The individual items needed are as follows, we will then examine how to create each of them, in order :
- Background graphic.
- Front foreground graphic.
- Barcode.
- Attention grabbing subtitle.
- Legal notices.
- Front and rear advisory notices.
- System requirements.
- Brand acknowledgment logos.
- Website URL
- Front and spine titles.
- Front and spine media type.
- Key awards.
- Front and spine publisher.
- Screenshots.
- Game description.
- Game features.
- QR link to Facebook™ page.
Background graphic.
The background graphic is the main picture that will cover the whole image area, including bleeds. Then all the other elements will sit above it. For this we have decided to go try and create a futuristic 3D/holographic circuit-board effect. This will do a good job of providing a suitable feel for the game which is based in the future and primarily involves robotic units.
The end result we will aim to obtain is as below :
 |
| Final Background |
For this end result we want the layout of the items to be relatively uniform, whilst remaining random over the entire surface of the image. Therefore it was decided to use a paragraph of Lorem Ipsum text as a starting point. You could however use any graphic you like as a starting point, and that will effect the layout of the 'circuits'.
In order to create this start point, we simply created a black document in PhotoShop™ with a white background of the same size as our full DVD inlay, since this is destined as a background that will cover that whole surface area. Then using the text tool we drag the text area to cover the whole canvas. Then simply paste a paragraph of Lorem Ipsum, and set it to Justify All, which is where the text is spaced to always reach both sides of the page, very common in book print. This ensures the entire canvas area is covered with data.
 |
| Starting Text |
From this point on the primary functions used will be PhotoShop™ filters, although there will be some adjustment layers also in the final stages.
Firstly we need to duplicate the starting layer, since we will need an original copy of it in a later step.
The next step is to Pixelate the image, we will use a simple Mosaic pizelate option found under Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic and select a Cell Size of 64.
Next is we require an outline of the pixelated image, using Filter > Stylize > Find Edges.
After which a median noise is applied, Filter > Noise > Median. At a radius of 2 pixels. The result is a set of points which will eventually turn into the circuit ends on the final image.
The final step on this layer is Filter > Other > Minimum and choose 16 pixels. This will enlarge the points created previously.
As you can see the final image is on black background, so let's invert the image now, using Ctrl + i.
Notice the varying colour squares, this will eventually become points that appear to be at different depths.
At this point, this layer is complete, further operations will be carried out on a new layer, therefore we must duplicate this layer now.
 |
| Circuit End Point Map |
Using the new duplicate layer, once again filters will be applied, in fact many of them similar to before. Starting with Find Edges. The layer will return to a white background, so we simply Invert it again.
The next step is to change the opacity of this layer, so the one below shows through, we have set it to 25%.
This simply pronounces the edges slightly, and subtly.
Now we need to work on the original image again, duplicating it, and dragging it to the top layer. This layer will be used to obtain the lines in the circuit effect. Thus the first step on this layer is to do a 64 size Mosaic followed by Median but this time 8 pixels. The result is a slight curvature to the squares. After which we apply a Find Edges. The result is curved outlines of the enlarged pixels, these will serve as a basis for the circuits themselves on the board. But the image has once again reverted to a white background, so let's once again Invert it. The final step on this layer is to change the blend mode between it and the layer below, this is achieved using the drop down menu with the top layer selected. There are lots of choices here, that combine the layers in different ways, some add the pixel information, others subtract them. Most use some algorithm combining various technique to achieve certain results. The blend mode used here is Screen, this filter essentially makes black areas transparent, and white areas opaque. With any colours in-between having relative opacities dependent on their luminosity.
At this point we have a complete 3D circuit board effect. But in shades of grey.
 |
| Greyscale 3D Circuit Board |
In these final stages, we will be looking at adding colour to the above image, and some other adjustments to make it more suitable to our exact requirements.
The first adjustment layer is a Hue/Saturation layer. The settings we want are colorize, since we want to add colour to it. And select a Hue of 100, which is a green, and Saturation of 100 also, for maximum colour intensity. Note that we will also add -50 lightness to make it a little darker, and more suited for a background image, although we will further alter the brightness shortly.
The next layer required is a Colour Balance, with 75 towards green and 75 towards yellow. This will reduce the difference between the different shade squares.
Finally, since we aim to have this semi-discreet in the background of our DVD inlay, we want to make it less bright, since at this point it will be very bright indeed. Using a Brightness/Contrast layer and setting the Brightness to -128 will result in a much more suitable image. To increase the effect of depth we will also select a Contrast increase of 64.
At this point we should obtain the end result, as demonstrated at the beginning of this section.
Front foreground graphic.
This section will examine the creation of the front foreground graphic, which will take centre-place on the front cover. We will be using a fighter craft render image from the game as a starting point, and add some crosshair effects to it.
 |
| Original Render and End Result |
As one can see above, the end results appears to be seen through a scope, with a blur effect on the peripheral visual area, and a crosshair covering the centre.
Firstly we must cut out the craft from the background. To do this we have used the Magnetic Lasso Tool and crudely followed the outline of the craft. It should cling to the outline, hence the title magnetic. Once the outline is complete, we can then us the refine edge option. Enabling smart radius of a few pixels, we selected 4, will allow the software to make a best guess at the actual outline you were trying to follow and does so very well. We also add a smooth of a couple of pixels, since this will hide any smart radius mistakes, but create blur, which is fine in this instance. Lastly we put 2 pixels of feather, which represents having the edge fade into it's background. Then save it as a new document with transparent background.
In order to blur the edges we use the built in function Filter > Blur > Iris Blur and retain the default 15 radius. The only part that now remains is the crosshair which is done with a simple circle using the ellipse tool, and the line tool. remembering that dragging the circle will snap it to the centre of the canvas, and likewise holding down Shift will force the line to draw perfectly horizontally or vertically.
Barcode.
We have already established in a previous post that the standard UPC barcode size is 27.55mm x 25.9mm. From there on it is a case representing the barcode number appropriately. You may ask which number? Where do we obtain said number?
Well a UPC barcode is simply a means of encoding a numerical 12 digit number into vertical bars, essentially much like Morse code, only stretched vertically.
It is made up of a start symbol ( combination of bars ). and end symbol, a middle symbol. and number symbols in between, interesting to note is that the bar representations for numbers in the left half and right half differ, although by simple inversion. This allows scanner to read it upside down.
To obtain the number itself a company must apply for and pay the relevant authority : GS1 US.
For the purposes of this fictional project we will settle on a random number, say :163547534121.
If one was to obtain the table of symbols, they could, theoretically design their own barcode using them. But that would be beyond the scope of this exercise. Therefore we will resort to an on-the-fly barcode generating website : http://www.barcoding.com.
And we obtain the following :
 |
| UPC-A Barcode |
Attention grabbing subtitle.
DVD inlays examined in DVD Inlay Part 1 : The Beginning revealed that the better existing ones all had an attention grabbing subtitle, which is to say a header to the back cover of the inlay, to draw people into reading the rest of the rear cover. It should be short and to the point, nor more than a few words, but also related to the theme of the product. We have opted to use 3 high impact verbs, that can relate to the RTS ( Real-Time Strategy ) genre ; "Advance. Conquer. Defeat.".
As for the style of the text, we have opted to use Cooper Std as the font for most of the artwork, and thus use that here. As for the size, it was a case of trial and error, until it filled most the width of the rear cover, making sure to stay inside the safety guides. For the majority of the textual content we have opted for either black on white or white on black, so as not to overwhelm people with excessive amounts of differing themes. For this black text we apply a stroke, by Right-Clicking on the layer and selecting Blending Options > Stroke. Selecting white as the stroke colour and 3 pixels width. That is sufficient since we are not aiming to have a major effect on this piece of text, but rather ensure it's readable on the coloured background. A thin outline, or stroke of the opposing colour is a common technique to ensure it remains readable on varying backgrounds.
Legal notices.
As boring as is may be it is of course important to point out legal information, this will primarily be pointing out copyright owners of materials used on the DVD inlay, including ourselves so people are aware. This may also mention software used in the published version of the game. Naturally the with a fictional product acknowledging arbitrary brands, with logos, will in turn have an arbitrary set of legal notices associated with it. This should however serve as a decent placeholder as to what a final products legal text may look like. Once again we have used Cooper Std in white to remain consistent, there is no requirement to highlight it with a black outline, instead opting for keeping the black placeholder visible, as a background. This fulfills two purposes, it clearly separates this serious section from the more graphical sections, whilst enhancing visibility and readability. The final text decided upon was as follows :
"Tactical Advances™ © 2014 Spider Leopard. All Rights Reserved. Tactical Advances, Spider Leopard, tactical-advances.com, the Spider Leopard logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Spider Leopard Ltd in the US, UK and/or other countries. AMD, the AMD logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Sound Blaster, X-Fi and associated logos and trademarks or registered trademarks or Creative Technology Ltd. Dolby Digital and it's associated logo are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories Inc. This product includes code licensed from GameSpy; the Powered by GameSpy logo is a trademark of GameSpy Industries Inc."
Front and rear advisory notices.
Pan European Game Information (PEGI, 2014) tells us that as of 30th July 2012 it has become a legal requirement in the United Kingdom to display and enforce PEGI content ratings on video games. This is achieved by submitting the product and supporting documents to Netherlands Institute for the Classification of Audiovisual Media (NICAM) the body in charge of issuing PEGI ratings.
The ratings come in 2 parts :
- Age : PEGI issues the following possible age restrictions : 3, 7, 12, 16, 18.
Although in certain countries they may vary by 1 year to fall in line with that countries own film rating systems. But the UK just sticks to the standard PEGI ages, since it has adopted PEGI as it's standard rating authority in 2012, as opposed to the old BBFC film board, that was deemed inadequate for video games.
- Content : Further to the legal age restriction, PEGI also provides a set of content descriptors to provide further details of specific content types that have led to the final age decision. The possible content descriptors are : Violence, Bad Language, Horror, Sex, Drugs, Gambling, Discrimination, Online. The latter doesn't directly have any effect the age restriction of the product, but rather simply provides a warning the the game is online, and thus the user could be subjected to uncensored content from other users.
As this is a fictional product, we will not be formally submitting the product for review, but it would be prudent to include some arbitrary, but plausible notices. We have chosen to opt for Violence, Discrimination, Online and 12.
System requirements.
For the system requirements, naturally we do not have any real figures, so we will use plausible ones for modern games. The type tool in PhotoShop™ will change it's cursor when one has the appropriate placeholder layer selected, and hovers over the curved rectangle. Clicking at this point will force the text to fit inside this area. Very handy. We will be keeping the white placeholder visible, therefore plain black text, once again using Cooper Std is ideal. For the size, we opted to choose one that fills most the area, with the title ( System Requirements ) slightly enlarged.
 |
| System Requirements |
Brand acknowledgment logos.
When using other companies programs in order to enhance one's own, it is always advisable to give credit. In DVD game inlays this is usually done via associated logos displayed on the rear. This is of multifaceted purpose. Beyond providing acknowledgment to the products used, they also provide visual appeal. Furthermore the use of well established brands and/or logos can increase the desirability of your own product. In this project we have opted to use the logos associated with a selection of commonly used products and services. These have simply been downloaded and spaced equally above the Legal Notices. Some of the logos are provided on a white background, which would be out of character with the design method we have followed, which would favour transparency. Thankfully in PhotoShop™ it is a simple matter to rectify this, there are in fact a number of different methods to achieve this. The one opted for in this instance was to load up the logo in PhotoShop™ and then proceed to select the unwanted white background. The Quick Selection Tool is the best option for this, since it will automatically expand selection from the cursor location, based on colour, therefore clicking a section of white will select that entire white area, choosing the option Add To Selection will let you repeat this process until you have all the required parts selected. If the for whatever reason this is ineffective on a logo, perhaps due to a different background, it can be combines with Lasso Tools which allow you to freehand select an area. The basic one is absolute freehand, polygonal goes through a series of straight lines, to forma complex polygon, and magnetic is freehand, but with a certain radius of automated discretion to find the best edges. Either way once completed to the best of your abilities, if you are still not entirely happy you can use press the Refine Edges with any of the above tools selected, this allows for various enhancements to a selection, such are smoothing the edges, but the perhaps the most useful option is Edge Detection, which can be used to make PhotoShop™ scan a certain radius around your entire selection edge, and move it to the closest detected edge on the image.
Once the unwanted white area is selected, Shift-Ctrl-I will invert to the the part required. From this point it is a simple case of copying the selection, and pasting it into the Inlay image, as a new layer to be moved and/or resized correctly.
The final result :
 |
| Brand Logos |
Website URL.
The website URL is simply a case of typing out the game's website. This is useful for any people wanting to obtain further information about the product. Once again we resort to a black stroke of 3 pixels around white text, for enhanced readability. For the size it's once again a case of judging it by eye based primarily on the width of the system requirement, but without exceeding the size of the other texts above ( Features, Description ).
Front and spine titles.
In this section we aim to create a gripping title, using advanced effects on text. We will start with a transparent canvas of the width of the front cover, this should be more than sufficient.
We wish to expand on the robotic theme, and obtain an embossed metallic text.
The first step at this point is to simple type out the text in a font and size of one's choice.
We opted for Impact size 40pt with s tracking of 50. And typed the following text 'TACTICAL ADVANCES'. we put 3 spaces between the words for increased spacing. Of importance is the colour, which needs to be light, thus we opted for white.
Next we would like various effects on the layer, starting with an outline. Using layer styles. In Layer > Layer Style > Stroke. We want this to be black, with a size of 20 and centered. Centered refers to the positioning of the outline based on the original item, and puts 10 pixels either side of the original edge for a total of 20.
The layer must be rasterized, which is the process of converting the vector text to a bitmap image. But the original will be required for further operations later on, therefore we will first duplicate the layer. Again many of the operations will effect various parts of the text, so a number of layers will be required to complete this section. Let's duplicate this rasterized layer right away.
Using this latest layer apply a Bevel and Emboss style selecting Chisel Soft as technique, which will provide a crude metallic edging. We opted for a size of 6.
Also select a Gloss Contour as Ring with a slight yellow hint, and Anti-Aliased. also Anti-Alias the Contour. Furthermore let's add a metallic grey Colour Overlay, normal blend mode is fine. And finally a drop shadow so the result appears raised off the surface. Any distance will work, depending how far you want it to appear to be raised, we opted for 10. At this point you should have something similar to this :
 |
| Metallic Text |
 |
| Scratched Steel |
Then insert this texture as a new background layer, with a 30 pixel chisel soft emboss.
Now we want to add some sparks emanating from the text. To do so we need to create a suitable brush. Select the Brush tool and show the properties window, Window > Brush.
Chose soft round 30 with 0 hardness and a large spacing, we arbitrarily selected 462%.
Enable Shape Dynamics with 100% Size Jitter and a massive Scattering, around 1000% with a single Count. Finally select a Dual Brush with a 90 pixel sampled tip.
To use this we need to Create a Work Path from the text layer(un-rasterized layer). We should use another layer for the sparkles, create a new blank one, positioned between the text layer and the rasterized layers. Chose a very light grey, almost white, for the foreground colour, and a mid-dark grey for background colour. Now selecting the work path, apply a Stroke Path, using Brush as type and not simulating pressure. Apply an Outer Glow layer style with a size of 10, a very pale red, and a Overlay blend type, this will make the sparkles glow and stand out a little more. To make them look more like grinding metal sparks, we can distort them using Filter > Distort > Wave chosing 5 generators with 60-120 wavelength and 15-30 amplitude.
Using some photos of sparklers, we can add some major spark points. These are on black backgrounds, so it's a simple case of adding a few and setting their blend modes to Lighten.
Once complete you should obtain something similar to the title below :
 |
| Finished Title |
Front and spine media types.
These are quite simply just recognisable representations of the media type contained within the case. In this instance obviously a DVD-ROM, but it should also be mentioned that is software rather than video, the standard way of doing so is to specify PC "DVD-ROM". After some research there does not appear to be any standards beyond publisher's own common sense to keep them uniform and immediately recognizable - to avoid compatibility issues, and thus potential complaints.
There is a useful resource to obtain logos however : www.easylogo.cn which features both the typical spine logo as well as the alternative one, usually used on front covers. Once imported into PhotoShop™ is is a simple case of scaling them to size, using methods already covered - holding down Shift will force it to maintain the aspect ratio. For the spine section, we want to resize it, maintaining the ratio, until it fills the full width of said spine, and then position it at the top of the spine, remembering not to exceed the safety area guide, it should snap-to all the requirements. The front representation will be positioned in the top-left, and stretched until the bottom is roughly in line with the bottom of the letters "PC" on the spine version, this will prevent it from being excessively large, whilst conserving some level of naturality in the border connection between the two.
 |
| Spine and Front PC DVD-ROM Media Notices |
Key awards.
If a product is good enough, and fortunate enough to win awards of any kind, it is always good to point out such facts, since this will likely enhance the product saleability. For the same reason the want to be clearly visible, and thus are placed on the front cover. However we don't want to clutter the front cover excessively, so it is best to limit them to the most prestigious couple of awards. As for editing them and placing them, follow precisely the same methods as in the Brand Acknowledgments.
Front and spine publisher.
This part of the inlay simply involves inserting the logo created in Logo Creation into the correct locations designated by the placeholders. The inserted graphic can be resized, maintaining the aspect ratio, by holding the Shift key. Moving it into place is simple, as the program will automatically snap-to the edges of the placeholders.
Screenshots.
Moving onto the next item in the agenda, and one of the key items that will give prospective customers a really good sense of what to expect from the game, screenshots of gameplay. These excellent visual aids are a very powerful tool for promoting a good product showcasing the decent visuals and effects a game may have. Also they can provide people with vital clues as to the way the game will be played, meaning if they choose to purchase it the satisfaction rating will be much higher due to it being as expected, and good satisfaction ratings can in themselves lead to higher sales.
The screenshots we will be using are the following ones :
 |
| Screenshots |
At this point the main considerations when choosing screenshots, aside from the obvious facts that they should showcase the games features and look nice, but also that they should bear some relations to the game features that will appear in captions below them, and that these features should be the main selling points of the product. As for inserting the images into PhotoShop™ that is straight forward enough. File > Place and selecting the image, or even dragging in directly from the file explorer to the workspace will produce the same result.
Once inserted, they can be resized suitably, they should even already be selected correctly for resizing, holding shift will maintain the aspect ratio, which is also a judicious choice.
Remember however that we created placeholders for these screenshots that were not rectangular in shape, thankfully PhotoShop™ contains a very useful feature to clip images to the shape of object. To do so requires first of all ensuring the image layer is directly above that of the placeholder, and then select Create Clipping Mask in the context menu of the image layer, it will create an arrow linking the two layers to represent it, and it will hide any parts of the picture not overlapping the other layer.
 |
| Clipping \Mask |
Game description.
Of course visual aids alone are not enough on their own to sell a product, prospective customers will want to see a more detailed description of what they can expect, and that is where the game description comes in. The techniques involved in creating that have already been covered on other parts of this blog, it uses the type tool, and Cooper Std, in white with a black stroke to ensure readability over all backgrounds. The question remains however of what needs to feature within this text. It should contain something that sets the scene, a description of the game genre, details of the key features of the game within that genre, all in a striking manner. This means keeping it short and to the point, at most a couple of sort sentences to meet each requirement. After much thought we settled upon : "War has broken out. And on an inter-galactic scale ! Take command of huge diverse armies of robotic machines, in a battle like none you have ever faced before. This fresh new RTS title puts emphasis on making expert tactical decisions rather than being restricted to pre-defined plans."
It's succinct, descriptive and full of high impact exclamations.
Game features.
These are very straight-forward both in reason for featuring and implementation. They provide prospective customers with a bullet point style - easy to read - list of the games main selling points, or features. Preferably they should be matched in some way to the screenshot representations beneath which they are positioned. From a creative point of view it is merely simple text again, only this time in black, since the background is all white, the single colour of the background means we can go without stroke outline on the text, since it would be entirely invisible.
QR Link.
QR code is the the abbreviation of Quick Response code. It was developed from the requirement for to store more information than would be possible in a traditional barcode, whilst retaining it's ability to be read very quickly by devices. It achieves this by using a 2D matrix as opposed to simple bars which would essentially be 1D. The main reasons to include a QR code on the product are to enable people with rapid re-direction to the appropriate Facebook page. This provides them with access to extensive product information and the latest updates, also social media is a very effective and cheap method of marketing, since people who like what they see will 'Like' the page, resulting in it being exposed to all their friends, and so on in a snowball effect. With the emergence of smartphones, most people will have QR readers and internet access to hand. The code is capable of storing different types of data, the one used being identified by key bits on the code. One of the most common uses, and the one we use, is alpha-numeric storage, typically of a URL. Further to this QR codes also store bits of information relating to the version, which is 1-40 and actually represents the density of the information upon it. Higher versions allowing for more data, but requiring better devices, or more time to scan.
Although in theory it would be possible to draw your own QR code, if you had all the required details on the encoding for your specific purpose, that would be beyond the scope of this project, therefore, as with the barcode, we will opt to use a free generation website, in this instance : www.qrstuff.com
 |
| QR Code |
We now arrive at the very final task within this post, which is to hide all the placeholders so that none show through in the final image. Exceptions exist for the ones used with clipping masks, or conserved as actual backgrounds to text items placed in this post. All the other placeholder items should be hidden, the easiest way to do this in PhotoShop™ is in the Layers window. Simply toggle off the eye symbol, and it will hide. The list of items to hide ( placeholder versions of below items ) :
- QR code.
- Attention grabbing subtitle.
- Game description.
- Publisher logo ( spine and front cover ).
- Advisory/rating notices ( front and rear ).
- Key awards.
- Media Type.
- Title ( front and spine ).
- Website URL.
- Brands acknowledgment logos.
- Front main graphic.
- Background graphic ( front, spine and rear ).
 |
| Visibility Toggle ( On then Off ) |
Now that the DVD inlay is complete, you may wish to hide the guides to obtain a better overview of the final product, a process that can actually be counter-intuitive in PhotoShop™ compared to a lot of other software, it remains a toggle option within the View menu, however rather than being named guides as you may expect, it is called extras.
Now remember how in DVD Inlay Part 2 : The Foundations we mentioned that we had been working in RGB mode to ensure the image displayed correctly on a computer monitor whilst we worked upon it, but that the print studio actually requested the image be submitted as CMYK for printing - conversion is merely a case of selecting a different colour mode inside the program, by going to Image > Mode and selecting the one required, notice it features many, but the only ones commonly used are CMYK, RBG and Greyscale, the image will take a while to process the conversion after which it will appear very dull on the screen, this is normal, it will print into the same vibrant colours seen before - They also request that it be submitted as a PDF, which happens to be the only popular zero loss format PhotoShop™ allows you to save as in CMYK mode. One must remember however to go into the Compression section in the PDF save options ( they pop-up automatically when you save as PDF ) and select "none" for the compression method, otherwise you risk losing data through compression. "Zip" mode should also be lossless, but the resulting file is only 50MB with no compression, which is not excessive this day in age, Zip would certainly be a consideration on larger graphics such as posters or banners though. Also ensure it is not set to reduce the DPI below 300, the DPI used throughout the project, this should also be within the compression section.
And that is it,the DVD inlay is now complete.
Evaluation.
Having completed the DVD inlay, what conclusions can be drawn from the process?
Well firstly I should mention that overall I am very pleased with the end result. But it hasn't all been plain sailing. A major issue was actually settling upon ideas, every single effect I was applying, would spawn dozens of knew ones, and it could very quickly become overwhelming. But once I had managed to compartmentalise the ideas and stick to my original plan, without deviation, things started to progress swimmingly.
Having said this it is not all perfect, the game title graphic for instance, as demonstrated within this blog, uses a vast array of different techniques before reaching the final result, however in hindsight I think there is too much going on in it, not so much an issue close up, but from a distance it can hinder it's readability significantly. As such i should perhaps have spent a little more time to go back and tweak, or potentially even remove or replace some of the effects upon this.
References :
PEGI, 2014. What is PEGI? [online] Available at:
<http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/28/>
[Accessed 03 March 2014].
PEGI, 2014. What do the labels mean? [online] Available at:
<http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/33/>
[Accessed 03 March 2014].
UKIE, 2012. PEGI ratings become uk's single video game age rating system? [online] Available at:
<http://ukie.org.uk/content/pegi-ratings-become-uk%E2%80%99s-single-video-game-age-rating-system>
[Accessed 03 March 2014].
Heritage Printing, 2010. Acceptable file types. [online] Available at:
<http://www.heritageprintinginc.com/contact/acceptable-file-types/>
[Accessed 13 January 2014].