Updating Magic Set Editor (Completed!)

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USMCgeek
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Elf-lord (Remastered vs Existing)
Elf-lord (Remastered vs Existing)
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USMCgeek
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Ok - so I see the following as the current templates, and was wondering if anyone could speak to the intended design, as both are fairly generic other than coloring:
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Kjeld
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I think the man-lord templates are meant to evoke a corroded metal, perhaps, but not corrupted to the extent of the minion template. They also have a bit of an Atlantis feel to them, it seems, maybe kind of playing off the Numenor legacy.

For the war-lords, I'm not sure. I kind of think they might be better going with a rusting iron vibe, so a little more orange-red than yellow (which overlaps too much with the dragon-lords).
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Those all look great. So are both you and nico21000 remastering the card templates right now? Is it that you're doing dream cards and he's working on remasters of the original printed ones, and, if so, are you collaborating in any way? It's pretty remarkable that two separate people spontaneously happened to begin such a project at the same time, but either way, the efforts from both of you look really, really good. Keep it up!
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USMCgeek
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I've been working on templates for about 2 years now. I just recently figured out how to update Magic Set Editor and have compiled a custom fork for MECCG with full resolution export. So I decided to give up on the scans and completely redraw all the card templates in order to get the best print results finally. Previously I had focused on remastering just the text, but was disappointed with how the cards printed.

Basically, I'm recreating every template for my update of Magic Set Editor right now to include a Remastered Set Style, in addition to the scan templates.
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nico21000
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CCG Collector wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:58 am Those all look great. So are both you and nico21000 remastering the card templates right now? Is it that you're doing dream cards and he's working on remasters of the original printed ones, and, if so, are you collaborating in any way? It's pretty remarkable that two separate people spontaneously happened to begin such a project at the same time, but either way, the efforts from both of you look really, really good. Keep it up!
That's 2 different projects, but I gave Jason the authorization to use the illustrations from my brand new scans. It won't be done before long, however : scanning about 190 sheets (9 cards/sheet) in 1200 dpi and in PNG format will be very long. Once Illustrations will be sliced from them they should have a total weight of about 10 gb. Also, I'm actually focusing exclusively on making new templates from the few scans I already achieved. It takes an insane amount of time, and only 4 out of 18 are completed at this time...
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USMCgeek wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:07 am I've been working on templates for about 2 years now. I just recently figured out how to update Magic Set Editor and have compiled a custom fork for MECCG with full resolution export. So I decided to give up on the scans and completely redraw all the card templates in order to get the best print results finally. Previously I had focused on remastering just the text, but was disappointed with how the cards printed.

Basically, I'm recreating every template for my update of Magic Set Editor right now to include a Remastered Set Style, in addition to the scan templates.
nico21000 wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 5:58 pm That's 2 different projects, but I gave Jason the authorization to use the illustrations from my brand new scans. It won't be done before long, however : scanning about 190 sheets (9 cards/sheet) in 1200 dpi and in PNG format will be very long. Once Illustrations will be sliced from them they should have a total weight of about 10 gb. Also, I'm actually focusing exclusively on making new templates from the few scans I already achieved. It takes an insane amount of time, and only 4 out of 18 are completed at this time...
Are you both making your own templates, though? If it takes as long as you say (and I fully believe you, given how great they look), I'm surprised you each are doing that part independently, rather than splitting the work.

And to you specifically, Nico, are you using existing art prints and high-resolution images where available? I feel like someone somewhere mentioned that already (offering as an example the image of The One Ring), but my memory fails me as to if that's actually the case.
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USMCgeek
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They're 2 different types of templates. I'm working on Style Sets for an application, and Nico is working on updating all the existing scans with much much higher quality, color corrected scans.

Once I finish my release, I've already agreed to help Nico with filling out his cards once he finishes his templates.

Think of it like multiple styles, like how Magic has slightlt changed card frames over the years....
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nico21000
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CCG Collector wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:00 pm [snap] And to you specifically, Nico, are you using existing art prints and high-resolution images where available? I feel like someone somewhere mentioned that already (offering as an example the image of The One Ring), but my memory fails me as to if that's actually the case.
My first goal is to restore the cards 'as they are', only by using their own embeded/printed art (yes, I love this vintage grainy style). But I started collecting better resolution images all over the net since ~2005, I own several artbooks from various illustrations authors and I'm still in the process to get better source material. For example I bought spanish posters on ebay just a few days ago (afaik, there's no better source for the Gandalf illustration).

So, some cards will also be 'remastered' with hi-res versions of their illustrations, yes. But it will be some kind of 'bonus' and it will remain incomplete forever, as few card illustrations have a better source available (whatever it may be). And yes, it is I that posted the One Ring illustration a few days earlier.
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Edit : I'm still missing 2 of these beautiful spanish double-sided posters. The Aragorn/Khamûl and the Sam/Ûvatha ones. If anyone here owns them and wants to make a deal, please PM me !!!!! :wink:
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USMCgeek
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All of the features are complete now. Stylesheets are done. Just have to finish the remaining templates and figure out compiling for Windows vice Linux.

I'm pretty close, just a few errors with the wxWidgets library files for Windows.

Hopefully very soon!

Side note: if anyone is a guru at Crosscompiling with mingw32 on linux, it would be helpful!
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Needs color correction still - but printed card is more gray than purplish....
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CCG Collector
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To be fair, the card color does depend on both the set and the scan:

ImageImageImageImage

Perhaps if Nico can provide proper high-resolution scans of a few of the minion resources, you might have a better idea of the color they're supposed to be.

On that note, Nico, are you scanning from the challenge deck cards where you can? The colors are much richer on those, and I feel the print quality is superior to the originals (particularly for cards originally from METW).
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USMCgeek
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I'm color correcting against physical cards, not the scans. I only include the scans here for comparison. No scans are being used in any way for this project. Once I run a print job, I'll correct more. On Screen it shows a lot of grey, but there is a good bit of blue in it - so print will tell. I won't be making separate templates for each set - as the goal of this application isn't to clone the existing cards. Also, the scans vary wildly depending on a number of factors - which is why I'm not using them. I'm trying to hit an average ground between the existing printings.

We should probably keep Nico's project in a separate thread, as this thread is related to the development of an application, MECCG Set Editor.

EDIT: Another reason is that I don't want these to be perfect replicas either - since this application is readily available (upon release) and the big update from Magic Set Editor (it's predecessor) is 300dpi Image Export - I don't want to have the ability to "Counterfeit" cards easily. Thus, these are a "remastered" look of new templates that are completely redrawn in such a way that they appear and fit right in with the other cards, but are still easily distinguishable from actual cards.
Last edited by USMCgeek on Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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***Feature Update: I've added a separate style in for items, allys, and hazards - allowing for the alternate use of the Diagonal Prowess and Body as well - for those times when it looks better!

**Added corruption point blanks in for avatars and dreamcard avatars to let you add Corruption Point Mods without having the Lidless Eye in the background

**Created a new Font for the Mind / Influence values based off of Lithos that incorporates symbols, like the + sign that is missing in Lithos.

**Updated styles to allow easily switching imported sets over as desired

**Updated Image Import window for Card Art to support higher resolution values

**Added Custom Fonts into the installer for Linux - will be added into Windows Installer as well
Kjeld
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Absolutely amazing work! I really like what you've done with the Dragonlord template, especially.
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