Blog Post 23 - Stage 1 - Completed Design: Rear Cover - Gene Hunt

My finished design for Stage One: DVD Amaray Case Cover

As mentioned in Blog Post 11, the third and final element of the DVD Case Wrap that I will be explaining and evaluating is that of the Rear Cover. In a similar vain to that of the Front Cover, the Rear Cover also features a large range of elements which when brought together will form the finished Rear Cover. For reference, my finished design is posted here. In regards to the different elements of the Rear Cover, these include the following which will be discussed e and explained: Background; DVD Information; Gene Hunt; Ford Capri; DVD Summary Information; Actors and Music Information. Having already added the Background and the DVD Information, the next element is that of Gene Hunt.

Gene Hunt

Whilst I had already included Gene Hunt on the front cover I had the idea that I would also like to have a cast photo on the Rear Cover too. With this in mind I once again decided to head onto Google Images (www.images.google.co.uk) and Bing Images (www.bing.com/images) to try to find an image that was going to be revelent and fit in with the rest of the design. After a short amount of time I managed to come across a still image from one of the series' of Ashes to Ashes whereas Gene was shooting a gun. Personally I thought this would give a nice piece of action to the cover and also give a taste of what the DVD could be like, too. 

Base Image for that of Gene Hunt

However, I was not too happy with orientation of Gene, and ideally wanted him facing the other way in light of what else I had planned for the rest of the Rear Cover, namely that of the Ford Capri. Thus, you can see pictured here the original image that I used. The first task, however, was to remove the background from around that of Gene as I only wanted to add Gene and the Gun into my DVDAmarayCover Photoshop file. Once  downloaded and opened into Photoshop, I started to select the majority of Gene using the Quick Selection Tool with the hardness set to 100% and a Point Size of 50, which allowed for the swift selection of Gene. With Gene mostly selected, I could then fine tune this selection by utilising the Polygonal Lasso Tool. By changing between the Add and Subtract to Selection Tools, I was able to carefully draw around Gene so that I had the areas that I exactly wanted. By utilising both the Quick Selection Tool and the Polygonal Lasso Tool this meant that the end result was exactly what I wanted of just Gene being selected. Once Gene had been successfully selected, Refine Edge, was used whereby a few settings were tweaked. 

Gene Hunt added to the Rear Cover

Firstly, the Smooth Edge setting was set to 2 and this is because this would give less of harsh "cut out" look, and make it more natural. Also, the selection was also outputted to a New Document, which I could then Duplicate the Layer into my DVDAmarayCover. However, prior to duplicating it was important for me to flip the canvas horizontally which meant that Gene would be flipped around and then be facing the way that I wanted him to face which I felt would benefit my design the most. Once duplicated in the DVDAmaray Cover, the Move Tool allowed me to move and resize the portrait of Gene to the place that I wanted. Once in place, I decided to go to the Effects button just below the layers pallete. Once in here, I decided to add a Drop Shadow, and also an Outer Glow. By adding these I felt that this gave an attractive effect and appearance to that of the outside of Gene and also added to the motion of Gene with the gun too. Also, once imported into my DVDAmarayCover file this meant that I also created a New Layer Group of Gene Back Cover within the Rear Cover Layer Group which would aid organisation too.

Having added Gene to the Rear Cover, this meant that the next element that I would be progressing with was that of the Ford Capri.