VOTE NOW: MACROSS PLUS DVD KEEPCASE

[Mechamaniac]

OK, here are the specs that the images need to be:

all the following dimensions represent the total width and height of each

panel from edge to edge. If your designs call for a blank border around the

artwork, please allow for it.

Both side panels for an Amaray case are 1641 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi.

The spine of a 3 DVD case is 600 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi

The top is 600 x 1641 pixels @ 300 dpi.

Side panels for a 12 Amaray case remain the same: 1641 X 2300 pixels @ 300

dpi

The spine is: 2210 x 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi

The top is 2210 x 1641 pixels @ 300 dpi.

[Anubis]

Here's the previous desert shot cropped around box spine size to guestimate.

[Anubis]

OK, here are the specs that the images need to be:

all the following dimensions represent the total width and height of each

panel from edge to edge. If your designs call for a blank border around the

artwork, please allow for it.

Both side panels for an Amaray case are 1641 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi.

The spine of a 3 DVD case is 600 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi

The top is 600 x 1641 pixels @ 300 dpi.

Side panels for a 12 Amaray case remain the same: 1641 X 2300 pixels @ 300

dpi

The spine is: 2210 x 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi

The top is 2210 x 1641 pixels @ 300 dpi.

Wow, we sure need some good quality pics to do this.

I scaled down the pics I posted, but I don't know if the originals are good enough. I don't know anything about photoshop either so I can't help there or figure out what DPI mine are.

Edited February 5, 2004 by Anubis

[Dangard Ace]

Since these images are going to print, web images/jpgs are not going to be good enough quality. You're going to need min. 300dpi .TIFS or .RAW . Most web-ready jpgs are 72dpi.

[Anubis]

Since these images are going to print, web images/jpgs are not going to be good enough quality.  You're going to need min. 300dpi .TIFS or .RAW .  Most web-ready jpgs are 72dpi.

Damn, that means I'm out of the pic department. I have some high-res shots, but odds are you photoshop guys have the same, if not better quality pics than I do.

Think we can wing artwork at the right dpi?

If not, then I guess at least the SDF box may end up all CG after all. Not thet there's anything wrong with that. I just really like the pics I suggested for the sides .

Oh well.

Keep on bringing suggestions, guys!

Edited February 5, 2004 by Anubis

[Mechamaniac]

What that realistically means is that we will have to have someone who has the originals scan them in at 300 DPI.

[Chronocidal]

That Mac+Shot would be great for an edge of the package..

Actually, I've had an idea for something that would make good box art for a long time...I wanted to paint it for art class, but never got to it. Basically, it's got two opposing shots of the YF-19 and YF-21, overlaid with a trio of Guld, Myung and Isamu, all overlaid with a nearly transparent overlay of Sharon Apple's most evil/seducing look.. I'll see if I can piece something together out of screenshots.

[Mechamaniac]

That Mac+Shot would be great for an edge of the package..

Actually, I've had an idea for something that would make good box art for a long time...I wanted to paint it for art class, but never got to it. Basically, it's got two opposing shots of the YF-19 and YF-21, overlaid with a trio of Guld, Myung and Isamu, all overlaid with a nearly transparent overlay of Sharon Apple's most evil/seducing look.. I'll see if I can piece something together out of screenshots.

Yes!!

Bring it on....

[Chronocidal]

K... this is just a rough cut/paste job using everything from model boxart to screenshots, and the Mac+ DVD photo gallery. It's kinda what I had in mind, but it'll have to be refined quite a bit, and rearranged/resized obviously. It would probably work better, if it was narrower, and the planes were below the characters.

Edited February 5, 2004 by Chronocidal

[Chronocidal]

This one would probably work better, different proportions, and the background's just solid black.. makes Sharon stand out better. Just a note, those planes are no where near the poses I'd like, I'd hope to do actual renders of them.. they're just placeholders for now.

Actually, now that I think about it.. it may be better to focus on the characters on one side, and the planes on another.. You know that shot of the two of them flying at sundown, when they finally reconciled what had happened? I'd like to see a RENDERED version of that.

Edited February 5, 2004 by Chronocidal

[Chronocidal]

Here's one more it's distorted to be more box-sized, but still looks cool..

[zerocool]

I'd be up for both of them, count me in

[fulcy]

This one would probably work better, different proportions, and the background's just solid black.. makes Sharon stand out better. Just a note, those planes are no where near the poses I'd like, I'd hope to do actual renders of them.. they're just placeholders for now.

Actually, now that I think about it.. it may be better to focus on the characters on one side, and the planes on another.. You know that shot of the two of them flying at sundown, when they finally reconciled what had happened? I'd like to see a RENDERED version of that.

Chronocidal - that composition looks amazing! It'd be great for one of the sides of the Mac+ box (obviously)!

Question to everyone - where is that image of Isamu standing in the desert with the planes overhead taken from? Is that a screen cap? If we knew the original source, it'd be easier to scan it or screen cap it.

Oh, and DA - web or jpg images would work, as long as they were still the same size as Paul required - it's just finding images that are that large, since they are displayed at 72 dpi, and most images on the web never come that close to the required size...

[Mechamaniac]

This one would probably work better, different proportions, and the background's just solid black.. makes Sharon stand out better.  Just a note, those planes are no where near the poses I'd like, I'd hope to do actual renders of them.. they're just placeholders for now.

Actually, now that I think about it.. it may be better to focus on the characters on one side, and the planes on another.. You know that shot of the two of them flying at sundown, when they finally reconciled what had happened?  I'd like to see a RENDERED version of that.

Chronocidal - that composition looks amazing! It'd be great for one of the sides of the Mac+ box (obviously)!

Question to everyone - where is that image of Isamu standing in the desert with the planes overhead taken from? Is that a screen cap? If we knew the original source, it'd be easier to scan it or screen cap it.

Oh, and DA - web or jpg images would work, as long as they were still the same size as Paul required - it's just finding images that are that large, since they are displayed at 72 dpi, and most images on the web never come that close to the required size...

Yeah, I dig that pic. Obviously, we'd have to get some better caps etc, but for a rough image it kicks ass.

I agree, we should maybe focus on the characters on one side, and the planes on the other. It would be neat to see the planes flying side by side, but then have the ghost approaching from somewhere in the distance.

Fulcy, that image looks CGI to me. It's way to crisp and clean to have been fully hand drawn. We may want to check with XSTOYS for a copy of that. Since he used it for his custom Isamu box, he probably has it at a nice high res. I will PM him.

[Dangard Ace]

Oh, and DA - web or jpg images would work, as long as they were still the same size as Paul required - it's just finding images that are that large, since they are displayed at 72 dpi, and most images on the web never come that close to the required size...

Sorry Fulcy. I work as a Grph. Dsgn and web images don't work. Magazines, billboards, posters that I've worked on.... .jpgs or .gifs look like crap next to .tifs. Compression is ugly, and you don't get nice rich textures.

[Mechamaniac]

Oh, and DA - web or jpg images would work, as long as they were still the same size as Paul required - it's just finding images that are that large, since they are displayed at 72 dpi, and most images on the web never come that close to the required size...

Sorry Fulcy. I work as a Grph. Dsgn and web images don't work. Magazines, billboards, posters that I've worked on.... .jpgs or .gifs look like crap next to .tifs. Compression is ugly, and you don't get nice rich textures.

Yeah, Paul did specifically say he would need 300 DPI, and that the images on our site are at 72 DPI.

He went on to say that if they are large enough, it may not be a problem for him to resize them to 300 DPI.

He did not mention specific image formats though.

[fulcy]

Oh, and DA - web or jpg images would work, as long as they were still the same size as Paul required - it's just finding images that are that large, since they are displayed at 72 dpi, and most images on the web never come that close to the required size...

Sorry Fulcy. I work as a Grph. Dsgn and web images don't work. Magazines, billboards, posters that I've worked on.... .jpgs or .gifs look like crap next to .tifs. Compression is ugly, and you don't get nice rich textures.

True, compression is ugly, but not all jpg's are nasty - if they are large enough at 72 dpi, that you can resize them to the right size at 300 dpi, then I stand by my previous statement that as long as they are of large enough size, jpgs can be used.

[Dangard Ace]

Then we'll have to disagree. Jpgs are compressed no matter what resolution setting you save as while tifs are uncompressed. Jpgs with the smallest compression do look pretty good but you can still see problems in high contrast areas. Granted you are correct that if the image is big enough that you may be able to resize it to 300dpi but I believe that that's a factor of approx. 4 dpi

Already the requested sizes are

3 DVD

1641 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi.

600 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi.

600 x 1641 pixels @ 300 dpi.

12 Amaray case

641 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi

2210 x 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi

2210 x 1641 pixels @ 300 dpi.

so multiply each pixel number by 4. Since most (if not all) web jpgs are 72dpi and pixels width are at most 1600(wallpapers), it's going to be hard to find images that big.

Also if you're working with original images(art books or whatnot) why bother with jpg? Scan the image as .tif , lose no image quality, and then burn it onto CD and send to Paul. tifs are much more printer friendly then jpgs. I know this from experience.

[fulcy]

Then we'll have to disagree. Jpgs are compressed no matter what resolution setting you save as while tifs are uncompressed. Jpgs with the smallest compression do look pretty good but you can still see problems in high contrast areas. Granted you are correct that if the image is big enough that you may be able to resize it to 300dpi but I believe that that's a factor of approx. 4 dpi

Already the requested sizes are

3 DVD

1641 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi.

600 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi.

600 x 1641 pixels @ 300 dpi.

12 Amaray case

641 X 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi

2210 x 2300 pixels @ 300 dpi

2210 x 1641 pixels @ 300 dpi.

so multiply each pixel number by 4. Since most (if not all) web jpgs are 72dpi and pixels width are at most 1600(wallpapers), it's going to be hard to find images that big.

Also if you're working with original images(art books or whatnot) why bother with jpg? Scan the image as .tif , lose no image quality, and then burn it onto CD and send to Paul. tifs are much more printer friendly then jpgs. I know this from experience.

See, I think you're missing my point - I agree with everything you say! It'll be tough to find any images on the web, posted at a high enough resolution, to satisfy the requirements given by Paul - but, they'd be useable, if they were large enough. I was just saying that if we find an image on the web, and as long it's of large enough size, we can use it - obviously, if we are working from the original images, or from a rendering, it'd make little sense to save them as jpg's, as you said - tif's are much more printer friendly than jpg's. It's just whether we can FIND the originals that may be the problem...

[Anubis]

Using Irfanview, I can increase the dpi TO 300. Will that work for what we need?

Edited February 6, 2004 by Anubis

[Anubis]

The DYRL shot w/ increased dpi.

[Mechamaniac]

OK guys, got a pretty major update from Paul.

First, he sent us this link of suggested images: Most of them appear to be Mikimoto's work, and I think alot of them are from Mac 7.

http://www.designpaulchampagne.com/Macross/macross.html

Also, he has been watching the debate over image formats etc, and had this update.

I checked the forum a while ago to see what was going on and I see that

there is a discussion as to what format would be best.

I don't know who "Dangard Ace" is but I have to agree with his/her position.

If there is a choice, TIF would be the thing to use. The lack of compression

does give me, or whoever will do the composites, a lot more to work with.

[halfan]

deleted

Edited April 4, 2004 by halfan

[Dangard Ace]

Okay, I cracked open my Haruhiko Mikimoto Illustration book to scan in a 300dpi version of the DYRL image Anubis is using. It's on page 11. (Hope I didn't crack the spine... ) Downsized it to match the size of the other DYRL image. Original scan is 25.7 mb. Downsized Jpeg is about 700kb.

IMAGE GONE! TOO LATE!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Here's a closeup of what happens with low dpi upped to 300dpi. Notice the Left Minmay's right cheek, her hair and her mouth. Pixelated huh? The right Minmay is pure 300dpi and has more detail.

Oh yeah, the blues are off in that other scan.

Too bad I don't have any MacPlus Artbooks images so I probably won't try out for that boxset but I'm considering doing something for the larger set.

[Anubis]

Ok, so my method would lead to pixelation. Never mind me then.

The image looks so much better with the new scan, wow.

[Dangard Ace]

Ok, so my method would lead to pixelation.  Never mind me then.

The image looks so much better with the new scan, wow.

Hey, you're trying and I can respect that. Learn something new each day right? Keep thinking up ideas for SDF Macross and MacPlus boxsets. Every idea helps and you may come up with a great combination!

Paul: I'm a him. I just like using female avatars since given the choice between looking at a guy or girl, I choose female. Oh and I checked out your Macross images site. You may want to check your color correction. The blues all seem to be shifted to a lighter shade then that shown in the HM Illustration book.

Mechamaniac: close but no cigar. The majority of those images are from MacII. Damn I love HM watercolors.

Everyone else: if you want my scan of the DYRL image please grab it in the next 24 hours. I'm going to take it off my webspace after that.

[Mechamaniac]

So, the long and short of it is that we can mess around all we want with web images. But when it comes time to assemble all of them, we will need some members who are willing to scan the images for whomever is doing the photoshopping.

[bigkid24]

What are the cases made out of? Are these the metal boxes that I've heard about? If they are then I'm definitely interested in them and probably not just the Mac + one that I voted for.

[Mechamaniac]

What are the cases made out of? Are these the metal boxes that I've heard about? If they are then I'm definitely interested in them and probably not just the Mac + one that I voted for.

Yeah, they are the metal ones. They are made from a combination of a plastic framework, and brushed aluminum plates that make up the outside.

[Etrigan]

I'd be interested in the Mac Plus case.

[fulcy]

So, the long and short of it is that we can mess around all we want with web images. But when it comes time to assemble all of them, we will need some members who are willing to scan the images for whomever is doing the photoshopping.

That's basically what I've been trying to say - unless, of course, we don't have an original, in which case we'll have to make due with what we can get our hands on. Sigh - sometimes I wish I were a little more eloquent...

[Dangard Ace]

An idea for the large boxset. I have the left side (poster thanks to Monkey N) and the large SDF poster from Perfect Memory book. I can scan those in at 300dpi. Wolf13's ARMD picture we can ask him about. I don't have Mikimoto's Movement book so I either need to find it or maybe someone on the forums can scan it in in hi-res.

http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/books/art_movement.htm

edit: dimensions aren't to scale. Just something I threw together.

[Mechamaniac]

Nice DA!!!

Maybe we could replace the top image with one of the Hasegawa box arts showing a nice Valk?

And we need to find a place to have the Macross World specific stuff, what MW logo should we use?

Here's some info from Paul to keep in mind as well....

Dangard Ace made an excellent remark that I need to address for the benefit

of everyone looking for artwork. The pieces that I posted are indeed lighter

than the originals simply because these were processed when I was working on

my original design. I have to lighten all the artwork I use because in

effect, I am printing on silver, not white. But more importantly, everyone

should keep in mind that in the finished case, white doesn't exist. Anything

white in the artwork will be replaced by silver. The up side is that most

pastels become translucent and let the metal sheen through for a very nice

effect.

Edited February 6, 2004 by Mechamaniac

[Anubis]

Awesome.

For one of the sides I would still recommend the DYRL shot that I suggested (the one you rescanned) though, that way we have some valks in at least one of the shots in addition to the characters. That and I love the image, what can I say. Both of the sides you picked are good images though, too.

That aside, great. The SDF-1 shot is perfect for the spine, IMO.

Edited February 6, 2004 by Anubis

[bigkid24]

Yeah, I like Anubis's DYRL picture.

Also, I recently bought a poster from Blackaces which is basically the cover the Playstation DYRL game. It's got lots of blank space with a close up of Minmay's head and Hikaru and Misa standing together pointing into space. I think that would be a good shot.

I like the way the art selections are going for the SDF TV box. Since so much of the show is devoted to the mecha, I like the fact that the characters will be at the featured on the box.