Custom Art Box Project - Ranma ½ It's a Rumic World

[AManOfCharacter]

So here it is, my thread for discussing my Custom Art Box Project for the Ranma ½, It's a Rumic World OVA:



My goal is to make an art box that is virtually identical in appearance to the Viz Media Special Edition boxes:



The purpose of this thread is to share my ideas and progress, but also to invite community suggestions on various design aspects of the box and artwork choices. Every so often you may see the content of this first post change as I refine the text or images. Take a look below at what I've come up with so far, and what specific areas I see as great discussion points:

1 - Main Box Colors

The Vix SE Art Boxes for Sets 1-7 have a nice playful color pattern going on, where the colors line up with the next box when you place them in reverse order, like Japanese sets. Perhaps the biggest question I see with this project is, should a custom box for Rumic World follow this pattern, even attempting to complement it in one way or another?

As we know, the color choice of OVA and Movie collection box messed up the color order. Adding a new box could "correct" this, by inserting Rumic World in between Set 7 and the OVA set. This forces the color choice to Red in front and Black in back. Also, the boxes would not be in "chronological" or even "release" order. This could be concerning.



Alternatively, the Rumic World box could continue the color off of the OVA with no concern for the other sets. It could even be entirely standalone. What do you all think?

2 - Gold Gilded Details

A major factor for whether this project succeeds or fails is whether or not I can pull off the gold gilded detailing that is literally all over these boxes. Yes, I do intend to attempt this design aspect. Basically, I plan to use the toner + gilding sheets + laminator method to add all of the details to the art sheet before wrapping it around the box.

The first step was to scan one of the SE sets and pull the detailing out in GIMP. It was pretty simply, however, I'll need to clean up much of line work to ensure a clean toner print during production:



Note, this image is reduced in size by 50%. It looks very clean overall, and I'm very confident I can make it perfect. By the time the printer puts it out, it should be flawless.

3 - Front Center Art

A very important art choice is the front and center circle art. Two things I would love to accomplish at the same are 1) An art style based on the Manga art, similar to the Viz SEs, and 2) Art that is connected to the work, either the Rumic World OVA or the chapter from the Manga that the OVA is based on. Below, you'll see what I've found so far.



My favorite is the one with all the girls. It meets No. 1, but not No. 2. Either way, it's the best quality and will make the nicest print of all the options so far. Here it is mocked up in GIMP.



Anyone else have any suggestions on high quality images I could use for the front center circle?

4 - Spine Character Art

The character that appears on the spine is a tough choice. I'm not really sure where I'll find an image that works well and matches the style of the characters on the Viz sets. I could really use your help finding an image source to pull from for this piece.

5 - Rear Center Art

Another important choice is the rear art. On this point, I also have no ideas yet. I'd be open to suggestions and would great appreciate the highest quality art anyone can find or recommend.

6 - Width of Box

Given that the Rumic World BD doesn't have any bonus material that comes with it, a concern is how to make it fit snuggly in the Art Box while also keeping the Box the same width as the rest in the Viz sets. I'm mainly interested in creating the Box itself, so creating my own "bonus" material just to take up the few millimeters left in the box feels a bit weird. I'm very open to suggestions. I wonder, should it just be a cardboard buffer?



Note: I've numbered each item so that as replies continue to build, we can try to reference the number for convenience when discussing a specific point. I hope that's helpful.

Note: I'll say this now to make sure that everyone joining this discussion has the opportunity to get my answer to probably the biggest question the community might ask. Will I be making these boxes and selling them to those who would like to buy one? NO. I will not be selling this Art Box, as it will definitely be making use of copyrighted material. The project is primarily for my personal use and I have NO intentions of violating copyright law by attempting to sell copyrighted material.

That being said... If I actually do complete this project (and it doesn't suck), and if I end up having a nice little template for producing more, will I be making the box available in some way to any who may want one? All that I'll say for now is, again, I will not be selling copyrighted material to anyone. I hope the meaning behind that is clear... [emoji6]..... [emoji6][emoji6]

Also, on the above item, please don't PM me right away for more detail or further questions. I'm at the very earliest point in this project, so it'll be some time before those questions will be relevant. Thanks!