ASSIGNMENT ANIMATION - CARITAS

This is my finished animation for my house (caritas)

ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS

Describe which software you used and why you chose it.

I chose to make my animation through Inkscape because our teacher had given us a lesson to experiment on this program and so i had som epractice with even making an animation in it.

Describe the creation process you followed.

To create my animation, i first had to learn the many tools and image tpes to understand how to create it properly. Thre rest of my creation process is described throughput my many blogs about my animation.

What image format were you saving your work in during the development of the frames?

My work was saved as a png on Inkscape.

What image format did you save your frames as?

When i exported the frames, it was saved as a bitmap file (bmp).

What frame rate were you aiming for.

I was aiming for the frame rate of 0.05 seconds, but in the end, my average frame rate was 0.5 because otherwise, the animation would look rushed.

What was the final size of your animation?

My animation's file size is 2,377 KB (kilobytes)

What difficulties did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

Some difficulties i encountered include my text boxes being separate for each letter, making the alignment difficult. For this, i used the grid lines to keep them straight. Each lesson, my background would also disappear, then sir told me to insert a new layer for the background, after that it never disappeared. I also had to redo some frames when the blur intensity intervals were too big. Even when my ball bouncing sound effect wasn't matching the time of the animation, the oly way to  overcome this was to not have the sound effect alotgether, because it would waste more time if i didn't. So basically, through out all the problems i faced, i either had the teachers help, helped myself or just left it; i didn't let anything hold me back or let me be stuck anywhere.

Buying a Digital Camera

1. Explain what you want the camera for.

I want this camera because i want to have a small device with a good resolution so i can easily capture any moments and that also in good quality. SO i can share these photos on the internet, have a digital photo frame and keep those memories forever on a hard drive (after transferring from memory card). I also want this camera to be small and portable so i can take it with me in my handbag.

2. What resolution shall I look for ?

 I currently have a camera of 7.2 megapixels, so i will look for a camera of 10MP as this has a slightly higher resolution and is hence oof better quality and not THAT pricy.

3. What type of memory is available ?

All compact cameras use a memory card to store images. Most on the market will use SD or SDHC (Secure Digital/Secure Digital High Capacity) format, which come in several capacities. Others will have some in-built memory.

Some camera manufacturers like to lock you into a proprietary format. Sony, for example, mostly use its own Memory Sticks, and Olympus uses xD picture cards, though the company is migrating to cross-compatibility with adapters that allow you to use microSD cards. Bear in mind these proprietary formats are often more expensive and more difficult to find than their SD and Compact Flash equivalents.

4. Find two cameras that would suit my needs.

This camera would suit me as it has 10 MP and it is copact and easy to carry. You can also put in a memory card of the size yu wish.

This camera is also good as it has the 10MP camera i wanted, has an attractive coour and is slim. However its price is suspiciously low.

5. Explain how a card reader would be useful for you to have with the camera.

If you get a card reader, no additional software is necessary. This is not only faster, but it saves your camera batteries. Your computer or printer may even have a card reader built into it. You can even leave it plugged in all the time. It also eases the transfer of the photograph files.

Buying a scanner



1. A scanner



2. Specifications of the product:

The ScanSnap S1500 provides Windows users an effective way to greatly reduce paper clutter, storage space, and security risk associated with unmanaged paperwork at home or office. Even better, documents scanned by ScanSnap take on a higher level of accessibility and usefulness once liberated into the digital realm. Additionally, the ScanSnap S1500 Deluxe Bundle includes Rack2-Filer V5.0, an ultra-intuitive scanning and file management application for home or small office. Through the use of graphical cabinets and e-Binders, users will experience a familiar yet heightened level of accessibility and convenience to their digital content.

3. Definitions

DPI: the dots per inch of the scanner 600 dpi x 600 dpi

Optical Resolution: The built-in resolution of a scanning device. Contrast with "interpolated resolution" or "digital resolution," which enhances an image by software. Both resolutions are given as dots per inch (dpi), thus a 2,400 dpi scanner can be the true resolution of the machine or a computed resolution.

Colour depth: The scanner detyails do not mention colour depth anywhere.

doing my animation today

When I tried to open my animation at school today it didn’t work, so I worked on the theory work and finished 3 tasks.

At home, when I opened the same file, it worked! I was so relieved and I tried saving it as a wmv file but couldn’t. While experimenting with saving it in many ways, I found the save movie option then went to FOR COMPUTER and the option came to name the file, when I looked at file type it said Windows media video, and so I had found it ! I now knew how to save it as a wmv file and deleted all the other ones. I can now upload my animation to my blog.

working on my animation on friday

Finally, when I went to the inkscape page with the mascot’s eyes and mouth, I copied them onto my animation page but they were behind. I tried the put object in front but that didn’t work. So I asked sir for help and when he came, he said to insert a new layer and call it eyes. We then put that layer at the top so it was visible. I adjusted the size of the feature and realised that I needed to make my characters mouth. So I asked Arusha to say GO CARITAS in super slow motion and observed her mouth movement. So I decide to have a line at the start a=then a circle, then ellipse then a cheesy smile D at the end. I had three frames of each mouth except for the line and smile, which had one each and exported all these so all my frames were now saved on my USB.

When I came home, I used my recorder to record my voice to my final animation and inserted it to my movie maker file to the exact place where my mascot speaks. Here I found that I didn’t need to delete any mouth frames as they were perfectly in time. II then downloaded several ball bouncing sound effects but found that all of their timings didn’t match my ball bouncing so I had to leave that out of my animation. My animation was now complete.

My animation

AT HOME: Today I copied my circle mascot to a new inkscape page and inserted its eyes and mouth. Then on my animation page, I added an outline to the mascot and decided how it would bounce. It terms of using the four arrow keys at the bottom of the keyboard, the circle moved 20 spaces down, four to the right. NEW FRAME. Then 10 spaces up. I repeated this till the circle was at the bottom, but centralised on the page. It then had random bounces and came to the middle of the screen (to increase focus) and its six increased according to the gridlines.

Careers in Digital Graphics

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

1. What is a graphic designer ?

Graphic designers are responsible fr arranging and using elements on different types of media (such as a poster, a package, or a website, most likely with the use of a graphic software program

These elements include:

-Photos

-Illustrations

-Type

-Shapes

-Colour

-Texture

2. Where would you find a graphic designers' work ?

Graphic designers' work is visible everywhere in all media publications such as newspapers magazines and websites.

3. What training is needed for the career ?

To become a graphic designer you must successfully graduate the university course in Graphic designing.

4. What kind of software and hardware is used ?

The software programs used by a graphic designerare such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign.

ANIMATOR

1. What is an animator ?

An animator produces multiple images called frames. When sequenced together rapidly, these frames create an illusion of movement known as animation.

2. Where would you find a animators' work ?
They create the cartoons we love, either for film or movies. Animators continue to work in these areas, but increasingly, many are employed creating animated graphics for a variety of projects. This can include websites, online advertisements and video games. Animators can find full-time employment with movie or television production companies, with advertisers, web design firms, video game companies or with animation firms.

3. What training is needed for the career ?

Most entry-level positions will require an animator to have a bachelors degree in a related field such as fine arts or media. There are a number of computer Animation schools that offer course work specifically in computer animation and associated technologies. In addition, a strong portfolio of work which a training program can help you to develop is an essential part of landing a job in computer animation and becoming an animator.

4. What kind of software and hardware is used ?
Producing animation involves a number of stages including generating ideas, building models and rigging lighting. Computer animation uses software known as CGI (computer-generated imagery).

Animaaaaaaaaaaaaaation

This lesson, I decided each individual letter and the exclamation would come up individually so I tried exporting it with only one letter in the same textbox. But this didn’t work so I had to insert a new text box for each character, and the font size was stuffing up and so it took me all lesson to get it right. I then exported the background as the first frame, then each consecutive letter. Then finally, I had to re export the blur intensity frames for the mascot and delete the previous ones. This took me all lesson.

Graphic Tablet

2. Wacom Intuos4 Wireless - digitizer, stylus

The Intuos4 Wireless pen tablet with Bluetooth wireless technology lets you relax in your favorite working position or move about freely up to 33 feet (10 meters) from your computer. Enjoy the freedom of working "unattached" from your Mac or PC and reducing cord clutter.

Intuos4 Wireless connects to Bluetooth-enabled computers including those that are enabled with external Bluetooth USB adapters. It conveniently charges through USB and continues to work while charging.

With 40 square inches of working area, this ambidextrous, medium-sized tablet provides ample workspace for most tablet users and features the same productivity features as other Intuos4 tablets including: eight customizable ExpressKeys with illuminated displays that provide easy reference for assigned functions, a finger-sensitive touch ring that controls up to four different functions per application, and best-in-class integration with popular software applications.

3. Explain in terms we can understand what is meant by

a) Pressure levels (how many does the scanner have, what does it mean)

This product has 2048 pressure levels means, since the device is touch screen, it means how lightly or heavily you press on the screen.

b) Resolution (what resolution does the tablet have)

Resolution of the device N/A.

4. What is the cost of the tablet?

The tablet's cost is $494

Animation at home :D

Today when I opened my animation on inkscape, it said IMAGE FILE NOT FOUND. I was a bit lost and so called Mr. Cavill for help, he tried fixing the problem but in the end, he said to recopy the image and send it to back again. Then when I was experimenting with the fill and stroke of my mascot, I was trying to decide which width to have for the outline when I came across the blur tool. When I set it to 100% blur, I noticed it wasn’t fully transparent but I could faintly see some of it. Then I had a genius idea for my animation. I could make my mascot fade into the screen after the CARITAS! Comes up. So I tried it first with blur intervals of 20 and for the last 20, in intervals of 5 i.e. after 20%, 15%, 10%, 5% and 0%. I then exported these frames and while viewing them I noting they came in too quickly, especially the end even though the interval was at 5 for the end. SO I asked Mr Cavill to see it and he suggested I should have e two frames for each 20 interval and see how that works out. SO I did so, but when I showed him, it still didn’t look quite right, so I decided to it in intervals of 10 then for the last 10, intervals of 2%, then 1 % for the very last one. So I told sir, and he said it was okay.

I then went home and worked more on this. After exporting the frames, I found that these new intervals worked perfectly fine.

image file types

1. DEFINITIONS

Gif file:
The file compresses to keep the file size at a minimum and are limited to 8-bit colour palettes. It is said that GIF files should be generally used for line drawings, icons and logos. This file uses indexed colors and allows a maximum of 256 colors. GIF is one of the most popular formats on the Internet. Not only is the format excellent at compressing areas of images with large areas of the same color, but it is also the only option for putting animation online. GIF has a color depth of 8 bits per pixel or less.

JPEG file:
JPEG is very popular it has good compaction characteristics on photographic data. It lets you adjust the amount of compaction. This file's palette supports 16 million colours, unlike GIF, which only allows 256 colours on its palette. JPEG is primarily intended for photographic images. JPEG has 8 bits of color depth for each color channel and that means that a primary color can have 256 (28) different intensity values. Mixing of primary colors leads to 16.8 million different colors.

Animated GIF files:Animation is just a series of still images shown in sequence, so the most obvious way to add animation to a Web site is to post a series of bitmap images that the user's browser displays in sequence. Each frame is a full bitmap image and when you get up to something like 20 frames, your file size can be considered as way too big. Animation we see in movies includes at least 24 still images every second so animated GIFs are more restricted. Animated GIFs are often used for banner ads, in place of much larger full motion video files, and as interesting accents to homepages.

MPEG file: DVD movies, broadcasts and DSS satellite systems use MPEG compression to fit video and movie data into smaller spaces. MPEG standard provide a video resolution of 352 by 240 at 30 frames per second.

Shockwave file:Shockwave has the elements of generating, importing and editing of movies. Shockwave was originally defined with one primary objective: to create small files for displaying entertaining animations.

2. What is a vector based image and how is it different to a bitmap based image?
Vector based images are created of many individual, scalable objects. Unlike a bitmap based image, vector based images are defined by mathematical equations rather than pixels, so they always supply at the highest quality.

working more on my animation

Today I exported 3 frames of my animation at first but when I reviewed these, I found that the writing was messy as I had written it myself (using the calligraphy tool) myself. So, I inserted a textbox and typed caritas! In it. I looked through the fonts and finally found Script MT bold. I put both the textbox and the written letters together to see which one looked better and thought the typed one was nicer. I also asked the opinions of my friends, who some said the typed better and some the written. So finally I asked the teacher and he suggested that I choose the written as in also had spaces between the letters and the typed one didn’t, so it would be nicer to have the spaces. I did not like my written one though, so I looked through the fonts once more and found Viner Hand ITC; this font had spaces between the letters and jagged edges. I then asked the teacher once more, and he said that the new typed one was MUCH better. So I deleted my typed one and its three frames.

digital art...real art ?

This digital digital artwork was created using artpad.

What did I like about art pad ?

I liked how their background option wasn't as simple as paint', they had coloured splatters, allowing the user the artist to use numerous colours for the background. You can also decide the opacity of the colour, meaning you can create darker and lighter shades of the colour to suit your needs. You can also add a frame to your finished work, to give the artistic effect. And lastly, you can change the size of the brush as to whether you are colouring something or outling it. You can also insert text to your image, as a constrast to written words [to give the artwork a deeper meaning and give the post modern effect].


Is digital art a valid form of art?
What is art? Art can be in the form of literature, architecture, sculptures origami and parintings so why not digital? The focus of art is for an artist to display their ideas or thoughts on a topic in a form of presentation. i believe these forms can include digital, because many artists have evn created their work on Adobe Photoshop which is a DIGITAL program. As long as the artist can convey and prtray their thought to the audience, it is considered art, whether it be made digitally on a computer or by using brush stroke techniques. So in all, digital art is DEFINITELY a valid form of art.

What are some of the advantages that digital paint and draw programs offer over the traditional methods (canvas and paint).
Advantages that digital paint programs have over traditional methods include that you do not need to get your hands dirty. You can do it with the convenience of sitting in your home, cosed up in bed (on a computer or laptop). You can undo any errors that you make, meaning you can achieve perfection in your artwork, however this could take away the orginaltiy of having to deal with the errors. You also have a variety of options in the program such as cloning tool, stamps, transparencies and various more, making your artwork more visually enhanced and hence pleasing.

What skills must a digital artist possess to create great digital art?
To create great digital artist, a digital artist must understand the numerous tools that programs have, to be able to make the most out of the program eg. inkscape has a snap to gridline option. They must also know basic commands such as undo.

Working on my animation

Today I worked on perfecting my letters for the CARITAS ad deleted the go. However I felt I needed a background. So I went on Google and searched through yellow backgrounds. When I finally found one I liked, I went on word and recoloured it to make it a brighter yellow and affected it to have a slight shadow. I then copied this onto my inkscape document. Here I had troubles sending it to the back, because unlike Word it didn’t have a ‘send to back ‘option. So I asked sir for help and he helped me find the ‘lower selection one step’ option and it basically sent it back so the text and image were on top of the background image.

Digital Media

Forms of digital media:
A sound file: computer, ipod.
Video:tv, computer.
Photos: digital camera, phone, video camera.


Which number system is digital data based on?

Digital data is based on the binary number system which uses the numbers 0 or 1. Everything in the computer is that used by strings which are made up of these two numbers.

What is a bit and what is a byte?

Bit: A bit is an electronic signal which is either on (1) or off (0). It is the smallest unit of information the computer uses.

Byte: The byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications, that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and it is for this reason the basic addressable element in many computer architectures.

What is a sampling rate?

A sampling rate, sample rate or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per second (or per other unit) taken from a continour signal to make a discrete signal. Wikipedia image:

 How does Colour Depth (Color Depth) or bit depth effect the appearance of an image?

Colour depth is a term used to describe the maximum number of colours present in an image.

The chosen colour depth effects the final size of the image as well as varies the clarity of the image. The more colour the image has, the more image realistic and sophisticated the image looks [visually pleasing].

Why does Colour depth affect both still and video digital media but sampling rate only effects video but not still media?
Sampling rate only effects video not still media because the sampling rate is for the number of samples of data taken in one second for each channel of audio being recorded. Still media has no audio nor video so there would obviously be no effect of the sampling rate.

Starting my animation

Today I started my animation. Sir had suggested having a page of 400x400, but I made mine 500x500 and inserted a grid to help guide my coordination of objects on the page. I decided my mascot would be a ball and it would bounce up to the screen and say GOO CARITAAS! in the recording of my voice. Its mouth would open to match the phonetic sounds and the words G O C A R I T A S!  would appear as well. I used the Calligraphic brush to write the words and made my mascot yellow, with eyes and a mouth.

Creating a Vector Image Light Bulb

I was successful in using Inkscape 48.0 to complete the first three stepts of making the light bulb. However for the fourth step, I was unable to get the two 'nodes', i oly had one, which were mention on the website. It ws taking up too much time to try and get these nodes so i decided to go on with the next activity (Digital Media)

3D drawing

I used Microsoft Word 2007 to generate this 3D drawing of my geometric guy. :D

Paint.NET tools & their functions

1. Rectangle Select

This tool is used to define a rectangle or square selection region.
 2. Move Selected Pixels
This tool can be used to move the currently selected pixels, after having used the various selection tools.

3. Lasso Select
The lasso select tool can be used to draw a freeform selection region.

4. Move Selection
The move selection tool can be used to move the selection without affecting the pixels that are selected.


5. Ellipse Select
An elliptical or circular selection region can be made using the ellipse select tool.


6. Zoom
This tool can be used to zoom in (left click), zoom out (right click), or zoom the whole canvas around a particular region (draw a rectangle).


7. Magic Wand
The magic wand tool can be used to select the areas of the active layer that are in a similar colour.


8. Text Tool
You can place text on the image usinf the text tool.


9. Paintbrush
The paintbrush is selected by default when you start using the program Paint.NET. It is useful to create many types of freeform drawings.

10. Eraser
The eraser can be used to erase any areas of the image. The transparency is automatically set to 0.


11. Pencil
This tool allows you to edit the active layer pixel-by-pixel.


12. Color Picker
The colour picker tool is used to pick up a colour from the active layer and set it as the current primary or secondary colour.


13. Clone Stamp
This tool is useful for copying regions of pixels between layers, or within the same layer.


14. Recolor Tool
This tool is used for replacing one color with another.

15. Paint Bucket
The paint bucket is generally useful for filling any enclosed areas of a similar colour with a different colour.


16.Line / Curve Tool
You can use the line/curve tool to draw straight lines and curved lines.


17. Rectangle
This tool can be used to draw rectangles and squares of any size.

18. Rounded Rectangle
The rounded rectangle tool can be used to draw rounded rectangles and rounded squares. (referring to the corners of the rectangles being rounded).


19. Ellipse
This tool is used to draw ellipses and circles.

20. Freeform Shape
Any shape with a freeform outline can be drawn using the freeform shape tool.


21. Tolerance Slider
The tolerance slider affects how the Magic Wand, the Recolor Tool, and the Paint Bucket operate. It controls how similar colors must be when being operated on by these tools. If this is set to 0%, then only the exact color specified will be considered. If this is set to 100%, then all colors will be included. The default value is 50%.


22. Color Display
This shows what the primary and secondary color are. It also allows quick buttons for resetting to black and white, and for swapping the primary and secondary colors.

Graphic terms

animated gif: A single graphic file that contains a series of images which are displayed sequentially to give the illusion of movement or change over time.
Animation is best used sparingly on text intensive webpages. Movement may add a dynamic feel to content but also distracts the user from reading text on the page.
http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/animated.php

crop: To cut out or trim unneeded portions of an image or a page is to crop. Cutting lines, known as crop marks, may be indicated on a print-out of the image or page to show where to crop. dpi: A measure of the resolution of a printer is called DPI or dots per inch. It properly refers to the dots of ink or toner used by an imagesetter, laser printer, or other printing device to print your text and graphics. In general, the more dots, the better and sharper the image. DPI is printer resolution. jpeg: –noun Computers . 1.  a set of standards and file format for compression of digital color images.

2.  an image file compressed in this format

mirror: To reflect an image as it wiould appear in a mirror.

resolution: In computers, resolution is the number of pixels (individual points of color) contained on a display monitor, expressed in terms of the number of pixels on the horizontal axis and the number on the vertical axis. The sharpness of the image on a display depends on the resolution and the size of the monitor.

pixel: noun Computers, Television .

the smallest element of an image that can be individually processed in a video display system

fps: Frames Per Second. A measurement of how fast an image, such as animation changes. Animations usually run at 24-35 frames per second convincing the brain that it is fluid action.

file extension: File extensions, for any computer files, are the three letters at the end of the filename. These three letters are preceded by a dot, to separate the filename from the extension. In the example mypresentation.ppt the file extension is ppt

http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/fps

Bmp: The standard bit-mapped graphics format used in the Windows environment. By
convention, graphics files in the BMP format end with a.BMP extension. BMP
files store graphics in a format called device-independent bitmap (DIB).

Frame: In graphics and desktop publishing applications, a rectangular area in which
text or graphics can appear.



The original image (completely to the left) ; flipped vertically (second from left) ; flipped horizontally (on right end). The third image appears as a copy of the original image because the original is symmetrical.



Compression: Also called data compression. reduction of the storage space required for
data by changing its format.

Flip: The flip function can be used to create a mirror image of the original image.

Morph: Short for metamorphosing, morphing refers to an animation technique in which
one image is gradually turned into another.

Frame Buffer: The portion of memory reserved for holding the complete bit-mapped image that is sent to the monitor.

Video Card: A piece of hardwood installed into the computer

CPU: The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the brain of the computer.

Colour Depth: The number of distinct colors that can be represented by a piece of hardware or software. Color depth is sometimes referred to as bit depth because it is
directly related to the number of bits used for each pixel.