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Tips for Creating Artwork


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#1 Kathlib the Prophet

Kathlib the Prophet

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Posted 26 October 2004 - 12:19 AM

Some Adobe Photoshop brush sites:
http://www.angryblue.com
http://www.prettybrush.cjb.net
http://resources.dev...ions/psbrushes/

Some pattern and texture sites:
Ultimate 3D Links - links to dozens of texture and pattern sites
Noctua Graphics - 459 free textures
http://browse.devian...urces/textures/

Some font sites:
Rock Rage - dozens of band fonts, including Metallica
High Fonts
Cool Archive Fonts
1001 Free Fonts
FlamingText.com - lots of text effects
http://www.smackbomb...onts/index.html
http://www.fontfile.com/
http://browse.devian...esources/fonts/

I have also attached a zip file of all the MetallicA fonts, Metpage's Mailbomb font, and the font that MetCoverArt uses. These have all been heavily requested so I just stuck them here. Enjoy. :unsure:

#2 Kathlib the Prophet

Kathlib the Prophet

    Luck. Runs. Out.

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Posted 26 October 2004 - 12:23 AM

Shadow effect on text:
On text you can add a shadow directly behind the text to make it stand out from distracting backgrounds and easier to read, especially when printed. I use the settings (starting from Layers>Layer Style>Blending Options>Drop Shadow on Adobe Photoshop 7.0) Multiply blend mode, 100% opacity, 0 px distance, 44% spread, and a 6 px size. Of course, I recommend that these settings and the shadow's color be toggled for different effects on different covers.

Removing an image's background
There are various ways to go about removing an image's background, and it just depends on the pic you're working on which method is best. Here is a tutorial for extracting an image from its background: http://www.photoshop...tout/cutout.htm I use this method when pics have alot of the background blended with what you want to keep, like if Kirk is headbanging and his hair is sticking out everywhere. I also sometimes find it easier to just make my eraser 3 pixels wide and delete the edges around the part of the pic I want to keep, zooming in several times so I can see what I'm doing; I usually use this method when the pic is pretty much a good outline, i.e. Kirk's hair isn't flying out everywhere, lol. You should mess around with these ideas and play with them, there are still other ways to make a pic stand out from its background or cover up its background without actually removing anything, and sometimes it creates awesome effects, like my 15 Jun 03 Nijmegen, Netherlands cover, all I did was paste the St. Anger fist over the pic, lower the opacity, change the blend mode, and zoom in with a 3 pixel brush to delete the part of the pic covering James, and it turned out perfect.

#3 Kathlib the Prophet

Kathlib the Prophet

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Posted 03 June 2005 - 08:12 AM

Miscellaneous Useful Tips
And things that annoy me in general...:mellow:

This is my list of useful stuff that guide me to make what I make the way I make it, so hopefully anyone who makes Metallica covers and and reads this may find it to be of some use.
  • Ecstasy is spelled with an S, not a C!!!
  • A lot of songs have "The" in them.
  • Some common songs that get fucked over with improper titles are:
    The Ecstasy of Gold
    The Four Horsemen
    (Anesthesia) -- Pulling Teeth
    The Call of Ktulu
    The Thing that Should Not Be
    Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
    Damage, Inc.
    The Shortest Straw
    The Frayed Ends of Sanity
    The Unforgiven
    The God that Failed
    The Outlaw Torn
    The Memory Remains
    The Unforgiven II
    Fixxxer
    Die, Die My Darling
    The Wait
    Am I Evil?
    I Disappear
    The Unnamed Feeling
  • It's very annoying to see a cover for a 2004 bootleg with pictures from 1986.
  • It's very annoying to see a cover for a 1986 bootleg with pictures from 2004.
  • It's annoying to see a cover with artwork on it that didn't even exist in that time period. For example, a MOP era cover with 2004 Pushead artwork.
  • It's annoying to see very small or blurry text.
  • It's annoying to see a badly extracted/pixelated Metallica logo. That's why we have fonts, the textual equivalent of a vector.
  • It's annoying, not to mention hilarious, to see Rob on pre-2003 covers.
  • Jason's last name is spelled Newsted.
  • The I comes before the E in Hetfield.
  • There are two M's and two T's in Hammett.
  • Lars's name has an H in it: Ulrich.
  • Let's just cut to the chase and say Rob's name is spelled Trujillo.
  • The bigger the cover is, the better the quality will be when you print it.
  • Text in odd places, like covering band member's faces, is annoying.
  • And, once again, Ecstasy is spelled with an S, not a C!!!
These are some of the sites I have bookmarked, ones that I use more than any others because of their wealth of information, screenshots, and rare videos.

Where to find DVD screenshots and tracklists:
The Metallica Video Archive
Yetti's Militia Boots
leglessmoof's Live Music Trading Site
St-Metal's Bootleg Trading Site
frantik2k3's Bootleg DVD Trading Site

Where to find *Setlists:
Chapter Inc.'s Tour Files
Metpage Tour Setlists
Metlists Inc.

*Note: a setlist is the complete list of songs that are played during a show. A tracklist is the list of songs on a CD according to how they're split. For example, a setlist might say:

The Four Horsemen
Frantic
St. Anger

While the bootleg might be split into the following tracks:

The Four Horsemen
Jam
Frantic
Crowd Speech / Band Introduction
St. Anger

Quite different, eh? Personally, I find it useful to be able to use a cover the way it's supposed to be used -- to look at the tracks and select which track it is on the CD. It's very annoying when the tracks don't match what's on the cover.

Edited by frantik2k3, 01 June 2006 - 12:51 AM.





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