Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Creation of a Cover

Something a little different today. Many people have asked me how I make these covers, since I use MS Paint, rather than Photoshop or another program. Here I will take you through the process that I used in creating yesterday's Thing/Goon team-up. Each cover has its own unique challenges, but this will give a basic idea of some of the techniques that I use:













12 comments:

joe ackerman said...

genious. I'm rubbish at that sort of stuff.

Mike D. said...

it is a lot of work...down to a science

Doppelgänger said...

I gotta say I'm still stuck at the point where you create a greenscreen in one MS Paint, then paste and image into that MS P box after which it disables changing the background color. Rats.

Anonymous said...

I had no idea that white-transparent when cutting/pasting in Paint. So that's how you got the edges clean.

Thanks for posting this. It's always cool seeing the process in action.

-Mea

Ross said...

It took me a while to figure that out as well - which is why so many of the B&B covers are pretty rough!

Siskoid said...

What do you mean by adding a halo and what purpose does it serve?

Ross said...

A few pixels of color around the edges of overlapping images to make them mesh together better.

Anonymous said...

i feel cheated out of new cover you should post 2 to make up for it or post one sat

Ross said...

5 Covers a week including holidays, and 7 covers a week for the first several months... sheesh, there's no pleasing some people!

Cabin Campbell said...

How amazing, Ross! So much more logical than my method! II go even more tedious than you, cutting out each image separately, pixel by pixel. If the original is too faded, then I redraw the design over the top of the original, and combine layers of drawing , color and originals until I get it just right.

SmearySoapboxPress said...

Great behind-the scenes tutorial! Thanks for pulling the curtain back a little bit so we could see.

Anonymous said...

This is great. I just discovered your blog and I love it. And I LOVE the fact that you use Paint instead of Photoshop. You do such a good job I honestly couldn't tell. Also, I'm a bit of a MS Paint addict and it makes me happy to know that I'm not the only one beyond its simplicity and charm.

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