Clipping Masks & BBFC Guidelines

One of the ideas for my game came from all the different versions of games that come out nowadays, normally with some kind of DLC (downloadable content) attached. Quite often individual retailers such as Game or Steam will have their own launch versions with slightly different DLC being the only difference.

Whilst this tends to be a minor annoyance for some people it does benefit those retailers who have a "better" DLC pack to get extra sales, prices all being equal.

I wanted to incorporate an aspect of this into my DVD inlay as a bit of a nod to the way that the industry has been going but to do it in a very Dukesque tongue in cheek kind of way. For this reason I decided to call mine the "Power armour is for (small cats) edition". This is after a famous (if you follow the Duke games) quote where he speaks this line.

To show this in pictorial format I was planning on putting a picture of a Games Workshop Warhammer 40k space marine then a gap for the lettering "Is For" and finally a picture of two or more kittens afterwards with "Edition" after or below this.

I was going to utilise clipping masks for this so it would appear as though these were inset from the main picture. To emphasise this I would add some kind of thin border around them - a bit like a picture frame if I could find a good one or just something I would create myself if not.

The two pictures I will be using are these ones.

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100316163343/warhammer40k/images/4/49/Post-90027-1205171981.jpg

http://www.cwvet.co.uk/images/contentimages/kittens.bmp

I was planning on using an ellipse to capture the main details of them so bits would be missing.

In order to create the clipping mask I used a helpful tutorial which can be found here:

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/clipping-masks-essentials/ [accessed 10/03/14]


Firstly I opened the Kittens picture in Photoshop and unlocked it to allow me to work on it. I then named it Kittens. After I had done this I added a new layer below it.

On this new layer I drew out an ellipse shape using the ellipse tool. Once I had done this I then selected fill from the Edit drop down menu and selected Use: Black, Mode: Normal and Opacity: 100%. This left me with something like this.

I then deselected the outline. Ctrl + D.

Next I selected the Kittens layer and then added the clipping Mask. To do this go to the Layer drop down menu and select Create Clipping Mask. This then lets the image of the kittens show through the area that you have selected.

You can then use the Move Tool to reposition the Kittens layer to get the best "shot" of the cats. This left me with this.

 
I did have a good look around for a nice frame but I didn't come across anything that I felt was suitable for both a space marine and a bunch of cats. I therefore decided to have a go at creating a border for both of them.

I created a new layer below the other two and then dragged out another ellipse only slightly bigger than the original one. This took a few goes!

Once I had one I liked I went to the colour picker and tried to get a brown colour to make it look a bit like a wooden frame - plus I didn't want it to stand out too much against the main background picture.

I ended up with this colour.

With this selected I then selected the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and clicked in the selection.

This gave my image a nice little border to it.

Lastly I merged all the layers together to create one easy to use image for use on my DVD inlay.

I went through this process twice, once for the kittens and once for the space marine before finally moving them to the DVD template so it now looks like this.

Pleased with how they look overall. Aside from some minor text I think that is the front cover pretty much done.

In order to comply with BBFC guidelines I will still need to add the 18 certificate to the front cover.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/industry-services/video/labelling-regulations [accessed 10:15 10/03/14]

"For DVD/Blu-ray packaging the symbol must be shown on one of the largest faces (normally front cover), the spine (except if it is less than 2cm) and on another of the largest faces or another face other than the spine which includes the explanatory statement within a rectangle (normally back cover)."

 That's kind of a pain but there isn't an option really so I'll have to move things about a bit.

I also need to ensure that the 18 lettering is at least 5 mm tall which going by my rulers they are a bit too small at present. About 3.5mm.

The Video Recordings Act (Labelling) Regulations 2012 state the letter or number (U, PG, 12, 15, 18, R18) within the triangle, circle or square must be no less than 5mm in size.  The size refers to the letter or number and does not include any shadow or other design elements. For example;
For DVD/Blu-ray packaging the symbol must be shown on one of the largest faces (normally front cover), the spine (except if it is less than 2cm) and on another of the largest faces or another face other than the spine which includes the explanatory statement within a rectangle (normally back cover).

Again, something else I will tweak to ensure that these standards are met. 

I will also need to ensure that this is on the DVD in a similar size.