1. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Use of text: I will be analysing Toy Story interactive DVD menu from 0.00- 1.00
(Title, Credits, animated captions, stings,
indents, interactive menus, web banner)
Brief description: As we begin to watch the Toy story DVD interactive menu we can see that there are many
What do you see? bright colours and that there’s always something going on. The characters from the movie
appear while the DVD menu’ appearing and they continue to walk past and do things like
throw balls. This suggests that the DVD wants your attention but it also allows the audience to
interact with the characters of the movie even before they’ve began to watch it. The
characters on screen are all toys which reflects the title of the movie ‘toy story’, also the
characters of the show are also playing with toys such as balls and springs. This allows the
audience to understand that this is a child’s film and it’s about childhood and how toys are a
massive part in your life at a certain age.
As the audience we are led by the camera to a whiteboard where we have the option to play
the movie, to pick certain scenes, and many other options that you wish to find on a DVD
interactive menu. Once again the whiteboard allows us to understand that this will be a film
about children and the writing on the board is also very childlike giving us more on an
indication about what this films going to be about. Also on the wall we see what seems to be
pictures but instead there mini clips of what the film features giving the audience more of an
insight to the film and the things it has to offer. This would have been made on a software
called renderman which I will go into later.
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2. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
Techniques used: The film Toy Story is produced by Produced by Pixar who use a software called Renderman,
Animation, Visual Effects, Colour Rendering, this is a software is made specially made to produce 3d effects making the image on screen
Graphics, Movement very clear and giving it a lot of clear detail such as fine hair.
The clip contains a lot of movement to keep the audience attracted to the screen this is very
suitable for children due to the fact they get bored very easily so as long as there’s something
going on, on screen then they wont get distracted by other things. The camera also pans to the
right while the characters also walk to the right which leads us to the whiteboard, this is taking
the audience to the place the film wants the audience to watch.
The title sequence uses a lot of animation due to the fact that’s what the film uses, this also
suggest that this is a filmed aimed at children. The animation would have been done on
renderman also which allows you to play with the animation and add different effects making
certain things look more realistic.
The colour used is very bright and warm colours such as yellow, white, light blue, pink. This are
all friendly colours and attract children once more. It also allows us to realise that this will be a
family film which everyone can watch together, but it also tells us its very heart warming and
will make us laugh at some point.
Advanced techniques: The title sequence doesn’t use any blurs however it uses a lot of sharpen which we can see
Blur, Sharpen, Distortion, Rotation, Opacity when we watch the clip. A lot of the colours have been sharpened to make them stand out
more amplifying certain toys such as the ball. The colour of the toys have also been sharpened
making them to stand out more due to the fact the producers want us to know that these are
the main characters and what the film focuses on.
The clip is also a compositing video which means that it uses a lot of layers piled on top of one
another. This is show through the use of small clips used in the background but which are
viewed as small pictures on the wall. This would of been done with a software like renderman
allowing you to add many layers on top of one another. This could also have been done on the
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3. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
software adobe after effects which is a lot more simpler to people who aren’t that experienced
in the area on motion graphics.
Technical comments: The frame rate for the toy story clip is 28 per second just like any other clip due to the fact it
Video Format, Screen Ratio, Resolution, allows you to add a good amount of detail and allows people to enjoy the clip.
Frame rate, Compression The video format of the is 280p which is a standard Format for many of the clips which are
found on youtube. When we watch the clip we can see that its pixelated and therefore lacks
quality and makes the clip less enjoyable to watch. This is why YouTube allows you to change
the format and the resolution of the clip to HD which is 480. However a problem with this si
that it will take the clip longer to buffer and make it irritation for some people to watch. The
clip may also keep stopping while it loads which can also get annoying.
The screen ratio of this clip is 4:3 which is a normal standard size for a TV however for a
cinema screen is a considerably amount bigger which can cause problems and make the clip
seem pixelated if your watching it on a bigger screen. If you added more frames per second
this could make the detail better.
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.
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
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4. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
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)
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