I am having a go at making a Home Alone 1&2 combo set on one cover double disc for my son.

I have some ideas and have been fiddling with different pics and placing etc but havent been too happy with what i have come up with.
I was thinking of making a ribbon and bow(like on a xmas pressie) that runs in a '+' pattern on front cover with bow in middle and pics and title in the 4 frames the ribbon will make.

I figure the ribbon/bow will have to be in plave first before i can add the pics.

So question is how do i do that in the easiest way as im still not very good at this cover making lark? :D

Also i was thinking of adding sprinkles of snow over complete front once all pics in place so again whats the best way of doing that?

Many Thanks :thumbup:

I am sure one of the other mods or members will have a brush, template, or something like that all ready premade.
I tend to do things the long and hard way...
What I would do is find a hi res pic of a bow, ribbon, or both.
From there I would manipulate, taking out all but the bow/ribbon
Place it on one layer
Add pics underneath
scale bow/ribbon down if necessary
Use the clone tool to add pixels if necessary on the bow/ribbon
copy the bow to a seperate layer/use color overlay to black
blurr the image
lower the opacity
stick the layer directly underneath the original bow. (this should create the look of a shadow.)
Tweek settings and blurr again until the effect of a shadow is achieved.

For the snow...
Again you can search for images or have a go at it yourself.
If using images snow may be difficult to grab an image with just a sprinkle here and there. You may want to look for images of flour, sugar, ,cocaine, heroine, ... You will just need something that looks like snow.

If images are scarce you can scale and rotate layered copies to get the sprinkle effect.

To have a go at it from scratch... use the brush tool set on the color white. The brush settings will need to be feathered to give it that soft look. You may also want to adjust the pressure. Take a look at some of the preset brushes like the leaf shaped ones. If some of the settings are adjusted on these you can achieve the snow efect you are looking for. If you are still seeing a noticeable leaf shape hit it up with the gaussian blur. It allows you to see a preview as you adjust the blurr strength.

Or... You can just wait for somebody to reply "Wait all that is too long, here is a brush/template for ya".
I am sure it exsists, but like I said I like the round about way. :)

Cheers for that info, of course if there is a brush template that does it for you then im all for that :D

However you have provided in great detail how to manually acheive these effects so i will deffo be giving them a try anyway as im sure the feeling of doing it for yourself outways that of a template but with my skills i think the template will look so much better .......if there is one of course :D

I didnt even think of finding a picture of ribbon and a bow i just thought it would be obtained by brush effect. :)

thanks again gravital :thumbup:

Funny thing about doin this stuff yourself is that you learn a bunch of other stuff along the way that you will have use for later on.

Ok have mucked about a little and come up with this......found an old low-res cover scan of a combi 2 disc-set and got the idea for the split screen approach but hopefully mine looks a bit better :biglaugh:

Still got things to fiddle with, 'home alone 2 logo' needs edges altered theres some light blue behind building tops.
What about spine titles do they work especially part 2?
Possibly get rid of blue background and use a snowy backdrop from Alien plugin?
Put in a Top Banner and drop top pic down a bit?
Not sure i like the pattern for the ribbon?
Re-write the Home Alone logo seems a bit blurred?


Do you like the snow flake effect i somehow created a new brush preset so just dotted them about, but now i cant remember how LMAO :p

Bit embarrassed to put this in W.I.P lol so added attachment to here :)

Looks good ULAM. The snowflakes look nice and playing around with their transparency will make them all look different. The ribbon idea is clever...I like it. If you are unsure about the ribbon pattern,play around with it...I always come across new effects when I experiment.

Ok update time, any suggestions welcome :)

Should i put this in WIP yet lol :D

Prior to me even opening the image... (just waitin for it to download) I think that a red bow and ribbon would be a keen relacement. It just feels more Christmassy to me. Thay should be no problem. You would just have to alter the hue and maybe play with the saturation a bit. I like the snowflakes.Very nice.

Not quite sure how to change the colour from blue to red, whats the best way to alter the blue bow?


For now i have found a red bow and added that, is it any better?

Ok have played about with the cover a bit added a few tweaks here and there.

Have attached both blue and red bow versions.

Hows the cover looking?
Does it need anything else?

If you are partial to the blue ribbon than to change the color in Photoshop go to layer /adjust/ hue and saturation. from there adjust the top color slider until a variant of red is acheived. Or you can hit the colorize button in that window and it will convert it to a monochromatic image. It will work the same way just give you less options in color(blue reflections and such) Your pick on the red Bow style seems more fitting. If you could get a larger bow of that same style you would be golden. Even if it falls over some of the images in the panes... Hey did ya think about adding some frozen frost on a window pane. I know you are probably getting sick of these little ideas here and there but I think that it would add so much. It's just that with the 4 split it kinda looks like a window set up. Just an idea.
Back to the ribbon falling over the images. It really should not matter if it covers some of them up partially. The movie is well enough known to recognize at a glance and the bow would look better if the bow/ribbon ratio was a little more larger.

Nope not getting sick of advice/ideas at all, i wanna learn and appreciate all help recieved :thumbup:

My creative streak kicks in for a bit then drifts off so thats why i ask for help lol :D

Ok i have added some frost with 85% opacity, was that the style you meant or some other way, not sure if that looks like frost or a bit of a snow drift lol.

Have changed the blue bow with the method you said(cheers for that something else ive learnt how to do :thumbup:)

Also increased red bow to actual size as i had previously reduced it before to fit.

Have attached them both for you to see.

What do you think?

I personally like the second one. For the frost... Think of breathing on a pane of glass. The condensation that comes frome your breath coats over the glass. Now, take the reverse of that image. That would mean that the center is clear and the sides would be frosted over. Search for some images on google of windows with frost, permafrost, winter + window, etc. You should get some hits that will give you referance. You never know, you may even come across a hi res image that you can use in the cover :)

Ok have added frost to glass, in the end i used the snowflake brush i craeted and kinda just filled it in with that lol. :D

I kept the original snow drift in place to give the bottom of the windows a bit of depth but can do away with them if it looks no good.

Not sure if it works or not as i noticed in the top right pic they are already looking in from a window as you can see the ledges have snow on.????

What do you think?


Also thinking of making back cover blue like front and then add snowflakes etc to back as well??

If i go down that road then whats the easiest/best way to get the white background blue?

I'm new to the whole DVD art myself. CD's were so much easier. I myself have never beeb n a big fan of the "DUEL" covers. I prefer a box set or collectors approuch myself but you have done a really good job with the work you've put into it. I've been getting a lot of good help with my first project too. The people here are great on giving you good feedback and helping you move into the right direction. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

The snow drift effect does work for the window. If the back cover is going blue then you will have to cut out the images and place them on a blue back. It should be simple. Just a little time with some selection tools and presto.

Ok gone for a blue background with ribbon going right round so it looks wrapped :D

Have used same ribbon pattern for framing the screenshots, didn't put bow on back as you dont usually have a bow on front and back :D

I'm pretty happy with outcome just gotta decide on white or blue background :)

Any tweaks needed?


http://imageupload.game-files.net/imgs/img01/YVr21o2LpV.jpg

You've done a great job mate, you should be well pleased with the outcome...10/10.

:thumbup:

Yes, the final outcome does look really good. Great job!!!

Cheers Jonno and KC, i'm pleased i spent a bit of extra effort on this, as usually i have a 'oh-that'll-do' attitude to some things lol

Looks great ULAM. Well done m8:thumbup:

Cheers SW have made a couple of changes to text and now put finished result in Showcase :omg:



Many thanks gravital, great advice mate :thumbup:

Very nice outcome ULAM. I really like the blue back.