Making Your High End Cards SPARKLE - Animated Gif Tutorial

mouschi · March 15, 2017 10:24AM

In my last article, I had a bunch of people asking "How did you do that?" If you are one of those people, then this is for you.

Why do this?
Sharing our collection with others on the web has become as big a part of collecting as the actual collecting. The last thing we want is to show off our favorite cards, and have them look lackluster.

Scanning, pictures, etc. can all yield different results. I always spend a good amount of time figuring out how to get the perfect light (ESPECIALLY when it comes to refractive cards).

Take for instance this:

1999 Fleer Brilliants 24k Gold card #/24 - this is one of my favorite cards! Mega rare, and absolutely...well...brilliant. Why would I show it off looking like this?

Scans don't do it justice ...

This gives the eye a lot more to look at and appreciate:

It DOES take a little bit of setup, but not much.

All you need is:

A stand for your card (I recommend taking off the front of the holder to avoid glare)
A light (bendy neck is preferable)
A shoebox top to put on the back as a backdrop
Another stand for your camera for it to stay still - I use a card stand for my phone as well.

Take a short little video of it with the card and camera in place while you move the light source around. It may take a few tries to get the desired result ...

I have found that doing it to music helps a lot ...

The end result (which could be better if I spent more time with it, for sure).

Here is one of another card ... without music.

When you are done, download the app called gif maker. It is mega simple to use. You just select your video, crop, drag the timeframe, and you are done!

If you all do some, please post 'em up. I'd love to see how it works for you. My suggestion would be to have the video no more than 3-4 seconds long.

And that, my friends, is how YOU become ... THE REFRACTOR.