Originally, I envisioned my cards quite simple, with clear, simple graphics and distinctive colour schemes to differentiate between factions. Most likely I was influenced by Civilization V, which uses similar approach with it's troop markers to a great effect. I also had to keep in mind that although the text imported from the spreadsheet could be coloured, it had to be the same colour from card to card, which restricted my choices somewhat. It also meant that I had to choose colours that would not conflict with the colours of the factions. Black was an obvious choice, and to complement it I decided to use white as well. This way, using black text on light colour and white on dark, I could make the most important aspects of the figure, Quality and Combat ratings, really stand out. At one point I contemplated even using dice pips instead of numbers for these ratings, but could not find a font that would have worked. Maybe for the best, too. And in addition to the colour scheme, I decided to add a small image to each different factions. Some of these are from clip arts, some are from fonts and such, and a couple I had to draw myself.
After a while, the pure colour design started to feel a bit bland, and although it did also have practical advantages, namely that the cards would not need bleed along the edges, and that it would be easiest to blend an image to a white background, I began contemplating using some background colour. However, no single colour, with the exception of some sort of gray would have worked with all the different colours needed, and gray would need be textured, and in that case I could as well use a photograph anyway. So I began dabbling with some neurtal background, ended up taking a photo of one of my Hirst Arts buildings, and that was it, really. After a few tweaks, which involved taking another photo to the background of the "image frame" (and adding a heavy dose of drop shadows (actually, Outer Glow), hurrr), I had reached the point where I was content with the appearance of the cards.
Next step involved making the master document for the data merge, to bring all the separate stuff together. This involved going back to the spreadsheet document, and making sure all the image paths and names and background bits were in place. It also involved blowing dust from the trusty ol' Canon, as I needed some new, flat side-shots of my figures, to do some test runs with the system. I had tested the placement of the texts when making the faction backgrounds, but this stage involved putting the actual markers for the spreadsheet data in place. (The picture on the left is actually a hoax, as the format and fonts of the text at this stage are actually all the same as they need to be in the final document, I just wanted to make them stand out a bit more.)
So when everything was in place, it was time to hit 'GO', and watch the fireworks. Well, sorta. But although the whole process had been more involving than I had anticipated, it also seemed to work very well. Provided, of course, that I would have images of particular size and with transparent backgrounds ready. Which will involve countless hours of drawing bezier curves for the clipping paths on the photos of my figures. Uh, and taking the photos in the first place. Which would mean I would have to finish the figures first, right? Oh my... But still, I think the end results are worth the effort.
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