The "Custom DVD Covers" thread

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 26 Feb 2007, 16:56

Hey all. Thought I's post this thread to show off some stuff I've done, and to see what other people have in this area.

Below are small previews of most of the covers I've done (not that many yet). I know a few of them are quite crap but figured I may as well post them anyway. If you've done custom cover then post and let's see what everyone's got!

Alias - all for 6 disc cases ~ 1 inch wide.

American Pie trilogy - standard size, triple case

Dark Angel
Done 2 different sets here. First is the standard sized 2 disc cases version.

Then there is the 6 disc case (~1 inch wide) version. Front and back are basically the same, just the spine that differs.

Equilibrium

Leon
Two every so slightly different versions.

Spirited Away

Zatoichi

Star Wars saga
This is what I'm working on just now. Saw someone else's covers that I really liked, except there were a few things on them that didn't like so have basically redone them myself. However, some elements I've taken straight from their cover so I won't post the ones that fall into that category. The image does have a star-field in the background, but it doesn't show up in this preview.

And the spines will look like this:

Each film will have a different ship on the front relevant to that film.

Anyway, if you've done any, get posting!!

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 26 Feb 2007, 17:10

Really like your Léon and Spirited Away covers! :thumbright:

Nice!

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 26 Feb 2007, 17:42

That's very good!! If an amatuer can make something this good, why can't DVD distributors?

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 26 Feb 2007, 17:48

The Spirited Away one only really works if you know the film and if you open it up as seen. If it was in a box and you were looking at it closed you'd only see a little girl eating a bun, which isn't quite so nice. I only made it cause I loved that scene in the film and thought it would make a great full cover shot.

And the Leon ones are actually my personal fave's so far. They may be ridiculously simple, but I think they work.

At the mo' the ones I've printed off and am actually using are the Alias, Am Pie, Dark Angel 6 discers, Equilibrium and Leon. Will be getting the Star Wars ones done at some point though.

And if you think mine are good, you should see some of the stuff other people can do. Beyond amazing in some cases. Particular highlights are a guy called Ric Easton. Check out his site at www(dot)rixgrafix(dot)com - his Babylon 5, among others, are spectacular and I've got them on my shelf.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 26 Feb 2007, 18:18

Some great stuff man! You should try and get a job as a dvd designer! You can already show off these in your portfolio.

Leon is definately the coolest, and some of teh ALIAs ones are aslo pretty damn good. I dont quite like the covers of the Dark Angel ones (color-wise) and Zatoichi is a bit bland, as well as Equisomething, but still great stuff.

Did you write the texts yourselfs (on the back), and how did you get the fonts for the titles, like ALIAS...?

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 26 Feb 2007, 19:23

Wrote all the text on the back of them all myself. For things like the Alias font, I just did a google search for it and it is readily available to download as a font. Likewise for just about every film out there that has its own font for the title!

And I completely agree about Zatoichi - I did say some weren't that good! but I actually thought Equilibrium was quite cool. Although that could be because fuller size Equialibrium has more of a brushed steel look to it... but that's my opinion!

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 26 Feb 2007, 20:50

What the best type of printer paper to print out custom dvd covers. I have downloaded and just watched the hybrid Darth Editious/ADigitalMan edit dvd of Star Wars IV (which is excellent), but want to print out on nice glossy paper. I have a lexmark printer, so want to get the best paper for this.

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 26 Feb 2007, 23:33

In all honesty, I don't know. When I got mine printed I happened to be in touch with someone who worked in a printing press where a lot of DVD covers are printed off! So I got them done professionaly, which was ridiculously lucky.

From what I gather just decent quality gloss paper is suitable, but the printer used can make more difference. To get a better answer I'd use the forums at the rixgrafix site. Lots of people who are way better and know a lot more about this stuff than I do use that site. Others to have a look at are r1db dot com and replacethecase dot com.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 26 Feb 2007, 23:37

Wow! Love them. Great work, degen. I agree with grim, I like "Spirited Away" and "Léon" best.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 27 Feb 2007, 00:45

Nice job. I like the dark European style of Leon (2) and the simple yet colourful Spirited Away.

Can I ask why you create custom covers... was there something wrong with originals... or is it just for fun?

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 27 Feb 2007, 00:57

How is the style of the "Léon"-cover European?

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 27 Feb 2007, 00:58

This post used to show a custom cover art for "The Last Samurai". I can post it again upon request, but I didn't want to spam this thread with big images.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 27 Feb 2007, 02:30

Here is one I just made. Hope you like it.

I didn't find the Battle Royale font so I left the title away from the spine.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 27 Feb 2007, 06:03

thelostdragon wrote:How is the style of the "Léon"-cover European?

Makes it look, erm, European.

What else can I say?

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 27 Feb 2007, 11:57

thelostdragon wrote:How is the style of the "Léon"-cover European?

Granted their aren't many words there, but the front cover is completely in French.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 27 Feb 2007, 12:44

Not many words, huh? So is my "Battle Royale"-cover European?

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 27 Feb 2007, 16:07

Markgway wrote:
Can I ask why you create custom covers... was there something wrong with originals... or is it just for fun?

A bit of both. Stemmed from me originally seeing hte Babylon 5 ones over at rixgrafix and seeing how amazingly better than the official releases they were, and also cause the box width changed with teh first releases of the seasons for it after season 3, so on my shelf it looked stupid having different width boxes.

Then when I did the Dark Angel ones it was cause I thought the spines for it (which are what you see the most of) were poor so tried to do better myself, then I just did it for fun, or for ones that I thought could do with improving. The American Pie's I did as a space saver, cause while I like the films they don't merit the big spanning spine pictures over the 3 covers, so I shrank them down to a single triple case.

Star Wars is a series that really needs a great looking spine rather than 3 in a box set and 3 not. So that's my current motivation for doing them. Leon was just cause I found some nice pics for it.

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 27 Feb 2007, 16:09

thelostdragon wrote:This post used to show a custom cover art for "The Last Samurai". I can post it again upon request, but I didn't want to spam this thread with big images.

Just shrink it down to a decent size and post it again! The whole point of this thread WAS do put in pictures and stuff!!

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 27 Feb 2007, 16:14

OK, here you go:

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 27 Feb 2007, 16:30

That's a custom? I like it! As my Leon one probably testifies, I much prefer the simple elegant covers as opposed to lively busy ones (although that is partly to do with my abilities! Simple ones are easier to do).

Only things I don't like about it are the barcode (why would you want one on a custom cover?) and the blue thingy on the bottom right.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 27 Feb 2007, 16:52

The blue thingy is the FSK-rating.

How do you like my BR one?

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 27 Feb 2007, 18:07

Think the image works well for the cover! I like the "one-image-cover" style. To be critical though I think the font used for the synopsis doesn't blend to well and stands out as floating text just a bit too much.

degeneration · Post by **degeneration** » 27 Feb 2007, 18:18

Well, I've finished off the Star Wars covers. At full resolution the images would be 3240 x 2175 pixels, which is why only these tiny ones are posted!

I'm not going to post my main Episode 1 one as the ship I used on the front of it (the trade federation control ship ring thing) was taken off someone else's similar cover. I know he used a 3d prog to generate the image himself, so not posting as don't want it to appear I'm taking credit for it.

The one I have posted is the best I could come up with using only freely available resources.

All the others were made with image freely available on the net and through typing things out myself!

And two for TESB - can't decide which I like better!!

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 27 Feb 2007, 19:38

Really like those SW covers

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 27 Feb 2007, 19:57

There's a fine line between simple and threadbare.

I think The Last Samurai crosses it.

Sorry, just my opinion.