Creation of Digipak

For my A2 Preliminarry task I am going to show the proccess taken to produce my digpak cover including four sides to fit a standard jewel case. Showing the method used when producing this is important as it will help me to adjust and re-design certain elements of it. Additionally it will be a great tool for analysis as I can see the seperate stages that I have taken to produce the product and where I could of changed it to produce something better.


I decided to lay out four seperate 347mm x 355mm Photoshop blank canvas as a base for my four sides. I researched the measurements for a standard jewelcase bar the trim so that they would fit in a case after, and so that I knew what images and shapes I could fit within the canvas before


Before I even added any images or effects to the start the appearance of my digipak cover I decided to choose one and then complete it before moving on to the next side. I chose to do the cover first, as the cover controls what the rest of the digipak looks like in some respects as the theme and colour scheme should continue throughout. I knew from my analysis and research of Digipaks that multiple layers are often used and can help making the digipak have depth and colour.  I set out a variety of layers, with the enabled tool to add more if necessary later. I started with a 'Background' and one additional layer, with copy ability so I could copy the layer as many times as I wanted to produce a new additional and individual layer once edited.


Next I added a brown background which I found from google images, I used the scale tool to fit it within the canvas and then added a saturation effect, boosting 20%, giving the brown a nicer distinguished look as a backgorund, knowing images could fall into the colour almost as a ghostly outline.


After this was complete I added my first image into 'Layer 1'. This was taken from a camera during our music video shoot and was simply pasted and sclaed into the layer, infront of the background. With this image in position I applied a filter using the filters toolbar, and selected the area immediately around the image to fade in transparncy, as well as setting the overall transparency of the image to 50% to make it fade into the image. Once this was complete I used the 'Magic Wand' tool to select the left side of the image and paste with a much lower transparceny, creating the effect of the head splitting apart from the other head, looking in a different direction due to the rotation. Additionally the collar split seperately as I had to reselect this and copy the above for this section of the image.


Next I copied the previous layer and deleted the images within it, keeping the same colour and transparency settings I added another image, this time of an existing A Day To Remember artist, so that the album cover corresponds to the band themselves. Aswell as my interpretation of the meaning of the album name and the album itself from the 1st layer. I then scaled and moved the image to the empty space of the layer, where only the background was currently showing due to the positioning of layer 1. I decreased the transparceny to 8%, ensuring the image on the right with is ambient glow was the focus of the cover.


Lastly I spent some time matching rounded, and crisped font for the appropriate text to fit the chic and simple look of the cover.

My next choice was to start on the blank canvas for the back of my jewel case. I wanted to make the back cover look much of a real photography opposed the front cover, and gradually become more realistic throughout the pages of the digipak. I thought setting both ends would be a good idea as I knew what changes and the dgeree of changes I would have to make, when making the other pages.


I began by creating 2 layers as before, and setting the background as an image taken from www.obscurewallpapers.com with a life like rain effect applied, as well as great bright lighting which is helpfull to help the transparency of images apparent. I scaled this image, moving it so that the brighest light of the image was on the right, allowing it to highlight images being place either side, especially with a transparceny of under 30%. Next I added another image of the lead singer of the band, corresponding to the previous image used in the front cover (another common device used in album covers, where there is cohesion throughout the digipak and especially between the front and back covers, often having front and back shots of the same scenario, telling a story in many respects.) The back cover itself, I felt at the time needed more range of colours, closer to the cover as the look is completely different so my aim of what I wanted to achieve with this had to be clear. I added some charcoal effects to the background image using the preset photoshop fillers, but decided on removing them as the shadows did not show, which I think adds realisim to the shot. I increased the transparceny on his line on the left of the page, helping to highlight the image and the dynamic of the cover itself.

Once this was complete, I move to the 'middle page' in between the two previously created sides. I thought this would be a good place to insert the lyrics of the song, which is often included within many digipaks. I removed all three previous layers and started a new blank canvas, with a white background. I wanted to keep the cohesion throughout so an image of the same lead singer was necessary, however I decided do this by using a whole band shot, with the centre image being t he lead singer. This makes the reference to the previous and future pages but shows the necessary contirbutors and imagdes that need to be shown for an accurate representation of the band. I kept the mise-en-scene corresponding with the genre, with dark colours and reflecting lights onto the bodies of the images. I used a 'spotlight' filter to add the 'staged' look to the photo where the light shines from the top right inwards, despite being in a dark scenario at night. The lyrics come across the entire image, so that they can be read easily and are brought to the attention of the reader. I inserted the 'Monument' text at the bottom right, adding further cohesion and creating the sense of moonlight/green lighting for the image.

My last page that I created was the 'Inside Cover' page which I think combies many of the previous elements employed. Using layers I added a darkened image of a desolate area of woods, matching the genre oncemore, with the metalcore/post-hardcore genre. I applied a luminouzs filter to the closest section of the image, making the image now become more of a centered image opposed to just plainly a background image. The information on this page is not of huge importance, as the basic necessities had already been input. I thought however the credit to band members for our music shoot could be included here, as this is seen similiarly in other album inserts and jewel cases. Additionally i played around with the transparency of the cover, removing certain sections using the selection tool and then customizeing their transparency, attempting to make the top half of the image appear further away or faded compared to the rest. This was not as effective as I had hoped and decided to reduce the entire image's transparceny by 5%, aiming to keep the realisim of the image apparent.

In general, I focused on the cohesion of the images, and kept in mind that the images where designed to come together as part of a digipak, so therefore this was an important factor in the prodcution. When making them my choices primarily revolved around this opposed to what I personally felt looked good. My research and planning prooved helpfull in my understanding of the genre and product conventions and made my decision making much more straightforward than without.