1. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Use of text: The text I am going to analyse is Transformers: Dark of the Moon DVD Menu which I found on
(Title, Credits, animated captions, stings, youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOBOI-fo6w0&feature=player_embedded, this is
indents, interactive menus, web banner) an interactive menu and the video is only 39 seconds so I decided to analyse the whole video.
Brief description:
What do you see?
At the start, there is a shot ofSentinel Prime laid back, not in use but then the camera zooms
into his eye and Sentinel’s eye lights up, all his mechanical parts start to move and the
“camera” zooms into the mechanical parts in his eye as parts of his eye starts connecting and
as the camera gets further into his eye, the DVD menu comes up with the menus you can
select ( Play, Setup, Scene Selection) and a little display of small scenes of the movie showing
what you are going to expect in the movie. They use dark colours, silver metal colours and
shades of blue from the glow of his eye. It gives of an impression, this is something from out of
space because of the colours.
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2. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Techniques used:
Animation, Visual Effects, Colour Rendering, The whole of this DVD menu is all computer-generated imagery (CGI), when it zooms into
Graphics, Movement Sentinel’s eye, all of the movement in his eye are very detailed of how his eye works.
Visual Effects
Industrial Light and Magic created the visual effects
“Zenviro, a camera mapping tool developed mainly by Dan Goldman and Alan Trombla. It
allows the artists to project high resolution images onto 2D cards and 3D geometry and also
create camera moves in the environment.”
http://wiki.cgsociety.org/index.php/ILM#Software_Used
Pros and Cons of ILM
Pros: Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) used advanced visual effects technology in Autodesk®
Maya® software, Autodesk® Flame® software, and Autodesk® Inferno® software not only to
help revitalize the original series, but also to capture and crystallize its spirit.
Cons: ILM’s compositing department shared the 797 effects shots with Animation Director Paul
Kavanagh’s animation team, who rely almost exclusively on Autodesk Maya software. ”We
knew we would have our work cut out for us, with an immense number of very complex shots
required in a very short time frame,”
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=13773344&linkID=10164097
Advanced techniques: At first, when Sentinel is lying down, the colour of his body is a lot sharper than the
Blur, Sharpen, Distortion, Rotation, Opacity background so the audience is focused on Sentinel. Then when it zooms into his eye, there is a
sudden rotation of light from his eye and then a sudden burst of sharp light as a sign that
Sentinel has come back to life.
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3. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Technical comments: Based on Youtube standard video formatting, this is a MP4, the screen ratio is 4:3, resolution is
Video Format, Screen Ratio, Resolution, 360p, the frame rate is 30fps and the compression is H.264.
Frame rate, Compression
Motion Graphics and Video Compositing Unit 64
Glossary
Motion graphics - Graphics that use video footage and/or animation technology to create the illusion of motion or rotation, graphics are
usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects.
Compositing video - When there are several different clips of video are layered over one another to create a single image.
Interactive Menus – DVD Interface or Interactive Menus on a web page
Ident – The ‘call sign’ of a channel or production company to identify themselves on screen, usually shown before a programme.
Animated Captions – Animated Graphics layered over an image / video
Web Banners – A form of web advertising that is embedded into a web page. They are used to attract a viewer to their website. A Web
Banner usually a mix of motion graphics and video
Video Format - 3 Main Formats HD, PAL, NTSC. HD is the highest resolution (720 or 1080 vertical lines in the image). PAL is the UK
Standard definition image (576 vertical lines). NTSC is the US Standard definition image (480 vertical lines). Now in the
digital age we now look at video format in terms of pixels (i.e. High definition 1080; 1920 x 1080 or 2,073,600 pixels)
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4. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Screen ratio – Standard TV ratio is 4:3; this means that for every 4 units wide it is 3 units high. It is likely that the screen ratio will be
Widescreen (16:9) in a cinematic sequence.
Resolution – The amount of detail in an image or signal, such as Standard TV Definition and High Definition. See Video Format.
Frame Rate - The number of video or film frames displayed each second (frames per second; fps). PAL frame (standard UK TV) is 25
fps, NTSC (standard US TV) is 30 fps, film is 24 fps. This means as NTSC updates more regularly there is less strobing
(jerkiness).
Compression – The use of Codecs (WMV, DivX) to reduce the file size of a video by a variety of methods. This sometimes means a loss in
image quality (a “lossy”). Codecs are found in Video Cameras, DVD players / recorders, Editing Packages, Video upload
sites)
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