1. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
1
Motion Graphics and Video Compositing Unit 64
Use of text:
(Title, Credits, animated captions, stings,
indents, interactive menus, web banner)
I have chosen an ident for BBC2
No text is used in the ident
Brief description:
What do you see?
The Ident Begins with a number 2 that is designed to look like an insect in a forest setting, the
camera slowly zooms out and suddenly the number two is swallowed by a Venus fly trap in the
shape of a larger number two. The camera then stops zooming out and the BBC 2 information
appears.
Techniques used:
Animation, Visual Effects, Colour Rendering,
Graphics, Movement
The ident is made using animation and regular camera footage. The forest scene was probably
filmed with a camera and then the number 2 bits were added in afterwards using some
software probably similar to Adobe After effects. The colour of the ident is all very green to fit
in with the theme of what is happening. The graphics of the animation are very good and it
looks quite realistic as though it is really there. Finally the movement of the camera works
perfectly because it is like watching a scene from a thriller film and therefore looks
professional.
Advanced techniques:
Blur, Sharpen, Distortion, Rotation, Opacity
Because of the ident being so short more effort can be put into little details for example; at the
beginning the plants around the number two are blurred to make it seem as though the
camera is focusing on the number two. This creates a very dramatic effect and draws all
attention to the channels logo. The logo itself and once zoomed out, the rest of the
background is very sharp looking to give it an enhanced, more realistic look.
Technical comments:
Video Format, Screen Ratio, Resolution,
Frame rate, Compression
Screen Ratio – 840x480
Video Format HD
811 average kbps
Frame rate – 14fps
Resolution – 480p

2. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
2
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.
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)