1. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Use of text: I have chosen an interactive menu. The menu that I have chosen is the comic movie Thor. The
(Title, Credits, animated captions, stings, text that is used is a very plain and bold. The purpose of this is to make it stand out to the
indents, interactive menus, web banner) audience.
Brief description: At the start of the menu scene Thor’s father talks to the hammer of Thor and he ends up
What do you see? throwing the hammer into this inter galactic portal. From there on the hammer makes its
journey to its destination, it goes through various galaxies, stars, milky way, looping vortex, the
hammer’s speed and spectacular dimensions. Then on the bottom you see the menu which
has a user interface. The text is wrapped in a gold box which symbolises Thor.
Techniques used: From where Thor’s father is speaking to the hammer no animated or CGI was used. But from
Animation, Visual Effects, Colour Rendering, where he throws the hammer, he throws it in this inter galactic portal. From there animations
Graphics, Movement and graphics were used for the effect. As soon as the hammer was thrown, the hammer
turned animated all the way into the portal. When the hammer starts its journey through the
galaxy and dimensions we can see that the hammer is travelling with great speed because of
the visual effect used, it gave the hammer a cloud of rainbow smoke to make it look very fast
travelling through the dimensions. The hammer was also on fire to show the audience how fast
it was travelling. The background shows amazing views of the dimension and the milky ways. It
is very bright to show the audience the beautiful view of the universe. The hammer itself
makes its own vortex loop to get to its destination, it goes through varies of galaxies and milky
ways. Movement of the hammer plays a very big part of this scene. It really makes the
audience want to carry on watching it to see what else it goes through. All of the images that
were shown in the universe were all created by a graphics animation. From there on it repeats
1
from where the hammer started its journey. The hammer travels that fast that it gives the

2. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
affect that it teleports through time.
Advanced techniques: From where the hammer starts its journey it gave out a blur affect and a distortion look. The
Blur, Sharpen, Distortion, Rotation, Opacity hammer itself was rotating to attract the audience to look at the hammer. Also when the
hammer is travelling through the universe. From most scenes the hammer is very still, it gives
It a sharpen effect to attract the audience.
Technical comments: The frame rate of the interactive menu is very smooth, even when it goes through various
Video Format, Screen Ratio, Resolution, dimensions and galaxies the frame rate remains its constant smooth rate. The resolution of the
Frame rate, Compression video is very clear, the look of the stars, galaxies and the rest of the universe really stand out
to the target audience. The screen ratio is on a widescreen 16:9 setting, this is normal for an
interactive menu. The video format is running on 480p, this is the highest setting you can put
the video on. Even though it runs on 480p everything still looks crisp clear.
Motion Graphics and Video Compositing Unit 64
Glossary
Motion graphics - Graphics that use video footage and/or animation technology to create the illusion of motion or rotation, graphics are
usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects.
2

3. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Compositing video - When there are several different clips of video are layered over one another to create a single image.
Interactive Menus – DVD Interface or Interactive Menus on a web page
Ident – The ‘call sign’ of a channel or production company to identify themselves on screen, usually shown before a programme.
Animated Captions – Animated Graphics layered over an image / video
Web Banners – A form of web advertising that is embedded into a web page. They are used to attract a viewer to their website. A Web
Banner usually a mix of motion graphics and video
Video Format - 3 Main Formats HD, PAL, NTSC. HD is the highest resolution (720 or 1080 vertical lines in the image). PAL is the UK
Standard definition image (576 vertical lines). NTSC is the US Standard definition image (480 vertical lines). Now in the
digital age we now look at video format in terms of pixels (i.e. High definition 1080; 1920 x 1080 or 2,073,600 pixels)
Screen ratio – Standard TV ratio is 4:3; this means that for every 4 units wide it is 3 units high. It is likely that the screen ratio will be
Widescreen (16:9) in a cinematic sequence.
Resolution – The amount of detail in an image or signal, such as Standard TV Definition and High Definition. See Video Format.
Frame Rate - The number of video or film frames displayed each second (frames per second; fps). PAL frame (standard UK TV) is 25
fps, NTSC (standard US TV) is 30 fps, film is 24 fps. This means as NTSC updates more regularly there is less strobing
(jerkiness).
Compression – The use of Codecs (WMV, DivX) to reduce the file size of a video by a variety of methods. This sometimes means a loss in
image quality (a “lossy”). Codecs are found in Video Cameras, DVD players / recorders, Editing Packages, Video upload
sites)
3