Objective one, the list of objects required.
The majority of this section was actually covered in DVD Label Part 1 : The Beginning where we examined existing products and established what each one chose to display on their respective labels.
We should begin by summarising these findings :
- Main Background Graphic.
- Age Restriction Notice.
- Media Type.
- Publisher/Developer Logo(s).
- Title.
- Legal Notices.
Objective two, creating placeholders for each of these within Illustrator™.
The first step is to open up the previously created template, and immediately save as a new file. This will ensure we keep the original template intact, should we ever need to refer back to it at any point.
Now that we have the fresh file ready to edit, we can start creating the placeholders.
The process for doing this is quite similar to that followed within PhotoShop™ for the inlay, in the sense that we will be primarily using arbitrarily coloured basic shapes.
The same logic is followed for layering, that is to say starting from the bottom up, therefore the first one to place will be the main background graphic. As is turns out the rest will no overlap, and therefore can be created in any order.
Just as with PhotoShop™, Illustrator™ with by default snap-to key points when positioning items, which proves very useful. However one important thing to note, is that when placing a circles, using the Ellipse tool, it stretches it out from the top-left corner, rather than the center of the ellipse/circle.
As such the background placeholder would require dragging the Ellipse tool from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner of the artboard. This will result in a circle that encompasses the entire width and height of said artboard, which is the correct outcome, since we require it to cover the entire background including bleed areas, and we previously created the artboard to match these dimensions.
Speaking of the background graphic, this is one area where some of the example labels studied varied, some opting for only the background colour, others the entire graphic, including foreground characters. Since it should of course match the inlay feel and design, but our design possesses a relatively complex title, and background graphic, yet a simplistic foreground character, although i use that term loosely, since it is actually a game unit, it would thus be preferably to omit said unit and only use the background effect. Especially knowing that the label will contain a stacking ring and hub which would greatly obscure the crosshair effect on the unit. Since this is an integral part to this, it is much preferably to simply omit the character/unit.
The age restriction notice, media type, title and logo are simple squares and rectangles, so little point spending longer on these, just remembering that they will snap-to the center positions, both vertical and horizontal, as required.
This brings us to the final item, the legal notices. These are essentially text that follow the outside of the disc. Remembering that the printing process may not accurately cut the labels to the disc size, to correct guide to follow is actually the safety line.
In order to achieve this, we will be using the Type on a Path Tool, which is accessed via the Type icon, by holding it down, to reveal advanced typing tools. The simply click on the safety guide, and notice that when typing is starts to type around the outside of this line, obviously this is not exactly what is required since it could potentially be sliced off during the printing process. As such it needs to be positioned inside this guideline, however flipping it will not function either, since we wish to retain the text reading from the inside. This is done using the advanced character panel. To access this panel, click on the word character, next to where the font is selected, on the upper toolbar. This will present you with advanced options for your text, the one required here is Baseline Shift, which as the name suggests moved the line upon which the text is typed, up or down. The required amount of shift is -6pt since the font size will be set to 6pt, and we want the top of said text to follow the guide.
Once all the above has been completed the result should be something similar to below :
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| Template with placeholders |