file format impact (D2)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Go5XyQzJkuVG9IdDAtWENNS0k/edit?usp=sharing

Evolving Output Mediums (D1)

PDF:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Go5XyQzJkubjByYlNPTFU4bUk/edit?usp=sharing

Evolving Output Mediums:

Monitors:

In the late 1980s CRT monitors were commonly used in the creation of graphical images. CRT monitors provided good colour depth for the creation of graphical images. A major disadvantage to the CRT monitor was the fact that they came in small sizes. This was an issue because bigger screen sizes allow for higher resolution image creation.

This issue was solved with the introduction of the LCD monitor. The LCD monitor allowed for a larger screen size and kept good colour depth. The LCD monitor is still used in many products such as laptops.

LCD monitors have been improved with IPS technology. This technology is useful in term of graphical design, because it allows for a strong viewing angle and it displays deeper colours correctly. This technology has improved the efficiency of graphical design

 

Printers:

Printers are a very important aspect of digital graphics, because it allows digital graphics to be into a physical graphic. Printers have been improving in the amount of dots per inch (DPI) ever since the first inkjet was released in 1998. A high DPI is vital for the best quality images, without a high DPI the images that a printer produces are of a poor quality.

Printers have also been evolving in term of their connectivity. Printers now come with Wi-Fi capabilities, this allows for wireless printing. Wireless printing is now an important part of most work places, and makes printing for employees a lot easier and less time consuming.

Printers have also started to included other technology such as scanners, this is particularly useful in terms of digital graphics because it allows a physical graphic to be converted to a digital graphic that can then be manipulated.

Phones:

Mobile phones are an example of an output medium for digital graphics that is rapidly evolving. Mobile phones have evolved from being limited to only making phone calls, to now being able to take 1080p videos and edit them. This is a quite a drastic leap considering how quickly this evolution happened.

Companies such adobe are now capitalising on how effective mobile phone are as an output medium, by realising apps such as “Photoshop express”, applications such as this provide mobile users with some of the features they would get from the PC versions of these products

Justification of software and hardware (M2)

PDF:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Go5XyQzJkuR29hLUY2QlcwQjQ/edit?usp=sharing

Justification for Graphical Image:

Software:

The software I used to create and manipulate my graphical image was Photoshop. I chose Photoshop because I am fairly familiar with its UI, and I fell that it has a greater number of tutorials if needed them. This software worked very well for me due to its use of a layering system that allowed me to manipulate different images easily and effectively.

Hardware:

Mouse and Keyboard

I chose to use these two tools because the UI for Photoshop is easy to navigate with the use of a mouse. Photoshop also includes a lot of keyboard shortcuts that allowed me to access tools and function such as transform, quickly and efficiently.

I didn't find any use for a graphics tablet due to the fact was not creating my own images from scratch

Resolution:

I chose to make my image 500x500. I picked this resolution to make a completely square graphical image. I also felt that this resolution would be sufficiently large enough so that the image would not have to be scaled up for viewing.

Colour depth:

I chose to use 24bit colour in my image because it generally considered a standard size. 24bit colour has provided my image with vibrant colours, that can be seen well even when scaled.

File format:

I chose to save my image in a JPEG format, because it is very good at producing a good quality image with a relatively small file size

 

 

Limitations of Different Hardware and Software: (M1)

PDF:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Go5XyQzJkuaXl1eHloeWMxR2M/edit?usp=sharing

Hardware:

Name:	Limitations:
Mouse	In terms of graphic design the mouse isn’t a great piece of hardware in terms of making an image. This is because it is hard to control and doesn’t feel natural to draw an image with.   In comparison with a graphics tablet the mouse is very basic. With a mouse you have to select a specific opacity before drawing line, a graphics tablet allows you to decide this by registering pressure applied when drawing.   Drawing straight or curved lines is extremely difficult and that in turn forces you to use the tools provided in software.
Graphics tablet	The graphics tablet is specifically designed for graphic design and provides the user with much more freedom than the mouse in term of drawing.   Although when it comes to navigating menus it becomes much less effective than the mouse.   It also becomes a lot less usable in terms of using specific tools such as rotation and moving images.

Software:

 

Name:	Limitations
Photoshop	Photoshop is not as user friendly as other software such as gimp, this is due to its UI which is relatively difficult to modify in comparison to GIMP   Photoshop is limited to newer systems due to the 1GB of RAM required to run. Photoshop is also now available on some operating systems such as Linux   Photoshop also has a small variety of free effects in comparison to other software such as GIMP
Gimp	GIMP is limited to only being able to manipulate 8 bit images. This is a huge disadvantage because Photoshop is able to work with 8,16 and 32 bit images   The files that GIMP creates (XCF) cannot be opened in Photoshop, but Photoshop files can be opened in GIMP. This is a limitation to users who want to use both piece of software on a single project

 

Marquee Development (P4,P5)

Marquee Development Log

This is a development log for the marquee that was made to go on the arcade cabinet, it is used to attract people to play my game Hunter

This is the original version of my marquee:

 

I shared this version of my marquee with my peers using social networking site. I received some extremely useful feedback that influenced my next version.



Using the feedback I had previously received a I changed the background of my marquee to make it stand out more.

When I then resubmitted my marquee to get more peer reviews on my new version, I then used the constructive feedback received to create a new and improved version.

 

I used the feedback from my peers to create my final marquee. It was suggested that I try to make the helmet look as if it is embedded it the marquee. It was also suggested that I add out glows to my text and logo to make the marquee stand out more.

 

Poster Development (P4,P5)

Hunter Poster Development Log:

This was the first version of my poster that I created.

 

Once I had finished my poster shared it with my peers over social media sites asking for feedback, the feedback received was very constructive and the overall message I received from it was that I need to include the title of my game.

I then resubmitted my poster for my peers to review again. The second set of feedback I received told me to change the font to a darker red and add some effects.

After reading the feedback I made appropriate changes and this was my final image

File Formats (P2)

File management

Naming files:

It is important to keep the name of files short, this makes it quick and easy to search and find images. When naming an image file you should pick a meaningful name to do with the image for example an image of a red door could be called “red_door” or “door_red”. This method makes it easy for anyone to know what the file will contain. Another good way to name image file is to stick to naming conventions such as using a _ instead of a space in the file name.

Using naming conversions and meaningful names improves the organisation of files and make it considerably easier to find image files.

Folder structures:

Folder structures are an important part of maintaining organisations with files. Most operating systems allow multiple folders to be created and then subfolder within that folder, this allows for a complex but organised file layout. This method of origination allows you to place image files into groups based on what the images have in common. An example of this would be placing all the pictures of laptops in one folder and in another folder all the pictures of Xbox 360.

Moving files:

Moving files can be risky if certain precautions are not taken to ensure that multiple copies of files are made, if these precautions are not taken you run the risk of losing a file permanently.

Creating copies of an image file and moving to storage device such as a USB stick is a good idea due to how easy it is to copy and move files on the latest operating systems. One of the easiest and most common ways of moving and copying files at the same time is to copy and paste the file into the desired location.

Deleting files:

Deleting files is an easy and basic operation on most operating systems, but care should be taken when deleting files as hard drives do have a data recovery system allowing files to be restored.

Vector and Raster Graphics:

Raster (bitmap):

Raster images are made of pixels of a set colour and shades that create the image. Each raster image pixels represents a different colour rather than an instruction, this is one of the main reasons raster images are used in high detailed images or photographs. This file type does not scale very well; this is because you are spreading the same image data over a larger area. The image on the right is an example of how a raster reacts to being scaled in comparison to a vector image.

GIF:

Graphics interchange format is a form of raster graphic. This file format supports animation and transparency making it very popular on the internet; this is also due to its quick loading times. GIF files support images up to 256 colours; this limitation causes GIF’s to have a poorer a quality in comparison to other file formats.

 

Vector:

Vector images use a set of instruction to create an image. This allows vector images to be scaled up and down without the losing any of the image quality, this makes vector graphics the ideal file format for a logo because it may need to  be produced at multiple sizes. A major disadvantage of this file format is its inability to handle complex graphics such as a photo that could contain a large amount of different instructions. The image on the right is an example of how a vector image cannot give the same graphical quality of a photograph as a raster image.

SVG:

Sizable vector graphics is a vector file format. This file format is an all-purpose vector format. As with the majority of vector graphics it cannot display photorealistic images very well .This file format supports animation and transparency. It is commonly used on interactive web pages and is also supported by the majority of modern browsers.

 

Lossy and Lossless Compression:

It is possible to reduce the file size of an image using compression. The first method of compression is called lossy compression. Lossy compression works by putting the colour information into blocks and eliminating unnecessary bits of information, this in turn dramatically reduces the file size. Once an image has been compressed you cannot get the original uncompressed file back

The second method of file compression is lossless.  This method allows the image to keep all of its uncompressed data. It does this by using data algorithms; these algorithms break the image data down for compression but also allow all of the data to be fully restored.