Tuesday, September 20, 2016

CLASS NOTES



The Principals and Elements of Design (9/20/16)

The design elements are the basic units of an image
The principles of design govern the relationships of the elements

Design elements:
  • space
  • line
  • color
  • shape
  • texture
  • value
  • balance
Design Principles:
  • unity
  • variety
  • repetition
  • harmony
  • proximity
  • proportion
  • functionality
  • emphasis

Monday, September 19, 2016

FILE FORMAT EXERCISE


For the tree photograph, the high quality jpeg looked the best, followed by the png-24, followed by the medium jpeg. The png-8 looked higher resolution than the low jpeg, but the low jpeg maintained color better. All of the gifs looked the worst.

The png-24 of the bus clip art looked the best. The png-8 looked ok, along with most of the gifs. All of the jpegs looked grainy, even the high quality one.

The pngs had the largest files. The jpegs had the smallest.


PNG 24
PNG 8
GIF 128 no dither
GIF 128 dithered
GIF 64 no dither
GIF 64 dithered


GIF 32 no dither
GIF 32 dithered


JPEG high
JPEG med


JPEG low
GIF restrictive

JPEG high
PNG 24
JPEG med
PNG 8
JPEG low
GIF 128 dithered
GIF 128 no dither
GIF 64 dithered
GIF 64 no dither
GIF 32 dithered
GIF 32 no dither
GIF restrictive

Thursday, September 15, 2016

CLASS NOTES

Vector vs Raster Lecture Notes (8/25/16)

Different methods for creating digital art:
Raster = pixels
Vectors = curves made with math

Bezier curve means using a polynomial to map shapes
Multiple bezier curves can make NURBS which are three dimensional vector shapes
Bezier curves can be scaled infinitely

Raster means pixelated images like photographs and videos
Raster images can’t be scaled beyond their native resolution without losing quality
Raster image pixels are comprised of three colors: red, green, and blue

Vector is a mathematically based method for creating line data
Vector files are smaller than image files
Vector files require software like adobe flash to run
Vectors print better
Vectors are stored in AI, PDF, WMF, FLC
Fonts are made with vectors in word processing software
Talented artists can create photorealistic images with vector art




Graphic File Formats: Understanding Image Choice and Compression (9/15/16)

Lossy files sacrifice quality for smaller file size
Lossless files retain full quality

TIFF, JPG, PNG, and GIF are most common
PNG is higher quality and can have an alpha channel
TIF (tagged image format) is a lossless format that is compatible with all computer systems. It’s not browser friendly.
JPG (joint photographers expert group) is a lossy format with an adjustable level of compression. It has a 10:1 reduction of file size. Better for photos.
GIF (graphic file format) is better for graphics or images with flat colors. It has no DPI so it isn’t suitable for printing.

Contiguous pixels means colors blur into one another
Aliased means distinct pixels and anti-aliased means that pixels are blended. Anti-aliasing is used to make low-resolution images look better.