Volunteer to be a deck maker! (this post is way too long, OTL)
Whoa, look at what we have here! This is preparation for May and onwards because I personally know I will be very busy then! May is the start of con season for me. I expect I will be spending my free time sewing my cosplay~, and then I will be magically disappearing for entire weekends.
I planned on doing this later, as writing this post up and prepping the application takes quite a bit of thought and time, but suddenly, a whole lot more decks were donated, and something else happened that forced my decision, so I threw up my hands and said, okay, even though Lucathia can make 80 something decks a month (if you look at Release 006, that's what happened there, haha), March is not such a month, and I don't expect anyone else to have to make 80 decks a month! So there we have it. Come help us out and take some of our load~ :) Be a hero! You know you want to!
New deck makers means I'll have to spend some time "training" them with deck making, which is why I've hesitated to reach out before this, as I need that time to make my own decks, but this will help in the long run. There are lots of things to keep in mind when making decks, and I will most likely need to go back and forth with you for your first few decks. Generally, as you make more decks, I will have less need to ask you to make corrections. Donations we receive vary in quality a lot. Some are so awesome and pretty and high quality that you will find them a breeze to work with. Some others are sadly not so awesome and can only hope that we deck makers can help them transform into something that will wow people.
If you think you have what it takes, please apply. :D I've taken a look over previous applications from this post, and my general impression was that the images I threw at you were indeed crazily bad. This time, I've included those same images minus one, plus some other more decent ones since you will work with images of all sorts of qualities as a deck maker. Please transform these images into awesome cards in your application! If you can work with images like these, you can work with anything~, and that's the kind of deck maker I'm looking for. I encourage you to try your hand at images 1-8 again even if you have already worked with them before because we all have room to improve~. I will list below what I'm looking for with each image.
The better your cards look without needing input, the less time I will have to spend asking for modifications! :D
(I have decided to rewrite this application post instead of relying on the previous one so that it will be easier for me to find replacement deck makers on a short basis in the future. The questions are tweaked a bit for this.)
And here's how things will work! I will look for 2 new permanent deck makers that will hopefully be sticking around and helping out so much that we won't be needing to look for more help anytime soon, but if that's not what happens, I will be calling on back-up deck makers. Starting next month after the release, I will make a post in the mod community asking deck makers how many decks they feel they're up to making that month. If they do not check in or if they are unable to make a lot of decks that month (or if we get a flood of decks for some reason and can't handle it all!), I will grab a back-up deck maker from here! This will not always be the same person!
Because of this system, I will implement a new rule stating that you may work on decks outside of donations only once we have finished making all donations donated by members, and only if you have made over 22 decks that month. (The 22 decks part is new~)
Finally, here's the application part. Man, am I long-winded.
We are currently looking for 2 new deck makers.
You will only be responsible for making decks and will not be multitasking with other mod duties. You'll be expected to make at least 20 decks a month, but my hope is that you will be able to make more! A deck can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes to make depending on the quality of the images, though you will get faster at it. You will get to chose donations you'd like to make, but you are also expected to help with any unclaimed decks left at the end of the month, so that means, yes, you're expected to work with series you're not familiar with too. I need a deck maker who's willing to tackle everyone's donations and not someone who only wants to make decks for themselves. You will be able to make decks outside of donations only after all decks have been made and you have personally made over 22 decks (you may make 2 decks for yourself at anytime, much like how all players may donate 2 character decks per month). Pay for deck making is 1 random card per deck and 1 random crayon for every 10 decks you make. You also get to make 1 special deck per month outside of earning them if you wish to do so, but you will receive no rewards for it.
Requirements:
- free time, especially at the beginning and end of each month when we have floods of donations (you must be able to make at least 20 decks a month from member donations)
- long term commitment (be here to stay, if not, let me know ASAP that you can't meet your quota for a particular month. I will be asking after each release for you to check in)
- awesome graphic skills since your job is to make cards
- be able to take critiques as I will sometimes ask you to tweak your cards before I accept them (when on a time crunch, I will most likely tweak your cards myself if it's not something major because it is simply faster that way, but I will do my best to ask you to do the fixes so that you will know what to look out for. Just a forewarning that it does happen! If, after submitting decks to me and I notice, or another member notices, something wrong with the card, I will go ahead and do fixes if possible because it is easier to keep track of things that way, and this way I have the most updated version of the psd of that deck).
- ability to open and save PSD files because that's what I'm using
- be proactive! I expect you to snatch decks up from the deck donation posts. I will generally not be assigning decks. If you aren't familiar with the characters or series donated, please start in the order they're donated.
Steps:
- Download this file. It has an updated version of the template, as well as 15 images for you to work with.
- Make 15 cards out of the 15 images in the same order they are given.
- Change the borders of each card to fit the character. The text layers should be the same color as the dark color layer.
- I've applied the mask that hides the corners to a folder called "Group 1". If you paste your images in this folder, your corners will be automatically hidden, so make sure you are pasting your images in this folder.
- Save your cards as .gif files, upload them, and link them directly in your comment. Please do not upload them as a compressed file that I have to download! This makes it very hard to make comparisons.
- The font we use can be downloaded here if you do not have it.
You will be judged based on your cropping, resizing, and touch-ups on the images. Here's what to look out for with each image:
Specifics for each image:
01: This is a manga image. Please feature the guy on the right and change the color of the image so that it fits the color of the border! Like so!
02: This is a very dark image. Fix it so that it's not! You should be able to make this image nice and bright! But look out. Don't overdo it and make him pixelated.
03: This image is both dark (background) and too bright (the character himself). Make it so that his hair stands out more and so that he is less palish white.
04: Oh man, what is this image? She is very blurred. Help make it less so. And less brown please.
05: This should be a cinch compared to the above. Make the colors of this one pop out.
06: This one is a bit blurry and faded. It needs more contrast, perhaps brightening, and also sharpening.
07: Ew, sunset time. Can you help make him less... orange?
08: Have an easy image quality-wise. Show me your cropping skills.
09: Most screencaps are of this quality. This is on the good side. Capture her cuteness with your card~. She may look like she doesn't need more contrast, but she does!
10: This should not be too difficult. Amaze me! But make sure no text sneaks in!
11: Oh man, look how yellow he is. That may be the style of the anime, but we do not want yellow cards. Please give him more contrast and make it so that he's not so yellow.
12: Look at that cute smile! But why is he kind of fuzzy? Make it so that he's not fuzzy!
13: Old anime is old. Look at that drop of quality. Can you transform this image? I think he needs a lot more contrast, but that might not be all.
14: His hair is cutting it close to the edge. Make sure you feature him well! He's a bit faded. Make sure to fix that!
15: This image is dark but should be easy to fix!
I tried finding images of things I run into a lot, but this is not all. ^^;; Or the worst of some. =P
Cropping:
- it will often look best to have your character's hair bleed into the border (this deck is a great example), but not too much that the character's hairline disappears
- please try to feature the character up to around the top of their shoulders. this does not always have to be the case, but generally, this rule will help make it so that your card is not too zoomed out or too zoomed in.
After you make the cards, please fill out this form:
DECK MAKER APPLICATION
Your name:
Date you joined the game:
Current Availability: (what is your current availability? the more info, the better)
Future Availability: (what do you think your future availability will be like in the following months?)
Would you like to be "on-call"? (meaning, would you like to jump in and help as a back up deck maker if we happen to need one and you are not chosen immediately as a permanent deck maker?)
Fandoms you know: (list as many fandoms as you can that you'd like to work with. I have a feeling for what each of our current deck makers knows. While this is not what is most important, it is helpful to have someone who can work with series the current deckmakers might be less familiar with)
Graphic examples: (icon samples, banner samples, cards for other TCGs, etc. Please post three to ten samples of any type directly in the comment. If you have a graphics journal or community, feel free to link me to that too)
Card examples made with the given zip: (post these directly in the comment)
I will contact two people through PM on April 1st in the afternoon. Let's say around 4 PM PST time, though that's not exact! Applications will remain open indefinitely (but this is subject to change), as I hope to have a good pool of back up deck makers.
If you are contacted, I will ask you to make one, full sample deck before asking you to work on more.
If you are not chosen as a permanent deck maker, you will not be contacted at this moment.
Comments are screened! Please take your time to fill out the application and to consider whether you have the time to commit to this~. 20 something decks is not overly difficult, but it does take a good chunk of time.
( This is a tutorial for deck making if anyone wonders what the actual template is like and what the whole process looks like! There are also pointers at the bottom about what to look out for.)
Any current players (non-mods) are welcome to apply! (You may apply for this position even if you applied to be a back up mod last time)
I planned on doing this later, as writing this post up and prepping the application takes quite a bit of thought and time, but suddenly, a whole lot more decks were donated, and something else happened that forced my decision, so I threw up my hands and said, okay, even though Lucathia can make 80 something decks a month (if you look at Release 006, that's what happened there, haha), March is not such a month, and I don't expect anyone else to have to make 80 decks a month! So there we have it. Come help us out and take some of our load~ :) Be a hero! You know you want to!
New deck makers means I'll have to spend some time "training" them with deck making, which is why I've hesitated to reach out before this, as I need that time to make my own decks, but this will help in the long run. There are lots of things to keep in mind when making decks, and I will most likely need to go back and forth with you for your first few decks. Generally, as you make more decks, I will have less need to ask you to make corrections. Donations we receive vary in quality a lot. Some are so awesome and pretty and high quality that you will find them a breeze to work with. Some others are sadly not so awesome and can only hope that we deck makers can help them transform into something that will wow people.
If you think you have what it takes, please apply. :D I've taken a look over previous applications from this post, and my general impression was that the images I threw at you were indeed crazily bad. This time, I've included those same images minus one, plus some other more decent ones since you will work with images of all sorts of qualities as a deck maker. Please transform these images into awesome cards in your application! If you can work with images like these, you can work with anything~, and that's the kind of deck maker I'm looking for. I encourage you to try your hand at images 1-8 again even if you have already worked with them before because we all have room to improve~. I will list below what I'm looking for with each image.
The better your cards look without needing input, the less time I will have to spend asking for modifications! :D
(I have decided to rewrite this application post instead of relying on the previous one so that it will be easier for me to find replacement deck makers on a short basis in the future. The questions are tweaked a bit for this.)
And here's how things will work! I will look for 2 new permanent deck makers that will hopefully be sticking around and helping out so much that we won't be needing to look for more help anytime soon, but if that's not what happens, I will be calling on back-up deck makers. Starting next month after the release, I will make a post in the mod community asking deck makers how many decks they feel they're up to making that month. If they do not check in or if they are unable to make a lot of decks that month (or if we get a flood of decks for some reason and can't handle it all!), I will grab a back-up deck maker from here! This will not always be the same person!
Because of this system, I will implement a new rule stating that you may work on decks outside of donations only once we have finished making all donations donated by members, and only if you have made over 22 decks that month. (The 22 decks part is new~)
Finally, here's the application part. Man, am I long-winded.
We are currently looking for 2 new deck makers.
You will only be responsible for making decks and will not be multitasking with other mod duties. You'll be expected to make at least 20 decks a month, but my hope is that you will be able to make more! A deck can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes to make depending on the quality of the images, though you will get faster at it. You will get to chose donations you'd like to make, but you are also expected to help with any unclaimed decks left at the end of the month, so that means, yes, you're expected to work with series you're not familiar with too. I need a deck maker who's willing to tackle everyone's donations and not someone who only wants to make decks for themselves. You will be able to make decks outside of donations only after all decks have been made and you have personally made over 22 decks (you may make 2 decks for yourself at anytime, much like how all players may donate 2 character decks per month). Pay for deck making is 1 random card per deck and 1 random crayon for every 10 decks you make. You also get to make 1 special deck per month outside of earning them if you wish to do so, but you will receive no rewards for it.
Requirements:
- free time, especially at the beginning and end of each month when we have floods of donations (you must be able to make at least 20 decks a month from member donations)
- long term commitment (be here to stay, if not, let me know ASAP that you can't meet your quota for a particular month. I will be asking after each release for you to check in)
- awesome graphic skills since your job is to make cards
- be able to take critiques as I will sometimes ask you to tweak your cards before I accept them (when on a time crunch, I will most likely tweak your cards myself if it's not something major because it is simply faster that way, but I will do my best to ask you to do the fixes so that you will know what to look out for. Just a forewarning that it does happen! If, after submitting decks to me and I notice, or another member notices, something wrong with the card, I will go ahead and do fixes if possible because it is easier to keep track of things that way, and this way I have the most updated version of the psd of that deck).
- ability to open and save PSD files because that's what I'm using
- be proactive! I expect you to snatch decks up from the deck donation posts. I will generally not be assigning decks. If you aren't familiar with the characters or series donated, please start in the order they're donated.
Steps:
- Download this file. It has an updated version of the template, as well as 15 images for you to work with.
- Make 15 cards out of the 15 images in the same order they are given.
- Change the borders of each card to fit the character. The text layers should be the same color as the dark color layer.
- I've applied the mask that hides the corners to a folder called "Group 1". If you paste your images in this folder, your corners will be automatically hidden, so make sure you are pasting your images in this folder.
- Save your cards as .gif files, upload them, and link them directly in your comment. Please do not upload them as a compressed file that I have to download! This makes it very hard to make comparisons.
- The font we use can be downloaded here if you do not have it.
You will be judged based on your cropping, resizing, and touch-ups on the images. Here's what to look out for with each image:
Specifics for each image:
01: This is a manga image. Please feature the guy on the right and change the color of the image so that it fits the color of the border! Like so!
02: This is a very dark image. Fix it so that it's not! You should be able to make this image nice and bright! But look out. Don't overdo it and make him pixelated.
03: This image is both dark (background) and too bright (the character himself). Make it so that his hair stands out more and so that he is less palish white.
04: Oh man, what is this image? She is very blurred. Help make it less so. And less brown please.
05: This should be a cinch compared to the above. Make the colors of this one pop out.
06: This one is a bit blurry and faded. It needs more contrast, perhaps brightening, and also sharpening.
07: Ew, sunset time. Can you help make him less... orange?
08: Have an easy image quality-wise. Show me your cropping skills.
09: Most screencaps are of this quality. This is on the good side. Capture her cuteness with your card~. She may look like she doesn't need more contrast, but she does!
10: This should not be too difficult. Amaze me! But make sure no text sneaks in!
11: Oh man, look how yellow he is. That may be the style of the anime, but we do not want yellow cards. Please give him more contrast and make it so that he's not so yellow.
12: Look at that cute smile! But why is he kind of fuzzy? Make it so that he's not fuzzy!
13: Old anime is old. Look at that drop of quality. Can you transform this image? I think he needs a lot more contrast, but that might not be all.
14: His hair is cutting it close to the edge. Make sure you feature him well! He's a bit faded. Make sure to fix that!
15: This image is dark but should be easy to fix!
I tried finding images of things I run into a lot, but this is not all. ^^;; Or the worst of some. =P
Cropping:
- it will often look best to have your character's hair bleed into the border (this deck is a great example), but not too much that the character's hairline disappears
- please try to feature the character up to around the top of their shoulders. this does not always have to be the case, but generally, this rule will help make it so that your card is not too zoomed out or too zoomed in.
After you make the cards, please fill out this form:
DECK MAKER APPLICATION
Your name:
Date you joined the game:
Current Availability: (what is your current availability? the more info, the better)
Future Availability: (what do you think your future availability will be like in the following months?)
Would you like to be "on-call"? (meaning, would you like to jump in and help as a back up deck maker if we happen to need one and you are not chosen immediately as a permanent deck maker?)
Fandoms you know: (list as many fandoms as you can that you'd like to work with. I have a feeling for what each of our current deck makers knows. While this is not what is most important, it is helpful to have someone who can work with series the current deckmakers might be less familiar with)
Graphic examples: (icon samples, banner samples, cards for other TCGs, etc. Please post three to ten samples of any type directly in the comment. If you have a graphics journal or community, feel free to link me to that too)
Card examples made with the given zip: (post these directly in the comment)
I will contact two people through PM on April 1st in the afternoon. Let's say around 4 PM PST time, though that's not exact! Applications will remain open indefinitely (but this is subject to change), as I hope to have a good pool of back up deck makers.
If you are contacted, I will ask you to make one, full sample deck before asking you to work on more.
If you are not chosen as a permanent deck maker, you will not be contacted at this moment.
Comments are screened! Please take your time to fill out the application and to consider whether you have the time to commit to this~. 20 something decks is not overly difficult, but it does take a good chunk of time.
( This is a tutorial for deck making if anyone wonders what the actual template is like and what the whole process looks like! There are also pointers at the bottom about what to look out for.)
Any current players (non-mods) are welcome to apply! (You may apply for this position even if you applied to be a back up mod last time)