Blu-Ray Poll + Art + Some Odds And Ends

Blu-Ray Jewel Case Art:

So before I finish my Transformers Trilogy box set (and possibly cleaning up/redoing a few previous ones), I thought I’d spend some time making the last Blu-Ray jewel case I will ever need.

I know, nothing spectacular. But I decided to go the extra mile, so from here on out, I just have to swap the cover, the booklet, and disc art to have a finished case for my box set designs.

What may be of interest to you 3D artists out there, is that this is a rigged case (not unlike the WALL-E character, depicted on the case art). I used joints to manipulate the wraparound cover. A parenting hierarchy governs the front, spine, and back of the case. An animation key snaps the case open for me.

Why so much mesh on the cover? It has some wrinkles and imperfections, much like the liner of a real case. The colored thingies are the joints that control movement.

Wraparound goodness. This will make life so much easier going forward. I’d like to thank Google for access to many DVD wraparound covers. I am actually using these covers for legitimate reasons!

Some Blu-Ray Odds and Ends:

Acclaimed Director Oliver Stone has been carrying the torch for the Blu-Ray format, urging people to collect these, as they will retain value years down the road. But even he will admit this is the end of the line for movies on packaged media. Read the full article at the link above.

It is a bit sad that movies on disc are going the way of the Dodo. I often feel I am 10 years too late to be designing this kind of stuff. I figure the format has a few more years, with a few last hurrah’s like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Indiana Jones.

After Blu-Ray’s demise, we’ll all have digital libraries sitting by the television in some bland-looking piece of hardware. Or we’ll just stream from Netflix.

Speaking of Star Wars, they have announced a release date of September 2011, and they are taking pre-orders on Amazon. I did start on a Millenium Falcon case, and there are few other cases that would be cool for holding Star Wars Blu-Ray (like a big R2D2, or the Sandcrawler), but I’m just not as enthusiastic about Star Wars as I used to be. The prequels and the lame CG Clone Wars show have reduced my enjoyment of the franchise to almost nothing.

I may still get around to it, as I am hoping the Star Wars box art shown (on Amazon) are all just placeholder. If they aren’t, then blech. Looks like a celebration of the Blu-Ray medium as opposed to the films themselves.

Lastly, I’d also like to take this moment to point you to a cool forum that talks about all things Blu-Ray. They have numerous topics, as well as a number of high-res images to check out. It’s called Blu-Ray Forum.com, definitely check it out if you love the medium.