Podfic Cover Art
| Synonyms: | podfic cover, podbook cover |
| See also: | Cover Art, Podbook, Podfic |
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Many podfics include cover art. Podfic is often played on mp3 players, which can display album art if an image is attached to the audio files. Thus, fans make cover art for podfic, especially for the podbook (m4b) format. Many podficcers create their own cover art, but often another fan may provide the art.
Styles
Podfic cover art has incorporated a variety of different elements depending on the cover artist's skills, preferences, and available technology.
- (usually) square
- text only
- multiple fonts/fonts as art
- screencap, publicity still, or other photograph from the source
- creative commons or other stock image not of the source
- original photography by the cover artist
- photograph of a fan
- photograph of scenery
- photograph of an object created for the cover art
- existing fanart used with permission
- fanart created to illustrate the story being podficced
- original drawing by the cover artist
- animation (usually for display online, not included in the podfic itself)
- manips or collage
History
Widespread use of cover art in podfic is mainly the result of listeners with art or design skills wanting to give something back to podfic fandom. Some podficcers also possessed these skills, but many did not. The other factor is the rise of podbooks.
In the beginning (2007?), podfic covers consisted of an image that incorporated the title of the story and the name of the author, but not the podficcer[1]. Cybel was a prolific early podfic cover artist, who made many many covers as part of the podbooks she created for podfic posted to Amplificathon; much of her work relied on using fandom-specific images of recognizable characters. Podfic covers evolved quickly. Covers began including the name of the podficcer. As of 2014, podfic cover artists use a variety of sources such as fandom-specific screencaps or publicity stills, non-fannish stock photographs, original photographs taken by the artist[2], original photographs of original crafts[3], existing fanart by another fanartist, or new fanart drawn for the occasion. Some cover art is text-only.[4]
Meta Topics
There has been debate over whether cover art is a necessary addition to podfic, or whether the enthusiasm for covers is discouraging to podficcers who lack graphic design skills. Podfic already requires multiple skill sets (audio editing, acting, etc.), and cover art represents an added burden to some fans. Meanwhile, other fans enjoy making cover art. Some listeners have said that the cover art is why they downloaded a particular podfic or that it is helpful for identifying podfic on their devices.
Examples
Cover art by Cybel for Winkingstar's Merlin podfic; no podficcer info included. 2009
Cover art by the podficcer (Cath); uses a non-fannish photograph. 2010
Elaborate photomanip as cover art by sandrainthesun for an American Idol podfic by klb. 2010
Cover art by Cybel for tinypinkmouse's podfic; uses a photographic image from the film Thor. 2011
Cover art by yue ix for a Merlin podfic that was never made; fanart drawn specifically for the cover. 2011
Cover art by bessyboo, one of the many readers of this podfic anthology; mosaic of many photographic images, plus one fanart image. 2012
Supernatural cover art by lavishsqualor for Podfic Big Bang; possibly a screencap of the Impala. 2012
Teen Wolf cover art by krw for a group podfic that includes the names of all the readers. 2013
Bandom cover art by theopteryx; seamless blend of black-and-white layers including two photos of MCR members and a starscape, with a splash of red for contrast. 2013
Cover art by bessyboo for a later anthology; includes silhouettes of podficcers as well as female characters appearing in the anthology. 2017
cover art by Annapods for a Star Wars/Hawkeye aural not!fic; Annapods uses stickers to indicate metadata such as ratings and whether the podfic was a gift. 2018
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Meta/Further Reading
- PODFIC COVER TUTORIAL SERIES: The Basics (Part 1) by bessyboo (Aug. 7th, 2011)
- Cover Art Day! (somewhere in the world...) by busaikko (Jul. 25th, 2013)
- Amplirecathon: late Podfic cover art recs (8 recs) by yue_ix (Jul. 31st, 2013)
- twitter thread (2015-03-15)
- Behind The Cover, Archived version by lavenderfrost (2016-03-04)
- Auralphonic podcast #22 Cover Art (2016-09-16)
- {Podfic Meta} Thoughts on Podfic Cover Art and the Unnecessary Barriers to Podficcing, Archived version by ItsADrizzit (2018-06-01)
- Behind the Pod episode: Got You Covered - Talking Graphic Design & Podfic Cover Art, Archived version, featuring lavenderfrost and yue_ix (2019-11-10)
Other Resources
- Podfic cover art tag at AO3
References
- ^ A 2010 Amplificathon post includes a discussion about including the podficcer's name on the cover: Podbooks vs mp3s, post by cybel, 30 August 2010.
- ^ Examples: See Bessyboo's 2012 cover art for becquinho's podfic of Presque Vue by Rageprufrock, in which she combines a picture she took of her own sneaker with images from the film Inception. Bessyboo has also used herself as a model for photographic cover art, for example on Paraka Productions. See also the cover art for or be drowned in blissful confusion, posted in 2010. The anonymous author created the cover art for the podficcer by photographing blank audio cassette tapes with the title and podficcer name scrawled on them.
- ^ See reena_jenkins's 2012 cover of Tightly Knit, for which she knitted a scarf before taking pictures of it.
- ^ For example, see eosrose's 2012 cover art for a Thor podfic, King of Fools.
