Best of Rifftrax Shorts Box Art

[bazmagorky]

I just got my Rifftrax Shorts DVD in the mail, and while it's as awesome and hilarious as I was hoping-- bad CG and animation excepted-- ... I just had to comment on the box cover design.

It is HORRIBLE.  It's a train wreck.  Leaving aside the monstrously unappealing CG characters, (which is hard to do because they're some of the worst I've seen in a long, long time) the entire package comes across as though it were designed by a 14-year old with 4 pieces of clip art, a gun to his head and a 30 second time limit.  As unimpressed as I was with the Cinematic Titanic packaging, this is even worse.  I can't lend this to people to get them interested in Rifftrax, because the second they look at it they'll hand it right back.

I'm not trying to 'flame' anyone or whatever, I just honestly feel that this SHOULD be a lot better.  Get a professional graphic artist to design your next disk, please.

[Bob]

 

* ducks and hunkers down *

[bettertomorrowamy]

Wow!  Did a pallet of Rifftrax short dvd's fall on his mother?

[RVR II]

Alrighty then.. Might have to buy it now..

[bratpop]

Yeah! I hope Jason Martin DIES IN A FIRE!

Seriously, what do you expect? It's a product for an intangible service that has no visual representation. It's just some dudes and some microphones, dude. It's from a website that Photoshops three guy's heads onto movie posters. If they did an illustrated cover (the only alternative), the damn thing would have been $18.

[Darth Geek]

HULK THINK YOU HAVE ANGER ISSUES. HULK CAN RECOMMEND THERAPIST. DON'T TAKE ANGER OUT ON PUNY HUMANS (ALTHOUGH ONE HAS GIGANTIC HEAD).

[bettertomorrowamy]

This guy has to be a Troll.  I went back and looked at the cover, and it is professionally done and it looks like the website where these shorts are for sale.
How much time can you spend analyzing the cover of a dvd?

[Indomitus]

How much time can you spend analyzing the cover of a dvd?

For real.  Doesn't he have a Star Trek wiki to update or something?

Seriously, though, I do tremble a little at the thought of the animated riffers.  Was it really necessary?  If so, why not just silhouettes?  Are there actual sight gags that benefit from it or was it just to show off that neat-o 3D software?

But... I will be buying it, because I'm sure it'll look oh so groovy on my shelf next to MST3K:TM, Film Crew, and Cinematic Titanic.

[bazmagorky]

I'm not a troll, I'm someone who'd like to see the product taken seriously by people who might not be hardcore MST fans.  "Don't judge a book (or DVD) by it's cover" might be good advice, but few people follow it.  I realize this is a "Mom & Pop" type operation, but that doesn't mean that as a company they should be dismissive of marketing.  Fans like myself or most of you aren't going to be deterred by the cover of the disk, we're going to purchase it either way.  But other people won't.

I'm a 3D artist and animator, I've worked in the industry for 10 years-- and the animation stuff on the disk is just painful for me to watch.  It's ammateurish and, in my opinion, the product suffers for it.  But, it's an "extra."  They didn't have to put it in there, they did because they're experimenting with something new, trying to give customers a bit of a bonus for their money, and an added incentive to buy a disk largely made up of material they've probably already purchased online.  I understand that rationale.

But in my opinion, the cover is not something they should have taken so lightly.  You may disagree, and think the cover is fantastic (although I find it interesting to note that no one actually said that in response), but all i can say is, show it to someone you know who is actually a professional artist, and ask them what they think.  I'm a fan of MST3K, I own every episode and buy all the official releases, all the stuff from Cinematic Titanic and Film Crew, and I've got just about everything Rifftrax has released so far.  However, I'm not a member of this forum "community", I don't talk to the Rifftrax staff or know them by name.  As such, I'm not afraid of 'hurting their feelings', so hopefully they can take this as honest feedback (here on the feedback forum) without any kind of malice behind it.

I want Rifftrax around for a long time, and presumably, so do they, since they set up a feedback forum so they can consider (not be held accountable to, but consider) the opinions of their fans.  I'm a fan, and this is an opinion.  Take it or leave it.

[RVR II]

Fans like myself or most of you aren't going to be deterred by the cover of the disk, we're going to purchase it either way. 

Fair enough.. The cover won't make or break my decision either way..

I just can't justify paying $15.00 for shorts I already have, only to have 1 never before seen short w/ animation.. but that's just me

[bettertomorrowamy]

You may disagree, and think the cover is fantastic (although I find it interesting to note that no one actually said that in response), but all i can say is, show it to someone you know who is actually a professional artist, and ask them what they think.

You have to admit that you went way over the top in your first post, and didn't explain why the art that was designed by a professional artist was such a "Trainwreck".  If you don't like it then that's fine, but the reason no one said that they thought the art was the best thing since the Mona Lisa is because it is commercial art.  We'd sound just as crazy if we went the other way.  It's functional and professional.  Design your own if you can make a masterpiece, and maybe they'll hire you. 

[bratpop]

It's a pretty shit opinion, if you ask me. What could they have done better? Could they have done the animation better? I doubt it. Could they have made the cover better? Uh, again I doubt it. I offered an alternative, and I expect it would not be worth it. AFAIK they aren't selling this to Walmart, only through the website, so the cover is... a formality at best. It looks like any cheap DVD. Sadly it's not as cheap as most cheap DVDs, but there's no reason for it to look like a Hollywood production. Now, I love the cover of Kevin's A Year At The Movies. It's fantastic. But that's a mass market publication. This is, no offense, something slapped together to make a quick buck.  I don't think fans expected more from the cover than what we see on the site. Personally, I'm not a fan of the Photoshopped heads, but I didn't expect a lenticular cover and Beowulf-quality CGI. It's just a goof. They're just goofin. Public domain goofin. This ain't madness. It's Rifftrax, baby. Booyakasha! 

[Piobman]

But in my opinion, the cover is not something they should have taken so lightly.  You may disagree, and think the cover is fantastic (although I find it interesting to note that no one actually said that in response), but all i can say is, show it to someone you know who is actually a professional artist, and ask them what they think. 

I think the cover is fantastic. 

If you have better ideas, you should post a cover for everyone else to enjoy. I'm sure everyone who dislikes the original art,  would be appreciative. I know that's how I've done things while joining this community.  You should do the same.

[bazmagorky]

I could submit a piece of cover art designed by an actual professional and people on here would still say it doesn't look as good as what was done by the Rifftrax crew.  Explaining the poor logo & text placement, or the lack of line or depth, or the vacuous use of negative space in the composition of the cover would be just as pointless, because clearly none of you are trained graphic artists.  Art is subjective, but only to a point.  Artwork can be well crafted while still being composed poorly, and a piece can be composed well but comprised of bad artwork.  I was over the top in my first post because I truly felt that the cover was one of the worst things I have ever seen.  That's all I'll say on the subject, becuase I can't really bring myself to care anymore.

As for the CG animation that "They couldn't have done any better"-- If they couldn't have done it any better, then why did they do it?  Why not some well drawn but limited Flash animation?  Cheaper and on a limited budget, Flash can go MUCH further than CGI.  It'll never look great, but it's gonna look better than what they've got now.  (By the way, for anyone who cares, in the animation industry, "Beowulf" is most certainly NOT a benchmark in CGI quality.  It's a benchmark in stiff-moving, poor-performanced, plastic-skinned, zombie-eyed crap.)

I realize this isn't for mass market distribution.  And yes, it is basically a formality and "good enough" for private website distribution.  I suppose If all the Rifftrax crew wants to hear is "Good enough," well then they're doing gangbusters with the cover design.  I guess I just misunderstood the purpose of the feedback forum.

[bratpop]

No, you misunderstood the point of the entire website. They don't bake delicious cookies either, FYI. Hey, maybe you could start a site that riffs on DVD covers. That should be rather lucrative.