General Category > General Discussion
Cover Quality Discussion
BadChad:
--- Quote from: segamer on June 26, 2013, 06:19:11 PM ---Second, only a select few decide which cover (in their opinions) meet site standards. This Super Bonk cover was uploaded last month and it doesn't meet site standards. (http://www.thecoverproject.net/view.php?cover_id=13207)
Where as this cover for Super Bonk has been on the forums for over a year (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?s5ztvcdnaqjbehz). Meets sites standards 100%.
So things are a bit skewed.
--- End quote ---
May I ask what exactly is wrong with the quality of my Bonk cover? Sure, I usually do my own thing to the template to kinda keep as much of the retail box present on the back (which not everyone may be into) but I don't see how this doesn't meet standards? It was made with great quality box scans.
And I do happen to be one of the few people around here who as actually taken some of my own time to upload covers made for other people (and I know I've uploaded at least one of yours). And understand that I am not the one who put the quality standards in place, but I do respect them as a cover admin. There are times when I've wanted to upload a bunch of your covers (I've printed every cover you've made that I needed for myself), and I'm sorry if I couldn't because I felt they may not be up to the standards of what some of the other admins that are more strict than me would expect. But that's no reason to single out one of my covers and say its not up to quality if that's your reason...
And by any means, if any of the other admins have been disappointed with the quality of some of my covers since I've been an admin, please speak up! I've considered myself to do pretty well with the quality of my covers as well as approving the covers of others. If you feel differently, please say so.
shenske:
--- Quote from: BadChad on June 28, 2013, 09:30:58 PM ---
--- Quote from: segamer on June 26, 2013, 06:19:11 PM ---Second, only a select few decide which cover (in their opinions) meet site standards. This Super Bonk cover was uploaded last month and it doesn't meet site standards. (http://www.thecoverproject.net/view.php?cover_id=13207)
Where as this cover for Super Bonk has been on the forums for over a year (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?s5ztvcdnaqjbehz). Meets sites standards 100%.
So things are a bit skewed.
--- End quote ---
May I ask what exactly is wrong with the quality of my Bonk cover? Sure, I usually do my own thing to the template to kinda keep as much of the retail box present on the back (which not everyone may be into) but I don't see how this doesn't meet standards? It was made with great quality box scans.
--- End quote ---
Agree w/ Badchad. I'll borrow this pic to show as an example. The one on the left is far better quality, which is why the cover won't be replaced.
BadChad:
I think maybe the issue is segamer doesn't agree with the fact that we generally prefer sharper quality art over those smoothed out with filters. I've always found that segamer does a really good job at what he does and over all everything looks great (sometimes with vector logos and redrawn artwork which is completely out of my skill set), but on other covers the artwork used is sometimes smoothed out with filters or rebuilds made from cleaned up label scans/lower res art etc. which in my experience working up to a cover admin, was not always accepted.
segamer:
SEGAMER's Cover Project Story
Before I had ever joined the cover project, I was visiting the site and downloading cover for about 3 months. All most all of the covers I downloaded where very poor in quality. So, I would clean them and fix them for myself. I decided to join, feeling that I could help the cover project. I submitted cleaned and retooled versions of the covers that I had downloaded from the site. One cover, Fatal Fury for the Genesis was so bad, I end up rebuilding it all together.
I silently waited for months. At the time, only one cover had been updated in a two month period and snowcone hadn't addressed the site in over a year. My first post questioned the state of the site and why the covers I had submitted weren't being used. I was told that the covers sucked and the site couldn't use them because they didn't meet site standards. Even though they were downloaded directly from the site, apparently they were 96 dpi. As for my Fatal Fury cover, I was told it had the wrong barcode and the picture were incorrect and therefore, it couldn't be used.
So, I researched site standards and tried again. On my next cover, it was zoomed in on and picked apart by site members. I was referred to a post that included this image and the sites standards were restated.
So, I set out to make perfect covers that followed site rules.
Unused Ren and Stimpy cover
Even though I set out to follow the site rule 100%, it was pointed out that my work couldn't be used because I was using an outdated template (used by the discussed Bonk cover and posted to the site). This is still unnoticed by the individuals who set such high standards. Funny how these standards don't always apply.
Shenske did a wonderful job with his templates; second to none but they aren't perfect. It uses the modern Nintendo seal as opposed to the vintage seal and parts of it were poor quality. For myself, I updated this template which includes many clean ups, and a fix Nintendo Seal. Here's a small example of the update I've use for Tengen games.
For many covers, they had to be built from the ground up because no scans are available. Wolf and I worked on this Color a Dinosaur cover for over two weeks. I had to hand re-draw the artwork. It was pains taking. The cover went largely unnoticed and unused by cover administrators. It's hurtful to spend so much time reproducing a cover to have it ignored. It really suck when ones work is being used by retrogamecases and not the cover project.
I've been at the cover project over a year. The site is full of wonderful people. BadChad is my hero, Arseen is an Angel, Almighty Wolf is a Champion, Shenske is a God amoung men, Mel is heaven sent and Wiggy's sense of coolness is beyond me. There are so many wonderful people on this site who do great work. It's always been my feeling that the site should find a way to make work by say... Mel or Wiggy available through some means. However, the process of selecting covers seems skewed. I only ever hear excuses. The process is broken to me and favors a select few.
NOTE to BadChad: I wasn't paying attention that you created the Bonk Cover. I wasn't trying to pick on you. Just make a point. My apologies. I'm a jerk. The problem with the cover is that it uses an old template with lower resolution logos and such. I've had work rejected because of this.
Akumu:
The selection isn't so much skewed just that it is very detail oriented and strict in terms of what is acceptable to go into the database. I been here since the start and while I made many covers, there are still some that doesn't make it into the database either cause I skewed over a few details that should have been cleaned up or whatever.
You mention people like mel who are very resourceful and active but one of the concerns I see with this page and hopefully can be handled a bit more after the redesign goes live is that there is too much of a focus now on these personal or completely custom layout projects where raws aren't really put up for share but just splattered onto some sort of one color custom template or deviantart pictures copy and pasted without any real work done to clean it up and preserve, which is what this place is about to me at least. Shit there's been covers that have taken me weeks to get cleaned proper. There's nothing wrong with custom covers, but they shouldn't be the focus of the site and should probably be at a spot on the forums which doesn't get bumped to the top to avoid raws and traffic exclusively going into the personal projects. Custom boxes are more suited for vgboxart.com and such