Technical Commentation

1. Compression and file extensions (what does this mean?) – psd, ai. Indd, png, jpg, pdf. What are they, why do you use different extensions?

2. Vector images (what does Vector mean?) - points, lines, curves, polygons. Explain what they are and how you use them.

3. Bitmap images (what does bitmap mean?) – image resolution, RGB, CMYK. What is the difference, why would you use one over the other?

4. Image capture – scanners, digital cameras, storage.  What have you used and how did you do it?

5. Workflow and use of Software interface including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash and Joomag - demonstrate how you create work in different packages and move through the different software packages.

6. Asset management – file formats, file naming conventions, saving.  Demonstrate how you manage and organise your assets throughout the design process.

Summary:  

1) Compression and file extensions can be defined as the various way in which files which have been created by the user can be rendered, saved and exported. There are several types of file extensions from psd and pdf's to png and jpg's. Computer files have different features compared to each other. File extensions are mainly used as a way of labelling the files in order for the user and the computer to keep in contact and know what they files contain. In my magazine i used different types of file extensions such as psd's, jpegs and lastly png's for the background transparency. I also made used of .fla which are files used in flash for animation.

2) Vector images can be used in several ways in your work, one of the main reasons of using a vector image is to direct the reader to specific/vital information. For example, in diagrams you'll use loads of lines and arrows in order to make your work more interactive for the reader and less boring and to mainly involve them into your work more. We use them to emphasize the writing most of the time so, it makes it easier and understable for the readers to handle. Vectors are also known as objects as you can see in the picture on the left, there is a badge where i've used two circle vectors which will have great chances of catching the readers eye.







3) Bitmap images are simply based on the display space and the colour for each pixel/bit. I seemed to use quite a lot of jpeg files in creating my magazine and these are graphical images which hold and contain bitmap. As i used loads of images of games on my magazine i had to download 4K Resolution images in order to keep the images in good quality even after taking it from the internet. Therefore, i had no worries whatsoever in regards to bad quality pictures. As you can see in this picture i've made it so that the pixels aren't smudged/destroyed/blurry. The reason for this is that people who are reading for the first time will have a bad first impression.


4) Image Capture
Image wise, i used a lot of photographs from the internet, Google specifically. The reasons for this is that there are certain images that you can't capture on camera with great quality because they are cartoons. I saved them onto the computers storage and applied them to my magazine through the computers hard drive. With the images as you can see i've cropped them in order to put them onto the garage background with ease avoiding disorderliness. I had some pictures on my home computer which i brought in on a SD Card to use in the magazine.


5) Workflow and use of Software interface
I started with Adobe Photoshop where i created the magazine dimensions of 210 x 297, which is the standard width and height of a magazine. I applied all the details to my magazine pages from the front page to the back page where my flash banner is located of the Super Mario Revolution and how he has evolved. After completing my magazine, i moved onto Adobe Flash where i was able to create a flash banner which would suit my magazine, the banner itself is so simple yet so effective. Lastly, i exported the banner then put it on the back page of my magazine, i done this through JooMag which is a free interactive service for Digital Magazine Publishing. Happily, i was able to use JooMag to put the banner onto the magazine as Adobe Photoshop wouldn't allow me to do so.


6) Asset Management
What i've learnt from the past is organisation, and it's very important because if you ever get into a position where you feel as if you are unable to do a certain task and you are also unorganised and you've forgotten where you have saved parts of your work, then you'll start to panic. This is simply why i create a folder named after the task issued, then i start to save every single piece of my work to that folder. I save my work every time i take a break which could be every 5-7 minutes by pressing "CTRL+S"/"CMD+S" this is a shortcut of saving your work. However, on Microsoft Word the documents are saved as DOCX files whilst the the files on Adobe Photoshop are saved as PSD. But, further down the line changed into JPG. The last file type that i saw a lot was SWF which is based around Adobe Flash.