#if there is a textless version I’ll change it out with this one

[soranatus]

Ultimate Black Panther (2024) #1 variant cover by Karen S. Darboe

[rose-fall]

Q&A

-

General

Q: Why are they furries?

A: ‘Cause I want them to be. I’m a furry and I enjoy drawing anthro characters. I know them being anthros have nothing to do with the story, lore, or symbolism at all but I don’t really care.

Q: Why are there two blogs? Why not just post the pages on this one?

A: I post the pages on a separate blog, @rose-fall-comic, for organization purposes. It’s easier to navigate the comic there than it would be on this blog. The pages have their own tagging system and I don’t want to add a whole bunch more tags to my tag guide just for volume navigation alone, so I feel it’s just best to keep them all in one place instead.

Adaptations

Q: Can I make a comic dub of Rose Fall?

A: Not yet. I know I’ll be ok with it one day though (when that happens I’ll update this answer). Just not now.

Q: Can I translate the comic into another language?

A: Yes, I’m all for making the comic accessible for other languages. As long as you keep the integrity of the original (dont change any story details, don’t change characters’ genders, sexualities, etc.). I will not endorse any translations that change things up like that. Make sure to post it with proper credit too, including links to the original english version. I’d prefer you post it either on Tumblr or ComicFury. If you want textless versions of the pages, DM me and I’ll provide you a link to a Trello board that holds textless versions of public pages so it’ll be easier for you to edit.

Other Permissions

Q: Can I submit any of the characters to gimmick blogs? (otd blogs, polls, etc.)

A: Nope. I don’t want the kind of exposure polls or otd (of the day) blogs would give. Or any gimmick blog for that matter. This includes gimmick blogs made to be specifically about Rose Fall too (examples: roleplay blogs, incorrect quote blogs, out of context blogs, confession blogs, etc.).

Q: Can I make a tvtropes/fandom wiki/etc. page/article on Rose Fall?

A: Nope. I don’t plan on making any myself either. So if a fandom wiki, tvtropes page, etc. is made but there’s no announcement on this blog about it, then it is an unofficial source and most likely unreliable.

Q: Are headcanons regarding the characters ok?

A: It depends. I don’t want anyone having headcanons that changes a character’s gender or orientation (since none of my characters are allocishet) or headcanons that removes a character’s transness or disability. However, I am fine with trans headcanons of characters that aren’t canonically trans (as long as the gender itself isn’t changed) and headcanons that give a character a disability they aren’t confirmed to have (as long as its disability-positive, none of that “this character is an awful person so they must have [insert demonized mental disability]” bullshit). I also ask to not spread headcanons as though they are fact.

Questions That Will Be Ignored

Q: Can you draw this or that for me?

A: I’m not taking requests. I’ll make posts whenever I’m feeling up for it though. But those times will be temporary and they won’t occur often.

Q: What would this character look like in a certain media’s world? / How would this character fit in a certain media’s world?

A: I don’t like trying to translate my characters into worlds they weren’t made for. So you won’t be getting any answers to these kinds of questions. The same goes for whenever I’m open for requests too, I won’t take any requests that are like “draw so-and-so as if they were in this one media’s world”.

Q: What are your thoughts on *insert other webcomic name*?

A: I won’t answer these kinds of questions and any similar because they are not Rose Fall related. And while we’re at it, I don’t want anyone to name drop any other creators here under any context either. To avoid spreading misinformation. If I do ever somehow respond to a question that name drops another creator, the post will be private. If you want to see the kind of webcomics I like - and suggest new ones to me - you can do so here: @ausi-supports-webcomics

Q: *insert what is essentially roleplay*

A: Just don’t try to roleplay in my inbox lol. If you wanna interact with my characters, you can do so at the ask blog, @ask-rose-fall.

Q: *insert what is essentially venting*

A: We are both strangers to each other. I’d prefer you didn’t vent in my inbox. Please talk with a professional or someone you trust if you’re feeling unsafe. If by any chance I do answer, the post will be private.

[kiri-tired]

4 things you might’ve missed with WoU’s 2nd ending!:

1. The boat ride and bridges actually refer to real Japanese superstitions/traditions--one of them being the crossing of the [Sanzu River], AKA the waters of the afterlife:

Source: (lostinyujikiri’s full article on tumblr) / (the OG twitter thread)

As pointed out by Sleepy_IBH/lost-in-yujikiri, the setting of Kirito on a boat, passing under these white square bridges/borders on water, while being in his veggie comatose state--kinda resembles this Japanese/Buddhist folkslore. 

I also like to add that these white bridges kind of remind me of a [torii](Japanese Shrine Gate!) which are spiritual symbols at temples&shrines that marks the door(s) to a sacred place. (also described as the border between the ordinary world to the spirit world.) 

Torii’s are mostly known to be painted in red, but there’s white painted torii’s too! 

(Source: [Fushimi Inari], at Fushimi-ku: Kyoto)

(Source: [Sakurai Futamigaura], at Itoshima-shi: Fukuoka)

So yes, lots of superstitious references were thrown in here, making this pretty much Kirito’s spiritual trip.

Which brings us to the next tidbit:

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2. The visuals in this anime ending represent Kirito’s lifeless state of mind & hopeless situation, his loving memory and yearning for (being with) Eugeo, aswell as Eugeo’s support to bring him back to his senses and his friends:

pointed out by twitter user KaoriHikariLF: (source)

this thread can also be found on tumblr, at @lost-in-yujikiri!

-----

3. The lyrics, especially the (1st)chorus--kind of sounds like Eugeo’s (singing a) message to Kirito:

There was a text post about someone pointing this out somewhere on either twiter or tumblr but I can’t find it anymore---So I’m just gonna write it down here:

泣��ないで誰より優しい人よ/Nakanaide dare yori yasashī hitoyo

[“Don’t cry, the person who’s kinder than anyone else”]

捨てないで何より光る明日を/Sutenaide naniyori hikaru ashita o

[“No matter what, Don’t toss aside your bright--(the light of)tomorrow“]

どれだけ遠く 離れてしまっても/Dore dake tooku hanarete shimattemo [“Even with how far things seem, or how much we’re separated...“]

変わることなく ずっと心は繋がっていく/Kawaru koto naku zutto kokoro wa tsunagatteku

[“Even when all things change, The heart is--(Our hearts are) connected forever“]

繋がっている/Tsunagatteru

[”I will(I’m) connect(ed) to it“]

*cue the waterworks and loud sobbing from everyone in the room*

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And finally, 4. The Limited edition CD/DVD of Eir Aoi with a special Kirito&Eugeo cover illustration:

HD illustration textless version:

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That’s all folks!...For now atleast. 😂 If there’s more funfacts out there---or something that I should be corrected on, let me know and I’ll edit it in! (or reblog it.)

Thank you to all the people in here who had provided their insight & their photos! All credit goes to them, I’m just the fella who’s compiling it! ✌️

[kaiowut99]

The Gang Freaks Out Over a Cell Phone

Judai and the others are now in their second year when a quiet freshman comes to duel Judai.  While the freshman’s deck wasn’t all too powerful, it was also an improvised 40-card deck hastily made beforehand out of eight packs in the store.  But even then, Archangel Zerato gets Judai’s LP down to 1200.  Mid-duel, he speaks with a mysterious man on his cell phone, feeling a lack of interest in this duel due to his prediction.  Shou and the others realize this is the well-known Star Duelist Ed Phoenix...

And after a bit too long, here’s finalized!53! It’s fun to finally be getting back into Season 2, since, later plot pacing issues and... questionable moments aside, there’s quite a bit to like about it.  One such thing being the dynamic between Ed and Saiou that we’re introduced to here (one of my favorites), as the concept of fate/destiny starts to become an ever-present theme.  Also, hearing Takehito Koyasu again for a while will be great now that I’ve actually seen JJBA and heard him as DIO. 😂 The animation/artstyle in this episode is also a nice touch-up from what we’ve been used to, and there were some great shots of Judai and Ed there.

So, part of the delay in getting this going since finishing 52 was getting my usual bells and whistles worked on for the translated hardsub; you’ll notice that the OP is fully translated, and not just with the credits--I wanted to do a thing I originally wanted to do way back when my first go-around but lacked the skills for and translate the character names that slide in! If you check out my “subbing-rambling” tag, you can see some of the work-in-progress posts I made showing it off as I worked on it.  As part of this, I also prepared textless versions of the OP’s V2 shots of Chronos and Ed, as well as made Shou in his Red jacket textless for use here; I’ll be sharing these new textless openings as I go through the season over on NAC. (It’s really a shame that we never got those versions officially released...) The ED credits were pretty much copy/paste from Season 1, with a change in karaoke coloring, since thankfully that stays the same, and I’ll also be translating the “Best Card” shots at the end of each episode (which for some reason I noticed Crunchyroll doesn’t include, despite them being on the DVDs?), though on a static screen with the card spinning into view since that moving background’s hard to get blank, lol.

But once those were all done, there were some 53-specific edits and fixes to work on! For the hardsub, I translated the article we see about Ed so that we can read what was visible in Japanese (ie, Ed making waves in August just before Season 2 at an event Kaiba Corp. sponsored!), while I also made a few card fixes.  Breakdown below the cut, as usual.

(UPDATE [7/9/20]: I reuploaded the episode because I realized I didn’t account for the different cards Shou has in his deck shot in the Opening in 53-56 vs 57-104; Gyroid, Cyclone, and Trap Hole in the former become Submarineroid, Vehicroid Connection Zone, and No Entry in the latter (all used in 56), which is what was used in the textless video I was working with while working on translating his name there.  That’s been corrected, and will be accounted for as I share the textless OPs on NAC.  I’m nothing if not consistency-minded. 💁🏽‍♂️)

Enjoy, folks! With 53 finalized, I’ll be giving my 5D’s Dub-Uncut Ep. 26 a quick lookover to see if I have to tweak anything before I work on making the Dark Signer arc episodes’ dubs more bearable, and then I’ll start working on 54.  It’s been a bit since Manjoume last dueled, and him dueling his mini-me in Gokaido should be fun, haha.

Fixes/Edits!

For the hardsub, as Chronos pulls out his issue of Monthly Duel!, I translated 月編 on it to “October” in Photoshop and spliced it in; this was an edit I’d already done for 52′s hardsub since it shows up in the preview for 53.

For the hardsub, the page Chronos has Napoleon stare at has been translated! The original text was vertical but I thought it’d make more sense to translate it horizontally for us; as such, I moved the text on the right about the “Exclusive” on the “Young Duelist Prodigy” to be above Ed’s photo, which I moved a bit more to the right to compensate.  I also added a little “journalistic” fluff to the translation I’d whipped up to make it fit well both on and off-screen, since I wasn’t going to be filling the whole thing with just “On August 7th, KaibaCorp sponsored a Dueling World League” lol.  But definitely made sure to keep the spirit and keep visible those little tidbits like the KaibaCorp nod and the date telling us when Ed started making waves that were visible in the Japanese text.  I did that editing in Photoshop for both this shot and the later shot with Shou’s copy of the magazine, but I warped the text in this one a little to match the slight page warp that Ed’s photo had going.  After that, I redid the zoom in Sony Vegas.  The text is also slightly blurred here since it was like that for the Japanese text.

Later in the episode, after the commercial break, we come back to a pan/zoom-out from Sanctuary in the Sky to Judai’s field, where we see Clay Guardman has his card facing the wrong way compared to where we see it in every other shot after.  I made a proxy for it, though it was a bit tough since we never get a good look at its card (thankfully, the card artwork was put up on the YGO site).  Though the dubified card confirmed for the Wikia that he has zero ATK and, like with Neo Bubbleman, shared the same Level as Clayman.  So, as I made a proxy, I recreated the Japanese effect text mirroring what Neo Bubbleman’s was and mentioning the burn effect as close to the game terms as possible--getting this in the end! Once I did that, I took a frame and placed it in in AfterEffects, masking in Clay Guardman’s feet over it, then took it into Sony Vegas, where I redid the zoom-out as it came into view.

Later on, after Judai explains Tempester’s effect, his face-down card goes away to activate it, but in that shot, Tempester’s not on Judai’s Disk! I made a new Tempester proxy (since here Tempester’s officially using the OCG art/text at the time), then slapped it on in AfterEffects (taking a cue from the dub about where to place it on his Disk).  Thankfully, since Judai stood still here, that’s all it took, lol.

After the duel, Shou realizes who Ed was all along! He rummages through his bag and pulls out his copy of Monthly Duel! and opens it up; like with Chronos’s, for the hardsub, I took it into Photoshop and recreated the color scheme to blot out 月編 and put “October” over it for the nine frames it moves in, then I just put each frame into the video in Sony Vegas.

As with earlier, for the hardsub, the article Shou shows everyone about Ed is translated, only with no text warp and slightly different rotation, so a little more of the text is visible on the left and bottom.  Recreated the less-rotation/more-zoom zoom-in on Ed’s photo in Sony Vegas.

As Judai thinks that Ed could use some more deck-building skills, Shou’s still holding up the magazine; “October” is there to translate 10月編 again, but because the “Monthly” in that shot of the magazine is inconsistent with its other appearances in the episode (we’ve seen it in black with white bordering, but here it’s just white text, along with the black 10月編  also being in white), I redid that as well in Photoshop so it matched.  I’ll be including just the “Monthly” fix in the Japanese DVDRip I’ll release on NAC.

[thewebcomicsreview]

Am I being dumb in not being able to notice the special effects???

There’s barely any effect, tbh, because it kind of fell apart last-minute.

So, the idea was that the last panel of the page would be an ad for the potion, and I did a little mockup of it in MS paint for Carlos

 Which he did a fairly good rendition of

And the idea was that if you clicked “Try it now”, you’d get taken to my Patreon page, which is both a 4th wall joke about how the site has ads now, and a desperate attempt at trying to get this comic to break-even before I lose my cheap apartment in August and potentially have to cancel it (My stats are way up over the last few months but none of it’s been converting, so I decided to try the hard sell and see how that worked. Not particularly well, it turns out!). When Carlos sent me the sketch for the page, I realized that, since I had a panel set up to look like an ad anyway, we could make a textless version of the panel and use it as an actual ad for Saffron and Sage elsewhere.

Perhaps misinterpreting what I meant, Carlos sent me a complex html version of the page, where the actual image had no text on it, and then there was literally a bunch of

tags that overlaid it. But this ended up being a nightmare to get responsive, or at least enough of a pain that I couldn’t figure it out in 45 minutes, so in the actual page 103 the “effect” is just that the actual page 103 is the first four panels and there’s an image of the fake ad beneath it” with some YOUR AD HERE 15 SILVER POINTS text which I might change later, and clicking the “ad” anywhere takes you to patreon. I suppose if I wanted I could have the fake ad be greyscale until you moused over it like the sidebar images on Legend of the Hare or Retale’s site, but....enh. That doesn’t add to the joke and just makes the page a pain to read on mobile. I should save that idea for the next time the party splits up and I can have a “Character Select” screen like Homestuck did in parts of Act 6

This is actually really simple to do in Comicpress, which has a lot of features not enough people use. You don’t need to know code to do internet-based nonlinear storytelling! Maybe I’ll make a chapter called “Saffron or Sage” where you picked one to follow.

I think “Character tries to sell an item” being represented as an actual ad for the item below the comic is a decent enough joke, but maybe it would’ve worked better if there was more obnoxious animation or something. Ah well. It’s an experiment! We try things, and sometimes they even work

[athenafg26]

So, I’m going to queue this up early, simply because I’m sure that I’ll completely forget to share this on the day itself. I took a leap of faith and created a print of some art I did a while back, with the intention of taking it with me to the Iowa show of the tour.

I’m not usually the type to draw a lot, or post art a lot (though that has changed drastically in the last few months), or, even still, share that art with the person who inspired me in the first place. So, this is a big step for me. In fact, this community has been a huge step for me. All the kindness here has inspired me to show as much art as I am capable of making. I’m slow to draw, often days late to the party, but all the cool people around here encourage me to do it anyway. People like @kasper-the-ghost, @jacksoopticboop, @turquoisemagpie, @hufflepufftrax, @rogue-of-broken-time and @van-arts have been a huge inspiration for me over the last few months, among plenty of others.

There’s a story behind the different subtitles. The short version is that one of my favorite traits that pops up occasionally in videos is that Seán knows some French. As one of the few people who took French in my high school, I find it incredibly funny and interesting any time the language comes up randomly in videos. Despite remembering shit all of what I learned in school, I always try to figure out the French on my own (Making the guessing languages videos some of my favorites).

It’s a really dorky reason, but *shrug* it made me giggle. So, there.

Anyhow, I wanted to share all the versions of the art here: French, English, textless, and the framed version I took with me to the show. (Ignore my dumb face reflected in the glass... :P) (And yeah...I forgot my watermark on the printed version...it’s in metallic sharpie instead...)

I’ll probably make another small post about the show later tonight after I calm down and get home, because I did get to help out with the SepticLights and met so many cool people through that (hi, @anotherspnfangirl!), but, for now anyways, this is Athena signing off.

@therealjacksepticeye

[togwtos]

USUM rant #24215

Personal stuff, I guess. That's what made me hate USUM more than anything else. Cut to early 2017, when I'd been medically diagnosed with clinical depression and schizophrenia. I'd been out of the Pokémon circle for a while because I predicted SM would be disappointments (how wrong I was) but I eventually caved at the insistence of my friends and bought Moon. What captivated me more than anything else, any other aspect of the game be it the wonderful new region, the red herrings in the marketing (who knew game freak could even do red herrings - Ultra Beasts are the Aether family, anyone?) and the Beasts themselves, the coolest seven motherfuckers on the block, was the story of Lillie. This little girl emerged from her shell in a totally believable way right before my eyes, and it, as sad as it sounds, totally changed my mental state at the time. I felt happier after finishing SM. I felt that I knew Lillie, that she could be an actual person, and that Lillie probably is lots of people out there who struggle with abusers or themselves but overcome those struggles and become strong and inspirational people. Even if SM isn't wholly to credit my recovery to - I must also thank my friends and the professionals I visited - SM, once again as sad as it sounds and as ridiculous as it seems, taught me that I deserved to be happy. SM is the reason why during that Pokémon direct, on a... I think it was a Tuesday, I leapt out of my fucking seat and punched the air when I saw that we were getting new games with the SM characters. Because I wanted to see what else they could do, they had so much potential. Even if they weren't sequels, USUM would have the same cast and would be retellings, reimaginings, the definitive versions. I bought USUM on release day, that was a Friday. Next Friday, I beat it. My god, was I crushed. The game had its soul sucked out. I think that the greatest of all comparisons to make is the credits. In SM we had a slideshow of every character displaying what they were doing or how they'd changed in the postgame. The picture of Gladion and Silvally is particularly memorable, and at the end of it all, that then-familiar leitmotif, as Lillie was seen with Nebby, and her final words rested on the screen, 'I'm so glad I got to meet you.' It makes me emotional to think about it for fucks sake, but maybe that's cause I'm a wuss. And after all that, after all the pictures, the last one is Sun/Moon, Hau, and Lillie, the photo Rotom Dex takes of you at the start. In USUM, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but they kept the Rotom Dex scene in but removed the photo at the end, and instead of a beautiful slideshow we get a bunch of textless cutscenes to quickly axe Gladion from the postgame cause, 'hey, we did it to Lillie, let's do it to him too,' and then just... ordinary credits? With music I got so angry at I had to mute? USUM was soulless. USUM is an insult to the amazing people, not just characters, but people they told the story of in SM, and I don't think I'll ever be over that. I promise that's my last usum rant, but I still gotta do the character studies. And again, I know it's probably unhealthy or stupid to think that a video game helped me, but fuck you, it did.

[anakin022]

For the most part I was pretty underwhelmed by Kong: Skull Island. Instead of being entertained by an adventurous thrill ride I was irritated by a whole lot of problems. The “plot” is an absolute joke. Pacing is all over the place. The characters are your usual stereotypes… and even the monster fights can’t stand a chance against Peter Jackson’s King Kong from 2005.

It seems like there’s not much left to like about this film. Certainly not Henry Jackman’s mediocre score. Okay, maybe the atmospheric cinematography by Larry Fong. And a particularly nice typography during the film’s opening and closing credits.

But there’s only one thing that really knocked it out of the ballpark for me. And that is Kong’s extensive poster campaign:

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures ordered a wide array of artworks and creative agencies like by B O N D, Concept Arts or Little Giant Studios, to name only a few, delivered big time. What they dished up in the past few weeks is unmatched this year and probably the past year as well. This colourful bouquet of posters and banners is nothing short but stunning. And it’s probably the only thing that really lives up to its spiritual predecessor Godzilla.

#1: Kong: Skull Island (Original)

#2: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

The official soundtrack cover (#1) for Kong: Skull Island is an interesting affair. I figured WaterTower Music would make use of that amazing wide angle shot of Kong posing amidst the island’s impressive mountain range. But I didn’t expect that level of creativity. The title treatment is pure bliss in times of chickenhearted mass market designs off the peg. I also love the overall composition of the cover. But why do they backpedal immediately with this boring font selection for the remaining text (“Alternate Gothic No. 2“)? And I can’t help but think that the cover would immensely benefit from a slightly bigger field of view. It somehow feels a bit crammed. Just a tad more space towards the edges to give it some air to breathe. I think it would all fall into place just a notch better.

Maybe one day I’ll try to come up with my own version of it. But for now this has to do:

Making of custom cover #2 (Click to view)

My goal for this particular custom cover (#2) was first and foremost to create space and go for the full cinemascope effect. It was quite a bit of work necessary to rearrange all these elements as needed. But Photoshop is a pretty powerful tool and it seems to have a solution for every problem. And concerning my earlier criticized font design I decided to go with a more uniform style by using the official logo font “Forza“.

But please don’t think that I consider my custom cover to look any better or even as good as the original cover. It’s just a different take on the same material, bar the imaginative logo treatment. I just could find a way to include that one into my cover. Well, you can’t have everything.

The gallery below consists of the usual doings. Official poster designs transformed into square cover artworks.

#3: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#4: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#5: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#6: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#7: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#8: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

I won’t go into detail about the necessary work steps, as I think most of the times it’s obvious anyway. And I feel like I’ve done this a thousand times already up to the point of repeating myself over and over. And no-one’s interested in the same old stories. I would just like to point out the miraculous change of scale that Kong is depicted in in all of those artworks. I guess that’s what you call artistic freedom.

As with Godzilla back then, I also came up with some additional vinyl treatments again. They perfectly transport the vintage vibe of the film and make for some great eye-catching motives in your digital music library.

#9: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#10: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#11: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

Custom cover #9 is based on a pixel-perfect homage to the Apocalypse Now film poster, created by Little Giant Studios. And it’s close to perfect. From the hand-painted quality over the crystal-clear sharpness down to the tasteful font selection in the bottom area.

Cover #10 is hollering Ape-ocalypse Now even louder by mimicking the official soundtrack album. I also have attempted an even more faithful version, but it ultimately looked a little too cheap for a blockbuster soundtrack.

A far more extensive vinyl treatment went into the two final designs below. I’ve surely spent the most of my time for this series on the following custom covers, probably not so much on the first one (#12), but definitely loads and loads of time on the second one (#16).

#12: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#13: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#14: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

Revisiting my old Godzilla Limited Edition was a sure thing for me, at least when I heard about Legendary’s plan to establish their own version of a cinematic universe, boldly titled the “MonsterVerse“. King Kong, together with his soon-to-be-bro Godzilla, is supposed to form a team of super-monsters. Two allegedly baddies who are about to be saving mankind. Think of DC’s Suicide Squad, but successful. It’s all steering towards a (first?) big showdown between them two in 2020. And who knows what else is following beyond that.

So I dug out my old Photoshop template and adapted it into this Kong: Skull Island Limited Edition. The bold film logo provided a perfect opportunity for a die-cut digipack sleeve (#12) and the presumably most beautiful Kong artwork of all worked perfectly as the Vinyl sleeve inside of it (#13). I had to extensively extend the original image in height by using a textless version of this widescreen banner. And I also applied some subtle colour filters to give it a slightly more old-school and romantic feel.

The concluding addition to this collection is perhaps the most challenging piece I’ve ever worked on. It all started when I came across a viral website named Discover Skull Island. As usual I started to grab all applicable images with the help of Chrome’s developer tools. It provided me with those huge, huge fake satellite views of the island, including different sets of translucent clouds and one particular, highly mesmerizing thermal photography of the same location. Ideas started to grow immediately, but for the time being I put it aside.

It was only after I saw some photos of the New York Comic Con poster, that I started to get a clear notion of where I wanted to go with those giant source images. That day I teased my idea to my Facebook gang, without having an exact concept for it, or the certainty that it would work out in the end. I only knew that I had to give it a try. And it’s only now, four weeks later, that I can gladly announce that yes, it all worked out perfectly. And even better than I could have imagined.

#15: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#16: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#17: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#18: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#19: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

For this set I decided to work on the 6540×3240 full-sized images to preserve as much detail as possible. Both the front and the back went through a fair number of drafts before I settled on the final design and began working on the single artworks in detail.

The animated GIF below is the end result of a full week of work. I’m calling this one the “NEON Edition” and it’s all worth around 1,63 GB of disk space, split into two different Photoshop files (regular and illuminated version), because my computer couldn’t handle a single work file of that size.

The clear plastic wrap that’s ought to house the (seemingly) textless vinyl record sleeve (#17) is in large parts based on the previously mentioned NYCC poster. Why? Well because, just like the poster, it’s meant to reveal all kinds of secret information when viewed under black light.

I’ve added all necessary soundtrack information on the semi-transparent outer sleeve (#15, #16), to save space for the mythology mysteries on the luminescent inner sleeve (#18). The scribbles and sketches have been recreated in meticulous detail using close-up shots of the illuminated poster. For the additional remarks I’ve used ten different fonts to ensure that the individual letters vary enough to give the illusion of real handwriting.

Coming up with four different product mockups was the last step in this custom covers series. And it was another major task since Photoshop mockups usually don’t support transparent elements. I’ve had to come up with quite a few tricks to get the desired end result. But it was all worth it and I’m sure I’ll utilize these newly found techniques on future projects as well.

#20: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#21: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#22: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#23: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#24: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#25: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#26: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

#27: Kong: Skull Island (Custom)

“Kong: Skull Island” by Henry Jackman For the most part I was pretty underwhelmed by Kong: Skull Island. Instead of being entertained by an adventurous thrill ride I was irritated by a…