Build up and progression of the digipak
- 1. Build Up and Progression of the Digipak
- 2. • For the majority of Avenged Sevenfold digipaks, they contain the theme of “death” and skeletal figures. This acts as a form of marketability of the band and the genre of music specified. Because of this, we choose to follow this convention and use a “deathbat” as that is a prominent feature across their music videos and album artwork. As the album tends to look around very gothic and dark thoughts, having a “drawn” one as apposed to a digitally created deathbat would add personality and an imperfect feel about the picture. Kayleigh (a member of the group) drew us a deathbat and we included that for the digipak. As the theme is “nightmares” and we were following on from “batman – the dark knight” and using “The Joker” as inspiration for the nightmare, we included a red outline of facepaint. As the lines were very faint, using digital editing, we made the lines seem as bold and strong as possible. We used the magnetic lasso tool to select each line and then use the fill option of the selected colour to make it as stand out as possible. Though aurs doesn’t contain any “pencil mark shading” it becomes more 2 dimensional on the digipak, rather than it seeming like it has 3 dimensional features. Avenged Deathbat Drawn Deathbat Digitally edited deathbat
- 4. After we had digitally edited the deathbat, by making all the lines darker and more promenant, we decided that we wanted the image to have no white background, and for it only to be a “skeleton” of the drawing. The reason we wanted to do this, is so we could make it seem more lifeless and 2 dimensional. To do this I used the “magic wand tool” to take out all of the white from the background. As at some parts the white was difficult to take out, so we had to zoom in and take out the majority of pixels one by one. By taking out this white background, it allowed us to give us more flexibility of editing the “deathbat” for example giving an outer glow, to seem more present in the image. It also meant that we would allow for space underneath the image, and allow certain things to be seen through, for example the stars from the sky.
- 5. We took the drawn version of our “groupbat” – and did the same effect, by taking out all of the white in the background, and having a clear skeleton of the original image. This means that we can then edit the image to have a light shining from behind, to emphasize each of them. We decided to change the colour of each bat, to represent each member of the band. To do so, we used the magic wand tool again to select all the lines that were for each deathbat, grouped them as a separate layer, then edited the colour individually. The reason we did this is so it would add diversity to the digipak, by breaking conventions of a darkened effect, often portrayed through Rock digipaks and the select genre. By adding this colour, it emphasizes the individuality of each particular member of the band, and their certain role that they portray. The colours also link heavily to the “circus” and “fun fair” theme, as the main convention of the “nightmare” is the Joker, which is a corrupt looking clown. So linking back to this idea of “fair grounds” it allows an extra intended meaning to the groupbat. We decided that we were to implement lyrics from the song as part of the digipak, as from that it helps to create cross media convergence, by using a lyric from the song, to help add meaning to the group of deathbats. We chose the lyrics “they took for granted your soul, and it’s ours now to steal” as it helps to represent a “taking over” of the listener, by form of music. As for the rock genre, they consider music to be part of the soul, so using this connotation of the rock genre, having those select lyrics would include a deeper meaning to what was said, as the image is of a group, the use of the word “they” and “ours” shows that has become a group, or “association” that are taking over the listener.
- 6. We knew that for a typical digipak, we needed to include the name of all the tracks on the back. We made them in a typical red colour with a black outline to make them really stand out against the background. By having the lines between to separate each of the song names, it makes it seem more spacious. The use of red helps to relate to fear, as it represents blood or death, which many people would say is their form of nightmare. We used many deathbats in the background of the digipak, as it is the iconography of the band, but also it is similar to the song “almost easy” as part of the music video they have the bats coming out of the hole.
- 7. This is the final part of the digipak which will be on the front. As you can see, we changed the pale grey background to that of a starry night, we did that as it helps to reference that rock music is “out of this world” or to show that the band can be seen as “stars of the genre”. We also used it as people say there is always light in darkness, and this is proof of it. As some rock songs tend to go into deep emotions of the past, having this representation brings depth to the meaning. As the starry night is consistent with the poster, it becomes a cross media product, as it will become noticeable on both products, and help sell the product over. The starry background also helps to promote the idea of a nightmare, as space is considered endless, drifting into that kind of darkness is a huge fear for some people, so adding that would help represent another form of nightmare. By putting the main deathbat as purely white, it helps to emphasize that it has become a skeletal figure, which can also be a nightmare for people. Having the glowing eyes and mouth for the deathbat helps to show a “possessing” feel to the album, which then helps reference the “nightmares” in the video, as they follow some kind of possession, which could be the music box. By having the group bat as all different colours it allows the target audience to see each member of the band as a separate person. By having the whitened glow behind it, it helps to emphasize the power that the band members have within the rock genre, and how they have created the music.