ADOPTING WEB 3 FOR YOUR BUSINESS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Development Diary - Digipack
1. Development Diary – Digi-pack
The song we chose to create a music video for already has an album release. So we
decided to adapt our own version to the digi-pack so that it had relevance to our music
video. We chose to create a 6-page digi-pack;which includes a front and back cover
which is vital to include certain conventions in order to cause people to purchase the
album. Our aim when creating the digi-pack was to move away from the typical
conventions of digitally produced digi-pack designs. In order to fulfil this idea, we
decided to involve a hand written and drawn aspect to the album to make it seem
personalised for the audience in a diary style.
We began creating the digi-pack by inserting the digi-
pack template onto a Photoshop document so that we
can create the pages with the correct measurements
119.5mm (h) x 120.5mm (w). We then went on to create the front cover of the
digi-pack, we added the image first which was identical to the image featured on
the magazine advertisement, therefore we had no need to manipulate the image
other than making it the correct size for
the dimension of our CD cover by using
the free transform tool after placing the
image on the background template. We
followed the same procedure for the text
on the front cover. We decided to use the
same text and image so that the audience
are able to make relations between the
advertisement and the front cover as
well as working to draw in the viewer
much more. This also sticks with the
house style of the CD and due to this, this
these were the only features on the front
cover so that it is easy on the eye, so this
allows the viewer to recognise each individual aspect on the front cover.
We then began to manipulate an image to place on
a page of the digi-pak we opened to image by
selecting ‘file’>>’open’ and selecting the image we
want to use. We then altered the size of the image
by changing the width to ‘2592’ and resolution to
‘300’ so that we can see what we’re working with
much more easily. We then altered the levels and
curves of the image by selecting
‘image’>>’adjustments’>>’curves’ and
‘Image’>>’Adjustments’>>’Levels’ this altered to
exposure of the image by brightening it up
allowing the viewer to see the image much more
clearly. We then used the ‘Lasso tool’ on the left
hand tool bar to draw round the eyes and mouths of the two models in the image
we held down ‘shift’ key to make multiple selections. We then selected
‘Select’>>’Modify’>>’Feather’ and then selected ‘Select’>>’Inverse’ to focus all the
attention to everything other than the selected places. After this we duplicated
2. the layer in order to have two layers of the same image,
we did this by selecting ‘Layer’>>’Duplicate layer’. We
then selected ‘filter’>>’blur’>>’box blur’ and altered the
amount of blur to 88% causing everything other than
the selected areas to become blurred. We then altered
the opacity to 60% so that the models skin looks fresh
and glowing, this is seen in several magazines and
professional images and is known as airbrushing. Any
remaining imperfections were corrects with the spot
healing brush to cause the image to look much more
professional. We then flattened the image by selecting
‘layer’>>’flatten image’ so that we are just working on
the one layer. We then decided to make the image black
and white in order to give the image a basic and
professional look. We then decided to use the ‘brush
tool’ to draw hearts around the image. This sticks to the
house style of the digi-pak and also draws the viewer in
more as the bright colours of the hearts attract a great deal of attention.
We then created the page of lyrics, we only included one song’s lyrics as this is
the most well known song from the album however, we included a link in order
to persuade the audience to visit the band’s website to discover more lyrics from
the album. This isn’t following the usual conventions of digi-packs however we
felt as though the current Internet revolution and people’s ease of access to the
Internet will contribute towards people accessing lyrics this way. We began
creating this page by writing up the lyrics by hand and adding personalised
elements to fit with the diary theme running throughout the digi-pack, such as
3. hearts and drawings around the text, using bright, eye-catching colours that we
felt would appeal to our target audience. We then scanned the hand drawn page,
so we were able to manipulate it to the size of the digi-pak page, and we were
also altering imperfections using the eraser tool. Once the page of lyrics was on
our document, we decided to add a background, taking colours similar to those
on the back of the album with the track listing, by using the colour picker so we
were able to stick to our house style. We used a striped background, giving the
page a ‘scrapbook’ effect, which also draws attention to the page, so it won’t be
dismissed when our audience are looking through the digi-pak.
We added a message from the band, which was typed up on Microsoft word in
the font courier and was printed out to add personal touches such as colours and
hearts. We then scanned it up to place it onto the digi-pak template. We did the
same with the song listings however when placing into Photoshop we
manipulated the image further by placing a barcode and company logos on the
page. We did this so that it follows the regular conventions of digi-paks.
When creating the page for the CD to go we used a heart shaped tool placed in
the centre where the CD is we made this pink and blue which sticks to the house
style of the band’s album and advertisement making it very recognisable and
stands out. We then used the rectangular shaped tool to draw two white
rectangles on the top and bottom of the circular shape. We then placed text over
these shapes again using the font courier we made the text black so that it stands
out a great deal and by having the white background behind the text it causes the
text to stand out a great deal on the page. We then added the record labels logo
to this page to give them credit, we decided to do this after seeing that it was
done on other CD’s allowing us to stick to the usual conventions.