somebody wake up this forum

[Abraham Chaffin]

Kurt Murphy has some a great multi-part tutorial series on creating a news open, maybe that will be part of what you’re looking for. Check them out here:

https://library.creativecow.net/tutorials/broadcastdesign#murphy_kurt

Abraham

[Matthew Mcnulty]

Hey Abraham!

Thanks for the info… great start!

perhaps you could nudge some of the other COW leaders to bolster this forum… PLEASE?!?!?

[Mike Cohen]

If I see something I like on tv – often in a commercial, I will pause the TiVo, make some notes, then try to duplicate what i have seen, usually using Premiere and Photoshop. Even if it does not look the same, the exercise works to motivate me creatively, and adds one or more new tricks to my bag.
News opens are usually pretty slick.

Mike Cohen

[Matthew Mcnulty]

i agree totally!

slick is right… some of the elements would go a long way by themselves. the 3D speaks for itself… though i find i am liking the use of bolder colors and the subtle gradients…

do you think some of the elements are done in photoshop then imported or possibly a complete AE workflow that incorporates, for example, Zaxwerks products etc.?

[Joseph W. bourke]

Hi Matthew –
This has been a pretty sleepy forum for a while now. Sorry not to get back to you sooner…I was in Boston the past few days for some down time.

I may have to do this in pieces, because I’m working on just the type of stuff you’re looking to do, and under deadlines for sweeps, so I’ll start with the first on your list:

The background (in the upper and lower bars) appears to be
fractal noise (a plugin in AE), with the scale setting fairly large. When I make these, I generally create them in greyscale, then colorize them as needed using the Tint or Boris Tritone plugins. It gives me the option to shift the colors as needed.

The geometric looking overlays are most likely done in either Illustrator or Photoshop (I find Illustrator gives me more control when doing geometric stuff, since it’s vector based). Even if I do these in Illustrator, I would import them into Photoshop, and make a multilayered file from them; then I can import the layers into AE as a comp, giving me complete control over the animation and overlay modes of these layers.

The gleams are most likely either Lens Flare Pro (a third-party plugin) or the default AE lens flare, which is pretty limited in scope.

The bar with text on it is probably Photoshop, with the middle bar ramped color, and the outside thin bars solid white. It would then be brought into AE and placed in the comp in either Additive or Overlay mode, which brightens the pixels that underlie the new layer.

The text is either from Photoshop or native AE, with a white drop shadow, and then a horizontally blurred copy of the text layer in white behind the dark red text layer. The additional white mottled bar behind the main text bar is again fractal noise, either masked or scaled to size in AE. The copy of the white text at the bottom of the bar would be just white text with a gaussian blur on it, and reduced in opacity, in Overlay mode.

The slanted bars that somewhat obscure the video were probably done in Illustrator, black, with a white outline, then imported into AE and put in the comp with opacity reduced, and possibly in Darken mode. The red and white “digital gibberish” was produced wither in Illustrator or Photoshop, then slightly blurred and put in the comp at probably 50 or 60% opacity. When the News department asks me what these pieces “mean”. I always call them “meaningless design elements”. They increase the depth and complexity of the design, but are totally unnecessary to it.

The trick to any of these “looks” is to create very identifiable base elements (especially if these are part of a News package), then layer other bits and pieces which can be interchanged, then used with other projects (News opens, rejoins, bumps, etc.) so that there is a continuity to the News on-air look. Good luck. I’ll try to weigh in on another one, but right now I have to create my own.

Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV

[Matthew Mcnulty]

Hey Joe!

thanks for the jump start and taking the time!

anytime you can post some technique or work flow info will be most appreciated, sincerely.

the devil is in the details it seems for a bunch of this kind of stuff… that is what i am interested in… very inspiring to take what i see and head off in some other direction…

i love the looks and working our here in the southwest the color palette is really amazing…

[Diane Fiolek]

Hi,

I’m a senior designer at VDO. I can tell you the looks are a combination of 3D…Softimage and 3D Studio Max. The backgrounds and other elements are a combination of Photoshop pieces, and AE layers and plug-ins.

…and you are right Matthew, the devil is in the details!

Cheers,m
DiFi

[Matthew Mcnulty]

Diane! The Source!
Thanks for responding…

any chance you would answer some questions about techniques/broadcast design oriented subjects… through this forum… of if you prefer email?

most inspiring stuff! really!

Matthew

[Edgard Iriarte]

Hi >Mathew, well i was a Broadcast Senior Designer for a Spanish TV station, it all depends the tool that they will be using to create these News openers. I recommend you taking a 3d application,a master the creative suite along off course with color composition.
We used VizArtist which is was mainly use because of the interactivity of the application create your design first,animate the design,save the scene and they will launch your animation directly from the control room, i am talking about a fortune application not even close to Maya is a whole hardware and software package.
So my experience in 3d and 2d graphics packages helped me out big time.
But i will recommend getting into After Effects.
Good luck

Edgard I.