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B5 Custom DVD Cover Art

It should actually read "and that true strength sometimes comes...". Is it scary that I know it by heart?

Scary not in the least! That's one of my favorite lines in the entire five years of the show, especially with that line being juxtaposed to a shot of Vir as Emperor, knowing the fear he's battled and things he's had to do in fighting for the freedom and betterment of his people since the beginning.
 
Wow, sorry about the messed up quote guys. I'll try to fix it this weekend. Hopefully the wife doesn't have the whole 2 days already planned out for me.

As to some of your other questions...

Crofootski, You said you printed up one of my LOTR single width covers but it doesn't look big enough? The best way to find out is cut the thing up and put it in the case! In your printer settings make sure you do not have "fit to page" or "fit to media" checked or the print will come out too small. Those covers measure about 7 and a quarter inches by 10 and 7/8ths. Letter size paper is only 11 inches long and so if your printer does not print edge to edge you would have to use bigger paper. Legal size is 8.5 by 14" (Sorry I don't know the UK equivilents) Of course both the styles of the B5 covers are bigger, so you would need the legal size paper or something close to it.

I have used regular high quality paper but, glossy photo paper will always look better. However, its just about impossible to find in the legal size. A solution that I have found is to get some 13" x 19 " photo paper. I use Epson's glossy Super A3 (aka: Super B). Cut each sheet into two 8½ x 13" sheets. While you end up with a sheet that's one inch shorter than legal size, the covers should still fit when printed up. Just make sure you don't have the page "centered" in the print preview or it may go off the edge, thinking it has another inch to work with.

Make sure you are set to horizontal or landscape mode. It's always good to print up a few test sheets at low quality on test paper before you go for the whole thing.

There is a whole community dedicated to DVD Cover Art located right here. They have a fairly extensive help section and alot of very fine artwork.

I have been having trouble finding UK sources for cases, Liberator, if those slims are indeed 22mm in the spine can you send me some contact info?

If anyone else knows where cases that fit my work can be gotten in Region 2 I'll check it out and add it to my site.

Any other questions they may be answered in my "About" section or you can post on my Forum and I'll try to be of more help.

Ric
 
Thanks for the links Andrew. But what I am looking for are the specific multi-disc cases I use on my website. Unless I missed something, those links do not have them.

If you follow the links on my site... About half way down on this page, they connect to the cases I am talking about. I just know that shipping to the UK can get expensive

Liberator... Did you say this is the case you used for the "slim" designs? And it works perfectly? The spine is 22mm (15/16") wide? I just want to confrim it before I add it to my site. It looks a little different than what I am using. But if it works, great! Acually the ones I am using look like the slim 4 and 5's from this page but with disc hubs also inside the covers front and back.

There are also some Nexpak slim sixes (and 4's and 5's) but their spines are 26mm wide and a little too wide for my B5 covers to display properly.

If you guys find any Region 2 suppliers for the regular Alpha cases that I have USA links for, let me know. They look like this and have a 51mm spine.

One more thing... If you get a good quality legal size paper they will not look bad. The see thru plastic covering of the cases still gives them a glossy look. I just find that real glossy photo paper gives the covers a little more pop in contrast and saturation.

I'll fix the bad quote on season 5 this weekend!

Ric
 
Now if only InetDVD would get those 6-holder cases back in stock. :) I wanna try this out those custom DVD covers are too cool to pass up.
 
The quote on the season 5 covers is now corrected!

Ric
Ric, REAL small nitpick, and in my defense, I didn't even notice. But I figured for the sake of accuracy you might want to change it. The aspect ratio for all 5 B5 sets is listed at 1.85:1 when its really anamorphic or 1.78:1. Not a big deal really but just thought I'd mention it.

I'm trying to locate some of those elusive cases, when I do I will download the B5 set and the Deep Space 9 set, and probably the ST Movie set as well.
 
Liberator... Did you say this is the case you used for the "slim" designs? And it works perfectly? The spine is 22mm (15/16") wide? I just want to confrim it before I add it to my site. It looks a little different than what I am using. But if it works, great!

Unfortunately, that link doesn't take you to the individual page, just to the jetcase homepage but it is the product listed as:6 DVD Case Black £ 1.00inc.

Here are a couple of images of the cases in question:
b5dvd01.jpg
b5dvd02.jpg


As you can see, the covers look great on my shelf! :cool:

HOWEVER... Sorry to have to point them out Ric,but I noticed a couple of typo's on the back of the S2 DVD case, specifically:

An extra "s" in "In the shadows of Za'Ha'Dum" and a missing "s" in "Confessions and Laminations. Other than that, they're great!!

Cheers,

Andy
 
Wow, thanks for sharing the pix, Lib! It appears those cases are indeed the right size. Sorry about the typos... I'll try to get to them next weekend.

BTW, is that Farscape set a custom job or official? From what I can see of it, I like it! I have been thinking of doing a set for a long time, but wanted to wait until all of the DVDs are released first.

Ric
 
Glad you like the pics :). The Farscape set is the official S4 packaging over here in the U.K. You get two DVD's (usually 5 episodes + extras)in each box and yeah, they are pretty neat aren't they? :D
 
On the subject fo the Farscape set, yes that is the official packaging as has been pointed out, but please, Ric, don't let that stop you from making a custom set for it. In addition to Farscapes packaging taking way to much shelf space (10 standard DVD cases per season) in two of the seasons I've got one of the 5 double packs was printed very badly meaning that they don't line up very well. In fact I decided to discard those and just present the individual DVDs' spine out, but of course that isn't nearly as good looking. I'd really love to be able to replace them with something prettier and if at all possible smaller. (I'm quickly running out of shelf space :) )
 
My website appears to be down until the first of next month (Tuesday) becuase I have exceeded the allowable bandwidth.

If anyone need to contact me thru my forum, it is still online here!

Ric
 
FYI...

I made a cover for The Movie Collection. Unfortunately. I had to redesign both cover sets. Sorry about the wasted ink and paper, but you'll have to re-download and print all the covers to have them display properly.
B53DMC-Ad.jpg
 
Congratulaions Ric........Great Job.
You're NOT having to go back to the drawing board now because of Crusade are you???? :( :LOL: :LOL:
(Now if a talented FAN can manage something that good, I wonder why the massed brains of WB marketing dept can't?? :rolleyes:)
 
Oh snap, I was gonna post this and now I found this old thread. Ok.
(I'm also a member of HTF)

I'm gonna do this. Babylon 5 is the only major DVD set I own, and it would just look so cool on my shelf with the paperback novels and comics.

A solution that I have found is to get some 13" x 19 " photo paper. I use Epson's glossy Super A3 (aka: Super B). Cut each sheet into two 8½ x 13"

If you cut 13 x 19 in half, wouldn't that 9.5, not 8.5 inches?

I plan on ordering the cases today. I have an inkjet printer but am considering doing what Joe mentioned about taking it to a copy place, just to for convenience and I don't want to have a bunch of photo paper I'm not gonna use lying around the house.
 
FYI on taking it to a copy place...I went to Kinkos a couple months ago to print these for B5 and DS9. They charge FIVE FUCKING DOLLARS just to OPEN up a damn JPG file. What a ripoff! So I asked them if I could just do that part myself since you would have to be an idiot not to know how to open up and print a JPG file and it certainly wasnt worth $5 x 5 B5 sets and 7 DS9 sets ($60). Naturally if you use their "rental" computers...you don't have access to their good color laserjet printer, so they screw you both ways. Either go with a more standard printer, or pay out the wazoo for them to open the file just so they can print it on the color one (and yes they still charge you more for the printing, but that part at least is to be expected).

So I said screw Kinkos. Luckily my roommate just picked up a nice photo printer so I am going to give that a try this time around.
 
Sorry to hear about the Kinkos ripoff!

And...
If you cut 13 x 19 in half, wouldn't that 9.5, not 8.5 inches?

Um, I didn't say cut it in half! I said cut it into two 8.5x13 sheets. That means you'll end up with a 2 inch strip left over.
Paper.jpg
 

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