thought. It's a beaut though, full credit to Xous. The most interesting part for me was seeing exactly how the GX cards & their effects layer up. Like where the splash goes over the borders, and which bits sit to the front and how something is sharply outlined on the main but only tinted in front of something lke the bar for the GX attack. The lightning crackles are created from scratch too, quite proud of those.
In very general terms I wanted to try create a card where he is really bursting out of the frame in flames and lightning. I think I achieved that much.
Hopefully the text is free of errors. I caught myself on about 15 different ones already but all fixed now. ..I think.
Typhlosion illustration by Xous from dA. link
Frame/Symbols/Template courtesy of @aschefield101 link
All other source no credit required stock images.
Frame/Symbols/Template courtesy of @aschefield101 link
All other source no credit required stock images.
Judge: @Jabberwock
Anything that auto-paralyzes without any drawback at all (say, shuffling the user into the deck, or being a GX attack) is very, very dangerous territory. It’s not balancing to make the attack cost just slightly more prohibitive, as there’s always, in any format, some way to work around that. The only real drawback, I’d say, is that it’s on a Stage 2 with otherwise relatively low damage output …
… Except for that GX attack! [R] for 180 is also very, very dangerous. Incineroar-GX does only a little bit more damage for two more Energy. Giving it to this Pokémon lets it work around the one thing that would otherwise hold it back––now it can OHKO that pesky Keldeo-EX or Virizion-EX that was preventing its Paralysis lock from taking hold.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s nice use of Xous’ art and a cool design process, but it’s just too unbalanced to be playable without being broken. As an aesthetic thing for future reference (which I won’t dock points for this time around), regular-art GX’s never have lightning-style effects going over the blue bar that holds the GX attack, also also never below where the bottom gradient begins.
Wording errors:
- “Energy” should be capitalized. x2 [-1.5 points]
- “defending” -> “your opponent’s Active”. x2 [-1.5 points]
- “opponents” -> “opponent’s”; “active” should be capitalized. [-1.5 points]
Fonts and Placement errors:
- Close enough.
Creativity/Originality: 11/15
(Cool thought process behind the attack.)
Wording: 10.5/15
(See above.)
Fonts and Placement: 10/10
(Looks fine.)
Believability/Playability: 3/5
(Auto-paralysis and very good GX attack.)
Aesthetics: 3.5/5
(Turned out nice.)
Total: 38/50
My entry into the May CAC contest Ribombee, fixed up for the errors, along with a bug type Cutiefly to go with.
These may eventually become part of a set I am working on, hence the 116 numbering. And may be edited to reflect that in set symbol etc. CAC will do as a placeholder for now.
These may eventually become part of a set I am working on, hence the 116 numbering. And may be edited to reflect that in set symbol etc. CAC will do as a placeholder for now.
Art by Maria Jang used with kind permission. I have edited the image a little, to give it a fairy beacon effect and move the background colours to something more pleasing with the card set-up.
Symbols by @aschefield101
Card and sheet by myself.
I love that a move like Vulpix' Beacon would have been laughed off two sets ago, but now in this Garb meta is a card people are sticking in the most random of decks. Itsy-Bitsy Beacon is similar but different. You can't grab a play-to-bench ability card like a Lele for instance, since you are forced to put cards straight to your bench with the move. This does get around Team Magma Base though, which is useful considering it's resurgence and Cutiefly's feeble HP. And of course, it's a feeder move for Ribombee's Pollen Count.
Symbols by @aschefield101
Card and sheet by myself.
I love that a move like Vulpix' Beacon would have been laughed off two sets ago, but now in this Garb meta is a card people are sticking in the most random of decks. Itsy-Bitsy Beacon is similar but different. You can't grab a play-to-bench ability card like a Lele for instance, since you are forced to put cards straight to your bench with the move. This does get around Team Magma Base though, which is useful considering it's resurgence and Cutiefly's feeble HP. And of course, it's a feeder move for Ribombee's Pollen Count.
So when I played Pokémon Sun earlier in the year I picked up a Cutiefly early in the run. Little did I know she would go on to become my mainstay and replace my starter as that one team member that lasts the entire game - Ribombee became my favourite Alolan mon. I did not expect that based on the pre-game hype around some of the other designs. Bug/Fairy typing is simply glorious and hits so many common Alolans for weakness. On the flipside, she can be equally frail against the wrong opponent. So for this competition my choice was obvious and easily had to be:
I find the new GX mechanic fascinating. To have an attack you can use just once means for these comps I will probably keep coming back to making GX cards. I think the move can be on the OP side, since you only get to fire it off one time. Preferably it should also be a move that can be utilised to different ends. For Ribombee here I gave her Winds of Change - i.e. Cassius on steroids (wording ref). This is aimed at slotting into the current Meta, before any of the leaked "scoop" cards are back in the game. In keeping with Fairy's healing designs, you could use it for the obvious clearing away a bench full of damaged Pokémon. Decidueye-style snipe decks will have to think about their targets and act fast. Equally you are returning cards to your deck, so perhaps you have a tool you need to recycle to elsewhere, or you've over-extended your energy and need it back in the deck to re-attach in different places. Maybe you are just about to deck out and need to fatten up your stack. I originally had this also doing a chunk of damage, then I toned it down a bit to make it do a smaller amount. When I started thinking about all the ways in which it is useful, I eventually removed the damage power altogether - it is powerful enough on it's own.
I pitched the attack cost at two colourless as a fair price to pay for a once off like this. This also opens up the option of using it early in the match - explode an opening hand with Lele & Shaymin and then return them to your deck for later use.
A powerful utility attack for sure, that can be used early, mid or late game to different ends. But as a GX attack, only once.
For her regular attacks, I wanted to focus on the unique Bug/Fairy typing, and make people try to build decks around that. Of course this is not unique in the TCG since Bug = Grass, and here they have tried to push a synergy between [G] and [Y] a few times - Florges in particular comes to mind. I imagine there would be a Bug version of Cutiefly to go with this card, meaning a T1 evolution via FoGP could be utilised.
Named for one of the VG abilities of Ribombee - also for the gathering of honey/energy cards - the first attack Honey Gather is nearly a word-for-word rethread of Mew Ex's Replace (wording ref, updated for SM "basic Energy cards" - see: Drampa, Rayqueza) - an attack that you'd rarely use considering Mew had every move in the game at his disposal. I have buffed it to add a moderate 30 damage, yet also limited it to move basic energies only - but we're here for the effect of the attack. Moving energy around can be very useful in many situations, as this is intended to slot into a mixed energy deck. It won't work on Rainbow energies which will make it a little trickier to utilise in this situation. But again, this is tying back to Fairy's healing strategies - clearing off attachments from a mon you want to Max Potion next turn, or in preparation for dropping the GX attack. Maybe you just need to power up another Ribombee to use it's second attack which has a tricky energy cost.
Pollen Count (cos you count all the [G] & [Y] mons geddit? :v ) is not an attack you'd want to build a deck around - Ribombee is definitely a support card for a more powerful attacker - but you are welcome to try. Grass decks tend to fill their benches which means this will slow down those opponents. Yet for yourself, you will be trying to flood your bench. Skyfield can't really work since you'll want FoGP in action. It should make for an interesting mirror. You might also want Fairy Garden as your stadia of choice - while Ribombee has free retreat, not many other Fairy types do. It's Cutiefly pre-evo would not have free retreat either. So you can hit for 110 which is decent, up to 170 on your own side with a full bench and before Tools or Kukui. Yet at the same time at just 190HP Ribombee is also quite frail, and you'd be hard pressed to get the right energies back in a hurry. I hope this is a good balance.
Lastly to comment on the standard things. At 190HP it is on the weaker side of GX cards. She is only a beginnermon after all, and a bit of a glass cannon in the vidya games. I gave her free retreat - which would be the first GX card to receive such a treatment. This could be huge, and the part of the card I am most worried is too much. I wanted to emulate that feel of being light and floating in on the wind and going where she pleases. Also to set up potential strategies like Honey Gathering energy to someone on the bench - including the one it cost to do that, and then bringing out that attacker on the next go.
Simply stunning Ribombee image used with kind permission from the wonderful and talented KitsuGuardian. If any of you are deviants swing by her page and give her a +watch. She has plenty of Pokémon art and there's bound to be something there you'll want to +fave. If I wasn't already sold on doing a Ribombee card before I stumbled across this beaut of an image, it would have made my mind up. The pose and the brightness of Ribombee here were just perfect for building a card around. While not a 3D render as seems to be the norm, the simplicity of the design makes it a moot point. To be able to have that transparency in the wings <3
As usual, template & symbols from the ever-resourceful @aschefield101 . He really has done all the hard or boring work which leaves us free to do all the fun stuff. ty as ever. I did make a few little edits to parts such as the type symbol & the copyright to bring them more in line with what seems to be current. Sylveon-GX referenced frequently.
I wanted to echo that "bursting out of the card" feel that all the GX cards are going for. With Ribombee it should be a swoosh of wind and petals and leaves. This Petal overlay from freepik was used for the burst (the leaves are actually the exact same petals with a green tint teehee). These lightburst swooshes from PSDbox were used for creating the wind effects, with reference from this tutorial if you want to learn how to do it yourself. There is a subtle dandelion overlay on there too which came from Obsidian Dawn (a great resource for brushes of literally anything you might ever need). BG is no-credit-needed stock photo of Cherry Blossom trees. Any of the other pollen, lights, glints and effects are self-created.
Good grief I could rabbit on all day here. Better submit it and edits be damned. This was a really fun process for me. Good luck to all.
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@Yog
These are gorgeous!
Wonderful art choices and really great attack names and effects. I love Itsy-Bitsy Beacon (it's so fun to say!) and how well it plays into Ribombee; plus it gives the deck a great starter (in the same mold as Alolan Vulpix). One little point of feedback though, the "reveal them" part of the text is unnecessary - refer to Emolga from LTR.
Great work and can't wait to see more of the set as it develops.
These are gorgeous!
Wonderful art choices and really great attack names and effects. I love Itsy-Bitsy Beacon (it's so fun to say!) and how well it plays into Ribombee; plus it gives the deck a great starter (in the same mold as Alolan Vulpix). One little point of feedback though, the "reveal them" part of the text is unnecessary - refer to Emolga from LTR.
Great work and can't wait to see more of the set as it develops.
My entry into the May CAC contest Ribombee, fixed up for the errors, along with a bug type Cutiefly to go with.
These may eventually become part of a set I am working on, hence the 116 numbering. And may be edited to reflect that in set symbol etc. CAC will do as a placeholder for now.
Art by Maria Jang used with kind permission. I have edited the image a little, to give it a fairy beacon effect and move the background colours to something more pleasing with the card set-up.
Symbols by @aschefield101
Card and sheet by myself.
I love that a move like Vulpix' Beacon would have been laughed off two sets ago, but now in this Garb meta is a card people are sticking in the most random of decks. Itsy-Bitsy Beacon is similar but different. You can't grab a play-to-bench ability card like a Lele for instance, since you are forced to put cards straight to your bench with the move. This does get around Team Magma Base though, which is useful considering it's resurgence and Cutiefly's feeble HP. And of course, it's a feeder move for Ribombee's Pollen Count.
Really nice work man!! loving your rimbobee, really cute and the render mixes very well with the background, looks like a real card! keep it up man!
An experiment into Full Art cards and potential sheen effects.
Credits to Aschefield as ever for template. nglamsong on deviantart for original artwork. Sunlava holo provided by @bbninjas (did someone else make this?). And thanks to @Robin Aisaga for some tips.
I'm not really all that happy with this. Not very shiny, a lot of clarity lost too. But I think I learned a lot about how I will approach the next attempt so I'll put a pin in it here and start fresh with another. For a start I'll try it in after effects instead and maybe look at a small mp4 instead of a straight gif. It looks a lot better as a still image:
Also learned a lot about how and where the texture is supposed to be. As it is on card it is not right But that's okay, now I know.
In terms of design obviously this is an anti-meta card and a big FU to both Zoroark & Gard (and Eevee if people actually leave them on the bench unevolved for too long).
Credits to Aschefield as ever for template. nglamsong on deviantart for original artwork. Sunlava holo provided by @bbninjas (did someone else make this?). And thanks to @Robin Aisaga for some tips.
I'm not really all that happy with this. Not very shiny, a lot of clarity lost too. But I think I learned a lot about how I will approach the next attempt so I'll put a pin in it here and start fresh with another. For a start I'll try it in after effects instead and maybe look at a small mp4 instead of a straight gif. It looks a lot better as a still image:
Also learned a lot about how and where the texture is supposed to be. As it is on card it is not right
But that's okay, now I know.In terms of design obviously this is an anti-meta card and a big FU to both Zoroark & Gard (and Eevee if people actually leave them on the bench unevolved for too long).
Looks good ^_^ I know textures aren't easy! I actually do not own any GX cards, I quite collecting cards after Fates Collide. But I found this very clear picture of a Metagross GX Full Art. Even the Energy cost has a texture... I didn't bother applying that on my most recent work though. Next work perhaps.
https://i.imgur.com/7EQnkdN.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7EQnkdN.jpg
I'm pretty sure the sunlava holosheet was made by @aschefield101.
There is definitely an art to holo-sheeting, but this is a good start! It's definitely worthwhile looking at real-life cards for both inspiration and as a guideline, and even if you don't have access to those, searching "ptcg full art texture" will normally net some cards where you can see light reflecting off the holos. Anyway, are you just reducing the opacity of the texture/holosheet, Yog? If so, that would explain why the holosheeting looks bland and washed out. Blending modes are important to avoid; Overlay or Soft Light should be used for the black-and-white textures (sometimes with full opacity), and a combination of Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light and Multiply (with various capacities) will maintain the colour (and the pattern hopefully) of the sheet.
There is definitely an art to holo-sheeting, but this is a good start! It's definitely worthwhile looking at real-life cards for both inspiration and as a guideline, and even if you don't have access to those, searching "ptcg full art texture" will normally net some cards where you can see light reflecting off the holos. Anyway, are you just reducing the opacity of the texture/holosheet, Yog? If so, that would explain why the holosheeting looks bland and washed out. Blending modes are important to avoid; Overlay or Soft Light should be used for the black-and-white textures (sometimes with full opacity), and a combination of Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light and Multiply (with various capacities) will maintain the colour (and the pattern hopefully) of the sheet.
SunLava ™ I exported from PTCGO, alongside the other 4 (sunbeams etc). But yeah BB is right with filters, it's a giant pain to get right and takes many, many, many layers...