| When "Live at
the Half Moon" was first mooted we were determined from the
beginning that we weren't just producing a demo, we were
producing a premium package that would stand up within the
world of Yes music. The show and the music were the band's
problem the packaging was mine! Here you can see the
artwork, how it was produced and some of the alternatives
cruelly discarded on the cutting room floor. |
The Front
Cover
Having about as
much artistic talent as your average chipmunk wasn't the
greatest start but with the help of Adobe Photoshop and much
trial and error I got what I wanted. The artwork is original
in the way it is derived from existing photographs and
paintings but has a nod towards the undisputed master of
rock album covers, Roger Dean. I often wonder how CD/album
covers come about but I guess professional artists keep
their secrets to themselves. I have no such
pretensions. |
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FRAGILE
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Live at
the Half Moon
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It's
easy to spot isn't it? Fragile has always been one of the
greatest rock album covers ever produced. the Fragile logo
captures a fragment of the strange craft flying above Dean's
fantasy planet through a solarised lens.
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There's
actually more to this text than meets the eye! It too is
taken from the Fragile album cover but the colour balance
has been adjusted and its layer is hue filtered into the
background layer giving a ghostly effect.
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The
Background
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The "Half
Moon"
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The
swirling colours that dominate the background actually
originate from a picture of a gold crystal magnified many
thousands of times. Using a filter called "Glowing edges"
created the basic effect. Some twiddling with the balances
achieved the rich colours on the final cover like dancing
flames.
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I think
that I was lucky that none of the band are astronomers! The
"Half Moon" is in fact Mercury but the picture was the best
I could find . . . the layer that this "half moon" sits on
has been made translucent to allow the background colours to
infiltrate it.
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front cover's background can also be seen on the
CD inlay card and the back page of the
CD booklet. |
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The Inner
Pages
The
CD packaging features a full colour four page booklet,
the inner pages have a completely different look as shown
below and contain information about the CD and credits for
it. The interesting thing about this is that it is based on
the original design for the CD cover. Some of you may have
spotted it on the website while the CD was being
manufactured. |
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The
Background
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The Dramatic
Text
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The
background is actually relatively easy to produce. Starting
with a light colour, difference clouds are applied and then
using Photoshop's extrude filter you can create the
futuristic block effect. Steve called this the "Tardis"
cover when he first saw it!
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It's harder
to spot this time because there are more effects involved
but the dramatic text is again based on the great Dean
Fragile cover. This time there is a multitude of lighting,
colour adjustment and other effects applied to get the
quartz, crystalline effect which is given extra depth by the
detail in the original picture.
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| You can also
view some of the other
alternatives
that were considered before we settled on the final
version.
Back
to Live CD |
CD Artwork