A deck of custom playing cards with flip-book animation
Cost: ~US$12 per deck
Current funding level: already funded
Kickstarter ends: Thursday March 18, 2021
When it comes to playing cards, I love anything novel and unique, so a custom deck with flip-book animation has my attention immediately. A flip-book consists of a series of images, so that when you flip through the individual pages quickly in succession, it combines to produce an animated image. You'll occasionally hear it described as "taking a deck to the movies". Playing cards are ideal for flip-book animation because a complete deck typically has of just over 50 pieces of thin cardstock, ideal in size and thickness for flipping through with your thumb.
Designer and animator Stephen W. Brandt has been producing a series of Clockwork decks, all of which feature striking flip-book animation. He's an animator, broadcast designer, art director, illustrator, and graphic designer, so he has the ideal skill-set to produce animated playing cards as part of his fig. 23 brand. The Clockwork Montana Mustache Manufacturing Co deck, is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, and is the fourth in the series.
The previous decks in the series focused on the international cities of New York, Paris, and London, but this deck is themed on the creator's new home state: Montana. The deck has a style inspired by late 19th century illustrations, so it has a very retro feel. I particularly appreciate the vibe of the front of the tuck box. This artwork also returns on all the card backs, so we'll be seeing plenty of it.
This deck is arguably the most ambitious one in the Clockwork series, with extensive animations on the card faces. Monty Python-esque humour is a very obvious influence in the art style used here. Besides the animated logo of fig.23 that we've seen before in other decks, the centerpiece of the animation is a heavily moustachioed character, with a clockwork style machine protruding from the top of his head. See this animated gif for the full experience of what these face cards offer.
The elongated style of the pips is very striking and unique, and suits the overall feel of the deck very well. It turns out that this design was inspired by a medieval design, which Stephen first came across as a textile pattern on the quiddich arena towers from the Harry Potter films.
Kickstarter link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sw ... ying-cards
The other decks of playing cards in the Clockwork series are available from the creator Stephen W. Brandt, at his website fig23.com:
● Clockwork Empire City deck
● Clockwork La Ville Lumiere deck
● Clockwork Quackington deck
● Clockwork Montana Mustache Manufacturing Co deck (currently on Kickstarter)
● Wonderland and Looking-glass flip-book decks
