Channelwood Poster Reproduction

[Unknown-One]

So, its been about 20 years since the iconic Channelwood Age poster was originally printed as a promotional item for the original MYST, and the things have become exceedingly rare. Nothing but expired ebay listings await you if you're looking to buy one these days. Even damaged posters have gone for over $900.

While searching around, I stumbled across Blake Patterson's blog post. http://www.bytecellar.com/2007/06/27/the_saga_of_my/

He managed to get one of the last remaining posters from Cyan Worlds themselves. I seriously respect the effort this guy put in, and major props to Cyan for digging one up. I don't know of many developers that would have done something that awesome for a fan.

But after reading his post, it became pretty clear that the chances of getting a genuine poster myself were slim-to-none. Thankfully, Blake took some seriously high-resolution photos of his poster. None of them are a perfectly clear shot (over-exposed, flare, reflections off glass), but it gave me an idea... I wondered if I could reproduce a reasonable copy myself?

I gathered up every photo I could of the poster. Google, Flicker, DeviantArt, you name it. I spent two days aligning and correcting all of the various photos, removing lense distortion and adjusting for all the varying perspectives. Once they were all in-order I composited the images together, manually painting-in the best and least-distorted parts of each one. This gave me the best possible version of the actual Channelwood artwork I've ever seen.

With the artwork restored, I cropped it out and went about reconstructing the rest of the poster from scratch at print-resolution (300 DPI). The artwork was placed on a 24x34 black matte and positioned appropriately to match the original poster. Then it came to reproducing the text... which turned out to be almost as difficult as getting the artwork into a usable state. The "MYST" logo on this particular poster doesn't match most other examples, and no premade fonts matched perfectly either. Adobe Garamond Pro is very, very close, though.

I pulled the highest-quality photo of the logo I had into Illustrator and went to work. Typed out the text in Adobe Garamond Pro, converted the text into paths, and then tweaked every character by-hand to match the text on the poster. Once finished I rendered the text out at 300 DP and pulled the resultant image back into Photoshop for final positioning. Not a single detail was missed, even the copyright and trademark symbols are present (The copyright information in the bottom-right corner even matches the original poster).

End result, after 3 full days of working on this thing? Drum roll please...

Select close-ups, scaled down to 150 DPI: http://i.imgur.com/FeW9GF3.png

Disclaimer: As a precaution, the above has been scaled down to only 721x1024 so as to make it absolutely unusable for print. This project is for personal use only, I do not mean to distribute the full-resolution source or any resulting prints. If the mods wish, I can water-mark the above image as well.

I've sent the poster off to be printed and should have it in my hands by Wednesday or Thursday. I'll post up some photos when it arrives. I know it's not an original, but I'm still excited to see it in-person

 

[Unknown-One]

Woohoo, it came in the mail today! Still waiting on the frame, though

http://i.imgur.com/lAExd8U.jpg

Looks about as perfect as it can get. Very happy with the results here

 

[jojo69]

wondering why you aren't making the source available?

very cool


think you could do a Chernobly can?

 

[Unknown-One]

wondering why you aren't making the source available?

very cool

Because it's still an active property owned by Cyan Worlds, and I'd rather not be sued. lol

think you could do a Chernobly can?

Hah, I could take a crack at it. That's pretty low resolution, though.

 

[burgundee]

awesome!

 

[thehighrhodes88]

@Unknown-One:

Would you please consider providing us with some copies of your work? I would like to remind you that since this poster is A) no longer in production and B) no longer in distribution (Cyan no longer has any copies of it left in stock, nor do they intend to produce more), it is perfectly legal for you to release what is now YOUR art (since you re-rendered it yourself) to the public so long as it is free of charge, you do not include the reproduced copyright data at the bottom of the poster, and as long as you not distribute this art claiming it to be an "original poster" or knowingly provide it to someone intending to distribute it as such. Without the copyright data on the bottom, any printed copy could easily be recognized as reproduction and not an original.

Here is why i ask: I have recently acquired a collection of posters from Cyan relating to Myst and Riven, two of my favorite games. I am not interested in reproducing for distribution at all, simply so that I can have a poster to put up on my wall to complete my set since it is the only poster produced by Cyan during that time period that I do not yet have. I'm sure there are many individuals like myself out there who wish to do the same thing. I DO NOT require it to have the "reproduced copyright material" at the bottom of the page like you have done, nor do I intend on adding it. This identifies the poster as a clear reproduction which is perfectly legal and acceptable since the poster in question is no longer in distribution by Cyan or any other distributor licensed by them. All I am asking for is the artwork portion of the poster at a poster-printable resolution, and from there I can send it off for a print. Please let me know if you are willing to do this and I will figure out a way for us to make contact.

Thanks!