Got a random call from Kneill of Killer B-Movie asking if I knew how to make an old horror film style hypnotic spiral that changed colour over time. Apparently I do.

This is only a sample of the full DVD which is an hour long and cycles through a variety of colours, a complete colour change every five minutes. I had been tempted to do something a bit more extravagant with it but Kneill really wanted something simple and uncluttered. It’s intended as a backdrop for their gigs so hopefully the audience will be looking at the band more than the animation. This is the first gig projection I’ve been involved with in years, I’m going to go along to the gig and see how it works out (Killer B-Movie, March 21st, The White Horse, High Wycombe), come along it will be fun.

The spiral was drawn in Adobe Illustrator, imported into Flash, animated as a simple rotation, exported to an AVI, imported to EditStudio, old film effect added and tweaked, Vignette added, colour change on a keyframe every 5 minutes. Exported to AVI burnt to DVD. I quite like the final product (given it took all of an hour), it reminds me a bit of the steampunk graphic style used in Bioshock (although nowhere near as good). Kneill was happy with it, he was still playing it on the big screen on the wall of his tattoo shop when I left, I like that he had a customer sitting in the chair watching the spiral.

I’m still tempted to get hold of the Adobe video editing suite, but the cost is just too much right now, EditStudio does fine for the two video edits I tend to do a year, given a bit of spare time and money I’d like a chance to get good at it.

The History of Guns - ACEDIA packaging is nearly done. I’ve just finished the J-Card (both sides), replaced a couple of the photos in the booklet and gone through and done an additional tweak to some of the typography. Just waiting for the band’s final sleeve notes/thanks list and for them to check they are happy with the entire thing and we are ready to go to print, well as soon as the audio master is done.

It’s been a lot more work than I expected, but in a good way. It’s the first 16 page booklet I’ve done myself and I think it’s worked out nicely. I set up an InDesign file for all the text and typography which really made life a whole lot easier. Scott’s photos were as ever excellent to work with, even before this is complete I’m looking forward to working with him on the next project, although paid work is going to have to take priority for the next couple of months. We originally planned to use an O-Card (the cardboard sleeve you sometimes get round jewel cases) but the cost was a little too high so instead we’ve gone for a double sided J-card (the bit that goes in the CD tray) with a transparent tray and stuck the design intended for the O-card in there.

The hardest part of the entire project was removing the Tesco label from the bottles on the front cover. I would guess the hardest part of the whole thing for anyone was Max who had to get naked in a car park 3 days before Christmas. I have a new level of respect for him after that, the level of professionalism on the shoot from everyone was brilliant. The most amusing/unpleasant part of the shoot was Del with the fake vomit. We had Del lying on his back with Max spooning the fake vomit mixture into his mouth, he had to push it out of his mouth while looking dead until we’d finished taking photos. As soon as we finished he started eating the remainder of the mixture and telling us how pleasant it was. The mixture was made of soup, fruit juice and biscuit and in all fairness probably tasted great but it just looked like Del was eating a cup of vomit.

Hopefully the band will like it all, I’m sure there will be a few tweaks but I think we are pretty much there. Here’s some more parts, I’ll upload the complete set once the album is out

Front Cover, the complete image. The final version is cropped down with the band name/album name added. Max’s winky is covered not through any sense of self-censorship but just to protect his modesty. If he gives permission I’ll post the uncensored version;

Back Cover, Del choked on his tasty vomit.

Just need to sort the press release, poster design, promo cd design, flyer design and any web assets.

Night night xx

A couple of the (work in progress) spreads from the forthcoming History of Guns album booklet. Photography by Scott Wylie. I think myself and Scott make a damn fine team…

It appears to be quite late. I have meetings first thing. Dammit. Sleep time.