IMPERIAL Deck

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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by SeanWhelan »

Randy you're doing an amazing job with this deck. I'll admit I'm still kind of iffy with it because well by the end of the day it's still an egg deck, but what I'm really impressed with is the 3d models and renders.
You're using 3dsmax right? The lighting is just beautiful. Honestly I wish I could get that type in my program (Maya). A hell of a lot harder to get that look.
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

SeanWhelan wrote:Randy you're doing an amazing job with this deck. I'll admit I'm still kind of iffy with it because well by the end of the day it's still an egg deck, but what I'm really impressed with is the 3d models and renders.
You're using 3dsmax right? The lighting is just beautiful. Honestly I wish I could get that type in my program (Maya). A hell of a lot harder to get that look.

Hey Sean,

Thanks for the compliments!

I've been using Newtek's Lightwave 3d for all of the Imperial elements. I've had a few years experience with Maya when I was taking some graduate classes at the Academy of Art in SF and later on an animated short. I think Maya is awesome for Character Animation and Particle Dynamics but I prefer the Modeling tools in Lightwave. Also Lightwave makes it extremely quick and useful to import entire scenes or parts of scenes. That's really useful for my day job, where I have to sometimes setup lobby displays or endcap displays with a few hundred 3d bottles of booze at a minutes notice!

One thing I've learned over the years with 3d is doing a bunch of test renders to get the lighting and surfaces just right is always more time consuming than getting something close and then doing a few separate renders to composite into Photoshop. A lot of the raw renders for the Imperial Court Eggs are not nearly as cool as the final composites. A good example is the King of Clubs Mosaic Egg. I think I had 6 separate renders to get what I was going for with that one. 1 - Hero Render, the surfaces combo I liked best in Lightwave. 2 - A version with every surface as the Metallic Gold. 3 - An all Metallic Silver version. 4 - An all Light Blue shiny surface version. 5 - An all Dark Blue shiny surface version. and finally 6 - A render with each surface as a different bright color, so I could easily isolate areas.

After all of the renders were finished (about 3-4 hours for each one at hi res), I added them into one PSD file and spent a good 2 or 3 hours isolating areas, messing around with Layer modes and playing around with other techniques to get the look I originally pictured in my head. I always look at 3d as a great starting pitcher and Photoshop as the Ace closer.

That just reminded me that today is Opening Day for baseball. Go Tigers!!

thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

Just finished up the Ace of Clubs!
Tomorrow I'll setup and post a layout of all the Clubs together.

thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

As promised, here's the finished Clubs!

thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

Here's the finished Ace of Hearts and an image of all 4 Aces together.

thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by volantangel »

Mmmm very very nice, cant believe the items inside the large pip on the aces fit so well, alot of thought must have went into what item goes into what pip, brilliant work randy !
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

volantangel wrote:Mmmm very very nice, cant believe the items inside the large pip on the aces fit so well, alot of thought must have went into what item goes into what pip, brilliant work randy !
Thanks Volantangel! The hardest element to find was by far the Club's Petrovsky Palace. It took a while to find an important Russian building that shared some historical value with the Tsars and Faberge AND fit snuggly within the Club shape.

Here's the first of the Hearts - the Jack of Hearts!

http://www.midnightcardcompany.com/IMPJackHeart.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Image

(My maximum upload image size is only 1000 Bytes now. That's only 100 KB. Is that a universal change?)

thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by badpete69 »

Randy

Everytime I link a picture I make sure the pixel size is about 600x600 or in the ballpark. I resized your pic and relinked it and it looks perfect. When the pics are too big it does like the other pics where you have to scroll left and right and up and down to see anything
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by elcyciB »

Jack of hearts just became my new favorite...that looks awesome Randy, nice work

I'm still working on getting myself to love the spades...the brown is definitely different, taking some getting used to. Still, an instant buy though, the theme is great and its coming together very nicely. Really cool idea to fit iconic images inside the aces.
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

Thanks for the assist Badpete69!

I just finished up the next Heart and final Queen - the Queen of Hearts.

thanks, Randy

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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by badpete69 »

Randy
It seems when you post the image as an attachment , it does its thing where we need to scroll left to right and up and down. Use the image URL and the function IMG and that should usually fix it

For example [img]URL[/img]

Assuming that you can post your pics online somewhere that is
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

badpete69 wrote:Randy
It seems when you post the image as an attachment , it does its thing where we need to scroll left to right and up and down. Use the image URL and the function IMG and that should usually fix it

For example [img]URL[/img]

Assuming that you can post your pics online somewhere that is
Thanks! I'll try it out when the next card's done.

Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by volantangel »

Randy, its a little strange that the Q index actually touches the heart pip in the corners, perhaps heart pip just needs to be moved down a little. But i guess that would impact the rest of the cards, not sure what you should do, just making sure u noticed ! :D :D
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

volantangel wrote:Randy, its a little strange that the Q index actually touches the heart pip in the corners, perhaps heart pip just needs to be moved down a little. But i guess that would impact the rest of the cards, not sure what you should do, just making sure u noticed ! :D :D
Yeah, I knew that was coming since the beginning when I laid out the corner elements. It's only the Queen of Hearts that has that problem. I haven't messed around with it too much yet. The Q in front definitely looks better than the Q behind the Heart. I'll probably try a couple other solutions later on. I would rather have it print this way than to move the Heart to a different position than the rest of the Heart faces though.

thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

Hey Volantangel,

I found a good solution for the Queen of Heart's corner problem.
Also, just finished up the King of Hearts.

thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by DukeBoy »

still not a fan of them touching. With all the other detail in the rest of the deck this just looks like an error. I know that it is the same set up as the other cards this one just is the exception that makes me feel they all need to be altered to maintain the feel of well designed.
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by sprouts1115 »

randy - nice work. your queen is missing the crest of the eagle to keep with the theme. like your jack and king with the crest. add maybe a queen crown with the crest. just saying.

any date your going to kickstarter these?
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

sprouts1115 wrote:randy - nice work. your queen is missing the crest of the eagle to keep with the theme. like your jack and king with the crest. add maybe a queen crown with the crest. just saying.

any date your going to kickstarter these?
I didn't want to get all matchy-matchy and have al three Heart Courts with the Eagle. She has a subtle reference to the Eagle with the Birdcage-like structure at the top. None of the Imperial Queens have a crown element like the Kings. I wanted to keep the Queens as the simpler, more elegant and minimal Eggs of each family.

Thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by MagikFingerz »

I don't mind the Q on the Queen going behind the pip, but I don't like the "out of nowhere" white border of the pip. It just looks weird somehow.
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by volantangel »

I actually think that the Q looks fine in both cases, could be better but its hardly an issue, most people wouldnt notice it unless you posted the cards up one at a time like how you did.

In any case, congratulations for having completed all your court cards! Just the Ad cards and Jokers left ! This calls for a mini celebration!
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

volantangel wrote:I actually think that the Q looks fine in both cases, could be better but its hardly an issue, most people wouldnt notice it unless you posted the cards up one at a time like how you did.

In any case, congratulations for having completed all your court cards! Just the Ad cards and Jokers left ! This calls for a mini celebration!
Yeah, the Queen of Hearts' corner elements will be worked out. I'm not worried about it.

Not done with the Courts yet! I still have the Jack and King of Spades. I purposely skipped over them to save for last. They will be Gold/Black and Black/Gold and be very detailed. The goal is to use some elements from the ORNATES to tie them in with some of my other stuff and give them a Baroque vibe!

This week though I'll be concentrating on a new red Egg to replace the Egg on the Back design. I was never completely happy with the Back Egg. It was the first one and I changed up my modeling and surfaces techniques after it when I built the Queen of Spades Egg.

Thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by elcyciB »

Such a cool deck. I can't wait for this to be released. That king of hearts blew me away, very nice work Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by volantangel »

RandyButterfield wrote:
volantangel wrote:I actually think that the Q looks fine in both cases, could be better but its hardly an issue, most people wouldnt notice it unless you posted the cards up one at a time like how you did.

In any case, congratulations for having completed all your court cards! Just the Ad cards and Jokers left ! This calls for a mini celebration!
Yeah, the Queen of Hearts' corner elements will be worked out. I'm not worried about it.

Not done with the Courts yet! I still have the Jack and King of Spades. I purposely skipped over them to save for last. They will be Gold/Black and Black/Gold and be very detailed. The goal is to use some elements from the ORNATES to tie them in with some of my other stuff and give them a Baroque vibe!

This week though I'll be concentrating on a new red Egg to replace the Egg on the Back design. I was never completely happy with the Back Egg. It was the first one and I changed up my modeling and surfaces techniques after it when I built the Queen of Spades Egg.

Thanks, Randy
Ah guess i missed that, sort of remembered seeing the queens all done up, so i thought the courts were all completed, in anycase its not long more to go, cant wait to see the final designs !! :D
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

Here's a look at the Back Card with a brand new Red Egg.
I like this muuuuch better than the original Egg I built, back in December!

thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by Sharpie »

RandyButterfield wrote:Here's a look at the Back Card with a brand new Red Egg.
I like this muuuuch better than the original Egg I built, back in December!

thanks, Randy
Me too!... except maybe for the heart on the shield.
Don't you think it should be all the pips or none?
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

Sharpie wrote:
RandyButterfield wrote:Here's a look at the Back Card with a brand new Red Egg.
I like this muuuuch better than the original Egg I built, back in December!

thanks, Randy
Me too!... except maybe for the heart on the shield.
Don't you think it should be all the pips or none?
I thought it was appropriate to have the Heart since the Red Eggs are with the Heart Suits, and they are also the only ones with the Double-Headed Russian Eagle.

thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by sprouts1115 »

Randy - Double eagle with a shield is a very common theme. You can put anything on the shield and make it work. You can also have the double eagle holding something to make it more complicated. The most common are an orb and a sword, but anything would fit the theme. Got any first concept of the Jokers? Your close to getting done. I think earlier y"all :D (texas) mentioned the Joker would be open at the top.
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

Hey everyone,

I forgot to post over here that I won't have a new Imperial Card finished up this week. My wife and I have been on vacation in New York since Friday. Besides the usual site-seeing we also visited the Metropolitan Museum of art and saw their Faberge collection - 3 Imperial Eggs and a few Cigarette Cases and other miscellaneous items. Gorgeous stuff!

My wife and I also had lunch with Don Boyer and his wife this afternoon. Very nice guy!

We'll be heading to Michigan on Wednesday to pick up our kids who are having a blast with my parents for "their" vacation. And then back to Indy on Thursday where I'll get back into the swing of things to get this Deck design finished up!!

Thanks, Randy
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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by RandyButterfield »

We're back from our trip and I just finished up the Imperial Tuck Box. The Tuck Inside will be with Gold Foil - much like many Imperial Eggs that have Gold interiors.

thanks, Randy

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Re: IMPERIAL Deck

Unread post by MagikFingerz »

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