Whether creating cards from scratch or modifying cards imported from an app, there is a lot of things that can be edited in the Warmachine Card Creator. This tutorial is intended to help familiarise users with some of its options and features by walking readers through the process of creating a card from scratch.
Step 1. When you open the card creator you will see two blank cards.
Step 2. The second card is only for Warcasters, most of the time it won't be needed. Open the menu by clicking on the "credits" box at the bottom of one of the faces of the card on the right (the "spell" card). The menu should say "card2C" or "card2D" on the top.
Step 3. Select "Delete this card" and confirm when prompted.
Step 4. Open the menu on one of the remaining card faces and click "Set card background colour". We can type "red", "rgb(255,0,0)", or "#ff0000" into the dialogue box for a pure red. Let's go for "rgb(200,0,0)" for a slightly darker red.
Step 5. Open the menu from the other card face and repeat the previous step.
Step 6. Click on the empty circle to the top left of the top card face. This will open the icon selection menu.
Step 7. Click on the "Set custom image" button and paste the URL of an icon image for the faction logo. Alternately use "Upload custom image" to select a local file. Repeat the process for the second card face.
Step 8. Click on the top field of either card face and enter the desired model name. This will be automatically copied to the second card face. Similarly enter the model description underneath on the upper face.
Step 9. Now click on the image area on the upper left of the face card, and paste the URL (or base64-encoded image data) of a desired image into the dialogue box. Alternately we can go into the menu and use the "Upload profile image" option to select a local image file.
Step 10. Use the yellow buttons to edit the image. It can be moved, zoomed, flipped, and the corners can be sharpened to a square or rounded to a circle. When editing is complete press the red "X" button to hide the image controls. To change the image or view the image controls again, click on the image and either enter a new image file, or just click "ok" to hide the dialogue and show the image controls.
Step 11. Now let's enter his short name and stats into the profile bar. There is a row of "hidden" icons underneath the bar; clicking on them will open the icon menu and allow you to select ability icons etc.
Step 12. Let's enter his weapons. First we'll populate the profile for his hand cannon. Note that there is an "R" by default on the far right of the weapon name. This is used for weapon locations for warjacks etc. We will simply delete the R in this case. Also note that there is another row of hidden icons underneath the bar.
Step 13. Malakov also has a sword. So let's open the menu and click on the "Add weapon" button. Close the menu and you will see a new weapon profile.
Step 14. The sword is a melee weapon however, so first we click on the gun icon and select a sword icon to replace it. Then we populate the rest of the fields. Melee weapons only really need two fields, so we click on the name fields for the extra two and simply delete the text.
Step 15. Let's enter some flavour text. Click on the box underneath the profile image and enter some text. To make it italic we can use html italic tags. If you don't want the flavour text box, you can uncheck "Show flavour text" in the menu.
Step 16. Malakov only has 5 health, far less than the 15 numbered boxes in the health track at the bottom of the face card. To blank out the excess, we click on each card and enter "-" into the dialogue box.
Step 17. Malakov costs 3 points and has a field allowance of "C", so we will enter these values in to the data boxes underneath the health track.
Step 18. Since cards get updated quite often these days, it is worth noting the date that we made this card. Open the menu and click on "Add small data box". When you close the menu you will see a new empty box underneath the health track. Click on this and enter the date. More boxes can be used to store additional misc data.
Step 19. Let's add his spells to the spell box on the rear card face. First we will enter the details for Razor Wind.
Step 20. To add a second spell we click on the "Add spell" button in the menu and then fill in the details. The spell box should automatically resize to fit.
Step 22. Now let's add his abilities to the box below. We can use html tags such as the bold tag to add formatting as needed. We can also do things like shrinking the size of the text using e.g. a span element with a new font-size value. Finally we can embed icons into the text by opening the main menu, clicking on "Copy icon HTML", selecting the desired icon, then copying the displayed code and pasting it into the desired field.
Step 23. Now that we've finished the card, let's save it. We can save it as a stand-alone HTML file that can be opened and edited in the future using the "Save HTML file" button in the menu, or using the browser's "save page" function to save the HTML file. However it is usually better to use the "Save/load all cards" option. This will open a popup box that displays the card data in a text format. Use the "Save JSON" option to save the file. We can load it later by coming to this popup box again and using "Load JSON", selecting the file, the "Add cards from JSON" or "Replace all cards with JSON".
Step 24. For easier viewing, sharing, and printing, we will want to take a screenshot. I recommend using the browser's Zoom function to scale the page to 200% first. You can also scale to larger sizes, but keep it in multiples of 100 or else there may be alignment issues between elements. Firefox has a "screenshot" option in the right-click menu that can, with some fiddly mouse positioning, select the correct area and download the image. This is a good time to flip the lower card faces, which makes it easier to glue the faces together after printing.
Step 25. Now let's create a warjack to go with him. In the menu, click on the "Add character card" button to add a new blank card.
Step 26. Make sure to always click on the "credits" boxes on the new cards to open the menu, or else menu functions will apply to a different card. Start by unchecking "Show life bar" and checking "Show damage grid 1" instead.
Step 27. Warjacks have no spells, so we can uncheck the "Show mini spell box" option as well.
Step 28. Let's create a card for a simple Juggernaut. I will add the Ice Axe's special rules to the back of the card, and even include the Resistance: Cold icon (I reduced the size of the icon to fit better).
Step 29. I would actually like two Juggernaut cards on the page. Open the menu from the Juggernaut card and click on "Save/load single card", then simply clicking on "Add cards from JSON" to add a second Juggernaut card.
Step 30. If we want the Juggernaut card on it's own, we can just delete the other two. After saving Malakov's card using "Save/load single card", I will open the menu from Malakov's card and select "Delete this card". I will then repeat this for the other Juggernaut.
Step 30. Rather than having to apply lots of faction colours and icons and things each time we make a card, let's create a template. Open a fresh instance of the Card Creator, or delete all the remaining cards, click on the page to create a character card, then select "Add spell card" from the menu.
Step 31. Add the faction icon. This time instead of setting a simple red background, let's use the "Set background image" option to load a texture from a URL, or the "Upload background image" option to load a local file, and the "Edit background image" option to position and scale it as needed. Repeat for each card.
Step 32. Let's make the fields semi-transparent. In the option menu, click on "Set field colour" and enter "rgba(255,255,255,0.8)". Repeat for each card.
Step 33. You may notice that text on a black background is no longer white, but rather is displaying the underlying colour. This can be a nice effect, but depending on the background a simple white might be more legible. Let's open the menu, click on "Light text blend mode", and enter "normal". Repeat for each card.
Step 34. Now let's export the cards using "Export all cards" and give it a name like "templateKhador.sscctxt". From now on, whenever we want to make a Khador card, we can import the template to save a bit of work. Alternately we could use the "Save HTML file" option and open the resulting file in a browser each time.
Step 35. Another way to copy a card's stylistic elements is to use the "Save/load card settings" option. This will open a dialogue box containing text describing the card face's background and field colours; copying this text and pasting it into the same dialogue box on another card face will apply the same settings to that card face.
You should now understand the core functions well enough to be able to make almost any Warmachine card. Just remember that there's more display options in the menu, such as unit health boxes and extra stat fields. You can make up to 4 cards on a page. Don't forget that you can always use html tags to modify fields, for example to change text colour or size. I suggest saving out the HTML often; you can always open the HTML files and start editing again. And of course let me know if there's any missing features.
