Media Blasters had initially planned on including clear cases / inserts with the first 10,000 units of each of the Magic User's Club OVA DVD volumes. As of AX2k1 they had announced that the first DVD will be the only one with the clear cases and inserts, as later John Sirabella said it costed about $3 a piece more expensive to make a clear package and insert rather than a white case and paper insert.
Due to that con report I thought it would be nice to devise a way to make a transparent insert to go in a clear case. Shortly after I picked up my copy of volume 2, I went to a nearby Kinko's and asked for a color transparency copy of my sleeve insert. A few minutes and a quarter shy of three dollars later I walked out with one. I knew it wasn't going to be perfect but I still wanted to see how well it would work with minimal effort.
 The limited version of volume 1. |
 This is the style included with volume 2. It has an opaque insert with a white Amaray case. |
 The copy in a case including a DVD held in the same way the original case held the DVD. |
 The same, but now with the character and lettering backpainted with white. |
 The front side of the bare insert, with some details backpainted. |
 The back side of the bare insert, with some details backpainted. |
The fourth picture illustrates the fact that a simple color transparency copy isn't a complete solution. I thought I'd try to paint the backside of some areas with white. A similar concept is used in painting animation cels, if you get a chance, examine it thoughroughly from both sides.
I found some flat white enamel paint and a #000 brush from a local arts & crafts store (I removed half the bristles to make it probably a #0000 equivalent), then I carefully painted the backside of the transparency in white, similar to the way cels are done. The lettering, features and the character Sae on the original limited case also have a white backing so they aren't transparent, so you might want to use that as a reference if available.
A look at the fifth picture shows the rather significant difference as a result of the work, and the last two images can be used to compare what I painted and what it looks like as a result. It is hard to see but I even filled in the volume title lettering on the spine. It takes a lot of patience to do this coloring well so if you are going to replicate this experiment, take your time, in a quiet room on a well-lit desk, with a sheet of white paper behind it to see the printing while painting. It also takes a steady hand and some prior detail painting experience to do it well. Even with some experience I managed to overrun my boundaries a bit in places but it still looks nice.
All in all it was an interesting experiment which I think I will do with volume 3 as well.
My pictures a bit blurry as my camera isn't so great on close-up shots. I did what I could to adjust my angles and distances, and later touch them up but it's not as good as I'd like.
This page is 100% fan effort with no intention of profit or harm to the copyright owners. All copyrights and trademarks are property of their owners. Text and layout ©2001 Jeff DeMaagd. Mirroring, archiving and linking allowed as long as the content and copyright notice is not changed.
Updated June 13, 2001.
Created June 11, 2001.