This photoshop tutorial is awesome! It gives you the down and dirty tricks professional graphic designers use to Photoshop those sweet Xbox game covers we always see. This one brings Michael Jordan out of retirement in NBA LIVE 10.

This is where you should be now:

Now we’re going to insert this image into the XBOX Game Case.  So open the “xboxgame.jpg” file that you downloaded at the beginning not into the current document we’ve been working in but just a new one.  Simply to Photoshop and select File > Open and select the xboxgame.jpg file.

Group all of the layers from the previous document we were working on by selecting them all in the layers palette and selecting Layer > Group Layers. Name the Layer “MJ Group.” Then drag this group into the new document with the Gears of War Xbox Game.

Hide the “MJ group” you just drug in new document (by deselecting the eye icon next to the folder layer) and using the rectangle tool (U) draw a rectangle over the Gears of War Graphic with a white fill:

Unhide the “MJ Group” and position it over the white rectangle you just drew (this isn’t a big deal because we can position it more precisely in a bit). Command + Left Mouse Click on the rectangle thumbnail of the shape layer in the layers palette to activate the selection.  While the selection is activated (showing what we call the “dancing ants”) select the “MJ Group” in the layers palette and then at the bottom of the layers palette click the Add Layer Mask Button.

After you click the Add Layer Mask Button You’ll notice a little thumbnail to the right of the group with a little chain link looking thing.  Unlink this simply by clicking on it to move the content of the group within the mask.  This way you can position the elements more precisely for the game cover.

We wanted to spice up the white banner that has the text “NBA LIVE 10″ in it so we’re going to dig in the MJ Group Folder and find the shape layer we created a little while back… you know… the curved one.  Then we’re going to add a Drop Shadow to it the same way we did for the EA Sports Logo.  Here are the Drop Shadow Settings:

We also thought it’d add a pro touch if we used the Brush Tool to add some black to the white banner.  We created a New Layer and called it “Banner Shading” above the white banner shape layer and then Command + Left Mouse Click the white shape layer’s thumbnail in the layers palette and then selected the “Banner Shading” Layer and with our round brush with a shape of 191 pixels and 0 hardness we painted in some shading.

After this… drag in some more of the standard pictures that go on video games boxes like  the “Rating Pending” image we included in the download at the beginning and YOU ARE DONE!  We hope you enjoyed this post.  Share it with the buttons below and leave some comments if you like it!