2. Step 1 – importing photo 1
First I imported the city images onto photoshop with a canvas sized
120mm for width and 100mm for length. This was the requirement on
ISLE. The city image is below:
I then cropped out some bits at the side so the image is focused onto the
skyscrapers in the middle. I chose this photo to put as my background on
my album cover because I thought that pop music often relates back to our
lives and it is quite fast and upbeat. Therefore it has the same feeling as
standing right inside the heart of a metropolitan. I chose this specific photo
because I thought that the buildings really stood out and there was quite a
contrast in colours between the sky and the buildings.
3. Step 2: Importing photo 2
I opened up the photo I took of myself on
another photoshop file and used the magic wand
to crop myself up. This resulted in a image like
this:
I then copied and pasted the image onto my first
photoshop file which should be on a new layer. I
used the transform tool (ctrl T) to resize my image
and make it fit into the tallest skyscraper.
4. Step 3: Merging with the skyscraper
Then I changed the layer’s blending mode to “hard
light” which made me stand out. I also played
around with the opacity and changed it to 90%. This
allowed me to be more see through and look more
like a silhouette in the building. At this stage, the
image doesn’t really look realistic because the sharp
point of the skyscraper is still sticking out. Like this:
5. Step 4: Cloning stamp tool
To solve the problem of the sharp bit of the skyscraper
stickling out, I used the clone stamp tool. The clone stamp
tool allows you to pick colours on your canvas by pressing
“alt” and clicking with the left mouse. Then you release the
“alt” and press on the left mouse and you should be able to
paint with the colour you wanted. This was what I’ve got
after using the tool.
6. Step 4: Adding a mental wave/bubble
I think that music can bring people into their imaginations, I
wanted to create this bubble (or mental wave) to bring out this
point. First, I used the “ellipse tool” and selected paths instead of
shape layer to create a circle. Then I used the direct selection tool
to make the bottom of the circle less round (like a mushroom
head.) After that, I created a new layer and went to filter > render
> clouds and went to the path’s palette and created a selection
from the path to mask the layer. Now the circle would be filled
with a cloudy pattern. Afterwards, I went to filer > liquify and
used a brush that was about the same size as my circle and
changed the settings to:
Brush density: 100, Brush pressure: 100, Brush rate: 60, turbulent
jitter: 60
I clicked a few times in the circle and moved it up and down (just
a little bit) to create a 3D balled shape effect. Just like the photo
below:
7. Step 4b: Adding a mental wave/bubble 2
and a spotlight
I then changed the blend mode of this cloud layer into soft light
and repeated the steps I did for the first slide twice more and
used the sharpen (sharpen more) filter to make the image to
stand out more.
Afterwards, as I wanted to make my album cover look a bit like
Tinie Tempah's Disc Overy album cover with a strong spotlight at
the top, I used a soft white paint brush (size 20) with opacity 80%
to paint from the top of the ball. I didn’t make the spotlight as
sharp as Tinie Tempah’s cover’s spotlight because I wanted to
make my album cover look more disco light and with all the dust
and other lights in a disco, I don’t a one sharp spotlight would be
appropriate.
8. Step 5: Spotlights and adjustment layers
As I thought that there was too much white in
the background which wouldn’t really highlight
anything in my album cover, I changed the
brightness to -115. I also used a black opacity
50% brush to paint on some very bright bits. This
made my album cover look like this:
9. Step 6 – Changing photos
However, I realized that standing still with my
back facing the camera on my album cover
looks quite boring and not energetic. I
thought I should change the photo because
pop music is very upbeat and alive so
standing still wouldn’t really bring that idea
out. Therefore I took another photo like this:
10. Step 6b: Deleting the old photo and
adding the new one on
As I already deleted the background of the photo
using the magic wand, I just had to import the
photo onto my file where I worked and delete
the old photo. After I resized the image using the
transform (ctrl T) tool, this was how it looked
like:
11. Step 7: Adding an audience
To create an environment that looked more
like a disco, I thought adding audience at the
bottom of the album cover would make it
look more energetic, therefore I imported this
photo (once again using the magic wand to
crop out the background).
12. Step 8: Outer glow for audience
As I wanted to have some glowing effects in my
album cover to make it look more interesting
and energetic, I applied an outer glow to this
layer for the audience. I used the colour 2b02c1
(bright blue) and the spread settings of 10%. In
the end, it came out with an image like this:
13. Step 9: Light streak
I added a light streak to my album cover in order
to add rapid movement and energetic elements
in it. I did this by experimenting with the pen tool
and drawing curves across my canvas. I drew
with paths and after the I got the shape right, I
right clicked and selected “stroke path”. I then
set the tool to brush and ticked simulate
pressure. This would create a white streak of
light. Then, I went to paths to delete the path as
the path was blocking some parts of the canvas.
After that, I applied drop shadow, outer shadow
and colour overlay to my layer styles. On the
next few slides, there are the settings I applied
for my light streak layer styles.
18. Step 10: Hands on fire
Then to make my album cover look my eye
catching and unique, I created an effect which
set my hands on fire. I did this by first
downloading the image below. I opened it up on
my file on photoshop and screened that layer so
the black background would disappear.
19. Step 10b: Hands on fire
I then resized the image using the transform tool so it would fit my
left hand. I also right clicked in the transform tool to use the warp tool
to make the fire look more like a ball at the bottom and make it look
as if I was holding it. Afterwards to make the fire look more realistic as
if it was really burning and I was the one who was controlling it, I
duplicated the layer 3 times and moved the fire image a bit more to
the left each time and lowering the opacity by 15% each time. I
repeated this process for my left hand but duplicated the layer twice
and moved the image slightly to the left each time. Then I grouped all
the layers together. This created an effect like this:
20. Step 10c: Hands on fire
I wanted to make the cover look like I was really holding
fire, therefore I added a glow effect on the group. I created
this effect by using colour ff6000 for my layer style’s colour
overlay and painted the palm of my hands with a white
brush onto the layer. I dabbed the brush a few more times
on my right hand to make the glowing effect more obvious
because I wanted to look as if I was holding a fireball. This
created an effect of:
21. Step 11: The album name
I chose to call my album: BEAT. This was because I
thought the word BEAT was quite sharp and catchy
and it reflects on the upbeat and fast pace pop
music. I downloaded the font MR B which was one of
the fonts I researched about in the researching the
brief task. The font is quite bold and messy which
brings out the idea of fast pace and sharp pop music.
I put my album name on the side because I didn’t
want so many things to be horizontal which would
act like a distraction and this would look more like
Usher’s album which when I looked at with all the
other album covers, stood out because of the text.
22. Step 11b: The album name
On photoshop, I wrote that font using the
vertical text tool, size 120. I created a heart beat
effect to it by adding a filter to the layer. Filter >
Stylize > Wind with the method: wind and the
direction from the left. I repeated this filter again
by pressing Ctrl F. Then I applied two other wind
filters with the direction to the right. This should
create an image like this:
23. Step 11c: The album name
I then went to layer styles and applied drop
shadow, outer glow and colour overlay. With
the settings of drop shadow:
24. Step 11c: The album name
Outer glow: with colour ff00d2
25. Step 11c: The album name
Colour overlay: with colour f8dbf4
26. Annotation of the final product 1
The colours of the album cover of pop music vary a lot. There are some which are black,
pink, purple, red, etc, however I think that in almost every one of the pop album covers,
there is one colour which stands out. In my album cover, I think this colour would be the
pink colour of the album name. I think it really stands out because it contrasts with the
blue and black colours in the background. I chose to use this pink red colour because if I
chose something that was blue, it wouldn’t catch people’s attention. I used the wind effect
to make my album cover look like heartbeats because I think that the shape is sharp and
fast which reflects on the idea of pop music.
In general, the text on each of the album
cover fill around one quarter of a fifth of
the cover. Even though the fonts are quite
different in each of the album cover but I
chose this font which has sharp tips at the
end and quite messy because I think pop
music is really punchy and quite casual.
The size of my album name fills around
one quarter of the album cover and I
wrote the name vertically (like Usher’s
album) because I thought that there were
already too many things at the bottom
which would mean that the audience can’t
really see the title clearly.
27. Annotation of the final product 2
I put a fuzzy spotlight on the top because I wanted my album cover look like it’s set in a
disco and with all the spotlights in the disco, I don’t think that spotlight would be sharp. I
wanted to set my album cover in a disco because it would bring out the idea of pop music.
I all added the light because it would highlight some bits of the album cover, especially my
image. This was done in a lot of other pop album covers that I researched on. An example
is Tinie Tempah's Disc Overy album cover.
In most album covers, the artists are
mostly dressed in black or white and
for girls, therefore I chose to wear
quite a dark colour T-shirt when I
took the photo with some white
words on it. I posed like that and put
on fire effects on my hands because I
wanted to add some energy and
excitement into my album cover, at
the same time making it unique and
interesting. The fire would make the
album cover look more eye-catching
as it is something that wouldn’t
normally happen in real life. I also
added more images of fire on my
right hand because I wanted the
image to look like the fire is burning
which adds energy in the cover.
28. Annotation of the final product 3
I added a glow line in the album cover to add more motion into it. This is because pop
music is quite upbeat and fast. I made the line in the colour of neon blue because I think
that main colour of my album cover is blue and if I used a different colour, I think it
might’ve been too messy and distracting. I put the glow lines at the bottom of the page
because I think it would highlight my image and if I was an artist, I would want people to
look at my image and remember it.
I added an audience at the bottom of the
page because as I mentioned, I wanted to
make my album cover look like it’s set in a
disco. I put an outer glow to the image
because a lot of other pop music artists
put glow effects on their album to catch
the audience’s attention. I put the image
at the bottom of the page because I
wanted the album cover look like I am a
performer on the stage. Also it is common
sense that an audience would be at the
bottom.
Finally, I used a city skyscraper image for
my background because I think that city
and pop music have a lot of similarities.
For example, in both cases, it would be
fast and energetic. Also I think pop music
can easily be stuck into your mind for a
long time is similar to the fact that a city
would never sleep.
