Here are my first covers. there all sill works in progress.

Okay, 1st things 1st. At any point in this, if I am sounding a little harsh or you feel as though I am picking on you I apologize. This is not my intent. I am simply going to offer advice on how to better these covers and your skill at creating them. I hope that in the end you can get up dust yourself off and amaze. So, without further ado.
Clerks:
Front cover: The main issue with this is the method of scan. I would recommend a descreen on it. This will clear up those lines and dot pattern anomolies(?). Now while this is a great cover I believe it is for the cartoon series. I could be wrong. You just want to watch for mistakes like that. It could throw the whole project off and not to mention confuse those looking at the case.
Spine: I would recommend keeping with the continuity of the title throughout the cover. It is as simple as a cut and paste off the front. One of my pet peeves is ratio distortion. On the bottom image of J and S Bob the image is squeezed and they look thin and narrow. The best method for keeping the ration while scaling either up or down is by holding the shift key down. This will asure the proper proportions have been maintained through the transformation.
Reverse Cover: Some of those screen shots/images are lookin good. All save the the two on the bottom. There are some white lines on the edges that either need to be croped of or gone over with a clone tool in photoshop. This is still a work in progress so my comments on the back are going to be limited. Just some thoughts as of right now (synopsis, image play, why black?, spec fea box border, and logos n junk)
synopsis-needs to be added. Image play- work those images a bit. As of right now they looked dropped in to take up space. Play with the borders, sizing, color and composition of other images to make up the entire back. I know it sounds kind of goofy but this is somewhat of an art. Why black?- I normally have no issues with black, but here it looks to stark in comparison with the surrounding elements. What about a nice high resolution image of the cast or a easily identified scene or other image from the movie and build the rest off of that. This is where you get to have a little fun and really create. Special features box- The border may be a little too thick. try dropping the stroke size down to 3 to 4 points. Logos and junk-Traditionally the logos are maintained towards the bottom of the reverse. However, there is no law that says that you can not place them in the special features box. The only problem that I personally have with this method is that the box remains near the center. this is the focal point of the back. Here is where the eye is normally drawn to first. Hence it makes sense to put the most important there and create the rest to guide the focus to other areas, such as the synopsis and screen shots.
Woooooow! That took a little longer than I origionally expected. I was planning on doing this for each cover. However, I think that this should give you enough to think about and play with for the time being. If you would like to hear my thoughts on the rest of your covers/disc label let me know. I will be more than happy to assist. Lastly, and to recap I am not knocking your work in any way I am just trying to help you help yourself. after all, how do we know how well we do at things; if it is only our own perspective that is taken into consideration?

Gravital has offered great advice there. Try and make the suggested changes and if you are unsure about something don't hesitate to ask. There are many experienced designers in the fuzion community willing to assist.

what they said:thumbup:

Gravital has said it all...:thumbup:

as an amendment i would like to add for a beginner you are doing very well.......perseverance is key here............take on board the criticism and apply what you are being told to your covers and will find no end of improvement......it is always difficult to begin with.............but, as you go along you will become more and more familiar with your software and on how best to use it:thumbup:

Thanks for the advice. It is appreciated. I would like everyones opinion on The Devils Rejects cover. I know it's basic, but I think it fits the movie.

this might be a stupid question but what is a descreen?

Hey gaoutlaw,
Descreen is a setting on your scanners software that compensates for printed material. Scanners iterpret images as they see them and wind up compressing the image of sorts. Photographs are no problem in scanning. Printed images on the other had have many tiny dots that your eyes mesh together to get the effect of one color/colors when instead there are actually multiple dots of varying colors used to create another. However, the scanner picks up on these and represents them in a strange pattern on your monitor. I wish I could remember the name. I origionally wanted to say Bezold effect. However I think it is actually the moire effect or something like that. The Bezold is seen in color theory. Well anyways, If the descreen option is selected the scanner is told that it is scanning a print of some sort and compensates by acting as your eye and slightly blurring the main areas of color. The outcome is a psuedo photograph quality scan. Depending on what type of scanner, software, and computer you are using the difference in scan times will vary. There are many more calculations that the network has to make to get that WYSIWYG. Just do a search while the scan app is up and you should find something on it. If that fails there should be an advanced/ preferences tab that has the option. As for the other covers. I will gladly give you advice on those. I will start with the Devil's rejects. I will start another reply soon. I need to have a look around the site first.

Cool I was hoping that I would get to this before you had a chance to digest the descreening post. I just did not want to have you feel that I left ya hangin.
So, overall I like this better than the Clerks commented on earlier. Specifically ,the images on the front cover.

Front Cover: This is usually the first thing really looked at and what good is it if it does not grab your interest. I think that you have done just that. However, in order to improve the cover try and incorporate a background. To get an idea of what I am talking about take a look at some of boneapart?s work (http://www.dvdcoversfuzion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=562) The background for this is done rather well. It adds so much to the cover by applying it. Now This may mean losing one of the images and making that your main focus. I have yet to see the film but, from what I gather it is a gritty flick. The overall cover should reflect that look and feel. Next item for the front cover is the title. Is that the actual text from the movie? You may want to take the extra time to find the original text and copy it into the project. In doing this you are going to bring some familiarity to the person looking at the cover. While we love our custom work sometimes it is a good idea to keep elements of similar look from the original. Going back to the gritty look and feel, try and drop in some filters on the images. Burnt, torn, dirty, scrapped, warped, etc these types of filters in key spots will add this feel.

The Spine: The same would apply to the title if you are going to go that route. Try and carry over the background to the spine as well as the reverse. Other than overall appeal this will help in creating the look of the three elements on the cover (front , back, and spine) The main benefit is that you do not have to start from scratch at every point. This is how some covers tend to look really pieced together and jarring. The last thing on the spine is the image on the top, as I stated previously I have yet to see the movie, so excuse my ignorance of that image. This image should encapsulate the movie. This is usually done in displaying the main character/characters or a noticeable scene from the movie. Keep in mind that the spine takes more precedence than most believe. It is the area that in fact gets more attention than all. Others. When looking for a flick on your shelf do you pull out every DVD and look at the cover, or is it the spine that you look to in order to decide what you want to watch? There is also a small line of white on the bottom of the image that needs to be cropped out.

The Reverse: I like the pictures that you have chosen. The only issue that you are going to have is space for you other elements (synopsis, special features, credits) This area needs to be used effectively for the display of information contained on the disc. Now while this is a traditional approach there is nothing that says that you have to have these items on the back or even include them at all. However, by adding these or just a couple of them you are conveying what is in deed on the disc. It just makes for a clearer understanding of what is there. So how do you fix it? The UPC, if you decide to keep it needs to go further up and right. The only benefit of this is that it gives the cover a look of authenticity. The images could be scaled down, worked into the background, strung together, or keenly set into a border of a Polaroid picture and jumbled about. There is no limit to what you can create in this area. It is all up to your imagination. The Polaroid idea would add to the gritty feel especially if they were worn and dirty. What you do not want to do is simply cut and paste the images to the back. It will often convey a sense of simplicity. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I have seen many covers utilize the simplistic method and they turn out really well. I would just like for you to take these things into consideration. I will hit up Fire starter on another post. I was consiering doing a custom cover for this a couple of days ago. Ya beat me to it!:thumbup:

well you just about covered everything there gravital m8.................and yes you even got the word right..............Moire..............the word is French (i think it describes fabric)?????:thumbup:

Brilliant posts m8:goodpost:

I figured it was something like that. It would make sense in describing fabric because that what it looks like.

I took a lot of your advice. I chose not to use the burn efect on the back pictures not because I don't like the efect, but because I'm not comfortable with the tool yet so it comes off looking eather not burned enough or too burnt. As for the side wile the logo is not the same as the front they are both from movie posters. I also took your advice on the side picture. Insted of streching it i croped it.

It is looking much better than the original. Don't get frustrated with the tools. Most of this just takes some practice. You will get better by spending more time tinkering around with stuff.

Looking much better. Although the poster you used on the front is very low quality, the previous one was better. I have quickly thrown together a logo for the cover so you can use if you wish to. Its not perfect/ identical to the original however gives you some options.

Keep working at it. Take a look at other covers for some inspiration.:thumbup:

Ok I think it's close to being finished let me know what you think. and thanks for the logo. I think it realy brought everything together.

And here's the dvd lable.

Like the font. I really like the DVD label. It is a good use of that image. However, I like the 2nd cover attempt instead of the 3rd. If you could only find a higher resolution for that.

I liked it better two, but thats life. I've been trying to find the stuff to do Stephen King's The Stand, and have found next to nothing.

Looking good. How are you saving this? The reason why I ask is that I am seeing pixelation some in and around the logo and credits.

I saved it as a jpeg file.

Are you using Photoshop? With PS you will have the option to alter compression setting when saving.

SW is correct. It shows up as a slider. To get the best quality drag ALL the way to the right. You will occasionally be able to get away with asetting of ten. However the only time I use it is when I am forced to reduce the file size. Oh Yeah, I still have not forgotten about the comments on Firestarter. I have just been so dang busy. I promise it is commin'.

I always pull it up to 12.

I think I figured it out.
The credits look like it was an image dragged into the project. The pixelation is most likly the product of the original image. Or maybe it was scaled down saved then scaled up. Whatever the case, to correct this if that is the case
create a font layer use a font called "Steelfish" or some other condensed/narrow font. And type the credits up. It is time consuming but well worth it in the end.
1 it will look much better
2. You get to practice using multiple layer types
3. The versatility you get with a font layer is extraordinary. You will not be barred to that image and that image alone Colors, kerning, line spacing, and font type are just some of the options that you can manipulate.
Now while PS can handle these tasks it is not built for it. I would recommend getting a firm grasp on Adobe Illustrator. With Ai you will have the same options that PS has for text layers plus a thousand more other things.
That should take care of the credit pixel issue.
Now as for the title... This as well is an image pulled in. You can not notice the pixelation as much because it was probably a higher quality image. So there are some ways to fix this as well.
1. Delete the black background that was included in the image. You will only want the text of the title to remain. Before you delete the title, feather the selection by 1 possibly 2 pixels. This will assure that you don not have jagged edges after the deletion. Some things to keep in mind. If you start by selecting the red in the title, and after selecting it all (the title) is selected you are going to have to invert the selection. Otherwise you will wind up deleting the title and leaving the black portion. This may be a somewhat interesting approach to the title, it will leave you with the negative space. You may want to try it, just to see if it adds anything to the piece. Another pertinant point is it would be better to select everything you want to delete and then do so. If you select small chunks here and there and apply the feather modification the image will head down a road you do not want to travel.
Okay, so after the black has been deleted double click on the layer that contains the title. After, you should get some options for that layer. Stuff like blending, drop shadow, inner glow, outer glow, etc. The one you are looking for is color overlay. Checkmark the box and highlight it. Only then will the properties for color overlay open up. Here you can choose what you want to change the color to. I am also going to recommend that you play around in here as well. There are a ton of useful gizmos that will make life easier. The thing that I really like about this is that unlike filters you have the option to quickly revert to the original by unchecking the box, not to mention there is no lag in waiting for the filter to do it's thang.
Another way you may want to go later on as your skills progress, take the image into Illustrator and recreate the image by use of a pen tool. What I like about this method is that as a vector based app scale is irrelavant. you could blow it up 2000 times its original size and there will be NO distortion. From there you could copy and paste it back into PS and maybe do a few small tweaks on the image and presto your done in no time.
Hope some of this helped.:D

Yep gravital has said it all again:thumbup:

The bottom of the back is an image I origanaly did it my self on about the second or third time i redid the cover with the font you are talking about but after that i got lazzy and just pasted the image of it into later versions

On the subjects of the last posts, you may want to get into the habit of saving multiple files. If you ever need to change it you will always have the originating source to pull from. This will lessen the amount of work you have to do to refine. I get lazy too and this helps me a great deal.

Now for FIRESTARTER!!!!:thumbup:
All right I think the most obvious thing that I am going to point out is the front cover. I am not positively sure but I think that this is the cover for the book. While the artwork is not bad, the ?A novel by the Author?? is a giveaway that this was taken from a book. Now, with that main issue out of the way. There are some other things that you can do to improve this cover.

Front: The title is pixilated. What you are trying to aim for here is a continuous color on the main title. Something that you may want to look into is getting a decent picture of flames and masking it into the title. It would add to the theme of the film. I would recommend that you do away with the whole ?novel by?? tag. There is also the ?Rogue pictures? up in the top left. Make sure that you are getting this right. I think rouge is relatively new to films and was not around during this films debut.

Spine: There is some overflow of boxes between the reverse and the spine. When doing these you should have guidelines set up so that you can see exactly where each plane begins/ends. The ID number on the bottom, it has not been centered. Most of the time you can just cover this up with the clone tool. The only point of this number is for UPC identification or retail. However, if you are trying to make it look like a store-bought cover then keep it and modify so that it is centered.

Reverse: Most of this looks like it was taken straight from the actual cover. I do not have my copy nearby so I cannot say for sure. One thing that does push me to believe this is a scan and fix of the original cover is that there are the ever so familiar black gaps in space on the top and bottom. This is due to the type of cover it came off of. Fire-starter came in those low quality paper covers with the plastic clip strip and disc holder, that are just a little different in size to the rest of the DVD case making world. Why they still make these I don?t know. The best way to fix the back it to use that same information that you have and either replicate it as is, or alter the back to whatever you imagination holds. I prefer the latter. Besides this movie is a classic and worth the time and effort of an update.

Overall: it looks blurry to me. This was probably the result of too high a setting in the dust and scratch removal process. If that was the case, some advice on the scanning of images, prior to a scan make sure that the glass is clean and you wipe down the image to be scanned with a dry cloth or rag. In doing this you will reduce the chance of foreign objects showing up after the image has been scanned.
As I have said before I apologize if I at any point come of as an A-hole. I don't mean to. I am primarily interested in helping out other artists when I can. So, I hope this helps. Keep up the good work!

Ok, first off you are not being an a-hole. As for the Firestarter box you were dead on with your asesment. The front is the origanal cover for the book. as for the Rouge Pictures logo. Rouge is owned by Universal and alot of there older films are being released with the Rouge logo (Mallrats), Pluse I like the rouge logo better than the Universallogo. Everything else is from the scane of the orianal box avalable on in the cover art gallery. Once again I show my lazyness. I am a huge stephen king fan and would love to create or find covers for all my stephen king movies with the related book cover as the front. The biggest problum I'm having is finding pictures big enough for the task.

Love SK as well. As it is not a normal tendancy to cross the film art with the book art, you will have a hard time finding those precious hi resolution images. However, You being a fan and all I would expect you to have some of his books lying around. It will most likely be up to you to scan those images in and drop them in the project. The only prob you will face is worn covers. However, those are not that hard to fix. A little time is all that is required. I lie the idea behind what you are doing. It is very original. You just want to pull of those tags from the book that make it seem as a book.

The problem with me scaning them is my scaner is one of them all in one Printer, scaner copyer & fax. The scaner loads like a printer and the stuff i scan can only be so large or it won't fit. I plan on getting a flatbed scaner asap, but that won't be anytime soon.

Good idea on the purchase of a flatbed!!! They are really not too expensive. I think I picked mine up for 147.00 USD. It is not the greatest in the world. However, I have scanned over 200 covers with it, it works on both mac and PC, and has yet to say " I quit!"