Creating the Front Cover for the DVD Case

To start the front cover of the DVD Case I used the brush tool using a brush included in a free planets brush collection which can be found here :
http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/brushes/id/185/

I set the brush to a very large size and to a low opacity, using a grey colour to give it a cloud effect, the image below shows the outcome of using the downloaded brush tool.

Next I used an image of clouds, and applied a curves layer to this image and created a high contrast image by using an S Curve. once i created the S Curve layer i also turned the image black and white by adding a Hue/Saturation layer then reducing the saturation completely. This in combination with the previous layer creates as stormy cloud like background, as seen in the image below.

The final step in creating the background for the front cover of the DVD Case removes the transparency from the background but also creates a very high contrast image, the final background image can be seen below.

The next step in creating the front cover was to import the Logo which i had created previously by combining some downloaded fonts and the original logo for the comic book series (see previous blog post for logo creation) below is an image which shows the front cover with the logo imported and put into place.

The following step was to add the film rating onto the front cover, to do this is duplicated the layer from the spine of the DVD case, increased the size of the layer and placed in the bottom right hand corner. see image below.

The next step was to add the images into the corners of the front cover, to do this i used the magic wand tool and selected the area of the existing artwork that I wished to use.

I then copied this section and placed it into the DVD Case project, I then moved the image around front cover and placed it in the right hand corner of the project, i then duplicated the image and rotated it 180 degrees to place it in the top left corner of the front cover. 

I then duplicated the image in the top left corner and flipped the image making it possible to have the same image in the top right hand corner, then as before i duplicated the image and rotated it 180 degrees and placed it in the bottom left of the project.

The next step was to draw the lines between the corner images, this was to create the look of an energy source between the corner images.  

Next I created the "Energy Source" look by adding an outer glow to the lines, I used the same colour as the line to create the outer glow, this then creates the desired look. 

The next step in created the front page of the DVD case was to add Coheed and Cambria's logo into the centre of the page where the two lines of "Energy" cross. I then added the same outer glow from the lines which create the "Energy Source" but increased the spread slightly. this can be seen in the image below.

Next I created more lines from the intersection of the two main lines or "Energy Sources" and then applied the same outer glow which was used on the main Energy Source lines and the Keywork. This then creates a light refraction effect as though the energy source has hit the Keywork and reflected off in different directions.

I then lowered the opacity of the extra lines to not detract from the main two Energy source lines.

The next step on the front cover will be to take the image of Claudio Kilgannon from an original comic book. then cut out the image and create the a greater glow for the hand seen in the image below outlined in red.

Below is the final draft of the front cover of the DVD case. A full resolution version will be available in an upcoming blog post.