Week 7

19-10-2010 Encore Exercise

We created a basic animation of an image moving across the canvas in Photoshop. The process we used to create the animation is called Tweening. This tool is found by selecting , Window, then, Animation. When pressed, an Animation box will apear at the bottom of the screen, below the canvas and the tween tool is found there.                                     

This is the icon of the tweening tool.

The Tweening tool animates the image by creating frames in between the beginning and the end position of the image. After saving as a .mov file, we imported it as a timeline into Encore.
           I had a play around with this tool by creating animations with other images and found it good to create simple, cartoon animations.

Week 6

15-10-2010 Encore Tutorial

Exercises 

 I completed exercise 8 which involved importing video and audio as a time line and using other features found on the monitor panel. This is an image of one of the features of the monitor panel that I used. It controls the zoom of the video.

14-10-2010 DVD Menu Research

Resources and Budget , Production Techniques, Legal and Ethical Considerations

As part of my DVD Menu Research, I completed the research on the

• Resources and Budget - Involves how much a graphic designer chargers a day and per project.
• Techniques - Techniques using Photoshop and Encore.
• Legal and Ethical Considerations - Representation of individuals and groups. Copyright notice / warning. Permission from individuals to use pictures or videos of them.

Production Pitch
I started producing a Production Pitch on Photoshop. It will include information about the production of the product and the planning stages that have been done to reach the final product.

12-10-2010 DVD Menu Research

Client and Audience Needs

Today, as part of our DVD Menu Design project, I completed the client and audience needs, and also completed the target audience parts in college time. Out of college hours, I completed the Flowchart for the 6 DVD Menu screens and also added some extra annotation to my sketches to improve the quality of them. Completing these tasks kept me up to date with my work which will help me in the production stage of the project.

12-10-2010 Encore Tutorial

 Exercises

To further our experience and knowledge with using Encore, we completed a task which involved creating a menu screen in Photoshop and then importing it as a menu to encore. This was good because it gives us practice of what we will be doing in the future when creating our Menus.

Week 5

07-10-2010 Encore Tutorial

 Exercises

To further our understanding of encore, we completed exercise 1 independently. This exercise involved importing video and linking it to a menu.

Steps taken to complete exercise

• Create a new project on our external hard drives.
• Set up the project correctly by selecting the correct settings such as choosing DVD, and setting PAL as the Television Standard.
• Next thing was to import the video as a timeline.
• After having done this, I selected the blue notes menu as my front end menu.
• I then selected the first button of the menu and used the pickwhip tool to link the button to the video file.
• Then, I set the Menu as first play by clearing first play from the video file, and setting first play to the menu. First play is indicated by a little yellow arrow in the top right hand corner.
• We then previewed the menu,and exited the preview.
• After this , we checked the menu and video and it listed end action not set as a problem. To resolve this, I set the blue notes menu as the end action so after the video stopped, the menu screen shows. This was done by using the pickwhip tool. I dragged the pickwhip from the end action to the blue notes menu.

 One of the most useful things I have learnt from this exercise was how to set up a new project. This screen shot is of the set-up screen with the settings set correctly. The naming of the project is up to the user.

07-10-2010 Digital Graphics

Photoshop User Guide

 We gathered information today to put in our Photoshop user guide. We had to research...

• the difference between the file formats .bmp , .psd , .jpg , .tif , .gif
• the differences between Raster and Vector images
• how images are displayed on screen compared to paper ( CMYK and RGB colour modes )
• explain the different ways to capture an image eg scanners, memory cards, cameras, and the different resolutions that should be used to display captured images on the internet.

I gathered some information and made a start on my article, however I will need more time to complete it.

05-10-2010 DVD Menu Research

Contingency Plan

A contingency plan is a document that identifies potential problems and resolutions specific to what is being created or produced. We produced a contingency plan specific to producing our DVD Menus. We listed three potential problems and resolutions under the three stages of production. The stages of production are...

• Pre-production (planning)
• Production (filming, photography)
• Post-production (editing)

This was very useful as it makes us think about how to avoid problems and what to do if they occur. Overall, I know this will make the project run more smoothly.

05-10-2010 DVD Menu Research

Initial Ideas

 
After producing the contingency plan, I came up with three initial ideas for my independent thriller themed DVD Menu. I came up with either a spy themed menu, a gambling themed menu, and a superhero themed menu.

05-10-2010 Encore Tutorial

 Introduction to Encore cs3

We looked at Adobe Encore cs3 software today, a package used to create DVD and Blu-ray projects. It was only a short workshop, giving us some time to get used to what the software does, by learning what tools and features are available, and we completed a short task of importing video and linking it to a play button. It looks like a good software package and I look forward to using it more.