Boxart, The Technique

We start with the base picture from the camera. This one has been cropped and scaled before I began work to be more web-friendly, but I usually do this before cropping or else you end up with a "shadow" all along the outside of the picture. You'll see.

The original image:

 

Then we add a layer to lower the brighter levels and raise the darker areas by duplicating the original layer, desaturating it, inverting it, then gaussian blurring it just a touch. In this case, the blur was set to 8. Then we set that new layer to be an Overlay:

 

Next, we add another new layer by copying the original layer again, then we move the new layer to the top. Then we run Edge Detect, Sobel type, Black, with a relatively high setting. On this picture, since it was small to start with, I ran it at 5. Then we desaturate the layer and invert it, giving you a somewhat clean black outline. Then you run gaussian blur on it with a realatively high setting as well. In this case, I ran it at 12. You'll end up with a layer that looks something like this:

 

If you're feeling experimental at this point, lower the opacity of the level to something around 50% to 60% and you'll begin to see interesting things:

 

Reset the opacity to 100%, set the layer type to Overlay, and you begin to see the boxart effect take shape. In fact, sometimes this is enough and you can stop. But, I'm taking this one into the realm of comic corniness just to show what we can do with this effect, so let's take a look at our progress so far and get back to work:

 

Create another fresh copy of the original background layer and move it to the top. This will become a near duplicate of our previous layer, but with the settings a little finer to give a harder edge to things. Run edge detect, sobel, black again, this time with the setting very low. Sowhere around 2 or 3. Desaturate the layer, and invert. Then run a very finely controlled gaussian blur. In this case I ran it with a setting of 3. This is just enough to take out any ragged edges that may have popped up in the edge detect. You'll end up with a layer that looks like this:

 

Again, feel free to experiment with the opacity level while this layer is set to normal. But, when you're done noticing how air-brushed it makes the picture look, set it back to 100%, then switch it to Overlay. Now the boxart effect really begins to take effect:

 

Now, somewhere along the way, our original colors began to get lost in the shuffle. This is pretty normal when you start adding layers and manipulating them with filters and blurs. So, to correct this, we once again go back to our original background layer and copy it. This time we do nothing special with it, other than to switch it to be an Overlay layer. After that, you move it up in the layers dialog until you are happy with how the end picture looks. At this point you'll have a nice snappy colored picture, with what appears to be airbrushed edges.

 

On occassion you'll find it necessary to repeat some of these steps. In particular I've had to recreate the layers that I have named brightadjust with slightly different settings to add a bit more depth to the colors or to remove overly bright reflections. It's also possible you'll have to add extra colorcorrect layers and move them into different positions in the layers to get the effect your looking for. But this was the basic rundown of what I've come to affectionally refer to as the boxart effect, after what Hasbro started doing during the Energon Energon period of time. Energon Energon Ironhide is probably the one that springs to mind first for me when I think of this effect on boxart.

So, in conclusion, we've went from this:

To this:

All without so much as selecting the airbrush tool or making a single selection in the picture other than layer selects. TADA!

Now, you go out there and find a picture to boxart. Go!

Have fun and enjoy!

Addendum on 2-12-2006:

I picked up a tip from color enhancement experts of film crews. Or, if you want that to sound less hip, I watched a bad documentary about a hollywood production house that accidentally let a nugget of truth slip out from between the lies on the glamour of production houses.

That tip was: single color filters. They do amazing things.

So, we take our picture as we left it above, add a new layer that's pure blue, set it to opacity of 10%, then set it to be an overlay. This moves the picture out of the yellow spectrum to this:

 

Now for the real shocker. Add another new layer, this time one that is pure black. I know, the fear is strong when contemplating covering your beautiful project in black. But trust me on this one, it'll do something amazing to the colors.

Once you've added the black layer, set the opacity to 50%. I know, it sounds like way too much. But, click the layer to overlay and suddenly you see:

 

And there it is. In two simple steps we've clarified and added to the color a lot. Notice how the blacks get blacker, and the colors pop more after the black filter is applied.

So now, we've went through these three phases:

Origin	Boxart Plain	Boxart Filtered

If you come up with more tips, feel free to drop me a line at leenatha@theleehousehold.com and I'll make a note of your addition with credit to you. Or I can point towards your web space for your example.

Have at it. And thanks for stopping by.