ive actually been considering using non mtg art in an mtg border. I may have to consider doing non mtg alters. Nice truckroid, btw. showing the clean lines and layering.
This thread has been quiet for a bit. Time to liven it up a bit. I recently picked up a rather large commission. It is also a very tight commission. I've got 5 cards to make a 3d card. Being that I'm not a slouch on details I wanted to overdo what can be done with such a small number of cards. Keep in mind, I'm used to working with no less than 10 cards to cut and 20 layers. This commission is making me keep to 5 cards per 3d alter. This will be an image heavy post, btw. Maybe.
A couple of weeks ago, this comes in the mail:
There are 4 different arts. 65 of each of the cards. I can only use 5 cards per alter. I must also work on keeping it to 5 layers of thickness.
"So, where do I start?" This is always the first thing that comes to mind whenever I begin an alter. Since I have limited cardboard AND I need to make them as similar as possible from card to card, my first dilemma was at hand. This threw me back to a project I did a couple of years back, Vengevine. Since this was the most expensive card I'd worked up until that point, I didn't want to have to buy any more copies than I needed. So I made a print out of the card art (larger than normal) and cut the sheets as if I were working on the card. I made sure to mark the backs of the cut pieces with the "card" I pulled it from for the next step.
After all the pieces were organized together, I then Cut the remaining art from the art box. I then applied Packing tape to the back of the cards to where the sticky side faced the front of the art. I then layed out the pieces in the proper locations so that I can get a template of where my cuts need to be. Since I've limited cardstock to use, I need to make my cuts precise. I also need to make sure that I'm able to duplicate the cuts 13 times per card per layer. Having a cutting template is going to help tremendously.
Now my templates are cut. What's next? Time to cut into a card mimicing my template as much as possible.
After I cut this particular layer out, I realized I needed a guide line to know where the cuts are since it is rather hard to see. I came in after this shot was taken and used a fine tipped marker and traced the outlines.
From there, I followed all the templates cutting out the pieces as they were on each template. Since I was going for speed, I forgot to take some of the intermediate shots, so I'll just drop the images I have here to show progress.
LOTS OF TINY PIECES... also, I made a boo-boo. That piece on the upper right backed by tape.... Yeah that cut accidentally went further than I thought causing the piece to tear when I attempted to pop it out of the main card. Oops.
Whistle while you work....
Work in progress shot.
Detail shot of the work in progress. An issue i have with these cards is that they all have a moderate concave curve to them. It's evident in this image if you look at the right edge of the card. That was after me flattening it for a while. I've taken the stack of cards and run them against the curved edge of my table to flatten them out a bit more. These things hate moisture more than MTG foils
The finished product. I just applied the glue and it is drying. You can see the remnants of it in this picture. Mind you, the layering is thicker than the border. This was my learning card. I learned a lot from it. I even was able to trim off some of the unneeded parts and consolidate a few. There is minimal/zero shaping here, so the next ones will have some shaping to remove some of the concave curvature of the cut work.
Showing some of the details of the finished product
So currently this is where I am, image-wise. I've begun cutting each layer's pieces en masse. I forgot to take pictures of my progress last night, but I will do so tonight to show where I'm at in the whole process. I'm going to cut the layers from least complex to most complex as I'd like to get most of the work out of the way before getting to the harder to cut cards. Normally I work the other way around, but I'm trying to get as much done in as little time as possible and this seems to be the faster route.
After that, I plan on dabbling in some more non-magic 3-d alters. For now...
ALL HAIL TRUCKROID!
Also, sticky worthy, so it is from now.
URGEDH Biovisionary.dec BShirei WBSelenia
The brain is the muscle that pumps stupid through the body
A couple of weeks ago, this comes in the mail:
"So, where do I start?" This is always the first thing that comes to mind whenever I begin an alter. Since I have limited cardboard AND I need to make them as similar as possible from card to card, my first dilemma was at hand. This threw me back to a project I did a couple of years back, Vengevine. Since this was the most expensive card I'd worked up until that point, I didn't want to have to buy any more copies than I needed. So I made a print out of the card art (larger than normal) and cut the sheets as if I were working on the card. I made sure to mark the backs of the cut pieces with the "card" I pulled it from for the next step.
After all the pieces were organized together, I then Cut the remaining art from the art box. I then applied Packing tape to the back of the cards to where the sticky side faced the front of the art. I then layed out the pieces in the proper locations so that I can get a template of where my cuts need to be. Since I've limited cardstock to use, I need to make my cuts precise. I also need to make sure that I'm able to duplicate the cuts 13 times per card per layer. Having a cutting template is going to help tremendously.
Now my templates are cut. What's next? Time to cut into a card mimicing my template as much as possible.
From there, I followed all the templates cutting out the pieces as they were on each template. Since I was going for speed, I forgot to take some of the intermediate shots, so I'll just drop the images I have here to show progress.
Whistle while you work....
Work in progress shot.
Detail shot of the work in progress. An issue i have with these cards is that they all have a moderate concave curve to them. It's evident in this image if you look at the right edge of the card. That was after me flattening it for a while. I've taken the stack of cards and run them against the curved edge of my table to flatten them out a bit more. These things hate moisture more than MTG foils
The finished product. I just applied the glue and it is drying. You can see the remnants of it in this picture. Mind you, the layering is thicker than the border. This was my learning card. I learned a lot from it. I even was able to trim off some of the unneeded parts and consolidate a few. There is minimal/zero shaping here, so the next ones will have some shaping to remove some of the concave curvature of the cut work.
Showing some of the details of the finished product
So currently this is where I am, image-wise. I've begun cutting each layer's pieces en masse. I forgot to take pictures of my progress last night, but I will do so tonight to show where I'm at in the whole process. I'm going to cut the layers from least complex to most complex as I'd like to get most of the work out of the way before getting to the harder to cut cards. Normally I work the other way around, but I'm trying to get as much done in as little time as possible and this seems to be the faster route.
URGEDH Biovisionary.dec BShirei WBSelenia
The brain is the muscle that pumps stupid through the body
All your images are down.