Premiere - Current DVD Trailers

Now I have looked at some initial ideas and created some brainstorms which show my own ideas I have decided that the next step is to look at DVD trailers which have already been created. I want to pick out the strong points in these and then the weaknesses and take inspiration for my own trailer. I want to stick to my own film Genre as this seems to make most sense and will give me the most inspiration. I may even concentrate this even further to only look at films which include the actors in my film as these trailers could then also be used for clips in my own trailer. Below show the DVD trailers along with my thoughts and comments on various factors.

Sex And The City 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5-aOpznm44

This is the first DVD Trailer I have reviewed. This is based on the fact that it is most like the film I have created and hence I hope to be able to find some inspiration from this. I will start by looking at the good aspects of this DVD trailer. The first aspect which I like about this trailer is the music. This is relatable to the film and hence works really well. The very first frame in this trailer is the authorised preview screen. This is something which I had forgotten about completely and hence something I will have to use in my own trailer. This trailer uses huge amounts of film footage. My DVD trailer will show a lot less of this naturally because my trailer can only be 1 minute long however I feel this means the footage I need to pick has to be more specific. This trailer tends to start with the bad aspects and then develop to the happier more exciting plot. This was separated with a text frame which has the release date. This works well and I feel that I could use this idea. I don't feel that the ending of this trailer is as good as it could be as it ends on a strange note. I feel this trailer lacks comedy and I would somehow like to incorporate this into my trailer. Overall I feel that the sequence of this trailer could be used and that this has confirmed that my choice of music is key.

The Holiday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzUb1fOVjYU

 

The Holiday is the second film I have looked at, this is based on the factor that Cameron Diaz is an actor in this film. Like with the previous trailer this is also a lot longer than my specified time and hence I would need to cut out a lot of the in film footage to make it work. It does however also have the authorised preview screen. The first thing I noticed about this trailer is the change in music. Neither of the songs are common however they change based on the mood of that aspect. Like the Sex And The City trailer this trailer also puts the emotional/sad part at the beginning with some slow music and then changes to the up beat music when the vibe changes. This seems to work really well however I question how well this would work with only one minute of trailer. This trailer does show more funny clips which makes it more appealing to me. This trailer ends by showing all of the cast information and the release date. This does seem to work but would then mean that I wouldn't need to separate my trailer with the release date in the middle and this is hence something to think about. 

Friends With Benefits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJS-wWqVAyk

 

Friends With Benefits is the third film I have looked at, this is based on the factor that Mila Kunis is an actor in this film. Like with the previous trailer this is also a lot longer than my specified time and hence I would need to cut out a lot of the in film footage to make it work. This trailer starts with the authorised preview frame, I now see the importance of this as it has been used in every trailer so far. This is my least favourite trailer so far as I feel it goes into too much detail about the film. The trailer shows all film footage and little of anything else. The song choice is good although not particularly noticeable or recognisable and I feel that it could be improved with a catchier song. This trailer tends to show the basic information about the cast and release date throughout the trailer rather than in one section and I personally don't like this. I feel having the information on a blank frame is more memorable than having it on the screen with film running in the background. Overall I don't feel that I will be taking much from this trailer. 

 

Dear John:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLkTKkNXDp4

 



 

I used this film in the other two aspects of my existing products and hence I decided to use this trailer.Like with all of the previous trailers this is also a lot longer than my specified time and hence I would need to cut out a lot of the in film footage to make it work. This trailer starts with the authorised preview frame. This trailer uses a mixture of film sounds and a background song. This does work well however I think it would be a hard element to achieve as I would need to get the volume of each just right. This trailer acts as a timeline as to what happens from the beginning to the end of the film. As I have mentioned previously I do like this however I feel that a one minute trailer probably couldn't accommodate such a feature. The end of this trailer is really good, it has clear frames which hold all of the film information. It finally ends with the release date. I feel this is one of the most important pieces of information and ending on this note seems like a good idea. 

 

 



The Other Woman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxuwBXPITEk

 

 

This is a very new film trailer and that is one of the reasons I decided to use it. I wanted to compare this new film trailer with those above which are at least a couple of years old. The second reason for choosing this film trailer was the fact that Cameron Diaz is a staring actor. This could mean that the trailer has footage which I could use for my own DVD trailer. This trailer starts with the authorised preview frame. This trailer uses music in places but leaves room for the film footage including voice overs. There are also a mixture of songs throughout to go with the different themes. This works based on the length of the trailer however I don't feel this would work with my one minute slot. The final song in the film is a very well known song in the charts, this plays while the film information is playing and hence you now associate the song to the film. I feel this is a good idea however I think I prefer the background music used on the previous trailer. This film trailer is funny and hence it catches your attention very quickly, so much so that this is actually a film I now want to go and watch! This is one of the only film trailers which I feel has used a colour scheme on their film information frames and I feel this is an aspect I would definitely like to use.

 

Overall I feel that these DVD trailers have given me aspects which I can use in my own trailer but also elements to steer away from. I see the importance the song choice can make along with the idea of incorporating the films colour scheme. Making the trailer memorable is key and this is often achieved using entertaining clips. I also now know that I need to use the authorised preview screen and this is something I need to look into further. 

Illustrator Evaluation

Now that I have created and acted upon feedback for my Illustrator Disk Cover. I am at a stage where I am happy that it is completed. With this in mind I have decided to evaluate my product. The main aspect I will be looking at is what works and what doesn't work, what I like and what I am not so keen on. I will also look at changes that I would make if I was to undertake this task again along with an evaluation of how I spent my time and if I would change this in the future. Below is a final copy of my Disk Cover for reference.

I am going to start with the aspects that I like and don't like about my disk cover. My favourite aspects are the clouds. These were an element which I was unsure about to begin with but looking back now I am really happy with effect these have created. I feel that these clouds helped me with the rest of my disk cover as these created a slight fantasy feel. This meant that other elements didn't have to be perfect and this could be justified. The way I created the clouds also worked really well. I pen tool worked best for the simply outlines while the brush tool worked better for the solid clouds. I feel the opacity difference also makes these stand out on the disk and adds a level of diversity.

My second favourite element is the film logo. This was my second logo and I was unsure if I was even going to go ahead and create this but I am glad I did. This was one of the self taught elements in this stage of the assignment and I feel it has worked out really well. The techniques I used were new to me and I hence found this interesting to create. The overall look of this logo is really good and I feel it even makes my company logo look unprofessional. The colours I used on this logo work really well with the overall look and feel of my disk and for all of these reasons I am most proud of this element.

This leads me on to my least favourite element. This is my company logo. I did initially like this but after I saw what I could create (being my film logo) I feel this looks too simple and unprofessional in comparison.

Looking at other elements on my disk cover I feel the title stands out in a positive way. I wanted to stick to a similar style with my title on all three of my elements for this assignment and I feel I have achieved this without them being exactly the same. Each product needed the title to look a certain way and stand out on different backgrounds and this is hence why these have differed slightly. I do however feel they show consistency. I feel the colours I have used follow my colour scheme and stand out well on the given background. Although this is a very simple element I feel it makes the disk stand out and grabs the attention of the viewer.

Along the lines of consistency follows the image of the three actors. This is the exact same image that can be found on the front of my DVD inlay, I feel this pulls the two elements together perfectly. I didn't want to add too much of the DVD inlay to this as I wanted them to be separable but still noticeably the same. This was something which I found hard as I felt like I was trying to make them look the same but different too. I resized the image and I feel this is a good quality aspect of my disk.

I added some text onto my disk as you can see above. This was something I always wanted to add but something that wasn't on any of the disks which I had previously reviewed. I took what I thought were the most important pieces of data from the DVD inlay and added them to my disk. I feel this is an aspect which I am happy I did add as these are elements I would really like on my DVD disks. It is so much quicker to look at the disk to find the running time than it is to search the back of the inlay. I used the same font that I have used throughout for this information and I feel it is big enough to still be easily read. This text is wrapped around the legs of the actors. I feel this looks good and also hits some criteria.

The final stage was to add my logos. I positioned this to the left of the Hub as I stated in my designs. I feel together these are easy to find rather than having them dotted around in various places. The only logo which differs from this is the DVD Audio. I don't have a real reason behind separating this logo I simply played around with different positions and simply preferred this logo in this location.

I have deliberately left out a couple of features from the above. These were features which were added from my feedback and hence I wanted to evaluate these separately. The two elements I added based on the Week 6 feedback are the legal information round the bottom of the disk and also the purple bar through the middle. Both of these elements were suggested by Jamie. I had completely forgotten about the legal information needed for the disk and hence this was added through the need rather than the want however now it is added I feel I have made it a feature of my disk cover. I like the way I was able to increase the size of the text at each end of the sentence. This makes it stand out without over powering. I don't feel this information needs to stand out too much as it is simply small print but I am pleased how well this has fitted into place. The second element was the purple bar. This was an aspect in one of my initial designs however I had dismissed it based on the fact that I thought it would be hard to incorporate some of the tool into such a simplistic design. It was an aspect which I really liked and an aspect that Jamie said looked effective. For this reason he suggested that I tried to bring this into my final design. I am really pleased with how well this had fitted into place and the fact that I have been able to mix my two designs to create what I feel is a professional final piece. I feel the colour also helps to tie in the different colours of the girls dresses which makes it look like it was meant to be there from the beginning rather than an extra.

Overall I feel that my disc looks professional and consistent with my DVD inlay. If anything I feel that I am happier with this than what I was with my inlay however I do still feel like this element has some weaker features. I am really pleased with how each aspect has come together and how various elements stand out more than others.

With this in mind I am going to look at what I would change if I was to undertake this task again in the future. The main aspect I feel I would change is the company logo. I don't hate this element but I don't particularly like it. It is very simple and for this reason I would have liked to try to create a different version of the film logo for the company logo. Although I would vary these I think the general idea would so consistency and improve the overall look of my disk. I feel this is the only real aspect which I dislike from my disk and hence the only real option I would change. I may look into different background ideas if I had the chance to create this element again although I do really like the background I have created.

The final aspect I am going to review is the way I spent my time.  The most time consuming element of this task was the film logo. This used new skills and techniques and it arguably took longer for this reason. I feel the overall look of this element is of high quality and hence I feel I spent my time wisely. The clouds I created also took a substantial length of time to create and perfect. I feel these play a big role on my disk cover and I am happy that I can justify the time I spent for this reason. I would spend more time creating my company logo if I could undertake this task again. This element was quick to create and I feel this is reflected in how the element looks. In terms of designing and preparing for this element I feel I spent more time trialling different ideas than I did initially designing them. I feel this worked better than with my Photoshop work as ultimately the way it looks on the disk is key. It may look great on paper but completely different on the disk and I feel this was time well spent. Going forward into the final stage of this assignment I would like to spend much more time trialling than actually designing.

To summarise I feel that I am happy with my final product even though there are elements which I feel could be improved. I feel that I have learnt a lot in regards to time keeping and how to spend my time which I could take forward into the final stages of my assignment.

Premiere - Lumetri Looks

When exploring the effects panel I came across a section known as Lumetri Looks. These are effects which you can add to individual clips to create a certain look. Although there are a wide variety of these looks I selected my favourite and most relevant ones to discuss. These are as follows:

1.  Day4Night
2. Maximum De-saturation
3. Back In The Day
4. Cold Overall
5. Warm Overall

The day4night look adds an effect to the selected clip which makes the scene go from daylight to appear it is evening/night. Using the effects control panel at the top of the screen you can adjust how far into the clip this effect is added and also to what extent. I really like this effect as it is subtle but effective. I am not sure if or how I could add this effect to my trailer yet however I aim to experiment with this further at a later date.  

Maximum De- saturation simply turns the selected clip black and white. This is a very prominent effect and I feel it looks slightly over done. This can however be compared to the Back in the day lumetric look.  This effect makes the clip seem a lot darker and old fashioned. I feel this might be too dark and actually ruin the effect for this reason. I see no relevance to using black and white in my trailer at the moment however I wanted to look at some of the contrasting techniques which Premiere has to offer. 

Cold Overall is a lumetric look which adjusts the colours in the clip to give it an overall cold feel. This is achieved using mainly blue. This is a subtle effect but still noticeable when you compare the clip with and without this look. I am not sure my film trailer will have any winter scenes however there is another option called Warm Overall which I could use.

Warm overall is a lumetri look which adjusts the colours in the clip to give it an overall warm and sunny feel. Unlike the Cold Overall look this uses mainly oranges, yellows and reds. This is a subtle effect but still noticeable when you compare the clip with and without this look. I think my film trailer will include scenes in which this lumetri look could be used and hence I plan to come back to this effect when creating my final trailer. 

As mentioned above there are many different lemetri looks which I could use for my trailer the issue is narrowing these down to the most relevant. I aim to come back and use these effects in my trailer as these are untaught effects and show how I have spent time looking at other aspects of Premiere.  

Photoshop Evaluation

Now that I have created and acted upon feedback for my Photoshop DVD inlay I am at a stage where I am happy that it is completed. With this in mind I have decided to evaluate my product. The main aspect I will be looking at is what works and what doesn't work, what I like and what I am not so keen on. I will also look at changes that I would make if I was to undertake this task again along with an evaluation of how I spent my time and if I would change this in the future. Below is a final copy of my DVD inlay for reference.

So lets start by looking at what I like and don't like about my final product. I am going to start by evaluating the front cover. My favourite aspect of the front cover is the film title. This was an aspect which I began struggling with but it has actually turned out to be a really strong aspect of my design. The main body colour ties in perfectly with the rest of my DVD inlay while the outer glow makes the title stand out from the background. I feel that it was the small effects that I added which made this title.

The main image on the front cover was created from scratch using loads of different elements. This was massively time consuming and I am overall pleased with the effect it gives. This is very simple but as you would have probably noticed throughout I am very simplistic. My only slight negative feature in regards to this main image is the background (sky). I do really like the colour change and I feel the effects I added to this toned it down nicely however the top of the image was too bright. Although I did add the gradient to this I still feel the top of the background lets the image down. I feel this was down to the nature of the original image I used. I feel the colour I used for the actors dresses are perfect and this is an element which I am really proud of. I feel the actors look like they are apart of the main image and don't look as staged as I expected. This was quite a complicated element but really worth the hassle. There are some slight imperfections around the edges of these actors and I feel that these let the image down a little. The Eiffel Tower aspect would ideally have pink shining through the iron work however this was something which I used couldn't achieve based on the fact that these areas were just too small. I don't feel this lets the image down as it simply looks like it should be that way however I do feel that this image could have been improved had I have been able to achieve this.

It is worth noting that I originally had four main actors for the main image and as you can see above I only used three. This was based on the way the actors looked together. I began by having all of my actors lined up along the bottom of the inlay however this didn't look right and I hence tired to bunch them up together. This made the image look one sided as I always had two actors one side of the main character and then just one on the other side. I hence cut this down to the three. I took the actor which I felt I had edited best and brought these to the front of the group of actors. This seemed to work really well. This leads me on nicely to the next aspect to evaluate. This is the bar along the top of the screen which holds the actor names. This was made originally for all four actors and hence when one was cut I had to rearrange this section. I started buy simply cutting out the one actor and the spreading the final three however this simply didn't look right and I opted for increasing the font size of the main actor. I feel this made the actor names looks a lot better however looking at this aspect on my final design I feel this is slightly weak and an area which could have been improved. I feel this aspect I made worse by the bleed and safety lines as these are still on show in the above image. These would cut out some of the border and then positioning of these actor names would be better in a real life situation.

The final aspect on the front of my DVD inlay is the star rating. This was something I was set on from the very beginning however I didn't plan on it being such a centre piece on my inlay. The colours and Stroke I used work really well and I feel these stand out on the background. The light purple also helps it tie in with Sarah Jessica Parkers dress. The text which accompanies this is of a good size and I feel using the same font throughout the whole inlay has worked well giving consistency.

Moving on to look at the spine. This is a really simple aspect of my inlay and I feel it works really well for this reason. The white background breaks up the front and back cover nicely while it also helps to make the title stand out. The font used on the title is consistent with the title on the front cover and I really like this. The darker stroke makes the title stand out slightly however I'm not sure if I could have used a different colour to make this flow better as I have used such little black throughout. The age rating and logo are effective and of a good size. They are visible yet not over powering. The two simply bows add a girly feel to the spine without making it look too busy. Overall this is one of the simplest yet most effective aspect of my design in my opinion.

The backcover of my DVD inlay uses a lot cleaner lines than the front cover. I put my time into different aspects of the back cover where as the front cover was all about one aspect. I will start by evaluating the elements which I edited myself; Cameron Diaz and the Eiffel Tower. I am really pleased and proud of the way I was able to airbrush Cameron Diaz. I feel this is one of the most effective elements on the whole inlay. The image is of a really high quality and the size on the back cover is proportional. The border I added around this allows the image to tie in with the rest of my inlay without overpowering the image itself. As for the Eiffel Tower image, this was something which I was going to use for the front cover but changed my mind. I am pleased that I did change my mind as the front of the inlay is striking and works really well. That doesn't mean I don't like this image because I do I simply feel it is better suited on the back cover than the front. I feel the techniques I used made this image look realistic. It also brought the theme of Paris to the back cover which I was worried I wouldn't be able to achieve. Again I used a small border for this image to incorporate this element nicely.  

The blurb which I added on the backcover was adapted and changed from my week 6 feedback. Originally I had this text in the same font as my title. I liked this font and I thought that it made my document consistent however Jamie expressed his concern in a sense that it was quite hard to read and that it should be more clear based on the fact that it is the first thing a customer would go for. It was changed for this reason. I was concerned that changing this aspect would lower the quality of my overall inlay however I was pleasantly surprised. This type actually is really effective and I feel it is a lot clearer now than it was. I feel this is a really strong aspect of my design.

The table at the bottom of the DVD inlay was an aspect I was set on from the very beginning. My initial plan was to split this into more sections however I opted for the three sections as these fit my text better. I feel this aspect is probably the weakest aspect of my design. It is very simple and holds minimal information. I feel the strongest aspects of this section are the font I used and the quality of the logos and barcode. I feel I should have made this a bigger aspect of my design and looked into current layouts deeper.

I added the legal information as requested by Jamie in my week 6 feedback. This was added just above the table of DVD information. This is small type however this was consistent with all of the other DVD cases which I looked into. I tired positioning this aspect vertically up the side of my inlay however this clashed with the image of Cameron Diaz and hence I placed it in its current position.

The hearts on the back cover of my inlay were added simply for aesthic purposes. These helped to fill in the gaps on the back cover as I wanted to stay away from blank spaces. The colours of these work well as they bring in the aspects of purple which I wanted to incorporate.

Looking at my DVD inlay overall I feel it is professional and looks effective. As I mentioned above it has weak aspects but I feel these are pulled through by the stronger elements. I feel the simple shapes and details make this DVD inlay stand out and add the finish required. The Spine really helps to break up the DVD inlay and I feel this has worked perfectly. I overall feel that the front cover is stronger than the back cover, this could be because it has more going on but then again I feel if both the front and back cover were this busy it would be over powering.

So with all of this in mind I am going to think about what I would change if I was to undertake this task again. As mentioned above my weakest element in my opinion was the information on the back of the inlay about the DVD. For this reason I would definitely look into different ways of displaying this information if I was to undertake this project again. I also think I would add another image to the back cover. Although the two images I do have are high quality and took a lot of time to perfect I do feel that looking at the DVD inlay as a whole the back cover looks weaker than the front. I feel another image would make the backcover busier and stand out. I feel the eye is focused on the front cover which is great but I feel this should be spread more evenly across both the front and back cover. The final element which I would look at changing in the future is the way the actor names sit on the front cover. I don't feel this is the weakest element but I do feel that it could be improved. I would like to experiment with putting this bar at the bottom of the inlay rather than the top or even remove the bar altogether and simply use the type on the main image. Overall I feel that I would change small elements if I was to undertake this task in the future.

This leads me on to my next aspect to evaluate. The time I spent on each element varied and I will now look at how much time I spent on each aspect and whether this time was spent wisely. The most time consuming element in this whole project was the main image on the front cover by far. This is one of my favourite aspects and hence I don't feel that this was time wasted. I would arguably spend more time on this element in the future as I would like to improve the top of the image. The two images on the back took roughly the same amount of time. I don't prefer one image to the other and hence I would stick to this length of time if I was to undertake this project again. I feel that I spent a lot of time with the planning aspect of this element of the assignment but I don't feel like I spent enough time trialling different ideas. I only really created two different ideas when in reality I feel I could have created a better final product if I had trialled more ideas. This would have been time consuming however I feel it would have been worth my time. As I mentioned above I feel the weakest part of this inlay was the table at the bottom on the back. I would spend more time looking at different ways to portray this information as well as look at adding more information. Overall I feel I spread my time wisely with this DVD inlay. This includes the elements I blogged. I tired to keep my blog and my workspace up to date. This has helped me keep track of where I am at in both cases.

Bringing all of these elements together I feel that this aspect of the assignment has gone really well and I am happy with the final result. I feel there are aspects which could be improved like anything in life but in general I feel this inlay has a professional finish. I feel I have spent the most of my time wisely with a few small adjustments I could make if I was to undertake this task again in the future.

Week 6 Review - Illustrator Improvements

Now that I have discussed and gathered all of my feedback I have started to implement these changes. Many of the suggested improvements for this element of my design included factors which I would have created anyway it just so happened that my disk design wasn't finished when this was shown. The first improvement which was suggested by all those who reviewed my work was to add a text wrap. I decided to add some of the main information about the film to my disk and then wrap this text around the main image. To do this I simply used the type tool to create the text and then on a new layer used the pencil to draw around the actors in the main image. This helped to scale down the text wrap so that my text only wrapped around the pencil line rather than the box which encapsulated the image. I then selected the two of these together and used the Object, Text Wrap Tool. More details into this can be found in my Text Wrap Tutorial which I undertook in an earlier blog post. You can see this in place from the screenshot below. I left the large box on show so you can see why I used the pencil tool to draw an outline.

The second feature which was suggested as an improvement was to create a logo. This was part of the mandatory requirement and hence I was of course going to create this with or without the feedback. I decided to create two different logos. The first logo was a media company logo and the second was a film logo. Both of these have been blogged about previously and these can be seen added to my disk below. As you can see from the image below my disk has now met all of the mandatory features and anything which I add now is extras so this is a much safer place to be at this stage. This logo stage also covered another suggestion from Khyle. She suggested that I look into some tutorials in order to go above and beyond so I can achieve a higher grade. You can see from my previous posts that I used three different tutorials and hence have managed to fulfil two pieces of criteria in one go.

 

Tony suggested that I should look at the size of the age ratings like I did for the DVD inlay. All the details which I found on this can be seen on the Week 6 Review - Photoshop Improvements blog post. These were simply left as they are. 

 



Jamie suggested that like with my Photoshop work I needed to add some legal information onto my disk. I used the same information which I had already added to my Photoshop work to this Illustrator disk cover. I selected the Type Tool and then simply copied and pasted this over. I used the same font as I have throughout this design - Harlow Solid Italic and then set the size to 4pt. I then used the Arch Tool to make this text follow the bleed line. The final stage in this process was to use the Direct Selection Tool. I used this tool to make the two ends of the sentence larger than the middle. This was purely for aesthical purposes. The image below shows my disk with this element added.

 

The final piece of feedback which Jamie gave was in regards to a previous disk design. For reference this can be seen below. Jamie said how he liked the solid bar through the middle of this disk and wondered if this could be incorporated into the final design in some way. Mixing the two was not something I had previously considered however I was willing to give it a try. I used the same technique I used to create the bar in the design stage on my now nearly finished disk.

 

 

The image below shows the solid bar added to my design. I don't personally like this design as much as I like my original and for this reason I decided that I would try to reduce the opacity.

 

The image below shows this bar with the opacity toned down to 57%.

 

I feel this looks a lot better and I will be keeping this in place. The image below shows my now final disk design with all improvements incorporated. 

 



Illustrator - Creation Of Disc

So now I have looked at design features, tutorials and had a chance to play around with the features that Illustrator has to offer it is time to put this all into practise. In this blog post I will work through the stages I undertook when creating my Illustrator disc. This process was a lot less detailed than the Photoshop element. This is based upon the tools which are available. Photoshop has a lot more tools to offer than Illustrator. This said you can still create some really good pieces of work in Illustrator. So where do I begin?
I started by using the template which you can see I created in a much earlier blog post. My next step was to create a background. Again from previous blog posts you can see the deliberation which I went through before deciding on this aspect. I opted for a gradient background. To create this I firstly drew an Ellipse using the Ellipse Shape Tool. I made this the same size as the outer guide. This Ellipse then filled my disc. To add the gradient to this I used the Gradient Tool. This can be found in the side Tool Bar. With this selected I was then able to edit the gradient settings in the right hand tool bar. I firstly changed the gradient type. I set this to Linear. I was then able adjust the colours in my gradient. These are set as black and white by default. I started my gradient with a light purple, this then changed to light pink and finished with dark pink. This can be seen in the below screenshot along with the gradient on the disc.

With the basic background of my disc now established I decided to add my title. This seemed like a good place to progress too. I already knew that I wanted to use the same font type as I used on my DVD inlay. This was to keep the two elements consistent. To create my title I used the Type Tool which can be found in the left hand tool bar. I simply clicked on the disc and started to type my title. I was then able to change the settings for this. I firstly changed the font to Harlow Solid Italic like mentioned previously. I then changed the font size. I set this to 24pt, this was based on how the title looked rather than being a set size. I simply increased the size until I got to a point where I was happy with the way it looked. I set the main body text to white and then changed the Stroke to a dark pink and set this feature to 1pt. The next stage was to use the Arch Tool. This made my text bend around the top of my disc. To create this effect I selected the text and then selected the Arch Tool which can be found in the top tool bar. I changed the settings to edit how much I wanted my text to arch. These settings can be seen below. These settings didn't make my text go exactly where I wanted it to and hence I needed to now use the Direct Selection Tool. This allowed me to move each corner of my text and hence bring this a lot closer to the bleed guide. The image below shows the progress up to this stage.

 

The next stage of this process was really simple. I now wanted to add three main actors in my film to the disc. I wanted to use the same image of the girls which I had previously used on the front of my DVD inlay. This again shows consistency and will give a professional feel. To insert this image I used the File, Place menu. I then searched my files for the image I wanted and then selected the Place button. I then resized my image and moved it to correct place. The image below shows my disc with this element added.

 



The next stage in this process was to add clouds. I used two different tools to create a variety of different clouds. These different tools created diversity and also hit the criteria. The two different tools which I used were the Brush and the Pen tool. The Brush Tool was used first. This tool can be found in the left hand tool bar. I selected the brush tool and then set the Fill to None and the Stroke to White. This created hollow clouds. In this instance it was the look I was going for. To create filled clouds I simply turned the Fill to White as well as the Stroke. With these settings in place I then simply drew the cloud shape. It is very difficult to create the exact shape first time and hence I when my cloud was drawn I used the Direct Selection Tool. This tool allowed me to adjust the angles and shapes at various points around my cloud. The screenshot below shows this. I was then able to adjust the features of the cloud without having to start over again and I could hence make small mistakes in my first hand drawing as this could be tweaked.

I used this technique to create mainly hollow clouds but I did also make one full cloud using the brush tool. The main way I created the filled clouds was using the Pen Tool. I personally found this tool much more difficult to work with. The Pen Tool can be found in the same tool bar as the Brush Tool. I set the Fill of the pen to White and Stroke To None. This will create full clouds rather than the hollow clouds I created using the brush tool. I then drew the outline of the cloud. The issue I had with this tool was it created really harsh pointed edges. This is clearly something which clouds lack. For this reason I had a look around the subject and found a tool which helped to remove this. This is the Smooth Tool. This can be found off of the Pencil Tool. In order to use the Smooth Tool I simply had to draw curved lines over the edges of my clouds. If I used the Smooth Tool on the outside of the shape I got smooth edges and if I used the Smooth Tool on the inside of the shape I got pointy edges. The images below show the pen tool on its own and then the pen tool once I have used the smooth tool. It is clear to see which is which.

 

 

 I repeated this whole process until I had created a line of clouds in the sky. I used a mixture of these two tools to create this effect. I also looked at the transparency of these clouds. I varied the opacity of some of these to create a diverse appeal. It seems silly to list all the levels of transparencies I used so I will simply name a few. The lightest cloud was set at 12% opacity while the darkest cloud I set to a 100% opacity. None of the clouds had the same opacity and this really aided the overall effect these gave off.  The image below shows these clouds incorporated into my final design.

 

The next features I added to my design were the variety of logos which I needed. I added these using the same method as I added my actors. This was using the Place Tool. The image below shows all of the logos I added in this way. The image below also shows the text wrap and legal information I added. The way in which these where implemented can be found in the Week 6 - Illustrator Improvements. It is also worth looking at the creation of my logos as these also show different techniques such as Clipping Masks and self taught features. The implementation of these are also in a separate blog post.

 

So lets look at the tools I have used throughout the illustrator process:



Shape Tool
Gradient Tool
Brush Tool
Pen Tool
Smooth Tool
Transparencies
Layers
Type Tool
Placing Images
Clipping Mask
Text Wrap
Direct Selection Tool
Gaussian Blur
Guides
It is worth noting not all of these tools have been mentioned in the above blog post. These tools have been used in different aspects of my disc such as the logos.

The next stage of this process is to evaluate my work. This will follow in a later blog post.

Logo Creation In Illustrator - Film Logo Decision

Now I have created my three film logos from the three different tutorials I need to make a decision over which one I prefer and hence which one I will use. You can see all three logos below, this is simply to recap on what each look like. I will then evaluate each for its suitability and overall look/feel.

Number 1:

Number 2:

Number 3:

So lets start with logo design one. Although this is a nice logo I feel this is my least favourite. I feel this is based on the fact that it really is very random, I am personally not a very random person and hence this doesn't appeal as much to me as a simple logo. The black which I used for the Stained Glass effect in this logo also stands out too much. I feel this looks slightly out of place. I feel I learnt the most from this logo however it isn't quite the look I am going for a hence this logo has been ruled out.

The second logo I created was the simplest out of the three however this looks really effective and appeals to me as I mentioned above based on this fact. The colours I used for this logo are very closely linked to my original colour scheme and I feel this has been let down slightly based on this fact. I don't feel this logo would stand out enough on my DVD inlay and my DVD cover. The concept behind this was good however I feel I could have improved it by opting for the previous colours which I used. The font colour on this logo doesn't aid its visibility and hence I should have used a white font with a pink stoke in order for this to stand out more. I used the white and pink text for both of the other logos and hence I am not sure why I opted to change this feature for this logo. For these reasons I wont be using this logo on my final designs.

This only leaves my third logo. This was the last tutorial I found but was hands down the best. I was immediately drawn to this tutorial by the logo which the tutorial created and this was before I had chance to add my own stamp to it. Again this used simple lines and shapes which appeals to me. I learnt and was able to use new skills which also made this logo slightly testing even if it wasn't as testing as the first logo. The colours in this logo followed my colour scheme but I also added the blue to add some diversity. This also helps the logo stand out on all of my designs. The font also stands out much better on this logo than on the previous and it is for all of these reasons that this will be my final film logo.

Logo Creation In Illustrator - Film Logo Design 2

This blog post shows my second film logo. Like my previous logo I used a tutorial to help me create this design. The web link for this tutorial is:

http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/create-a-cool-ribbon-style-logo-graphic-in-illustrator This tutorial was accessed on 10/03/2014. The image below shows what the tutorial claimed could be created. As you can see from this image it was a relatively simple design and hence used quite simple techniques however the combination of these techniques created a professional logo. The aim of following these techniques was to learn new skills and play around with additional Illustrator features. This logo ticked those boxes and hence I didn't mind the simplicity.

So what did I actually do?

To begin this tutorial I firstly drew a rectangle vertically on my art board. I then copied and pasted this making sure I used the paste in place feature. This pasted the new rectangle over the initial rectangle. I then used the direct selection tool. From this I was able to drag the top two corners of my rectangle out to form a diagonal rectangle. The image below shows this in action.

This is the basis to this design and hence I now just needed to duplicate these shapes. To achieve this I simply used the Selection Tool to select the whole image and then copied and pasted this to create a long line of shapes. This stage can be seen below.

 

Now I have the basic shape of my logo and hence the next stage was to add some colour. I didn't follow the same colour scheme as the tutorial based on the fact that this didn't follow my own colour scheme. I used the straight up rectangles as a solid colour and then used the diagonal rectangles as a gradient. The gradient I used can be seen below.

 

I trialled this design with two different colour schemes. The first colour scheme I used can be seen below. This colour scheme was based on my personal preferences but doesn't really follow my colour scheme which I have used.

 





The image below shows my logo design which does now follow my colour scheme.

The final stage of this tutorial was to add my film title. The image below shows this logo with my film title and hence is the final design.

This logo was slightly easier to create than the previous and is very hard to compare for this reason. I like the colours on this logo as they tie in with my initial colour scheme. The style of this is very simple but as I have always felt I like these simple lines. I feel the mixture of solid and gradient colour work well however the pink may look too much on the pink background of both my DVD inlay and my Disc Cover. My version of this logo doesn't look exactly as I was expecting however the general feel is still good.

Logo Creation In Illustrator - Film Logo Design 1

As stated in a previous blog post I wanted to create two different logos. The first was a media company logo, this was created and blogged about earlier. The second logo was a film logo. My media company logo was very simple and had a very simple concept and for this reason I wanted to create something slightly more technical and testing for my film logo. I started looking around the subject for ideas and found three different tutorials which I put to the test. I decided to create three different versions of my logo using these three different tutorials in order to have a choice over which I preferred. This post shows my first design.

The image below shows the tutorials version of the logo along with the web link to this tutorial.

http://abduzeedo.com/swirl-mania-illustrator-photoshop

 

The first thing to note when looking at the image above is that this logo was used for a specific purpose. When undertaking this tutorial I will hence follow the techniques but create my own design.

 

So what did I actually do?

To start this tutorial I firstly drew a curved line. To achieve this I used the arch tool. I then took the Ellipse tool and drew a circle at the top of the arch. I then used the direct section tool to adjust the size and curves on these shapes to create the below image. This is a slightly different effect to that which the tutorial suggested would be achieved however I still like this aspect even though it is really simple.

 

This stage was repeated three times to create a flower arrangement effect. This can be seen below. You can see I varied the size and curve of the arch in order to create a quirky effect. 

 

 



The next step in this tutorial was to create a tube/cylinder shape. To achieve this look I firstly created a large ellipse and then left some space and created a smaller ellipse. I then used the Blend Tool and selected Make. I then used the Blend Options to change various features. These will be explained later. The image below shows the tutorial step for this and what the desired look should be.

 

 

After working through this stage of the tutorial myself I decided that I actually liked the middle stage better than the end result. I felt the middle stage of this aspect was more unique and stood out better than the end result. For this reason I simple made the Blend and then used the Blend Options to adapt this. I firstly changed the spacing to Specified Steps. This referred to the number of smaller circles which would be created between my first and final point. I changed this option to 7. This can be seen below.

 

 

 

I repeated these steps and arranged this new feature with my initial step. This can be seen below.

The next step of this tutorial was using the Spiral Tool. This can be found in the same tool section as the Arch Tool. This tool can be used in two different ways. The first way is to simply drag and draw the spiral. The second technique is to draw a standard spiral and the use the Path, Offset Path tool which can be found in the Object Menu. This allows you to get different features of the spiral you wish to create. The settings which can be edited can be seen in the screenshot below.

When I was happy with this spiral I then added it to my design. This can be seen below.

 

The next step in this tutorial suggested that I should create a Twirl. I didn't like this effect and hence I skipped over this aspect however the image below shows what this should have looked like.

 

 

The tutorial then went on to add duplicated of the above features and show different effects and filters. These were all a matter of option and hence I adapted this to suite my own personal taste. Before I added these effects I added the extra elements which were required in order to create the design I wanted. This stage can be seen below. 

I then used one of the effects from the tutorial. This was a mixture of the Pen and the Blend Tool. This blend worked in a similar way that the Ellipse line worked. I first drew two lines with the Pen Tool and then used the Object, Blend Tool to create duplicates of this line between the two. I used the Blend Tool Options in order to adjust how many lines I wanted to create between the two. This can be seen below.

 









The image below shows this feature added to my design. This was the final feature I added to this design. The next step was to add a variety of effects. I wasn't initially sure whether I liked the idea of adding effects to this design and hence I saved a copy of this logo and then opened and saved another one which I was then able to add effects too. This stopped me from destructive editing my design.

Adding effects to my design was quite simple. I started by adding a Stained Glass effect to three of the arches. This was achieved using the Effects, Texture feature. The screenshot below shows the settings which I changed to achieve this effect and the image below shows this effect on my design.

 

 

The next effect I added was to the ellipses which sit on the end of the Arches. I used the Plastic Wrap Effect to make these look more 3D. I then used the Grain Effect for some of the Blue Ellipses in this design. These two effects applied can be seen below.

Looking at my logo now I felt that I needed to add an effect to the Spiral as the colour of this was too harsh and solid. I simply added a slight glow to the edges of this to break the fill. My final logo design can now be seen below.

The final stage in the creation of this logo was to add the film name. To keep my logo consistent with my film theme and style I used the same font that I have used for the film title throughout this project. This was Harlow Solid Italic. The image below shows the final logo complete.

This logo works well in terms of the design and colour scheme of my film. The quirky shapes and random locations make this logo stand out. It uses different techniques and effects which show the different skills I wanted to portray. I question how suitable this logo is based on the complete randomness however I certainly like this design and haven't ruled it out completely. I will evaluate this logo further once I have created my other two designs so I have something to compare it to. I feel this will make my decision much easier.