Dream Theater self titled album discussion - [SPOILER FREE DISCUSSION ONLY]

[noxon]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/brent_nashville/3876999343/  the piano

[PixelDream]

I can't understand this. How is Hugh Syme an artist? WTF.

[Kotowboy]

Please can someone with good photoshop skills put together the same picture using the bits and bobs found online and see if they can do better than Syme ? should be easy.

[Lucien]

Please can someone with good photoshop skills put together the same picture using the bits and bobs found online and see if they can do better than Syme ? should be easy.

[Edson Wilton]

[Kotowboy]

[aprilethereal]

Yep. What the hell is this supposed to mean

[Runei]

Mr Syme has a weird sense of humor!

[noxon]

Problem with the released image is that it's only half of the image... there's another page there too!

[countoftuscany42]

theres another watermark looking thing above the jug. odd that theres no majesty symbol in this one, but if its only half an image that could be why..

[Kotowboy]

I dont understand on a basic level why things cut into other things.

All you have to is assign a different layer to each object and move it in front or behind of other objects.

It would save the piano being both infront AND behind that thing in the foreground and it would save the guitar being split in two.

I'm no Photoshop expert by any means - but that's incredibly basic.

[nikatapi]

Holy shit this guy is so sloppy. I wonder why DT still insist on working with him.

[Dacling]

I dont understand on a basic level why things cut into other things.

All you have to is assign a different layer to each object and move it in front or behind of other objects.

It would save the piano being both infront AND behind that thing in the foreground and it would save the guitar being split in two.

I'm no Photoshop expert by any means - but that's incredibly basic.

The object in the foreground is part of the main picture that he used. So in order to make it look like the guitar and piano are behind it he would have to manually crop out the edges of the guitar and piano along the lines of the object. He attempted with the guitar and didn't do a great job but the piano he didn't even bother at all it seems.

[Red_Queen]

What about those 3 heads.. I see them for the second time 

[noxon]

Okay, the new watermarks tell me why this has occured. Syme has used the fill effect of Photoshop to fill in the texture and generate the image on the right hand side of the image (if you look at the original image it stopped somewhere right around where the guitar is), and to get it to fill out the entire width of a two page image he chose to use the fill feature of photoshop to generate image data. What the fill effect does is use image parts elsewhere to generate what is shown, and I assume there was a watermark that snuck in there that shouldn't have been there. And if you don't know what to look for it may be hard to spot (i didn't spot the upper watermarks until i looked for it now).

It's an accident.

[Kotowboy]

I dont understand on a basic level why things cut into other things.

All you have to is assign a different layer to each object and move it in front or behind of other objects.

It would save the piano being both infront AND behind that thing in the foreground and it would save the guitar being split in two.

I'm no Photoshop expert by any means - but that's incredibly basic.

The object in the foreground is part of the main picture that he used. So in order to make it look like the guitar and piano are behind it he would have to manually crop out the edges of the guitar and piano along the lines of the object. He attempted with the guitar and didn't do a great job but the piano he didn't even bother at all it seems.

but you can assign things to layers and slip them in behind other layers. I'm shit at PS but at least I know that....

Its an accident...

So he's no perfectionist and he didn't check his work before he signed off on it.

An artist who had pride in his work would have checked everything and would've spotted that and corrected it.

[Zook]

Wont the watermarks be gone once the image is paid for?

[aprilethereal]

Okay, the new watermarks tell me why this has occured. Syme has used the fill effect of Photoshop to fill in the texture and generate the image on the right hand side of the image (if you look at the original image it stopped somewhere right around where the guitar is), and to get it to fill out the entire width of a two page image he chose to use the fill feature of photoshop to generate image data. What the fill effect does is use image parts elsewhere to generate what is shown, and I assume there was a watermark that snuck in there that shouldn't have been there. And if you don't know what to look for it may be hard to spot (i didn't spot the upper watermarks until i looked for it now).

It's an accident.

And this is Syme's job. He gets paid for it (probably quite a lot), and I think we (and DT) can expect him to avoid "accidents" like this.

[Kotowboy]

Wont the watermarks be gone once the image is paid for?

This is supposedly the final image - since RR are premièring it.

[Shine]

Can someone explain the shadows to me?

The jug and the guitar are lit from the left, while the piano apparently is lit from the right.

[TL]

I really don't get the use of the dollheads, especially multiple times like this. It's just... weird.

Holy shit this guy is so sloppy. I wonder why DT still insist on working with him.

I wouldn't be shocked if it's basically because of the reputation he has for having designed all of Rush's album covers.

[Zook]

Wont the watermarks be gone once the image is paid for?

This is supposedly the final image - since RR are premièring it.

Yeah but the images come from a website right? They have watermarks so you can't just rip them directly from the website, and have to pay for them to get the WM removed. Isn't that how it works?

[me7]

I assume that the watermarked versions were used for prototyping. After the label/band approved of the graphics, the rights to the pictures were purchased but Syme couldn't be arsed to replace the watermarked versions with clean ones.

[noxon]

but you can assign things to layers and slip them in behind other layers. I'm shit at PS but at least I know that....

https://p1.pichost.me/i/20/1434799.jpg

there's no layer to slip the guitar behind, see?

[fllnsprrw]

Missed opportunity on manipulating the words on the old piano to read "Dream Theater Established 1985" or something like that.

[Madman Shepherd]

Holy shit this guy is so sloppy. I wonder why DT still insist on working with him.

Because most of the stuff he does is pretty cool.

[noxon]

And to be honest, 95% of the people that buy this album and the artwork won't ever see it unless the flaws are pointed out too them.

[Kotowboy]

But that doesn't excuse consistently lazy and sloppy work.

[Scard]

Not sure if it's been noted, but right above the jug on top of the piano is looks like it says "deposit photos" a few times in a row. So bad

[Kotowboy]

It's not just us - people on Instagram are complaining too - unless they're DTF members...

[Dark Castle]

Not sure if it's been noted, but right above the jug on top of the piano is looks like it says "deposit photos" a few times in a row. So bad

It definitely says something alright.

[JayOctavarium]

It's not just us - people on Instagram are complaining too - unless they're DTF members...

-raises hand-

[fllnsprrw]

I'm starting to think that Mr. Syme was the last person to be informed that the band would be revealing close up snippets of his artwork like this. How can he be so careless with it otherwise?

[noxon]

He probably knows very well what will be hidden by the printing process and what people will notice. I mean, you're talking about 28 page booklet, 12cmx12cm in size, where colors bleed a bit into eachother washing out those types of blending errors anyways. I had to look very close to see the watermark near the guitar on the page, and the one on the top (the letters saying depositphotos) i can't see at all. And if you guys remember, this type of reaction to the artwork has been there since octavarium - so many complaints about the ball not being absolutely perfect, and the ropes just being lines on the first released image etc...

[Implode]

That is all true, but that still doesn't sit right with me. If you are a professional artist, regardless of what your employer expects, would you want to put forth the best you can possibly do? I understand what you said about the watermark being an accident. I could see that happening; perhaps he should've been a bit more critical when examining his finished product. But the bad cutting of the guitar and piano to be in front of that rock thingy....I don't know. What real artist goes, "Oh. I messed up. Eh. People won't notice. Whatever." It doesn't matter if they are right. That's not the attitude of a high quality artist.