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Hey guys long time no post. :) I'm working on a new cover. Crits appreciated. I am thinking the fonts in the thumbnail look pretty visible. What do you guys think? I attached another thumbnail as well with slight changes to the placement of the font. Let me know which one works better and why. Thanks!
I think it looks great very eye catching for sure.
Yes the font is very visible
Does anyone remember what page the correct dimensions for a book cover are? Or the page where it says where to go to find out?
Depends on which site and/or what type of cover. Where specifically are you submitting?
What manne said. But to get started, if an Amazon ebook (many of the covers in this thread are), you want a 1:1.6 ratio, with the longest edge about 2500 pixels. You can always downrez smaller, but risk quality if you try to blow it up.
For physical books, the dimensions depend on the trim size of the book, plus spine width. The DPI (actually PPI) Amazon now sometimes lists is a little non-standard, and has to do with the mechanics of the printhead of their latest digital printers. You're pretty set if it's 300 PPI, and you can always adjust from there. That said, my images are always done at 600 dpi in Photoshop, on an artboard that allows for variations in trim size.
Yeah but I was reading on this forum last night, and sorry I don't remember which page, it was specifically talking about the resolution requirements changing for the cover (size-wise not DPI wise). Do you remember about where that info is?
Aha! I found it! So check this out it's on page 27 of this forum. :)
I have no idea what that means. I'm gonna go with Amazon for now. I haven't even begun, I thought it might be wise to know what size to do the work in before I started lol. Math is not my strong point. What does 1:1.6 mean and how do I know how to figure that out if 2500 pixels should be the long side? I promise I am not stupid but this kind of stuff makes my head hurt. Which is why I have put it off for so long....
Off to have a look thanks!
Ok here's what it means when you're in Daz and your setting up your picture initally, use one of these two render setting and then set your longest side (in a portrait image this is the height) to 2560 pixels. In a landscape picture your longest side will be the width.
That will make it close. If you really want to make it 1:1.60 create a render setting and save it that way. The Aspect Ratio shows directly beneath your Pixel size (global).
Thank you thank you! Seriously.
Hi,
I need to do the back cover of a book with a figure like this (but not necessarily on the horse!) he needs to be about 13 years and very white!!!!
Any suggestions anyone, please?
Thanks
Suggestions as far as what? You want to know what figures to use or??? Sorry I'd love to help but I'm just not sure what you're asking.
Not too fussed what figure I use, I tend to use Gen 4 but I'm quite happy to use Genesis. I just want some suggestions as to how I can make him look so white and also hair and face shape. Costume would be helpful too, I use Studio 4.8 and 3d Delight.
http://www.daz3d.com/paladin-hd-mmxv-for-genesis-2-males-s is armour that matches.
http://www.daz3d.com/amazing-skins-for-genesis-2-bundle is a great skin bundle for 3Delight.
The hair will take you doing some work. The best hair vendor I know is on a different site. Their name is SAV, and unfortunately, they just died recently. However, I'd just browse the hair category and see if you can find one that matches closely what you're looking for.
Face shapes can be altered in the shaping tab, but if you're looking for something specific, I'd check out the male face morphs and see if you can see a face or character that looks good to you.
In practice there's an awful lot of flexibility, and anything that's "about that" will be fine. No two ereaders have screens that are the same size, shape, or resolution, and the softwhere, be it Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook or whatever will fit it to the screen. My book covers are all 2400 x 1600 (1.5:1) and they work great.
But when designing your scene and rendering it, I'd reccomend you make the image bigger. Possibly much bigger. Because that gives you the scope to fiddle or produce covers that are different shapes, publicity posters, swag etc. One of my cover images is 3 times wider and 1.5 times taller than the actual cover, and that gives me scope to make wide Facebook banners, a wraparound cover for the paperback etc.
If you want to make a paperback, there's a lot of different book shapes & sizes, but 8.5" x 5.5" and 9" x 6" are common. Add a quarter inch to each side for trim and at 300dpi, thats 2700 x 1800 and 2850 x 1950. All slightly different shapes, so having an oversized image makes it easy to fit.
When you create your Photoshop file (other image editors are available) at 2400 x 1600 or whatever, import your rendered image (or paste it from another document) and you's be able to drag it around to get the composition you want.
Also, don't forget to keep & backup the scene file, so you can re-render it later if you need to.
For making him "white," I would suggest render as normal. Don't waste time trying to nail it in the app, but do it post-render in Photoshop (or whatever image editing software you use). Then, use the hue and saturation tool and decrease the amount of red, magenta and yellow in his skin. This will make him paler. Be mindful of the blues and cyans, though, or he will turn blue. And I suggest you do the skin, eyes and hair separately. This will allow you to get the optimal appearance for each.
Good luck!
BTW: As for figures, I would suggest any of the Genesis figures with the Growing Up morphs (there are different packages for different figures, so search around here until you find the ones you need. Also, the Ryder figure is pretty versatile. I used both Growing Up and Ryder on this illustration a while back.
Actually I meant to write 1:1.5, which works well for both ebooks and many of the common sizes of printed books. That's simply the ratio between the height and the width. Use a calculator to determine the width given the height:
2500 / 1.5 = 1667
so make the cover 2500 x 1666.
Just remember that if you are doing a printed book, you (probably) need a front and back cover, plus the spine. The width of the spine is calculated using the number of pages, times the thickness of the paper. Sites like Amazon CreateSpace tell you the thickness of each page. You have to look this stuff up in the help pages.
There's a lot to consider here, so I recommend visiting the kdp.amazon.com forum, where this sort of thing is covered pretty regularly.
Wonderful thank you! I keep all of my layers for each project in Photoshop as well as the finished flattened version so that won't be an issue.
I will most definitely visit the forums thank you! And for the equation as well
Thank you, that's most helpful.
Just saw this in the commons. it makes perfect sense. I've always liked manne 's artwork. It's great she's offering to share her skills and knowledge in a webinars format and later as recordings.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/132096/coming-soon-how-to-create-outstanding-book-covers-live-event-sat-10th-dec
Ah FirstBastion, you're too kind! Just a bit of info, I'm trying to put together a one-stop-shop place to start with book covers. It took me FOREVER to even find a lot of pertainent info when I first started so, I figured I'd try to save people some time. And OF COURSE, this forum is mentioned and linked to, everyone here's help is INVALUABLE!!! :)
I just signed up for that. I've learned a ton here on this thread, and am looking forward to learning even more in the webinar. Can't wait!
The character design is very good, and the color contrast makes it easy to see the character and the background. The font colors are okay (especially the white, but the yellow lacks a little in contrast with the background -- in other words, it's okay, but a little hard to read). It's clean and simple, which is good. But, that's where my praise has to end, I'm afraid. The pose, expression and lighting are all good, but not great. She seems awkwardly posed - I realize that she's holding her hands up, but without seeing what's menacing her, I'm not getting a story. Also, I can't tell from her expression what she's thinking: is she defiant, surrendering, broken & beaten? I seldom reference my own work (because I don't think it's usually good enough for teaching purposes, to be honest), but if you look at the picture I did with the kid being hunted by the zombie, take a look at the body language I chose: his fist is clenched and his lip has a little snarl -- I chose those to try to convey that, although he's scared (look at the wide eyes) he's defiant. You have a good character design with the lady (and frankly, it's a pleasure not to see some flowing-haired space bimbo or cropped-hair Matrix rip-off character; seeing a seasoned character is a nice change of pace), but I think you need more story here. And two ways to approach that are body language (more curve at the hips, as though she was caught unawares and is turning around, or slump the shoulders and maybe change the expression, especially the eyebrows) and lighting (if you deepened the shadows to our left, that would make the starlight thing on her forehead stand out more, and hint at more drama).
Anyway, I hope this doesn't bring you down. I only write long notes like this on pieces that interest me, and this is definitely interesting.
One finaly, tiny comment on the type: try increasing the space between the line that says "They lied." and the previous line. A little more space between the first sentence and the second would read as a dramatic pause between the sentences, and help sell the drama. If you want to get really fancy, put "They lied." in italics.
Thanks again for posting, and good luck.
Yeah I see what you mean about the yellow.
I'll work on refining the expression, also I like your idea about showing a bit of what is menacing her, even if it's subtle having that directional shift in the picture would pull the composition in tighter.
Of course it doesn't bring me down, I LOVE getting constructive criticism, it only makes the finished piece better, thanks for taking the time!
Great idea on that spacing and italicising. Those would both make it stand out.
Thanks so much.
I read stumbled onto the site for the webinar by accident the other day. I can't possibly do it, but I'm glad it will be in the store afterwards. I just finished watching Esther's Postworking tutorial and I got a lot out of it. I definitely want to get this in the shop when I can manage it. Just looking at the list of things Esther will be going over looks promising and has tons of info I'd like to learn about.
The book cover webinar was great. Esther did a wonderful job. Confirmed some things I know and am learning, and gave some great tips and insights into things I didn't know. Feeling more confident as I plunge ahead with my next cover and a cover redo for my very first book.
All it all, the webinar was a very good value, and I'd definitely recommend it. Also got to meet some great people!
I agree with Llynara, the webinar was really helpful (wished I'd taken it a long time ago). And it brought me here, and I'll be back here again (though probably not commenting much).
Welcome MinerDave! Glad to have you with us :)
Awesome MinerDave glad you're here now! :)