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Sleek Background Texture?
Quick question for you guys. It’s an AE question because I’m not going to go digging around Illustrator or anywhere else.
Question: I have some backgrounds that are just solids. And they look good. But I was playing around with some effects under Effects>Generate and I like one that sorta gives you a marble look. I forget what it is called at the moment. But doesn’t matter. Problem with marble is that I need something minimal and sleek. I just want a little hint of texture. I’m a bit worried that the background colorS look a little too simple. Anybody have any suggestions. It will be very subtle as there are line drawings that sit directly on top of the background and so the texture can’t distract from them. So, to sum up, what is the most minimal texture? If Steve Jobs and Jon Ive had to choose a texture, what would he choose? Some sort of brushed aluminum look that works for other colors? Can I do that in AE? Any other suggestions?
Thanks
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12 Replies
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I like to use old paper textured combined with a subtle gradient.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb. -
You can add fractal noise to a new solid, play with the parameters, and change the blend mode. You can get some nice, metallic looking textures this way.
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The best choice should also consider bit rate of the final encode. For posting on the web a static repetitive pattern with solid colors or a random noise pattern are the best choices. A dynamic gradient needs much more bit rate, and a static marble pattern is somewhere in between.
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Thanks.
@Dave: That’s probably what I asked for, but it gets lost under the foreground stuff. I always want it RIGHT NOW. But my definition of “NOW” is roughly two weeks long.
@John: I haven’t tried that one. I couldn’t find it. Is that sleek? Old paper?
@Daniel: Yours is probably the winner. And so many options.
@Ivan: I will probably have to start a new thread or two to address your points. This is for video on an ipad. Audio needs to be very high quality. The video, however, despite taking forever to actually produce, is mostly text and as such doesn’t seem to require much in terms of bit depth. There are no pictures of Everest or people. Only a handful of colors cum opacities. I haven’t figured out the whole codec/encoding stuff. Haven’t even begun to really think about it. I actually want an obscure codec as an anti piracy measure. I’ll probably have to put another thread, like I say. Hell, I may want a big bit depth for anti-piracy and for the audio. I may need it for Daniel’s fractal noise metallic background. Thoughts?
Thanks all.
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Anti-piracy is unfortunately out of my league. You said this is playing on an iPad, so I am assuming it is in an app that is streaming from an online source? If so, an extremely high bit rate or obscure codec could cause all sorts of playback issues.
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No, not streaming.
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Then you may want to find a list of supported video formats for the iPad, unless you plan on having the viewers download a third-party video player that is capable of playing an obscure codec. Also, I would be wary of a very high bit rate for a video that will be playing from the iPad’s hard drive. If it’s too high for the iPad to process quickly enough, you’ll get freezes and laggy video playback.
You may have already thought of these issues, or they may be some iPad app or software out there that helps with anti-piracy measures, so I’m just throwing them out there for you to consider. I don’t use iTunes anymore, but maybe they have some sort of security measures for how users can view and share videos? A call to Apple Customer Service might answer that.
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Well, the “plan” was/is to have my own video player playing an obscure codec and to stay away from the whole itunes universe. But obviously, I don’t have a clue yet how I’m going to do it. I may end up streaming, but was planning not to.
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I would recommend streaming for a few reasons:
– Downloading and storing large video files on a tablet or mobile device can be a big pain for users.
– A good video host will encode your video to multiple bit rates and play back based on the user’s internet connection and device. No worries about playback.
– Some video hosts like Brightcove offer security measures, among many other helpful tools.Hopefully that helps in some way. Best of luck whichever way you decide to go.
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I don’t own a smart phone. They don’t have any memory? My ipod is ten years old and has a zillion songs on it. How much memory is in an iphone or ipad? Both hard drive and RAM?
I’ll give streaming more thought. Thanks.
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