Bits of Vector

Bitmap/Vector Image demonstration.

Bitmap and vector images are two different types of image that both have some similar properties, but above are useful for different applications. In a nut shell bitmap images are made up of pixels. (tiny squares that fill up your computer screen.) A basic use of this would be images from a digital camera. Whereas vector images are made up of different shapes and lines.

Images of the bitmap variety... Some basic pros of using bitmap images for the web is that you can have as many colours as there are pixels in the image. (That's usually quite a lot!)  Cons include the fact that you can never enlarge a bitmap image as it pixelates (Degrades the quality.) and you cannot turn a bitmap image into a vector, this works vice-versa though. Some formats for using bitmap images online include JPEG, (Smaller file sizes.) PNG, GIF, (Both formats for more simple images.) BmP, Tif and Psd (Photoshop.) On - screen bitmap images are displayed at at least 72 DPI (Dots per inch.) and print at at least 300 DPI.

Images of the vector variety... Pros include that you can scale the image to any size and not loose quality, they have smaller file sizes and you can convert them to bitmap images. BUT, to read vector images you must have a player (Such as Flash.) to view the images. Also the images are considered to be more simple than bitmap images as you can't have as many individual colours. (Well it's possible but in that case you may as well use a bitmap image.) Vector image file types include ai, eps, 3ds, Swf, Sug. Vectors are usually used for possibly logo's, (As they can be scaled.) maps and even diagrams.

Things learnt also:
Some other useful information I have learnt at college includes these;

R G B - On screen colours and light can make any colour..
e  r  l
d e u
   e e
   n

C M Y K - Colours used for print.
y  a  e  b
a  g  l   l
n  e  l   a
    n o  c
    t w  k
    a

Alpha - An images transparency.

From Email to IM...

Email and Instant Messaging (IM) both use the same concept. They both have the same basic function of messaging another person by using the Internet, although they have differences they can be used effectively in different situations.



IM can be used if the people involved in the conversation are all online at one time. Instant messaging is just that, typing usually short messages to each other and instantly sending them in a 'chat' window. Some popular programs for this include Windows Live Messenger, and even FaceBook chat.

Electronic mail! Email has the same principle as IM, sending messages to each other but the people involved do not need to online at the same time. Messages are displayed in an inbox for the user to view and email is considered to be more formal as it is used more for business related topics also.





IM window.



Email inbox





Directions please?

Sitemaps are the basic outline of a website that an information architect creates. It shows what pages should link where and can be very complicated. It is also known as the structure of the website, something for the rest of the web designers and creators to work to so it must be done correctly. My college group got asked to make sitemaps for a pre - existing site, the coca cola happiness factory site to try and get the gist of creating a sitemap. Well I found even this task difficult, so creating a sitemap from scratch should be a challenge!

Click to enlarge.

Brand Power!

Today, there are millions upon millions of different brand logos that signify different companies, infact we see them all the time, nearly constantly infact and we may not even notice it. The brand logo is the identity of a company and something that makes it different too all others. My college group had a recent lecture on the power of branding and how by even just seeing part of a logo, we can identify the company it is from. Give it a go yourself, look at the picture below and try and see if you can identify the brand.

Click for the answer here.

If you guessed right that is how branding works, generally the more advertisement of the company, the more people will recognise the logo. They will differ for different genres, for example a toy selling company may choose brighter colours that stand out more, appealing to their target audience. Whereas an insurance company may be more bland.

Creative Stylesheets

Moldy Media 7. . . An odd name but nonetheless it displays the techniques used from a three part tutorial on Youtube created by my college tutor to create 3D text, lightening effects and a great looking background. I found it to be very useful as I am relativly new to Photoshop CS4 but I think the outcome looks quite good.

The main effects in the tutorial involved gradient tools for the background (then putting a cloud effect in over the top with lower opacity.) and creating the 3D effect for the text. I did this by duplicating the moldy media layer several times and by adding a motion blur to them and positioning them behind the original moldy media part. The rest, the lightening and background text, were relativly easy to do. The lightening was just the cloud effect with edited hue/saturation and colour balance and the background text was made using the simple text tool and then I edited its opacity for the effect. To finish it all off I made the background look as if it is raining by adding noise and then blurring that layer.

Discuss on the Blog?

Both discussion forums and blogs can be very useful to the user to gain information from the creator or to contribute your own information. But they have differences.

Disscussion forums are generally used for people who are seeking help or wish to see people comment on the subject that they have presented. People can contribute usually in a very easy way and the comments are there for everyone to view.

On the other hand blogs are content all created by one user and the user has their own page. A blog post is generally about an informational subject or topic that people can read and get knowledge from. It is still possible to comment on blogs although the comments can be deleted by the blog creator and they are not always completely public to view.

Time to discuss...

On Weymouth College Moodle system (For students to see work, what lessons they have etc.)  we are now able to post on a new forum about tutorials or many other subjects about computing or digital communication. You can comment on other peoples posts aswel as creating your own posts to share knowledge and possibly seek help from others.