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It looks as though Spinal Tap features a black case rather than the usual clear. Perhaps the reverse cover will be an alternate, "none more black" cover.

Zot! wrote: Tue Jun 17, 2025 7:17 pm

DRW.mov wrote: Tue Jun 17, 2025 6:57 pm

Zot! wrote: Tue Jun 17, 2025 4:10 pm
See the existing BD cover I posted above. Quite clearly the same images with some minor adjustments. Again, no judgement applied, I wouldn't even rule out that the studio had some stipulations for the design, for what is a perennial cash-cow.

Using a photo for reference and "painting over"/tracing are two wildly different things.

I might be missing your point, but if I was a purely digital artist, I would never try to reproduce an image freehand...what would be the point in that? Why eyeball your already digital source image on a separate monitor so you can then try to approximate that freehand with a digital brush?

this is very confusing. "what would be the point?" the point is that's what representational art is. are you suggesting that the same would be true for "analog" artists? that they would just be tracing over photos?

pzadvance wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 5:35 pm

Zot! wrote: Tue Jun 17, 2025 7:17 pm

DRW.mov wrote: Tue Jun 17, 2025 6:57 pm

Using a photo for reference and "painting over"/tracing are two wildly different things.

I might be missing your point, but if I was a purely digital artist, I would never try to reproduce an image freehand...what would be the point in that? Why eyeball your already digital source image on a separate monitor so you can then try to approximate that freehand with a digital brush?

this is very confusing. "what would be the point?" the point is that's what representational art is. are you suggesting that the same would be true for "analog" artists? that they would just be tracing over photos?

In this case the digital artist was either tasked with, or himself decided, to recreate, in a realistic manner, the photographed faces in a mildly stylized fashion from the existing blu-ray cover. He could do one of two things: 1. Trace Them. 2. Freehand them from a separate image. As a commercial artist it would be foolish and unrealistic to think that you could get there quicker or produce a more authentic or pleasing rendering by using method 2. I am NOT an artist, but I know even the likes of Da Vinci painted over his rough sketches to create his work.

In an interview with Metal-Rules.com, Goldsworthy says:

All work is done digitally these days; Procreate on iPad to start jobs, photoshop on an iMac with a very old Wacom tablet to do all the heavy lifting thereafter. I keep things mega simple, just using 4 main stock brushes. I used to start off in pencil or pens, but haven’t done that in nearly 5 years now.

I don’t think any professional artist would admit to tracing photographs unless that was a key concept of the work. Most realistic or figurative artists throughout history have made sketches on the ground medium (canvas, paper) before applying paint over them. You sketch in digital artwork, too, but it’s not quite the same (just like using a typewriter and a word processing program are not the same).

Obviously Goldsworthy used existing key art for the film as a reference. He couldn’t have the actors sitting in wigs in a studio while he painted them. He may even have started with a scanned photograph, done a rough sketch for proportions over it, and then worked from that sketch. But simply digitally painting over photographs actually makes it much more difficult to get a good finished image than starting with a sketch and building up from it.

I’m not sure what the criticism or controversy is here, Zot! It’s fine for you to just not like the artwork, full stop. But calling into question the artist’s methods when you admit you don’t understand those methods seems a bad way to justify your dislike.

Matt wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 7:45 pm I’m not sure what the criticism or controversy is here, Zot! It’s fine for you to just not like the artwork, full stop. But calling into question the artist’s methods when you admit you don’t understand those methods seems a bad way to justify your dislike.

I think I understand very well, which is why I bothered writing anything at all, and I wrote (a few times over) exactly what you also then re-wrote.

More importantly I wrote each time I responded, that I was NOT critiquing the technique or the medium....only that I thought the end result looked underwhelming. I also mentioned that for such a commercial commission the studio had likely placed demands on the packaging design. So I'm trying to be diplomatic here.

Got it

low wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 5:28 pm It looks as though Spinal Tap features a black case rather than the usual clear. Perhaps the reverse cover will be an alternate, "none more black" cover.

I believe it’s a digipak. I saw discussion of Anora being a black case before it came out and it did look to be in the concept that looks similar to this and then it was a digipak.

There is something a little... Spinal Tap about this whole discussion.

Altair wrote: Thu Jun 19, 2025 8:13 am There is something a little... Spinal Tap about this whole discussion.

Mr.DarjeelingLimited wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:55 pm

low wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 5:28 pm It looks as though Spinal Tap features a black case rather than the usual clear. Perhaps the reverse cover will be an alternate, "none more black" cover.

I believe it’s a digipak. I saw discussion of Anora being a black case before it came out and it did look to be in the concept that looks similar to this and then it was a digipak.

You're right, the Flow concept looks to have the same misleading shading at the edges as the Spinal tap one, and that's clearly a digipak.

All of the recent and upcoming 3-disc dual-format UHD/Blu-ray releases have been in digipacks. I don't know if the 3-disc scanavo cases are becoming harder to source or what, but it is an odd turn, as the two recent 4-disc dual-format releases are in 4-disc scanavos.

Here is what the Spinal Tap artist posted on his instagram

I recently had the massive honour of doing a DVD cover for the legendary@spinaltap - as the film is being re-released via the @criterioncollection. In classic Spinal Tap fashion, this wasn’t even meant to be the actual cover (which I’ll share soon!), but a fairly last minute inlay piece that the band ended up deciding to use as the cover instead!

dwk wrote: Fri Jun 20, 2025 3:55 pm Here is what the Spinal Tap artist posted on his instagram

I recently had the massive honour of doing a DVD cover for the legendary@spinaltap - as the film is being re-released via the @criterioncollection. In classic Spinal Tap fashion, this wasn’t even meant to be the actual cover (which I’ll share soon!), but a fairly last minute inlay piece that the band ended up deciding to use as the cover instead!

I love that he refers to it as a "band" decision to use the inlay piece as the cover as opposed to the filmmakers' or actors' choice.

Finch wrote: Mon Jun 16, 2025 4:27 pm

Stacked month for digipaks.

I spot 2

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2025 1:09 am I spot 2

Isle of Dogs and French Dispatch individuals are digipaks.

The Adventures of Antoine Doinel [4K] (Booklet)
Barry Lyndon [4K] (Booklet)
The Big Heat [4K]
You Can Count on Me [4K] (Booklet)
Carnal Knowledge [4K] (Booklet)

Bummed that Lyndon is a digi.

I promise it's not my bias speaking in regards to the films themselves here, but does anyone else feel something "off" with these covers?

What is that A History of Violence cover?!

domino harvey wrote: Tue Jul 15, 2025 4:07 pm What is that A History of Violence cover?!

At first I thought Criterion was releasing Blue's Clues

I really like the Altered States cover which captures the acid trip visuals of the film really nicely but the person in the picture looks less like William Hurt and more like Georgina Hale in Russell’s Mahler.

What in god's name is going on with A History of Violence?

I actually like the one for A History of Violence, but can't say I'm terribly fond of the others. As a batch, they do feel off.