Photoshop - Other Front Cover Features

Now I have created my main image for the front cover of my DVD inlay I needed to start adding the basic elements which tied in with this. Within this blog post I will look at all the other features and aspect which I added to the front of my DVD inlay.

I will start with the bar I added along the top of the front cover. After looking at a variety of current DVD inlays I decided that I liked the idea of having a bar along the top of the inlay which will house all the actor names. This seemed to break up the front cover which was also what I wanted to do. To achieve this I simply used the Rectangle Shape Tool to draw the pink section. I used the same colour as I created in my swatches previously in order to make this fit my colour scheme. I then added the text. I used three different layers for each actor name. This allowed me to move each as an individual rather than struggling to move them all together. I used the same font which I have used throughout this process. As a reminder this is Harlow Solid Italic. I then changed the size of the font. I initially had all of these set at the same size. This can be seen below. This however didn't really appeal to me and hence I made the central name much bigger. This can also be seen below.

 

I added an effect to this text. This was the Bevel and Emboss. This just made my text stand out slightly. This can be seen below.

 



 

The next feature I added to the front of my inlay was the Age Rating. I simply used an image from the internet and opened it into a separate workspace. I then selected the whole rating symbol and placed it onto my DVD inlay. This was a bitmap image. This image can be sourced from http://bilborough752.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/research-age-certificate-min.html and was accessed on 21/02/2014. This age rating can be seen below.

The next aspect which I added to my DVD inlay was the star rating. I split this into two separate aspects. The first were the stars and the second was the text which accompanied this. To create the stars I simply used the Custom Shape Tool and then searched for the star shape. I drew one to start with and then copied and pasted this 9 more times. Each one of these stars were put on a separate layer. This allowed me to move each one individually rather than trying to move them all at once. Once I had drawn all 10 stars I then separated them into two groups. 5 stars each. I used the colours from my swatches to create a pattern between a light purple and a dark purple. I then added two different effects to all of these stars. This was time consuming because I had separated them into various layers. The screenshots below show the settings within the Bevel/Emboss and Outer Glow which I applied to the stars.

 

The image below shows the stars which were created at this stage.

 



 

To finish this stage I added the text. These pieces of text were the companies which rated my film. In this case they were Heat Magazine and Virgin Media. I used the same font for these pieces of text and then used the deep pink from my colour swatch as my font colour. I used the Arch Tool to make this text arch over the star rating. The settings I used to create this arch can be seen below.

 

 





This was my star rating now finished. The image below shows this.

 



The final aspect of my front cover was the film title. This was made using the Type Tool. The font I used was the same as the font I have used throughout this process, this is: Harlow Solid Italic. The size of my text was 36pt and the positioning was set to central. With my basic text in place I firstly changed the basic colour of my text. I set this to the Deep Pink which I had previously saved in my swatches. I then looked at different effects which I could use to make my title stand out as at this stage it was a very weak aspect of my front inlay when in reality this is a key feature. I began by using the Bevel/Emboss effect. This gave the text a shadowed effect. The settings I used to create my given look can be seen below.

 

I then added a Stroke. This made my text appear slightly thicker. The settings I used to create my given look can be seen in the below screenshot.

 

The final effect I added was the Outer Glow. This by far made the biggest impact on this text. The glow really made the title stand out. I set the glow to a light pink to it also softened the edges of the title on the background. The screenshot below shows the settings I used to create this look.

With all of these aspects added the font of my DVD inlay was complete. The image below shows the front of my DVD inlay with the main image which I created previously and then all of the features discussed above on show.