Custom Cover Art Thread

[nolfoc]

Originally Posted by threefiftyrocket

Not customs, because the logos, movie titles, images, and such are copyrighted, selling custom covers is not a very good idea.

There are sites where they are posted for download though, some require credits that can be earned by uploading customs or purchasing credits for download. That, by what I understand, is acceptable.

do you happen to have a good site?

[threefiftyrocket]

Originally Posted by nolfoc

do you happen to have a good site?

http://www.EuphoricFX.org is the only one that I have joined. That would be a better questions for Aggie, DV8 or BPM, they are members of several sites (by what I understand) and could probably point you in the right direction. They should also be able to tell you the ones to stay away from, some sites have unauthorized covers that the artist didn't upload. Personally, I would never support the sites that do not care about that.

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by threefiftyrocket

http://www.EuphoricFX.org is the only one that I have joined. That would be a better questions for Aggie, DV8 or BPM, they are members of several sites (by what I understand) and could probably point you in the right direction. They should also be able to tell you the ones to stay away from, some sites have unauthorized covers that the artist didn't upload. Personally, I would never support the sites that do not care about that.

That's right, as 350 said, Euphoricfx.org is a fantastic site. The best thing is that it's completely free! All they ask is that you be a frequent contributor and submit your own designs for the "Work in Progress" forum and upload your own created material. If not, you could be a contributor of high res artwork/movie stills and that would be just as beneficial for the community.

There are a few other noteworthy and rather talented sites such as coversfuzion, and... well I can't think of them off the top of my head, but most of those charge for a yearly membership, although the fee is quite small.

Anyway, that's the just of it. We have a pretty solid, strong, and growing community of artists at euphoricfx and would be happy for you to join and introduce yourself in the "Introductions" forum.

[nolfoc]

Originally Posted by threefiftyrocket

http://www.EuphoricFX.org is the only one that I have joined. That would be a better questions for Aggie, DV8 or BPM, they are members of several sites (by what I understand) and could probably point you in the right direction. They should also be able to tell you the ones to stay away from, some sites have unauthorized covers that the artist didn't upload. Personally, I would never support the sites that do not care about that.

Originally Posted by aggienader08

That's right, as 350 said, Euphoricfx.org is a fantastic site. The best thing is that it's completely free! All they ask is that you be a frequent contributor and submit your own designs for the "Work in Progress" forum and upload your own created material. If not, you could be a contributor of high res artwork/movie stills and that would be just as beneficial for the community.

There are a few other noteworthy and rather talented sites such as coversfuzion, and... well I can't think of them off the top of my head, but most of those charge for a yearly membership, although the fee is quite small.

Anyway, that's the just of it. We have a pretty solid, strong, and growing community of artists at euphoricfx and would be happy for you to join and introduce yourself in the "Introductions" forum.

thanks guy, but what if you can't contribute? my computer is 11 years old and i dont even own a printer

[threefiftyrocket]

Originally Posted by nolfoc

thanks guy, but what if you can't contribute? my computer is 11 years old and i dont even own a printer

http://www.cdcovers.cc is another site that may have something you are looking for, its completely free and you don't have to have a username to download. They were down for quite some time tho so they don't have much in the way of newer stuff, and a lot of the stuff they DO have is scanned originals, but they do have some custom stuff. There's also a lot of Region B and Region C stuff on there so if you're looking for U.S. stuff you might have to filter through...

[Mobjack]

Originally Posted by nolfoc

thanks guy, but what if you can't contribute? my computer is 11 years old and i dont even own a printer

You can go to http://www.photobucket.com and set up a free account there. Then you can upload your work in progress or posters or whatever and link them in on sites like that or here. If you need help with any of that, myself and I am sure others can assist.

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by nolfoc

thanks guy, but what if you can't contribute? my computer is 11 years old and i dont even own a printer

There are other ways you can definitely contribute:

1. Stay active in the forums (which you seem to do a great job here nolfoc). Let artists know what you think of their W.I.Ps, and give your opinion on how they could improve their WIP covers. There's a "Thanks" button for expressing thanks to artists for their covers.

2. You can comment on each cover or resource that is made available once it's uploaded.

I'm sure there are other ways.

By "contribution" I don't mean that everyone needs to be a designer, I just meant participation is really the ideal form of contribution more than anything. I'm sure we have a lot of members that don't participate and they just go on there, download whatever the hell they want, and don't thank anybody for it, not even the artist. That's what we want to stay away from. lol! But it's sort of inevitable.

Plus, after a while of seeing some awesome designs and communicating with everybody in the forums and "shout box", I guarantee you'll wanna try one out for yourself. Anything's possible.

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by threefiftyrocket

http://www.cdcovers.cc is another site that may have something you are looking for, its completely free and you don't have to have a username to download. They were down for quite some time tho so they don't have much in the way of newer stuff, and a lot of the stuff they DO have is scanned originals, but they do have some custom stuff. There's also a lot of Region B and Region C stuff on there so if you're looking for U.S. stuff you might have to filter through...

I personally don't like cdcovers.cc because no credit nor any other form of gratitude and recognition goes out to the artists that do those covers. Plus, a lot of them are just retail scans on that site anyway.

So if you want scans, go there, but if you want true custom go to efx!

...although efx has scans too!

[nolfoc]

Originally Posted by aggienader08

There are other ways you can definitely contribute:

1. Stay active in the forums (which you seem to do a great job here nolfoc). Let artists know what you think of their W.I.Ps, and give your opinion on how they could improve their WIP covers. There's a "Thanks" button for expressing thanks to artists for their covers.

2. You can comment on each cover or resource that is made available once it's uploaded.

I'm sure there are other ways.

By "contribution" I don't mean that everyone needs to be a designer, I just meant participation is really the ideal form of contribution more than anything. I'm sure we have a lot of members that don't participate and they just go on there, download whatever the hell they want, and don't thank anybody for it, not even the artist. That's what we want to stay away from. lol! But it's sort of inevitable.

Plus, after a while of seeing some awesome designs and communicating with everybody in the forums and "shout box", I guarantee you'll wanna try one out for yourself. Anything's possible.

are you referring to this thread on this site? im confused

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by nolfoc

are you referring to this thread on this site? im confused

I'm only referring to your participation in the forums on this site and saying that as long as you participate in the same way at euphoricfx then that would be ample "contribution".

That was in response to your post about having an 11 year old computer.

[nolfoc]

Originally Posted by aggienader08

I'm only referring to your participation in the forums on this site and saying that as long as you participate in the same way at euphoricfx then that would be ample "contribution".

That was in response to your post about having an 11 year old computer.

haha well i usually post from my company laptop,, i cant be downloading pictures and what not to it.. its for business you and (BD.com blogging) only....

[threefiftyrocket]

Originally Posted by aggienader08

I personally don't like cdcovers.cc because no credit nor any other form of gratitude and recognition goes out to the artists that do those covers. Plus, a lot of them are just retail scans on that site anyway.

So if you want scans, go there, but if you want true custom go to efx!

...although efx has scans too!

yeah, me too, I don't grab too much from there, and I agree I don't like the customs that don't get recognized... plus EFX scans are sooooooo much better if you're looking for that.

I like EFX though b/c everyone I've talked to over there seems to be genuinely interested even if you're a noob, and they have NO TOLERANCE for theft. If you post someone else's work on another site, you're gone no questions asked. I wish other sites had that same policy.

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by nolfoc

haha well i usually post from my company laptop,, i cant be downloading pictures and what not to it.. its for business you and (BD.com blogging) only....

haha! I understand. You asked about other sites, so I'm just letting you know that all it takes is a little participation over at efx.org and downloading the covers you want would be a breeze. I'm not trying to tell you that you have to become a designer and submit designs and overload your computer or anything.

Take it for what it's worth; if you want to browse around, join up, introduce yourself in the forums and you'll find it was well worth it.

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by threefiftyrocket

yeah, me too, I don't grab too much from there, and I agree I don't like the customs that don't get recognized... plus EFX scans are sooooooo much better if you're looking for that.

I like EFX though b/c everyone I've talked to over there seems to be genuinely interested even if you're a noob, and they have NO TOLERANCE for theft. If you post someone else's work on another site, you're gone no questions asked. I wish other sites had that same policy.

I hear ya! Sometimes it's difficult to get the point across that we value our designs since we put so much time into them. It's a touchy subject because you never know who you're going to be dealing with when you see your designs being distributed on sites that you didn't know had them. Some people just have no knowledge of the work that goes into them, therefore have no respect for artists. Sometimes it's stupid and disrespectful, and other times it's an ill placed sense of admiration. A lot of times we have no way of knowing the user's intentions when they download our covers, we just trust them to use them for their own collection.

That's why I only use 1 site (euphoricfx.org) to upload my covers to, so that if I or anybody else sees them elsewhere on the web we know where they got it from and we can see who downloaded it, thus probable removal is the only solution.

[threefiftyrocket]

You see I had that same attitude towards Napster when I was in college and people gave me soooooo much crap for it. I REFUSED to download music, and would always buy the CD when I heard something that I liked. You create something it is your property, period. Especially if it was solely your idea and hard work.

I digress... I don't want to get people all up in arms about something that seems is pretty calm right now.

Customer cover designers = artists

This thread = awesome

EuphoricFX = cool for noobs and veterans

Who's got something new that I can preview ?

[threefiftyrocket]

Originally Posted by Mobjack

Ok, I went back and started from scratch and I still cant figure out what I am doing wrong. I bought the latest version of Imandix and used a higher res picture. Still the font comes out terrible even if I go in and recreate the words. Anyone know why this is? I am using Photoshop CS5 and Imandix 0.9.3.0.

[Show spoiler]

whew... that is a lot of black... I like black pretty easy to make it look good but man black is right there in your face... pretty easy to make it look pretty bad too. Gotta know how to work with those negative spaces... I like this though, quite a bit. Can't wait to see when its finished!

Edit: Most of the time I'm a traditionalist and I really don't like when a piece keeps drawing your eyes to the center. It usually detracts from the rest of the work, and makes other important things seem a little less important. This is probably the exception. After seeing the movie, and seeing the rest of the layout of this cover, I just don't think it would look right off center. Well done, very well done.

[Mobjack]

Originally Posted by threefiftyrocket

whew... that is a lot of black... I like black pretty easy to make it look good but man black is right there in your face... pretty easy to make it look pretty bad too. Gotta know how to work with those negative spaces... I like this though, quite a bit. Can't wait to see when its finished!

Thanks. I made a few more changes last night to break up the black a bit. I added the black an red gradient that is on the front and tried to replicate it on the back thinking I could put a picture bar or something through the middle. Had a hell of a time with the texture though. Couldn't get it spot on to look like the front.

I went out looking for logos and pictures and ran into another problem. I found a site, cant remember what it was, but there was a cover almost exactly like what I am doing. Now I am reluctant to finish it because I dont want to look like I am taking a design and claiming it my own when someone else has something so similar. I may try to arrange it a bit differently and see where it goes.

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by Mobjack

I went out looking for logos and pictures and ran into another problem. I found a site, cant remember what it was, but there was a cover almost exactly like what I am doing. Now I am reluctant to finish it because I dont want to look like I am taking a design and claiming it my own when someone else has something so similar. I may try to arrange it a bit differently and see where it goes.

No offense, please, but you wouldn't be taking anyone's design in this case. The reason you've seen a similar cover is because the main resource you've used for the front is a high resolution resource/poster of the film and I'm sure many people have attempted a cover using the same poster.

You could still spice it up and make it your own cover by adding fonts, borders, anything you like. Create a different texture and make Abby the focal point by creating a "layer mask" of her curled up on the floor. If you need a tutorial on layer masks, there's good one's on tutvid.com or youtube.

[Mobjack]

Originally Posted by aggienader08

No offense, please, but you wouldn't be taking anyone's design in this case. The reason you've seen a similar cover is because the main resource you've used for the front is a high resolution resource/poster of the film and I'm sure many people have attempted a cover using the same poster.

You could still spice it up and make it your own cover by adding fonts, borders, anything you like. Create a different texture and make Abby the focal point by creating a "layer mask" of her curled up on the floor. If you need a tutorial on layer masks, there's good one's on tutvid.com or youtube.

Thanks bud, I appreciate the tips. I do like where the cover is going, but it definitely needs its own "flavor". I will check out those tutorials when I get home.

Thanks again!!

[threefiftyrocket]

Originally Posted by Mobjack

Thanks. I made a few more changes last night to break up the black a bit. I added the black an red gradient that is on the front and tried to replicate it on the back thinking I could put a picture bar or something through the middle. Had a hell of a time with the texture though. Couldn't get it spot on to look like the front.

I went out looking for logos and pictures and ran into another problem. I found a site, cant remember what it was, but there was a cover almost exactly like what I am doing. Now I am reluctant to finish it because I dont want to look like I am taking a design and claiming it my own when someone else has something so similar. I may try to arrange it a bit differently and see where it goes.

Okay, by gradient do you mean how the red fades into the black? I've heard the term but I guess I'm not too up on the lingo...

BEAT ME TO IT!

Originally Posted by aggienader08

No offense, please, but you wouldn't be taking anyone's design in this case. The reason you've seen a similar cover is because the main resource you've used for the front is a high resolution resource/poster of the film and I'm sure many people have attempted a cover using the same poster.

You could still spice it up and make it your own cover by adding fonts, borders, anything you like. Create a different texture and make Abby the focal point by creating a "layer mask" of her curled up on the floor. If you need a tutorial on layer masks, there's good one's on tutvid.com or youtube.

And don't be reluctant to finish the cover just because someone else used the same poster. I'm sure there are quite a few out there that used that poster art for their customs. The important thing is to add your touch, and make the work yours, and unique!