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Ultraboy94

magazine cover - WARNING - rather large image- 2ND version

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since this is has content related to doom i thought that this may be of some interest.

i made this magazine cover for my media class. this is my second version of the cover.

[IMG][/IMG]

i took the screenshot myself using skulltag 98a in opengl and ST_Models.pk3 loaded, the phone is my own, and all the rest of the work was done in photoshop CS2.

spot the issue number reference...

all comments/criticism welcomed.

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You may wish to not start every bullet with the word "how." Also the name isn't funny enough to get away with being redundant.

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Bank said:

You may wish to not start every bullet with the word "how."


This, and maybe smaller text with more spacing between topics are my only criticisms.

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1) Download emulator
2) Somehow obtain Playstation BIOS through legal means
3) Put PS game in CD drive

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You are lucky that you could put something like Doom on a school (or college?) project. If I tried to do something like that for school the principal would be down my throat for making something with a gun in it. Yes, the joys of high school.

A couple of things I would like to point out:

1. You spelled Playstation wrong.

2. The magazine cover is nice, but I think you should have a non-invisible monster as your cover, my attention went to the baron's in the back first instead of the spectre. Ouch face is a plus however.

3. More of a personal thing, but I think making a magazine about emulation is a bad idea. If you were to really release this Sony and Sega would be on this like a diaper on a babies ass. ;)

But then again that's coming from someone who isn't a big fan of emu's in the first place.

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As a nearly qualified graphic designer I'd like to add a few things...

Arial is boring. Find some more interesting sans serif fonts. Helvetica is ever so popular, but there's tons out there on the internet. You may find the differences between most sans serif fonts to be too subtle but trust me, it matters in the big picture.

Bevels are cheesy as hell. Don't use them. Take a look at a good gaming magazine cover (even retro ones from 10-15 years ago) and note how they add depth (or the illusion thereof) in different ways. See http://www.virtualreality.ca/images/red-alert-3-pc-gamer-cover-big.jpg for a modern example. Ignoring inset shadow on the PC Gamer logo, look at how the barrel of the gun is positioned, and how she overlaps the logo itself a little.

As somebody else said, don't stretch the image. Or rather, you can stretch it so some degree but keep the proportions of the original image.

Drop shadow abuse. Despite the different retro font used for the logo, it's still just text with a drop shadow. As in the first point I mentioend, there's also a lot of retro pixelated fonts. Try some out, play with word-to-word alignment, character spacing, etc.

Margins and placement. The "Plus" list of text is awfully close to the borders of the image. Using a little more whitespace makes the layout look less cramped, and easier to digest. Keep them consistent also, as in the previous PC Gamer cover, the margins on each side are the exact same, save for the top banner. Makes it less messy looking.

...I don't normally rant on this much, so I'll leave it at this.

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Bucket said:

1) Download emulator
2) Somehow obtain Playstation BIOS through legal means
3) Put PS game in CD drive

That's fine for the Playstation, but it doesn't work for the Playstaion. :(

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Play with layer filters for all your text. Plain text, especially Arial, looks weird on top of a picture.

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This is kinda a repeat of what everyone else said but whatever.

Dont vertically stretch the image. Preserve it's original aspect ratio, and leave a black void at the bottom where you can place all the text (instead of blocking the monsters in the image)

Arial font looks like a half-assed powerpoint slide show

I'd cover up the status bar, it's unnecessary and distracting from what the focus should be; the chaingun and the monsters in your face

I'd use a screenshot from doom using a different sourceport than GZDoom, I'd reccomend Boom or Chocolate Doom. "retro" doomers like myself would appreciate you more for that. Preferably a screenshot where the player is 'shooting' (not just aiming at) a ton of monsters in an enclosed area. Unless your direction is to show how much source ports are renewing doom, You might want to use something like Doomsday using high-resolution textures, dynamic lighting and lens flares, and 3d models. As of now, All I see is OpenGL rendering, a little bit of decals, mild dynamic lighting, all of which the general public would not notice at all.

Some punctuation marks might be nice too.

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How's this?



Less is more. Probably could have done better, but I just felt like doing this for kicks. :P

Oh, btw, the screenshot is from one of the maps I've been jacking around with.

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Heh, thanks. I'd be lying if I wasn't fishing for compliments.

I really should take some kind of graphic design and/or media class. I've been interested in web design for probably about a decade now at least, and could probably make decent money doing it. Looking into going to college this spring, hopefully.

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So the mailman knows where to deliver it.

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Nah, there was a Deepsea coupon on the inside of the cover and someone cut it out :p

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myk said:

Nah, there was a Deepsea coupon on the inside of the cover and someone cut it out :p


This

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myk said:

Nah, there was a Deepsea coupon on the inside of the cover and someone cut it out :p

I just went for a stroll on my lollerskates ;)

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That magazine cover is too much of a mess. Looks cluttered and you could have used a better image from doom. Nomad's example would be a good way to clean all that up, but I'd use a better image than he did.

@nomad, way to steal the show :P That cover could be improved if you moved the Doom logo close to the top of the page, as that gap draws attention away from the subject. Plus I'd include that graphic of the cell phone on the side still, the original had a good idea there as well as the 'bonus cd'

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I was going to do the "Bonus CD" bit, but ultimately didn't feel like it. As for the positioning of the doom logo I feel it balances the image pretty well; it's roughly the opposite side of the page as the door in the background, and it's roughly in the center between the logo and the "Plus" part.

I think adding anything else (besides the little "Free CD!" bit) would make it too cluttered. That PC Gamer example that Exl posted is way too cluttered. I like GameInformer's "less is more" philosophy on their covers: http://images.google.com/images?q=Game Informer

In fact, I could probably even lose the "Plus" part and just move the Doom blurb down to where that is.

The only part I'm really kind of out on is the header across the top doesn't look right. It was actually the first thing I did until I realized I mispelled Megadrive (I put Megadriver instead...) and had to re-do it. The revision was different and didn't look as good. *shrug*

Also, I used too many different typefaces. Meh.

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Yeah, too many typefaces for sure. I'd replace that image with one from Doomsday so that it shows off a the source port's enhanced effects. (after all, modern gamers like seeing shiny stuff)

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Eponasoft said:

One thing bugged me about the first one...you said "megadrive". It should be "MegaDrive". :)


Should be Genesis

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