How did everyone get into designing covers?

[bpmford]

Nice story Felipe! That would be cool, post some pics!

[invisigoth]

OK I'll jump in. I started making covers and I'll use that term loosely probably 1999ish. I had so many movies that I had the bright idea if I used the slim CD cases I would have tons of room. So I used to make CD sized covers with paint-shop pro.(basically front pics with a title..lol)

I probably started making real covers when Madvd started..I was also a member at Dagons and Witchys (I think his wife?)..I never really uploaded too many covers I was just satisfied with making them for myself, plus there was the trauma of having your cover rated, criticized, and ripped to shreds at madvd.

My 2 buddies way back then were Jason the Giant, and Hairy Lime. Jason actually had his own private site which was pretty nice so I hung out there away from all the "competition." He was a pretty amazing designer and I learned a lot from him. he was doing his own Vector art before most people even knew what vector art was. Anyone that isn't familiar with him should check out his work at r1db


After awhile my corporate job got so crazy I stopped doing covers for several years, but I would check out HiRes covers once in awhile and finally got into it again.

I also carve and paint wood decoys been doing that forever, so that takes quite a bit of my artistic time as well.

[Bunny Dojo]

QUOTE (invisigoth @ Jan 11 2012, 02:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Jason the Giant... he was doing his own Vector art before most people even knew what vector art was.

He's gotten even better over the years: http://monsteroftheid.deviantart.com/

[LittleCoolDude]

QUOTE (Bunny Dojo @ Jan 11 2012, 03:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He's gotten even better over the years: http://monsteroftheid.deviantart.com/

Wow you weren't kidding, thats some great vector art, doing animation is one thing, but to vector a real person like that is awesome!

[invisigoth]

QUOTE (Bunny Dojo @ Jan 11 2012, 02:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He's gotten even better over the years: http://monsteroftheid.deviantart.com/

..

[gutterballs]

I also stumbled across this site and hobby by accident. I am a media librarian at a public library and was doing a display of DVD covers. Like Bazz, I found cdcovers.cc and was repulsed. Doing a google search, I found this site and in order to download, I also had to create and contribute. I had dabbled a bit in photoshop and have been doing customs for a few years now. I have learned a lot from everyone here, this is the only site I really use and contribute to. It is crazy how much I really enjoy it, and the cyber-friends I have made here!

[RRJR84]

I've been making custom covers for about 4 or 5 years but up until when i joined hires, i was using paint and very low res images. I've used cdcovers.cc and freecovers and some other sites. I was semi happy with the stuff there but it still wasn't great. Being a comic book junkie i've done my best to collect a lot of rare things based on comics and other shows and movies that i couldn't find any art work for, so i often created my own stuff with paint and i was pretty happy.

I was surfing the net and accidental stumbled across this site and kernie82's comic collection and my jaw nearly hit the floor when i saw his stuff. I was amazed, i had never seen anything like his collection before and i joined an immediately started to download all his covers and and replace my crappy ones. I also found tons of other amazing artwork by many wonderful artists and was amazed and the creativity of these customs.

After a couple of months i decided to try and take a crack at customs my self so i got photoshop and started right away with w.i.p's. Kernie took on the burden of try to teach me how to make a proper custom label and others also jumped on the band wagon to help.

After lots of frustration and time I managed to make some ok labels and eventually movie on to some ok covers. I've kind dived head first into making custom and have made big improvement since i started and even won a label comp. I joined many other cover sites and have met many wonderful artists and seen tons of talent and new talent rise up. I still determined to get even better in time. But i owe my biggest thank to kernie and hires for allowing to become part of a fantastic hobby and community.

[Dagon]

Wow it took my old bones a long time to hobble my walker up here to the podium. :Papy: lol

I actually started not long before that Dojo kid... early 2002, I was grabbing "replacement coverart" off the original DVDCoverArt before Matt closed it for a revamp when he partnered with DV-Depot. It wasn't until early 2003 before I felt confident to share my own work, but I had been dabbling with covers for about a year prior to that to cover "DVDs from questionable sources." After sharing covers and becoming a "legitimate" contributing artist at DVDCoverArt, I literally became a fast rising "star"... serious, anyone from those days will remember, I had numerous covers on the Most Downloaded lists; one of my covers had over 10,000 downloads (Final Destination 2)... I made over 40 covers that first year, a handful of which actually hold up still to my current standards. I have covers from those days still sitting on my hard drive (I keep all my PSD files) and many were not even uploaded to Replace the Case...

I made the forerunner to Dagon's Den and it went live on August 4, 2003 at a FortuneCity account. I had spent that summer working with another artist DVDWizard (Alex) to expand upon the templates he had first created for Columbia-TriStar and we came up with a few. I wanted to provide a place and means to help other up and coming artists... and that would eventually lead to the creation of the actual Dagon's Den, which later became Replace the Case. Well my desire to help and a minor issue with MattD (owner of DVDCA) over creative control of my covers after a few incidents with thieves. I resigned my administrative duties and pulled all my covers from DVDCA in late December 2003 and launched Dagon's Den on January 18, 2004. I, of course, was still around to help Matt when he needed it, like when Fox/Lucasfilm handed down a cease & desist order and when things started getting hot with Disney.

I sometimes miss those days, lots of great friends and artists back then... Darth Vong, Sebastian, DoomBear, Desiree, MattD, Jupiter, MajorTom, JackDaRippa, DVDWIzard, Ryan G (can't recall his username), Dr Zaius, shorn, RicEaston.... PSLOwner, JasontheGiant, Stalker, nausicaa, DMXiNc, Corvin, Pepe_Navarro, big_al_1983.... and many more I am sure I've forgotten...

Couple things before I get off the stage... back around 2007 the wife and I (that would have been Witchy... Liz... we've been divorced since Sept 2008)... anyway, we were converting our DVD collection to thinPAKs to conserve space so I was grabbing covers and finding covers left and right and some I was converting the spines for myself and most were already made that size... but one in particular stands out as it was a darn decent cover and we wanted it on our case, so I contacted the artist (now mind you I had only been around for maybe 5 years or so at that point). She was flabbergasted and honored that (as she called it) a legend would request something of her... I was speechless, asked her to kiss my feet and decreed she make me a thinPak cover... LOL It was sorta humbling, but I told her "I'm just me... I may have made so-so covers and I have always been in my own opinion a decent not great artist that has been made legend by the word of mouth of the masses not by any of my deeds. It's not legend, it's not Sir, it's Russ or Dagon ...or Thong Master if you're Tim and Chris ( )." I still have that PM saved... it was a sign of the impact I made on at least one person in this community and probably others.

Things I will never discuss:
1. my divorce and marriage (I will acknowledge they happened but that is it). I almost permanently retired from cover making at the time....
2. my first cover... eek.... movie: Scorpion King, file date: 05/22/02 .... :yikes:
3. that video with Dojo and the Vongster at the cabana.... just 3 words: too much pink

It's amazing that a decade later I am still doing this and enjoying it.

[JollyRoger]

Excellent read Russ

[Arkflip]

I really really miss those days!! Excellent post Russ! Feels good to remind those days! I still have your Pirates of the Caribbean cover, the one you did if i remember correctly at Aug 2004!! In fact i think i still have a lot of your covers stored on my drives! That's a compliment sir!

How about Wonderboy and his amazing Seven and Gladiator covers? I remember he was a member at Studio Publicity when i joined the group! A very talented spanish designer who's no longer active like the others. From your list i think the last one who did something was Pepe_Navarro. I remember he did something for 300 i think...