Magazine Front Cover Construction

8/9/2019 Magazine Front Cover Construction

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Magazine Front Cover Construction

Thefirststeptakenafter

taking all of the photos of the two actors with a Canon SLR camerain RAW format pictures was deciding which would be best for use inour Front Cover. After some discussion within the group we chosethe photo above, and moved that into Adobe Photoshop for editing,simply by dragging the image into the program window to bring upthe Camera RAW processing window.



With this open we played with a few of the setting to reach acontrast and level of brightness and saturation that we desired. Wedid this by taking up the exposure, the recovery and the blacklevels, as well as the brightness and the contrast, by sliding thesesliders up around 10% each. The clarity was greatly increases and

the vibrance was improved as well, although the saturation wastaken down to get more of a melancholic, old style photo feel out of it. The temperature was also made slightly more yellow to give a

sepia tone effect. This was the finished result after playing aroundwith the camera RAW settings.

After doing this we opened the image into the Photoshop canvas sothat we could start to edit the image and start transforming it into amagazine front cover. The next step involves selecting the pen tool



and then carefully making an outline around the figures of thefather and the son so that the background can be removed.

After coming full circle we then joined the start and the end point

and then right clicked and selected ‘Make Selection’, which thenbrings up another window where we inserted a feathering radius of 2 pixels and clicked okay so that the edge of the layer of the figureisn’t as sharp after being cut from the background.

After doing this we then selecting the selection tool and right clickedon the pen path that we had made and selected ‘Layer via Copy’instead of cut so that we had the original image at hand if needed.

By disabling the visibility of the layer underneath the figures, wewere left with no background and the two actors which are noweasily moveable for layering and moving text in front of and behind.



The next step involved adding abackground to the image. We found agrunge texture and decided to apply it tothe background, to match the housetheme of the promotion pack. The on its

own decidedly looked far too plain andso we started to stack layers of gradientson and under this grunge layer atdifferentopacities toreach a desiredlook. Byselecting the‘new layer’ iconwe then had anew layer on

which to add gradients. We selected the fill tool and made thecolour black to fill the background with.

Then we selected the gradient tool and made that colour white in

the colour palette. We then made sure that the gradient faded outto transparent instead of a secondary colour and that the gradientwas radial and not directional. We then clicked the middle of thecanvas behind the figures and dragged the line out to create agradient that just abouttouches the edges of thecanvas, going from white togrey to black at the edges.



After doing this we then made the grunge layer visible again andthen took down the opacity to around 45% so that the contrastinggradient underneath comes through and merges the two images.

After

doing this we decided that there was a problem with how bright andcolourful the father’s shirt was, as it didn’t fit in with the housetheme, and so that was the next thing we addressed. We selectedthe pen tool again and started to make a path around the outline of his shirt.

After doing this we then right clicked, made a new selection frompath, feathered by 2 pixels and then selected the selection toolagain and right clicked to create a new layer via copy.





After doing this the next step involved giving the son a sinister look,like a watered down version of the demon face effect used in theteaser trailer. To do this we first pen tooled around the face of theson, made a new selection, feathered by two pixels and copied to anew layer.

Then with thisnew layer we made the brightness higher and

took down the saturation to zero.

We then took the opacity on that layer down to 40% so that theson’s face now seems pale and ghost like. The next step involvedadding a vein filed texture to the face of the son. To do this weadded a picture of a vein texture and placed it directly on top of theson’s face. We then ctrl clicked the white face layer to select that



area, and then went to Select, Inverse to select everything around itand pressed delete.After doing this we then used the magic wand tool to select all thewhite areas of the texture and

then filled them blue.

Then by right clicking and selecting ‘Layer Via Cut, we had the veinsof the texture on a separate layer and were able to delete all theextra waste.

We selected ‘create new layer mask, and then selected the brush asa ‘soft airbrush’ and with a graphics tablet we could then mask outpart of the veins by fading them away, to make it much softer. By

selecting black as the colour of the airbrush, the black on the layermask makes the opacity of the layer reduce wherever the mark hasbeen made. This means as the brush strokes fade away, the opacityof the black fades and so not so much opacity is reduced in thatarea.

The opacity of the layer is then reduced to around50% to give a subtle hint of veins running along theside of the boy’s face, making his image very creepy in general.



We then made the circles around the boy’s eyes dark by making anew layer and then using the soft airbrush we coloured around theeyes and faded out as we reached the edges by taking pressure off the graphics tablet pen. We then reduced the opacity of the layer toaround 40%.

We then wanted to make his eyes as menacing as possible and sowe simply painted on yellow cats eyes by drawing little yellowcrescents on either side of his pupils. We then took the opacity of

that new layer down to 50%.

We then decided that the son’s hair was to bright and colourful tomatch his face and so we pen tooled around his hair, made a newselection and made a new layer via copy and took down thebrightness and saturation of the layer.



Before moving on to making the image look more like a magazinecover we made a couple more changes. Firstly we added a newlayer and added a black gradient fading to transparent fading upfrom the bottom to the middle to give the picture more depth.

We then took the layer of the two figures, copied it and took downthe lightness until they were two black silhouettes. We Gaussianblurred that layer and then put it behind the figures and reduced theopacity to give the impression of a deeper shadow.



Next we added a new text layer and typed ‘Motion’, selected thetypeface ‘Telegraphico’ and then made the colour of the text brightred.

To make the text look more graphical we then added some effects,being Drop Shadow and Gradient Overlay. We did this by selectingthe Layer Style icon on that text layer and then selecting dropshadow made the shadow bigger in size with more spread. We thenadded a gradient overlay and bringing the opacity down to 60% andmaking the gradient appear vertically from the bottom by makingthe angle 90 degrees.



Next we added a new text layer, made the typeface ‘NorthwoodHigh’ made the colour of the text white and transformed the layerand put it on a slant and placed it in front of the two figures at the

bottom and typed in ‘Vacancy on VioletHill’.

We then added layer style effects to the layer of the text to make ita lot more dynamic. We added a drop shadow with a lot of spread,distance and size to make the text appear to pop out from a heavyblack form. We also added a very subtle outer glow of red to addthat red colour to the graphical aesthetics of it, giving a hint of menace.



We then added the words ‘Exclusive Preview’ just above the titles inred colour with a typeface called ‘Reznor Broken’.

On this

layer we

added a drop shadow to the text to make it stand out more, as atthe moment it’s too flat and hardly noticeable.

Next we added a new layer and make a selection of a rectanglearound the text but made sure the layer was behind the text layer.

We filled that selection box with yellow. We then also added a dropshadow to thatlayer to make itstand out as well.



Next we added a textlayer reading ‘An insidelook at Rolfman’s newfilm’ below. We spacedout the characters to slant

sideways and made thetext gray apart from thewords ‘Inside’ and‘Rolfman’s’ which werelighter in shade to make them stand out more like many magazinesdo.

Next we added some feature films that would be included in themagazine along the side by making several text layers andalternating the colours between a de-saturated pink and off-whiteand a de-saturated red for ‘THIS MONTH’. The font typeface for all of this text is ‘Blue Highway’. Next we then added a drop shadow to all

of these text layers.

We also added a date, issue number, andprice just below motion on the right side

using the typeface ‘Bernard MTCondensed’, with a white colour. We right



clicked and selected Free Transform and dragged the corners tomake it as small as desired.Next we added the text ‘Behind the Scenes Peek. Meet theproduction team behind your favourite films’. We made the wordsBehind the Scenes Sneak Peek’ bigger than the rest of the text and

made it off-white to make it the most noticeable part of the text. Wedid this by selecting the text and bringing up the font size by slidingacross the text size box. We also added a drop shadow to the text.

After this we then added the text above ‘MOTION’ that reads‘Exclusive Independent Films Preview Edition’, in the typeface ‘Birchstd’ and made all of it off-white apart from the words ‘IndependentFilms’.

To try to separate the title of the magazine and the headline aboveit we then added a new layer and drew a rectangle underneath thetext with the selection tool. We then filled this box with an off-white

colour to make an underlining rule.



Next we wanted to recreate the features we’ve seen in somemagazines where pictures are includes in bars along the side orbottom or top of the magazine. We thought it would be a good ideato use pictures of us filming as on set preview pictures to be placedas a banner along the left hand side of the poster. So next we took 3

of our pictures and placed them into the document and made themall roughly the same size. This was done by placing all the picturesonto the document and using the section tool to select the edges of

the photo and then crop them accordingly.

We then resized them all using ‘Free Transform and lined them allup against the left hand side and placed them behind the layer of the two figures.



Next we then made a new layer under those of the pictures andmade a box with the selection tool under the picture that would actas a frame to hold all of the pictures. We selected a gold like colourfrom the colour palette and filled the selection with it.

We then selected the gradient tooland took a darker brownish greycolour from the colour palette andthen made a gradient from thatcolour to transparent with adirection going diagonally upwardsfrom the bottom right corner.Below is the result.



We then made another layer and made a smallbox in the top right corner of this frame andfilled it with the same gold colour so that itcould be a space to put the word ‘PLUS’ on.

The typeface for ‘PLUS’ was also ‘BlueHighway’ and the text was made black.

At the bottom Right corner we added a new text layer and typed in‘First Look on VOVH set!’ with the ‘Blue Highway’ font, spaced it outwith the character dialog box and then added a layer style of a drop

shadow.

However this still didn’t look aesthetically pleasing to us, so wedecided to add a sticker like effect under the text by selecting thecircle selection tool and making a circle under the text and filling it

with red. We also copied the layer of the boy’s hair and placed itabove the layer of the circle so it seemed like the sticker wasbetween the boy and the father.





Next we then added a new layer mask to the layer and used agradient of black to transparent and slid it across from the top leftcorner of the circle down to the bottom right so that the stickerfaded in rather than seem to obtrusive. We also added a drop

shadow to make it seem more like a sticker.

Next we added text below the picture that read ‘On LocationInterview with VOVH cast’. We did the same thing as the other textand made some of it bigger with the character dialog box andchanged some of the colour from de-saturated pink to off-white.Lastly we added a drop shadow so fit the theme of the page.Next at the bottom left of the page we added large text in the fonttypeface ‘Blue Highway’ as ‘40’ in a large text size and then made anew layer and placed it next to that text layer reading ‘Reviews &Previews’. That text was made darker than the ’40’ to make the ’40’stand out more.



We then found a picture of a Barcode andplaced in the bottom right corner of thepage. After doing this we made a new layerunderneath that barcode and made a box

with the selection tool along the bottom of the page and around barcode by using the‘add selection’ option. We then filled thatselection box grey so that text could be

added at the bottom like a banner.

With this box down at the bottom we kept to the theme of using

‘Blue Highway’ and in black small text at the bottom we wrote ‘FREEPOSTERS - FREE SOUNDTRACKS - FREE MOVIE TICKETS - FREESUBSCRIPTION SERVICE’. This appeared as demonstrated below.



With all of these stages complete the finished product appeared asshown below:

Documents

Magazine Front Cover Construction