H2O.ai CEO/Founder: Sri Ambati Keynote at Wells Fargo Day
Development Diary
1. Digi-Pack
Development Diary
I started the construction of my physical CD by opening an existing
template, to do this I went to File > Open, once my selections
opened I selected the correct template. Once I had the correct
template I then opened the pictures that I would use for the CD, I
used the same process that I followed to open the CD template.
These are the pictures I chose. I wanted the model to be walking
around the CD, jumping over the amps. Once I had opened the
pictures I then edited them to make them brighter and more
visually appealing to do this I used the Level and Curves tool. The
shortcut for the Levels tool is ‘CMD > L’ and the shortcut for
Curves is ‘CMD > M’.
2. Once I had finished editing the pictures I then had to select them to
drag them onto the CD Template, to do this I used the magic wand
tool, once I had it selected I traced around the model’s body and it
selected the model and separated it from
the background. I then selected the move
tool and dragged the
model onto the CD
Template. I then had to resize
the model as they did not fit
properly onto the CD, to do
this I used Free Transform, to
do this I went to Edit > Free
Transform; then making sure I
held down the shift button, to
make sure the picture stayed
in proportion, I dragged the
corners in to make the model the correct size. When I
had finished this I put the amp in, I followed the same
process that I did for the model, the only different that I
did this time was rotate it, to do this I went to Edit >
Transform > Rotate I then rotated the amp until it was at
the correct angle, I then used the eraser tool rub out the
bottom of the amp so it fitted against the inner circle
of the CD. I then repeated this process with the next
model and continued until I had covered the whole CD.
After I had finished this I felt that the CD just looked too
plain so I decided that I would link in the chequered
pattern from the front cover in with the CD. To do this I
first hid the layers with the model and amps on them so
I had a clear background, I then started off with the lines
that I would need to draw, I used the Line Tool to
execute this, I set the thickness to 0.2cm so the line
wasn’t too big but still able to be seen. Once I had completed this I
merged the layers and then filled in every other
space with a different colour using the Fill Tool.
I then added a Inner Shadow by double clicking
on the layer and selecting Inner Shadow with the
opacity at 100 and changed the Distance, Size and
3. Choke until I had the desired effect. This is the finished product.
I then moved on to the inside cover, to do
this I first created a new square Photoshop
document, I did this by opening Photoshop
and going to File > New, I then went onto
custom and changes the centimetres to 22cm
by 22cm as this would give me the same width
as a A4 page. Once I had this page set up I
opened the first picture that I would be
using as one of my four, to do this I
went to File > Open. Once I had the
picture open I then had to edit this
picture, to do this I first wanted to fix
the models skin to make it look
smoother, I did this by using a
technique called soft focus;
this includes selecting the
lasso tool and tracing
around the models eyes and mouth, making sure I was
on the duplicated layer. I
then inversed the
selection and went to
Filter > Gaussian Blur, I
then changed the
opacity of the layer to
make the blur look
subtle but effective, once I had
the desired look I flattened the
image, I did this by going to
Layer > Flatten Image. Once I
had finished with this process I
then went onto changing the
4. colour and tone of the picture, I did this
by using levels (cmd+L) and curves
(cmd+M). This is my edited product, I
then decided that the picture would look
better with a filter on it and after going
through lots of layers I decided that the
film grain filter looked the best, I did this
by going to Filter > Film Grain. This is
my finished product. I then put this onto
my blank Photoshop document and
used Free Transform to resize the
image to fit into its designated quarter.
I then repeated this whole process for
each of the four pictures.
This is my finished design
for the pictures.
I then wanted to add text to the inside slip so people could use it
as a mini poster to put on their wall. I used the Text Tool for this,
once I had selected the tool I picked a font that I thought would
best fit the house style for the digi-pack, the font that I selected
was Marker Felt and then I used Free Transform to change the
size and shape of the writing.
This is the
finished product,
I am very pleased with how this turned out and if I
was to go back and do it again I don’t think I would
do anything differently.
5. I then moved onto the Front Cover, this was a
Mash-up idea. To do this I first freehand drew a
design on a square piece of paper. Once I had
finished the design I then scanned it onto my
computer system using a scanner, this is what the
picture looked like once I had scanned it onto my
system. I then opened this picture in Photoshop
and duplicated the layer, to do this I had to go to
Layer > Duplicate Layer. Once I had the layer
duplicated I then selected the line tool and began drawing all of the
straight lines, once I had finished the straight lines I started with
the curved lines, to do this I first used the straight
line from one point to the other, using the warp
tool change the line so it fit against the drawing, I
did this by going to Edit > Transform > Warp.
After I had finished with the outline I stared to
add colour, to do this I used the Fill Tool. I also wanted to add a
realistic aspect to the front cover so I decided to replace the
cartoon iPod with an actual iPod, to do this I took a
picture of my iPod and then traced around the iPod
using the Magic Wand Tool and then
inversed the selection using Select >
Inverse and then pressed the backspace
button to get rid of the background. I then
used the Magic Wand Tool again to
select the screen, I then opened a picture
of the Wheatus album cover and dragged
it onto the iPod into the selection using
the Move Tool, and
resized it using Free
Transform. This is
the finished iPod.
This is the finished
product, I am very
pleased with how
this product has
turned out as I feel it
achieved the
cartoon style I was
going for.
6. I then created the template for the Digi-pack,
to do this I opened a new Photoshop
document, I did this the same way I did the
previous square document by going to File >
New. I then dragged the Front Cover onto
the document using the Move Tool and
resizing it using Free Transform. Once I had
this in place I added a spine to separate the Front
and Back Cover, to do this I used the rectangle
tool. Once I had
finished with the I
began the Back Cover,
to do this I used the
Rectangle Shape Tool
to then fill in the left-
hand corner of the
document, I then
double clicked on the shape layer to
bring up I would be able to
edit the colour and style of
the box. I added an Inner
Shadow to the box, I set the
opacity to 100% and then
adjusted the Distance, Choke
and Size until I had my
desired effect. This is when I
added the text using the Text Tool.
For the header I chose the font
Marker Felt because I thought it
would be
better to keep
the same house style throughout. And then
for the list of tracks I
decided to use the
font Bangla because I thought it looked
better and fit into the style of my Digi-
pack. I then added a barcode to the back
cover, I did this by placing the image onto
the image and then resizing it using Free
Transform This is the finished design for
the back cover.
7. Once I had finished this I started to assemble my Digi-pack,
because I already had the Front cover and back cover on the
Photoshop document I only needed to drag the Inside Cover and
CD onto the document using the Move Tool. This is the finished
Digi-pack, I am very pleased with how this turned out, as there is a
certain style throughout which I feel reflects the band well and the
tone of the album.