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Posted 11 year(s) ago Jam's Cardmaking guide # 12117

Akikojam
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I keep seeing more and more people uploading cards that are just pictures that can't be approved no matter what. So pretty much here are tips and rules that you should probably keep in mind while making a card set.

Set theme:
A card set should have a theme. It doesn't exactly have to be an anime/game, you can use a tag as a theme, like making a "miko" set. You can probably use trait as a set too, like making a set of girls with long green hair or just extra-long hair. As long as this is not a random collection, any theme should work. You can use a studio as a theme too. And of course, characters have to be from anime/visual novels/manga/japanese games and such. This is an ANIME character database, so no Star Wars card set or such... unless it consists of cute high-quality fanart anime-versions of Star Wars characters

Card types:
I should probably mention card types, or what I mean by them. First of all, cards can be seperated into character cards and event cards. Using Kuroneko as an example.
character
event
And then I should probably mention regular or bonus cards. You don't have to follow this, but it's a good idea to reserve SS and SSS cards for bonus cards. Bonus cards are cards with stuff like group pictures, characters wearing alternative costumes they don't normally wear in the storyline (like cosplaying), crossovers and stuff like that. If possible, use SS rank for bonus character cards or character pairs-trio and SSS for bonus event cards or big groups. How you distribute them is up to you.

Card:
1)Try to not stretch images too much. If cards get too deformed (their height-width ratio is too different from the original picture), they won't get approved and might sink the whole set. So, crop images, if they get deformed, or rotate them.
2)Try to organize your cards. So, for example, if you have five cards: two S ranks, one SSS rank, one A rank and one B rank, try to put them in the order of not S A SSS B S, but S S A B SSS or B A S S SSS. That doesn't only involve rarity, but you should also organize them by picture used or so. You'll understand if you look at my Oreimo card set. I had Kirino-Ruri-Saori-Manami-Ayase-Kanako-Sena sequence repeat itself 7 times, changing theme every time the sequence finished. You'll notice it's: character-regular cg-face close-kiss-beach-ending-Magica cosplay. Well, there were some exceptions, because Sena didn't have some of those events.
3)Try to not use too much fanart, I only stick with official pictures. Or only use it for bonus cards. I wouldn't want a fan artist complaining about his art being used for cards.
4)Try to use high-quality pictures.
5)When uploading a character card try to place a character in the center, so there won't be too much free space. Event cards are different of course.
6)Don't assign rarity, based on your personal preferences, make a rule for yourself. Everyone's getting those cards and it's not fair that they are organized with who you like most. You can vary them on amount of story they have, or how hard is it to get them in game, stuff like that.

Deleting cards:
Instead of deleting a single card, I recommend deleting a whole set and reuploading it. Deletion bugs up the set a little and you can end up with cards that never(or almost never) appear.
Please understand that when cards are published, they're there for good, even Rei can't do much about it or change them.
Note that you won't be able to create a set with the same name, so make sure you rename a set before deleting (if you can, if not, ask a mod, I'm not sure I remember correctly). So, for example, you have a set SETNAME and want to delete a card. You rename SETNAME to deleted1_SETNAME, delete it and create a new set called SETNAME, filling it with your cards again.

I'll update this if I think of something else that needs noting. Also, I hope if people (mostly Li and Mitsu) has anything to add, so they'd participate.

EDIT: Oh, I completely forgot one of the most important parts. Card should contain:
Picture (must)
Card Name (must)
Set Name (must, unless you're using a unique frame)
Rarity (optional, but adviced to do)
Card Number (optional, pretty much not needed, so only add it if it won't decrease a quality)
The font should be readable, remember that cards mostly appear as thumbnails, so... a font size of around 18 is adviced and try not to overdecorate it with using fancy fonts or italic. Also, the colors are important. Using a dark font on dark background (like dark red on black) is a bad idea. Try to use contrasting ones, the simpliest being black on white or white on black. Also, you CAN put text over the picture, but there is a high chance it won't be readable then, because the colors on the picture are multiple. So make a seperate field for all the text somewhere by the border. You can see Rei's Testing Card as an example. My advice is: if you're going to make a lot of sets - make yourself a frame.
Try to make cards look like part of a set.

Another EDIT: Oh yeah... I thought that wasn't needed to say, given the link to Rei's testing card, but... the size of cards is supposed to be 300x400 or larger, but still with 3x4 ratio (width to height). A bit different is fine too. I myself am using 400x600.
Oh, I forgot to say. All rules of ACDB apply too, so don't upload cards with nsfw pictures.

[ Edited Apr 6, 2013 ]
The light of spirits is bursting forth within you! Indeed, your power has grown!
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Posted 11 year(s) ago Re: # 12118

Satellizer123
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Make a book too man ^^
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Posted 11 year(s) ago Re: # 12282

Kana-sama
Lelsiel'Kera Mills

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What if the art is manga/anime styled, but it's not of an existing character? Can you make the set?
[Image]
Thanks Yugure!
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Posted 11 year(s) ago Re: # 12283

Akikojam
Pixelated Knight

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I suppose. If the image quality is high enough to be on par with official art... and of course, no characters created in some "custom heroine" H-games or stuff like that, otherwise you can just get Custom Reido or something like that and spam them. As I said - you should avoid fanart as much as possible. So, what I'm saying, it IS possible to use artist's original art, but be careful when using that and try to make sure that artist didn't forbid the use of his art anywhere.
The light of spirits is bursting forth within you! Indeed, your power has grown!
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Posted 11 year(s) ago Re: # 12285

Kana-sama
Lelsiel'Kera Mills

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What if you used pen and penncil and took a picture of it?
[Image]
Thanks Yugure!
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Posted 11 year(s) ago Re: # 12287

Satellizer123
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Normally people use cameras to take picture of stuff... Using pen & pencil for that job is, again, legendary of you Kana-dono
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Posted 11 year(s) ago Re: # 12288

Kana-sama
Lelsiel'Kera Mills

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My camera sucks -_- Oh well.
[Image]
Thanks Yugure!
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Posted 11 year(s) ago Re: # 12289

Akikojam
Pixelated Knight

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Joined on 07-29-11
Posts 39

So as I expected - that's what you mean. Even IF you can draw with quality on par with most anime(and of course colored), you still need to use a scanner.
The light of spirits is bursting forth within you! Indeed, your power has grown!
Top PM Akikojam
Posted 11 year(s) ago Re: # 12290

Kana-sama
Lelsiel'Kera Mills

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Joined on 03-25-12
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Colored??? Oh well, my drawings aren't usually colored. -_-
[Image]
Thanks Yugure!
Top PM Kana-sama
Posted 10 year(s) ago Re: # 12881

gegawat


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I'm new here, but I loved anime for a long time, I just discovered this site recently. I collect the cards and I was wondering. Can I make a collection about ongoing anime? I really like that Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, and I would like to make cards based on that. My idea is to basically use screenshots from the anime itself... can you make some recommendations about that?
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