Double Page Spread Initial Completion (Progression)

Double page progression

This is my first draft at my front cover, it is close to the final front cover that I want however there are a number of things wrong with it. First of all I need to get rid of the video game sprites down the centre of the magazine. Although they are fitting to the theme they do look slightly tacky, and don't particularly work well with the rest of the colours in my double page spread. Secondly the text of the double page spread is a bit boring a small paragraph or at least a breakout box to spice up the text a little bit more. The borders on the page are also too thick and don't particularly look that presentable. Some of the font types used on my front cover look far to bland and they don't fit in with the theme of the magazine, particularly the header and kickers look far to bland the fonts used don't particularly reflect the themes of my magazine. The header is the main thing thats lacking the kicker and verdict title all look more aesthetically presentable plus with its sci fi inspired font it looks more interesting than the standard text shown on the magazines header. The lines used for the borders in my magazine are far to thick now that I look back at it, it doesn't cover the whole outline of the magazine and thus as a result doesn't look complete. Although the main colour pallet used and the text is appropriate ideally I need to apply these changes to create a more balanced and finished product.

Final Double Page Spread

Double Page Spread Final Unit three analysis. Here is my double page spread there are a number of things about it that I like. First of all the double page spread is well placed in the top left of the spread and it is nice and big meaning that both of the cover models can be seen well and as a result the inside controversial message of the magazine can be clearly understood. The header and kicker helps to support this image furthermore because it helps to demonstrate what the message of the image is and also to interpret what the content of the article will be like e.g. whether or not the content will be formal, informal, factual, entertaining etc. Not only does it help to demonstrate what the rest of the magazines content will be like but also helps to draw the readers in more as it begins with a statement and then with a rhetorical question - "The issue of gaming, fact or fiction?" First of all the article gives the promise of resolving a very common issue that all gamers, nerds and in fact all other mainstream tribes have worried and debated about since gaming on arcades and home consoles were first introduced. The drop cap on my front cover helps to symbolise clearly where the text begins and the distance between paragraphs indicate the different parts of the article where it may firstly be talking about the negative effects or the positive effects of gaming, negative effects or gaming or the final verdict. The colour scheme of white and red mixed together they help to show quite a sophisticated layout which is what I want to achieve seeing as many other magazines based around games and movies share this same design. The different did you know part of the article helps to differentiate from the rest of the more boring and plain text (adding some variety). The points made throughout the article are concise and the text can be seen clearly. The design on and around the verdict box helps to differentiate it from the rest of the text well due to the black borders around it, the header with the different font, and the red text within the text box.  Also the other title get this makes the content of the article seem more interesting and hip.

Final Double Page Spread Analysis (Unit 3)

Double Page Spread Final Unit three analysis. Here is my double page spread there are a number of things about it that I like. First of all the double page spread is well placed in the top left of the spread and it is nice and big meaning that both of the cover models can be seen well and as a result the inside controversial message of the magazine can be clearly understood. The header and kicker helps to support this image furthermore because it helps to demonstrate what the message of the image is and also to interpret what the content of the article will be like e.g. whether or not the content will be formal, informal, factual, entertaining etc. Not only does it help to demonstrate what the rest of the magazines content will be like but also helps to draw the readers in more as it begins with a statement and then with a rhetorical question - "The issue of gaming, fact or fiction?" First of all the article gives the promise of resolving a very common issue that all gamers, nerds and in fact all other mainstream tribes have worried and debated about since gaming on arcades and home consoles were first introduced. The drop cap on my front cover helps to symbolise clearly where the text begins and the distance between paragraphs indicate the different parts of the article where it may firstly be talking about the negative effects or the positive effects of gaming, negative effects or gaming or the final verdict. The colour scheme of white and red mixed together they help to show quite a sophisticated layout which is what I want to achieve seeing as many other magazines based around games and movies share this same design. The different did you know part of the article helps to differentiate from the rest of the more boring and plain text (adding some variety). The points made throughout the article are concise and the text can be seen clearly. The design on and around the verdict box helps to differentiate it from the rest of the text well due to the black borders around it, the header with the different font, and the red text within the text box.  Also the other title get this makes the content of the article seem more interesting and hip.

In Design Initial Set Up (Double Page Spread + Front Cover)

In our first In design session we focused on creating the front cover and double page spread for our Unit 3 final product hand in. Before we could add any imagery or effects we had create the basic template to insert and design our double page spread plus we needed another to paste in our final front cover from Photoshop. Note - All images on this document are taken from Google images, no copyright intended.

First of all when setting up our front cover we needed to make sure that we had to pages that were facing each other
and another separate page, for creating our double page spread we needed to type in the amount of pages that we wanted in the spread in this case to and then ensure that the facing pages check box was ticked. Once that was done we needed to insert another singular page to copy our double page spread in later. One of the things that we needed to ensure that our page size was not to big otherwise the resolution of our Photoshop document and double page spread image would be too poor.

The document was created and it looked something like this (this is an image taken from the web). It consists of to A4 pages similar to that of your average sized magazine. Next I need to add the columns onto this page in order to insert page. Three columns of each page is usually the high level socioeconomic class which is what I'm aiming  for so overall there is going to be a total of six columns on my double page spread. However my first version will come with columns

Here is the singular document that I will use to paste my final magazine front cover into, not much needs do be added to this as specifically it is only functioning as a frame for my magazine cover. I will have no further use for this part of my document until my final magazine cover is done.

Here is an example of what the columns will look like on my page, the different arrows indicate that I can move the columns from left to right, if for example the columns I had turned out to be too wide or to thin then I could adjust them to fit the needs of the final design. Also these columns can be moved up and down. If for example a photograph is blocking part of the page, the columns can be shrunk down and the text re sized in order to try and fit it all on one page.

Finally I will want to insert text into my In Design document later on. By using the text tool as shown on the left hand side with the arrow here I can create the text boxes to insert into the columns on my double page spread here.

Final Skills Audit

AS Media Production: Final Skills Audit Print Production

Name: Louis Hurst       Tutor group: 174              Date: 25.04.14

Photographic Skills

Which of the following photographic features/equipment have you used on a camera before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Manual Focus features	X		I have used this skill particularly when it came to creating my final product (photo-shoot). I wanted to get the best quality images for my front cover and double page spread so I used the manual focus features to get the best image quality. I also used the manual focus features for other parts of my project e.g. Shutter speed light photos and landscape photos.
Shutter Speed	X		I experimented with different photos when using different torches and lights to create a wider variety of different shapes and strobe effects, these pictures appeared later on my blog.
Aperture control	X		I used this when it came to taking the different composition shots as experimentation and also for my front cover. Surprisingly I experimented with this setting more when it came to my composition photos as most of the time in my final photo shoot I relied on the different lamps and perspectives to capture the most light.
ISO Control	X		Similar to the aperture control I used this only on my composition photos and my final photo shoot. I relied on this setting mostly on my final photo shoot due to the fact the lighting had to differ from side to side on my photo shoot to convey the good and bad effects of gaming although my cover models helped to convey this through their facial expressions and body language it was important that I got the lighting right to convey the mixed effects of gaming.
A tripod	X		I only used the tripod during my photo shoot sessions for my front cover and double page spread, I used it to get the camera at the right angle and to prevent any blurry photographs - getting the photo shoot done much more efficiently.
External flash	X		I experimented with this feature very briefly when it came to taking my final photo shoot however it was too bright of an image so it didn't appear on the final photo.
Self timer facility	X		I used this on my final photo shoot to give myself time to get the cover models positioning right as well as adjusting the facial expressions and allowing myself to enter the appropriate camera stance.
Light meter	X		I used this in both my shutter speed photos (to check if the light generated by the torch could be seen easily) and on my final photo shoot to detect whether or not my double page spread and front cover images needed more or less light.
Composition grids	X		I only used this feature when taking my composition photos - particularly I used it to measure the distance between models and capture close up and facial shots well.

Photoshop Skills

Which of the following features of Photoshop have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Text control	X		I used this for a number of things when designing my front cover. I used it to create my magazine masthead, adjusting the font size, deciding which font I should use, positioning my text and adding effects to my text. The final masthead does look good in my own opinion as it fits in with the modern theme of gaming well. I also used this tool to adjust the sub headers and subtext, particularly I used this tool is order to select the font type, position the font, and change the size.
Filters	X		I used filters on every photo I edited, I used them to quite a high level, there was a number of different tools that I used to add these filters e.g. hue saturation, photo filter, channel mixer etc. Seeing as they are simple to use they were easy to master and could be used on a more professional level.
Brushes	X		I used snow flake brushes for my Christmas card. I downloaded these brushes from a website. I didn't apply lots of effects to these brushes really, the only thing I really changed was the thickness of the brushes in order to make them more visible and I changed the colour of the brushes from black to white so that they could be distinguished better from the background better.
Layers	X		I used the layer control for everything that I did on Photoshop - vampire transformation, cross processing, spot manipulation, front cover editing, photograph editing. The level of layers used varied from project to project for example when doing my vampire transformation I added one new layer to create the vampire teeth. When doing more complicated areas of the course like designing my final front cover many layers were used for things like editing text, adding and adjusting downloaded imagery and personal photographs and selecting certain parts of the page to edit e.g. changing colour hue.
Opacity control	X		I used this very briefly on my front cover to adjust the visibility of my cover models, it was something that I was thinking about including on my final front cover but eventually I decided to dispose of it as the title models were hard to see even with the smallest adjustment and the fading of the cover models did not fit in with all the bold text and video game sprites placed around it.
Shape creation	X		I used shapes very briefly when it came to the experimentation on my Christmas cards initially they were going to be in place of the snowflake brushes but this was soon changed - weren't used to a great extent.
Brightness and contrast control	X		I used the brightness and contrast tool on most of the photos that I edited e.g. for my vampire tutorial I used this tool to dim the image slightly so the skin would appear darker and much grayer in tone and I also used to contrast tool to add more depth and colours to the background. However this was only a brief use of both of these tools. I used this tools to their biggest extent when it came to editing my front cover. The background on my finish product looked a bit to dark as the lighting I had chosen for the photo proved to be slightly to dark, using the brightness tool I very carefully adjusted the brightness so that it was brighter than the original background but not to bright that the cover models couldn't be seen. Similarly I also used the contrast to to very carefully adjust the cover.
Gradients	X		I used this tool briefly on my spot removing tutorial, it is an effective way of adjusting the light, even though I only used it for some brief light transformation, I found it easy to use but I stopped using it as the brightness and contrast tool is easier to use.
Load selection features	X		Initially for my front cover I wanted to include a background for my front cover - as in my graphics course in year 11 I used a background for the book covers I wanted to create. I thought this would look good on my magazine cover, but I couldn't find an appropriate background to experiment with and it ended up not appearing in the final cover design.
Feathering		X
Colour curves adjustment	X		I used this on my cross processing tutorial - it was used very briefly due to the fact I only edited two images using this tool. However it is a relatively easy tool to use and not much practice is needed to use it professionally.
Resolution setting control	X		I used the resolution setting on my finished vampire and on my final front cover. I did not rely on this effect an awful lot just to correct some minor imperfections e.g. the lighting used on my camera made the final portrait image of my photo shoot look slightly blurred. Unfortunately I couldn't see it on the camera at first but using this tool I was able to fix it, but only a few things needed changing much like the vampire touch ups so I didn't have much experience when it came to experiencing its full potential.
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	X		I did not use the polygonal lasso at any point but I did use the magnetic lasso tool on a number of occasions. First of all was for my vampire tutorial where I used it to copy the vampire tooth that I had made and place it on the image. However here it was used only briefly here, I began to use it on a more professional level when it came to designing my final front cover. I used the magnetic lasso tool here in order to copy the cover models from a different layer over to the layer that was going to be my magazine cover here it was much harder to do as the models needed to be cut out well in order to make them look good.
Cropping tool	X		I used this numerous times to move images in from layer to layer. Used mostly when designing my front cover
Clone tool		X
Retouch tool	X		I used this once briefly on my spot brush tutorial, however I did not use it to a large extent as it was only used to retouch and adjust some of the unwanted effects that the brush tool had left behind.
Other skills			Photo Filter Tool Threshold Tool Cross processing tool Layer adjustment  Colour curve tool Channel mixer tool Other colour editing tools

In Design Skills

Which of the following features of In Design have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Have you ever used In design ever before?		X
Margin and column guide creation	X		I used this tool to select the appropriate position and size of my text boxes, I used it to quite a large extent due to the fact I had to create, move, re size and position 6 text boxes for my double page spread.
Inserting an image ID	X		I inserted my double page photo into in design and my small downloaded images from Google images altogether I moved 5 images into the In Design document.
Resizing images in ID	X		I re sized five images in my In Design document. The video game sprites were made much smaller due to the fact that they were only meant to fit into a small section of the double page spread. My main photo was made much larger as it symbolizes the whole topical issue of gaming and is important for explaining what my article will be about in a concise way.
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation	X		I used this tool to re size the articles masthead and also the main text - using this tool was important otherwise the text would be out of proportion and the front cover would not look aesthetically presentable as a result.
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading	X		I used text changing on a regular basis throughout the process of designing my front cover. First of all was creating the drop cap at the start of my article.
Text flow creation		X
Using transparent imagery in ID	X		I briefly experimented with this feature in design, however I only used it shortly as it did not fit in nor suit the theme of my magazine article properly.
Shape/line creation In design	X		I used this tool briefly to create a red border around my magazine to add more colour to the pallet. Before these lines were completed I added more thickness to them so that they would stand out more.
Exporting to PDF from In-design	X		When my double page spread and my Photoshop front cover was put into in design I exported it to the QE moodle page. All that needed to be done was to change the format.
Text Wrap	X		I used the tool on a regular basis, my text needed to be placed from column to column in order for all of the text to be seen. Often it was used just to pass the main part of the article around but I also used it briefly for the verdict box which contained a different sub header and font colour.
Other Skills			Adding downloaded images Cropping images down Adding borders Adding drop caps

Number of new skills achieved:

(compare with your initial skills assessment)

Photography

Aperture control
External flash
Self timer facility
Composition grids

Photoshop

Shape Creation
Retouch tool

In Design

All features that I was previously unable to do