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Review of my work II
Hi again
A month or so ago I posted in this forum wanting some professional opinion on my graphics package I am creating for my senior thesis project in college. I have posted a ZIP file of 3 image files, containing the lower thirds I designed, as well as screenshots of the animated full screen and animated OTS backgrounds I made.
Please, I would love to hear some professional opinions on what I need to do differently! If all goes well, this will be seen for years to come on the PBS station I work for, so I can use all the criticism I can get.
Let me know – does the color scheme work? Does anything clash? Which of the lower thirds are your favorite (picking from the top two)? Thanks to everyone ahead of time – last time I posted it seemed as if a few people on here were willing to review my work, and I thank you ahead of time.
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“I’ve always found it’s better to shoot something than it is to troubleshoot it…” -
3 Replies
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The middle one just looks like powerpoint. Fonts too small and need some edge and or shadow effects to help define them. Yellow/gold and blue are across the color wheel from each other and so almost always work in pairings like this, but the values you chose for them in the examples are a little on the screamy side.
A trick I always use in the shop is to look at a graphic on a B&W monitor or a color monotor with the chroma turned all the way down. Often you *think* two colors have plenty of difference to them but when you strip away chroma information and look at luminance, you see they are too similar. This makes the eye fight to perceive between them. If you don’t have a color wheel go to an artists or craft shop and buy one, or at least wiki it up, and learn about triadics and complements.
Also check out am app and web site called Colortheory. Lets you generate good color pallettes off any base shade you pick.
Keep working at it, it will get better.
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Thank you – Anyone else? Like I said… the more help, the merrier.
I agree now with your point of “looks like PowerPoint” – I will give the luminance trick a shot, see what I can do.
I agree, the colors are pretty loud. They need to be toned down. What do you think about the OTS or the lower thirds?
Thank you!
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“I’ve always found it’s better to shoot something than it is to troubleshoot it…” -
Well the small fonts overall look weak, that could also be a function of how you grabbed and posted them, can’t say, but like I said before, they need to be a little thicker and perhaps have some edge and/or shadow on them to make them pop off their backgrounds. In the stills I see, their edges are eroded-looking. The flats are always going to be less attractive than even a subtle gradient, so think about applying gradients where you don’t have them now.
My first line of go-to fonts are Arial, Impact, Helvetica, Optima, and Maybe Albertus. Optima is like something halfway between a seriffed and a sans-serriffed font. Albertus is for when I’m feeling like somone’s watching over my shoulder:-) I resist using Times, and generally hunt around for something similar to it but distinct, when I need a times-like font.
Always keep your rule of thirds in mind when building these things and don’t let something too massive “hang” over a person in the shot.
I can’t give too much more help because this is not my bag, I know just enough to get in trouble.:-)
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