Digital Media///After Effects

After the latest workshop where we looked closely at a chosen video of kinetic typography i thought id put a few examples on here of which i liked and also show the kind of animation i am looking to create for my videos. 

This is the video i analyzed with Dave, a short clip from the film Zoolander, as an example of kinetic type it is one of the best iv seen since the beginning of this module.

Digital Media///Interactive Media

Iphone applications///

This form of digital media has really blown up since the iphone was released, new apps must be made every day, it is very much a busy bee at the moment. Most apps are novelty, game like however there are some more serious expensive apps. Examples of these are the SatNav system TomTom which costs something like £70.

After searching online i found an app that costs £900, it can apparently show and control live cctv footage. There was also one created which costs £1000 which actually does nothing. The app is rightly named, 'I am rich'. Wonderful. 

One of the best apps iv seen and used myself is the IDaft, this is a soundboard like application where you can play the beat for the Daft Punk song, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger and then choose which words are said, its genius.   

Storyboarding///

Few examples of general storyboards and the kind of storyboards i have been producing pre-production of my After Effects videos!

Digital Media///Film Intro's

Another form of digital media design is film introduction scenes, these vary in style, some being minimal in actual design, focusing on filmography and that and others which lean more towards design and the use of programs such as After Effects and such. 

Possibly the most famous movie intros are those for the James Bond films. This one for Casino Royal, is vastly design based, with use of what i imagine to be illustrator and photoshop made files imported into After Effects and so forth. 

Digital Media///Interactive Media: Computer Games

Another form of Interactive media is Computer Games, obviously this is a large are of interactive design so i just looked for examples of game menus, these being similar to DVD screen menus, 

    

                                    

These are stills from one of the best looking games around at the moment, Assassins creed. This is top design in my opinion, a beautiful style to go with a beautiful game.

Digital Media///Interactive Media: DVD Menus

Within Digital Media is the sub-genre Interactive Media, a form of this kind of media is DVD Menu's, these being interactive as it gives the user control of the screen, choosing what they please.

After searching online for images and clips of DVD Menus i found the blog of a female Designer, Tanya Creer.

Amongst designs for various digital and interactive media i found designs Creer has made for the film, Crank starring the very talented versatile actor, Jason Statham. 

These are stills of Creer's designs for the films DVD menu...

           

These Designs are quite minimal, simply consisting of a grey to white gradient, a standard image (JPEG), cheeky bit of text and simple line illustration. Very stylish, not only does it look good but it also suits the film genre.

Creer has designed many more DVD menu's one of the most known being the menu for Pans Labyrinth. 

      

   

Digital Media/// TV Idents

A common form of digital media, TV idents are the clips between programs advertising the channel its on,

These are just a few examples i found and liked on ye ole youtube, 

These two are old idents for Channel 4, quite simplistic but very relevant as they are quite alike what i will be creating for the Silent Movie brief with After Effects. One thing i do like about these is the use of colours, nice and bright! 

Another ident for channel 4 this one being a bit more modern, using a different form of motion graphics - Animation. 

This ident for the BBC is different to the previous videos as it is made from film, which is then taken into After Effects (i believe) to add the BBC logo. 

This ident which is running at the moment on Sky One uses an equal mix of film and motion graphics. This is the first ident that came to my mind when the topic was first talked about, i think it just works really well, an interesting idea different to anything else out there, what i could think of anyway. 

What is design for digital media?

Start of the new module and a new a brief,

As we are starting to look at motion graphics, and are going to create our own short movies iv put some examples i like on here!

First a clip from Anchorman, beautiful!

This i got sent from a friend a couple of weeks ago, All done in Rockwell, id love to achieve something along the lines of this. I specifically like the change of pace and screen placement throughout!  

Genius

Got sent this link from a friend who is a freelance web-designer, 

I need these in my life!

Lithographic Printing

Lithographic Printing 

A printing process in which the image are and the non-image area exist together on the same plane. It is based on the principle that oil and water do not mix readily.

Offset-Lithographic Printing 

This is the process similar to lithographic print ho

wever the inked plate first transfers the image to a rubber blanket, this blanket then transfers the image to the paper or desired stock. 

This is the most common form of lithographic printing and there are two varieties of the process, these are web and sheetfed. 

The difference i shall find out shortly! 

Offset-Lithographic Anatomy 

-Inking System 

-Dampening System

-Printing Unit

-Infeed and Sheet Control

-Plates

-Blankets

Spot Varnish

Spot Varnish

This is the process that adds a special effect to a printed piece by applying a varnish to specific areas. The effect of this process leaves a shiney surface onto the desired area, this then making it easier to read when held at a certain angle to the light. 

The varnish itself is a liquid coating and can be chosen to give several effects such as, gloss, matte and satin. 

varnishing othwerwise known as coating or sealing is most frequently and succesfully applied to coated papers.  

Varnishes available; 

Gloss Varnish

this is often used to improve photographs as they reflect light thus making the colours seem richer and more vivid. Often used in promotional print work. 

Matte Varnishing 

This gives the printed surface a non-glossy smooth look. This is often used to soften an image, it scatters the light and reduces any glare. 

Silk/Satin Varnishing 

This is the middle ground between gloss and matte varnishing, making not as glossy as a full gloss but not as subtle as a matt.

UV Varnishing 

This coating achieves a very striking type of coating onto the desired material.  The varnish acquired through this process gives a noticeably richer and more luxurious. This can also either be applied as a spot varnish or an all over coating. 

Die Cut

Die Cut

die cutting is the process used to manufacture large numbers of the same shape from thin material, in the context of print production this material generally being different stocks of paper. 

The process can be done on either a rotary press or a flatbed press. The main difference between the two is that the flatbess press is not fast as rotary however the tools are cheaper, making it cheaper to produce from. 

CMYK

CMYK

-Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key

Often referred to as process or four colour, it is the method for colour printing and is known as a subtractive colour model with RGB being an additive model. CMYK is called a subtractive colour as it explains the mixing of inks creating a full range of colours, these colours caused by the subtraction of light wavelengths and the reflection of others. Subtractive models as a whole start with white light, the CMYK model in the context of printing starts with white paper (the whole, unable to print white). Out of the colour modes, the CMYK mode has the smallest colour gamete.  

Halftoning 

Halftoning is the process within CMYK printing, where tiny dots of each colour is printed in a pattern, which to the human eye look as though it is all one colour. This enables the possibility of printing a full range of colours.

This is the opposite process to Spot colour printing as that ink is printed fully, not in tiny dots.

Spot Colour

Spot Colour

-Special Colour, Tint

In general spot colours are used to highlight certain parts of a print, whether it be a logo, a headline or decorative design as they tend to stand/pop out and are Mostly used in Offset litho printing. In contrast to 4-print process(CMYK) spot colours are custom pre-mixed inks, they are opaque and therefore do not overprint well. Overprinting being clear in the name, when you print over existing ink.

         Spot colours are specified by colour matching systems, the most commonly used of them being the Pantone Matching System(PMS). It is down to systems like this how spot colours have become classified, for example, within the PMS, Spot Colours are each given a name or code, E.G. Pantone 2905C. This system can be used in several ways, firstly there are swatch books which give an example of the colours with its code. They can also be used within Adobe programs, with Illustrator, to access spot colours simply bring out the Swatch tab, click on the scroll down menu, select swatch library then select colour books and there you shall find a list of different Pantone books. When on photoshop to access the Pantone booklets, go onto colour picker and select colour library and then again is the list of booklets! 

The method of printing with Spot colours can be both expensive and cheap! If the product goes to print which has been made to use the 4-print process plus one or more spot colours the price if obviously going to increase. However it is possible to print products with just one or two spot colours therefore making it generally cheaper than using 4-process printing. 

What is quite interesting about spot colours is that they are used for printing security based products such as passports and money, the reason being is that the colours are hard to replicate and forge. 

Spot Colour, Photoshop

Heres what can be done with Spot colour on photoshop.

The process, import an image, greyscale, duotone, then choose a colours from the colour library, the image below is made of just two (spot) colours, black and magenta.

Spot Colour, Illustrator

Since having the presentations at the beginning of the year, i found an interest in Spot Colour.

My explanation of a Spot Colour, also known as a Special Colour, is a non-premixed ink which unlike CMYK isn't made of tiny dots of different colours, it is instead made with just one. 

Choosing a special/spot colour you need to have a pantone booklet.

This pantone booklet allows you to see a wide range of colours each one having a name. These names often being 'Pantone' then a number and then a letter!

  

These examples are images made with Illustrator, Firstly creating the image, then to open the selection of pantone, open the swatches tab, open new swatch, then colour books, then it is here where you can choose from a selection of Spot colours. 

Print Methods

Right so because my presentation wasn't really focused on the proper thing im just going to blog some stuff on the fundamental printing methods.

1.

Monotone, So monotone is made with one colour, in this example above this colour being Cyan. The process of this being importing a photo into Photoshop, changing the image mode to Greyscale. 

Greyscale- An image made purely of one black with tints of that colour. This also being a monotone image.  

 

2.

This image is Duotone, so using two colours, moving forward with the monotone image previously this started with Cyan and then adding Magenta.

3.

Moving the image on adding another colour, this time being a green, so this is an image made purely of a cyan, a magenta and a green.

This is a quadtone image, again just adding another colour onto the tritone, this time the image is now made of 4 colours, yellow, cyan, magenta and green. 

From here the next step forward is using full colour, CMYK.

Design for Print Based Distribution

Then looking at Godskitchen a similar company to Gatecrasher, producing the same forms of design, CD covers an Promo flyers etc

CD Artwork

Promo

Design for Print Based Distribution

Firstly i looked at Gatecrasher, and the prints they design.

These being CD album artwork and promo prints.

Booklet, Album Artwork

Club Promo Prints

Design for Print Based Distribution

Unfortunately my presentation i produced was in a sense, wrong! I Kind of focused on the Design of print, not the techniques which i see as a fair assumption from reading the brief we were given but not a lot of people saw it as i did so i could just be relatively retarded! 

Anyhow in my presentation i looked at specifically two similar companies, Gatecrasher and Godskitchen, both produce CD's and flyers/leaflets promoting their clubs and what not. 

I also showed a few examples of exciting print designs,

This is an example of something that essentially is a one colour print onto cardboard stock, but i think it looks sick!  Simple and effective.

I then looked in general at CD cover artwork, this being something that is printed in large batches, from the seminar the other day i presume they are printed web sheet litho, as they are printed in large bulky amounts! However I could be wrong.

I also tend to like a lot of this kind of design, this specific example being a photoshop crafted piece of work!  Lovely stuff.