JPapasso

Phew, Ok folks, First off I want to apologize for my absence here. I just recieved the pictures from Fujis this morning, and I intend to begin on the cards tonight. While this is a slight longshot, and Im sure not everyone will read this today, but I would appreciate it if each customizer would create a short bio (a few sentances) for their creature. This should really help simplify creating the cards, and hopefully speed the process up. If I dont get a bio for a certian 'Mate I can go ahead and create one myself... I hesitate to do this because no one is going to know more about a certian creature than the person who created it. The auctions for wave 1 are sitting at 5 days now, and I will take me no more than a few hours to create the cards. Once the cards are completed, I will send the digital files to Luke to be printed. Once they are printed, however, they need to be mailed (either to Fujis or the winning bidder) so I would like to have them completed by Thursday of this week (the 27th of Sept). The most important cards to be completed are obviously the ones already listed, as their deadline has come... MINI-MYTE's ZOMBIE Luke's MINOTAUR Shamrock's MUMMY antacost's FRANKENSTEIN boyd's MAD SCIENTIST punisher's INVISIBLE MAN jcastick's CYCLOPS newaddict's GHOST So, if each customizer could possibly send me a short blurb about their character, I will have the cards done in no time (and hopefully to Luke and printed before the auctions end). Thanks for the opportunity to participate on this project, Ill be sure to post the completed cards up here when Im done. Joe

TBT, You bring up interesting points. So far, I have just done the Swords suits, mostly because that was my assignment, I was to create a full suit of cards to accompany my class's Major Arcana. In a nutshell, I shouldnt have even taken that class because of my skill level with Photoshop, but the way school beauracracy works, my credits didnt transfer so I sat in as basically a teachers aid. My instructor saddled me with 14 cards to everyone elses 2. Now sweat off my back, I was able to knock them out faster than most people did their two. Im actually working on my own tarot deck using my first love (if I can call it that), Photography. I shoot Fashion, Glamour, and Fine Art as my profession (when I can get work) and I have a score of models that want to help out, but getting them into my studio is a trick all of its own. Thus why I turned to Minimates for my class project. I have tossed around the idea of making a full Minimate deck, but Im not sure how far it will go. I thought what can I do for the other 3 suits and the Major Arcana... I did think of making a license per suit, but I dont know if there are enough to go around... DC, Marvel, and LoTR seem to be the biggest liscenses... since the others are either still new or only boxes sets. Not to mention, a 5th license would be needed for the Major Arcana. Then once I iron out the licenses/suits I would have to go through and find characters that fit the proper symbolism (which took me the longest on this project... Yes for those of you who dont know, the characters were chosen specifically for that card, not at random). Maybe in time this could happen, but Im not holding my breath just yet. Its definately an idea I am toying with but unsure if I can pull off with the 'Mates available. But, heck there was a full deck made of Lego, so anything is really possible. Since you are familiar with Tarot (and I assume most characters in 'Mate form), Im open for suggestions if you have any. Since I am looking to sell my personal deck, once it is completed, I would have to do some leg work for the 'Mate deck to be available for purchase, especially if it includes more than one license. All in all, this is yet another school project that has become a long term project for me (Like my 'Mate comic book covers, and a few other projects I started while in my previous school). I hope to be able to create both decks at some point, even if the 'Mate deck is just for me personally, Im not against it. Thanks for the interest, and feel free to PM me with any suggestions, Joe

Thanks Antacost, I was just worried about the paint chipping of or not adhering at all. I guess it cant hurt to try. If it gets messed up, it wasnt too difficult to make in the first place.

Ok thanks... so far, I have been successful using a desk lamp to harden my sculptey... though it took the better part of a full day to harden the entire piece. Anyone have any luck painting scupltey once it has hardened? The piece I made was the hat for my Gandalf the Grey in my tarot card (also attached here again). But all I had was black sculptey. I changed the color and saturation in Photoshop just like I did for Gandalf's clothes and beard. Though Im actually working on making this a real custom (working on his staff now... hence why Im looking for Milliput). But I dont know how well paint will work on the sculptey. Anyone ever try to paint it? Joe

Ok... I know I saw this info somewhere here or MMHQ, but I didnt bookmark it, and now I cant find it again. Whats a good time/temperture to cook scupltey if it is on a Mate and cant be removed while soft? Also, can scupltey be painted once hardened? On a different note... anyone suggest a place where I can get some milliput online... none of my local retailers stock it. Joe

Welp, first off, this final is two part... these cards, and a 2-5 page paper on how we made the cards (symbolism and photoshop methods). Secondly, its not actually due until Tuesday, though Im pretty sure I'll do good... Just hope the instructor see the symbolism I saw when making these... Hes really into Tarot, a bit more than I couldve learned in the few weeks I spent researching them.

Well for my final project in a class Im taking, we were instructed to create (as a class) a Tarot Card deck (our instructor has a fetish for collecting Tarot decks). Due to my knowledge in Photoshop my final was changed from the class norm of creating two cards and a card back to creating an entire suit and a card back. No problem for me, the only issue I had was coming up with a theme for my cards (and then picking one of the four suits: Cups, Pentacles, Wands, and Swords). I chose to use Lord of the Rings as my theme and use my Minimates as my muses. Below are my created cards, all 14 cards in the suit and the card back. If I would've come up with this theme sooner I probably could've done a bit better, but I was restricted to the figures I owned (or pictures of those missing figures from the web). Each card's character was chosen due to the cards symbolism. Some cards are the negative symbolism attached to the card when it is read upside down... those cards have an inverted colored border. And there is one card (the Queen) that has inverted colors in its text due to the fact that the card would be read upside down as a male figure (though the character still fits the positive symbolism).

Here here! If half of the customs for this project come out as nice as the few I have seen, Im certian the Trading cards Im working on will be Top-Notch! Speaking of which... once Im finished with my current project (which should be in a few hours), Ill upload my most recent one sided Trading card... right now its still in its .PSD form and I dont have the resources on my computer to open another large file right this second. Joe

Now theres a Minimate I would pay for. I was born about 15mins from the Pine Barrens in S. NJ. The Jersey Devil is still feared around there by locals. My dad actually spend a good deal of time and effort researching it. Maybe I can see what I can whip up myself (though I have never customized a 'Mate before... guess I can give it a shot. Even if for myself.

Ok, I dropped the Power ratings off the 1 sided card mostly because I was unsure of how to use the ratings for this project. I can put it back on, so I doubt that would be an issue, Either I will make up some ratings, or the customizer can suggest how their characters will rate. I will modify the ratings so they are not a duplicate of Marvel's Power Grid. With this being said... will the addition of the Power ratings affect anyone's vote?? So far, if I counted right, we have 3 votes for single sided, and 2 votes for double sided. Joe

Ok, after talking to Fujis and Luke, I think the single sided card will work better, but I will leave the decision up to the project team. With that being said, I took the card I made using Mini Myte's Zombie and rearranged it a bit to fit on a single side. The resulting image will be about 3x5" in size. This time I used Luke's Minotaur custom. Keep in mind, that these will be more fleshed out in areas of information, spelling errors (after all, these were just quick mock ups ), the images will be of better resolution, and the final card will not have my watermark on it. So, now the comparision... the 2 sided card vs the 1 sided card...

Thanks Fujis, Im really excited to be onboard. Luke, that would be awesome. Ill be sure to compile them in a print ready form and send you the final copies once I can get them completed. Mini Myte, it was a pleasure working with your images. I hope to be able to everyone's customs justice. Now that I have more sleep under my belt, I can actually concentrate on my work, Ill go about refining the card I slapped together last night/this morning. When Im done, Ill post the result up here for all to see. This question goes out to all participants, but I guess its focused to Luke. So far, the way I envisoned these cards is really similar to the Marvel cards. Though I present them in a single image, the cards are really front and back (front is the left side, back is the right). Would this be a good idea, or would it be better to create a single side card? Either would be just as easy for me, but Im more worried about how they would be printed out, etc. Which ever works best for the project would be fine for me. Joe

Ok, I figured Id do a quick mock up of a possible card for the customs. I used Mini Mytes Zombie as an example. It took me about 30 mins tops to create this. Im thinking maybe somewhere on the back, I will put something about the person who did the customization, as well as maybe a disclaimer that this is done for a charity drive and not for profit. Let me know if you guys think it fits the project. Joe

Fujis I apologize for reaching this thread so late, but in my defense, I did just join I was reading along, and I really took an interest in this project, however I have not attempted to do a full customization yet. I got really excited when I read about the trading card idea, as this is a project I just started working on myself (as a side project to my comic book posters). I was going to volunteer my services for the trading cards but didnt want to step on hyejinx's toes, but since he had to drop the project, I guess the opportunitu has presented itsself to me again. As a testament to my skills in this area, I have attached three files below... the first is a scan of a marvel trading card, the second is my Minimate version of said card - as an exact duplicate, the third is my recreated template for these cards (since I wanted something a little more "mine" as opposed to using Marvel's template). All in all, I can pump out these cards in as little as a few hours. The only carch would be I would need high resolutions images of each and every custom (this may have to wait until Fujis has received the lot prior to listing). If the trading card idea is still available, Id be more than happy to take on this task, especially since I havent even begun to try customizing. Im not sure how we would go about printing these, but I was tossing the idea around about printing my own when I was completed (which wont be for a good while). However, something like this would probably end up costing me a decent amount to print, regarding cost of ink and paper... but I havent actually calculated it yet. Just thought Id throw my services out here. Joe

Thanks, Thats a good question... I took a picture of Powerhouse Thing and brought it into Photoshop. Placing a layer over it I filled that layer with white and dropped the opacity down so I could see Thing below it. Then on a second layer I traced it with the brush tool and a very small brush. Then when all was complete, I traced the outer black line on the white layer using the eraser tool, then removed the excess white outside the face. I created a Thing face, a Wolverine face, Spidey face and Captain America face this way for use on these covers. I wasnt sure if it was gonna work, but I liked the outcome so I kept them.