The Cover Project
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: cojack16 on November 07, 2013, 05:28:05 PM
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I've noticed there are a ton of custom covers. However, these custom designs are largely not done for ALL of the games. So if you want to use them, you end up having some in this style, some in that, and some in a totally different style. One example is that I love wiggy's n64 covers but since he only did them for perhaps 22 of the 35 games I own, there wouldn't be uniformity on the shelf for my N64 games.
My question is, is uniformity overrated? I'd love to use some of Autobot's N64 covers too. I'm just wondering if I'd like the end product (having a mix of different style/color covers for the same system). Has anyone else done this and were you satisfied?
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Of course you could ask people to do covers in preferred style of yours...
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For me uniformity doesn't matter, i love to see them with the retail look :D . But as Arseen say, you could ask people as you want
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I guess you guys have a point but I'd end up with way too many requests and that's too much work to ask of people I don't even know since I'm new to the boards.
I've looked into whether there's a guide so I could learn to do it myself but it seems like it'll be too difficult since I don't know anything about photoshop.....
Doesn't it take awhile for people to do covers in my preferred style? I don't know anything about how much work it is but it seems like it would be taxing enough.
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I guess you guys have a point but I'd end up with way too many requests and that's too much work to ask of people I don't even know since I'm new to the boards.
I've looked into whether there's a guide so I could learn to do it myself but it seems like it'll be too difficult since I don't know anything about photoshop.....
Doesn't it take awhile for people to do covers in my preferred style? I don't know anything about how much work it is but it seems like it would be taxing enough.
Depends on cover.
Doing Shenske Vertical from exsisting pre-cleaned raws takes less than 30minutes (or it would if my computer would work same pace as my hands).
Wiggy covers are even more custom and lacks screenshots and text so with good images should takes less.
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Given that I plan to keep looking for deals on NES, Genesis, N64, and SNES games- I probably should either decide to stick to a more common vertical style for all my covers or decide to do whatever I wish and not worry about keeping it so organized/uniform. Constantly making requests wouldn't work so well I think. My collection is never going to be completely static.
how much would adobe Photoshop cost? Or is there a free Photoshop download that would also do the job for me (just creating or fixing covers for myself)?
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Given that I plan to keep looking for deals on NES, Genesis, N64, and SNES games- I probably should either decide to stick to a more common vertical style for all my covers or decide to do whatever I wish and not worry about keeping it so organized/uniform. Constantly making requests wouldn't work so well I think. My collection is never going to be completely static.
how much would adobe Photoshop cost? Or is there a free Photoshop download that would also do the job for me (just creating or fixing covers for myself)?
If you stick to Vertical style you should be covered quite easily as I actively collect and store them, and if good raws pop up do them if I have time.
I think you can download Photoshop CS2 free. Or use Paint.net or Gimp.
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Thanks Arseen.
I'm torn. I really love these beautiful custom covers. At the same time I love thinking about how all my games would look- all organized and neat on a shelf
I'm surprised no one has posted a guide or a "how-to" for using templates and making what covers you need using some of these photoshop programs.
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Photoshop can be expensive, a couple hundred, depending on the version, I use CS3. Got it in a collection with a student discount.
Gimp is similar, but not as good, but free and should do the job.
I use retail covers with easy to make custom spines.
(http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp280/larryinc64/snes_supermarioworld2.png)
Here is a shitty picture of white, printer friendly place holder spine cards of them.
(http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp280/larryinc64/0918022013c_zps7efbe784.jpg)
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I guess it's too much (money and time) to invest in the idea of getting photoshop and doing some myself. Hmm....
Will have to think about it I guess. Maybe total uniformity wouldn't be as pleasing as the freedom to have great, unique covers for many of the games.
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Gimp is free and still useful,
http://www.gimp.org/
If you just want uniform spines, that is very easy to do, depending on the design.
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Okay I want to give it a shot. Could you try and explain some basics of what I'd have to do? I assume there would be a template for the spine that I'd have to pick out....After I find one, I'm not too sure what to do after that.
I just downloaded Gimp by the way, forgot to mention that.
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When I first found this site, I thought it was awesome but I wanted to make my own covers (wasn't a real fan of the retail). So I made my own minimalist covers (NES) and a modified wiggy style for my SNES. After printing them all out and putting them in my UGCs, i realized that when I opened the cases - i really didn't like the white back grounds. So i decided to take my custom covers and turn them into the inside covers and then print the retail covers on the outside. So I guess I'm halfway done.
Sorry to make a short story long, but I guess I would say, give it a shot yourself. It's challenging and rewarding at the same time. In the beginning I didn't know anything about photoshop and I needed some pointers from a few of the fellah's in here, but a few months later (I still don't know much about photoshop, but I know enough to make my covers), I have created custom covers for my entire library of games. I struggled and there was a steep learning curve but in hindsight, I'm proud of what i've done and when my friends asked where i got them, i can be proudly declare "I made them."
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Having experimented with several different methods, uniformity, retail, etc. I have come to the conclusion that (for me) uniformity of some kind is ideal. For NES, they need that black NES logo square up top. For N64 and SNES the spines need to be the same. The fronts, backs etc don't matter so much to me, but the spine is by far the most important thing.
I suggest trying some stuff, seeing how it looks and going from there. You never know what you'll find. For example, one thing I learned that I absolutely won't compromise on is that all my genesis titles need to be uniform red stripe. I just hated how they looked mixed with black, green, etc.
So I say play around, print one or two of various covers, and see how they look.
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I've decided to go with uniformity, I guess it's a bit of OCD kicking in. In Australia, all ps1 releases had a black spine with white text haha, can't stand anything else. Same with the PAL PS2 spines, just looks strange without uniformity to me.
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Well I have gimp and it's admirable to take on that steep learning curve and try to make covers yourself. However, I have no knowledge of how to use this and don't know where to look for tips. Are there any websites or can someone just give me some tips off the top of their heads (or a few steps to follow for altering spines on some covers at least?)
By altering spines I mean, I'd find a cover I liked and would then find a spine I like and alter that spine so it is coordinated with the game and then I guess try to paste that on the cover I like in place of the spine that is by default, there. Hope I didn't confuse anyone I think I got my point across....
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Don't know how to use Gimp but you can search on youtube for tutorials, not on how to make covers but how to use the program and maybe that way you can apply it on the covers ;)
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That's not quite the best option for me since I actually have a significant hearing loss and can't follow those tutorials. Good suggestion though, thanks.
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I guess you guys have a point but I'd end up with way too many requests and that's too much work to ask of people I don't even know since I'm new to the boards.
I've looked into whether there's a guide so I could learn to do it myself but it seems like it'll be too difficult since I don't know anything about photoshop.....
Doesn't it take awhile for people to do covers in my preferred style? I don't know anything about how much work it is but it seems like it would be taxing enough.
Depends on cover.
Doing Shenske Vertical from exsisting pre-cleaned raws takes less than 30minutes (or it would if my computer would work same pace as my hands).
Wiggy covers are even more custom and lacks screenshots and text so with good images should takes less.
My N64 covers use the retail art and info. It's not too much work (most of the time) to squeeze retail art into my template. My temp uses almost the exact same dimensions as the preferred vertical cover template on this site, so you can very easily plop the art from those covers right into my template ;)