by dirk8837 » Wed May 27, 2009 9:32 pm
Hi m8,
Photoshop can be a very hard program to learn, it is best to stick with trying to learn the basics first. The book you have got should be very helpful to you, but i wouldnt try to get to advanced to quickly as you will probably get very frustrated.
The best way i found to start with photoshop was to just have a play with it, download some of the resources, ie a template and some images and then load them up into photoshop and see what different things do, or choose a film you would like to make a cover for and give it a try, asking questions and learning as you progress through the cover, there is no point in knowing things you will never use and i think even the best designers dont know everything about what the program can do. alot of designers start with labels as they are a little bit easier to get to grips with, your book should be able to tell you all about opening files and using layers etc......
There are 100's if not 1000's of different plugins avalible but it depends what you need to do as to if you need them or not, i would suggest at first not having any, then if you find you would like to create a certain effect, you can just ask how this is done and someone might suggest a plugin or point you to a tutorial which will help. You will find it best not to have to many plugins installed as it slows photoshop down alot.
Yes all covers and labels need to be 300 dpi, this ensures good quality and it's also what most home printers print out at. So no matter what program you use to print your covers they should be the correct size, Remember different case sizes have different templates, for instance a standard case is 3240x2175 @ 300 dpi, you can print this out in any software and it will fit into a standard case, where as a slim case is 3150x2175 @ 300 dpi. there is a list onsite of all the different case sizes but it all depends on what you would like to make, just ensure you get the right template and you wont have any problems with size.
As i said before the best way would be to choose a film, then from this you can determine what resources you will need, ie what studio template and artwork. Then you might want to have a look at what other people have done for that film, then open it all up in photoshop and have a play around, try to get a sort of idea how you would like the finished cover to look in your head and try to recreate it, then if you get stuck just ask and someone will help you, if you get stuck for ideas you can always go through the WIP section where even more help is avalible, with ideas and techniques.
Hope this helps a bit and i have not waffled on to much