"Fake Transparency" for Card Backs

[MysticEast]

Hi everyone,

Other Card Designers might like to know of something which I believe to be new...

"Fake Transparency" for Card Backs.

I noticed this first on a Circular Deck, which I modified last year to use Orphalese's Transparency Function.

It bugged me that the corners of the Card Back were not equally transparent!

Then it suddenly struck me that the parts of the Card Back that were NOT in the Circle, would fade away and not be noticed if they used the same colour or background as the Main Pack Background! It tried it and it works! Go and look it out in the "Circle of Life" Tarot.
I've also used the effect again with recent upgrades to my Lottery Decks (in the "Chiller Parchment" flavour).

All that is required is either a Solid Colour (probably not very popular!) or a fairly fine textured and uniform Background or Tile.
In the case of that "Circle of Life" Tarot I used a Tile that a previous sharer had allocated to the Deck. The effect is very nice.
In the case of my "Chiller Parchment" flavour Lottery Decks I used a Whole Screen jpg of a piece of Green Baize. The Card Back shares the most central "Bit". the effect is almost perfectly flawless when the Deck is in the center of the screen, but is still mighty good anywhere on screen...

Anybody using Transparency in Orphalese might wish to experiment with this with their Card Backs!

Enjoy
MysticEast

Please note:-
Transparency with the Cards MUST NOT use "Anti-Aliasing", which gives nasty white "jaggies" all round the Circle or shape.
But I've been routinely USING "Anti-Aliasing" for the Card Back - even with Decks that use Transparency.
HOWEVER:- I've noticed that even with this "Fake Transparency" you MUST switch off "Anti-Aliasing" for the Card Back too. Otherwise you will get a nasty White line on left and/or right edges. Try it - you'll see very quickly that this is true...

[MysticEast]

I mentioned earlier that if you use a whole screen texture jpg as the background for the Deck and "sample" a part of that for the Card Back, that the effect is literally perfect if the card again occupies that same spot!

It's still not bad elsewhere but isn't quite so good...

I've noticed that if the Card Back is a different size that this also reduces from the "perfection" of the transparency effect.

It depends on the texture of the background that you select. With the "Green Baize" that I've used in "Chiller Parchment" versions of my Lottery Decks, the Baize is pretty fine and uniform in texture and so the transparent effect remains quite good up to card sizes that would make the decks practically un-usable in Orphalese (all the cards for your "draw" would not fit onscreen!)

So the message is just "Keep that texture fine and uniform"...
e.g. - a rather nice Woodgrain would not do since the texture is not fine enough, nor is it uniform enough.
While you might just get away with a DISTANT shot of the canopy of a forest?
A Plain Paper texture would almost certainly work well, as would sand on a beach...

Regards
MysticEast