As i’m winding up to finishing an EP and album the thought came up… What would be good to use to create and design my own album cover? I come from a little visual communications background so I know of the major ones such as photoshop and all those but really I cant be shelling out cash so I thought it would be good to post something up and find out what you guys out there use when creating your album covers etc. on the freeware side?
Thanks guys!!
_o0meR
what about gimp?
yeah i think the question for a specific ‘album art design software’ is a bit off… i suppose you are just in need of a good, freeware, graphic design software. like lw_pss said, GIMP is good. you might also try Paint.net or Inkscape.
Another idea: Why not start a cover art competition here! I think there are quite a lot of members also into visual arts. Suggested prize: credits on the back cover. (I’m in! 
)
Yeah, art competition sounds like a +1 idea! 
(I’m in too!)
Well basically the ideal solutions are either photography or 3D modeling.
Photography just isn’t freeware way from the beginning.
3D - you will need Gmax and something (like mentioned above) gimp. You can use solely a Photoshop-like program too, but thats the way pros do it.
I use to help people out with album artwork for free, as I used to do photography besides music. But now I’m busy studying for exams, so everything’s down, but I’ll pick everything back up again this summer. 
But anyway, tell me what kind of artwork need, maybe I’ll find something suitable.
3D for free look at Blender.
All the freeware ones I’ve found from personal experience run a lot better on Linux than Windows (GIMP, Blender and Inkscape at least.) All seem to be slightly lacking (in general, compared to similar commercial softs) and a bit buggy in Windows as compared Linux. All worth having a look at though.
Awesome suggestions guys! Thanks alot! I remember gimp too… totally forgot!
Cheers!
A contest… hmm… That sounds good. I’ll have to think about that one =D Thanks guys!!
Great. If you need some help, I (maybe someone else here) will be happy to help you out. 
I used to do this and have numerous pictures that might do as artworks.
maybe you could use something more out of the box:
http://blog.animalswithinanimals.com/2008/09/databending-and-glitch-art-primer-part.html
http://blog.animalswithinanimals.com/2005/11/friday-cat-databending-volume.html
http://blog.animalswithinanimals.com/2005/11/friday-cat-bending-fx.html
that’s also probably a little bit more renoise-related than gimp
don’t worry I made you one
Adobe Photoshop CS5 has a free demo that is fully functional and lasts 30 days…plenty of time to finish a cover. It will also print it out at the right size easily without using other software.
Thats great lol!!