Magazine Ad Creation

This video, created using Photoshop's animation toolbar, shows the development of my magazine ad.

I began by giving the document a black background and inserting the main focus of the ad- the album. I experimented with a couple of different ideas on the journey to making the ad.

Firstly, I experimented with the idea of having a zombie hand holding the album, but I felt that maybe it would make the hand look like a part of the album. I also tested the idea of having faded album covers to make the, album look a bit more mystical, behind the original. I thought it looked good, but I didn't know how to expand on this and make it look more interesting. In the end, I took inspiration from the zombies map Origins, building on the the fact that my products all have something from a zombies map in them. One of the least used maps in my products was Origins, and it was only late into the productions that I began to add Origins at all. I looked at the map, elements of it, what defined it and decided that the very sky on the map stands out as one of the best looking elements in any of the maps in Zombies. 

The storm background is constructed of two elements, the main storm, and the lightning. To create the storm, I started by creating a shape, and using the Render Clouds tool. This generated clouds all across the ad as a background. I then changed the colour to blue and altered the lighting a bit so it looks as it appears early into the creation video. I chose to do this to reflect the storm in Origins, as that has a blue hue. I also added the swirl effect in the filter/distort menu.

After this, I altered the text, but due to the colour I picked, it still didn't stand out much. This would be an issue I would solve later.

I next multiplied the lightning i made. The original lightning bolt was created following a specific set of instructions i found on google. (http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/lightning/). I also used the lightning bolt to make the text clearer. I really think the lightning under the text worked quite well, and the lightning overall was one of the stronger elements here.

To finish off, I made the background brighter just to make it look better and look good beside the lightning.