Martin has asked me to put together a poster for SO. I'd like to get some opinions first. What characters should be involved? What environment? What poses would be best? What is a good poster size?

I was thinking of at least the main characters.....Bill/Trot/Scarecrow/Witch.
I'd like to make a full colour poster with a nice forest environment. Mark might be able to help on that.
They could be happy and smiling. Or they could be running scared from something. Don't know.

I think we might have some of this done already. I'd appreciate any opinions on this. Thanks.

I do not know on the rest for the questions but when we print posters for shows we print them at 24" x 36" I think that is a standard Ratio for posters(Note I said 'I Think').

OK. I make that 7200x10800 pixels at print resolution. I may have to send it to you guys to render at that size.

I think you might easily get away with under 100 dpi (2400x3600 pixels)--you don't need 300dpi
The Oz poster that I rendered for the Youth Theater was only 1200x1800 pixels...

Yeah, you can just use
ftp://ftp.hash.com/incoming/

to upload, Just send a text file with the render settings and anything else.

I made a movie poster once, I believe the standard size is something like 24X48", I'll double check. Also, you will want 300 dpi, should always print in that

EDIT: 27X40"

On a large-sized image like that, 100dpi is fine. Remember that posters are normally viewed from a distance. This can result in a slightly soft image, so with things like text and logos, add them after the fact in InDesign/Illustrator/Quark etc. as vector elements (or if necessary, higher resolution images.) That will keep those elements sharp.

Thanks for the tips. Here's what I ended up with. There was no way I could render out at 300 dpi. I rendered at 100 dpi and scaled it up in the text image which was at 300 dpi. Is that how to do it? The only thing is the final size is 300 mb...psd. What format should I give it to you in Jason? Tga is still 200 mb. Thanks.

That's a nice poster Ken!

I like it but it's a bit on the dark side. Some back lighting would help bring the characters out.

Thanks guys. A backlight would make Witch stand out, but I like her being in the shadows. Also, I wanted the top area dark/black so the Text would pop. It's probably not perfect, but it's something.

Jason, there's an 80mb pdf of it here:
http://project.hash.com/movie/so/active/da...PosterFinal.pdf

Hey Ken,
in the future, please don't upload 80MB poster files to the SO svn repository.
Instead, just use FTP to upload directly to the Hash server. Jason can give you the FTP login info.

Jason, I moved the pdf file of the SO Poster to hashnt7\sodata\SO Poster\ if you are looking for it.

I do not know why I did not see this post until now.

for large files you can upload them to

ftp://ftp.hash.com/incoming

after uploaded they will list but no one can download them.

Thanks for the move Holmes I will look at that.

>Martin has asked me to put together a poster for SO. I'd like to get some opinions first. What characters should be involved? What environment? What poses would be best?

<Sorry for coming in late,
but I just saw the poster for the first time
and sorry Ken, I have to admit, that I don`t like it.

It`s a little like a typical cheesy family foto, but not like a movieposter.

Its lacking suspense and weigthing between the characters and not really telling a story.

Maybe put Sarecrow big in the foreground with a suspicious look around, make the others move some dangerous place maybe the hanging bridge and make the witch really menacingly hang really big over/behind them?

just my first thought, but I don`t want to cause no harm here against you Ken, but I thing something like a movieposter is too important, not to waste a second thought on it.

Sorry , if being to critically here....

Maybe this link could give some ideas?:

http://www.filmposter-archiv.de/

If it's good enough for these guys.....
Besides, this doesn't have to be the only poster. The project is on the svn if you want to give it a go. Or something else.

Hi Ken,

You covered this style of presentation perfectly,
so it`s good enough for SO sure enough.

just told my opinion, what look I would prefer, since you asked...

So I redraw, since I don`t find the time to deliver any alternative,
that could be used as well...

We're on a tight time schedule. If I had these ideas before I had finished, I may have been able to do something about them. Thanks anyway.

Jason, I added a brighter update on the ftp.....and added a token crow.

I like the way the characters form a pyramid that points up to the title. That's a good design element.

But I wish the lighting could bring that out more. They're fading into the background so that pyramid sets lost and stops being a strong shape.

OK Robert. I rendered out the characters with an alpha channel. That way I can have 2D control of the background which I brightened above Witch. Here's what I came up with. Any better? I wonder if I should put the hash website on the bottom.....

Link and branding over lay is not really needed at this time. We can add that in post

Thanks again for all your work Ken!

Jason Simonds

OK Jason. Here's what I have for the website. It's the boingo font. Let me know if you need it. I'll upload it on the ftp in a while.

OK Jason, that's in the Incoming folder called PosterFinalRevision1. You can delete the other one. Thanks.

Thanks Ken,

This maybe to much to ask but. Was all of this done in photo shop, If so would it be to much to ask could you upload it to the ftp folder? If it's to large or something you want to keep that is fine. I just thought i would ask.

Thanks Again,
Jason Simonds

It's about 300mb....that's the only reason. But since you ask, I'll upload it. Give it a few hours.

Nicely done, although I'm a little bothered that their feet/legs are cut off at the bottom of the poster.

Thanks for the feedback BrainLock. Unfortunately this puppy has been put to bed now. It's only a minor critique anyway so I can live with it.

Jason, I've uploaded the psd. I also added a shortcut by mistake which I can't delete.

Looks pretty good..Nice job!

Thanks Nancy!

Jason, I just noticed in the psd that the render layer isn't scaled to fill the whole canvas. Make sure you do it before printing!

Thanks,

I have downloaded the files(Well the server has sent them to me) But have not even got a chance to look at them this week. I'm hoping to get to all of this soon but it has been one of those weeks.

Thanks for all the work on this i like it!