| Post new topic Reply to topic | Message |
|
||||
| I finally came across some standard size DVD covers and needed help creating insert for the cases. Anyone have any experience recommendations? | ||||
|
||||
 |
Since I am a professional graphic designer, I figured some of this info might help. 
Finding Content: Check mainstream e-zine sites for any art assets. You want to locate "official" 2D or 3D artworks. Here is a link to some Jet Grind Radio artwork: http://lvls.wordpress.com/imagery/imagery-j-r/jet-grind-radio-imagery/ These are official art assets created and released by Smilebit. So they are fair game to make fan covers. This is going to be hard though for 2 reasons: 1) Not many games at the time for the Dreamcast had many of these assets released, and 2) most of the content is at a lower DPI, which means it wont print very well. It was designed for screen resolutions at just 72dpi (which is the standard for digitally displaying content). For print, you want at least 150 or 300 dpi. Scaling the images up from a smaller size or dpi will only make them blurry. You can scale down and retain image crispness but not up. A complex topic you will have to deal with is fanart copyright infringement. Try not to distribute fan covers using artworks from fan artists without their permission. Here is artwork of GUM, by reknowned SNK artist "Falcoon" http://www.racketboy.com/images/jsr03.jpg Just be sure to get the artists permission before "distributing" your cover designs online. If you are making covers just for yourself, for your private collection, anything is fair game. You can do whatever you want. Software: Open Source graphics software can really help you get the results you want for printing covers.
You will want to make your overall cover art in Inkscape, and import lossless images that you create/process from GIMP. Using Inkscape to make text/rectangles/borders etc means you will get pristine edges on text and other graphic design elements. Tips: Find official wallpapers. Wallpapers were usually larger in size and have nice artwork. Use a masking tool (polygonal lasso) to cut out objects from wallpapers or even game screenshots. If your image assets are all of low resolution, and you are having a hard time printing out quality artwork for the main cover, one solution is to re-trace the cover art in Vector using inkscape. You can go for a sort of cell shaded look to the artwork. This art you can scale indefinatly without quality loss because it is in Vector. Another alternative is to just make all original artwork yourself. You can draw stuff out on paper, and then scan it in and color it using GIMP or Inkscape. You can even use Blender, a free and open source 3D modeling application to make your very own 3D models of Dreamcast characters. This might be a lot of work... but it could also be very fun, and you would be learning a marketable skill in the process 
Hope this helps! |
|||
| _________________ I'm already numero uno on Dark Helmet's hit list... |
||||
|
||||
| Thanks for the feedback. All of the covers will be for my own personal use. I hate not being able to put the Dreamcast games with my other game cases because of the different size cases. I also feel the DVD case will take a little more damage compared to the jewel case. I have to say thanks to for the recommendation for the DC video resolution question. I hope to hear of your posting soon. | ||||
|
||||
 |
nikon pretty much said it all. I used to make DVD covers for my DC games and I followed basically the same advice with decent results. | |||
| _________________ Pso: Kingbuzzo lvl 80 QUake 3: [OC] Kingbuzzo |
||||
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum