T354 - Week 1 - Spring 2013

Agenda:

• Course Introduction
• Pre-test
• Graphics overview, theory & application
• Intro to Photoshop
• File/pixel sizes
• Color Modes
• Play with Photoshop

What this class is about:

In T354 you’ll be making graphics and animations for television. By the end of the semester you should have built a portfolio of graphics and animations.

This is a production class, focusing on the tools and techniques used to make graphics and animations for TV. The main tools used will be Photoshop and After Effects with some Adobe Illustrator. If students express interest in some other topic we’ll try to squeeze it in.

Review syllabus, schedule, critique forms & assignments

Important note concerning graphics and audible/visual design elements: Please keep the design of your work 100% original and always maintain legal integrity. While there are times that it's appropriate to incorporate existing artwork into your projects (animating a logo for a company), please consider this carefully. Your projects must highlight what you can do- not what others can do. You must rely on your own creativity and design skills- not existing images and clip art. Except for the assignments where I ask that you to specifically incorporate other work, please keep your projects 100% original.

Student introductions

Pre-test & Bio---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open your favorite text editing software and make a document called "pretest". Make sure it is called "pretest".

write down:

• Your name
• Academic focus / other interests
• One ad, DVD, TV show, or movie with production design/cool graphics that you love
• Three specific things you’d like to learn in T354.
• Describe any projects you'll be working on this semester that you'd like to make graphics for.

Answer six questions:

• What are the pixel dimensions of a standard-definition DVD-Video?
• What are the pixel dimensions of 1080i HDTV?
• What is the frame rate of both 1080i and NTSC (60i) television signal?
• What are the three primary colors used to make video and computer graphics?
• What is the aspect ratio of high-definition television?
• What is an alpha channel?

Log into Oncourse and look in the "Resources" area. Go to the Week1 folder. Make a folder named exactly like your IU login. (Mine would be jarkraus.) Save your pretest document there.

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What are we looking at when we see graphics on TV or in the theatre?

Maybe it's a keyed lower third, sports statistics, a spaceship, or someone shooting fire from their eyes.

These graphics are made with different types of hardware and software:

Character generators are designed for real time "live" TV production. (Inscriber, WriteDeko, Chyron/Lyric, Boris Graffiti) Simple versions support sequencing of pages with text and shapes, while more powerful versions allow for real-time painting, animated graphic elements and video captures and replays.

Paint & drawing programs let you create flat (2D) objects and artwork. Examples include Adobe Illustrator, Fractal Painter & Photoshop. Photoshop is likely the most useful and used software in the world of web, print, multimedia and video. (If you are serious about design, your time learning Photoshop will be well-spent.)

3D modeling & layout programs let you create three-dimensional objects and animate them in 3D space. If you see an object from alternate sides, chances are good it was made in a 3D program.

Movies like Star Trek, X-Men, etc. rely on programs like Lightwave, Maya, Softimage and 3D Studio Max to create the ships, people and places. But it's not just for sci-fi. More and more productions are using 3D to create organic, or real-life looking places, animals, and people.

Compositing and animation programs (such as After Effects) work mainly in 2 dimensional space, but are offering more and more 3D capabilities with each release. Even in 2D space, they can provide the illusion of working in 3D. Here are a few After Effects animations:

• Krista concert opener
• UITS "On the Move"

Before making graphics, one must be able to define the basics, such as color and text.

Color

Color can be objectively described in a number of ways. One of the most common methods is using the HSB model:

Hue (the actual color)
Saturation (the strength or intensity, or how far it’s removed from gray)
Brightness (how dark or light)

Color Modes

But you can also describe color in other ways- depending on what color mode you are working in. Two color modes you should be familiar with are:

Additive Color (RGB)
Subtractive Color (CMYK)

Additive Color is the color system used for computer graphics, TV and lighting design. This is the color mode used to create graphics for TV and web. It's referred to as additive since lights are mixed or combined to make the various colors.

The primary colors (think of them as light sources) are:

• Red
• Green
• Blue

Mix them together and you get white.

Subtractive Color is the color system used for printing. It's referred to as subtractive because the colors absorb (subtract) some light and reflect others.

The primary colors (think paints or inks) are:

• Cyan
• Magenta
• Yellow

Mix them together and you get black. (K stands for "key" or black plate.)

Bitmap and Vector graphics

Bitmap or raster images, use a grid or array of pixels to represent an image. The grid is made up of squares or pixels. Each pixel is given a specific color and brightness. If you enlarge a bitmap graphic, you will eventually see the grid.

Digital photos, scanned images, and captured video frames are by neccesity bitmap graphics.

Vector graphics are made up of shapes, lines and curves that are defined mathematically.

When you draw a circle or create a piece of text with a vector-based application (such as Adobe Illustrator), it keeps track of the lines and angles that make up objects. From this mathematical data, it draws the display. We can scale a piece of vector artwork up to any size, and it will still retain its quality.

Fonts or typefaces are examples of vector graphic objects. You can scale fonts up as much as you want and the edges will never become jagged.

Anti-aliasing

You can turn this feature on and off. It produces intermediately shaded pixels to smooth out the appearance of jagged edges. Note the anti-aliasing which is apparent on the enlarged image on the right hand side.

Text

Text is the most important element used to convey information in graphics. Whether a lower third, the price of a product, stock market figures crawling across the screen, or the final scrolling credits at the end of a production, knowing how to properly use text is essential to graphic production.

It's also possible to make compelling pieces of art based primarily on text. Check out these examples:

• http://vimeo.com/3829682 ("Like, you know" written by Taylor Mali)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mnvvVi4HaI (based on Lock, Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels dialog)

Serif and Sans-serif

Serifs are small details found on the end of some fonts. In typography we can describe a font as either serif or sans-serif. (Sans means without.)

Arial and Helvetica are examples of sans serif typefaces.
Times and Courier are examples of seriffed typefaces.

Typographers generally believe that large blocks of text are more easily read by using a seriffed typeface. This is why books, newspapers and magazines primarily use seriffed typefaces in the main body of text.

Tracking, kerning & leading

Tracking refers to the horizontal spacing of an entire group of letters on the same line.

Kerning is the space between individual letters. For example you’d want to kern a small case letter “o” to fit underneath the capital letter “T”.

Leading (pronounced like bedding) is the vertical spacing between lines of text.

File Formats:

Photoshop lets you work on and save in a number of different color modes and file formats. If you open a file in Photoshop and select "Save As" from the file menu, you will get a screen similar to this:

• Photoshop (.PSD) is the default file format and can support multiple layers and alpha channels.
• BMP (BitMaPped) is a Windows compatible image format (supports alpha channels)
• Compuserve GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) only supports up to 256 colors (web-friendly & supports alpha channels).
• Dicom (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is a standard for viewing and viewing medical imaging files.
• EPS Encapsulated PostScript: Can describe both vector & bitmapped graphics.
  Support by virtually all page layout and desktop publishing programs
• FXG (Flash XML Graphic)
• IFF (Interchange File Format) was developed by Electronic Arts
• JPEG: (.JPG) Joint Photographic Experts Group: uses variable compression (*lossy). (Web-friendly but no alpha channels.) Does support 24 bit (true) color.
  • * Lossy vs lossless: Whenever you open something (like a JPEG) and save it again it loses some detail. This is know as lossy.
• PCX (Personal Computer eXchange): PC based image format developed for PC Paintbrush
• Photoshop (.PDF) Portable Document Format: Used by Adobe Acrobat. No alpha channel support. Notable as it's widely used for both web and print.
• Photoshop Raw: A format with unprocessed (raw) data from digital cameras and film scanners.
• PICT (.PCT) - Widely used on Macs (Supports 24-bit color and alpha channels)
• Pixar: graphic file type developed by Pixar
• PNG (Portable Network Graphic): Supports 24 bit color. (web friendly - supports alpha channels)
• Portable Bit Map: A format designed to facilitate transfering of B&W images via ASCI text
• Scitex: Developed for Scitex equipment used mainly in desktop publishing.
• TIFF (.TIF) tagged image file format: Widely used by all image apps (Supports alpha channels)
• Targa (.TGA) Video format designed around Targa cards. Supported by most PC-based graphic applications. 32-bit color. Supports alpha channels.
• Photoshop DCS (Desktop color separation) based on EPS fiels, used for desktop publishing.

(File formats in bold are commonly used.)

Message

Graphics are a form of visual communication. They convey a message. The message should be decipherable by your viewer. Ideally it should be clear and easy to understand.

The graphics you make in this class should always have a purpose or a message. This is because in TV we are focused on Applied Art, not Fine Art.

Aesthetics

A solid understanding of Photoshop & After Effects is a great place to start, but it’s not worth much without a minimal sense of graphic design skills. Obviously, the TV graphics we make should look good. But what is “good?” How do we identify a tastefully composed graphic?

Like painting or photography, TV is a 2-dimensional medium. Most of the rules that apply to classic art similarly can be applied to TV. Composition can be described as the orderly arrangement of elements within a scene.

• Static Composition deals with fixed images such as painting and still graphics
• Dynamic Composition goes a step further & takes time and motion into account.

Rules of composition and color are very useful to the video graphic designer. But the screens of our computer and television monitors emit light, and allow for movement. The entire color system that video and film graphics are based on (additive color system) is counter to that of the print world (subtractive color system).

Subjective and objective analysis for judging the aesthetics of TV graphics is weak. While personal opinions will always vary, I’ve identified some general guidelines that serve as a good starting point.

Make sure you are familiar with Jim's Graphic Guidelines!

For those looking for a good visual design book I recommend Robin William's Non-Designer's Design Book. This is a wonderful, inexpensive primer on how to approach layout. Four basic principles include:

• Contrast
• Repetition
• Alignment
• Proximity

 

Photoshop Tour

• Main interface
• Tools (keyboard shortcuts, foreground background etc)
• Tool option bar
• Windows (remember the small arrow on right hand side)
• Navigator, options, info
• Swatches, colors, brushes
• Layers, channels, paths window
• Preferences: pixels are more helpful than inches
• Color modes: Use RGB for video/web graphic work
• Color picker
• Layers (making new, merging, rasterizing,)
• Text (kerning, leading, tracking baseline shift)

In-Class Photoshop Exercise - 5 points

Create a 1080i-sized TV graphic that promotes a show or event using the following criteria:

• Use only two colors. Most TV graphics use ony a few colors that work well together. You can come up with variations on a color (hue) by varying the amount of saturation and brightness.
• Use only shapes (circles, squares, etc.) and at least two separate text elements.
• Follow the technical guidelines in Jim's Graphic Tips. Can you put the principles of CRAP to work? (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity)
• Place a full-size JPEG copy of your Photoshop document and the original in your week 1 folder in the OnCourse T354 Resources/Week 1 folder. Be sure to save both files named as your username. (I.E. jarkraus.psd & jarkraus.jpg)

A note about working with layers and saving copies- Always keep your original layers intact. You may need to manipulate these later & make changes. You can flatten copies for display or distribution.

Optional exercises:

If students are really struggling with Photoshop, they should work through some optional exercises. There is a good tutorials on Lynda.com. There is a tour of the interface in the Photoshop CS Help PDF. There is also a good tour in the "help" section. If you have PS Classroom in a Book, work through “Tour” and “Working with Selections” tutorial. “Layer Basics” is also a good introductory exercise.

Vocabulary (know these)

• Anti-aliasing – You can turn this feature on and off. It produces intermediately shaded pixels to smooth out the appearance of jagged edges
• Bitmap & vector graphics
• CMYK (subtractive) color mode
• Kerning –Adjustment of the space between a pair of letters on the same line. Proportional fonts typically "auto kern". In this manner a small letter o can be tucked under the top of the capital letter T (To). Most design programs let you adjust the kerning between two characters by positioning the cursor between them and then holding down the option key while pressing the left/right arrow key.
• Leading – the space between different lines of text
• RGB (additive) color mode
• Sans-serif type
• Serif type
• Tracking - similar to kerning in that it is a control of horizontal spacing. However tracking controls the spacing of a entire line of text, not just a pair of characters.

Homework (due next Tuesday by the start of lab):

• Burrows & Wood reading (Chapter 10 PDF file)
• Graphic Analysis Homework: In this exercise you will find and analyze 2 graphics that are used in TV commercials, titles, segues or promos.
  • Record/TIVO a commercial TV channel for 20 minutes or so in order to capture some graphics. Alternatively, you can use Hulu or download some TV commercials or programs from a website. Find two examples of graphics that you find pleasing. One should be simple (E.g. Apple ad) while the other can be complex (E.g. promo for Nature documentary). The graphics must be from a broadcast TV stream or signal (not a banner ad). Using a screen capture program or digital camera, grab screenshots of the two different graphics. Make sure that one is complex and the other is relatively simple.
  • Write an 2-3 paragraph analysis of the two TV graphics. Include JPEG screen captures. Consider the following: What was its purpose? What colors were used? What can you say in terms of composition, texture, contrast, font selection, foreground or background elements? Were they effective? Were they pleasing to you? Why or why not?
• NOTE: You will turn in your homework electronically (via Oncourse). It should be in the form of a Word doc or PDF. (Alternatively you can supply a link to a web page or blog entry that you have created.) Please make a folder called your username in the Resources/Week2/ folder. Place a copy of your homework (or link to your web page) inside your folder. Please make sure it is called "analysis".

 

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