I am interested in how TV Graphics are created and what programs they use, if they are easy to make, how expensive the programs are etc. Could anybody help me or just explain about TV Graphics. Any help would be warmly welcome as watching Attention a la marche on French TV suddenly made me very interested in them.
There are many different pieces of software and hardware used in the Broadcast Design industry, such as specific machines like Quantel's Paintbox, Hal, Henry and Infinity but these are all very expensive dedicated machines. The current wave of Apple Mac sofware is steadily replacing these long established machines. I suggest that the best bet is to use Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, which are a perfect combination for on screen GFX. After Effects is a few hundred pounds and can easily cope with any of the demands that broadcast may have. When coming in for an interview these days, if a designer is trained on After Effects then they have a sound knowledge base for working in the field - asuming they are good designers, of course.
There are many different pieces of software and hardware used in the Broadcast Design industry, such as specific machines like Quantel's Paintbox, Hal, Henry and Infinity but these are all very expensive dedicated machines. The current wave of Apple Mac sofware is steadily replacing these long established machines. I suggest that the best bet is to use Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, which are a perfect combination for on screen GFX. After Effects is a few hundred pounds and can easily cope with any of the demands that broadcast may have. When coming in for an interview these days, if a designer is trained on After Effects then they have a sound knowledge base for working in the field - asuming they are good designers, of course.
Andy
Yep - in time critical broadcast areas, like News, Quantel Paintbox, Paintbox FX, and HAL are still widely used. Quantel have just released their Paintbox software to run on a PC platform, either with or without extra hardware.
Similarly in high end suites Henry and Infinity are still very popular because of their power and speed. However as standard hardware platforms (PCs, Macs, Silicon Graphics etc.) increase their power additional software, like Flame, Inferno etc. are also being used - especially where time is less of an issue. (Hardware based solutions are often quicker at processing complex effects than software only solutions)
The big problems using Macs and PCs with standard software is that many designers and programmers don't understand that broadcast video isn't made of pixels that are square. Instead broadcast video is made up of "samples" that are not square (whether in 702/720x576 or 702/720x488 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios), and the colour space of broadcast video is not identical to that of most PC and Mac systems. One of the most important thing is to ensure that you can see your design work on a video screen (interlaced and of the correct aspect ratio) as well as a VGA or LCD monitor.
Are there any free programs or very cheap ones where I can experiment with very basic astons and simple animation just to see what I can do and then progress to more expensive and more complex programs. :
Are there any free programs or very cheap ones where I can experiment with very basic astons and simple animation just to see what I can do and then progress to more expensive and more complex programs. :
no. but macromedia flash is good for making astons, albeit hardly if not used in tv. download the 30 day trial from www.macromedia.com
There are many different pieces of software and hardware used in the Broadcast Design industry, such as specific machines like Quantel's Paintbox, Hal, Henry and Infinity but these are all very expensive dedicated machines. The current wave of Apple Mac sofware is steadily replacing these long established machines. I suggest that the best bet is to use Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, which are a perfect combination for on screen GFX. After Effects is a few hundred pounds and can easily cope with any of the demands that broadcast may have. When coming in for an interview these days, if a designer is trained on After Effects then they have a sound knowledge base for working in the field - asuming they are good designers, of course.
Andy
What sort of things can you do with After Effects?
Are there any free programs or very cheap ones where I can experiment with very basic astons and simple animation just to see what I can do and then progress to more expensive and more complex programs. :
As long as you don't mind the limitation of having a static background you could use Powerpoint?
Are there any free programs or very cheap ones where I can experiment with very basic astons and simple animation just to see what I can do and then progress to more expensive and more complex programs. :
Adobe After Effects is by no means available to download for free on Kazaa. Honestly.
Are there any free programs or very cheap ones where I can experiment with very basic astons and simple animation just to see what I can do and then progress to more expensive and more complex programs. :
As long as you don't mind the limitation of having a static background you could use Powerpoint?
PowerPoint is very shoddy software, and I recommend against using it except for very limited applications (like corporate presentations). PowerPoint does not work like any other piece of software I know of, and using it as a "starting step" would just mean a tougher learning curve for any more advanced software to follow.
Are there any free programs or very cheap ones where I can experiment with very basic astons and simple animation just to see what I can do and then progress to more expensive and more complex programs. :
Adobe After Effects is by no means available to download for free on Kazaa. Honestly.
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