How did everyone get into designing covers?

[M0vieM0nster]

I'm familiar with all the names, Wow! Some of them bring back memories! Some i haven't got many covers for now for one reason or another For example for Giacunda i have: Gladiator, Minority Report, The Departed and War of the Worlds though I'm not sure how many he made? From what i remember he seemed to come and go quite quickly compaired to some :S I remember the comp we had for "A Clockwork Orange" was on MR if i remember rightly? I think my favourite at the time was David's (euroboy) but it was made for HD-DVD... yet another conversion that would be nice to see

[M0vieM0nster]

How i got into designing custom covers:

Way back i used to do a lot of downloading and copying of dvd's and as a kid i really enjoyed the series Star Trek: Voyager, when it was released on dvd it cost quite a bit for each season (around £90 here) and at that time seven seasons was quite a bit of dough so i decided to rent and copy them! Naughty... i know but it's the truth :P At the time my dvd collection was growing rapidly and i had come accross some slightly smaller cases which in size were like minature blu-ray cases but also a lot thinner, just big enough to hold a disc so i grabbed a load to save space but then of course went looking for covers to fit! Firstly I came accross cdcovers.cc and found some i really liked but had to resize them which i guess sparked something within me and then after having a better look about i stumbled on i think it was a site called daprogger or something similar which had loads of custom covers and also some guy who had his own space on blueyonder as it was called back then but i can't remember his name, he had a small space with a few covers he had made from scratch which was probably my first true inspiration, they were all of much higher quality than some of the poor stuff about back then of course my curiosity and motivation to have a try at making some myself (originally using the basic ms paint) but realising the results were nothing near what i had seen... led me to Dagon's Den (now Replace The Case) and Witchy's Realm (which no longer exists). From there i picked up on the fact that the top designers were using a program called photoshop so i downloaded a copy for me and started to create covers myself, the first of which are in the gallery... my first was "Phantom of the Opera" followed by a few that aren't in the gallery and of which i no longer have to the other dvd covers of mine in the gallery. They in turn led to a PM i recieved from Chuck (syxx0rz) nviting me to join MovieResources as it was called at the time (currently MRCovers) which i did and from there i of course found cover and resource paradise and with such an amazing community of amazingly talented and helpful artists such as (and in no particular order or time frame) Bunny Dojo, Dweez, Ric Easton, Scaramanga, Jaldomar, Stalker, ShokXoneStudios, Arkflip, syxx0rz, yesheman, gsalb, Maladroit, euroboy, Ace, Dagon, B3ARStyLE, samppa, ubl6612, Irrob, Demonology, iCoty, Skallywag, Zantasha, tedpeto, Giacunda, amoung quite a few others which i have probably forgot to mention... my bad! And there we go, i have been a fan of custom cover design and slowly and lazily made a few myself ever since I must also mention MajorTom of Dagon's Den aka Replace the Case whom when i first started making covers was the guy that approved or declined any submissions and who invaluably started my education into the custom cover world but who is sadly amoung a few others not active anymore Thankyou MajorTom and all you other guy's that inspired me

[JollyRoger]

Well, I used to owe Bazzah some money for an odd job he'd helped me out with back in.... ´07 I think? Seeing I didn't have the slightest inclination nor intention of ever paying him back what I owed, He locked me in the Staff Locker Room right here at HRC.
Well, after the first couple of months I found a way to sneak out at night, and into the Forums, looking for a way out. So by accident I simply stumbled upon the Wonderful World of Designing Fan-art Cover Replacements. Seeing that the Big Boys at the time, nonini, Arkflip, Golemeye, Skallywag, Irrob, B3arStyle, Kylumi, Bunny Dojo and others didn't have the slightest idea what they were doing, I decided to stick around and give them some well needed pointers...

Still haven't found the way out from the site tho, which is why I'm like always on here...somewhere.... :chin:

[Nightrider]

No story here of any interest, but just want to say I've got Corrme's Stargate spanning spine cover set on my shelf behind me, that guy did some amazing stuff and that SG set is a standout.

Also got Ric Easton and Jupiter Primes Ships of the Line Star Trek set on my shelf too , and it looks amazing! Very special.

And I can't remember who did it but I have a spanning Seinfeld set where the characters have been done as the Star Wars characters, with Newman as Darth Vader, it's fantastic!

[bazzah]

QUOTE (JollyRoger @ Jan 11 2012, 06:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, I used to owe Bazzah some money for an odd job he'd helped me out with back in.... ´07 I think? Seeing I didn't have the slightest inclination nor intention of ever paying him back what I owed, He locked me in the Staff Locker Room right here at HRC.
Well, after the first couple of months I found a way to sneak out at night, and into the Forums, looking for a way out. So by accident I simply stumbled upon the Wonderful World of Designing Fan-art Cover Replacements. Seeing that the Big Boys at the time, nonini, Arkflip, Golemeye, Skallywag, Irrob, B3arStyle, Kylumi, Bunny Dojo and others didn't have the slightest idea what they were doing, I decided to stick around and give them some well needed pointers...

Still haven't found the way out from the site tho, which is why I'm like always on here...somewhere.... :chin:

Would you like me to show you the way?

[crazy-horse]

Great thread, a very interesting read.

I have been downloading covers for over a decade now, started with daproggers etc and am a member of various sites/forums.

Not a designer, even though I do play about now and again for my own purposes. I just want to say that I have a HUGE movie collection which is now nearly all custom cover art. I absolutely love the unique look a custom gives over retail. Mates look through my collections and often comment on some of the stunning designs.

Now with me replacing DVD's with Blurays, I am often downloading the same cover in a different format and breathing new life into them.

So I guess I just want to say a big thanks for the pleasure that the work you guys put in actually gives to people like myself. (Does that sentence even make sense??)

Your work helps create hobbies for other people, which I think is pretty cool.
Cheers.

[chefjoe]

QUOTE (bpmford @ Jan 10 2012, 02:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is actually an interesting comment. I have every one of my blu-rays in covers, but some others like yourself don't use any.

What about others, am I the minority using so many customs? or are most people in the middle with some customs and some originals?

I got my start in 2006, when needing covers for Tivo'd TV episodes, found this site upon it's relaunch, and have enjoyed myself since, learned what little I know entirely though the WIP Forums here. I too use customs, and usually only do covers for what I have. Of course now I enjoy doing more through "Open Request" threads than anything else, and it keeps me busy.

[Demonology]

Ok where to start lol

Was around 2000 - 2001 when i first got a glimpse of what would be my future hobbie.

It started with looking for vhs cover replacements and came across cdcovers.cc which i used for awhile, until i came across
dvdcoverart... I wasn't designing then i just bought credits to pay for the covers.

After awhile then i found a forum known as digitalforums where a few artists i knew was uploading there own custom work,
so i ended up buying paint shop pro which was my first photoshop programme and would lead me to where i am today.

After creating a few custom covers (by todays standards weren't perfect) i got an invite to a new site starting up which was Madvd (known as R1db now)
Seeing as one of the first to join Jayhawk moved me upto moderator status then everything to do with this hobbie really did piont me in the right direction.

There was also 1 particular artist that always stuck in my mind regarding custom covers and was an inspiration to me chrisb2k1 who had
his own little site aswell but he vanished without a trace.

After madvd opened up not long after other custom sites started appearing and also forums for custom covers. Generectic was the next stop
but no long after shutdown and left alot of members without access to which they paid, but the generetic wars is another story.

From there i came to hirescovers and it was here i learned about the importance of layers lol and i greatly improved in skills from the wip forums here.
when generetic shutdown customaniacs opened up, existing from the members of generetic enjoyed being there until i was banned and still to this very
day have no idea what for lol

After a very long time in the hobbie out of the blue on r1db i got a message from stalker inviting me to movieresources was here that everything i needed to know i found out including my first use of the Photoshop Cs3 and checking covers for typos and incorrect spellings. I really do still miss that site and if i had the money i would make an attempt to rebuild it, thats how much i miss it.

from then on it was a case of joining other cover sites that opened up some nice some not very nice. EFX / customcovers / Dagons Den (now replace the case) / 9covers / Novastation (was jupiter primes site) Fullyloaded / timebombs just to name a few.

Artists from through the years some who have are still around and some who have gone who's works were amazing in my eyes were from the likes of:
Lulubelle & Skallywag (even though we had a major falling out) produced some of the most amazing 3d work imagary on custom covers).
Powers / chrisb2k1 / stalker / giacunda / Jupiter Prime / Major Tom / Bunny Dojo / Dagon / Kernie / Arkflip / B3arstyle / corrme / rick easton /
euroboy / syxx0rz / Bazzah / Irrob / Jollyroger / Darth Vong / Cyber Clown / Antistatic / Sosai X / nausicaa / MattCrawford / Shahel.

Sorry if i missed anyone out just the ones i can think of off the top of my head.

Even though i'm slacking these days due to time constraints i do try to throw out a few covers from time to time so i'll be here and never gone.

end of my rambling lol

[Arkflip]

I feel the same Scott! I really enjoy Hires and it's my home but i really miss MR when it was runned by BeyoundDoubt and later by Jaldomar. I do appreciate the fact Tim (BD) and Chuck (Syxx) tried to bring the site to the old good days back.

I forgot MattCrawford and Shahel on my list, my bad! For those who don't know, Matt did the silver set for Disney, still available here and there, and Shahel did, as far as i can remember, a few animation covers.

Scott do you remember that guy who had a join site with Ric? I think he called himself Dr Zeus or something. Can't find his site and his work on my drives. I know NovaStation is still online, but is JupiterPrime still there and doing covers? I'm also trying to remember the link for Scaramanga's site. And i still have all the covers he did for The PrimeTime Anthology, Star Wars, The Brave and the Bold, 007 and his still fantastic Disney set.

EDIT: i was wrong! I remembered now that Daelex did the animation covers, not Shahel eheheh

[LittleCoolDude]

I can't believe no one mentioned MajorTom from Dagonsden, Him, Dagon, Kylumi, irrob were guys that stood out to me back then