It's nearly impossible to match all the details, the main goal is to try to make the characters occupy the same general position and size across each cover as best as you can. I think you've done a great job with keeping the placement and scale of the characters consistent. Unfortunately, doing what we do in the world of custom covers means we have to rely on the (often limited) photos that are available. Imagine if we photographed the actors ourselves and could put them in the poses we wanted them in... it would make life easier and our designs even stronger!Arkflip wrote:QUOTE (Arkflip @ May 25 2017, 12:15 PM) It's not easy to match every single detail because the poses aren't the same.
On a side note, my absolute favorite set of posters (and I'm sure many of you would agree) is Drew Struzan's Back to the Future series, which really uses the same position/size idea to its maximum effect. Each poster has its own variables that are unique to the individual films, but they maintain so many constants to clearly keep them part of a connected whole. (Not that I expect you to do something like this, just wanted to share it as an examples of the constants/variables thing I talked about earlier)
[attachment=36136:Back_to_the_Future.jpg]
Here's a trick I use fairly often in situations when I don't have full body pictures to work with... I'll use my Jessica Jones keyart as an example (although I've done this across a lot of my covers).Arkflip wrote:QUOTE (Arkflip @ May 25 2017, 12:15 PM) I still need to figure how I'll do that for the second movie, because the images I used aren't full body pictures but I'll work on that later.
[attachment=36137:jjs1_001.jpg]
And here are the original images:
[attachment=36138:jjs1_002.jpg]
As you can see, each picture crops off the characters around the knees (which is actually a lot more of the body than some other photos show). Here's a visual aide of how to extend the bodies...
[attachment=36139:jjs1_003.jpg]
Now, of course, this method works best when you're dealing with a heavy amount of shadows and dark areas in your design. For situations when you can't hide the extended part of the body in shadow, you could always try cloning the rest of the legs if possible.
On a few occasions, I've even merged the torso with a pair of legs from another photo (although this relies on having the right two images to work with). In the example below of Wolverine from X2, I was only able to accomplish this because of Wolverine's arms being crossed.
[attachment=36140:wolverine.jpg]
I hope these little tips and tricks help to make the other covers in the series go a bit smoother for you! Looking forward to seeing some updates whenever you get to them (no rush! Enjoy real life as well!).
All the best,
- K
