Digital Media Convergence

    This class was very interesting, and I throughly enjoyed working with Design For Joy and helping to create some of their content. When doing the hands on stuff it was easier to learn it than just reading about it. I didn't think that I would enjoy the videoing as much as I did, but I am so glad now that I chose to do the videoing for my group. The lecture part of the class seems like a blur though, because we didn't really do much, and so I don't feel as if I got as much out of the lectures as I did the hands on assignments such as the one where we had to tell a story through photography. Ultimately this was a very rewarding class and I learned a lot.

      Film is rooted in photography and relies on chemical processing. Video is electronic and relies on magnetic tape or discs. Movies used be shot on film, whereas TV shows would be shot on tape. It is best to film in landscape or horizontal. The POV is in relation to the position of the camera and it's angle.      When interviewing someone, the camera should be between 4 and 6 feet away and positioned so the person is not backlit and is slightly to one side. The camera should also be eye level to the person being interviewed.  It is also important to remember head room, so that there isn't too much or not enough space above the person's head, and to make a list of the shots you will need to get.     The frame is the still image or what you can see.     The shot is a standalone component of a moving image taken over time. Some shots can be tightly framed while others can be wider framed.     A scene is the location and p...

    Sound involves pressure and vibration to create a sound wave that travels to our ear. Amplitude is how far in between the crest and the trough of the wave is. Amplitude is measured in decibels. Frequency is how low or high the pitch is.     Microphones are useful for recording sound so that it can be replayed back. Microphones convert sounds that are recorded through transduction. There are many different types of microphones. Some microphones are hand-held, some are lavalier, some are shotgun mics, and there are boundary mics. Dynamic Microphone Condenser  Microphone Moving-Coil Microphone Ribbon Microphone Condenser Microphone There are also different types of pickup patterns: Omnidirectional Bidirectional Unidirectional Some reasons to use an external mic include being able to choose your mic, the sound being equal, and you have better control over your sound. Headphones also help when checking sound, and making sure everything sounds good.

      Some of the original recording formats were videotaping, analog tape, and digital tape. Analog tape was typically used alongside videocassettes, and with digital tape it became easier to copy and edit. The open standards for video and audio recording are specifications that help equipment made by different companies still be compatible with each other.       The MP3 is one of the best known audio codecs ever. The MPEG-4 is important to encoding video to be used on sharing services such as YouTube.     The video encoding settings include: resolution, scanning method, frame rate, and bit rate. Just like for taking pictures a video camera has the same features such as white balance, an iris, and shutter speed.

    Photography is capturing an image through light. Photography can be done on film or digitally. The lowest level camera is a point-and-shoot. Other types of cameras include DSLR's which are prosumer digital cameras, and video cameras. For the cameras, especially DSLR's, there are many different types of lenses including: wide-angle, telephoto, macro, fisheye, and super-telephoto. The different parts of a camera lens are the iris, shutter, and image sensor.       For a digital camera to take a picture it must be exposing the image sensor to light. The exposure triangle is made up of the three components of a camera, aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. The white balance fixes the coloring of the camera to match more to what we see everyday. Focus controls the sharpness of an object in frame. Depth of field is the area that is in focus, and can be shallow or great depending on how much you want in focus.

    A graphic is a visual element that can be physically seen. A graphic is typically created by a human. An image is a representation of something. A raster image is created by dividing the image. Resolution describes the quality of the image and the size and amount of pixels in the image. Vector Graphics are made up of points and lines that create paths.       Each type of device has display screen standards to make sure that an image can be easily viewed on their screen. The aspect ratio indicates the relationship of the width to the height. For moving images, such as movies and TV, there are similar things such as raster scanning, and TV and cinema screen standards.

    Text is the visual version of thought and language. Font is the means of the typefaces style and size. Times New Roman is a typeface, but PostScript 12 point Times New Roman is a font. Text needs to be legible and readable so that it can be easily seen and read. The characteristics that define a typeface are stroke, contrast, stress, weight, posture, proportions, and letterform parts.       There are different types of typefaces including, serif typefaces, san serif typefaces, decorative typefaces, script typefaces, symbol typefaces, and special characters. The different types of font styles are, true and faux font styles, italics, boldface, condensed, expanded, all caps, small caps, underline, strikethrough, font size, font color, baseline shift, super/subscript, and anti-aliasing. Some font transformation that can happen include, color gradients, warping, and drop shadows.

    The web and the internet are not the same things, but the web is part of the internet. Web pages are made by using an HTML. An HTML file is a text file. When is comes to browsers, it is important that the web page looks good and works properly with multiple different web browsers such as Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.  On the web you have an address or URL that is similar to a postal address. The URL or link will send you the information you need.      To manage a website you need to have good organization and structure. Some ways to do this are to define a site and the "root folder",  establish a hierarchy, and to maintain consistency and uniformity on the site. It is also important to mark your major sections, headings, paragraphs, block quotes, and lists.  Some things to help with appearance include the margins, background color, text color, font type, and font style.

      A user interface is a system that supports HMI or a human-machine interaction. The types of user interfaces include: Graphical User Interfaces, Touch Interfaces, Voice  Interfaces, and Augmented Reality. The components and features of a user interface are: Navigation (primary navigation, secondary navigation, menus, accordions, and tabs).      There are many different ways to organize content. You can use thumbnails, carousels, pagination, and archives. The two types of tailoring are personalization and customization. Personalization uses previous actions to predict what you would want. Customization involves intentionally chosen content instead of prediction.      For an interface to be usable, it must have good learnability, efficiency, memorability, error management, and satisfaction. To know if the interface is usable, usability testing may be done. It is also important the the interface is usable and accessible to anyone with ...

      The page layout is how the text and images are arranged on the page. The Gutenberg Diagram shows hoe people scan a page of just text, with the top areas being the strongest, and the weakest being the bottom right of the page.      The F-Layout is the most used layout designed used on the internet and creates the shape of an F. The Z-Layout is not as well used, but acts as an image version of the Gutenberg Diagram. A couple of ways to establish hierarchy in a page is to use a header and/or chunky body copy to grab your attention. Using a grid system is a good way to bring order to the page and to make it easier to edit. If you don't have a lot of experience with designing a page, you can also use page templates.     A static page will always look the same for every viewer, whereas a dynamic page will change the content over time and every viewer will have a different experience. 

      Visual communication investigates the passing of information in a visual form. Content is the tangible version of the stories and information we share with others. Form is the way that the content is designed and delivered. Applied aesthetics are informed observations and judgements made based off a set group of guidelines.     The elements of design are space, dots, lines, shapes, form, texture, pattern, and color. The principles of design are unity (proximity, alignment, similarity, and repetition), emphasis (contrast, color, depth, and proportion), perceptual forces (balance, continuation, figure-ground, and psychological closure).

Creativity involves the creation of a product, especially one of useful nature.     Companies will look to their target audience to make decisions about their products and message, this makes their audience a very important aspect of marketing. In mobile media instead of using the term audience they use the term user. The three P's of planning a project are Preproduction, Production, and Postproduction. Preproduction is the planning, Production is when everything is being made, and Postproduction is the editing and putting together stage.     A user-centered design is made with the user in mind, and to make the interactions are easy as possible. The six principles of a user-centered design are: It is designed based on the understanding of the user The user is part of the design process The design is refined by user input The process repeats itself The design works for all user experience The design team is made up of a wide variety of skills and perspectives ...

    Computers originally used vacuum tubes and were so large that they would take up an entire room. In 1971 the microprocessor was invented and this paved the way for personal computers. In the 1960's the ASCII was created to make moving information from one computer to the other easier.      An operating system is a software app that is loaded on a computer to make it launch and run all the other apps. Application software does specific tasks on a computer. A mobile app is similar to application software but is for a mobile device instead of a personal computer. The system memory or RAM stores the OS software. Computers need a human interface to be operated. Examples of human interface are a mouse and keyboard.       There are multiple different types of digital storage. These types include fixed storage, removable storage, an optical disc, flash memory, networked attached storage, and cloud content management.