evaluation

I was given a task to complete within a deadline, in this task I was told to create a Poster for a film of my choice, and was also asked to create a DVD sleeve of this, this took much effort and included many stages in order to present the finished poster and DVD sleeve.

First of all I started with my poster, and I aimed to get this poster to look as real as a professional poster, which you would see on a billboard, or on the side of a bus etc. I managed to achieve this by taking my time in creating the poster and putting a lot of effort into it. Also I also did some research into looking at different film posters, this then widened my knowledge and understanding of different codes and conventions of different text types and genre's.

I began to explore many different fonts and titles within my research, this helped me realise which font suited different types of genres for example I used a very bold pointy font to emphasize that the genre of my poster is a thriller. I used this font because it has a certain look to it, which kind of indicates a spirit. I also used red as the colour of this font, mainly because red has connotations of danger.
The title I chose is ‘triskaidekaphobia’ I chose this because my poster is about a board game with the number 13 in the middle, and that word means that you are scared of the number 13. The title is also short and snappy which means people will memorise it better.

Another thing I did was create a story synopsis, I created this in order to make it a little easier for myself to visualise what I am going to be creating, for example if I didn’t write a synopsis then I wouldn’t have included things like the board game in my poster, mainly because I wouldn’t have known what the poster would have been about.



Whilst being in the process of creating my film poster I produced a proposal. I did this in order to set out the scope as my project, if I didn’t have my proposal I wouldn’t of had any aim for my film poster, for example my age rating 18+ and many other things to do with my poster.

After creating my proposal I then started to make a paper design of my poster, I did this so I could give myself a good understanding of what it was going to look like, and also to experiment and see which version I liked best. Once I did the first one I then thought of more ideas and more designs I could include, and whilst in the process of doing these sketches I then worked up more ideas along the way and finally came up with my sketch I wanted to do on the computer. I found it easier to sketch my poster first because I wouldn’t then need to keep making changes to the version I would have done on the computer.

I then went onto my skills acquisition part, and learned a range of skills and techniques through doing a series of different things. One of the things I did was learn how to create an image manipulation I did this by using Photoshop, I was handed a picture of a girl with very oily skin and a few spots, and by the end of the session I had learnt how to make the girl look ‘perfect’, which was a handy skill to learn for my film poster.
I also created an illustrated image by using illustrator, I took a picture of myself inserted into illustrator and used many different tools to make myself look very cartoon like, which was also very handy to know when designing my film poster.
After doing them I had started to practice my photography which was to enable me to create better imagery, so when it came to taking photos for my poster I was comfortable and felt confident when doing it, therefore they would look convincing.



Anther stage which was also included in the process of creating my film poster was collecting different types of photographs for use in my poster, for example I had to take 5 different photos of people so I could insert them into my poster, and each person had to have a different expression. Without these photos my poster wouldn’t look realistic because these photos made my poster what it is.

An on going stage in the process of creating my film poster was my blog. Every time I updated my film poster or made changes to the poster I wrote about the different type of stages I used in order to keep me on top of what I was doing, and to also explain how I did things and how things worked. This was very important because without my blog I would have lost track of what stage I was at when creating my poster.

After doing all these stages I then created my DVD sleeve by doing most of the same stages but making my image smaller. I made it look as realistic as I could by including a title on the spine and a barcode with an age rating and many more realistic things, all I basically had to do was make my image smaller and insert a blurb on the back.

Within doing my film poster and DVD sleeve there was many different layout challenges, one of the challenges I had to overcome was creating a layout, which would be able to attract the audiences attention, this was done by using a memorable title ‘Triskaidekaphobia’ which is normally always places at the top of the page in order to be eye catching.

Graphics on a mac first printing

This is my first attempt of my article for 'Graphics on a Macintosh', which is about how i created my film poster and my animated image. On this blog post i will be explaining how i did certain things to make it look more like it has been done in an article format, and i will also be proof reading my article to make sure every aspect of it is correct. 

    Before opening Adobe Illustrator I started to write my article up by just using blogger, the reason i did this was because i thought it would be easier to write it up without a layout rather than worrying about spacing and setting it out right.

After finishing writing my article up i then opened the software Adobe Illustrator to start creating the layout of my article, I set the settings to create a page with 3 columns to give it a look of a magazine article or a newspaper article, I then added how many pages i wanted which was 5 i did this by clicking on insert and "new page", The five pages was more than enough and i was left with a bit of writing on the last page which didn't look right, that meant i then had to fill my space by enlarging my finished images across 2 pages to make it look more filled. 

After doing that i added a title 'Graphics on a Macintosh' i spread this right across the pages of my article in a bold font which i also made rather large. I did this so it would stand out and also make the page look more in an article format, as you can see on the image above.

When i had done that i then went onto my word document which i had already done and saved all the pictures and screenshots that i had used into there own folder. I did this because it would then be easy to just open the folder and drag the pictures onto my page layout.

After setting my page out to the appropriate format and inserting my main title i then started to insert all the text what i had already prepared on word, but before i started inserting the text i had to insert text box's to the size of the columns and then copy and pasted all my text into the columns, when doing this there was a little green box at the bottom what held all the text to get it onto the new column i clicked that and it spilled out across each of the columns making it look more professional. 

After adding all the text into my columns I looked at the article which i wrote on word and looked at which text went with which pictures, after doing that i chose a few pictures which i thought was appropriate and added them onto this article scattered out quite a bit. i did this by dragging the images out of a folder on my desktop onto the page of my article,

The pictures and screenshots i chose to upload onto my article are very important within this piece of work for many reasons. Because the article is intended to target the audience that are unaware of the software they are put in place to help the viewers get a better understanding along with text to also explain how to do particular things on the software.

When the pictures were uploaded it then changed the layout of the text, and put different things in different places, for example the text didn't match the picture that had been uploaded, so that meant i had to go through the whole of the article to fit all the text to match the picture. I had to do this because if the reader was to see the image with the text not matching then it wouldn't make any sense, and it wouldn't make it any easier to learn how to use this software.

When all the text and pictures were put in place i was left with one half filled column on another page and then realized that i had to do something with the half filled column because it didn't look professional like an article should do, when i noticed this i then made my final finished images larger and put them across the 2 pages and all column's to fill in the extra space, as you can see above.

The final thing i had to add to my article was prices of the software's i used to create the poster and the cartoon like image, to do this i went online on the official Adobe site and looked up prices per month on how much it was to have which was £26. When i found this i then went on Google images and got the logo of the two software's i used and placed them next to where i put the information about the prices.
Another thing i also did was include a link to my blog which includes more images and information on how to use the two software's, just for the people that need more information the link was
http://emilyvalegraphics.blogspot.co.uk

That concludes the long drawn out process of creating my own article and making it look more professional than just as a word document. 

Beginners guide to producing graphics on Mac

As many of you may know Adobe Photoshop is a highly used and recommended piece of software on a Mac. In my opinion i believe adobe photoshop can be an easy as well as complicated piece of software to use. As an educated media student i am going to explain some of the key tools used within the software, this will be able to widen your knowledge and understanding whilst being able to have a bit of fun with it aswell.

Using adobe photoshop I was set 2 projects which required me to created a film poster and a DVD sleeve, by creating these pieces of work it helped me get to know a bit more about photoshop and how it is used. You can do various different things such as changing the background, editing what people look like and many more. 

If you are thinking on entering the world of graphic design then hopefully this article will enable you to get a better understanding of of the two main systems, Photoshop and Illustrator with these two main softwares it enables you to manipulate different images and allows you to do various other different things.
Adobe Photoshop uses bitmap graphics and is mainly used for image manipulation, whereas Adobe illustrator is mainly used by artist and graphic designers to create vector images, vector images are made up of mainly paths and lines and when finished these are mainly used for things like company logos and can be personal work in print and digital.

On Photoshop i was handed a picture of a girl with oily, spotty skin and was asked to make this girl look practically perfect. To do this i inserted the original photo of the girl onto Photoshop, i then used the spot healing brush to get rid of all the freckles and spots, this was good because it made the girls skin very clear and almost to perfection. When i finished that section i then inserted a new layer and blurred out the image, i did this by using a filter smart blur, then used the eraser brush to hide the parts what were too blurry so it isn't as obvious it had been edited, that section was mainly to focus on her nose, eyebrows, hair and a few more aspects. By doing this it has widened my understanding of the how you can be manipulated into thinking that an image has never been edited, it just shows that you can never trust an image unless you have taken it yourself.

BEFORE!

AFTER!

This image is a JPG also known as a JPEG, A JPG is a common file format for digital photos and other digital graphics, when files are saves they use a lossy compression this means the image quality is lost as the file size decreases. A JPG file is the most common file type for images taken with digital cameras. 

As i have now shown you my project i did to make the girl look perfect, i will now show you my film poster i had to make which included using a few more tools and different aspects of Photoshop. I was asked to create a marketing campaign for a film of my own choice as i will shown you now. 

Firstly i went on google and found a background suitable for my poster in a jpeg format so it would be suitable to stretch for my poster without blurring. I used this image because it is a dark room with nothing really in it,therefore i can fill it with my own sort of stuff. 

I then used the gradient tool on the floor to make it look darker, i did this because on some of the images  took of my characters i took from waist up and they had no legs on the picture, so to disguise that i then used the gradient tool to make the floor dark so you wouldn't see it, after i did that i was glad because it actually made my poster look a lot better. 

  

After choosing my background and inserting it into photoshop i then took my photos of my characters/ models and uploaded them individually. The first photo i chose to upload was this one which was my main character as you can see. I did this by opening a new page and inserting the image of the model onto it

 i then used the magnetic lasso tool to go round my character to get the shape and not the whole of the image because some of it was useless. I then dragged and dropped him into the picture with the background. 

After doing that i adjusted the light, i did this with the gradient tool i did this to enthersise a lighting effect on one side of my model and keep him dark on the other, I thought that this was good because it tied in with the theme horror. 

After doing that I then took another picture of somebody and used the magnetic lasso tool to cut the image out and insert it onto my image, i placed the model further up so it looked like he was in the background. 

I then did the same and inserted another model onto my image making her look further behind the other character. When taking the picture i told my models to look scared to tie in with the theme of my poster. I used the same tool as i did the others to cut the model out and to insert it onto the main image. 

I then added my last character on the right, who i also asked to look scared, which kind of worked... i used the same tool as i used the last 2 times to cut my character out, after i did that i dragged it across onto my main screen. I put my 3 characters on the right because that is where i adjusted the light to make it brighter, because that is the good side. 

I then inserted the character i wanted to look like a ghost, i did this by the same way as all the others, opened a new tab and cut around it and dragged it onto my page. 

 

I then added my character in order to make him more ghost like i used the liquify tool and blended him into the layers with an eraser brush, this then stretched him out so he looked rather blurry and stretched. 

After i used the eraser brush and the liquify tools it came out like this, so i kept the original image and added this on the top to make it look more blurry and scary. 

When i finished messing about with the tool trying to make it look ghost like and try and give it a moving effect this is what it ended up like, which i thought was kind of cool. 

I then added my board, which is basically the whole point of my film poster, because it is about a board game, i located my board game right in the middle of the poster and gave it an outer glow so it sanded out a little bit. I also got the image off google and believe it or not it was really bright and full of colours, so i then put it into photoshop and played around editing it and made it look like it was old fashioned. 

After doing that i then added an age rating to my poster, i did this to show the certificate i created it for, and to show which type of audience it is suitable for. 

I then went on google to find a logo for a company logo who focused on horror and i found this blue house one, i then inserted this onto my poster to give it a sense of realism. 

After that i then inserted a credit bar, which included my own names, and my own words which i made up.  I also did this so it would make it look more real rather than a poster made just on photoshop. 

After finishing the bottom of the poster i inserted my title 'triskadekaphobia' this is a word which means you are scared of the number 13. I went on the internet on a fonts website and chose a suitable font for my style of poster, i then downloaded it and wrote it in that font changed it to red with a shadow effect and inserted it onto my poster. 

After doing that i inserted all the names of my characters i used, i did this in a simple white font all in capitals to make it look professional and inserted it at the top of my poster above my title.

Finally after all this hard work this is my final poster what took me a few days of hard work to get my head round the software, but it was well worth it.



So that concludes photoshop, i hope you all like it. Now lets move on to Adobe Illustrator, i have a feeling you guys will love this software even more.

To create this picture, i used adobe illustrator, i took a picture of myself on photo booth and inserted it onto adobe illustrator to create a cartoon like image of myself. i then used the pen tool to join lines up to get a rough shape of my face. I then created another layer to go round the outline of my lips, and the rest of my facial features. I had to pick various different colours to match my skin tone, eyes and lips etc . I also tried to fill in my t-shirt by doing it with adobe illustrator to make it all look cartoon like. 

When i did this i got kind of frustrated with joining all the lines and things, but hey look at me as a cartoon i think i look pretty cool, just like Photoshop i think having patients and working on this is well worth it, because now I've done it I'm never off the software. 

Anyways i hope found this article useful, yes there are other softwares out there to purchase or to even download for free, but in my opinion i think Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are the 2 best to use. 

I hope you get some guidance off this article and start to use Photoshop and Illustrator a lot more. 

Editing, selection and processing. (own words)

JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
A JPG file is a very common file format for digital photos and other graphics. When these types of files are saved they use a format known as 'lossy compression' or 'lossless compression' this means that the quality of the image is lost when the file starts to decrease. This format is the most common file for taking images with a digital camera, and is also used for photos and other graphics on websites. 

TFF (Tagged image file format)
TFF format is the most common file for images, especially the ones used for graphic design for example photo shop. This type of file can be saved without compression, for example it doesn't allow the file to get smaller therefore the file will be very large, on the other hand this type of file can also be compressed to a lower file size to allow more memory space for other things but cannot be compressed as much as a JPG. This type of file is commonly used in print design and desktop publishing because they allow storage of large high quality images such as photos. 

PNG (pronounced ping for portable network graphics)
PNG is a file format used for image compression that is widely used on todays modern internet. The PNG used losless compression just like JPG, this means it doesn't have any blurriness or loss of quality, which means all the image information is restored when the file is decompressed during viewing. This type of format can be put onto any transparent background rather than specific colours. 

BMP (bitmap)
This file type doesn't need to contain colour-coded information for each picture element, it is known as a matrix of dots or as a raster format. A BMP has limited use because of its simple nature, it doesn't have any colour depth therefore the image will be blurry when zoomed in. 

PSD (photoshop document)
This type of file format is used in adobe photoshop for saving data. This file format allows the user to work with the images individual layers even when the file has already been saved. Once the image is finished the layers are flattened by conversion so it can be shared, once finished the file cannot be converted back so the user cannot work with the individual layers anymore. 

AI (adobe illustrator) 
Adobe illustrator is a programme used by artist and graphic designers to create vector images. Once these images are finished they are used for things like company logos and even personal work both in print and digital form. The programme is very hard to use and to understand but once you get your final piece it is well worth the learning curve. 

WMF (windows metafile) 
A metafile is a file that contains information regarding one or more files, it is commonly a graphic file format and containing vector graphics or bitmap files. A WMF file can contain both image and text it is usually found in Microsoft packages such as word, powerpoint and publisher but is not usually used in the world of professional design. 

Editing, selection and processing research.

JPG

JPG files, also known as JPEG files, are a common file format for digital photos and other digital graphics. WhenJPG files are saved, they use "lossy" compression,meaning image quality is lostas file size decreases. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the committee that created the file type. JPG files have the file extension .jpg or .jpeg. They are the most common file type for images taken with digital cameras, and widely used for photos and other graphics used on websites.  

http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/Definitions/g/Jpg-Files.htm

TFF

A TIFF file, or TIF file, stands for Tagged Image File Format. TIF files are a common file format for images, especially those used on graphic design. The file extension for a TIFF file is either .tiff or .tif.TIFF files can be saved without compression, or they can be compressed to lower file size, similar to JPG files. TIFF files are commonly used in print design and desktop publishing because they can store large, high quality images such as photos. Often, printers will prefer or require TIFF files over JPG images or other formats.

http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/Definitions/g/Tiff-Files.htmPNG

PNG (pronounced ping as in ping-pong; for Portable Network Graphics) is a file format for image compression that, in time, is expected to replace the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) that is widely used on today's Internet. Owned by Unisys, the GIF format and its usage in image-handling software involves licensing or other legal considerations. (Web users can make, view, and send GIF files freely but they can't develop software that builds them without an arrangement with Unisys.) The PNG format, on the other hand, was developed by an Internet committee expressly to be patent-free. It provides a number of improvements over the GIF format.Like a GIF, a PNG file is compressed in lossless fashion (meaning all image information is restored when the file is decompressed during viewing).  

http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/PNGBMP

BMP

A bit map does not need to contain a bit of color-coded information for each pixel on every row. It only needs to contain information indicating a new color as the display scans along a row. Thus, an image with much solid color will tend to require a small bit map.

Because a bit map uses a fixed or raster graphics method of specifying an image, the image cannot be immediately rescaled by a user without losing definition. A vector graphics graphic image, however, is designed to be quickly rescaled. Typically, an image is created using vector graphics and then, when the artist is satisfied with the image, it is converted to (or saved as) a raster graphic file or bit map.

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/bit-map

PSD

A PSD file is a layered image file used in Adobe PhotoShop. PSD, which stands for Photoshop Document, is the default format that Photoshop uses for saving data.  PSD is a proprietary file that allows the user to work with the images’ individual layers even after the file has been saved.

When an image is complete, Photoshop allows the user to flatten the layers and convert the flat image into a .JPG, .GIF, .TIFF or other non-proprietary file format so it can be shared.  Once a PSD image has been flatten by conversion, however, it cannot be converted back to PSD and the user can no longer work with the image's layers. It is important, therefore, so always save the .PSD file and not overwrite it during conversion.

http://whatis.techtarget.com/fileformat/PSD-Adobe-Photoshop-default

AI

Adobe Illustrator is a program used by both artists and graphic designers to create vector images. These images will then be used for company logos, promotional uses or even personal work, both in print and digital form. So what is Adobe Illustrator used for? It is typically used to create illustrations, charts, graphs, logos, diagrams, cartoons of real photographs, and more. While the program may be difficult to understand initially, the final product will be well worth the learning curve.

https://www.udemy.com/blog/what-is-adobe-illustrator-used-for/

WMF

In Windows, a metafile is a file that contains information regarding one or more other files. Called a Windows Metafile Format (WMF), it is commonly a graphics file format, containing information for vector graphics or bitmap files. The WMF contains a list of function calls that Windows uses in its Graphics Device Interface (GDI) layer to display images on a computer monitor.

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/w/wmf.htm

Poster analysis

Firstly i went on google and found a background suitable for my poster in a jpeg format so it would be suitable to stretch for my poster without blurring. I used this image because it is a dark room with nothing really in it,therefore i can fill it with my own sort of stuff. 

I then used the gradient tool on the floor to make it look darker, i did this because on some of the images  took of my characters i took from waist up and they had no legs on the picture, so to disguise that i then used the gradient tool to make the floor dark so you wouldn't see it, after i did that i was glad because it actually made my poster look a lot better. 

  

After choosing my background and inserting it into photoshop i then took my photos of my characters/ models and uploaded them individually. The first photo i chose to upload was this one which was my main character as you can see. I did this by opening a new page and inserting the image of the model onto it

 i then used the magnetic lasso tool to go round my character to get the shape and not the whole of the image because some of it was useless. I then dragged and dropped him into the picture with the background. 

After doing that i adjusted the light, i did this with the gradient tool i did this to enthersise a lighting effect on one side of my model and keep him dark on the other, I thought that this was good because it tied in with the theme horror. 

After doing that I then took another picture of somebody and used the magnetic lasso tool to cut the image out and insert it onto my image, i placed the model further up so it looked like he was in the background. 

I then did the same and inserted another model onto my image making her look further behind the other character. When taking the picture i told my models to look scared to tie in with the theme of my poster. I used the same tool as i did the others to cut the model out and to insert it onto the main image. 

I then added my last character on the right, who i also asked to look scared, which kind of worked... i used the same tool as i used the last 2 times to cut my character out, after i did that i dragged it across onto my main screen. I put my 3 characters on the right because that is where i adjusted the light to make it brighter, because that is the good side. 

I then inserted the character i wanted to look like a ghost, i did this by the same way as all the others, opened a new tab and cut around it and dragged it onto my page. 

 

I then added my character in order to make him more ghost like i used the liquify tool and blended him into the layers with an eraser brush, this then stretched him out so he looked rather blurry and stretched. 

After i used the eraser brush and the liquify tools it came out like this, so i kept the original image and added this on the top to make it look more blurry and scary. 

When i finished messing about with the tool trying to make it look ghost like and try and give it a moving effect this is what it ended up like, which i thought was kind of cool. 

I then added my board, which is basically the whole point of my film poster, because it is about a board game, i located my board game right in the middle of the poster and gave it an outer glow so it sanded out a little bit. I also got the image off google and believe it or not it was really bright and full of colours, so i then put it into photoshop and played around editing it and made it look like it was old fashioned. 

After doing that i then added an age rating to my poster, i did this to show the certificate i created it for, and to show which type of audience it is suitable for. 

I then went on google to find a logo for a company logo who focused on horror and i found this blue house one, i then inserted this onto my poster to give it a sense of realism. 

After that i then inserted a credit bar, which included my own names, and my own words which i made up.  I also did this so it would make it look more real rather than a poster made just on photoshop. 

After finishing the bottom of the poster i inserted my title 'triskadekaphobia' this is a word which means you are scared of the number 13. I went on the internet on a fonts website and chose a suitable font for my style of poster, i then downloaded it and wrote it in that font changed it to red with a shadow effect and inserted it onto my poster. 

After doing that i inserted all the names of my characters i used, i did this in a simple white font all in capitals to make it look professional and inserted it at the top of my poster above my title.

Finally after all this hard work this is my final poster what took me a few days of hard work to get my head round the software, but it was well worth it.