Photoshop - DVD Amaray style case

DVD Amaray Case

Adobe Photoshop

1. To start my amaray case I first set the correct size (which i acquired by measuring a real case) 28x18  and dpi - 300dpi. I also set the colour to be CMYK for print instead of RGB which is normally used in web. the next item to be setup are the guidelines within Photoshop so that I knew where to put the content. These guidelines are called the bleed line and the content line the first inner line is for main content and the bleed line is the line that the DVD/Game sleeve would be cut down to size to. I also created the spine guidelines to keep the spine separate from the front and back.
   
2. The next step I took was to add a high resolution (1920x1080)background to my design by adding a new layer ( by going to Layer>new>Layer... or Shift+Ctrl+N) and copying and paste the image file from its original location. The image above is the image I used to create my background. Once i had inserted my image onto its layer, I then wanted to split the image in half so that I could swap the two faces around. the advantage of this is that I can use the busiest side of image as a focal point . To do this I selected one side using the rectangle selection tool and added it to a new layer and then selected the other side and put that on its own separate layer. Once that was completed I created a background for the spine using a gradient of black and white.
   
    
3. Now I have my background in place and my spine in place i can start with the other parts of the design. Im going to start with the name of the game which in my case is (Starscape Citizen). So I selected the horizontal type tool and placed it on the front of my dvd sleeve. I then typed in the name of the game. Once that was done i changed the font to one i thought was quite futuristic and fit my theme (which turned out to be Racer Regular for me!:)). I then added effects to give the words a slightly different look. First I added an bevel&emboss effect to give the letters a 3D look, i also added a stroke effect to give the letters a silver outline and also a gradient overlay to add a light rippling effect to the letters and a drop shadow to more enthesize the 3D effect. 
   
4. For this the 4th stage I did the same as I did for stage 3 except I rotated it 90 degrees then added effects such as; stroke, gradient overlay and drop shadow. This gave my title a slightly burnt and crumpled up look.
   
    
5. For the 5th stage I added 4 pictures which are from in-game footage of the game Star Citizen. I added this images in all on their own layer and also changed the lighting to be lighter and the colour to be deeper.I also resized and reshaped the images to fit into the flow of the whole sleeve.
   
6. During this stage I added the pc logo on front top left and top of the spine. I used a rubber tool to round off the logo on bottom right corner. I also added the pegi rating logos on front and back as well as warning logos and the barcode. These where all put on their separate layers and resized accordingly.
   
7. Next to be added to the sleeve is the game summary, the legal details and the steam logo because my game would be released on steam (if the community accepted it of course). The game summary I wrote myself and then added a white background which I made slightly transparent to increase the contrast of the writing and therefore become easier to read.
   
8. The last stage of my game case is to add my logo to it. I did this by first creating the logo in illustrator and then importing it into photoshop. I then positioned one near the logo on front page and the resized and positioned one at the bottom of the spine.