Tips
Choosing a template
If you are making a box for a console that has an official temp, I would suggest taking it from a box on gamespot, or anywere else you can get a large template. I am suggesting a large one because, using a large one, would gurantee quality, no matter the size of the box (just aslong as it is the same size or smaller then the box you are taking the template from). Avoid modifying the temp, please do not show your box off with a colour inverted 360 temp and call it a 'Special Edition'. If you working on one of these SE boxes for the 360, i suggest using, with permission, HK's or Mad Spike's template.
Yet, if you are making a box for a console that does not have a confirmed template, I suggest looking through this: www.freewebs.com/lodo_site_templates or finding your own favourite on VGBoxart. PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE USING SOMEONE ELSES TEMP.
Making a Template
While making a template, use the canvas size, 600 x 107 pixels. I do not suggest using a background from a fractal or digital design wallpaper. Keep in mind that official box templates are always simple, so do not go over the top. If there is a 'signature feture' to the console in-which your making the temp for....(e.g the blue line of light for the wii, the 360 rings of light, or the ps3 black shine)....try including it in the temp.
The key factor in making templates is gradients, (
), they are your best friend.
Graidients Tutorial: http://iit.bloomu.edu/vthc/Photoshop/DRAWING/gradients.htm
Dimension List
(should work with Imadix)
Default/Single Disk:
Fat Pack/Multiple Disks Pack:
Front and Back: 129 x 183 mm
Spine: 30 x 183 mm
Special Box Dimesions:
DS Box:
Front/Back: 530 x 474 pixels
Spine: 65 x 474 pixels
PSP Box:
Front/Back: 312 x 496 pixels
Spine: 45 x 496 pixels
Layers Pallete
This is the layere pallete with nothing inside of it. It should look like this when you first open Photoshop.
This picture should tell you all of the basic pallete functions.
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*Masking
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Transparency
Cropping
The Crop Tool allows you to delete unwanted portions of an image. Please note that the Crop Tool only lets you crop rectangular selections.
Select area to crop. Starting in any corner, click and drag the mouse over the portion of the image you want to keep. (The portions outside of the crop marks will become gray to help you see the exact area that will be cropped.)
The crop marks can be resized using the handlebars along the marching ants marquee.
The entire crop marquee can be moved around over the image by placing the cursor inside the crop marks. When the cursor changes to a black arrow, the entire marquee may be moved.
Crop. After the marquee is the proper size and in the correct position, press Enter to crop the image.
Simple.
Magic Wand
This is the Magic Wand. An essential in box making.
Example:
Before:
After:
Selection Brush
Use this tool to paint selections. Unlike the other selection tools, you can click and brush repeatedly without using modifier keys or losing your selection.
The selection brush has two Modes: Selection and Mask. When in selection mode, what you paint over will be included in the selection. When in Mask mode, youll see and paint with a pink rubylith (partially transparent) overlay. All of the pink areas will be outside of or not included in the selection. The selection will consist of all areas that are not pink. Mask mode is the reverse of Selection mode. You can switch modes in the middle of making a selection.
Straight lines can be painted by clicking once in the image where the line should begin, and then Shift clicking where you would like the line to end. This behavior is the same as the painting tools, and not the other selection tools where holding down the Shift key allows you to add to an existing selection.
However, the remove from selection shortcut key which is the Alt key does work the same for this tool as for the other selection tools. Note that when in Mask mode, holding down the Alt key removes the mask, thus in fact adding to the selection. Alt reverses whatever the brush would normally be doing. Please note that if you are accustomed to zooming out by pressing Alt-spacebar, that shortcut combination will not work when you are using the selection brush. Use the zoom tools zoom-out option on its options bar, or use Ctrl with the minus key.
A shortcut for changing brush sizes while using any of the painting tools is to press the left bracket [ to decrease brush size, and the right bracket ] to move to the next larger brush. To increase or decrease hardness instead of size, add the Shift key to that shortcut.
When editing an image with any tool that uses brushes, you can right-click on the image and the brushes pop-up palette will appear right next to your cursor.
If you have chosen brush size in Display & Cursors preferences, (find at Edit > Preferences > Display & Cursors ), you can toggle to precise by pressing Caps Lock. If you have your preference set to precise, it will toggle to brush size. A preference of standard will go to precise when Caps Lock is pressed
Marquee Tools
Once you have selected one of these tools from the task bar, you can click and drag on the image and then press delete to get rid of certain areas of the picture. You can alo create different shapes by creating a new layer, and then dragging the marquee tool across the picture. Then select an appropiate color and use the paint bucket to fill the selection with that color.
This too is very useful when acquiring templates.
Lasso Tools
The lasso tools are used to select an irregular area. These tools include the Lasso Tool, the Polygonal Lasso Tool and the Magnetic Lasso Tool.
GIMP Tutorials
Croping
This is the croping tool for The Gimp. You can either push the button in the tool-bar, or right click on the image and follow the links: Tools -> Transform Tools -> Crop & Resize. This will change your cursor image. Now you can draw a rectangle around the image you want to crop. Here comes the part, were I think Gimp is being just a bit excessive:
After you relese your mouse, a pop up will appear with the title: Crop and Resize Information. This tell you about the border defined by your click and drag. You can now screw around with the number until you get a rectangle size that meets your requirements. You now just click the crop tool on the bottom of the pop up.
Not that hard :p
Selection Tools
When it comes to selction tools for the gimp, most are very simulare to Photoshop. Yet there are some tools that photoshop (elements) does not offer:
Bezier Tool
Selects regions using Bezier curves.
This tool is capable of selecting complex shapes more accurately than
hand-drawn regions by virtue of a series of anchor points which appear
each time you click. Initially the lines between the points are
straight but these can be converted to curves.
This is done by
clicking on a point and dragging away from it, summoning the square
"handles" at the end of a straight line running away from the anchor
point. Clicking and dragging on these wiil distort the line into an
adjustable curve. This will probably take a bit of practice to get the
shape you want but eventually produces very accurate results. If you do
end up with a messy twisted bundle of lines and curves, use Ctrl-T on
the keyboard to clear the screen.
Anchor points can be moved around by clicking in conjunction with Ctrl. When you release, the point will be fixed once again.
If you only want to move one of the square handles, use Shift.This is especially useful for handling sharp angles
Unlike
with hand-drawn regions, the shape doesn't automatically turn "live"
when it is complete and closed (this gave me a lot of frustration until
I sussed it). It's actually quite simple, all you have to do is click
inside the area. Clicking outside will delete it and you'll have to
create your shape all over again.
Intelligent Scissors Tool
Works
a bit like the Lassoo tool in that the selection is made by clicking
and dragging the line until returning to the starting point, at which
stage the tool automatically selects a more accurate representation of
your rough shape. Sounds fine but can be a bit unpredictable i.e you
may end up with a shape nothing like what you set out for.
This is another tool where you have to click inside the shape to get a full selection that is ready to work with.
Experimenting with these tools will soon give you a feel for what works best. With any of them, right-clicking the image and going to Edit-Stroke creates an outline, the thickness of which is determined by the type of brush selected.