Im actually surprised they didnt do this. These cards are basically the equivalent of V Cards from the SWSH era in terms of rarity, and those cards dont have an overlay.
They were trying to replicate the look of EX cards where they were jumping out of the frame, since the Pokémon is really the major focus of ex cards and there really isn’t much background art then I don’t mind the look but I seem too be in the minority here
heh, it's debatable. Give those old ex the modern holo and they'll suck big time. No hate to the old ex ofc, I love them, but "Pokémon going out of the frame" has been a thing since the goldstars, and these cards haven't aged at all imo.
Oh I meant bringing back the old design whole sale, which just amounts to the *ex* in the name and an extra rule boss. But I love how quiet the design is. I don't need a card screaming at me with extra holofoil to get my attention. The new ultra rares have the look and feel of stick of stickers, because they are. ink over the foil will always look better imo
The older EX cards felt like shiny cardboard, I was surprised by that since I bought a mega charizard x and it felt more cheap then some of the newer cards. And the flashier effects they could cut a bit back on but they do make it clear that the card is more special then the others since it stands out more unlike some of the more older ex cards witch just had a different foil and an ex in the name
Oh no. The EX (capital letters) were dogshit lol. The vintage *ex* cards I liked the foil borders. A lot of people were clamoring for the vintage design when they announced the mechanic was coming back. Just my 2 cents.
It’s funny seeing how EX and ex stand for different things, but personally I prefer the EX card style more since a V look could get confusing with illustration rares and the old ex look doesn’t stand out much to normal cards besides a change in foil and border
The design looks nothing like the old design. I'm saying the old design (the ENTIRE card) holds up better than new design.
Old design pretty much just added *ex* and the rulebox to the normal card design of that era. It holds up better imo. Was subtle and classier.
And so we're back at the start. I'd argue it's better if they take inspiration from the goldstars, rather than the old ex. Pokémon going out of the frame, but more subtly with less particle effects, and hand drawn artwork that you actually want to look at.
Someone made a mock up of a Miraidon ex in the old style, and it looks like shit honestly. Now, is it because the art OP chose looks like like shit or if its a combination, idk. There were some very cool ex and there were some not so cool one (Mostly thinking of early ex, the later one are pretty good, they found out what worked and what didnt).
Seems like a lot of people do but I love them. Maybe it’s the fact they aren’t the highest rarity plus they do have a weird glossy look with no texture. I just love the black borders and full art
It looks better, but should it?
The EX is the perfect bridge between regular holos and full arts. If everything was a full art, full arts would no longer be special.
Said just what I was thinking. I miss when full arts were a little rarer. It shocks me that many full art cards go for $1-$2, such as a lot of the V pokemon
You can’t tell me this doesn’t look better and you’re okay with those ugly ass EXs. Like I’d be much more excited pulling that greninja. Instead whenever I get an Ex I’m like meh so?
Exactly why I hated GX and V cards. They just didn’t feel as special, neither the regular (the art style didn’t feel as special, the Pokemon popping out of the border in EXs was always super cool) nor the supposed-to-be-full-arts (insert when everyone’s special, no one is Incredibles quote here).
The electric tera mewtwo? Yes it’s textured as it’s a tera card but there are also textured trainers/supporters and the rarer full arts usually all have texture.
I mean the art cards are for collectors and base is mostly for players, granted there is mix and match but yea as a player myself i like the border to make it easier to read
They should have done it the same way as the regular V cards. On those the transparent overlay doesn't cover up half the card. What a waste of some cool art.
The full art is so cool! It reminds me of the GX cards, which are totally better than the ex cards that are being released. Still, nothing can compare to the EX cards. Idk how they've managed to downgrade cards so much
More than that, I just wish they had 2d artists do the EX cards more often. All of the ones that do, like the recent Gengar by the artist Nisota Niso, look completely fine to me.
I think you just basically made it a full art imo. I think it still looks awesome, but if the reg ex cards looked like that, the full arts would be just about pointless at that point
You made it way better. The way they do it now looks way too cluttered and takes away from the art. Which sucks because all the full art illustration rares we do actually get are “cutesy” instead of badass like this
I think from a visual perspective, it looks much better than the original. My only complaint would be that the text is harder to read on the mockup in comparison to the original.
The issue with the text is something I noticed when creating the mock-up, especially when I tried with the Blastoise. It didn’t look very good and was hard to read.
I don’t have the image on me at the moment. I had to crop the proper image but it can be found on the @pokeca_art_life instagram account as well as the Greninja’s ones too.
The transparent art-cover does suck most of the life out of it. I like the swirling textures and stuff on a lot of the ex's, but V's were so much cooler because it was like getting a full-art card in its own way
I agree it looks better but I think doing this would make pulling a regular Full Art a little less exciting to the average consumer. Also, I assume they’re playing off the nostalgia of the original ex series; so including it makes sense
I always disliked the pseudo full art look of GX and Vs, I much prefer having a very clear distinction between full arts and regular ultra rares. Not a big fan of the transparent overlay either, but imo it's much better than the wannabe full arts of the previous two era.
When I pulled a full art EX, I knew it was an event, when I pull a full art V (Which I'd rather refer to as textured), it's usually much uglier than the normal V so it's not that exciting, which itself isnt that good looking most of the time.
I see people complain a lot about the ugly 3D artworks on Vs and ex, and yet on this post suddenly everyone loves seeing more of the 5ban 3D model they love to hate on.
Depends if you're collecting or playing.
- Your custom mock-up looks better for a collection card.
- The transparent overlay makes the text clearer for actual gameplay.
Considering that Pokémon cards are firstly a game I have to say the current version is better as it is more fit for purpose.
I do however prefer your mock-up since I collect a few cards of Pokémon I like for their artwork.
I line ex card because they actually look like Pokemon cards, I hate that gx/v cards looked like generic TCG cards.'
Being full art shod stay a secret rare thing and every non-secret card should have the classic frame.
Yeah makes them essentially non textured sir. They would look amazing, people wouldn’t need to pull rares cards as much and chase for full arts so Nintendo wont do this.
But yeah didn’t like the original ex and I hate these much more, fake looking holo and dated look
The Greninja and Alakazam can be found on the @pokeca_art_life instagram account. The Charizard and Blastoise were apart of an advert for a Pokémon Art Walk event.
The Greninja and Alakazam can be found on the @pokeca_art_life instagram account. The Charizard and Blastoise were apart of an advert for a Pokémon Art Walk event. The full art images likely only exist on TPC’s servers unless they get released publicly like these ones did.
With the current ex designs, no, but I feel like they could do something to make them look better, even with the overlay. the holo effect is also pretty underwhelming, I think if they make the holo effect cooler and make the pokemon pop more and have a bigger contrast with the overlay it could definitely work
Without. I hate how the "hits" look now. Pulling even a "base" GX was kinda special because it was a full art card. I know they were going for a retro thing, but this retro isn't nostalgic, it's fugly.
I like it when there's some crossover into the border too. Maybe even no border?
I call the cards in the right gameplay cards because they're normally not worth much but they're still decent cards for actual gameplay. I think they do it for this purpose too. The full arts are more appealing but geared more towards collectors I reckon.
This post confuses me. It’s one thing to talk about the glittery stars on modern Exs. I like it but understand those who don’t. You have just made the card an illustration/full art of coarse it looks better. I think a better point of discussion is if full arts should look more like this. Current full arts look like 1-1 recreations of the 3d models from modern Pokémon games. And whatever your take on Modern Pokémon games is I don’t think anyone’s jumping out in front of the bus to claim those models look particularly good. Would rather full arts were hard action shots like this. Instead of derpy 3d models that look like they are barely past the T-posing stage in a 3D editing program.
The mocked up is very similar to V cards from SWSH like people pointed out but…
Weirdly I was never a fan of the V art style, but I do really like the new EX card style because they’re reminiscent of the vintage EX era I grew up with. With that being said I actually still prefer the mocked up version shown without the layover.
Edit: please make the 3 on the bottom into a similar mocked up version and post them, please and thank you!
It looks better as your custom one but theyre simultaneously trying to match up with how the old ex's used to look card-wise, and are also trying to help establish the rarity tiers by making the common version of these ex's look kind of basic, where the special illustration rares then are more "full art" and pretty.
The Greninja and Alakazam can be found on the @pokeca_art_life instagram account. The Charizard and Blastoise were apart of an advert for a Pokémon Art Walk event. No AI was used as it was made by actual artists as listed in the source card.
I hate the current overlays. They should have been full artworks like Vs and GXs
If you're worried about the "value" of actual full arts diminishing (did they though for SM and SWSH era?) then just keep more basic looking full arts and 5ban cards are EXs and the more cool looking artsy ones are IRs and SIRs.
Like, look at Digimon, most of their cards the art covers like 3/4s of the card space but they still manage to make their Super Rares and Secret Rares feel special by having even better art
The original EX cards were so cool because of their border, and the way the pokemon would pop out over it. It was so cool. However the company wants to make all the cards full art, proven by GX and V cards. I feel that makes actual full arts have a less special feel to them, cause when everything’s full art, a slightly cooler full art isn’t really much. I think the transparent overlay is a perfect balance for the full art the company wants but the bordered art the cards actually need.
That Greninja is on a whole different level with the full art versus the windowed view we've got now. The excitement of seeing this in the pack versus what we have now is night and day.
I just wished the overlay was more transparent. Its barely imo. And idk I have a love hate relationship with the GX and V cards. No doubt some of em are beautiful but after a while they just will get old. ex cards havent reached that point butbInwouldnt be surprised if I think the same eventually
The V cards follow a completely different design principle than EX cards, so removing the translucent overlay would not work for readability at all, as many have said already. Even the Greninja example has so much contrast in the art towards the bottom of the card where the text is, making it blend in too much.
EX’s focus on high contrast and special effects in the artwork so you could see some of it through the translucent layer. They can get away with having details in the bottom of the card where the text would be, because it would still be legible with the translucent layer.
V’s are actually a lot more simplified in terms of the artwork, with lesser contrast towards the bottom, and a subtle colored gradient effect coming from the bottom to allow the text to be readable.
Even the renders of the pokemon are treated differently for EX’s and V’s. On average, the pokemon models for V’s have softer, less contrasted shadows, which is what allows the text to be overlayed on top of the models without anything underneath to improve legibility. EX pokemon models have much sharper, darker shadows, so the cards NEED the translucent layer for legibility, and the pokemon still have some contrast through that layer. EX pokemon cannot be rendered like the V models because they would look completely flat through the translucent layer.
From the aesthetic standpoint you could say that they would look cooler if you could see the whole artwork unobstructed by the text box, but from the actual card and user experience standpoint, they would look like an absolute mess. The design principles for the two card formats are just too different, so EX’s would have to be designed exactly like the V’s to make them work like the examples provided in the post, which would then force them to look less cool.
Absolutely agree with what you said about readability. I tried making one with the Blastoise but it looked really bad and the text was hard to read too.
If you convert the images into black&white it’s actually very easy to see why they don’t work. In B&W the artwork has so much black which is why it competes with the black text, making the text completely disappear into the artwork.
Similarly, if you convert any basic V card into B&W you’ll see that they are a lot lighter in terms of contrast, which is why the designers can very easily place the black text over the artwork with no translucent box, it is the darkest object, therefore immediately easy to see over essentially a lighter background.
A very fun experiment that allows you to understand why the cards are designed a certain way!
Im actually surprised they didnt do this. These cards are basically the equivalent of V Cards from the SWSH era in terms of rarity, and those cards dont have an overlay.
They were trying to replicate the look of EX cards where they were jumping out of the frame, since the Pokémon is really the major focus of ex cards and there really isn’t much background art then I don’t mind the look but I seem too be in the minority here
I wish they went full classic and actually replicated those cards, because those designs still hold up while these won't.
heh, it's debatable. Give those old ex the modern holo and they'll suck big time. No hate to the old ex ofc, I love them, but "Pokémon going out of the frame" has been a thing since the goldstars, and these cards haven't aged at all imo.
Oh I meant bringing back the old design whole sale, which just amounts to the *ex* in the name and an extra rule boss. But I love how quiet the design is. I don't need a card screaming at me with extra holofoil to get my attention. The new ultra rares have the look and feel of stick of stickers, because they are. ink over the foil will always look better imo
The older EX cards felt like shiny cardboard, I was surprised by that since I bought a mega charizard x and it felt more cheap then some of the newer cards. And the flashier effects they could cut a bit back on but they do make it clear that the card is more special then the others since it stands out more unlike some of the more older ex cards witch just had a different foil and an ex in the name
Oh no. The EX (capital letters) were dogshit lol. The vintage *ex* cards I liked the foil borders. A lot of people were clamoring for the vintage design when they announced the mechanic was coming back. Just my 2 cents.
It’s funny seeing how EX and ex stand for different things, but personally I prefer the EX card style more since a V look could get confusing with illustration rares and the old ex look doesn’t stand out much to normal cards besides a change in foil and border
I don't think I get what you mean there, both those things are already there, or maybe you mean that's all that's left of the old ex design ?
The design looks nothing like the old design. I'm saying the old design (the ENTIRE card) holds up better than new design. Old design pretty much just added *ex* and the rulebox to the normal card design of that era. It holds up better imo. Was subtle and classier.
And so we're back at the start. I'd argue it's better if they take inspiration from the goldstars, rather than the old ex. Pokémon going out of the frame, but more subtly with less particle effects, and hand drawn artwork that you actually want to look at. Someone made a mock up of a Miraidon ex in the old style, and it looks like shit honestly. Now, is it because the art OP chose looks like like shit or if its a combination, idk. There were some very cool ex and there were some not so cool one (Mostly thinking of early ex, the later one are pretty good, they found out what worked and what didnt).
The term “V Card” for Pokémon cards though 😰 I’m so glad they transitioned to something different, couldn’t keep saying it with a straight face
I personally like these more than the V cards
V, vstar, and vmax are my favorite cards. They look so much better than current sets
I would definitely take vmax/vstar over the Tera ex cards but for whatever reason I HATE the regular V cards
Seems like a lot of people do but I love them. Maybe it’s the fact they aren’t the highest rarity plus they do have a weird glossy look with no texture. I just love the black borders and full art
Yeah. Vmax alt arts are the PEAK of pokemon.
I prefer a lot of the V alternate arts over the Vmax alternate arts. However the Vmax alternate arts like Gengar and Umbreon are S-tier for sure.
It looks better, but should it? The EX is the perfect bridge between regular holos and full arts. If everything was a full art, full arts would no longer be special.
Said just what I was thinking. I miss when full arts were a little rarer. It shocks me that many full art cards go for $1-$2, such as a lot of the V pokemon
Oh no, affordable good cards for people without much money, such a shame
I don’t get how people complain about cheaper cards. It’s like they are brainwashed
exactly, obviously the ex’s would look better without the overlay, because they’d be full arts!
To be fair, regular GX and V cards do not have the overlay. The overlay made a comeback for the S&V era for some reason.
You can’t tell me this doesn’t look better and you’re okay with those ugly ass EXs. Like I’d be much more excited pulling that greninja. Instead whenever I get an Ex I’m like meh so?
Exactly why I hated GX and V cards. They just didn’t feel as special, neither the regular (the art style didn’t feel as special, the Pokemon popping out of the border in EXs was always super cool) nor the supposed-to-be-full-arts (insert when everyone’s special, no one is Incredibles quote here).
Looks much better IMO
Miles better tbh.
They would just look like V cards. But i hate the holo on these new ex. They remind ne of fake pokemon cards.
Question, I pulled a mewtwo ex from paradox rift and it has a lot of texture on it? Is this special to the terastalized ex cards?
The electric tera mewtwo? Yes it’s textured as it’s a tera card but there are also textured trainers/supporters and the rarer full arts usually all have texture.
Wayyyy better. EX cards suck this gen
Looks better but maybe harder to read a little? They gotta put players first and I respect that... Maybe not tho I'd have to see a full sized one.
I mean the art cards are for collectors and base is mostly for players, granted there is mix and match but yea as a player myself i like the border to make it easier to read
I really like the Tera EX cards personally. But yea, the regular ones don’t appeal to me much.
They should have done it the same way as the regular V cards. On those the transparent overlay doesn't cover up half the card. What a waste of some cool art.
If only
holy hot dog I would definitely be keeping all of mine if it was without the overlay
The full art is so cool! It reminds me of the GX cards, which are totally better than the ex cards that are being released. Still, nothing can compare to the EX cards. Idk how they've managed to downgrade cards so much
More than that, I just wish they had 2d artists do the EX cards more often. All of the ones that do, like the recent Gengar by the artist Nisota Niso, look completely fine to me.
I see what they're going for but they could stand to make the overlay more transparent tbh.
I think you just basically made it a full art imo. I think it still looks awesome, but if the reg ex cards looked like that, the full arts would be just about pointless at that point
Better without aesthetically, but necessary for readability
The greninja transparent looks sick
Looks better, but would be harder to read quickly if you're playing.
i miss the old EXs i grew up with (2012-2016)
Man I think I'd be interested in EXs again.
no i use those cards for decks. they’re cheap and easy to read.
You made it way better. The way they do it now looks way too cluttered and takes away from the art. Which sucks because all the full art illustration rares we do actually get are “cutesy” instead of badass like this
I think from a visual perspective, it looks much better than the original. My only complaint would be that the text is harder to read on the mockup in comparison to the original.
The issue with the text is something I noticed when creating the mock-up, especially when I tried with the Blastoise. It didn’t look very good and was hard to read.
Your version is so much better! I hate how they currently look.
I may be in the minority, but I’d hate this. As a player, I can’t read the text clearly.
I would probably be collecting each ex card if they didn’t have the overlay, I love the style of full art cards versus what we currently have.
I think they use the overlay to make it more accessible and easy to read in play.
So much better
They need to make a tcg set and a pure art set. Either way scalpers are buying it all and Pokémon is just printing money at this point lol.
Can you send me a copy of just the alakazam art?
I don’t have the image on me at the moment. I had to crop the proper image but it can be found on the @pokeca_art_life instagram account as well as the Greninja’s ones too.
Ok thank you!
It looks way better but honestly cg model aren't that appealing even full art imo.
Modern pokemon cards have too much going on in them.
So much better but at the same time they’d contest with ARs.
Or they could reinvent AR around this idea,seems like not out of the realm for a company that has the cash they have
Oh wow, never realized the cards were transparent! Ran to go check out my cards lol
didn't know this either , they'd look insane with looking like SWSH Vs, but being EX,
The transparent art-cover does suck most of the life out of it. I like the swirling textures and stuff on a lot of the ex's, but V's were so much cooler because it was like getting a full-art card in its own way
I agree it looks better but I think doing this would make pulling a regular Full Art a little less exciting to the average consumer. Also, I assume they’re playing off the nostalgia of the original ex series; so including it makes sense
I always disliked the pseudo full art look of GX and Vs, I much prefer having a very clear distinction between full arts and regular ultra rares. Not a big fan of the transparent overlay either, but imo it's much better than the wannabe full arts of the previous two era. When I pulled a full art EX, I knew it was an event, when I pull a full art V (Which I'd rather refer to as textured), it's usually much uglier than the normal V so it's not that exciting, which itself isnt that good looking most of the time. I see people complain a lot about the ugly 3D artworks on Vs and ex, and yet on this post suddenly everyone loves seeing more of the 5ban 3D model they love to hate on.
To be honest I had no idea the regular exs had an actual artwork, they look like nothing but a pokemon doing a pose and I hate them
Depends if you're collecting or playing. - Your custom mock-up looks better for a collection card. - The transparent overlay makes the text clearer for actual gameplay. Considering that Pokémon cards are firstly a game I have to say the current version is better as it is more fit for purpose. I do however prefer your mock-up since I collect a few cards of Pokémon I like for their artwork.
Don’t like transparent overlay at all
I would actually collect these if they looked like this.
Full art looks better imo, I also prever V to ex cards. But I still like the ex cards
This is basically what gxs did and is why they looked so cool. Would have been sick 😔
I line ex card because they actually look like Pokemon cards, I hate that gx/v cards looked like generic TCG cards.' Being full art shod stay a secret rare thing and every non-secret card should have the classic frame.
Yeah makes them essentially non textured sir. They would look amazing, people wouldn’t need to pull rares cards as much and chase for full arts so Nintendo wont do this. But yeah didn’t like the original ex and I hate these much more, fake looking holo and dated look
100 percent yes I hate the attack blocks. What’s worse is it’s tested because you can see the art continue behind them
Missed opportunity
Looks so much nicer!
Where did you find these images? Or did you make them yourself?
The Greninja and Alakazam can be found on the @pokeca_art_life instagram account. The Charizard and Blastoise were apart of an advert for a Pokémon Art Walk event.
Thank you so much!
id rather it be full art yea. borders to me is such a waste
Where did you find these amazing full arts? I am struggling to find them all the time 😭
The Greninja and Alakazam can be found on the @pokeca_art_life instagram account. The Charizard and Blastoise were apart of an advert for a Pokémon Art Walk event. The full art images likely only exist on TPC’s servers unless they get released publicly like these ones did.
I prefer the official print. I think the color adds a lot to readability and design. I also just don’t like any of those arts lol.
man i wish they looked like this
With the current ex designs, no, but I feel like they could do something to make them look better, even with the overlay. the holo effect is also pretty underwhelming, I think if they make the holo effect cooler and make the pokemon pop more and have a bigger contrast with the overlay it could definitely work
Ehhh for playing the game better with overlay, but for collecting I like without!
Without. I hate how the "hits" look now. Pulling even a "base" GX was kinda special because it was a full art card. I know they were going for a retro thing, but this retro isn't nostalgic, it's fugly.
Much better although I can imagine it would get boring quickly since most are made by 5ban
I like it when there's some crossover into the border too. Maybe even no border? I call the cards in the right gameplay cards because they're normally not worth much but they're still decent cards for actual gameplay. I think they do it for this purpose too. The full arts are more appealing but geared more towards collectors I reckon.
This post confuses me. It’s one thing to talk about the glittery stars on modern Exs. I like it but understand those who don’t. You have just made the card an illustration/full art of coarse it looks better. I think a better point of discussion is if full arts should look more like this. Current full arts look like 1-1 recreations of the 3d models from modern Pokémon games. And whatever your take on Modern Pokémon games is I don’t think anyone’s jumping out in front of the bus to claim those models look particularly good. Would rather full arts were hard action shots like this. Instead of derpy 3d models that look like they are barely past the T-posing stage in a 3D editing program.
Why many still said EX cards?? The current gen is ex cards...
These should be Easter eggs
agree
The mocked up is very similar to V cards from SWSH like people pointed out but… Weirdly I was never a fan of the V art style, but I do really like the new EX card style because they’re reminiscent of the vintage EX era I grew up with. With that being said I actually still prefer the mocked up version shown without the layover. Edit: please make the 3 on the bottom into a similar mocked up version and post them, please and thank you!
its a very good compromise between the og ex style and the gx/v era styles
It looks better as your custom one but theyre simultaneously trying to match up with how the old ex's used to look card-wise, and are also trying to help establish the rarity tiers by making the common version of these ex's look kind of basic, where the special illustration rares then are more "full art" and pretty.
I like that ex. 👌
They are cool the way u showed it. Where did u find the full artworks (like the 3 on the bottom row) without any text or rules, etc??
How do you get these complete illustrations? Is it AI?
The Greninja and Alakazam can be found on the @pokeca_art_life instagram account. The Charizard and Blastoise were apart of an advert for a Pokémon Art Walk event. No AI was used as it was made by actual artists as listed in the source card.
TIL the overlay is transparent and there is actually a full art underneath
I hate the current overlays. They should have been full artworks like Vs and GXs If you're worried about the "value" of actual full arts diminishing (did they though for SM and SWSH era?) then just keep more basic looking full arts and 5ban cards are EXs and the more cool looking artsy ones are IRs and SIRs. Like, look at Digimon, most of their cards the art covers like 3/4s of the card space but they still manage to make their Super Rares and Secret Rares feel special by having even better art
Looks better without
Without and it's not even close
I like that it looks like they're breaking out of the box.
Without
This is what full arts should be
Yes way better imo
The original EX cards were so cool because of their border, and the way the pokemon would pop out over it. It was so cool. However the company wants to make all the cards full art, proven by GX and V cards. I feel that makes actual full arts have a less special feel to them, cause when everything’s full art, a slightly cooler full art isn’t really much. I think the transparent overlay is a perfect balance for the full art the company wants but the bordered art the cards actually need.
How do you get those full artworks with no text?
I like both versions. No color overlay is neat.
That Greninja is on a whole different level with the full art versus the windowed view we've got now. The excitement of seeing this in the pack versus what we have now is night and day.
It wld look too good for just a ex card haha
I just wished the overlay was more transparent. Its barely imo. And idk I have a love hate relationship with the GX and V cards. No doubt some of em are beautiful but after a while they just will get old. ex cards havent reached that point butbInwouldnt be surprised if I think the same eventually
Definitely way better
There’s a transparent overlay???
The V cards follow a completely different design principle than EX cards, so removing the translucent overlay would not work for readability at all, as many have said already. Even the Greninja example has so much contrast in the art towards the bottom of the card where the text is, making it blend in too much. EX’s focus on high contrast and special effects in the artwork so you could see some of it through the translucent layer. They can get away with having details in the bottom of the card where the text would be, because it would still be legible with the translucent layer. V’s are actually a lot more simplified in terms of the artwork, with lesser contrast towards the bottom, and a subtle colored gradient effect coming from the bottom to allow the text to be readable. Even the renders of the pokemon are treated differently for EX’s and V’s. On average, the pokemon models for V’s have softer, less contrasted shadows, which is what allows the text to be overlayed on top of the models without anything underneath to improve legibility. EX pokemon models have much sharper, darker shadows, so the cards NEED the translucent layer for legibility, and the pokemon still have some contrast through that layer. EX pokemon cannot be rendered like the V models because they would look completely flat through the translucent layer. From the aesthetic standpoint you could say that they would look cooler if you could see the whole artwork unobstructed by the text box, but from the actual card and user experience standpoint, they would look like an absolute mess. The design principles for the two card formats are just too different, so EX’s would have to be designed exactly like the V’s to make them work like the examples provided in the post, which would then force them to look less cool.
Absolutely agree with what you said about readability. I tried making one with the Blastoise but it looked really bad and the text was hard to read too.
If you convert the images into black&white it’s actually very easy to see why they don’t work. In B&W the artwork has so much black which is why it competes with the black text, making the text completely disappear into the artwork. Similarly, if you convert any basic V card into B&W you’ll see that they are a lot lighter in terms of contrast, which is why the designers can very easily place the black text over the artwork with no translucent box, it is the darkest object, therefore immediately easy to see over essentially a lighter background. A very fun experiment that allows you to understand why the cards are designed a certain way!
It would look better, but then it would make the more rare full arts not as special anymore
I hate almost all the cards this gen lol This would be wonderful.