Hey Ncyclopedia,

Thanks for the compliment on the other thread!

I can't wait to get some of your Curator and the new Birds Deck! They are gorgeous, extremely creative and the technical skill of hand-cutting everything is crazy. I couldn't imagine trimming out all of the complex shapes you have on every card.

Do you plan on selling the original 2 foot cards? I'm asking because I think you could have a great art exhibition with the complete deck. Also, if you do fund the Curator Deck on Kickstarter I think people would be thrilled if one of the high dollar pledges was for some decks of cards AND one of the one-of-a-kind 2 foot originals! Those would sell like hotcakes. It could be a first-come basis on which card a pledge gets, a person could pledge for an original, e-mail you with their Top 5 list in order of preference and find out which original they get through on ongoing Kickstarter update (XXX gets the Ace of Hearts, XXXX gets the 2 of Spades.....).

No matter what you do, it's cool seeing a new card each week.

thanks, Randy

This is a Sell Sheet back for a Board Game my cousin roped me into.
I did the drawing, all of the design and 3d. We built a prototype and even
got a booth at GenCon here in Indy. That led us to Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/randybutterfield/kings-of-combat-gladiatorial-tournament?ref=live

The project was a bust (thank god, I did not like the idea of dealing with
the back and forth with China manufacturers!). The good thing that came
out of it is I was introduced to Custom Designed Playing Cards when I saw
the Revision 1 on Kickstarter and went from there!

thanks, Randy

Alright, I'll post some of my 3d stuff.

These are a couple of typical renders I do for work a lot.
A lobby display for the Sauza Diamondbacks Program and
a Gift Pack for Perrier Jouet.

The overall look is the reasoning of Scarlet over Ruby, Ruby Red or Ruby-Red. Ruby alone doesn't look good. The two Ruby Red options look odd with the space or hyphen. I like that Scarlet has some more orange in it than a true red and there are a few uses of orange in the Red backs and Red court cards. Also, my parents have a horse named Scarlet so I liked that as a fun second meaning.

I like that both names start with the same letter. Cobalt was thrown around but I didn't like it at all.

In the end I think the argument between Scarlet and Ruby Red isn't going to make a bit of difference. I doubt anyone thinking about getting a deck of Ornate cards is going to be swayed either way based on the red descriptor name. This deck is all about the looks! I've learned through years of experience with alcohol promotions that it's the look and design that sells, much more than the headline or copy. The exception being magazine ads or television commercials that utilize a catchy slogan or clever tagline.

Thanks, Randy

I'm quite interested in both disciplines, I just need a kick to get me started...
One question: What programs do you guys use/started learning on?

I started out back in the 90's using programs I think no longer exist - Ray Dream Studio and Strata Studio Pro.
It used to take forever to render anything back then!

I currently use Maya for short films and character animation (which I haven't spent any time on in years!) and I use Lightwave 3D for work. Lightwave is great for being able to setup case stacks and grocery shelves of alcohol bottles in a hurry. Also, Lightwave is actually 2 separate programs: MODELER is where you model and assign surfaces to all of your objects. LAYOUT is where you import the models, apply textures and texture maps, setup your scene, keyframe animations and render the final images.

I haven't used Blender but I've read a lot of great things about it. A great forum for 3d Graphics is CGTalk.com. That's the other forum I check out on a regular basis.

thanks, Randy

The mustache on the Jack of Spades does look a little weird, though. Not sure exactly why.
And you might want to add a bit more to the black queens, they look too a bit too similar to me.

Yeah, that mustache just doesn't look right. I tried adding the hair streaks to help it out but
I'll redo the whole thing with a tighter, less bushy look.

Good catch on the Queens! I'll add some more Blue details to the Queen of Spades to
differentiate her more.

thanks, Randy

Those are beautiful banners, nice work! Love the background you used.

Thanks Derek and Moon.exe,

That was a fun project. They even had a press conference to unveil the banners and I got to
meet Danny Granger of the Indiana Pacers. He was very tall and seemed pretty nice!

The only downside was because of budget they had to downsize the banners from the original
14 to the 8 that I show up above. There were versions with the Indy Speedway, the Indy AAA Baseball
team and some other museums and parks.

thanks, Randy

Finished up the Jacks. I went with Joust handles in place of the Queens "Flowers". The Kings will have Sword handles.

I mostly work with the Spirits industry. These are some of my favorite projects over the past couple years.

Here is the current look of the ORNATE Cards with ALL Faces and Backs having the same border:

http://www.midnightcardcompany.com/OrnateBACKS.jpg

http://www.midnightcardcompany.com/OrnateACES.jpg

http://www.midnightcardcompany.com/OrnatePOSTER.jpg

Even at Q1, the minimum requirement for quality control is 1/16" meaning that if their cut is offset slightly, you'll be getting a noticeable difference in the left and right circles. A solution to this could be to accommodate that buffer zone into the circle.

Thanks for the tip Chin! I hadn't thought about that. I shifted the discs a little towards the trim edges.

Randy

I love the design and it looks great.... but in my opinion, having 2 decks that have the exact same fronts, is pointless and makes me not want to buy the deck. It just shows lack of effort. I know that you have put a ton of effort into these cards but having the same fronts just doesn't show it.

My main reason for having the 2 backs is the custom Poker Sets. Poker Sets come with 2 decks of cards (usually 1 blue and 1 red). This way one deck can be shuffled as the other deck is in play. I thought it would be cool to have a unique take on the standard blue and red poker decks.

The Kickstarter campaign won't force people to pledge for an entire set or the same number of each back color. If someone wants 3 Red decks and 0 Blue, just pledge for 3 decks and message me through Kickstarter with your deck color breakdown.

The Poker Sets are going to be setup in a similar way. The chips will be Black, Gold, Red and Silver. I will have a default breakdown for each of the different sets available (ex. 500 Chip Set = 225 Black, 150 Red, 75 Gold, 50 Silver). Anybody pledging for a set (or single chips) will be able to message me through Kickstarter and send me their Chip color breakdown they would like, if they don't want the default breakdown.

thanks, Randy