Because I'm so busy with all my uni work, I've obviously wasted this afternoon (and this morning) playing around with designs for a range of DVD-cases for the LucasArts adventures, based on Laserschwert's excellent 'cleaned' artworks. The concept is: Simplicity. The front-cover is the original box artwork, but without the borders etc., and the back-cover is the original back-cover as cropped as I can make it. For the spine/side of the cases I've tried to emulate features of the original box designs, including the border pattern and the 'IBM' (or whatever) label that originally intruded onto the front of the box.
I'd appreciate some feedback - these are just how the designs stand at the moment; it's really the side panel that I'd most like to hear about. Do they work? I've only got scans of the box-sides from the two Monkey Island games, so I've kind of had to guess what the other games are like based on the colours of their 'IBM panel' (all the boxes I originally scanned live safely at my parents' house.) Also they're pretty rough at the moment - especially Monkey Island 2 and Day of the Tentacle, where it's clear I've just tiled a smaller section to fill out the space. If anyone can send me some scans of the sides of the boxes (or even just photos for reference) I'd appreaciate it :)
Anyway there's no rush for advice here because progress can only happen at the speed that Laserschwert produces his 'cleaned' artworks; I'm not able to produce images of that quality on my own. These are the games I've done covers for so-far; Laserschwert has also done cleaned versions of The Dig and Sam and Max, but I haven't got round to those yet.
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/2618/dvdzmqg6.jpg)
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/427/dvdmi1oj2.jpg)
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/9/dvdmi2xc9.jpg)
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/1593/dvdfoazy3.jpg)
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/999/dvddottzh7.jpg)
I'll give you some advice, as I completed a study in graphic design.
I'll start with the side panels.
I quite like the art from the games where there is no text. Although the mirror effect in the Zak McKracken one has got to go.
As for the Indiana Jones one, I'd make the side a little darker, it doesn't quite match the palet for the front and back.
I'd also put the protagonists head a little bit down and the Lucas Arts logo a little bit up so you would be able to see like half a cm of the underlying background.
The fronts I quite like. Although I'd move the Zak McKracken one a little to the left so you'd be able to see the end of the arm of the noseglasses.
The backs are way to cropped.
Almost all of the text is on the edge of the box, which is a really bad thing in graphic design. The text should be at least again half a cm away from any edge.
It also looks quite bad that you tried cut the frame of the picture.
A better idea would be to make the whole picture a little smaller so it can fit the whole box and put some more background behind it.
I do like the effort though and I stimulate your idea to make more!
Go get 'm Polecat!
Moving the LucasArts/headshots a little is something I've played around with, and then forgotten about. You're right that they would look better given a slight border with the top/bottom, I'll move them around when I solve the problem of getting a decent texture for the background of the side panels.
And yes, I see what you mean about the back covers. It's a pain because the boxes are a lot wider than a DVD case, so in order to fit them into the template I have to lose a lot horizontally and, in the case of Zak McKracken at least, gain some vertically as well. There are a few solutions to this - one is to, as you say, just reduce the entire size and carry the side-panel pattern across to fill in the vertical gaps. The problem with this is that the back cover will then have a really big section at the top and the bottom that's essentially wasted space.
The alternative to this is to re-construct the back covers myself. This won't be easy - I'm not very talented at this sort of stuff, and I don't have a great eye for it either - by this I mean, adding the text myself instead of treating it as an image to manipulate etc. Reconstructing the in-game shots wouldn't be difficult, but this route makes the whole job a lot harder altogether.
It'll be easier for me to knock up an example actually.
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4798/dottproblemrg4.jpg)
The red areas on the back panel represent the empty space due to the fact that I've used the entire of the back of the boxed version of the game. I've also highlighted the LucasArts logo, which represents the kind of thing on the back of the box that I'm trying to crop out. Some of the boxes suffer more from that kind of thing than others - US GOLD stickers etc. - and as much as I like the school of thought that says fake DVD cases should have barcodes and logos just like real ones, it's kind of counter to what I wanted to do with these ones.
What do you think?
Because I'm so busy with all my uni work, I've obviously wasted this afternoon (and this morning) playing around with designs for a range of DVD-cases for the LucasArts adventures, based on Laserschwert's excellent 'cleaned' artworks. The concept is: Simplicity. The front-cover is the original box artwork, but without the borders etc., and the back-cover is the original back-cover as cropped as I can make it. For the spine/side of the cases I've tried to emulate features of the original box designs, including the border pattern and the 'IBM' (or whatever) label that originally intruded onto the front of the box.
I'd appreciate some feedback - these are just how the designs stand at the moment; it's really the side panel that I'd most like to hear about.
Nice! I like your concept of simplicity, and that you concentrate on the existing artwork and don't add too much "foreign" graphics to the DVD-cases.
The side panels are the best I've seen so far. Really cool how you integrated a little icon at the top and the game title in the proper graphics style! Although I really prefer the side panel graphics that are unique (MI1, Indy4) compared to those that are obviously mirrored halves (Zak, MI2, DOTT). I'm looking forward to seeing the improved versions when you get some scans.
I've been looking into the problem with the back panels. I think it'll be at least possible to re-create some of them in a thinner DVD-case size. Some of the games will be easier than others - these are the ones I think I'll be able to do, anyway:
Maniac Mansion
Zak McKracken
Last Crusade
Loom
Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2
Day of the Tentacle
Sam and Max
The Dig
Curse of Monkey Island
As for Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango and Escape From Monkey Island, I might have significant trouble. The problem arises from the individual elements of each panel, and how easy it is to paint over or re-create them. I'm not very good at this at all; I'm the definition of 'amateur' in fact. With Monkey Island 2 there are at least images of Steve Purcell's painting without the text/images laid over it, so it's theoretically possible to fill in the necessary areas with those images - although I may have trouble matching the colour, and the resolution of those images is much less than the scans I'm working with.
Full Throttle and Grim Fandango in particular are very 'busy' images and beyond my abilities to reduce in width. To demonstrate what I'm on about I've knocked up a quick version of the Curse of Monkey Island back panel, which was actually an easy one because the only art that appears on the back is the map from the opening titles of the game, which was very easy to isolate.
Original box image
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4439/backin3.jpg)
Re-creation image
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7664/backeditvk4.jpg)
As you can see the re-creation is thinner than the original image, which makes it the correct dimensions for a DVD cover. It's a rough example, it needs a bit of work to make it match up with the original image a little more, but I think that it proves this is possible in some cases.
What do you think?
I think I've settled on a final design for the Secret of Monkey Island DVD - opinions please! If there's nothing wrong with it I'll move onto the rest. As you can see I've gone entirely towards an 'original box' motif now - minus the universally despised 'IBM' sticker on the front cover, which I did replicate but I'm not going to use.
Final design:
http://lucastones.mixnmojo.com/5v2.png)
Final design with system requirements (bad idea)
http://lucastones.mixnmojo.com/5v3.png)
To show a rough idea of what the side panels look like when placed next to each other I've been using photos of the actual boxes for reference - see below.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7929/shelfrealsmallig0.jpg)
(Freddie's (
http://lucasarts.vintagegaming.org) former collection)
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/1194/shelfqq1.png)
cool :) i like 'm LT!
i agree with everything Lagomorph said btw, his hints appear to have become very helpful in perfecting the design, kudos :)
i'd go for a mugshot of Bobbin Threadbare instead of the island though, or maybe a swan... perhaps you can use the cover of the japanese version for a pic of Bobbin for that :) Also the year stamp, perhaps making them so the striped border continues onto each dvd cover properly? :)
Wow, great work Eltee, the Monkey Island 1 design really has improved a lot!
There are only two things I can think of to improve it.
The first one is for the back.
I like the fact that you've selected the whole picture of the back box and put it over a background.
The only thing I don't like about the back is the space that's left on the top and the bottom. There's just nothing there.
An idea would be to work the artwork a little bit to the top until it's about as far from the edge as it is at the sides.
The next thing you do is you put the system requirements from your second design in a broader square and put that under the artwork.
It's how they do it with most games or dvd's.
The other thing is just a little thing at the side of the box.
I love the fact that you've put a face of the protagonist in the top.
The only thing I'd do was to put a little bit more space on the sides so it doesn't completely touch the edge.
Other than that I love 'm!
I'd buy 'm in the stores immediately!
(I'd buy those games in the stores again no matter what design the box has, but that's another story.)
You go give 'm some more hell, Polecat! ;)
This is insanely cool! These better be downloadable when they're done! I'd totally want to make myself a LucasArts Collection!
Thanks guys. I finished my degree and the weather co-incidentally turned amazing so I've been out drinking in the sun for the last few days (and sadly also at work :() so I've not worked on these things at all. But!
QueZ: The side stamp; you're right. I was originally working from whatever was on the original box - which was obviously a problem for the post-Fate of Atlantis games because they don't have that system requirements label. Given that, I may as well make a standard label for the year and then colour-code it based on the colours used on the box. And I'll look into Bobbin, although I sadly hate that FM-Towns cover...
Lagomorph: You're right about the faces/LucasArts logo; I'll thin them slightly so they don't touch the edge. As for the problem with the back of the box; it's something that will be difficult to deal with. I have no sense of design myself so I won't be able to make any kind of system-requirements that does the rest of the artwork justice - and I'm really loathe to do anything to alter the artwork in any way. For some games this won't be a problem as I'll be able to thin-out the back panel without wasting all that space at the top and the bottom. I'll have a think about it.
Thanks again, these comments really do help me a lot.
Loving it! I've been waiting for someone to make a straight conversion of the original box art to dvd cover for awhile.
What about the imagebanana access in the US? How can I get those handy 12cm code wheels?
oh hey guys whats going on
wow, this is some great stuff! that sam and max one is totally my iphone background now :P
edit: on second thought, would you be able to to do grim fandango and monkey island 4 ones in this design? to complete the collection :P
Hey fellas,
First of all, a huge bow to everyone who have made some covers, the work that this thread has made happen, is truly awesome! Secondly, I made some covers in my spare time for a different forum, but only now have I realized, that if these covers belong anywhere, than it is this forum. Hope you like them, and a huge thanks to Laserschwert for the clean hires posters and covers, I used those as base material.
http://www.draven.hu/mixnmojo/mixnmojo_maniac_mansion.jpg)
http://www.draven.hu/mixnmojo/mixnmojo_day_of_the_tentacle.jpg)
http://www.draven.hu/mixnmojo/mixnmojo_zak_mckracken.jpg)
http://www.draven.hu/mixnmojo/mixnmojo_monkey_island_1.jpg)
http://www.draven.hu/mixnmojo/mixnmojo_monkey_island_2.jpg)
http://www.draven.hu/mixnmojo/mixnmojo_monkey_island_3.jpg)
http://www.draven.hu/mixnmojo/mixnmojo_full_throttle.jpg)
All of these are available in hi-res, you can snatch the to print from here (
http://www.draven.hu/mixnmojo/mixnmojo_covers_print.zip).
Cheers!
Hey guys,
Long time reader, first time poster. These DVD covers are all great, but can I throw in a suggestion for a SOMI and MI2 combo DVD cover? For those of us who have Monkey Island Madness.
Fantastic work again guys!
hmm they look cool :) i like the style of the 'lucasarts presents' party... but the game title font with the thick stroke is out of sync... fix that, and they're good covers :)
hmm they look cool :) i like the style of the 'lucasarts presents' party... but the game title font with the thick stroke is out of sync... fix that, and they're good covers :)
Beleive me, I have a few hours of experimenting with those titles behind me :) Without the strokes some titles wouldn't be easily readable with some of these artworks (DOTT, SOMI, Mi2, and even Zak) in the background. Sadly, various types of shadow didn't fulfill my needs either, and my concept was to not use more than artwork and text on the front covers, to keep it simple, and I wanted a solution that fits all. With the stroke it is readable in every case, it just needs a little getting used to.
Hey, guys. I made a DOTT DVD slip cover in the same style as the ones that were made by the guy who did these (
http://www.adventure-treff.de/specials/dl_goodies.php) (Clem). I borrowed his PC CD-ROM image for the spin/front cover but other than that I did this entirely on my own with Laserschwert's poster image of DOTT and the large box scan of the back cover from
http://mojoart.mixnmojo.com). I also recaptured all the screenshots so they'd be clearer when printed. I had already printed out the MI1, MI2, and FOA DVD covers and wanted one to house my DOTT cover in as well so I whipped this up. Hope someone else out there finds it as useful.
Click to download full HQ resolution version.
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/musicallyinspired/dott_preview.jpg) (
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/musicallyinspired/dott1.jpg)
elTee, did you finish those DVD-covers?
They look really nice but you never posted any download-links.
No, unfortunately the hard drive they were on broke so I've lost all the files. I'm working on doing them again at the moment though, I have my actual games with me this time so I can scan the details I need in order to avoid using the clone tool. Should be the same idea but a bit better :)
Curse of Monkey Island in the same style as the DOTT one I posted earlier (which in turn is in the same style as the ones by Clem available on Adventure-Treff). I used the same background as the SOMI and MI2 DVD backgrounds but this time it's blue.
Click to download full resolution version:
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/musicallyinspired/comi_preview.jpg) (
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/musicallyinspired/monkeyisland3.jpg)
I made a Zak McKracken DVD case but I can't decide between the two backgrounds I picked. I think the second one fits more like the original box, but the first one is really nice and unobtrusive. What do you guys think?
Version one:
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/musicallyinspired/zakdvd_bg1.jpg)
Version two:
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/musicallyinspired/zakdvd_bg2.jpg)
I think the second one looks better.
I prefer the second one too ;)
the pattern on the green background.
No, unfortunately the hard drive they were on broke so I've lost all the files. I'm working on doing them again at the moment though, I have my actual games with me this time so I can scan the details I need in order to avoid using the clone tool. Should be the same idea but a bit better :)
I was quite sad to hear this, would've loved to have those dvd covers.
I really hope you don't mind, but I tried to re create them somewhat. (minus a few changes :P)
I only made this one so far:
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/uu300/Ceres_01/MI1copysmall.jpg)
Download Full size here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/349241445/MI1_copy.jpg.html)
(Sorry for bumping this topic, and elTee, if you do mind; then be sure let me know)
Nice cover, ceres! Although... I think the back side of the cover isn't perfectly centered, is it?. Don't take me wrong, you did a really nice work there, but it seems there's more blank space above than below. Could you please try moving the whole monkey-rounded scroll a little bit so that it's centered? Thanks ;)
hi all.
i know this past has not been visited during a long time but i expect to get an answer for what i am asking... the fact is that i would like to have my own dial-a-pirate wheel, but i keep trying and i am unable to print it in the correct way. it either prints in a huge size, or both wheels appear at the same size, so it's impossible to overlap them. i would be really grateful if somebody can help me with that, because i am not good at it. thanks!
You can have my original for a million dollars.
haha, thanks but i refuse.
I think I've settled on a final design for the Secret of Monkey Island DVD - opinions please! If there's nothing wrong with it I'll move onto the rest. As you can see I've gone entirely towards an 'original box' motif now - minus the universally despised 'IBM' sticker on the front cover, which I did replicate but I'm not going to use.
To show a rough idea of what the side panels look like when placed next to each other I've been using photos of the actual boxes for reference - see below.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/1194/shelfqq1.png)
Really good, i've got a couple of suggestions though, the year box near the bottom of the spine, maybe you could keep that the same for all of them (i.e. all in the style youve used for Maniac Mansion, Zak and MI2), so they all look nice when aligned together on the shelf? also maybe try adjusting the game titles on the spine (Maniac Mansion, MI1, MI2 and indy so they're all the same size, have the same size border and are all in the exact position, some are a couple of pixels out and it looks a little jarring. Other than that, fantastic :D
I agree, and I think the Loom needs a headshot of Bobbin for the top part even if it's not taken from the cover.
I agree, and I think the Loom needs a headshot of Bobbin for the top part even if it's not taken from the cover.
There's always the FM Towns cover:
http://hardcoregaming101.net/loom/loom-fmtowns.jpg)
Yeah, I'm no fan of it either, but Bobbin's head looks good enough - if I were the cover designer, I'd use it on the spine. I would also use LeChuck on MI2 instead of Guybrush - not only does he look weird on that pic when he's "out of context", it would also be nice to have different characters on different covers.
By the way, has anyone made a cover for the special editions of Monkey Island 1 & 2? I love covers :3
Using LeChuck for MI2 is a good idea, not sure why I didn't do that. But I've not been doing any work on this for - well, years I suppose. I might go back to it at some point, but there are better people than me who could give it a try ;)
If I did go back to it, I would probably add the SEs too. But who knows - maybe LucasArts will release those themselves one day?
Hmm. Maybe I should try my hand at Lucasart covers - I have made custom Nintendo DS covers in the past, and this shouldn't be too different from that.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9313667/Box%20Art/MI3%20cover-wip.jpg)
And here's a WIP. Your thoughts on this, ladies and gentlemen? Keep in mind that any JPG artifacts are due to me quickly resizing the preview image in MS Paint. They're not there in my beloved Photoshop file, which has bigger resolution as well.
Have a look at what I picked up on ebay (
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/140567139824) for $20.70 including postage:
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6029/auctionb.jpg)
Yes, I've wanted one of these for sooo long! And at that price, everything else was a bonus:
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/5939/metromimfront.jpg)
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2210/metromimback.jpg)
I'll make scans of these when I get a chance to hook up my scanner :)
Oh, and I've never before seen that the disc looks like this:
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/8633/metromimdisc.jpg)
It is a standard 1.0 Monkey Island Madness disc, which means the content is identical the version you'd all be familiar with:
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/4558/61y3sceialsl500aa300.jpg)