Alright, so we had an assignment to do for my photo manipulations class and the goal was simple... make a DVD cover composed of images (without any special effects) you find online, and edit them to suit your cover. The goal was to make it as authentic as possible.
I would like to get as many opinions and feedback here as I can. Please tell me what you think.
Excuse the large file size, any compression I did to it proved quite ugly.
PS: Mind you, it was supposed to be composed of images we found online. Lord knows I couldn't afford to actually make a movie to have images to base it off of... haha.
PSS: The DVD cover is actually based on a novel I'm writing called The Painters, so theres a lot going on in this cover thats deeper then just "what looks nice."
Nice photoshopping. I'd say it looks authentic, if a little like a cheap budget movie on the back (only because of the 3 characters with jarringly clashing lighting - not your fault I know!)
CC:
The fonts fit perfectly and the modifications you made to the logo look great.
On the front cover, the lighting on the planets comes from the top-right, but the lighting on the letters comes from the bottom. Have you tried moving the illumination direction on the text to fit with the rest of the image?
The text has a few grammar mistakes. I counted 3 in the first paragraph.
The planets looks really good, as do the trees.
PLUS ONE for cleavage.
I suggest giving your SilverLife logo a background. The text is very thin and that part of the image is pretty busy and it makes the text hard to read.
That guy looks a wee bit like Circy, no? PLUS ONE.
The bottom left part of the motion blur behind The Painters logo seems to be cut off at the edge of the planet. It could be intentional, I don't know, but there doesn't seem to be anything in front of it. The more I look at it, the more it looks like it's supposed to be drawn on the surface of the planet, which makes the planet look like it's flat like a saucer.
By the way, you get nice assignments for your image manipulation class! At uni my final assignment was to create a custom image filter manually using the user defined matrix in PSP5. fml
My main criticism would be that the front cover doesn't tell me anything about the film - normally I would expect to be able to identify the genre, if nothing else. This has planets, so it could be sci-fi; the font suggests maybe fantasy or romance; the title and general feel suggests maybe it's some kind of pretentious ("artistic") crap. I can rule out comedy, but that's about it. You can't rely on people reading the back cover.
Also, it's missing some things that would make it appear more "authentic".
* The barcode is in a weird position - literally every single movie in my collection has the barcode in either the bottom-left or bottom-right corner (moving it will piss off people who work in rental shops).
* Age rating should appear on the side and front as well - not just the back.
* I would always expect to see the names of the main cast members on the front cover (and possibly the side), and more detailed credits on the back (director, producer, music composer, etc). Unless you've been told not to...
* I would usually expect to see the movie tag-line on the front cover.
* It's missing the usual legal/copyright information in smallprint, on the back.
Originally Posted by ..::hagar::.. Looks like the women is giving the guy a wedgie of biblical proportions and smiling as she does so.
LOL! Like said previously, it looks pretty cheap.
Thanks Adam. Could not have possibly expected any better from you, could I? Nope.
Thanks for the excellent feedback from everyone else though, especially the constructive ones. The project is turned in now but never the less, it's good feedback for future use. Appreciate it.
Initial impression: very swanky looking! Liked the colour-scheme, reminded me of films like Twilight
After some more looking-at:
- The cover tells me nothing about the film, looks more like a book cover than a DVD
- Maybe have a photo of some of the cast on the front too, with a caption at the bottom to give away something about the film
- Barcode should be at bottom on back
- More colour around the logo on spine
- I really liked the 2 photos of the males on the back - the lighting fits the background, style wise
- Photo of the woman, though she's sexy, looks flat and doesn't fit. Shame!
- I think the boxing of the text on the back isn't necessary and doesn't look "natural", if that makes sense
I think everything else i was thinking got said already. I agree with adam in that to me it looks cheap but in the way of it being a low-budget film (i think it's the photo's on the back that make me think that), not in the way i think adam was trying to be funny.
The rest is not too bad, but the font looks kinda.. cheap. Maybe if you did a rectangular outline instead of wrapping the box around the text. And the barcode is out of place. People usually stick those barcodes where others don't see them, you made the text wrap around it.
The people don't really look like they mingle with each other. You got the photo manipulation to the point where there's no artifacts or anything around the images, but the people still appear random; they don't mingle well. You should've just put the girl and that guy with the shiny purple thing, instead of all those people looking in random directions. If you wanted to get more complex, make them appear to be doing things, instead of staring randomly.
Also, I would've taken an actual scene from an actual movie with a similar theme (but less popular, not Avatar or Pan's Labyrinth) and stick it up behind there like they do in DVD covers.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Yea, all of my DVDs have bar codes in the top right. I wonder what else differs. The things missing from the back have already been mentioned (primarily names), but since it's not a real movie...
The work is good, but I wouldn't pick it up off the shelf.
I'd like to see a real movie cover from you! I think, given better assets, it would be more complete.
The rating is more prominent on your version, which is good.
I've often been irritated by not being able to find the rating on a DVD because there's only one tiny mention of it and it's often hidden behind a library or rental store sticker.
Although the UK is not far off , forget its problems we have Fish & Chips, Black Pudding, Pork Pies, DVD barcodes in a sane place, we drive on the left, and to top it off we have Pork Scratchings.
Originally Posted by -Adam- God knows why you take it as a personal attack, Brandon. Stop being such a dramatic, aggressive little queen for once in your TDC driven life.
Okay, you're right Adam. I took it as a personal attack. Thank you for showing me the errors of my way. You're the little punk who walks around like his pants are too tight. But I'm in the wrong, okay. Whatever, get a life... asshole.
You target me like a heat seeking missile for God knows what reason, so excuse me for having an immediate reason of disgust for anything you have to say to me when I know for a fact, no matter how mild, you wouldn't have said it to anyone else. Your complete and out right immature attitude toward me entering Gwerdy is a perfect example of this childish personality of yours. Grow up.
But then again, I don't know what the point in saying anything more to you is, because it's been how many years now and you've always found some whine to support your absurd claims and no one ever comes to your offense because you're a little ass kiss and know enough people off the site in MSN and anytime anyone came to my defense, you never said a word the rest of the forum. I know you Adam, you're a punk. The kind of punk everyone secretly hated in high school. So grow up and start acting like the adult your profile supposedly says you are.
Im targetting you? Even though you blatantly just took offense to a perfectly reasonable observation regarding a DVD cover that you didn't even post? Ironically everything you just took your afternoon typing describes yourself. Oh, and calling a Brit a punk is pretty much as the same as calling an American a wanker. It has little impact. Go figure.
Originally Posted by -Adam- Im targetting you? Even though you blatantly just took offense to a perfectly reasonable observation regarding a DVD cover that you didn't even post? Ironically everything you just took your afternoon typing describes yourself. Oh, and calling a Brit a punk is pretty much as the same as calling an American a wanker. It has little impact. Go figure.
I'd call you more, but I'm not going to let you get me banned. And you act like I take offense to every word you say, even if it's completely appropriate. I never took offense to what you said, I was merely showing you how silly what you said, sounded and how nonconstructive it was to the post - which if memory proceeds me, you seem to have an amount of respect for maintaining - meanwhile you're 9x out of 10, the only who derails it or purposely baits other people to derail it.
I'm not offended by you, that would give you too much credit. I'm putting you in your place. And for me to get DC messages from other members telling me they agree with me but didn't want to contribute in the dispute, that's saying something Adam. So I'll say it again, grow up.
But you're causing it yourself. You didn't have to make the snide remark after I commented on the DVD barcode, then try and turn it around out with crap about me targetting you.
And if we're getting back onto topic, your cover does look somewhat cheap. You over use photoshop bevels and glow effects in the title typography, making it look like a cheap movie ripoff, in combination with the chosen font. The font is also quite boring and looks like it should be on a Mother's day card rather than a fantasy film.
Most of the imagery that should be on the front is on the back, amongst the text boxes, which are bizarrely (in a non-stylistic way) outlined, the top looking one like it has been cut out to specifically to go around the barcode, as if that should be some kind of feature? I fail to see the need to seperate the text into two boxes in the first place. It almost looks like you didn't have enough content to fill it, so you shoved the images on the back, leaving a large gap to the left. Perhaps shots from the actual film or a landscape from the film would have been better suited.
Oh, and your logo doesn't resize well with the white outline, not against the background at any rate.