Custom Cover Art Thread

[G:Box]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

Connery was in some really horrid films though. Zardoz?

MrG: Yes, looks better. I still think the flat black could use something; ever try gradients?

no, not really that good with PS. I'll play with it.

[DrrnHarr]

Better Torrente?

[DrrnHarr]

A custom design artist who I have a great deal of respect and admiration for suggested dark green instead of blue for the photo and spec borders.

Sorry MrGBox, the posters are staying. I think they help create the illusion of a rectangle without actually drawing a rectangle (if that makes sense). Plus I really like the UK poster for "Highlander"

[Torrente]

Yeah!!! Better!

[DrrnHarr]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

Get rid of the blue blu ray logo. White would work better here I think.

Yeah, I was trying to figure out what to do about that.

[Nissen]

Originally Posted by DrrnHarr

A custom design artist who I have a great deal of respect and admiration for suggested dark green instead of blue for the photo and spec borders.

Sorry MrGBox, the posters are staying. I think they help create the illusion of a rectangle without actually drawing a rectangle (if that makes sense). Plus I really like the UK poster for "Highlander"

[Show spoiler]

This is shaping up real well, Darren.

I also agree that the textured background was less distracting than the photo background.

There are many things I would have done differently, but we all have our personal styles, and I think that's a strength. My "thing" is about spanning backgrounds across front-spine-back. I always like to make a "borderless" spine if I can. It gives you more leeway when placing the cover in the case, and also works better across different width cases. As long as you are using a generic texture, you might as well get rid of the border separating the front and spine. That's why I always leave a little breathing room between the back and spine as well, not letting elements like stills extend all the way to the very border of the spine, like you have here.

And I see you're mixing templates for the back, using a Fox/MGM specs grid and legal layout, coupled with a Warner logo. When in fact these are both Lionsgate movies, the geek/cover-dabbler in me just shorts out and blows a fuse with all those contradictions :-) And Warner always have their spine shield at the bottom!!! Oh, I can't take it!!!!! To me, and this is just me, I associate that with Chinese bootlegs. It's like cover-design is a language that we, the initiated, speak, and you're murdering the grammar. Most other people wouldn't notice, I bet.

For the front, I think the title of the collection should come first, and the individual movie titles should come below. The "2 disc set" is too dominant in the design, it's more like a bullett-point and shouldn't be so prominent. Besides, with the movie titles on there, "2 disc set" is redundant.

You didn't think I was finished, did you?

Also, the placement of Lambert and Connery's names... Maybe they should be centered in the dead space between the borders and the hilt? And moved up so they are visually associated with the edges of the cover? It's a balance thing.

Oh, one more thing: I agree about green borders, but maybe you should try giving them some dimensonality? The dead line-weight is too MS Paint. Or maybe try using the "overlay" blending mode on them so that they take on the texture of the background?

Darren, you're a brave soul putting yourself out there for scrutiny like this. I'm not sure I could handle this much "constructive criticism" myself. I do hope you take this to be well-intended. There is very little right and wrong in design. You are the master. Feel free to ignore any of this "advice", it's just meant to help you make conscious decisions. Besides, defending your choices makes you crystalize your own opinions.

[DrrnHarr]

Originally Posted by Nissen

And I see you're mixing templates for the back, using a Fox/MGM specs grid and legal layout, coupled with a Warner logo. When in fact these are both Lionsgate movies, the geek/cover-dabbler in me just shorts out and blows a fuse with all those contradictions :-)

In checking, the movie was distributed by 20th Century Fox and made by Thorn EMI.

Studio Canal currently holds the European rights. Lionsgate holds the North American rights under license from Studio Canal.

I'll change the logo to Fox to be more correct to its original release.

[Nissen]

Hey!

We're a Sticky!

Thank you, whoever you are!

[G:Box]

Originally Posted by Nissen

Hey!

We're a Sticky!

Thank you, whoever you are!

I know!!

[jarth3000]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

That's what she said.

[DrrnHarr]

Originally Posted by Nissen

Hey!

We're a Sticky!

Thank you, whoever you are!

I have a subscription to this forum but hopefully having it as a sticky will drive more traffic.

[DrrnHarr]

My newest project. A double feature for the first two movies in the "I Know What You Did" series. I know there is a third one out there but the less said about that movie the better.

Since the second movie is a play on words of the first movie I did not feel the need to spell out both titles on the cover. I also struck gold when I realized that I have the TT font on my computer. That opened up a whole new set of possibilities.

Taking Nissen's comments into consideration I set out from the outset to have cover art that stretched across the front, spine and back cover and I moved the film cells slightly off the spine and repositioned the posters. Anyone who saw my Highlander cover can tell where this is going (yes that's the "Highlander" credits still on the back)

Note: Since there does not appear to be any high res versions of the cover image I decided to obscure him in a foggy mist. I think it fits thematically well with the first movie at least.

[DrrnHarr]

Quiet on here tonight?!

[Nissen]

Originally Posted by DrrnHarr

Note: Since there does not appear to be any high res versions of the cover image I decided to obscure him in a foggy mist. I think it fits thematically well with the first movie at least.

[Show spoiler]

Agreed. Sometimes, limitations force creativity.
Sometimes I resort to importing a low-rez image into Illustrator, and use the "Live Trace" feature to render a stylized vector. It's a bit arty-farty pop-art, but may be appropriate for some films.

[Nissen]

Originally Posted by MrGBox

Looks better imo....
I know people like to exclude the barcode, but I just like to have it.

[Show spoiler]

Mr. G. This is actually pretty good. It's neat and clean. I think you've taken it as far as you can without getting into gradients and blending options in Photoshop to add a bit of texture to it.

The reason I always leave the barcode off, is that I've heard it sometimes causes trouble when trying to get covers printed at places like Kinko's. A UPC-free cover is usually more palatable to the strict enforcers of the no-no on printing copyrighted images.

And they're not very attractive....

My early region 1 Image Entertainment DVD of The Terminator has the UPC on the spine. Talk about an eyesore!

[DrrnHarr]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

Cool idea with the cover. I don't mind having a picture on the spine, but I kind of hate the "gold bars" look above and below the frame. Maybe you could just create a rectangle shape there and then when you want to put a picture in, drop it above the rectangle, select the rectangle layer to get the box dimensions, and then mask the picture (so it's the same size/orientation) without the bars.

They worked for the Bond covers because there was gold everywhere, but they decidedly don't here, for me.

That's actually an easy fix because the "gold bars" are on a separate layer by themselves.



My typical method for importing pictures is:
1. Draw a black rectangle or box.
2. With the Polygonal Lasso Tool draw out the area for the photo.
3. Open the photo.
4. Ctrl A to select the entire photo, then Ctr C to copy it.
5. Use the Paste Into command to paste the photo into the defined area.
6. Ctrl T to Transform and adjust percentages until the photo fits proportiantely.

It's so much easier in InDesign
1. Draw an area for the photo.
2. Ctrl D to select a picture
3. Hit "Fit Content Proportionately"

Originally Posted by Nissen

The reason I always leave the barcode off, is that I've heard it sometimes causes trouble when trying to get covers printed at places like Kinko's. A UPC-free cover is usually more palatable to the strict enforcers of the no-no on printing copyrighted images.

And they're not very attractive....

I personally leave the barcode off because I think it takes up valuable real estate. I am not selling the item and I am not trying to pass it off as some official cover. I am making the covers for my own personal enjoyment and I'd rather have another element of my choosing in that space than a barcode.

I'm also going to start dropping the spec box on covers as I have noticed a lot of custom cover artists don't bother with that either.

[DrrnHarr]

My next project is a Clint Eastwood collection. This (like 007) will not be useable quite yet because not all the movies I plan for it have been released on Blu-ray. But I threw together this very rough mock-up in about an hour.

I realize I need to do some blending work to the Pale Rider graphic on the cover to make it blend in better to the parchment.

[DrrnHarr]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

Set the blend mode to "overlay" and that'll probably do it. Looks pretty good so far though. Dafont has tons of "Western" fonts that will probably be useful.

I also think your method for importing pictures is massively over-complicated--I just drag and drop them into the photoshop window and then resize them there using the mouse and shift key.

I do like that my method allows me to crop the photos how I like them. It also has the added advantage that I can create any shape I want to import the picture into. It's hard to tell on here but the Josey Wales poster has a ripped edges effect created entirely by the polygonal lasso tool

[FC4L]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

That can all be done after the fact really easily too. I'm sure it just comes from learning in different ways, but I'd never be able to do it the way you're talking about; I'd forget what I was doing halfway through.

I agree with you as well, but different strokes! Some things I know how to do real easy and others that are easy I often forget. Working on these sorts of projects are definately good for figuring out how to do new things and the web is full of good tutorials and help from others.

My Jurassic Park covers are complete and uploaded on Euphorix.

[DrrnHarr]

Originally Posted by FC4L

I agree with you as well, but different strokes! Some things I know how to do real easy and others that are easy I often forget. Working on these sorts of projects are definately good for figuring out how to do new things and the web is full of good tutorials and help from others.

My Jurassic Park covers are complete and uploaded on Euphorix.

Right. My method is almost second nature now. It may seem complex but once you do it a few times its not hard to get used to.

And yes, I did pick up that tip from a web tutorial