Making covers from scratch

[kingjohn3]

Not sure if its been done but I cant find it on youtube, only people talking about the site. Could some of our esteemed Guru's PLEASE make a detailed "Cover Making For Dummies" video? I'm talking basic, elementary stuff. Assume that the person watching knows absolutely nothing about Photshop or ANY other program. I do have CS2 and would LOVE to start making some stuff but have been totally unable to grasp the concept. I've pieced together some searches on here but cant get it. I am much more likely to understand if there is a "show me" video rather than a "tell me" message. I'm sure many of us who just troll around looking at stuff and making requests would be much more valuable to the site if we knew what we were doing    

[shenske]

We have thrown around this idea before. I personally wanted to do this but i know nothing about video capture programs/software and/or video editing so it didn't go anywhere.

[larryinc64]

We have thrown around this idea before. I personally wanted to do this but i know nothing about video capture programs/software and/or video editing so it didn't go anywhere.

I know a lot about video editing and capture.
You can see some of my work for Power Plaid Plays

I tossed this out to mods in the past. I'm busy animating a Beatallica Cartoon all December, so maybe next year we can get one made.
In the mean time, If any cover artist want to put together a step by step list for me, to compare methods, we can begin to formulate what the video will cover.

[sheep2001]

The problem is, there is no set process.  It really depends on the source material.   There are plenty of photoshop tutorials on YouTube for how to use specific tools.

I would say familiarize yourself with  the following.

removing a background from an image.

Using the spot heal and patch tools.

Resizing specific parts of an image.

Clone stamp.

Changing the brightness//tone/contrast.

Text effects.

Layer styles -  especially glow, drop shadow and emboss.



Understanding these tools will make it much easier to do simple covers, and it will give you much more of an understanding of how photoshop works and what can be done with it.  Just don't try and learn everything at once - take one subject, and watch 3 or 4 videos on it, and play with it.  The results can differ depending on the source material, and how you approach it.  The only way to learn is to dive in and play.

[larryinc64]

I think it would be helpful to put everything in one video.
Maybe do the first one showing every tool, and how they are useful in cover making.
Then do one on using templates.
And then maybe on making a retail and vertical cover from scratch.

[wiggy]

The problem is, there is no set process.  It really depends on the source material.   There are plenty of photoshop tutorials on YouTube for how to use specific tools.

I would say familiarize yourself with  the following.

removing a background from an image.

Using the spot heal and patch tools.

Resizing specific parts of an image.

Clone stamp.

Changing the brightness//tone/contrast.

Text effects.

Layer styles -  especially glow, drop shadow and emboss.



Understanding these tools will make it much easier to do simple covers, and it will give you much more of an understanding of how photoshop works and what can be done with it.  Just don't try and learn everything at once - take one subject, and watch 3 or 4 videos on it, and play with it.  The results can differ depending on the source material, and how you approach it.  The only way to learn is to dive in and play.

I don't even know what tools those are lol!

The nice thing about the adobe suite is that there are about 100 ways to perform most every task. For instance, I NEVER use layer styles because I had to learn to achieve those effects manually before there was such a thing as layer styles. Doesn't prevent me from creating the effects though

[kingjohn3]

I think it would be helpful to put everything in one video.
Maybe do the first one showing every tool, and how they are useful in cover making.
Then do one on using templates.
And then maybe on making a retail and vertical cover from scratch.

I totaly agree. And I think explaining terminology is really important so we'll know what you're talking about. I know there are videos out there that explain it all but in terms os strictly cover making I think it would be very helpful to explain it more

[wiggy]

So you want to make templates as well as the covers?

[kingjohn3]

Well, not so much making new templates I guess. Just taking existing covers and tweaking them, changing background colors, creating custom spines, etc.