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I'm looking for a new cover for my Blackstar Chronicles novel. I looked at the figment forum cover shops, but found nothing I could use. If anyone here has the Photoshop skills to come up with something really cool, let me know. Just make sure it fits the requirements and size to be usable on figment.
dimensions?
I'm not sure, but I've heard its about 160 by 200, or 194 by 240. I think I'll be able to resize it if its too large though.
That's extremely small...are you talking about an Avatar?
No, its a cover for the book. That's the figure I'm hearing from the figment forums. I have no idea why it seems so tiny, maybe figment enlarges the image or something. Maybe you could try making a normal sized cover and I'll find a way to resize it fit figment's standards.
No, it's just extremely small. That size is what you would see in an online link to the story. I just went to the forums and looked. The people with "cover" shops have examples that are very small that you see when you go to people's stories, but when you click on the example pictures, the full sized image opens up....Example:
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...heshadows1.jpg
I won't work on anything smaller than this for a cover photo...but I'll try something out for you when I get home later...no promises though :p Got other things to finish first
If this is pixel dimensions, there's no way that's the correct size.. And if it was made that small and the company made it larger, the quality would be terrible. Better to make the image too big and size it down so there's no loss of quality, never try to enlarge an image though.
I know that's not exactly helpful, I just wanted to make sure no one tried to submit an image that small for you! If you say 160x200 people will automatically think 160x200 pixels. I can't imagine these measurements are in inches or centimeters either, though.. I don't know that just seems way off. Maybe you're missing a zero?
edit; after reading Flowman's post I realize you were probably looking at thumbnails or something. Not the right dimensions though.
gah THUMBNAILS. Thank you! I couldn't remember the word hahaQuote:
Originally Posted by Libertie
I new the size was off, but I had no Idea how large the covers were supposed to be, or how to find that out. Thanks for seeing if you can make a workable cover. I was looking for something sci-fi, maybe a small spaceship landing or something, but the figment cover shops were not really into building that kind of thing.
Gah! I was wrong. I went looking around (searching "figment cover art dimensions") and EVERYONE is saying 160x200. They are correct, and here's why.
Go to http://figment.com/books and look at the thumbnails: these are all 160x200 pixels in dimension. Click on any book to view more information. The thumbnail will not get any larger. You can't view a larger size of the cover art. It's just 160x200 forever.
HOWEVER. I suggest making the image larger initially (160x200 is a 4:5 ratio) then either sizing it down yourself or letting the site size it down for you. Just make sure you use the CORRECT ratio, again 4:5, or else you will have part of your image cropped off. I don't know why they don't allow for a larger view of the cover art, but they really do keep it that small. With that in mind, hopefully no one uses small text..
160x200 defeats the purpose of making a detailed image =\ I'd just go online and find something and crop it lol...I had a pretty good idea too
Yeah, it's kind of sad that you can't work with a good illustrator because all their work will go to waste..
I just worked an overnight shift at one job and I'm in the middle of an eight hour day shift at another job or I'd offer to work something up when I get home.. If you don't have anything by the time I've finally gotten some sleep I may still try to come up with an idea for you. :)
My idea was to have a soldier's face and eyes staring out through a window...like a small window of a drop pod...and in the window you can make out the reflection of the battlefield, full of vular and fires/explosions...basically straight out of a scene from Halo vs Gears of War...lots of grunge and shading...would be interesting if I could make that work...doubtful, which is why I thought of this as well...
Soldier sitting down in the darker corner of the spaceship that is about to land...you dont see it landing, but it's just a backstory. Half his body is covered in shadow, the other half is seen holding up a picture that you cant entirely see through, but you can make out that on the other side is a picture of his wife and kids...gives the eerie pre-battle image of doubt and uncertainty that he'll return, wishing he could see his family one last time...
Or...Solider on a ship, much like the ones from the newer Star Wars, where he's bracing himself from falling out with one hand while standing near the edge of the open door as the ship starts to land...gazing out onto the battlefield, pointing at something with a shouting expression on his face....giving orders for the men who are about to enter the battle...
But there is NO WAY IN HELL any of those would look good on a 160x200...too many small details that would go unnoticed...only the 3rd one would have a shot.
yeah, its too bad that figments has such small covers, though given most similar sites don't have covers at all, its a matter of taking what I can get. that first idea would be perfect if I ever decided to print out the story and produce hard copies. I've found some old drawing online from the development of star legends, but I wanting to use something created by the community, since that really who I'm writing the story for.