Photoshop pratice Animation

Today we have been practicing Animation with images from the Internet. My first practice was of a dolphin swimming in the sea which i was pleased with. After this practice i got the hang of it quickly & learnt a lot, therefore i advanced myself & done another one with the Genre Horror like my DVD Menu, & added titles etc. This is how I'd like my DVD Menu to be similar to this in relation to location, character & colour scheme & font.
I added an image of a little girl & put the girl lacking with opacity appearing as a ghost, & then duplicated this layer & made the opacity more, to make her appear more, then added layers in between which then made the effect of her faded in and out like a ghost.

Proposal Update

For the final product for our DVD Menu we were asked to present our pitch/proposal in either Powerpoint Presentation or a newly introduced website called Prezi.com. I have now completed my Proposal presentation on Prezi.com, which included the following options of my DVD Menu:

• Genre
• Target Audience
• Colour theme
• Fonts & Existing Fonts
• Textures & Existing Textures
• Location
• Budget
• Mood board
• Images & Existing images
• Layout
• Character
• Props
• Roll over effect

I was introduced to Prezi as an option to present my proposal & at first impression, my initial thought was it looked confusing but after practice i soon got the hang of it. I enjoyed using Prezi & found it very interesting & makes presenting work fun. I'm glad i chose Prezi as apposed to PowerPoint Presentation, because Prezi is different, fun & easy to use after a while. I'm pleased with my final Presentation of my proposal. This is a print screen shot of my proposal which i will be presenting to my class.

Final Idea Development

Today's lesson i finalised my final idea's on my DVD Menu, progressing of my presentation of my proposal on Prezi, finished of Contiguency Plan, Printing of finished work:

• Contiguency Plan: I have completed of my Contiguency plan, which will help me through my project, as if finding any problems, i have a safe solution. Through the plan, it suggests possible problems i could face, but now i have thought ahead of myself, hopefully there will be no problems occuring through creating my DVD Menu
• Proposal: I am creating my propasal in a presentation called Prezi, i have added some research into my genre, & added all my initial ideas for my DVD Menus, including; font, images, location, textures which i'd like to use in my DVD Menu.
• Initial Idea's for my DVD Menu: I have completed my final ideas including, the font's i'd like to use, images, location, textures etc. I have also completed the research on my target audience & the legal & ethical issues when producing a DVD Menu. I also researched into prices of DVD Menu's, & completed the budget of my DVD Menu.
• I also managed to print of my Annotated moonboards, & my deconstructed movie posters on a word document.

I'm happy with the work completed so far & my inital ideas.
Target: I need to finish of my Prezi Presentation.

Progress on Encore

Through progressing on Encore, i have created a demo of a DVD Menu. Created on Adobe Photoshop, i learnt all the aspects through layers, shapes & the image. I learnt how to add shadows, & how important it is putting each title into folders, as they get quite editted. This lesson on Encore & how to create the basics of a DVD Menu on Adobe Photoshop helped me a lot, & developed my skills in Photoshop. I now am able on my own, to create a DVD Menu, & i know how to change titles, colours, shapes etc.

Introduction to Encore

Today we were introduced to a programme called Adobe Encore which i will be using to create my DVD Menu, i had never used this programme before, & my first impression was it looked confusing, but once getting to know tools etc, it was very interesting. Through creating a DVD Menu, we will need to create it on Photo shop then import it into Encore. Through learning the basics on the programme of Encore i have learnt the following so far:

• I learnt how links are made between buttons within a DVD Menu, & i linked a moving image to the DVD Menu of 'ninjas', which then played a clip of ninjas on the DVD Menu, which looked really good.
• We have been introduced to a Hard Drive which i have learnt, to create folders on & save work onto.
• I learnt how to create the timeline of the DVD Menu, therefore every second of the clip appears & you can edit & manipulate any particular part.
• I identified Shortcuts on the Keyboard, which makes it easier & sufficient; saving projects by using Ctrl + S, this makes it easier for me as i can save as i go along quick & easy. Another easy shortcut was Ctrl + Alt + Space Bar, which allows you to preview so far produced work.
• I also learnt how to import successful a project, by simply right-clicking on the left hand side of the screen & where projects are listed, click down to 'import as' & you can open a file.
• I also learn that when importing a file, it is important to use the correct option of how it will upload. It is best to use DVD Menu & Timeline, to see each step of work progress & to have the ability to edit any part at any point.

With praticing Encore today, it helped me a great deal, as with just simply recieving the helpful hand book, i may have struggled, but actually using Encore as a 'test project' i found it very useful & i understood it clearly. Therefore when starting my DVD Menu, i will have the skills & ability to produce a successful Menu.

Final Idea for my DVD Menu

I’m creating my own independent DVD Menu, including my own images thrilling images. I have chosen Horror, to relate to my Movie Poster, & I’m going to use colours, textures/ elements to relate to my genre. I’ve put into consideration the client & the audience needs of the target audience for Horror.

Title: 

My movie title is ‘21’, the same as my movie poster. I chose numbers, as from researching horrors, their titles can be catches & they’re questionable for the audience. I found some with numbers titles such as ‘23’, a thriller with Jim Carey. My whole title on my movie poster & my DVD menu, is ‘2 sides 1 person’, but to shorten it and make the audience intrigued & wanted to know answers, I simply put it as ‘21’. I felt this title is simple but interesting.

Colour Scheme:  

Horror films use the colours, black & white, reds & dark colours, to associate with the genre. The colours I will use is, black & white, red, i feel the black portrays the darkness of the nature of the genre, the white to imply the innocence which could be in danger in the film & also white stands out & contrasts well with the other colours. Lastly, the colour red which i feel is really effective when using the genre Horror, as it represents blood which implies danger, also i feel this colour is very bold & stands out well.

Font: 

The font will be bold, red colours to relate to blood. The style will be ‘Monotype Corsiva’  as I feel looks almost old & interesting. Of different sizes & colours with white lines slicing through the writing which reminds me of barbed-wire which is dangerous.

Textures:  

From researching textures, I know I’d like to include ‘Crime scene’ tape across my DVD Menu, with ‘duck tape’, as the background to my titles. Almost like a plan from a psychotic or a crime investigation board. Textures such as Warning Signs, Red paint spattered like blood also portray the genre Horror, & imply danger & death. I also feel textures such as these, really stand out & intrigue the audiences eyes.

Warning tape to imply something bad has happened,
& danger & death is close



Tape to portray Horror



Red paint splattered to portray Blood



A warning danger sign, to portray the danger of
Horror

DVD Menu

We're now investigating & researching into DVD Menu's as our next assignment. We have looked at a number of DVD Menu e.g. Hangover, Fahrenheit 9/11 etc. I've learnt there are elements & code & conventions of DVD Menu's to imply the Genre of the film. Elements, Codes & conventions such as;

• Rollover effects (When you select an option & it highlights)
• Colour Scheme
• Images
• Fonts
• Animation
• Textures

These all would relate & link to imply the nature of the Genre. E.g. For the Genre of Horror the elements would be similar as the following;

• Rollover effect- White font to Red
• Colour Scheme- Red, White & Black
• Images- Dark & Scary
• Fonts- Bold
• Animation- A character appearing from the DVD Menu
• Textures- Blood, Tape, Knifes etc.

This is an example of the elements which would portray the genre Horror. Horror is very dark & scary, therefore the colours would have to be dark to imply this. The colour Red is always popular when showing Horror, as it represents blood & blood is closely seen with Horror as it implys death & danger.

We've been given the choise of Indie Horror, Indie Drama, SCI-FI & Childrens Animation, i've listed the elements & codes & conventions which would be seen & used to portray the specific genre.

Children’s Animation

Colour Scheme:
Children like bold, bright, exciting colours to keep them engaged. Children can be easily distracted so it’s key to keep them engaged. The colour Scheme for children; Bright yellows, reds, blues, greens.

Font:
To keep the children excited, fonts should also be big bold & bright. Therefore Big bold fonts, using the colour scheme of bright colours.

Images:
Moving images to keep them intrigued in the DVD Menu of bright, happy characters; cartoons. Animations of bright characters.

SCI-FI

Colour Scheme:   
Dark Metallic Green & Black, Greys. SCI-FI is very scientific & related to space with is black. When presenting SCI-FI films these colours are associated, therefore, I would use Black & dark metallic greens to present my film.

Font:
The fonts used are very hi-tech, modern & scientific relating to the science-fiction genre, therefore I would use ‘computer’ scientific font to enhance the modern, hi-tech theme of the genre.

Images:
Images are very hi-tech & technological relating to the science fiction genre. I would use moving images of hi-tech, modern elements, such as robots, computers etc. The DVD Menu would be very technological & hi-tech. Heavy Animations.

Horror

Colour Scheme: 
Horror films use dark colours to relate to the dark nature of the film. Black & white, red are associated with Horror films I found, as it can represent blood. However I would use Black  & yellow to make the characters glow & stand out.

Font:
The Fonts use are very big, bold & dark to stand out & to relate to the genre. I would use big, bold yellow titles to stand out.

Images:
Images are also dark & scary to relate to the genre. I would use Static images & Moving images to show scary clips from the movie, & shocking static images. The images & moving images would be dark & bold, to scare & intrigue the audience.

Drama

 Colour Scheme:
Drama films base on realistic characters dealing with emotional themes such as; Drugs, Alcohol, Love, Religion, Crime etc. Therefore the colour scheme would range heavily, but would still use very bold colours to emphasise the drama. For example Love would use Red colours & hearts, where as Crime would use darker colours such as black & yellow. I would use Red to imply a Theme of Love to stand out & contrast with a white background to also portray the innocence and drama.

Font:
The fonts would also range a great deal, as drama as such a wide range of dramatic aspects & themes. I would use bold red fonts to relate to the red colour scheme & contrast with the White background.

Images:
Images would again, range as the themes vary, however as my theme would be Love, i would take images of couples together ' in love' & use poses of them kissing, cuddling, etc to imply the nature Love & relate to the colour scheme & font.

After thorough research into these 4 genres, I've decided to choose Horror as i find it interesting with the use of dark colours, dark images & textures such as tape, knifes, blood etc. I personally enjoy Horror films & how all the elements relate & enhance the genre, however i haven't chosen Horror because of this, I've chosen this as from researching DVD Menu the movie 'Crash' a Drama Thriller, used Polaroid Images to portray the characters within the Film, i really like the use of this, & from researching into it, i feel Polaroid Images remind me of Crime Scene Investigation, where they have images like this of the victims, therefore i decided I'd like my DVD Menu to include Polaroid Images to enhance the scary dark side of the genre. I'm still researching into Horror in-depth & have found textures I'd like to use such as, Duck tape, Warning Tape, Blood etc.

This is a deconstruction of the film 'Friday the 13th' which i've highlighted the colour scheme, font, images etc. All the elements portrayed & the feel of this DVD Menu is what i'd like my DVD Menu to similarly look like.

More Research into the 4 Different Genres of; Indie Drama, Indie Horror, Children's Animation, SCI-Fi, These are screen shots of the pages from Microsoft Document;



Skills Profile

I will need to include in my Blog over the next two years

• Skills i have already
• Skills i have improved on
• Skills i'd like to improve on
• Goals
• Achieved Goals
• My Targets
• My Work in Progress

After my first week of college, we analysed posters, moodboards, and draw 3 sketches.
Today we used Photoshop to analyse existing movie posters which i have done before but did enjoy analysing & deconstructing elements put into the poster for the audience.
I have used Photoshop before to create Magazine front covers, double page spreadsheet, edit a high number of photographs, but today i learnt even more then i did, with hidden tools & short cuts.

Positives

• Can use Photoshop & all the different tools & techniques
• Create a moodbaord and annotate onto
• Short cuts on Photoshop
• Can create a successful A4 Canvas
• To use the 150 resolution for a successful image
• Learnt how to change backgrounds of images without touching the image
• How to change canvas to landscape/portrait

Consideration for my own movie poster

• The main subject/attraction of my movie poster, rule of thirds
• Colour & Composition to relate to my genre
• All elements to relate to my genre of Thriller
• An attractive, striking image
• Font bold & eye-catching
• Adding age certificate, main star in the film

Goals

• I hope to make a successful movie poster
• All elements of my movie poster to relate to the genre of thriller
• Learn short cuts for Photoshop
• Learn how to cut & edit out certain aspects of images

Movie Poster

                           This is my final Movie Poster, '21' with the genre 'thriller'.

This is my completed Film Poster. I have learnt many skills & developed on my knowledge of Photoshop through making my movie poster. I have used Photoshop heavily for past projects & coursework, however i learnt a great deal on this project. I learnt clearly how to use layers on Photoshop, which i knew how to but didn't understand fully, & now i can successful add layers on top of eachother.

I also learnt the use & important of file formats. I learnt that PSD Files is the file in which it will save all layers which you can therefore go back to, edit & annotate to. Also learning when uploading an image on the internet & viewing it successful as a thumbnail in Documents, is to save the image as a JPEG, therefore i learnt to flatten all images first, so all layers merged into one final image.

I'm very pelased with my final Movie Poster as the image i had in my head before hand & through sketches, i knew exactly the image i'd like to fulfil the thriller/horror genre. The polaroid image effect i was going for i really like, & each element of the poster from the colours of the font, to the images, which the woods one i took myself of my friend in her prom dress, to the title, added credit & age certificate. All the elements of a real Movie Poster. I learnt alot of skills from this exercise & thoroughly enjoyed it.



Adobe Photoshop CS3 & File/Sound Format & Regional Codes

Adobe Photoshop CS3

Before i started my course, i had a wide knowledge on Photoshop, as through school i did Photography & i used photoshop heavily to edit and enhance GCSE images & enjoyed editing images so spent time at home editing my own pictures. I picked it up and pretty much taught myself as i went. I also did work experience in Venture Photography Shop where i work, which i edited real customers images, and they showed me tools and easy short cuts to edit quicker. I love editing images, which i do regularly for college work & my own family pictures. I enjoy the process & seeing the final production of what I've done, in photoshop you can really enhance and change an image to stand out. My favorite is to change the image colour to black & white & putting in colour to aspects such as flowers, eye colour etc, this effect really stands out and i use a lot. Photoshop for me, is amazing, i really enjoy editing images as you can have a standard simple image, and enhance and edit it so much, it looks totally different and almost shocks you. I have made a page on my blog of 'Photography', and i have added some of my own images which i edited in Adobe Photoshop in the past on the bottom of my blog.

Differnt File/Sound Formats & Regional Codes

Today we covered different DVD Formats & Regional Coding's. I learnt how every DVD has a specific region coding & reasons being. I also learn the different DVD formats which include different advantages. I found out through research that the reason being for regional codings is down to Copy Right purposes, for example America bring out movies before us, therefore someone cannot get one from there & copy it as it won't work in the UK, as the region code for the United States is 1, where as in the United Kingdom is is 2, therefore the UK DVD players should only play DVD's with the region code 2.

This is a big advantage to the Movie Companys, as they will gain maximun profit, as people can only buy the DVD in their own Countries regional codes. If there was no such thing as Regional Codes, Movie Companys will loose profit, as Countries worldwide will constantly sending them over from one Countrie to another.

I also learnt about different Sound formats & DVD Formats, with some having the ability to re-record, where as others cannot. I found this was very interesting to find out all the different DVD formats, from

DVD+R & DVD-R to DVD RAM which old different advantages & disadvantages. I didn't realise just how important & vital it is when using a DVD format, when wanting a certain aspect. I also learnt different Sound formats such as Dolby Digital to Dolby Digital Plus, which hold different defnitions & channels of sound. Sound Formats are also important, as different sound to a movie can change are perception of it, for example a horror movie with loud scary music, we won't get the full effect if it's not loud & sourround sound.

This has enhanced my undestanding of Regional Codes, DVD & Sound Formats.