Celestia Custom CD Covers

Post #61by **selden** » 29.01.2003, 18:39

And it's exactly what some people find unacceptable

If a product needs exaggerated advertising, then its quality is suspect.

Rassilon · Post #62by **Rassilon** » 29.01.2003, 20:07

Well I tend to agree on some points that Celestia 'sells' itself just fine as freeware and as a spetacular vision of space...It doesnt need flashy artwork to catch the 'consumers' eye...Its not a commodity sold in a marketplace...But then looking at Jango's work, it really doesnt overemphasise glamour or vanity of the product more of what its capable of...At some point Celestia will surely live up to the shots presented in Jangos art...I would suspect to see sun flares of equal or even rivaling vision in Celestia at some point...may be quite some time...and probably be optional

For packaging right now I have to agree it does overwmphasise what Celestia is capable at present...People seeing the artwork on the cover of Jango's CD case will look for this in Celestia...and ask why is that not possible in there...And I believe that is what Fridger is trying to convey about false advertising...

Post #63by **t00fri** » 29.01.2003, 20:27

Rassilon wrote:Well I tend to agree on some points that Celestia 'sells' itself just fine as freeware and as a spetacular vision of space...It doesnt need flashy artwork to catch the 'consumers' eye...Its not a commodity sold in a marketplace...But then looking at Jango's work, it really doesnt overemphasise glamour or vanity of the product more of what its capable of...At some point Celestia will surely live up to the shots presented in Jangos art...I would suspect to see sun flares of equal or even rivaling vision in Celestia at some point...may be quite some time...and probably be optional ;)

For packaging right now I have to agree it does overwmphasise what Celestia is capable at present...People seeing the artwork on the cover of Jango's CD case will look for this in Celestia...and ask why is that not possible in there...And I believe that is what Fridger is trying to convey about false advertising...

As often, Ras, you somehow manage to "read in my heart";-). If I would just have a little bit more free time right now, I'd just sit down and do a nice CD front cover that is 100% Celestia and would make every competitor envious! No problem. Some of you might vaguely remember that I am not exactly a beginner in these matters;-)

OK, I have never been a student of design, but at least for a while, I was determined to become an artist.
This was slightly before turning towards more rigorous matters;-)

On the other hand: who needs this CD cover stuff at all? Is it for next Christmas or what?

Bye Fridger

Darkmiss · Post #64by **Darkmiss** » 29.01.2003, 22:23

I started this thread, so that anyone wanting to use my CD covers
could download them and print them (if they wanted to)

Also for others to make there own covers, and post them up.

It could be a picture of a cow, in crayon, for all i care
as long as whoever made it likes it them selves
Jango could have added little green men on the cover,
if it is not to your taste, then ignor it.

there may be other useres out there, that have made some nice covers,
but now afraid to post them, incase someone else doesn't like what they have done.

So lets just except whatever is posted up, as someones hard work

Please.

Darkmiss · Post #65by **Darkmiss** » 29.01.2003, 22:34

t00fri wrote:If I would just have a little bit more free time right now, I'd just sit down and do a nice CD front cover that is 100% Celestia and would make every competitor envious!

you may make what you consider 100% Celestia
but other may not think so. its all down to personal taste

so lets just stick to this being a CD cover thread not a review thread
the cover I and Jango made, are of our own likeing, and only posted here for anyone wanting to use them, not to cut them to ribons
and I made mine because I back my Celestia up on to a CD.

I'd also like to see your 100% Cd Cover too
looking forward to it now. :wink:

Rassilon · Post #66by **Rassilon** » 30.01.2003, 06:05

I really wish people would try to see what is being said instead of implying its an attack on thier work...I suppose I myself hold Celestia in a regard thats almost sacred...and well thats my opinion granted....I really have or had no intention to offend anyones work...not my intention at all...and I doubt anyone elses intention was that either...never occured to me since Ive been reading this thread...peace

Jango Fett · Post #67by **Jango Fett** » 30.01.2003, 19:21

rassilon, have you ever seen a cover for a software product that shows it's capabilities literary (screenshot) on front cover? For that, there's back cover. The front cover, as always, represents the value and ideal of its product. Do you think people are so stupid not to recognize difference between screenshot and photo? (In near future there could be mistakes, but now... hardly)

gordon · Post #68by **gordon** » 31.01.2003, 11:21

hi all,

nice discussion :wink:

As it is not a commercial product I dont think people buy the cover, but d/l the program, test it and then for some of them burn a CD and more fewer print a cover.

What is graet there is that now I can choose between Darkmiss and jango cover. Personnally I will choose jango's ones because my taste is done this way but I imagine some others will prefer Darkmiss ones...

In fact I wrote all this to ask Jango something

: As I already know the program is great , could you do a version with no text on the back side ?

Thanks to all for the program, add ons, textures, covers, script.

Gordon

Jango Fett · Post #69by **Jango Fett** » 01.02.2003, 15:09

gordon wrote:hi all,

nice discussion

As it is not a commercial product I dont think people buy the cover, but d/l the program, test it and then for some of them burn a CD and more fewer print a cover.

What is graet there is that now I can choose between Darkmiss and jango cover. Personnally I will choose jango's ones because my taste is done this way but I imagine some others will prefer Darkmiss ones...

In fact I wrote all this to ask Jango something : As I already know the program is great , could you do a version with no text on the back side ?

Thanks to all for the program, add ons, textures, covers, script.

Gordon

Yeah, well... about that... I wanted to tell you guys to ask me if you want a version without text (or even in CorelDRAW format, so you can totally customize it), but there was a major accident with my PC. Hard drive stop to respond and I lost everything. Now, I'm posting from an Internet Cafe ( :lol:

) and I don't how long it will take to eventually retrieve information or to make another version of cover, so...

As soon as I get my PC back, I'll let you know and I could e-mail it to you...

marcus · Post #70by **marcus** » 10.02.2003, 17:24

Hi all,

I am completely new to this scene and came upon this product purely through my re-found interest in Elite.

I have been absolutely amazed by the artwork from the community and celestia itself.

Personally I like both CD covers but I will be using the CD covers purely for personal use, I want to burn a CD of Celestia with all the Add ons and I want it to stand out from the rest of the software in my collection. For this reason I will use Jango's and when I get round to it develop my own. I don't think it raises peoples expectations of the software, the software does that on it's own.

Good work everyone and I am still in awe of this product.

TK274 · Post #71by **TK274** » 12.03.2003, 18:46

hello everybody..
I find Celestia simply amazing and great, I only can say thanks a million of times to Chris for this wonderfull soft, and many many thanks also to all the people here that make beautifull add-ons.
I have made a CD cover (12+12 cm @300dpi) just in case someone want more cd covers (the ones that I've seen here are very good).
I just made it since I think that maybe someone likes it,
I apologize if I misunderstood the topic, since english is not my language.

here is the link:

http://www.guerrestellari.net/fanart/gio/celestiacover2.jpg

it's about 500K, off course is hi-res

I hope that Chris and some of you like it.

best regards
tk274

Post #72by **chris** » 12.03.2003, 18:57

TK274:
The cover looks great . . . My only suggestion would be to remove the text "Chris Laurel's" above Celestia. Celestia isn't mine; it's the work of many collaborators.

--Chris

Jango Fett · Post #73by **Jango Fett** » 12.03.2003, 21:28

I must make a comment and criticize this cover, I know much about designing covers... I feel I have to, but if you like the cover, it's your taste and you can freely skip this post...
I promise I'll give arguments for every comment!

1. There are to many elements in inlogical composition: there's Earth, bigger than Jupiter and much bigger than Moon (and there are in front of earth!). Of course, we could understand if their sizes depends on their proority in Celestia, but... There's also galaxy, space probe and two stars wich have two lens flare effects that chaotically intercepts each other. And, of course, there is I-don't-know-why-is-this-on-front-CD-cover code from solarsys.scc...

2. There's no alignment of graphic elements: the main text section isn't quite on the middle, but then again, it's not at left side of cover. The solarsys.scc text (I still don't know why is on front cover...) is too close to vertical edge, and for the horizontal edges - it goes out of the frame!

3. Planets are transparent in their shadowed parts (we can see stars) and not transparent in visible areas... - that's clear!

4. Using of typography - usually, when you use a font, you have to follow same logic, in order to keep compositions integrity. You used one font (probably Arial) in normal look, and then you switched to extended version (you' ve either extended original font manually, or you've took extendend version of font - other option is more acceptable). This method never works - it always looks like a mistake.

And, there's one good thing: you have correctly estimated the amount of drop shadow effect on text (blue and red light, although I don't know why have you used almost complementary colors), it's often common mistake of many "designers" - look at http://mikecelestia.web1000.com/
for instance (sorry Mike!)

Guest · Post #74by **Guest** » 13.03.2003, 01:31

chris, now I've followed your suggestion you can try to donload again the picture

[url]http://www.guerrestellari.net/fanart/gio/celestiacover2.jpg
[/url]

well jango, you are right, I'm not a designer... I'm just a sound engineer..and hum... I have problems with colors (i don't know the word for it in english) so as you ca imagine graphic is not my job..

The I-don't-know-why code is a way to show the powerfull features of celestia that gives everybody chances to modify and add things, maybe it was a fool idea.. ^_^

TK274 · Post #75by **TK274** » 13.03.2003, 01:37

Jango Fett wrote:

this is the one that I like more, very good...

the link of my last post seems to be wrong, here is the good one
http://www.guerrestellari.net/fanart/gio/celestiacover2.jpg

billybob884 · Post #76by **billybob884** » 13.03.2003, 01:46

it looks great, except for hte blue galaxies. i mean they look good, but their not very realistic

Jango Fett · Post #77by **Jango Fett** » 14.03.2003, 20:30

TK274 wrote:

this is the one that I like more, very good...

the link of my last post seems to be wrong, here is the good one
http://www.guerrestellari.net/fanart/gio/celestiacover2.jpg

What I wanted to say, is that I have done a lot of thinking about telling people mine judgment of their work, and I also sicussed it with my coleagues at faculty of design. I know we always must respect the work that has some value to author or any person, and it's not on us to criticize it. This was not my intention. My intention was something else.

We, designers, have noticed that we are surrounded by bad design in every aspect of our social life. We have an impression that only we know something about that and nobody other cares for it... it's very frustrating. We are not judging the people who make those things, cause we realize that they do it for their happines, but we judge the people who do it professionaly, for money, knowing he or she got the well paid job to do this crap. And on the top of all, nobody realize that, except us, and most of the people like it. And what then? Then, the bad designed product cover the face of the place we are living, without warning, without any sense. We see crap on TV, in magazines, on the Internet especially, and in most cases, we can do nothing about it. So we decided, when we get that chance, we should warn. Of course, it has nothing to do with you, don't get me wrong, but it's our principle. DESIGN MUST BE WHAT IT IS INTENDED TO BE: improve the quality of more suptile aspect of human life, synthesis of art and craft - FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION and THE LESS IS MORE! I hope you, and others understand.
By "others" I mean John Van Vliet, Mike M., Chris, Rasillon, Don E., Darkmiss, jim and others from this great team of Celestia. I admire you all!

I wrote this in effort to explain most of my posts here on Celestia forum, I know it does't look like it has much to do with Celestia, but believe me - it does!

Regards, Jango Fett (Vilim Pluzaric, Faculty Of Design in Zagreb)

P.S. Sorry for bad English, or how we call it, Engleski

tk274----- · Post #78by **tk274-----** » 16.03.2003, 20:12

yes I perfectly understand your point of view Jango.
I am a sound engineer and the things you say are the same in every pro-job everywhere.
i sincecerly admire what you can say about my scruffy looking cover, cos it is a priceless suggestion from a pro.

Nevertheless I'm not goin' to stole job to anybody since I did this graphic cover just for my personal pleasure and to thank all the marvellous people here that make everyday cool things for free and I think all the other "designers" here think the same.

As a pro, you have to make your job the best you can without taking care of what others do. It's your great experience and skills that makes you a pro, so do not be afraid of wannabees, think about it.

best regards
gio.

John Van Vliet · Post #79by **John Van Vliet** » 17.03.2003, 08:16

it is all just ones own jugment . After 10 years in photo darkrooms i can tell you all that EVERY lab tek has there own idia on how something should look .
chritisium can be hard to take sometimes
right now i am just fiddiling with xoops to see what i can do with it . what i have now is just one night of playing with it . From a photo stand point i think it looks nice ,but maby not so in the teck. side . We in the USA are not minimalists ,so i am byest .

Jango Fett · Post #80by **Jango Fett** » 19.03.2003, 00:29

tk274,

just one note: I'm still not a profssional, I'm just a student, so technically, I have no right to criticize anything, but, as I wrote before, I think I should warn. I perfectly understand your enthuziasm and your aim in this.