3. I started this experiment by choosing a film as it gave me a platform
to base my work around and experiment my ideas on. I chose a film
called Rock N Rolla. So from this I started by making the base colour
orange as this is what the films actual material is, this helps to build
links between the film and the advertising. As I am designing a film
cover as my experiment I found an iconic shot from the film to use as
the main image on the front cover, as even though the front cover is
what advertises the film on the shelf I believe it also has to give more
information and be more artistic than a poster would be, because
people are going to be keeping this in their house and if they have it
in view they will want it to be more presentable. I then enlarged the
image and using the line select tool to draw around the character, I
then used Ctrl + J to copy his selection and put him on a new layer. I
did this so that he was separated from the background as it was full
of information that wasn’t needed to persuade someone to buy it.
After I had cut out the character I used a filter in the filter gallery
called cut-out, this applies the cartoon like shading effect. I added
this effect as it makes the image look more artistic and drawn which
works much better with the flat orange background than a much
more realistic looking image did. I then added a border, this was to
create an area that focused on information, it also helped to separate
the fore ground. As the character is on top of the border it is clearly
in front and seems most important and any information that I add
will appear to be in the background and will be seen after the main
image once the audience is drawn in.
4. I then started to work on the background as I dint need to add anything else to
the foreground, this is because it did its job of being eye catching. I the the
background I needed to have information about the film, such as the synopsis,
other characters and the actual title of the film. I started by giving the actual
background color more depth as a flat color can be quite boring to look at. It also
links to the film as the background is quite erratic, which links to the characters
mental state after all the drugs and drinking that he does, so it works well when
building a link between the character and the cover. I got this effect by creating a
flat black layer and and then applying another filter from the filter gallery, I used
film grain and moved all the sliders to the far right to make it as erratic as
possible. I then lowered the opacity to 48% and changed the blending option to
color burn so that still had the same orange color as when it was flat ( only a
slightly darker shade). However I did not want this effect to cover the character
as it would mean that he isn't in the fore ground, To change this I selected my
character by CTRL and clicking its layers and then added a layer mask which cut
out the area on the blur.
I then copied the character layer and moved the new layer it had created beneath
the main one. Then using CTRL + T and moving the central point to the bottom
right corner it allowed me to alt shift, which enlargers the image from a point
keeping the same dimensions. I then lowered the opacity, this made it look like
light was shining from in front of the character and casting some form of shadow
behind him. I later repeated this step but only after I had added the fake bullets
in front of his two guns. I created these bullets by using the brush, I first created
the black layer, I did this by upping the scatter of the brush to 100% and changing
the shape size variation to 100% as well, this means when drawing the dots a re
scattered about every making it look quite erratic. I then repeated this step with
the white, instead making them more dense and larger and placing their layer
behind the black.
5. The next thing I did was add the title to the top of the screen, I typed
Rock and Rolla separate to the N. This was so that it was easier for
me to edit each part individually, However not much editing needed
doing, I only enlarged the N and created a bigger gap between the
other two words as I needed the newly sized N to fit in-between. I
then copied the two layers and merged them , I then placed them
underneath the other layer. Using the down arrow and the move
tool I moved the new layer down, this makes the text have a slight
3D aesthetic so it stands off the page. I then merged the two layers
so that it was easier to deal with, I then duplicated this and moved it
into the margins in the middle, I created these using the ruler
tool, To get the new title to fit I used the transform tool and rotated
it by 90 degrees anti clockwise and also shrunk it.
The next step was to add the block of text, this was easy, as this is an
experiment I just copied the synopsis of the film off IMDB, I the
pasted it and made it align centrally in its textbox as this made it
more aesthetically please and more inviting to read than a blocky
paragraph.
I then got four more pictures of characters from the film and aligned
them above the text, this was primarily to fill space on the back side
of the case which had lots of empty space, however it also worked
well to give more information to the audience. I then copied the
same filters and shadows that I had used on the main character on
these. This was so that I had a link between the an style around the
whole image that worked well.
7. I started to create this poster by getting a picture of a
pyramid in the desert as I intended to turn it into a low
poly image. The image however was at an angle so I
had to level it out, however this meant that there was
empty areas, so I had to use the clone stamp tool to fill
these areas. I then used the action window to help
speed up the process, I would first select a triangle,
which was made easy by having the grid tool on with
snapping, I then used the filter > Blur > average to
make the selected area one flat color, I then used CTRL
+ J to copy the selection then a new layer,
then selected the base layer. I would then click stop,
which causes my actions to stop being recorded. I then
select the rest of the areas and click play on the action
which just instantly does the previous steps. When I
had done that I selected the different areas of color and
filled the areas with a specific color, these were on
different layers. I then changed the blending option of
each layer to get the new colors whilst still being able to
see the polygons. The next step was to add the glow
behind the pyramid, I did this by duplicating the
purple pyramid layer and turned the fill opacity to 0
and then added the blending effect. I then added the
text which I copied straight from one of the original
pink Floyd pictures, I then used the transform skew the
text to fit the pyramid. I then finally added a pink inner
glow to make it fit in with the rest of the image.
