2. • For the majority of Avenged Sevenfold digipaks, they contain the theme of
“death” and skeletal figures. This acts as a form of marketability of the
band and the genre of music specified. Because of this, we choose to
follow this convention and use a “deathbat” as that is a prominent feature
across their music videos and album artwork. As the album tends to look
around very gothic and dark thoughts, having a “drawn” one as apposed
to a digitally created deathbat would add personality and an imperfect
feel about the picture. Kayleigh (a member of the group) drew us a
deathbat and we included that for the digipak. As the theme is
“nightmares” and we were following on from “batman – the dark knight”
and using “The Joker” as inspiration for the nightmare, we included a red
outline of facepaint. As the lines were very faint, using digital editing, we
made the lines seem as bold and strong as possible. We used the magnetic
lasso tool to select each line and then use the fill option of the selected
colour to make it as stand out as possible. Though aurs doesn’t contain
any “pencil mark shading” it becomes more 2 dimensional on the digipak,
rather than it seeming like it has 3 dimensional features.
Avenged Deathbat Drawn Deathbat Digitally edited deathbat
3.
4. After we had digitally edited
the deathbat, by making all
the lines darker and more
promenant, we decided that
we wanted the image to have
no white background, and for
it only to be a “skeleton” of
the drawing. The reason we
wanted to do this, is so we
could make it seem more
lifeless and 2 dimensional. To
do this I used the “magic
wand tool” to take out all of
the white from the
background. As at some parts
the white was difficult to
take out, so we had to zoom
in and take out the majority
of pixels one by one.
By taking out this white background, it allowed us to
give us more flexibility of editing the “deathbat” for
example giving an outer glow, to seem more present
in the image. It also meant that we would allow for
space underneath the image, and allow certain
things to be seen through, for example the stars
from the sky.
5. We took the drawn version of our
“groupbat” – and did the same effect,
by taking out all of the white in the
background, and having a clear
skeleton of the original image. This
means that we can then edit the image
to have a light shining from behind, to
emphasize each of them. We decided
to change the colour of each bat, to
represent each member of the band. To
do so, we used the magic wand tool
again to select all the lines that were
for each deathbat, grouped them as a
separate layer, then edited the colour
individually. The reason we did this is
so it would add diversity to the digipak,
by breaking conventions of a darkened
effect, often portrayed through Rock
digipaks and the select genre. By
adding this colour, it emphasizes the
individuality of each particular member
of the band, and their certain role that
they portray. The colours also link
heavily to the “circus” and “fun fair”
theme, as the main convention of the
“nightmare” is the Joker, which is a
corrupt looking clown. So linking back
to this idea of “fair grounds” it allows
an extra intended meaning to the
groupbat.
We decided that we were to implement lyrics from the song as part of the
digipak, as from that it helps to create cross media convergence, by using a
lyric from the song, to help add meaning to the group of deathbats. We
chose the lyrics “they took for granted your soul, and it’s ours now to steal”
as it helps to represent a “taking over” of the listener, by form of music. As
for the rock genre, they consider music to be part of the soul, so using this
connotation of the rock genre, having those select lyrics would include a
deeper meaning to what was said, as the image is of a group, the use of the
word “they” and “ours” shows that has become a group, or “association”
that are taking over the listener.
6. We knew that for a typical digipak, we needed to include the name of all the tracks on the back.
We made them in a typical red colour with a black outline to make them really stand out against
the background. By having the lines between to separate each of the song names, it makes it
seem more spacious. The use of red helps to relate to fear, as it represents blood or death, which
many people would say is their form of nightmare. We used many deathbats in the background of
the digipak, as it is the iconography of the band, but also it is similar to the song “almost easy” as
part of the music video they have the bats coming out of the hole.
7. This is the final part of the digipak which will be on the front. As you can see, we changed the pale grey background to that of a starry night,
we did that as it helps to reference that rock music is “out of this world” or to show that the band can be seen as “stars of the genre”. We
also used it as people say there is always light in darkness, and this is proof of it. As some rock songs tend to go into deep emotions of the
past, having this representation brings depth to the meaning. As the starry night is consistent with the poster, it becomes a cross media
product, as it will become noticeable on both products, and help sell the product over. The starry background also helps to promote the idea
of a nightmare, as space is considered endless, drifting into that kind of darkness is a huge fear for some people, so adding that would help
represent another form of nightmare. By putting the main deathbat as purely white, it helps to emphasize that it has become a skeletal
figure, which can also be a nightmare for people. Having the glowing eyes and mouth for the deathbat helps to show a “possessing” feel to
the album, which then helps reference the “nightmares” in the video, as they follow some kind of possession, which could be the music box.
By having the group bat as all different colours it allows the target audience to see each member of the band as a separate person. By
having the whitened glow behind it, it helps to emphasize the power that the band members have within the rock genre, and how they have
created the music.
