Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

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montecarlojoe
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by montecarlojoe »

sprouts1115 wrote:
TGunitedcardists wrote:
blejanre wrote: I thought poker would be one of the games that a fourth court would actually improve. A royal flush would consist of 4 royals and a high card, instead of 3 royals, a high card, and a ten. I legitimately am really curious though, what problems would the princess cause, in which games? I would really love some examples, because I don't see it. As for being confusing, I can only imagine it being confusing the first time using the deck, or for the first time in a while. And as for whether or not it will fly, if I decide to do a KS campaign for it, the ten can be easily swapped out for a normal pip card at any time before printing.

Sprouts, I think your last comment was intended for me. Thanks for the links. I do see what you mean about the transistions. It's not really a problem for me, I think the images work as a whole; does anyone else think the transitions need more work? What are the 6 ways to divide a card, this sounds like a specific thing that I haven't heard of?

Thanks for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it.
It would be confusing. Keep the 10 a number card.

I too would like to know what the 6 ways to divide a card are...
Well, you got 1) Horizontal, 2) Diagonal, 3) Ribbon, 4) Object 5) Cloth 6) 1-sided transition?

Here is a good example of Object:
Screenshot 2015-12-07 21.43.28.png
Well really you only describe two ways there:

A) Horizontal and Diagonal are the SAME. You are talking about a continuous design where there is no obvious line of transition because the design is rotationally symmetrical. In fact that is what we mean by "2 way" - technically we should say "Rotational symmetry of 2 about the centre of the card". Where you put your imaginary line in the design process is utterly irrelevant - as long as it goes through that centre point!

B) Ribbon / object / Cloth are all the same thing too - they are devices to cover the transition so you don't have to bother. I have heard said that the use in the picture posted by Sprouticus above is a 'genius' use of the device. I think it's lazy - nice as the art is.

The cloth link does highlight something though - a brilliant design doesn't necessarily have to be rotationally symmetrical.

I would suggest that there are two classes of design going on here:

Transition:
A) Continuous (smooth / layered, integrated design, no obvious "join")
B) Masked (No integration, but some graphical device used cover the transition line)
C) Broken (No integration, no masking device)

Rotational Design
1) True 2 way - rotational symmetry - identical rotated by 180 degrees.
2) Pseudo 2 way - Mimics Rotational Symmetry - not truely symmetrical when rotated 180 degrees
3) 1-way - no attempt at rotational symmetry

In total you have 7 combinations there (6 if you discount 1 way design)
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by sprouts1115 »

montecarlojoe - You lost your agreement when you said "Horizontal and Diagonal are the Same" They are different in playing cards. Think about it...

If you want to go farther something is either a wave or a particle. Lawrence Krauss is a particle.
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by montecarlojoe »

Tell you what sprouts - you show me examples of a true two way horizontal design and an true two way diagonal design, and I'll show you how there's no difference - deal?
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by NCarter »

I still like the direction that this deck is going.

I look forward to seeing it live.
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by blejanre »

It's been a little while since I've updated but I wanted to let you guys know that I am still chugging away at this slowly but surely. At this point, I have decided with a certainty to go the hand-made route. I will be printing the cards at a local print studio, with a fairly small run - I'm thinking an edition of 200-500 decks. I'll prepare an image of the uncut sheet, and use that to laser-cut a negative onto a single wooden plate - both backside and front. Using a jig for registration, I will then print the woodblocks, backside and front. Next step will be coating. Ideally, I'd like to use a homemade concoction. I've got a recipe, but I can't seem to find a seller for cellulose acetate in quantities less than 1 metric ton. I can't afford that shit. I also don't know how cost effective the recipe will be. Once the sheets are coated I will send them off to a local business to be cut, because rounding 43 000 to 100 000 corners is not a one man job. Slip those puppies into a hand made tuck constructed of heavy rag paper and I figure you're looking at a product unlike anything that's currently on the playing card market. High quality materials, hand made, artisan playing cards. What do you guys think?

I've made a rough image for the uncut that I'm going to print on a big digital printer (hopefully) sometime this week. Just as a prototype to test the coating on and see how the design plays out on actual cards. It's a bit of a large image, but here it is. http://i.imgur.com/mjnk3NF.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Since the digital printer has unreliable registration, I have modified the back design to be one-way, but this is more or less what it is going to look like:

Image

Thanks for any feedback!
-Ben
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by montecarlojoe »

Much as I like the pattern, one-way by design on the back is a step in the wrong direction.
It'll look weird when you have cards randomly one way or the other in the deck...
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by blejanre »

Nobody was really following the link so here's an actual image of what I've got. Looking for feedback on indices, jokers, pip cards, general thoughts.

Image
montecarlojoe wrote:Much as I like the pattern, one-way by design on the back is a step in the wrong direction.
It'll look weird when you have cards randomly one way or the other in the deck...
I'm only using the one-way backs on the prototype because the printer at the studio has unreliable registration. The final product will be done with a two-way version of that pattern.
-Ben
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by TGunitedcardists »

You have 2 black jokers. I suggest you make the stars on one of them red. It's always nice to have 1 joker of each color for card games.
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by blejanre »

Good suggestion, I will for sure switch one of the stars to red.

I'm also considering using a commercial playing card coating, as it's proving difficult to make my own, especially on a small budget. Do you think that kills the hand made appeal?
-Ben
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by sprouts1115 »

blejanre - If your talking about a master for making playing cards, MPC (MakePlayingCards.com) is good for small number of decks and gives a standard like USPCC, EPCC, and LPCC...
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by Räpylätassu »

Don't forget NPCC as an option for printer.

They have made a few good looking decks already and printing through them is cheaper than Legends or Expert and the quality is better than MPC.
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Re: Crowded Court - handmade(?) playing cards

Unread post by shimmering »

Cellulose acetate ought to be pretty straightforward to source in any quantity. If nothing else then your typical transparent sheets of ... acetate ... used for overhead projectors that you can pick up in any stationers are just cellulose acetate sheets.

I suppose it depends what you're going to do with it, but I imagine if you are going to make a varnish it will involve dissolving the cellulose acetate in a solvent of some description. And so whether it comes as amorphous powder or transparent sheets or lumps will be not that relevant provided that cellulose acetate is soluble in your solvent (powder will dissolve more quickly, but the solution will be identical).
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