Bad Wax

It’s amazing, I first started using GIMP about 2 months ago and I finally feel like I am getting the hang of it.  One of the things that bothered me while I was still learning though is there were no guides on how to make a custom card from a retro set.  So I decided today that I would do a post on how to do this and you too will be on your way to creating your own custom cards.

1) First off you will need a photo editing program such as Photoshop.  Since Photoshop is very expensive and you don’t want to lay out that kind of coin, the next best thing is GIMP <link>, which is what I use and it is very similar to Photoshop, plus as an added bonus, it’s free.

2) Next you need to decide what card to use.  For this tutorial we will use a 1979 Topps baseball card of Tom Paciorek.  The best place to get photos is Google image search.  At least that’s what I use.

3) Now I enjoy a good Tom Paciorek card just like anyone else, but we have to get rid of the picture and create a frame for our card.  In order to do that select the lasso tool, which can be opened with Tools>Selection Tools>Free Select. Now you are going to play conect the dots, by clicking an outline around the image.  I start in the upper left corner, down the the bottom left corner, around the baseball, then around the frame.  Anytime you want the line to change directions you have to click an anchor.  When you are done, you should have an outline around the inner frame of the card.

4) In the bottom left corner of the card, you will see a small square, that is your masking square.  Press Ctrl-I (to invert) and click on that, the inside of the card should be shaded red.  Unclick the masking square, then press ctrl-C and select Edit>Paste As>New photo.  You should see something like this:

Except instead of the white you should see a grey checkerboard.  Save that file as 1979 shell.xcf.  That was the hardest part.  Now using this new file, let’s rebiuld the border, click on the pencil tool, and select the 3 radius circle, and redraw in the outline.  If you want to draw a straight line, click where you want to start, hold down the shift key, and click where you want it to end.  When you are done it should look like this:

5) Now you are ready for the photo.  Again go to Google and search the player.  For this card let’s take Felix Hernandez and download as big a picture as you can find. Next, click File>Open as Layer, and open that picture. Now go to your layers tab and drag the picture so that it is under the frame.  Then use the move fuction and center the photo.  If the photo has to be increased in size in order to fit the frame, left click in the layers tab on the picture and select scale layer and scale appropriately.  You should now have something that looks like this:

6) Now for changing the name, click the create box icon and draw a small box around any white area of the border, careful to only have white in the box.  Hit ctrl-C, now click on the frame layer and draw a box around the player’s name and position. Next click on the fill icon and set the fill type to pattern fill, and select the clipboard pattern.  Now click anywhere inside the box. You should now have something like this:

7) Now click on the test icon and draw a text box where the name and position was.  Pick a font, I usually use Sans Bold but you can find something else if you want.  Type in ” FELIX HERNANDEZ       P”. Then I usually try to add some age to the card, by using the eraser function and setting the opacity to 20%. Rub the erasure over the name once.  Then click on the picture and do the same.  When you are done, your card should look like this:

Now at this point you can do what ever you like, including adding a slight grainy feel to the picture, or maybe fading the picture.  This final picture was done with Filters>Noise>HSV Noise (generic settings).  Finally you have this:

from this: 

At least you have somewhere to start.  I never had that because something as simple as this was never gone into detail on other people’s sites (at least to the point where I understood what they were talking about.  So is this tough to do? No but it will require some patience.   I hope this gives you a starting point.  After a while you can knock these out in 10 – 15 minutes each.  If you have any questions just ask, I will move this tutorial post over to the Customs Corner page (which is still under construction).

This will also be my last custom card post on the main page, I am moving all my custom stuff to a separate page.  It will be updated daily with my latest concoctions, but will be off the front page so that I can get back to concentrating on sports cards.