The Cover Project
Artist's Corner => CD Case Covers => Topic started by: flamepanther on August 11, 2017, 02:26:53 PM
-
We already have a great Sega/Mega CD template that Velmeran put together from DVD style cases by Vt102 and Grumbleduke. But I noticed that some Sega CD games already come in a format that's already very close! Sega's official digipak cases have a lot less clutter than their jewel cases, tall cases, etc. No bar code, no number of players, no catalog ID number, etc.
To me, that means less time spent worrying about the stuff on the backs and spines, so I can just focus on cleaning up the art and logos. It also means more room for everything that is included, which is important if you're already trying to cram a vertical cover into a horizontal cover. So I scanned my digipak case for Sonic CD and used it to make a template!
http://www.mediafire.com/view/sw1nob61vm376i5/Sega_CD_PolyCase_-_flamepanther.xcf (http://www.mediafire.com/view/sw1nob61vm376i5/Sega_CD_PolyCase_-_flamepanther.xcf)
You'll notice the colors for the blue bars are different from the existing templates. This is because I'm matching the color they'll print as on a CMYK printer. It might look off on your monitor--this is normal. The deep, bright cyan Sega uses seems to have problems with conversion to RGB. I'm printing these out on a printer with Pantone-approved color modelling, and they're indistinguishable from the case colors.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/2ac4/i6p9cwlchocs3mb4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/i6p9cwlchocs3mb/comparison.jpg)
The metrics are also as accurate as I believe to be possible. The top and bottom are slightly cropped. There's enough unused space on the front left and back right of the real digipaks that the wider spine width works out on its own. I didn't have to move anything around, so all of the elements align with the stripes exactly as on the original.
-
Android Assault
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/1afa/m5fya8y1rnxp6n74g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/m5fya8y1rnxp6n7/Android_Assault.png)
Cobra Command
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/9300/bglb5bvwaiyfhmv4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/bglb5bvwaiyfhmv/Cobra_Command.png/file)
Microcosm
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/5d12/mgtpbo2yrln0tu24g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/mgtpbo2yrln0tu2/Microcosm.png/file)
Rebel Assault
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/691a/26w63iv2rvr6zzy4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/26w63iv2rvr6zzy/Rebel_Assault.png)
Robo Aleste
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/420c/uogubb4xoekvqnq4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/uogubb4xoekvqnq/Robo_Aleste.png)
Sewer Shark
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/f549/8ytn3qfsx6k0p1d4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/8ytn3qfsx6k0p1d/Sewer_Shark.png/file)
Sonic CD
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/14f3/y2u9otp4wmt6lp84g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/y2u9otp4wmt6lp8/Sonic_CD_US.png)
Stellar Fire
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/0c6a/mnxk96hn6vca1yh4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/mnxk96hn6vca1yh/Stellar_Fire.png)
Time Gal
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/14b7/utq5oaouj5m6umt4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/utq5oaouj5m6umt/Time_Gal.png/file)
-
I also took the liberty of putting the Sonic MegaMix cover by TyrannicalFascist into my template:
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/cb09/pssiaubn3tlikuy4g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/pssiaubn3tlikuy/Sonic_Megamix_retemplate.png)
-
Look great man! Have you considered text for the spines instead of logos though? Readability may be a concern with something that small.
-
Look great man! Have you considered text for the spines instead of logos though? Readability may be a concern with something that small.
Well, I thought about that, which is why I made all my logos bigger than the one for Sonic CD--which is the same size as on the original Sonic CD Digipak spine. (I should have mentioned that Sonic CD is straight-up stock. I didn't add or resize anything whatsoever). They all turned out to be pretty readable on my shelf, as long as I'm close enough to actually grab one. Might have to phsically pick Android Assault up to read the "Revenge of Bari-Arm" part, but I think that's acceptable. It should only be a problem if someone is using a fairly blurry/runny combination of printer/paper/settings.
But I did include a template, and I am totally in favor of people tweaking these however they want :)
-
These are awesome! May have to play around with this template a bit, since I'm not a big fan of the long-box design for the Sega CD and Saturn games.
-
These are awesome! May have to play around with this template a bit, since I'm not a big fan of the long-box design for the Sega CD and Saturn games.
Thanks! I feel like Time Gal could use some work, but I'm happy with the others.
Feel free to post anything you make with the template in this thread! ;D
-
Anyone have a link to the poly cases these work with? Theres lots of different poly cases, tracking down the exact one is quite a chore.
-
Anyone have a link to the poly cases these work with? Theres lots of different poly cases, tracking down the exact one is quite a chore.
Don't worry about tracking down the exact same case as someone else. I agonized over that too, until I ordered a few different kinds and found the dimensions are virtually identical for all of them. Just make sure the spine is approximately 10 or 10.5 millimeters, or that it advertises having the same physical dimensions as a CD Jewel case and you should be fine.
I'll try to find where I ordered most of mine from, but it's been a while. They were sold in batches of 100, I think!
-
Thanks! Very informative :)
-
Anyone have a link to the poly cases these work with? Theres lots of different poly cases, tracking down the exact one is quite a chore.
If you still want to use the exact same cases as me, here they are:
http://ldbmart.com/sipodvcawpcs.html
They also have a clear version. I had to dig all the way back to 2017 to find the email with my receipt. Two years later, I still haven't used all of them! ;D
-
Updates in first post!
Added:
Cobra Command
Microcosm
Sewer Shark
Updated:
Time Gal
-
These are cool! I am working on resizing the artwork for jewel case inserts (see thread about that which I've just bumped). None of these games are in my collection but I suspect at some point we'll bump into each other. I wonder if we can form some sort of pact to make square-format Sega cover edits available in both formats? For instance, you may find my jewel case edits of Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors and Night Trap 32X useful for Digipak with minor adjustments.
-
You can also use Japanese covers if you want CD case sized art.
-
I was about to print out the Sewer Shark, but I noticed that the back was bare. It also made me wish that the logos were centered on the area given. To me, it looks like there is too much of a gap of blue between the game title and the SEGA CD on the spine. Nevertheless, they do look awesome and I hope you continue on with your project :D
-
I was about to print out the Sewer Shark, but I noticed that the back was bare. It also made me wish that the logos were centered on the area given. To me, it looks like there is too much of a gap of blue between the game title and the SEGA CD on the spine. Nevertheless, they do look awesome and I hope you continue on with your project :D
The versions of Sewer Shark that came with a standard jewel case-sized front didn't have anything on the back--like, it was literally an empty jewel case back, AFAIK. The back of the tall box version doesn't seem like a good match. I guess I could retype the long box flavor text and paste some screen shots on there? On the other hand, I have mixed feelings about putting content on the backs of any of these when Sonic CD had none.
The spines aren't what I would've come up with, but I'm trying to match how Sega did it on their official digipaks. If you look at the Sonic CD cover, it's basically a cleaned raw. I didn't move anything. Sega aligned the top/left of the game logo on the spine roughly with the "D" in "Sega CD" on the front, so I did the same with the others.
Yes, there will be more of these. Prime and an alternate version of Microcosm are probably next.