The P/T box and mana space cuts into the art, which bugs me. I don't mind the mana thing so much, but it'd be nice if you could find a different spot for the P/T. Other than that, they're very okay. That's pretty much it.
- I don't like the artifact brown. Why wouldn't the current grey work?
I personally am a fan of the old artifact brown, which is why I went with that color for this frame. I can also do a gray artifact version if that's what more people like.
- You would need to add some sort of box for the expansion set symbol (the square is ugly).
The square is a consequence of me using MSE to make these particular images. I'll look into putting a box around the expansion symbol, but having a better one there might also help that look less ugly.
- I'm not sure if having P/T in the middle is good idea. I like how the non-creature cards feel very light, because everything is on the edges of the card. The P/T box kinda breaks that feel. Plus it interferes with the art.
That was a practical choice on my part, but if people prefer to have the P/T box in its standard place I can move it back down. I felt that since power and toughness are the most important stats for creatures it made sense to place it "before" the rules text of the card.
What if you moved the P/T box to its usual place and the expansion set/rarity symbol to right side of the card name box?
I'll do that and see how it looks. Thanks for the suggestion!
Quote from Strawlies »
The title box is also a bit too... "glossy". And maybe the roundedness on the sides a bit too modern.
I'm not sure what you mean by glossy. Is the two-tone color of the title box the issue? That was done to help visually separate the name from the type, but I can look into something different.
Quote from Trancebam »
Other than that, they're very okay. That's pretty much it.
Well I appreciate the honest opinion. Hopefully I can make some more improvements to this and make them look better.
It looks alright for a new style. Still a fan of the classic old frame (just something about magic makes me feel like things should look ancient) but I really like your decision to use brown for artifacts.
My apologies for the thread necro, but I figured it would be better to just post this in the same thread, since it's still on the first page.
After taking a break from this and considering the feedback I got, I reworked the design. And what better way to show it off than with the new champions from Dragon's Maze!
Major changes include:
- Other than the mana cost, I moved everything that was obstructing the art.
- P/T for creature cards is now in the top-right corner. This makes it easy to see both the cost and stats of creature cards when you fan them out in your hand. For noncreature cards the separator is removed and the entire line is used for the name.
- I thought the area where the name and type were placed was ugly, so I changed it to look more like the official cards.
A lot of the changes between this and the old version pulled it back towards the official design, but I think it still maintains the aesthetic I was shooting for with the original version.
PSD, full-art version, and possibly other templates forthcoming. Eldrazi were requested before, but if anyone has any other specific derivatives they'd like to see, let me know and I'll work on those.
Pretty rad! The big curvy art bubble is beautiful.
I had some suggestions:
- The label bubbles might look nicer with sloped ends so that don't have that little jaggy bit.
- The type line can probably be smaller and have the expansion symbol aligned right at the end of it; moving the expansion symbol there would allow you to reduce the size of the bottom-of-card info area.
- As MechaMancer suggested, maaaybe the p/t box can mirror the mana box, but it does kind of suffer from being forced into a vertical layout.
Honestly I think that the positioning of the mana cost could benefit from some rethinking; it isn't as well integrated with the design as the rest of the elements.
Or maybe the p/t can go into the type line? If the text size is reduced that might work. That makes room for the mana cost to go back up into the cardname bar, as well.
This might not work for your design, but I'd love to see a way to use the Duels of the Planeswalkers ability symbols on cards to reduce the amount of text they need:
Lastly, you might not necessarily want to do this in MSE, but it's probably a good idea to consider how to handle special-case card frame issues like sun/moon symbols for DFCs and the color indicator.
Thanks very much for the detailed feedback! It's very helpful.
I was hesitant to place the power and toughness on the right side of the card, but enough people have requested it that I'll be doing a mock-up with that placement instead. I also did try having a softer curve on the name and type lines previously and didn't really like the look, but I'll give it another go and see if I can make it look better.
As far as the mana cost is concerned, its current placement is primarily because I personally don't like the way it fights for space with the card name on the official card designs. I like having it on the side so that it's visible when the cards in your hand are fanned, but how important would people consider it to still appear near the top of the card. If I shifted the other elements more to the side in order to make room for the mana cost, that would both break the visual symmetry I'm fond of and start stepping a bit on the toes of FirePenguinMaster's design.
For the record, here's a rough example of what the full-art version of the current design would look like.
Logically I definitely understand and appreciate what you are doing with the layout; it makes sense for overall card readability with cards overlapping and fanned out while in your hand.
In the end personally and aesthetically I just don't think it works for me though.
I've been busy with school stuff and haven't done much on this project in a while, but seeing that there's still some interest I decided to take one more crack at trying to fix the layout. Since the original position of the mana bar didn't seem to be working, I moved it back to where it is on the official designs.
That looks awesome. I like how the curve of the boxes make it look kinda like MTGO when there's a trigger or ability on the stack. I want to make a whole custom cube out of these designs! Haha.
My goal with the third iteration was to err more towards the original without obstructing the art as much. What else about the first design do you like better that you feel the third version doesn't do as well?
This is kind of hard to comment on since you don't really seem to fully explain anywhere in the thread why you're doing this at all. As in, what was broken about the existing layout? That seems important to establish first.
Also, the curved bubbly boxes for art and rules I am very much not a fan of. It gives a certain sort of cute happy feeling that just doesn't work for serious cards. The rectangles are more neutral and don't suggest either seriousness nor bubbliness, so the art has more latitude.
The mana cost on the left side was good. I also personally liked the texture you had on the box itself for the mana cost. With your third iteration, you've moved just about everything up to the top of the card, making it feel extremely cluttered.
I've just looked through the whole thread, and I'm impressed by all of the iterations you've been through with your frame designs. If you are using Magic Set Editor, do you have any of these in a template? As a custom cube designer, I'm always looking for ways to make my cards stand out, and your frames look AWESOME for that.
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Edit: I'm working on a new and improved version of the template.
My art blog
Claims:
The kicker variant in WWK will be "Kicker without a kicked effect." - proven wrong Jan 2010 : 2 wrongs
Decks:
:symu::symb: Bloodchief Ascension - Modern
:symb::symr: Rakdos, the Defiler - EDH
:symu::symb::symw: Sharuum the Hegemon - EDH
:symw::symu::symb: Zur the Enchanter - EDH
I personally am a fan of the old artifact brown, which is why I went with that color for this frame. I can also do a gray artifact version if that's what more people like.
The square is a consequence of me using MSE to make these particular images. I'll look into putting a box around the expansion symbol, but having a better one there might also help that look less ugly.
Noted! I'll definitely try to get everything out of the way of the art.
Sure thing.
That was a practical choice on my part, but if people prefer to have the P/T box in its standard place I can move it back down. I felt that since power and toughness are the most important stats for creatures it made sense to place it "before" the rules text of the card.
Again, the different green was an intentional choice. If people prefer a green more like the official one, I can change that.
I'll do that and see how it looks. Thanks for the suggestion!
I'm not sure what you mean by glossy. Is the two-tone color of the title box the issue? That was done to help visually separate the name from the type, but I can look into something different.
Well I appreciate the honest opinion. Hopefully I can make some more improvements to this and make them look better.
After taking a break from this and considering the feedback I got, I reworked the design. And what better way to show it off than with the new champions from Dragon's Maze!
Major changes include:
- Other than the mana cost, I moved everything that was obstructing the art.
- P/T for creature cards is now in the top-right corner. This makes it easy to see both the cost and stats of creature cards when you fan them out in your hand. For noncreature cards the separator is removed and the entire line is used for the name.
- I thought the area where the name and type were placed was ugly, so I changed it to look more like the official cards.
A lot of the changes between this and the old version pulled it back towards the official design, but I think it still maintains the aesthetic I was shooting for with the original version.
PSD, full-art version, and possibly other templates forthcoming. Eldrazi were requested before, but if anyone has any other specific derivatives they'd like to see, let me know and I'll work on those.
My art blog
Claims:
The kicker variant in WWK will be "Kicker without a kicked effect." - proven wrong Jan 2010 : 2 wrongs
Decks:
:symu::symb: Bloodchief Ascension - Modern
:symb::symr: Rakdos, the Defiler - EDH
:symu::symb::symw: Sharuum the Hegemon - EDH
:symw::symu::symb: Zur the Enchanter - EDH
I had some suggestions:
- The label bubbles might look nicer with sloped ends so that don't have that little jaggy bit.
- The type line can probably be smaller and have the expansion symbol aligned right at the end of it; moving the expansion symbol there would allow you to reduce the size of the bottom-of-card info area.
- As MechaMancer suggested, maaaybe the p/t box can mirror the mana box, but it does kind of suffer from being forced into a vertical layout.
Honestly I think that the positioning of the mana cost could benefit from some rethinking; it isn't as well integrated with the design as the rest of the elements.
Or maybe the p/t can go into the type line? If the text size is reduced that might work. That makes room for the mana cost to go back up into the cardname bar, as well.
This might not work for your design, but I'd love to see a way to use the Duels of the Planeswalkers ability symbols on cards to reduce the amount of text they need:
(source)
Lastly, you might not necessarily want to do this in MSE, but it's probably a good idea to consider how to handle special-case card frame issues like sun/moon symbols for DFCs and the color indicator.
I was hesitant to place the power and toughness on the right side of the card, but enough people have requested it that I'll be doing a mock-up with that placement instead. I also did try having a softer curve on the name and type lines previously and didn't really like the look, but I'll give it another go and see if I can make it look better.
As far as the mana cost is concerned, its current placement is primarily because I personally don't like the way it fights for space with the card name on the official card designs. I like having it on the side so that it's visible when the cards in your hand are fanned, but how important would people consider it to still appear near the top of the card. If I shifted the other elements more to the side in order to make room for the mana cost, that would both break the visual symmetry I'm fond of and start stepping a bit on the toes of FirePenguinMaster's design.
For the record, here's a rough example of what the full-art version of the current design would look like.
In the end personally and aesthetically I just don't think it works for me though.
But good work!
My art blog
Claims:
The kicker variant in WWK will be "Kicker without a kicked effect." - proven wrong Jan 2010 : 2 wrongs
Decks:
:symu::symb: Bloodchief Ascension - Modern
:symb::symr: Rakdos, the Defiler - EDH
:symu::symb::symw: Sharuum the Hegemon - EDH
:symw::symu::symb: Zur the Enchanter - EDH
Also, the curved bubbly boxes for art and rules I am very much not a fan of. It gives a certain sort of cute happy feeling that just doesn't work for serious cards. The rectangles are more neutral and don't suggest either seriousness nor bubbliness, so the art has more latitude.
My art blog
Claims:
The kicker variant in WWK will be "Kicker without a kicked effect." - proven wrong Jan 2010 : 2 wrongs
Decks:
:symu::symb: Bloodchief Ascension - Modern
:symb::symr: Rakdos, the Defiler - EDH
:symu::symb::symw: Sharuum the Hegemon - EDH
:symw::symu::symb: Zur the Enchanter - EDH