Korath's Drawcardlib - The CardArt Revolution... Updated

[Sonic]

OK, finally. Some new card templates for you guys to try out with Korath’s latest update to his Drawcardlib

See viewtopic.php?f=56&t=11099 for current developments.

This one most definitely deserves a new thread – it will knock your socks off – I kid you not.

Hybrid colored cards, translucent colorless cards and watermarks are the main attractions. And this new version might actually go some way to kindle an appreciation of the previously much overused gold card.

8/23 Update: New stuff to play with, but this time round we have three sets of card art to choose from – Modern, Classic and an adaptation of the Bannerless Modern templates.

Modern


Classic


Bannerless Modern


For the Modern templates, I’ve now vertically resized the text banners to allow an increase in the size of the mana and expansion symbols, reduced the height of the P/T box, and also increased the width of border shadow - to better balance them against the Title, Type and P/T text size and the fractionally oversized colored borders.
You’ll need to replace the original MatrixMTG font with the latest modern templates. The new version of the font has had the spacing corrected for the P/T figures, and a few other character tweaks to closer match the paper stock font.

The Classic templates proved something of a challenge – not that you would have thought given their apparent simplicity compared to the later modern frames.
As Korath noted, the classic card green and black text boxes were proving something of a problem with the overlay technique use to composite the new dual colored cards.
The original games classic templates were seemingly based on the paper stock 5th Edition, which worked well for games need for a larger text box and an Expand Text Box feature, given this was the first set to resize the text boxes to match the width of the card art frame. The problem being the green and black card text boxes in 5th are actually larger than in all the other cards in the set, which ends up looking somewhat messy when being composited over the other colored text boxes.
The solution I’ve used for these new templates is to replicate the text boxes for the black and green cards as they appeared in the earlier sets, and resized them so they are framed within the same rectangular dimensions as the other cards and treated as if they had misshapen colored borders. As can be seen using the blue/black text box in the pic above.
For the classic Title font I returned to the games original font. Although now it has been heavily reworked; needing many missing characters which are now used in the modern card names, including Æ and the accented characters.

The Bannerless Modern templates are essentially the same as those in the patch updates and CirothUngol default install, tweaked and up-sized. These retain the use of the manalink games original Benguiat font and will probably suit laptops and smaller screens where the new modern and classic templates use of the original paper stock font tends to come up too small on small screens.

Now the boring bits... Again:

YOU MUST READ THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE DOWNLOAD - this is not a simple file replacement mod. It requires the magic.exe to patched using a program provided in the mod, and the system installation of a few fonts. Instructions for installing fonts for XP are provided if needed.

It’s also worth reading the notes in the Duel.dat file. The range of options for personalising how the cards finally appear on screen via the file are both varied and numerous. But apart from the watermark option being active, the current settings in the Duel,dat file in this mod are essentially the default. All the artwork files you need are included to allow you to experiment with the current range of options. Back up the original file, and tweak away.

Also – this is an entirely experimental and separate mod from the card art and Duel.dat file included with the usual patch update files. Please be careful not to accidentally overwrite any of the mod’s files in the CardArt folder, or the Duel.dat file in the DuelArt folder when updating with a new patch.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/lo6co ... atesV6.zip

All the best… Sonic

[stassy]

Are you playing draft in EDH mode, or your deck is not OIv2 updated (and also not current EDH compatible since insta banned)?
Also how are you able to put 21 cards on a single column in the DeckEditor, I can only fit 20 in one.

pc 1920x1080 LCD 24"

[Sonic]

Are you playing draft in EDH mode, or your deck is not OIv2 updated (and also not current EDH compatible since insta banned)?
Also how are you able to put 21 cards on a single column in the DeckEditor, I can only fit 20 in one.

pc 1920x1080 LCD 24"

Because my install is in a constant state of flux between one patch and the next, and I don't always get round to updating the deck files.

Possibly because my screen resolution is 4:3 and yours is widescreen. And from your pic, you can obviously fit more columns on your screen than I can on mine.

Anyway, clever clogs, have you spotted the minor authenticity tweak to the card art yet?

[gmzombie]

is the tweaks the real colored art border now on gold cards..cause that is sweet as i see in your pic of niv mizzet

this is even sicker than last..awesome job guys

[stassy]

The text area symbol is missing 3 crests maybe?

[Sonic]

Nope, it has nothing to do with the any of the new tricks the dll is capable of.
It has to do with something visible on the paperstock I'd missed off the first set of templates.

Clue: Drop

[gmzombie]

is it the drop shadows on the mana icons

[Sonic]

is it the drop shadows on the mana icons

Nope. Nothing to do with stuff that gets overlayed by the dll - It's on the template itself.

[ozks]

i've been dead for awhile, and i'm just starting to check all the new art, and it looks Amazing!
Thank you all, for the hard work!

[Sonic]

You'll have some more stuff to play with fairly soon.
Well, soonish... If I ever get these classic templates finished.

[ozks]

when someone do damage, the number looks cropped (it's this normal?)
and there's a way to remove the upper side bar of the small cards, without remove it from the big cards?

[gmzombie]

i cant wait for the next release of this. those old card borders look sick.

[Korath]

This misplaced damaged numbers are caused by a corrupt ManalinkEx.dll. If you're running the Odyssey then Invasion v2 patch, the one in the src/ dir is good; copy that into your Manalink 3.0/Program directory.

[ozks]

This misplaced damaged numbers are caused by a corrupt ManalinkEx.dll. If you're running the Odyssey then Invasion v2 patch, the one in the src/ dir is good; copy that into your Manalink 3.0/Program directory.

thanks Korath that works!

[Sonic]

New stuff - See first post.