Ancillary Task 1 : Development

Here is the process of making my CD Digipak:

To start of making my Digipak I used the exact same image of my poster to make sure the products have continuity so it would be recognizable for the consumer when trying to purchase the product based on a the poster. I then changed the size of the image to a width of 29.26 to make it the shape of a CD cover. This then meant that I had blank space above and below the image as it had been made smaller, so I then added black bars, and faded them into the image to make it all seem like one cover rather than all separate images.

Then I decided that the original image was too dark so I increased the contrast of the picture to make it clearer and thus more recognizable. I then added the same text in the same font as my poster, again to increase continuity. The font I chose was Rosewood Std, and I also changed its opacity so it didn’t seem to stand out too much in comparison to the image, so this it just seems more blended.

Then I added the text at the bottom of the cover to give the album a name, again using the same font from my album poster to keep up the continuity and changing the opacity to make it seem more seamless. This then creates the image of my album cover without the release date, to make it instantly recognizable.

So after the completion of my front cover for my digipak, I then downloaded a CD Template and opened it in photoshop so I could get the layout correct, and then placed my orignal image over the top adujusting the size of it to fit the template.

Then, to start my back cover I got one of the images that are meant to be the bands ‘Mug Shots’ and I changed the saturation and contrast to make the black and white effect that I wanted to fit in with the rest of the products. Then the image was too large, so I altered the size and cropped it so it would fit within one quarter of the back cover to allow the other band members to also be able to fit on it as well.

I continued to place the mugshots within the square to make up the back cover, adjusting the sautration and exposure of each one; and merged them into one layer once it was complete. I also swapped the covers around because I realised that needed to be the layout for the CD cover to work.

Then I needed to add the song names for the album, as my audience research indicates that people like to be able to have this information when they are purchasing a product. I added the text in the same font as the album cover to make it seem more continous and adjusted the opacity so it didn’t distract or stand out from the images too much. I decided not to keep the song names  in a straight down layout as it didn’t fit around the pictures of the band, so tried my best to fit them around their faces.

Then I opened the template in a separate photoshop window to create the border of the digipak. I filled the outside in black and then put text down the centre in the conventional style of a digipak. To add this to the rest of the cover I copied it over into the other window.

This is what the digipak looks like with the border and I also added a barcode to make it seem more realistic. I stayed away from adding any social media on the front cover as from my audience research it seemed a majority of people didn’t see it as important or thought it should just be really small, but I think that adding it on now after I have finished my cover, it would definitely detract from the overall feel of the cover and thus its effectiveness.

                                                   

The next thing I did was started on the inside cover of my ancillary tasks. I used some more of the pictures I took on the first day of filming, and again altered the saturation, contrast, exposure and blacks to make it fit in with the silent film of the music video and fitting in with the front cover of the digipak. I then placed it in the same template I used for the outside cover to again make sure it was the same size as a CD case.

The next step was to add the image to the right hand side of the cover, putting it through the same adjustments to as the other photos, in preparation for it to make the actual CD.

Then I added a circle to start the process of making the Cd, which initially cut out the original image. To do this I used the sphere tool, but held shift so it remained the same shape as a circle.

The next step I took was change the layer overlay to I could see the image behind it again, and then changed the opacity of the image to make it stand out compared to the rest, thus making it look like a CD.

The last and final step was to use the same border as the front cover to fill in the outside of the digipak. The inside covers are slightly different from my initial plan as instead of having the band name on the actual CD, I used an image as I thought this would be more unique but still has the band members on it so the consumer will recognise what the CD is even without the packaging, making to more effective than my original idea.