Minion's image guide for retards

[Minion]

i've been recenty asked a few times about placing images and logos into video. so here it is, my guide to doing so.



Video

Scanning

When scanning in your own artwork, or manga, the minimum resolution you should scan in with is 300dpi (dpi is also called ppi, and resolution). Most scanner software has a default setting of 72dpi. As i said, this needs to be 300dpi for video.
300 is just the minimum you should scan with. if you have a fast scanner, 600dpi would be even better.

Photoshop, ect

When you start a new document, always make it 300dpi (resolution).
if you're using an image that's going to be full screen in your video, make sure that it's the same size as your video.

example: your video is 720x480, your image will need to be 720x480

You can change the image size in photoshop by going to image>imagesize.
if you can't get it to full screen size (it may auto-size your height in according to your width, and vice versa), uncheck the box marked "constrain porportions".

File types

JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP - Do not use these. they will rape your image of it's quality. Plain and simple. Don't use them with video

TIFF - Use it, love it. Gives you large file sizes (usually over 20MBs), but saves the most information about your image.

CMYK, RGB (color modes)

Use RGB for video. RGB is what our minitors use (red, green blue) it's the light that our pixels radiate. CMYK is cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). CMYK is the color of inks that mix together when printed.
RGB is for screens, CMYK is for paper.

Print

All rules of video apply here, except for color modes. Use CMYK instead of RGB.

Web:

no need for sections here. Web is all 72dpi, RGB, and JPEG.




Logos:

ah, a mistake i see all too much. a logo made in photoshop.
let me clear this up a bit.
this is not a logo



this is a logo


the difference? vector art vs pixel art.
photoshop uses pixels. a logo is photoshop can't be scaled without looking pixelated.
illustrator, correl draw, freehand, all good vector programs (i use illustrator)
(learn howto use pen tool. it's your friend, and it's in every vector program)
a logo should be simple. don't make a busy logo. don't use alot of colors either. 3 colors at the MOST. the standard file format for vectors is EPS. if your video editing software can take an EPS, awsome. but otherwise, scale it big, and export it as a tiff.

perhaps i'll throw together a photoshop and illustrator guide in the near future[/b][/url]

[Minion]

RGB is what our monitors use*
i really should have spellchecked this :/

[Minion]

CMYK, RGB (color modes)

Use RGB for video. RGB is what our minitors use (red, green blue) it's the light that our pixels radiate. CMYK is cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). CMYK is the color of inks that mix together when printed.
RGB is for screens, CMYK is for paper.


forgot to bold that title. this place needs more edit buttons
(or i need to stop being a fat lazy bastard, and run a freaking spellcheck)

[trythil]

example: your video is 720x480, your image will need to be 720x480

Wrong. You are completely disregarding the effect of pixel aspect ratio, which is HIGHLY significant. 720x480 at square pixels is wrong for nearly every common video format.

JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP - Do not use these. they will rape your image of it's quality. Plain and simple. Don't use them with video

This is also wrong, at least for PNG. PNG is lossless, and can handle RGBA data with 16 bits of information per channel (=64 bits per pixel) just fine. For AMVs, you really won't need much more than that, especially since you're usually dealing with 32-bit color most of the time anyway.

If you're doing stuff for print, then TIFF and Targa are fine. For very fine color definition in photography or video work, perhaps RGBA TIFF or OpenEXR. But PNG is hardly as bad as you make it out to be.

Web:

no need for sections here. Web is all 72dpi, RGB, and JPEG.

Misleading statement.

I can set my windowing system to render text at any dpi I want. 72x72, 75x75 (which is what I'm currently at on my desktop), 111x113 (ran that on my laptop once), or whatever. The Web has no native dpi, and it is bad design to instruct or assume otherwise.

PNGs are also common on the Web, and outperform JPEGs in a number of situations, such as a lot of line artwork.

===

In conclusion, if you're going to make an "image guide for idiots", at least try to give informed advice.

[Willen]

The EADFAG section on importing graphics into your videos.

To sum up, the correct resolution for graphics should be 720 x 540 (square pixel) for NTSC, 768 x 576 for PAL. Any manipulation and creation should be done at this resolution. Some video editors will accept a 720 x 540 (768 x 576) image and scale it correctly, some won't, so it is recommended to resize your final image after all adjustments are done to 720 x 480 pixel size (square) (720 x 576 PAL).

Also, if you are working with widescreen footage and want it to match, especially if you are working with anamorphic 16:9 video, then graphics should be 848 x 480, resized to 720 x 480 for NTSC. 1024 x 576 resized to 720 x 576 for PAL.

And trythil is correct about PNG, it is as good as TIFF for non-print work. And considering that the original images are usually from video sources or lower quality print media like magazines, you'll probably never see the difference. Especially since most people's final output will be either standard definition NTSC/PAL video (MPEG-2) or other lossy compressed distro formats like XviD, DivX, MPEG-1, etc. Now maybe if you are producing a High-Definition project...

[Minion]

Wrong.

read before you comment. i said if you want your image to be full screen.
or are you just expressing hatred for 720x480, and failed to read the word "example"

PNG= not completely lossless. infact, no image format is(note, psd is not an image format, it's a work file). other than a photoshop eps (which nobody uses), no format saves more information than a tiff. fact.

111x113

either thats a typo or you don't know what dpi is.
no good web designer uses above 72 dpi, and pngs are not that commonly used.
over 72dpi is bandwidth suicide, and nobody makes a layout with pngs


next time, make sure you know what your talking about so you don't look like a moron

[Minion]

the 720x480 thing was an example. i didn't recomend using it. i said that your image needs to be the same size as your video if you want it to be full screen.

[Minion]

i probably should mention that i'm a graphic designer before this fills up with more posts of people trying to pick apart my accurate guide

[Willen]

read before you comment. i said if you want your image to be full screen.
or are you just expressing hatred for 720x480, and failed to read the word "example"

You should really clarify what you mean by your "example". If people took your words as gospel and created images at 720x480 and loaded them into their editing programs you will have many people wondering why the perfect circle graphic that they created now looks egg-shaped. Or the text that they used seems to be a little on the skinnier side when played back.

PNG= not completely lossless. infact, no image format is(note, psd is not an image format, it's a work file). other than a photoshop eps (which nobody uses), no format saves more information than a tiff. fact.

Partly correct. There is one format that does save more information than a TIFF, but it isn't used for printing or image manipulation/storage (except at the very beginning of the image chain). And there isn't a industry-wide standard. In fact, this format can go by many file extensions.

[DJ_Izumi]

i probably should mention that i'm a graphic designer before this fills up with more posts of people trying to pick apart my accurate guide

Where do you work? I need to know where not to go. :/

And JPEG isn't even RGB. o_O;;;