FMP

1. Production Reflection
Tamzin Twose

2. Process
For my magazine cover product I opened up a new A4
document in Photoshop.
First I turned on the rulers and set up a guide at each
side edge so that when I began adding my masthead, I
had a clear guide to line them up to. This is a common
convention of magazine cover design.
Next, I created the masthead using my magazine brand
name. I did this by creating a text box, spanning from
the left guide to the right, I set the size to 82.75 and
used the Quantify font, which I’d picked as a favourite
in my pre-production.
I then created a set of parallel lines, one above the
masthead and one below, using the line tool and set
the height to 20px to make it thicker.
I wrote out my selling line, using an 18pt size in the
Calibri regular font. The text didn’t fill the full width of
the cover, so I adjusted the tracking to 255 and this
worked perfectly. Finally I made the words “GAMES
TOGETHER” stand out by changing the font to Calibri
bold.
So far so good. I love the Quantify font I’ve chosen. It’s
got a real creative feel to it, and I like the parallel lines
as they frame the masthead and make it stand out. It
also creates a clear separation between the masthead
and selling line without having to colour block it.

3. Process
My next task was to add in the feature image, I did this by
dragging the image from the folder to the cover. I’ve chosen a
picture of Lifeline from the game Apex Legends which I will be
writing about in my feature article. She’s a combat medic within
the game and I feel she would be a good role model to have as
the featured character.
Unfortunately, the image I’m using is low quality and too small
to keep, but I wanted to see how it would look on the cover. I
actually want to take a screenshot of the character in game as in
the character selection screen she is in the same pose, but for
now this will give me an idea of what it looks like and where I
can position things around the image.

4. Process
In order to implement my colour scheme, I needed to take
a screenshot of my pre-production, as I’d already worked
out the colours that I wanted to use in that stage of my
planning.
I then used the eyedropper tool to pick out the orange. I
had also decided in my layout plan section of my pre-
production, the colour style that I wanted to use.
I changed to the text tool and highlighted the word “UNITE”
and changed the colour to orange and repeated the process
for the word “TOGETHER” in the selling line. I feel this
creates a real community message and without realising it,
it creates the impression that it says “GAMERS UNITE
TOGETHER” which is perfect.
Next, I added the date line. I used the Calibri regular font
and set the size to 12pt. This allowed me to have the
information in an easy to see location, but small enough to
not detract from the main features of the magazine. This is
a common convention of magazine cover design, which I
learnt when creating my magazine for my visual project.
Finally, I added a plug to the left of the feature image,
below the date line. I used the ellipse tool to create a circle.
I left the inside of the circle white but I picked out the blue
from my colour scheme screenshot and changed the edge
to the blue. I also set the thickness of the outside line to
10px to make it stand out more.

5. Process
I know I wasn’t planning on keeping the low quality feature image,
but I wanted to try out how the image would look if the character’s
hair was over the masthead line.
The character and background were one image, so it wasn’t possible
to just bring the image forward, as the masthead would be covered
by the stone background.
In order to trial this effect I used the rectangular marquee tool to
select the part that overlapped the line, I then duplicated the
selection and moved the new layer up the list so that it was
positioned above the line.
Next, using the polygonal lasso tool, I cut out the hair from the
background, duplicated the selection and deleted the old
rectangular version. This created the effect that the character was
indeed over the line and I was really pleased with how it looked. It
gave the cover a more professional look and made the character
seem more important. It allowed me to create the effect that real
existing magazines create and the hair fit into the gap between the
words.
With a new magazine I knew it would be silly to cover the masthead
as the brand is new, but this worked perfectly.

6. Process
I wanted to make the masthead stand out
more and make it look more appealing. In
my pre-production layout plan I’d played
with the idea of creating a coloured
shadow behind the text and had really
liked the effect.
I created this effect by duplicating the
masthead text. I then changed the size to
82pt and recoloured the words so that the
colours were the opposite way around.
I feel this was a really clever way to
integrate more orange into the cover,
without it being too overbearing, as I
learned when I researched the 1996
magazine cover, if you use too much
orange, it can look horrendous. So I
wanted to ensure I used it in a subtle
fashion.
Next, I added in the Kingdom Hearts III
headline to see if it would fit in the space
to the left and it did, but I’m undecided at
this time, which game I want to feature
there. I then added the Apex Legends
cover line and picked out the red from my
pre-production screenshot using the
eyedropper tool. The cover line is more of
a placeholder at the moment, as I want to
find a version of the real Apex Logo to use
as it would create better brand
recognition for the game and draw in my
audience.
Finally, I altered the size of the plug to make it bigger as I felt it looked a little
lost in the space and I wanted the words to fit inside better without looking
squashed. I changed the number of pages to 10 from 22, as well, because I
felt for a new magazine that this was a more believable number.
I really feel the magazine is coming together well, I just need to source some
better quality images.

7. Process
I tried to capture a screenshot of my featured character by going into
the game and pressing the print screen button. I then pasted the
image into MS Paint so that I could save it as a jpeg.
Unfortunately, the character on the selection screen was animated
with lighting and flames coming from the drone, which meant that I
couldn’t cut her out cleanly. Also the image was a lot darker, with
lighting and shadowing that wouldn’t look right if she was on her own,
not to mention the image would again have been too small and lower
quality.
Instead, I had to look for another suitable image and luckily I found a
better quality version of the original image that I wanted to use.
The image had a white background which I would need remove. To do
this I used the magic wand tool, which worked for the majority of the
image, except the shadow at the bottom of the feet. This part was
trickier because the magic wand selection tool selected part of the
shoe as it was a similar colour, so in order to remove this I had to use
the polygonal lasso tool. It had to guess slightly as to where the shoe
ended and the shadow began, but I think it turned out really well.

8. Process
Now that the image was cut away from the background, I could remove the old
image and add in the new one. I did this by dragging the layer of the cut out
image from the Photoshop document to the magazine cover. This image was a
much better size and filled the page nicely and because it was separate to the
background I was able to place it higher in the list of layers, enabling it to sit over
the masthead line, without having to edit it.
I also found a separate image of the stone distressed background that had been
around the original image and inserted onto the cover.
I wanted to try and change the logo by using the real Apex Legends logo. The one
I found was black with a red background. I changed the background to a lighter
colour so see how it might blend, but of course this wasn’t usable because it
needed to be cut out from the background.
I repeated the same process with the magic wand tool and selected the
background and deleted it, then changed the font to white instead of black.
Unfortunately, this logo wasn’t going to work, as I wanted it to cover the width of
the page and that would have made it too big. Also the image was poor quality
so it couldn’t be stretched.

9. Process
For an extra creative touch, I found a large
image of the Apex Legends logo and
wondered if it might work if I placed it
behind the feature image, to frame her.
The original logo was white with a red
background, which I knew wouldn’t work.
So I changed the colours using the paint
bucket tool, and made the background
black so that I could use the same red for
the logo. This allowed me to cut out the
logo using the magic wand tool and then
insert it onto the cover.
I really liked the look of this behind the
character, I just wasn’t sure if it would really
look good if I had a red main cover line. I
unchecked the visibility so that I could work
on the cover line and then I could see if it
would work afterwards.

10. Process
With the fail of the Apex logo, I decided to try to find an actual font I
could use instead. I searched online and found one called Blocktastic
which was the closest available. I wrote out the main cover line using
the horizontal type tool and changed the font size to 99pt. This looked
so much better and the slight font variation wasn’t too noticeable. I
changed the font to red, but looking at it, I felt it didn’t quite have
enough emphasis and it meant it blended too much.
In order to make it stand out, I right clicked the main cover line layer
and clicked on blending options, I then added a stroke around the edge
and set it to 5px. This enhanced it just enough to make it stand out
without looking too over the top. Next I added in the anchorage and
tried it in white but again it blended too much and didn’t quite have
the impact I wanted. I picked out some blue from the characters glove
and added a 5px stroke around the words, but it didn’t contrast well
with the white text. I then tried a black stroke outline and also spread
the text out so that it was over two lines. But this blended too much
with the background.
Finally, I tried changing the text itself to blue with a black background
and this worked so much better. It stood out enough from the
background and the feature image, but also created continuity for my
colour scheme.

11. Process
I wanted to create a competition plug so that my magazine would seem good value for money. This will make it appeal to
the working class and to the needs driven psychographic.
I chose a picture of a steel series headset, as this relates to gaming and also made sure I chose one in orange to tie in with
my colour scheme.
The picture had a white background so I used a combination of the magic wand tool and the polygonal lasso tool to select it
so that I could delete it.
Next I selected the circle in my “simulation special” plug, duplicated it and moved it down to the bottom right hand corner. I
rasterized the layer so that I could edit it and rather than having an outline, I picked out the blue from the anchorage, using
the eye dropper tool, and used the paint bucket tool to make it solid blue.
I then inserted the SteelSeries logo, but this wouldn’t work in it’s current form so I selected the brand name “SteelSeries”,
copied and pasted it into a separate layer and then deleted it from the logo. Then I used free transform to resize the logo so
that it was smaller and would sit next to the brand name. I then added in a rectangle using the rectangle tool and coloured
it orange to create continuity for my colour scheme. Finally I added in the words “WIN!” and “SIBERIA ELITE HEADSET” to
finish off the plug.

12. Process
For the Kingdom Hearts 3 sub article, I added in a picture and a
subheading, but looking at the magazine as a whole, I feel the picture looks
too dark and blocky.
I feel a really good idea would be to have the title set up in a colour block
with three pictures of the main characters, cut out behind it, then I can
place the subheading below it.
I found three images that might work for my sub article, each in a pose that
supports the other.
They all had a white background which I needed to remove. I tried the
magic wand tool but this didn’t work as each character had part of the
image that was also selected with that tool, so instead I used the polygonal
lasso tool and carefully selected the edge of the image. It was very time
consuming, but I knew it would be worth the effort.

13. Process
I tried to drag each image in from their Photoshop document onto the magazine cover, but for some reason they
were really small, so instead I exported each one and inserted them instead. This worked better and they were all the
correct size.
I resized them all using free transform and placed them to the right of the feature image, and placed the sub article
headline and sub heading over the top to get an idea of what they would look like but unfortunately, they didn’t fit
the space. I tried them to the left too, where the simulation plug was, but it didn’t work there either, as the space
was still not quite big enough, so I will have to try to rearrange other parts of the magazine to see if they fit in the
bottom right hand corner.

14. Process
After placing in the Kingdom Hearts III sub article, I decided to try to
rearrange the cover. I moved the competition plug to the top left,
moved the simulation special plug to the right and moved the sub
article to the bottom right. This gave me the freedom to make this
bigger without it impeding on the main feature image.
Looking at it as a whole, I felt that it looked a bit too much having
two circle plugs so I tried rearranging the simulation special so that it
was a normal heading without the circle. This looked a lot better, but
I then felt the orange was a bit too overpowering, with the orange in
“UNITE” in the masthead, so instead I added in a white rectangle
using the rectangle tool and changed “10 PAGE” to the blue.
I also added in a list of games, which will make it appeal more to a
wider audience, especially brand loyal people like the belongers
psychographic.

15. Process
I wanted to place the characters of the sub article behind the name
in a colour block so I used the rectangle tool to create a rectangle
and then adjusted the corner radius to make the corners rounded.
I tried using the red from the main cover line, but the red was too
overpowering and didn’t link to the game, so instead I used the
magazine orange. This made it contrast better. I also added in a
subheading by creating a blue rectangle across the bottom of the
magazine. This was a good way to bring a little bit more blue on to
the cover and to fill the space under the feet of the main feature
image.
Now that I had completed the main cover line I decided to turn the
Apex logo layer back on, which I’d placed behind the feature image.
As solid red, it blended too much with the main cover line, so
instead I changed it to white and added a red stroke around the
edge. I set this to 5px but it looked a bit too subtle, so I increased
the stroke to 15px and this looked a lot better and gave it more
emphasis.

16. Process
Looking at my magazine so far, I
wasn’t quite happy with how it
looked.
I felt the competition plug was
too big and I didn’t like that it
overlapped the guide so I resized
it using free transform and
rearranged the text and image so
that it fit the circle perfectly.
I also wasn’t quite happy with
the images that I’d cut out for
the Kingdom Hearts sub article.
They quality of them didn’t quite
match each other, especially
Goofy who looked lower quality
than the other two.
I also wasn’t sure if I liked the
image of goofy overlapping the
apex logo, so I moved all the
images over by holding the shift
key and selecting all the parts I
wanted to move. I also used free
transform to shorten the orange
box behind the sub article cover
line.

17. Process
I decided to try to source some better, higher quality images
for my sub article. For Donald(left) and Sora(middle) I
managed to find images that already had a transparent
background and the image of Sora was different to the
original image, but I felt it could really work.
The image of Goofy(right) however, had a white background
that needed removing, so I opened it in a separate photoshop
document and using the polygonal lasso tool, I carefully
selected sections of the background to delete.
I did this in parts rather than as a whole image, this time, as I
made a mistake early on and had to start all over again, so I
figured if I cut it out in sections then it would save me time if I
made another mistake.

18. Process
After placing the images in, I resized them using
free transform. When I had the image lined up, I
noticed an opportunity to be clever with the image
of Sora with the key.
I moved the layer for Sora so that it had higher
priority than that of the orange box. I lined up the
key and added spaces in the cover line so that the
words “Kingdom Hearts” sat either side of the key.
Using the rectangular marquee tool, I selected the
part of the key that sat over the orange box. I then
copied it and pasted it into a new layer. This then
allowed me to move the image of Sora behind the
box so that his feet were behind.
I also resized the orange box to fit the words
better.
I’m really pleased with the result and, in fact, I
think it works so much better than the original
image and I think Donald and Goofy frame him
well.

19. Process
Finally, to finish off the magazine cover, I downloaded an image of the
Insomnia gaming festival logo. As it is, it’s not suitable to use as it’s too
long.
I opened the image in a separate Photoshop document and added a second
layer so that I could add a yellow background. This allowed me to make out
the words as the original image had a transparent background. I also
coloured the text in black using the paint bucket tool. White text would
blend in too much on my cover.
I wanted to separate the two parts so that I could sit the title above the 65.
so I selected each part using the rectangular marquee tool and copied the
selection onto my magazine cover and resized them so that they fit the side
near the legs of my feature image. I also added in the word “EXCLUSIVE”
and duplicated the “10 page” and resized it to fit.

20. Process
For my 2 page feature article I created an
A3 document in photoshop and set it to
landscape so that I created a page on
each half.
I learnt in my visual project that having
guides set up is very important, so I felt
this was the first thing I should do. I had
an idea that I wanted to create an article
with three columns of text on the first
page and have images on the second. PC
Gamer was the most popular magazine
in my survey results, and this is a layout
they use regularly. So although I didn’t
want it to look too similar to that
magazine, I wanted to follow a similar
format, so that my magazine would
appeal to my audience.
First I turned on the rulers and then set
up a guide in the middle of the page to
create two halves. I then set up guides
500 inches away from each edge so I
knew where to line everything up.
I then split the inner section into 3 equal
parts to create the columns and set
guides 800 inches away from the top and
bottom edges for the running head and
folio.
I now had a clear guide to work with,
which would save me a lot of time in the
long run.

21. Process
Next, I created a second set of guides, within the columns so
that the text wouldn’t sit right next to each other, when I
placed it in, this created a 60in gap within each column.
I also added in another set of guides so that I create the
running head and folio and placed them (SIZE) away from the
top and bottom guide.
After aligning the guides, I set up the running head. I created
a line using the (LINE TOOL) across the lower running head
guide, to each edge guide. To create an artistic line across the
top. I then coloured this the same red from the main cover
line on the magazine cover. I added the word “FEATURE” so
that my audience would know it’s the feature article.
Finally, I added in the folio text, set to 10pt Calibri. The left
page had the page number and brand name, left aligned. The
brand name I changed to Quantify so that it matched the
magazine cover and changed “UNITE” to orange and the right
page had the next page number and the date, right aligned.

22. Process
For my article I created text boxes to fit within the inner
column guides. I left a space at the top for the headline.
For the kicker I wanted to feature a drop cap as this is a
common convention of magazine article design.
I used the (RECTANGLE TOOL) to create a square, which
spanned the first three lines and placed a text box
inside for the ”T”. I created two text boxes using the text
tool, one to sit next to the drop cap and one to sit
below it, I then copied and pasted my kicker text from
my article word document and set it to 16pt.
I added in my main body text from my article document.
I set the sub headings to bold 14pt and the main body
text to 10pt.
For the article text I used the Garamond font which I’d
chosen in my pre-production planning as this is a widely
used serif font and is easy to read.
Finally I added an image onto the second page as a
place holder and also added in a pull quote at the
bottom of the second column. For this I created two
lines in red, using the line tool to create definition and
then added another text box for the pull quote. I set the
quote to bold, 18pt??? So that it would stand out.
By creating the pull quote it created a clear break in the
text, so that the reader finds it easier to follow.

23. Process
After the majority of my article was in place, I inserted a picture for the Apex Legends Headline. I also added in a
picture of three of the characters next to it, which I felt worked really well. I had to rearrange the body text slightly
so that the logo and characters could fit the full width of the page, which meant I didn’t quite have enough space for
all of my article text, so I will need to create an additional article page to finish off the article.
The bonus to this is if I save the current article as a separate photoshop document, I won’t need to set up all of the
guides again as I will have them already in place, which will save me a lot of time.
I changed the drop cap to orange, as I felt with the red in the Apex logo being quite dominant, that it would look
much better orange. Plus this gives me chance to create continuity for my main magazine colour scheme.
I also changed the pull quote to one that I thought was more appealing to read and linked to the community theme
that I wanted to portray with this magazine.

24. Process
Next I added in several screenshots, which link to the article,
that I had taken from the game. As I started to place them, I
could see that the images I wanted to use were mostly quite
dark, so in order to break them up I rearranged them. I resized
them to create a main image at the top with smaller images
below.
The three bigger images fit quite well, but the 4 smaller
images, over lapped, so I would need to crop those.
I didn’t need to follow the guides as much for this side. As
most of them were column guides, depending which side of
the page I decided to use, but I did make sure they lined up to
the centre and right hand guide.

25. Process
One of the images was a screenshot of the loading screen, which had a
rotating loading circle. I didn’t want this to be in my image, so I used the
clone stamp tool to duplicate the background around it to blend it in and
remove it.
To remove the overlap on the smaller images I had to use the (Rectangle
selection TOOL) to select the overlap that I needed to remove and
pressed delete. This created a clear white space around every image,
which is a common convention of article design and makes it more
uniformed and professional.

26. Process
For the final touches of my article design I added in lines between the columns, to create definition.
I also noticed I had a small gap at the bottom right of the article, so I rearranged the body text slightly, by copying
and deleting the last line of text from the first column and moving it into the beginning of the second column and
made the pull quote slightly smaller so I could moved everything down slightly which made a slightly bigger gap at
the top, which was less noticeable.

27. Process
The only issue with taking screenshots whilst playing the game, is the fact that I
ended up with other player names in the pictures. In order to comply to ASA
code 6 I used the clone stamp tool to remove the names as I wasn’t able to seek
permission to feature them.
In one particular picture, it wasn’t possible to use the clone stamp tool because
the names covered a large part of the picture, so for these I used a gaussian blur
instead, which made it hard to make out the words. It wasn’t ideal, but it was
the best solution for my skillset because the background was too detailed to
replicate.

28. Process
The page seemed quite bright with a white background so I
inserted the stone background, the same as what I had used on
the front cover.
This made it all contrast so much better and was a lot easier on
the eyes.
Finally, I added caption to the pictures for any that I felt needed a
small amount of explanation. I used the (RECTANGLE TOOL) to
create the white colour block and added in the text. I made it
white because a lot of the pictures were darker so I couldn’t use
the conventional black box with white text, but I felt this was too
bright. Instead, I decided to change it to the blue from the cover,
which meant I had a way of implementing that part of my colour
scheme in to the article.

29. Process
I noticed that I’d not made a gap between the two
right hand smaller images, so I removed a small
amount from the bottom picture, using the
rectangular marquee tool to select the section and
then deleted it. Then I repeated the same process for
above the small picture.