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Need help on this custom cover for ROTE...

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Hi there. Just wanted everyone's opinion on the following cover. I'm trying to create a loose template that I can use to create covers for any/all Star Wars related discs. I know there are so many - but I'll just be doing ones that I want as I need them. Anyway, was wondering if anyone had a hi-res untouched copy of the Hyperspace "H" logo or ocpmovie's "Orange Cow Home Video" logo (the one I'm using has a gradient effect on it). Just wanted to have the highest resources used on each cover.

1st attempt at cover

Also, would like to get feedback from people about the cover. I basically cannibalised that other Return of the Ewok one - I believe it was Sluggo's. I did do a version with a shorter blurb that I wrote, expanded upon the special features list a little and didn't utitlise the quote and sketch. However, I just found myself too attached to them. I also made a higher-res replica of Sluggo's original cover.

I guess I'll make these covers available eventually. I'm still getting the template down but have started creating covers for Building Empire, Returning to Jedi & Deleted Magic in this style. I'll use this thread for feedback as I think the "Star Wars Cover Showcase" thread is ridiculously long and cluttered.

Covers of mine currently hosted online (including non-SW):
Daveytod's "24: The Missing Day"
Ocpmovie's "Return of the Ewok"

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

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I like the cover, especially the cover art. The only thing I don't like is the orange cow logo, but that's just me. It doesn't look very "Star Wars". I understand why it's on there ofcourse, but it just doesn't fit somehow.
Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.
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I like it Klokwerk, though you might want to experiement with a drop shadow or bolder outline of the main logo just to make it stand out a bit. It gets a little lost with the busy image behind it. Otherwise, I think it's a most attractive cover! JD

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
Follow me on twitter @jamieSWB. Please support me at - http://www.patreon.com/jamiebenning/

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Arnie.D: Yeah, I know it seems kind of out-of-place but it was the only 'ocp' kind of logo that I could find. Plus, he used it on several of his on custom covers for his work. I guess I can take another look and see if I have anything better. If not, I guess I can make the cow a bit smaller.

Jambe: Yeah, turns out I had a blending option which I'd turned off and forgotten to turn back on before making the preview image. Below is a new revision with that layer effect (an outer glow that brightens up the underlaying image and a slightly bolder stroke) turned on. I've also recapped the screenshots, I was just using Sluggo's as placeholders. I chose to use the same shot of Wicket running from Darth Vader though; it's great.

Revision #1

I figure if the current layer effect doesn't make the title stand out enough... then I could use a white border/stroke instead of a black one. What do you guys think?

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

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That is nice so far. I was always confused why my earlier cover was the only one out there as it was just slapped together.
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It is a very nice cover, Klokwerk. I like it.
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Originally posted by: Number20
It is a very nice cover, Klokwerk. I like it.


Me too!

I just wish there was an online photo service in the UK that could print custom size photos, it would be perfect for these covers.

My printer just can't handle it.

JD

Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
Follow me on twitter @jamieSWB. Please support me at - http://www.patreon.com/jamiebenning/

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I'll just go ahead and write the first things that come to mind....


Perhaps you could put something big and bright under the main logo. Btw, what's the font used in that? Another possibility is having top and bottom borders to give the text a clean background. Or you could put a black box in, going between the top and bottom borders of the logo. Anything to make the text stand out more.

The OC logo would probably look better at the bottom.

If you could tweak the colour of the green on the backside to sort of match the colours of the leaves on the front side that would probably look good.

Change the unfocused image of Wicket to a focused one.

Increase the contrast slightly on the screen cap where Wicket runs down the stairs, just a little though.

If you yourself altered the front image to make it darker (blacker), perhaps you could revert that just a little. If it was dark from the beginning though you should probably leave it that way.


I like the overall look of the backside a lot. Keep up the good work =)
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I like, but like others have said, make the logo stand out more against the background.
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Originally posted by: SweHanzon
Perhaps you could put something big and bright under the main logo. Btw, what's the font used in that? Another possibility is having top and bottom borders to give the text a clean background. Or you could put a black box in, going between the top and bottom borders of the logo. Anything to make the text stand out more. I tried brightening the area underneath the text as well as blurring it to make the text above it stand out more. I didn't like that. The title still got lost in the busy background. Then I tried the thing with black underneath the text. I'd thought of that but been hesitant to try. I reckon it looks fine. What do you guys think? By the way, the font is simply Times New Roman.
Originally posted by: SweHanzon
The OC logo would probably look better at the bottom. Tried that. No disrespect to ocpmovie but that orange cow logo is just to big and un-"Star Wars"-y to use. I've left the spine ID and the Hyperspace symbol on though and I'd really like a 'creator' logo to be on there. Any ideas?
Originally posted by: SweHanzon
If you could tweak the colour of the green on the backside to sort of match the colours of the leaves on the front side that would probably look good. I played around with a lot of different greens and found one that was easy on the eye. I agree that it should match the front but every time I tried to make it match the front I got a green that was too dark. In the end I found one that I think works. The darkness of it though meant that the red text above & below the menu shot was hard to read. The same thing applied to the "Bonus Material" list. So, I tried doing that list in black, white & a lighter green. They all looked funny. I wanted the list to stand out from the blurb so black was out of the question. I ended up making it red and not on the green box. Thoughts?
Originally posted by: SweHanzon
Change the unfocused image of Wicket to a focused one.
The image I believe you're referring to is the menu shot? I just capped the best shot of the motion menu. I can't get a 'focused' cap as Wicket goes by too quick. If you don't mean the menu shot, which shot do you mean?
Originally posted by: SweHanzon
Increase the contrast slightly on the screen cap where Wicket runs down the stairs, just a little though.
Done.
Originally posted by: SweHanzon
If you yourself altered the front image to make it darker (blacker), perhaps you could revert that just a little.
I went back to my source image and realised how badly I'd stuffed the colors. In my defense, they were a little funny on the original image anyway and I was just trying to fix 'em. I've had another go and think I've done much better this time on both the color adjustments and the contrast.
Originally posted by: SweHanzon
I like the overall look of the backside a lot. Keep up the good work =)
Thanks. That goes out to everyone who's posted in this thread. Thanks for the comments and suggestions. Please help me out again now to try and finalise this cover as I've got to get to work on the Building Empire & Returning to Jedi ones.

EDIT:
Oops! I forgot to post the newly revised cover preview. *Duh* Here ya go...

Revision #2

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

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I like it. It looks a little weird not having the Star Wars logo on the spine, but that's not a bad thing either.
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maybe you could put a small SW logo at the top of the spine where the cow used to be

FINISHED:
The Sith Revealed - A Scrapbook
Episode III The Video Game - The Movie
24: The Missing Day
Star Wars - The Interactive Board Game DVD
Battlefront - Journal of the 501st
The Clones Revealed

email me for details daveytod AT btinternet DOT com

 

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In response to Sluggo & Daveytod:
I was actually considering some way of showing which film the DVD relates to (in this case Return of the Jedi) and whether it's a fan-edit, a documentary/special or something else (in this case a short film). Perhaps some combo of logos? I don't know exactly. Will muck around with it. Will wait til I've heard some more opinions on what I've changed since the last revision. Then I'll do some more work and hopefully have the final version.

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

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Latest version looks great, but just a quick thought - while the black bar behind the logo helps it to stand out nicely, it looks a little odd protruding out of the sides like that.

Perhaps you could extend the red lines/margins to the full width of the cover to match? Or cut down the black, and have the red wrap fully around the logo (as with the logo on the menu screenshot).
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Jonno's suggestion is a good one.

The new green you put on the backside looks great. A lot more balanced.

The unfocused shot of Wicket I was reffering to is indeed that menu screen cap. If that's the best one then so be it. It's ok.

If you have the font Trajan Pro, you could try using that instead of TNR. It looks more Star Wars-y.

And good call on removing the OCP logo. Just writing it looks more professional.

The frontside looks better as well. Were did you get that picture? It's perfect.
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Would you mind if I took a crack at a cover for this from scatch?

It's much improved but
1 ) There's a few things I don't like
2 ) I've had a few ideas you haven't touched on [yet]

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Jonno, I tried your idea out, which I had been thinking of doing, and it works well.

SweHanzon, I know Trajan Pro is more ... um, 'epic' and Star Wars-y, but I've kept the TNR font because the logo is meant to look like the Return of the Jedi one. In place of the old OCHV logo I've put a spine image at the top. I tried some movie/type logos on there and they just didn't work. Instead I'm opting for a unique spine image for each cover I do. As for the front production still.... I can't remember where I found it. It was a hi-res resource site of some description, just can't remember which/where.

Johnny Ringo, there's a ton of ideas I've tried and scrapped and a few I've yet to try, but I'm getting happier with my version as I go. I think it's almost done. You can of course take a crack at your own cover. After all; it's not my disc, I don't own the copyright to Star Wars either. I started doing my cover because I wanted a standard SW DVD cover template. I started with ROTE because apart from Ell & Sluggo's covers I hadn't seen any so far. The more covers there are for this great disc the better.

And now... here is my latest update to the cover. I think I'm pretty much done. I know it isn't the greatest but I'm happy with it:

Revision #3

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

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Yes TNR does indeed seem to be the real font, but for some reason I thought it looked a little off. I figured out what it was though. The ROTJ logo has the letters closer together. (poster). And have you tried putting "of" on top of "the"? Just a thought.

However now I'm just getting picky. It's improved a lot since the first one. Looking great now
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I did try "of the" in two lines with "of" on top of "the"... but I like this way better. The other way always looked a little odd.

Thanks for the input SweHanzon and thanks for all your suggestions so far guys.

Really do think I'm done now. I've tweaked the logo so that the letters are closer together.

Revision #4

However, I now have to transmogrify this into a RTJ cover for Jambe's almost-released disc. Text

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com

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As the originator on the ROTE project, I really do like this cover.

I do think the Orange Cow logo should make an appearance somewhere, though, out of respect to ocpmovie's fine work. But I agree that it looks funny on the spine. Maybe a very small one on the back somewhere, near all the other logos? Or above the Hyperspace logo, maybe, very small? Somewhere unobtrusive, yet still present.

Oh, one minor wording technicality: the blurb starts out "...a second production was underway/This is Return of the Ewok..." probably should read "This was Return of the Ewok".

But otherwise, I'd be happy to print that one out and put it on my shelf. Not that my JediSluggo cover is bad right now, but like he said, it was just a quick sketch.

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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Skot, I don't want to disrespect ocp's work at all. He's done some fine DVDs and this and Deleted Magic were among the first few discs I got from this community.

I think the problem with the logo before, was mainly that it was too big. I've had another go at having the OCP logo on the spine. I moved the Hyperspace logo to the back and shortened the text bit down there. Instead of having the: "genre of the disc / runtime / year" business, it's now just the runtime and the year one on top of the other. This left more space than I needed but I figured since I was doing similar on my RTJ cover that I'd use that space wisely. Now, the bottom logo section is (* = space between logos):

Apect Ratio * Sound (usually DD) * PAL or NTSC * Region (usually ALL) * DVD Video * SL or DL * Runtime & Year * Other Logo

I'm thinking that the last logo can be a 'source' logo. For ROTE one of the sources was the Hyperspace clip, for LD transfers I can put the LD symbol, etc. The "Single Layer" logo is one I created to complement the "Dual Layer" one I've used which is used on Village Roadshow distributed DVDs here in Australia. It's nice and simple without looking tacky. Anyway, I also fixed that minor wording issue. Please tell me what you think of this final version:

http://www.users.on.net/~paulgaliazzo/rote_revision5.jpg

I'm going to upload it in a zip/rar or whatever, with a high quality version of Sluggo's original cover (I recreated it exactly in the standard 3240x2175 template). I think the only other ROTE cover is Ell The Ewok's. I'll try and grab that one to chuck in too. That way, all the ROTE covers will be available in the one download.

Ell, if you've been following this thread could you send me your cover please?

To contact me outside the forum, for trades and such my email address is my OT.com username @gmail.com