Friday, July 6, 2012

contact an art director assignment

Assignment


Purpose: To apply the information we have discussed so far so that you create a digital file that will be seen exactly as you want it to be seen.

Create a self-promotion piece for yourself as a digital artist (photographer, designer, animator, multimedia artist). Use your choice of software, but be sure to include text and images (graphics or photos). I suggest a raster, rather than vector, file. Keep this simple.

http://www.commarts.com/creative

Save this file  correctly.

Send me an email requesting that I take a look at your work. Show and tell me how I can see your work. This could range from an email attachment, to a website link, to a Facebook post.



Information:

file format & file sizes, including for Facebook

file formats for photos


about bitmap images & resolution guidelines for final output

about web graphics (watch video on saving graphics for the web)

Facebook information:

pixel dimensions for Facebook photos
info on high res photos on Facebook
How can I make sure that my Facebook photos display in the highest possible quality?
also a blog about copywriting, wordpress, etc.


Other:

What resolution should your images be?  (from Columbia University)

Image size and resolution for web (read the "tibits" column)

Optimizing a PDF document


Resizing, Optimizing and saving for Web

1.Resize - IMPORTANT! Resize your images! Most web-designers anticipate a minimum screen resolution of 800x600 pixels. If you include the margins, padding, scroll-bar, sidebars and other things, not all of the 800x600 will be available for an image. The largest dimensions don't need to be more than 600px wide and 500px tall. If you have a larger picture you want to show, consider a link to the JPG file, but show a smaller version on the web-page. Remember, that's the largest, most will be 350px to 500px wide.
2. Optimize + Save - IMPORTANT! Optimize (compress) your image for the Internet. You should be able to obtain an order of magnitude (10X) reduction in file size, from the original image. This means that your 4.5MB starting image, should end up (no larger than) 45KB, as a general rule. (Results depend on the complexity and size of the final image). Many image editors have a "Save for Web" option (an acknowledgement file sizes need be much smaller on the Internet). Most have a "Save As" option. Either will work.
How to optimize: Select the amount of compression (often called "quality"), with a sliding control scaled from 1 to 100, where 1 results in the smallest file. While compression is necessary, it comes at the expense of quality. Don't compress too much, or the image will look blocky (pixelated or jagged).
3. Choosing the amount of compression is an art. Good image editing software will let you preview the result and provide an approximate file size. On the others, you just move a slider. The amount of compression you use may vary from 20-100% and 50% is a good place to start. Each image should be done on a case-by-case basis, however. Even large image sizes (600px by 400px) can be compressed to astonishingly small file sizes, without an appreciable loss of quality. We try to ensure that none of our image files exceed 50KB, and often we're in the 19-35KB range. Results depend on both the complexity and size of the image.






Sunday, July 1, 2012

can you?


Can you................

Create a new file and save it into a chosen location?
Rename and save the file as RTF, PDF, or plain text?
Explain why you would want to save a file in different file formats?
Send a file to someone like a a client exactly as the client needs it?
Navigate a Mac according to your needs so far?
Backup your files in multiple ways?
Compress files correctly?
Designate which device correlates with, LPI, SPI, PPI, DPI?
Explain LPI, SPI, PPI, DPI?
Apply scanning formulas and resolution correctly, depending on the intended "output" device?
Determine which file format to use after you have scanned? 
Explain the differences, advantages and disadvantages between raster and vector graphics?
List the software and hardware that creates raster and vector graphics?