Making your own proxies??

[Luiggi]

So during Day One of Waterbury I was sitting next to Brassman in one round, and saw that he had some pretty sweet home-made proxies. The ones I saw were Mana Drains and Snow-Covered Island put onto the new cardface (he also had MDs read "Drana Main", which I thought was pretty funny). I asked him about them and he said he made them and just printed directly onto the card (which made them look super sweet).

My question is: how do you go about designing these proxies? What programs do you use, what card images do you use, what kind of printer is best, how you print directly onto a card, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, as a related question, can someone tell me about those foil Power proxies that some people have? I saw at least one person running them at Waterbury, and was just curious about them.

Luiggi

[Bram]

Use photoshop & your imagination for the images. You need a fairly decent resolution for a nice-looking image; something like 300 dpi will do just fine.

Erase the original card art with an standard eraser. The softer, the better the result (fewer scratch marks) but the harder the work.

Print it using a color laserprinter for the best result. Deskjets tend to smear (badly). Also, your card will never be moisture-resistant if you use a deskjet. Paste the card on a regular sheet of paper. The alignment is the tricky part; practice this by printing an image on cheap commons (preferably ones with light art, like old plains, so that you don't have to bother erasing the art first and can still see the result). Make notes on the sheet of paper you used so that you know where to put the card.

Do not mass-produce and sell as it's most likely illegal. Also: it is a LOT of work. You could, however, end up with something like this:



Best.rituals.ever.

[Dozer]

Erase the original card art with an standard eraser. The softer, the better the result (fewer scratch marks) but the harder the work.

[...]

Best.rituals.ever.

I think it should also be possible to print the whole thing on a card on a blank, as peeled foils are. I never tried it, though, and if you make them look to real you'll definitely be in copyright trouble.

Seeing those Rituals is always a pleasure. Bram, will you bring them to Eindhoven so I can marvel at them for real?

[Luiggi]

Thanks for the info, guys. I'm not trying to make the proxies to sell or anything. I just thought it was cool that Brassman made some cool proxies for cards he obviously has, and I guess you run less of a risk of having your stuff stolen, !

Bram: your method would work if I just wanted to print a new image onto an existing card. Any idea of how to completely re-work a card, like Brassman did by putting Mana Drains onto the new cardface and changing their name?

Luiggi

[prosbloom225]

Paint thinner works wonders for stripping off parts of the card.  I use masking tape to make the edges nice and straight and then use a paper towel and paint thinner to strip the picture off.  Then i tape it to paper and print directly on the card.  Inkjet printers work fine like this because your printing directly on the cardboard, not the ink that wizards puts on the card.  Though a color laser will give you better results, the inkjet works fine. 

http://students.uww.edu/osieckimj21/MTG.html
Ill link my pics yet again.  The reason the text is smudged is because i didnt let the cards dry for more than a day before sleeving them up.  I like to give them at least two weeks to dry before I case them up usually.  It takes hella long for the ink to completely dry.

[Limbo]

The alignment is the tricky part; practice this by printing an image on cheap commons (preferably ones with light art, like old plains, so that you don't have to bother erasing the art first and can still see the result). Make notes on the sheet of paper you used so that you know where to put the card.

Isn't it hella easier to just make a "line-picture" of a magic card (place for the picture and the borders), print that on a sheet of paper as an example, and after that just place any modifications you want to make on the right place using the base-lines? Saves a lot of work if you ask me...

[Jacob Orlove]

If you have a piece of paper that's going through the printer with the card attached (only works for some printers), then just print the image in black and white on the paper, then attach the card over that.

Also, to completely re-work the cards you basically need Photoshop.

[prosbloom225]

If you have a piece of paper that's going through the printer with the card attached (only works for some printers), then just print the image in black and white on the paper, then attach the card over that.

Also, to completely re-work the cards you basically need Photoshop.

It also helps if your printer doesnt bend the paper on its way through( straight feed in).

[Jacob Orlove]

That's what I meant by "only works for some printers".

[Komatteru]

Best.rituals.ever.

I'm not gonna lie, they're pretty spiffy.  But they'd only be the best Rituals EVAR if Rebecca Guay drew Batman (or better yet! Doom!!) on them.  Also, they need to be foil.  And maybe Japanese.  But not being drawn by Rebecca is a pretty hard argument against being the best something ever.

[prosbloom225]

That's what I meant by "only works for some printers".

I was just saying it works better, you can still do it with a regular printer, just you gotta bend the cards a bit before and after you print.  Also you have to make sure its taped down good so you don't lose it in the printer.

[Anusien]

I'm having decent results (not having a photo quality printer is sucking right now) removing the foil layer, then printing out proxies at the right size and just sticking them on the card.  It may be worth a try to just print directly onto the card, but I think both my printers bend it.

[Luiggi]

Does anyone know where to find .psd files of Magic cardfaces to play with and modify? jro told me that they used to be on Misetings, but Wizard sent them a cease-and-desist letter, so so much for that, . This thread provides a great overview, assuming one has Photoshop and the proper .psd files to modify: http://www.misetings.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10916.

Anyone know where I can get me some .psds?

Luiggi

[Anusien]

What I'm playing aroudn with doing is just making the card in magic set editor, exporting it, converting it to a decent image, and then printing proxies from MWS.  I can't tell if the shitty quality is my printer or a conversion along the way.

[lizzish]

I just draw pretty nakedish girls on peeled foils.

[Juggernaut GO]

Liz's proxies are definitely the sweetest ever made, expecially the black lotus with gold paint that says TMD open 7 1st
You put a lot of effort into the added prizes people got in the top 8, and you deserve a lot of credit for it!  Next waterbury I have to contract u to draw a juggernaut on my playmat ha ha

[Cross]

The time walk with second on it isn't half bad either.

As far as I know brassman just prints directly onto cards, he made us some sweet team proxies.

[Revvik]

I just draw pretty nakedish girls on peeled foils.

I will attest to the prettiness.  If Liz still has the scans she made of my set, she should put them up; otherwise, I suppose I could sometime.

[lizzish]

My set I plan on making for myself will have tiny chibi anime girls in dinosaur suits, all yelling "GAO!"

[JigglyPuff]

the jet looked pretty nice so i gave it to hatcher as a thank u...

brass man didnt have his printed on cards though...during one of his matches he took out the drana mains to show me and he had REAL ENGLISH DRAINS behind them...

I would love it if some one could like email me the image for making the proxies and stuff (i suck at computers and the whole downloading thing...)

Paint thinner works wonders for stripping off parts of the card. I use masking tape to make the edges nice and straight and then use a paper towel and paint thinner to strip the picture off. Then i tape it to paper and print directly on the card. Inkjet printers work fine like this because your printing directly on the cardboard, not the ink that wizards puts on the card. Though a color laser will give you better results, the inkjet works fine.

http://students.uww.edu/osieckimj21/MTG.html
Ill link my pics yet again. The reason the text is smudged is because i didnt let the cards dry for more than a day before sleeving them up. I like to give them at least two weeks to dry before I case them up usually. It takes hella long for the ink to completely dry.

Are those foil??its hard to tell...

[prosbloom225]

No, but now that you mention it, foiling them would be cool.

[JigglyPuff]

you'd be pro if you made those foil!

[cosineme]

the jet looked pretty nice so i gave it to hatcher as a thank u...

brass man didnt have his printed on cards though...during one of his matches he took out the drana mains to show me and he had REAL ENGLISH DRAINS behind them...
Are those foil??its hard to tell...

i thought that this wasn't allowed as it makes your cards different widths?

[MoxMonkey]

As long as you dont glue the paper the width doesn't change in most sleeves.  A lot fo people are just stopping you from doing this to stop deck checks and save time.  I was wondering how you can remove the glue from a pealed Foil card.  I didn't remove it last time and when it printed it just went everywhere.  Anyone know something that gets the glue off without eating away at the card?

[lizzish]

White artist's eraser and a bit of elbow grease gets the adhesive off fairly well. I hear nail polish remover will do the trick too, but when I tried I screwed it up and it made the cards feel too thin.