Who needs custom covers when you can have...

[bunnydojo]

Since the spine is the only part of a DVD cover you usually see, I figured that it would save a whole lot of time, ink, and paper to just create custom spines. So far, I have created around 10 spines and, since I spend the whole time working on the spine only, I have come up with better-than-studio quality spines for a few of my movies. If you want them, I can post a few. Here's what I've done so far:

Three Kings
X-Men
XXX
Heat
The Matrix
Monsters, Inc.
North by Northwest
Speed
The Man Who Knew Too Little
Blue Crush*
A Beautiful Mind*
About A Boy*

Also, making just a custom front and spine is a lot easier than a full job too. For the titles marked with a * above, I made a new front and new spine and, with the current backs, have created amazing results.

P.S. I agree that some covers warrant a completely new back also and some covers do require a complete re-do (i.e. snappers), but why waste time making a custom back for a cover like About A Boy when a new front and spine only can make it just as good (if not better)?

[Mr. Music]

I'd be interested in the X-Men spine since I am playing with a custom X-Men cover now.

[Disc-Flipper]

Excellent idea!

But how do you put them on? Do you attach them to the regular cover, or do you carefully position it on top, and hope it doesn't slip out of its position?

[joliom]

I'd like Three Kings, Heat, and North By Northwest. Thanks.

jp@runbox.com

[bunnydojo]

Originally posted by Disc-Flipper
Excellent idea!

But how do you put them on? Do you attach them to the regular cover, or do you carefully position it on top, and hope it doesn't slip out of its position?

It's pretty easy. You just place them carefully over the current spine and then shut it closed. If you use photo paper, it won't move at all unless you deliberately move it. It's a very easy, very quick operation and can have stunning results. After my 2 pending uploads at DVD Cover Art are accepted (hopefully!), I'll upload some of my custom spines onto my server so you can test them.

The best part is, they take 90% less ink and paper than full covers and, since I put so much work into each individual one, they produce awesome results when put along the other spines in your collection.

[bunnydojo]

Here are three of my custom spines. They're full size, so they make take a little while to load.



I encourage you to print them out and try them for yourself, or even better, make your own special spines. It's a much quicker way to give yourself a unique collection without wasting your time if there's a particular part of a cover that you hate to do (for me that would be the back).

joliom:
Do you want me to e-mail you the covers or post them here first so you can see what they look like?

[joliom]

You can just email them to me.

[DarthVong]

That's a different approach....Also I would think if you wanted to spend the time on your own personal collection, you could make your entire collection match that way (numbered and such)
Neat Idea.

[delirium]

Originally posted by Mikko Rasinkangas

Other spine groups that I've done:
Brian De Palma
Charles Bronson
Dario Argento
David Cronenberg
Giallo
Jess Franco
Kevin Smith
Lucio Fulci
Miike Takashi
South Korean films
Spaghetti Western
Stephen Chow

Wow, we need to talk! I'm especially interested in seeing those Argento, Franco, Fulci, giallo and spaghetti western designs.

[Mikko Rasinkangas]

Dario Argento:


Luc Besson:


Charles Bronson:


Jerry Bruckheimer & Don Simpson (version 1):


Jerry Bruckheimer & Don Simpson (version 2, two images):


John Carpenter:


Stephen Chow:


Larry Cohen:


Wes Craven:


David Cronenberg:


Brian De Palma:


Jess Franco:


Lucio Fulci:


Ryuhei Kitamura:


Michael Mann:


Kevin Smith:


Miike Takashi:


Johnnie To:


Paul Verhoeven:


John Woo:


Giallo (whether some of these belong to the genre is debatable):


Spaghetti Western (had to split since one image was too large for ImageShack):


South Korean films:
http://img72.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img72...southkorea.gif

When printing these, the resolution should be 100 pixels/cm.

[stonedaveli]

Those look really good Mikko. Great work. Sadly i dont own most of those movies but im certainly gonna give it a try to make those kinda spines for my collection.
You wrote something about a Photoshop template to get me started.
Could you upload that somewhere or mail it to me please ?

[Mikko Rasinkangas]

I've uploaded a photoshop template here:
SPINETEMPLATE.psd

[drjay]

Thanks Mikko, this is a great idea...

[stonedaveli]

Thanks for the Template

[JupiterPrime]

If all you do is drop a spine overlay into teh case, the minute you open the case, the spine piece is gonna shift - and besides, I like the effort it takes to create the entire piece

[skiblet]

I dont get this at all. If you are going through the trouble to print something, open photoshop, load paper, load ink cartridges, etc.. etc..., why not just print the entire cover?

sorry, but it just seems stupid. because when you pull a movie out to watch it, its nice to look at the cover art, or look up actors names in the cast list, etc...

[Disc-Flipper]

Printing the entire cover is a big waste of ink sometimes.
We spend most of the time looking at our covers from the spines. If you want to quickly and inexpensively change the look of your collection on the shelf custom spines are the way to go.

[dick_grayson]

wow, mikko, those are awesome!

[pagansoul]

I like your David C spines. Since I prefer the entire cover I use your spine and cut and paste a front and back with my own cover art. You have an interesting idea. Not long ago I redid all of my snappers with custom covers so being compulsive is not new to me.

Also using rubber cement to afix to original cover art works fine. For those who do not see why anyone would do this you have to understand not everyone can afford to reprint an entire page per DVD you want to change. I've done over 300 myself but this is a good option to get several done on one sheet of photo paper and looks great on the shelve. An example is that I was going nuts because Star Trek Nemesis spine was different then the other movies. Someone from DVDCA fixed that and the rest is history. I am currently looking into fixing the spines to my LEXX series. Their spines are all over the place.

[Chemical]

Nothing.

[RDYoung]

They look cool! I don't have many of these films, otherwise I'd bite...
r

[Numanoid]

How about a David Lynch collection?

[skfields01]

I had tinkered around with this idea some time ago. I instead opted for printing out the entire cover.

Some of the more beautiful covers I still print with the best possible settings on the printer.

While other covers that I just need for my collection I print on a lower printer setting, which uses much less ink. With the lower setting... you still get a nice looking cover that is still sometimes un-noticeable between the high quality and low quality.

With this lower setting... I can get about 75 covers printed.

I can understand the reason for printing up the spine only (saves on Money and Time), but with whole cover... you get the feel of the film and info on it from the back cover. Makes it much easier also when company comes over and wants to watch something.... because they look and the ENITRE cover. Same way you do when you go through Blockbuster and pick up a film you never heard of.

[Numanoid]

Originally posted by Mikko Rasinkangas
David Lynch:

Peachy.

[CheapBastid]

Originally posted by Mikko Rasinkangas
I've uploaded a photoshop template here:
SPINETEMPLATE.psd

I'm hosting it here for now.