How I make my covers

[tremault]

And same sentiments to you! I super dig your posters as well!

For me, I almost always start with typeface for some reason. It gets my juices going. I do a bit of digging of the type of font and styles I like. To me, I found 99.99% of makes coverart appealing for me is proper font and quality textures. I really don't get too complicated, especially when I'm starting out.

I guess I'll start with a quick walkthrough of my simplest poster yet, The Batman Unmasked.

Started with Riddler's cypher symbols (Rata Alada), then Riddler's writing font, but I settled for more readability and focus:

Poster (referencing to an officially released poster)

70's variant logo, DC logo, and now the same typeface layer goes into the fan-edit movie itself:

Easy peasy.

Again, to me it's just putting your taste to test. Simple, quality layers makes up for a lot. Sometimes, I think about theme, and the fan-edit itself and how that can drive the poster. That led me to some really creative paths as well (which I hope to get to in later posts)

Wonderful. I love your process. Starting with type is very interesting. I generally come up with an esoteric concept first, a visual cypher if you like, but I might experiment with your approach some time. You're right, simple can be fantastic, I took that approach with Shuri and Steel of Man, making it all about layout and simple placement.
I really love how you connected the front and back cover right there, that is really striking.

 

[Gibichung]

Your Limbo cover is my favourite.

your Interstellar poster (and obviously your award winning FEOTM edit) is a banger!

 

[Gibichung]

Wonderful. I love your process. Starting with type is very interesting. I generally come up with an esoteric concept first, a visual cypher if you like, but I might experiment with your approach some time. You're right, simple can be fantastic, I took that approach with Shuri and Steel of Man, making it all about layout and simple placement.
I really love how you connected the front and back cover right there, that is really striking.

Thank you! And yes! Your Shuri artwork. It's so good because you feel the weight of the world on her. So clean @tremault

If you don't mind, I'll post it down here, just a reminder to everyone else.

Absolute fire.

 

[lapis molari]

The posters I'm proud of making definitely include this set for the Babylon 5 spin-off series Crusade.

I tried to create a harmonious set, but they involved different approaches:
- The first image comes from the dvd box,
- the two drawings are concept art sketches for the show,
- the logo is a scan from the back of a crew jacket that was on sale on ebay (I didn't win, I did use the photograph),
- some images are rotated or (slightly) stretched to fit the poster format,
- the round "stickers" give meta information and add stylistic consistency,
- the poster for episode 4 (captain in space suit leaning against a wall) uses 3 overlapping screenshots in order to get his face in focus and still get his feet in the image too,
- episode 5 (Galen's virtual avatar gets disemboweled, virtually I guess) required lots of manipulation in Photoshop to elevate the dull and grainy dvd screenshot to acceptable clarity and consistent vibrancy.

 

[Gibichung]

Here's an example of thematic/story approach to creating my poster (and I promise to space out my posts as to not overwhelm the thread). Last one for the day.

Again, the first thing I did was come up with a typeface, which became the logo of my fanedit, as clean as possible.

Early on in Storm of the Century (my movie fanedit), Linoge (the stranger) is apprehended by the townsfolk after murdering an elderly. As the stranger is pushed behind bars, he makes threatening remarks, exposing all their deepest secrets. He's proving to be a supernatural figure who somehow knows the lives of people in the town. It becomes evident that although the stranger is behind bars, he's the one controlling their fates.


See the succession of images below which were my preliminary image selections. It tells a short story. I chose the last image (Linoge's POV) because it's evident that the table has turned. Who's really the prisoner here? These folks are now his prisoners.

In the original show, much later in the story you see Linoge on top of a lighthouse, the symbol of the storm to hit. In my edit, I actually removed much of this imagery but kept the shot (last one, lower right) as the opening scene of my edit, as a foreshadowing. I then realized this would be a great element of the poster.

The poster is essentially just two images stacked on top of each other, with a gradient blend, and overlaid with paper textures. If I can do this, anyone can do it.

Slap on the logo, and it's done. For a while, the fanedit's poster was this black and white version. Eventually, I decided having color was much better (used the blue colorway shown through the movie). This is now what I used for a physical media version I keep on my shelf.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

Thanks for the feedback
The image element there is mostly obscured by the title though so I don't expect people to be noticing that in the final cover.

Well, I have to admit that I can't unsee it now though.

 

[tremault]

I needed to check before posting this cover/poster. I felt it was a decent example, but I made it for somebody else. They have said this should be considered "concept art for an edit that may one day materialise (when the editing bug bites again). "

All images found via google then shaded and recoloured.

 

[Gibichung]

A simple cover I made for my recent fanedit, Stephen King's 11/22/63. General summary below:

Started with font and typeface/logo.

Image selection from online and the fanedit footage itself:

Rough composition and placement (this takes a while). Flattened some colors.

- Selection tool and removed backgrounds
- Went to each image and played around in the Filter Gallery (grain, torn edges, contrast, and eventually a gradient map).
- Flattened the colors: Lee Harvey Oswald, the blood effects, etc.
- Clipping mask to fake a double-exposure between POV image and Oswald image.
- Rectangle tool for three red stripes on the foreground (three shots Oswald fired at JFK)
- Iterate along with placement as shown above (again, it takes a while)
- Chose some paper textures to overlay, then export