Sophie’s World
by Jostein Gaarder
Project
Create a Movie Poster for a childhood book. I chose a book titled Sophie’s World. A story about the history of Philosophy. It’s by Jostein Gaarder and I read it after my dad took me to the the Frankfurt Buchmesse. I think I was 14 at the time. I’ve read it a few times since and I wanted that to be the first movie poster I design for a book.
The story follows a girl, Sophie, who becomes the student of this mysterious character who makes her think about all those famous existential questions we ask ourselves. Then he goes into the teachings of past philosophers who have tried to answer those questions. There is a lot more to this story and as you get farther into it Sophie, who is now questioning her existence, finds out that she and her story are actually thoughts in the mind of a writer who is writing this book for his daughter Hilde. The rest of the book goes into Sophie trying to escape the book and freeing herself to experience the world as Hilde does. It's sort of a book of discovery and awakening that ideally everyone will experience at some point or another in certain degrees.
All photographs are sourced from unsplashed.com thank you to the talented photographers who share their work in this way.
Eyes of the Cosmos
Every Galaxy has a Guardian.
Project
Create a science fiction themed movie poster.
Here is a quick teaser summery I wrote for this fictional movie poster.
The movie is titled, Eyes of the Cosmos.
In the year 2099, humanity is on the brink of extinction. When the fate of our species hangs in the balance, Dr. Marcus Brass, a daring explorer and brilliant scientist stumbles upon an incredible discovery that could change everything.
He uncovers a technology and is able to harness its power to communicate with an alien being, who is sworn to safeguard the evolutionary progress of species facing extinction. With the clock ticking down on humanity, he must embark on a perilous quest to unlock the secrets of the Guardians and call upon them to save humanity.
Embark on a thrilling journey through space and time, as Guardians of the Cosmos takes you to the edge of the unknown, exploring the very fabric of human existence. With stunning visuals, gripping storytelling, and a profound message about the resilience of life, this is a science fiction epic that will leave audiences breathless and pondering the mysteries of the universe.
Creating a professional looking poster
I used a lot of layer masks to create a poster. It was instrumental in blending other images into my background. The ability to add and subtract parts of the images without permanently removing areas is great because you can go back and forth refining the selection. You can even decide how much of the image you want to add into the scene which helped the blending of images appear seamless and more natural. I think it’s this ability of blending images into the scene that help create a professional end result.
Challenges
I was mostly worried about creating a good hierarchy for the viewer. I used a lot of eye-catching images I thought. I wanted to make sure they didn’t compete with each other too much. I did my best to avoid that. I also took a while placing the copy on the poster. I really liked the background image and didn’t want to cover up much of it. I used white for most of the copy for contrast but in some areas the copy was getting lost. I had to adjust the placement several times to ensure readability. The Title was originally white, but it was throwing off the balance of this composition. I decided to place a copy on top of the white pulling from the background colors. I used different weights and sizes to help move the viewers eyes thought the poster.
Image Credits
All original images (photographs and AI generated) were selected from the adobe stock website and modified to create this final poster.
For the background image I used an AI generated image licenced through adobe. I loved the colors and it worked well with other elements I needed to incorporate.
The Photos of the Planets were added to the background. I blended those in using layer masks. I also adjusted opacity when blending some areas.
For the right eye I added 2 spaceships each on its own layer and created a layer mask to remove their background.
For the left eye I brought in the image of the main character and created a clipping mask which I blended into the eye. I had to use generative fill to remove the extra digest the AI generated character had. I also added some glow on the sphere using screen mode and finally added some highlights to the characters face.
Fonts
I settled on Acumin Pro and Extra condensed for most of the copy.
For the title and the subtitle I wanted to use something more futuristic I found Omnium worked well.