Creating the Magazine Poster - #7

Creating the Magazine Poster - #7

When creating the magazine poster, I used a lot of the same graphics from the bus poster template, this made the process a lot faster. It also meant that both designs were linked and recognisably together as part of the same advertising campaign.

This design also includes barbed wire, the prison tower and an actor playing the protagonist from The Walking Dead. I was wanting to create the same effect as the Bus poster. The apocalyptic feel is what I was going for and I felt that the graphics I used lent itself to this well.

This time, I decided to make the background layer look like a dramatic, stormy sky. This is stereotypical to the horror and drama genre. I did this by using the Paint Brush tool and selecting a grey colour. I turned down to softness and started doing strokes, making it purposely uneven.

I repeated this process a few different times but this time choosing a different shade of grey and doing stokes in different places. the over all effect was that the sky looked stormy and realistic.

When I used the barbed wire this time, I increased the size making the barbed wire look closer, making the audience feel more up close and personal with the action.

I also used a picture of the actor looking straight at the audience to re-enforce this effect. The effect is that the actor looks like he is aiming his gun right at the audience, involving them into the action and making them feel involved.

Adding Barbed Wire - #6

Adding Barbed Wire - #6

The next step to the Bus poster was to add barbed wire. Just like with the Prison tower, I drew the graphic myself and used Illustrator to trace the image onto the computer. Once I'd done this, the graphic look realistic and effective enough without having to add any effects.

All that was left to do with this layer, was to resize it and made sure it stretched the length of the bus. I l also made sure that this layer was on top of all previous layers so it ran in front of the Prison Tower.

The aim and purpose of this advertisement going on the bus is to promote BBC Cult and The Walking Dead. To do this, it needs text giving information to the public making it clear that its promoting BBC Cult.

The text is in a large font making it stand out and ensuring that public will be able to clearly see it and understand what the poster is about.

The colours I have used are red and brown. These colours represent the Horror genre and represent the apocalyptic theme i'm following. These colours help the text blend in with the rest of the graphics and stop it from looking out of place.

I also added texture to the text, making it look like mud, just like with the colour, this has been done to make the text fir in with the theme and the rest of the graphics. I have also put an outer glow on the text making a white light radiate from the text. This helps makes the text stand out from the background.

To complete the bus advertisement, I wanted to include an actor posing as the main protagonist from The Walking Dead.

 I took the photo of the actor stood against a solid white wall. This meant that when I placed the photo into Photoshop I was easily able to get rid of the background by using the Background Eraser tool.
I then re-sized the image and placed the layer at the top.

once this was done, I was left with the finished Bus poster design.

Creating the Bus Design - #5

Creating the Bus Design - #5

With all my ideas and designs done, I was ready to open Photoshop and start creating the Bus poster using a bus template, I have found using Google Images. 

I made this template the background layer and then duplicated the layer, leaving two identical layers. By duplicating the layer, I now have a template that I can start editing whilst leaving the background layer the same in case I need the original blue print. 

Because I'm going for a dark, zombie approach to the design imitating the TV series, The Walking Dead, I wanted the bus to look dirty and old as if it was a bus straight from a zombie apocalypse. This creates realism and helps create the apocalyptic effect. 

Above is the finished product after this first stage. I created the dirt and rust by using the Paint Brush tool. Once I had selected this tool, I chose the colours I wanted to use, which in this case were grey's and dark oranges. The next step was to bring the hardness down of the bush, this made the colours softer and less obvious. You can do this by using the tool bar at the top of photoshop when you have the Paint Brush selected.  

The next step was too create a Guard tower. This was to add to the prison setting I was creating. Again, this is similar to the setting in The Walking Dead.

As i'm unable to take a photo of a prison guard tower, I've had to find a different way of creating the graphic myself. I decided to draw the tower myself. This solution meant that I didn't have to travel anywhere and its a fairly quick and easy way of doing it.

The problem I had with this idea is that I'm a rubbish drawer. This meant that my guard tower didn't look professional or realistic. Its important that it looks both of these things.

To get around this problem, I used Illustrator. By scanning my drawing in and using the Image tracing tool. This tool recognises the lines I have drawn and traces over it with a computer generated black line.

I was then able to bring it into Photoshop, creating a new layer as I did and placed the layer above the template layer.

By using the Paint Brush and Paint Bucket tool, I was able to add colour to the graphic.

The problem I now had was that the Prison Tower was just made of blocks of colour and didn't look realistic. I needed to add texture, so thats what I did.

By double clicking on the layer I wanted, it brought up a list of effects I could add. I used the Bevel and Emboss and the Texture effect to add a stone effect to the Prison Tower, making it look more realistic. i could then choose how large and noticeable the effect was.