Making a CD/DVD

[Goonfella]

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

This is an updated tutorial of a DVD originally posted by Vezixig.
Plugins used -
Align Object by moc426
AA`s Assistant and Metallize from dpy`s Plugin Pack
Polygones from Boltbait`s Plugin Pack

 

This is what we will be creating-

 

My names for the layers are just my preferences. You can do the same or use your own, it doesn`t really matter.  

1. Create a new Image 500x500 and either color it (any color will do except grey) or do as I did and make it transparent using Ctrl-A > Del. Rename it Back colour .
 
2.New Layer called Background and paint a light grey(#cccccc) filled circle starting at 0,0 to 499,499.
 Use Align Object to make sure the circle is centered and AA`s Assistant at default settings to smooth the edges.
 


3.New Layer. Name it Rim. Open up Boltbait`s Polygon plugin (Effects>Render>Polygon/Stars) and use these settings to create a rim around the circle using colour #777777. Thanks to Boltbait for his suggestion, it does make this step much easier.
 
 

 


4. New Layer called Inner Rim - Draw a circle with linestrength 20 and a size of 155x155, colour #777777. To make it easier to get the right size I started at 100,100 and drew the circle out to 255,255. Then AA and Align Center as before.
 


5. Merge the two layers into one. Rename the layer Outline.
 


6. New Layer. Name it Center Circle. Make a circle with linestrength 35 and a size of 90x90 - Align Center and AA it. Still using #777777 as color.

7. New Layer - Center Circle2 - Linestrength 5 - Size 130x130 - Color: #FFFFFF - Align center followed by AA

8. New Layer - Center Circle3 - Linestrength 5 - Size 52x52 - Color: #FFFFFF - again use Align center & AA
 


9. Merge these 3 Layers into one. Open the Layer Properties and set the alpha blend to 90.
 


That`s the first part done. Now to add some colour.

 
10. On the Background layer add Noise - Intensity 40, Colour Saturation 0 and Coverage 100. Then use Radial Blur at an angle of 50, the rest default. This ensures the track lines are not too powerful, as EER pointed out when I used an angle of 10. Thanks for that feedback EER.
  Then use Metallize - Angle 360, Type 0 , or you could use Curves. Play with the settings until you are happy.
 
Just  a note - the images of my DVD from this point still have the old angle of 10 so yours should look even better at the end!
 


11. Add a layer between Background and Outline.Name it Colour Lines. Select the Line-tool and Draw a Line with a width of 30 from the Center of the image to the outline. Select a dark purple as color like #400089.

12. On the same layer add a new line with the same settings except the color - chose a brighter purple like #7C0089. Paint it next to the First line with some offset.

13. Repeat adding lines moving the color to pink.
 


14. Next a step which I consider to be optional. Vezixig used this but I never felt the need to. Select the Effect > Distort > Bulge plugin to, surprise surprise - bulge the lines! Unfortunately I don`t know what settings he used but you can always experiment.

15. Select the Effect > Blurs > Gaussian Blur. I used 55 as my setting but yours may differ.

16. Select the Effect > Blurs > Fragment at default settings except for Fragment Count which I set at 20.

17. Set the opacity of my layer to 175.
 


18. On new layers add some more color gradients from Blue to green and green to yellow using the same technique as Steps 13-17.
19. Merge your Gradient Layers into one and set the Opacity to 175. Play around with the curves to lighten/darken up the gradients to get the "perfect" look. Or if you like you can keep the layers apart and adjust them separately which gives you more control over the end result.

20. Create a new Layer called Highlights and draw white colored lines from the center of the images in all directions to the outer line. It's ok if they overlay the previous created color gradients.

21. Next use Gaussian Blur. Mine was at 30. Adjust the setting until you are happy.

22. Play around with the Layer opacity to get smooth looking reflections. I used an opacity of 190.

23. New Layer called Shadows and do Steps 20-22 again. Now use black as color. I used 90 for Gaussian Blur and 190 again as opacity. The result should look something like this:
 


Here is how I set up my Layers -
 



24. Finally we have to clean up the ROM. Go to the Outline Layer and Select the outside Area with the Magic Wand and a tolerance of 60%. Now erase this area from all gradient Layers.

25. Select the inside Area of the Outline Layer and erase the selection from the gradient Layers.

26. Select the Center Circle- 
 

 
Then go to the Background layer and also delete . Use AA once again to smooth things out.

27. Change the opacity of the Center Circle layer to your preferred opacity. I used 120.

And there you are. Hopefully you should have a final image something like the one below. You can color in the Backcolor layer or leave it transparent. I will be leaving it transparent once the tut is finished so I can save as a PNG file in case I want to use it in other projects.
 
Final Image -
 

Edited March 15, 2019 by Woodsy
Rehosted to Postimage.

[nitenurse79]

A very well written and easy to follow tute Goonfella. A bookmark for later. Thank you

[Goonfella]

Thanks nitenurse. Look forward to seeing yours.

[toe_head2001]

Thanks man. I was hoping someone would redo this one.

[Goonfella]

After your great Vinyl Record tut I just felt it had to be done. Otherwise we would be stuck in the 70`s! 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Very nice tut!  I really like the rainbow color bands - that's a nice touch.

 

IMHO the track lines are too powerful.  I'd dial them down a bit with a lower opacity setting or a tiny bit of blurring.

[BoltBait]

You may want to consider using my Effects > Render > Polygon / Stars plugin to render your concentric circles. Just set the Verticies to 100, Star depth to 0, and adjust the size, color, and line width to taste. Build the rings from outside in.

[Goonfella]

EER, looking at one of my DVDs again I think you might be right.

Boltbait, don't know why I never thought of that before. I've used your plugin for that previously as well! Thanks.

As soon as I can I will update the tut with your suggestions. Thanks for the feedback.

[nitenurse79]

That was a challenge. Here is my example

 

Thank you again for the tutorial

[DrewDale]

Top class tute Goonfella, well explained, cheers   Cool result nitenurse.

 

Heres mine:

 

Added some noise to the inner and outer parts and repeated the noise and radial blur a second time on the disc layer.

[Goonfella]

Nice work nitenurse. I like the reflection. I think maybe the highlights/shadows could be a bit stronger though to give a more metallic feel . Not a lot else wrong really.

 

I have updated the tut to include EER`s and Boltbait`s suggestions, although I found it tricky to judge the size of the inner rim circle using Polygones so I left that bit as it is. If there was a function to set the size of the circle in the plugin it would have been ok - idea for a future update maybe Boltbait? 

 

Drew you must have posted as I was writing this. Nice job. Although I think the colours,highlights & shadows could be stronger. Interesting idea to do the radial blur twice. If you increase the angle though ( as I have in the update) then you don`t need to use the plugin twice. The extra Noise on the Inner and Outer parts look OK although I have never seen an actual CD/DVD that has this. It`s always nice to see people doing the tut though.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Goonfella

[BoltBait]

The plugin you used was not mine.

[Goonfella]

Ahh I see where I went wrong. There are two plugins with similar names - Polygones and yours -  Polygon. I mistook the dll I have installed as yours.
 
Sorry Boltbait.I will go right ahead and sort it out.

 

OK done that.

I still prefer my method for the inner circle though as you can`t specify an exact size in the plugin , in this case 155x155.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Goonfella

[nitenurse79]

Nice work nitenurse. I like the reflection. I think maybe the highlights/shadows could be a bit stronger though to give a more metallic feel . Not a lot else wrong really.

 

I have an addiction to using reflections

It is a very well written tutorial, easy to read, hard to do (for me anyway)  but on step #2 - "filled circle starting at 0,0 to 499,499" I did not understand that part, so I made a circle and then stretched it to a size of 499x499 (I don't know where 0,0 is on a canvas) Also on step#10 "metalise", when I tried this stage it turned the disc black (Curves made it worse)   I will try it again following the updated method and see if I can get it right

[toe_head2001]

It is a very well written tutorial, easy to read, hard to do (for me anyway)  but on step #2 - "filled circle starting at 0,0 to 499,499" I did not understand that part, so I made a circle and then stretched it to a size of 499x499 (I don't know where 0,0 is on a canvas)

 

"0, 0" is the top-left corner of the canvas.

 

I assume that step was simply inherited from the previous version of this tutorial. When that tutorial was written, paint.net didn't let you resize shapes & move them around like it does now in v4.

[Goonfella]

That`s right toehead , you are basically going from top left to bottom right. You could also just make a selection using the Ellipse Select tool and create the circle that way.

With Metallize, I found it turned it black as well but if you set the Angle of Start at 360 and the Type to 0 it should work.

[Seerose]

Goonfella! I hope you'll like it. I'm not so good. Absolutely wonderful idea and realization. Thanks so much for sharing. 

 

 

[Goonfella]

Lovely image Seerose, of course I like it. 

 

I think the frame looks superb . Well done.

 

 

Thanks to everybody who has done the tut. It`s so nice to see it`s used.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Goonfella

[xmario]

 

 

alternative way to create CD/DVD (in Russian)

[Seerose]

xmario! Amazing image. Very well done. Thank you.

[Goonfella]

Great result xmario. I looked on your Russian tutorial and I think that is a better way to get the rainbow effect than on mine. Nice work on the image and the tut.

[xmario]

The main tutorials secret is a Metallize-plugin of Dpy