File Formats

File Formats vary in size, quality and use. It is essential to know what are the kinds of file formats there are because not all formats work on all platforms or where you are viewing the material.

Raster - are pixel based, larger file size, same as a bitmap
Vector - Consists of lines and points, smaller file size and preserves the quality of the image
Lossless - preserves image quality
Lossy - compresses image

An Example of Vector Image

File Formats
Images:

Jpeg - best for photos, small size, can support 16.8 million colors, used for web, slr camera image format
Gif - can support animations, 256 colors, used for web, can be transparent, small size
Png - can support 16.8 million colors, used for web, larger file size compared to the above
Psd - photoshop document, large file size, preserves layers and quality
Tiff - usually a flat image but can also have layers just like psds, but the layers can only be opened in photoshop, large file size, preserves quality
AI - adobe illustrator document, vector based

Video:

mp4 - is the jpeg equivalent in video
avi - is the psd equivalent in video
mpeg -
3gp -
mov - dslr video format

Audio:

mp3 - is the jpeg equivalent in audio
wav -
wma -
ogg - for web
midi - its like the psd equivalent but with a smaller file size, like the vector of audio formats

Calling Card Design Samples

For our Color Theory and Principles of Design Class after discussing about the topic of C.R.A.P.

C.R.A.P. stands for Contrast, Repetition, Aligntment and Proximity

Technicalities in Colors

If someone knows the capabilities and limits, it is easy to understand and will have more ease in making something work or solve a problem.

Just like our eyes and the computer screen, our eyes have the wider range of colors that we see, while the screen has a little less.

There are times that if we print pictures, it won't print exactly the same set of colors as we see it on screen or in reality. Basically Eyes>Screen>Print

RGB (Red, Green Blue) is for light




While CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) is for print



Color Spaces




There are a set of color spaces that can be based upon, the first one is the Lab Color:
Unlike the RGB and CMYK color models, Lab color is designed to approximate human vision.

ProPhoto RGB

is an output referred RGB color space developed by Kodak. It offers an especially large gamut designed for use with photographic output in mind. The ProPhoto RGB color space encompasses over 90% of possible surface colors in the CIE L*a*b* color space, and 100% of likely occurring real world surface colors making ProPhoto even larger than the Wide Gamut RGB color space. The ProPhoto RGB primaries were also chosen in order to minimize hue rotations associated with non-linear tone scale operations. One of the downsides to this color space is that approximately 13% of the representable colors areimaginary colors that do not exist and are not visible colors.


The Adobe RGB color space is an RGB color space developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. in 1998. It was designed to encompass most of the colors achievable on CMYK color printers, but by using RGB primary colors on a device such as the computer display. The Adobe RGB color space encompasses roughly 50% of the visible colors specified by the Lab color space as well as improves upon the gamut of the sRGB color space, primarily in cyan-greens.




sRGB defines the chromaticities of the red, green, and blue primaries, the colors where one of the three channels is nonzero and the other two are zero. The gamut of chromaticities that can be represented in sRGB is the color triangle defined by these primaries. As with any RGB color space, for non-negative values of R, G, and B it is not possible to represent colors outside this triangle, which is well inside the range of colors visible to a human.

Mostly used in Web Designing.

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References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_space
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRGB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProPhoto_RGB_color_space
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color_space

Rule of the Ratio

Math is everywhere, not just in school or in work, not just in the works of man, but also in God's. These numbers, ratios, proportions and equations can create something pleasing or even perfect. There is a rule, and the famous and widely used one is the "Rule of Thirds", which can also be related to the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Sequence.

Rule of Thirds - is a technique in visual composition. It is simply dividing (for example) an image into 9 equal boxes, or a 3x3 grid. To follow this rule, you must put the subject on the parts where the lines of the grid intersect, sometimes not exactly but its more pleasing to see the subject in that position instead of it placed on the edge of the image or plainly in the center, but still, there're standards to not use this rule.

The Rule of Thirds creates a space in the composition which pushes the attention to the subject that is placed on the imaginary intersections.

Below are 3 pairs of images that consists of: First (Original/Uncropped) and Second (Edited/Cropped to follow the R.O.T.)

                                     

The Fibonacci Sequence and The Golden Ratio are related because The Golden Ratio explains that equal proportions have a ratio of 1:1.618. For example: the perfect or normal proportion of the hand to the forearm is 1:1.618. Artists in History and today have been using this to create their artworks.

As for the Fibonacci Sequence or Spiral, it has this pattern of numbers such as "1,1,2,3,5,8,13..." the sum of the previous 2 digits makes up the next number, and whenever you divide one number to the previous, it will have a total of 1.618. The larger the numbers divided in the sequence, the nearer it gets to the Golden Ratio.

 An example of the Golden Ratio is applied to the face, there is a diagram called the "Golden Ratio Mask" that determines the perfect face, if someone's face fits in it, it is perfect, while I tried it on mine, its not, although not a big surprise.

Filling Up the Spaces

Even though I already know a lot of tricks in photoshop, its still not enough. There are a lot of still things I have to learn other than shortcuts and how to use different tools on my work. 

It's like entering a diner or a restaurant, I'm so eager to eat that I just missed a sign board on the front mentioning customer privileges or a discount on a certain condition whenever I order. And because of that, every time I enter, I'm unaware of the stuff I can lose or gain. And that is what it feels like after today's lesson in Principles of Design and Color Theory.

We discussed about setting up the preferences in Photoshop. (Ctrl+K)

In the General settings:

• Image Interpolation: Bicubic Best

• The checklist under the Options are self explanatory, it will depend on the person of what they think is convenient.

• Enabling History Log encodes the History of events in the PSD file but makes the file size bigger.

• The Interface settings is associated with the appearance of the UI.

In File Handling:

• Its recommended that the lower cased file extensions are checked because its widely used, specially in web designing, because it doesn't support upper case letters.

• Since PS CS4 doesn't have the autosave option, the user better remember to save every 10 minutes.

Under Performance tab:

• Never go for 100% memory usage because it might crash the background programs, the recommendable is 80%-90%.

• History States are the number of undos, while the Cache is the temporary level of data that can be preserved. Both of these are not recommended to but in the maximum numbers because it will cause the program to hang or crash.

• The Scratch Disks are the partitions where you can lean the processing into, if you put the processing on a disk with no more space, photoshop will have a hard time processing your work compared to a disk/s that has a space.

• GPU settings shows information what your video card is and if its capable of the 3d interface in the software.

Cursor preferences lets you choose what you want your cursor to look like while you work.

Transparency and Gamut is the appearance or color of the pattern of the empty background on a transparent image in photoshop. 

In Units and Rulers, a lot of people and even most printing companies use the English System of Measurement (e.g. inch, feet, yard). 

While the Guides, Grid & Slices deals with the color of what the name says.

• To enable the Grids by going to the View Menu>Show>Grid. 

• You can have guides or margins by alt+click+drag from the ruler either from the left side or top. 

• While the Smart Guides is the line that appears if a certain object in the workspace are in line (e.g. center,top,bottom, side) with another object. It can also be found under View>Show.

Well I think that's all I can remember about what I've learned today. I'll get back to this whenever I need it.

Another First Step

There are things that you can just take easily, so easy that you don't need to think for more than five minutes. Things that mildly affects your everyday life such as buying a snack from the cafeteria, or brushing your teeth, such things that are already a daily basis for a person that they got used to doing that they dwell on it very long. But there are chances and opportunities that we have to think thoroughly, and decisions that we have to take that may affect a part or even parts of our lives, and these are the things that you can't just take easily, you have to go through a lot thinking and processing "What could happen if I do this?". You have to carefully inspects the aspects of things to know what to expect and to know what you should do.

Stepping right into this class (Principles of Design and Color Theory) conducted by Mr. Rey Mendoza, is a decision I won't regret as much as the ones I've taken, but was necessary. Either way, its a 4-hour session, starting from lunch, and of course, even for a first day, such amount of time shouldn't go to waste, we started off with introductions, then it eases into the first lesson which was about the first forms of Graphic Design, it didn't take very long maybe because the fact that we also have another major subject that will tackle on that. After that, we proceeded on how to handle a project by discussing about asking the questions like "What is the goal?", "Who is the audience?" and "The Time and budget it takes for the said project". I know that I will enjoy this subject because it will focus on something I'm interested in doing and I'm curious about. Although I don't think I'll be able to handle such clients like the given examples we were given, or at least the part that I have to budget the time and money, or specifically the printing part of the job. I'm more on with digital works, but I'll just think that its for the benefit of my future having to know these things.

Even though I have knowledge of a lot of things by now, it doesn't hurt to learn more as long as I'm willing to.

Abandoned Heaven

what if whenever someone abandoned a house or a town, the structures will eventually start to rise from the ground and float to the sky and they all gather up and form a big chunk of land

its like a heaven of abandoned human establishments

Catching the Truth in the Sea of Lies, with the help of a Digital Net

The fisherman goes out to sea to catch some fish to be brought home to eat or to sell it on the market. Being an investigative journalist is quite the same in a metaphorical sense. They go out to places, get the news and findings and bringing it on TV for the people to see.

With the technology today, everything is much easier. From taking records of the event to putting it on screen. Documents and other media-visual evidence can be easily destroyed in the old days, but now, with digital methods, someone can have countless copies of these without having to worry that someone will destroy it until it is non-existent. New Media also helps non-journalists to bring information about occurrences in their area, specially when there're no reporters around to witness it, and thus they also contribute to bringing the news to people.

What you sow, the others will reap

I used to be afraid posting my ideas online (actually I still am but not enough to prevent me now) because I'm afraid someone might use that idea and claim that it was theirs, while they go smooching the fame, I'm just here rotting in regret.

These kind of things mostly holds into account of plagiarism and credit

pla·gia·rism 

 an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author

pla·gia·rized pla·gia·riz·ing

transitive verb

 : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive verb

: to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

cred·it

: recognition by name of a person contributing to a performance

It's everywhere yet we are unaware. We think that just because we got it from the internet and used it in a school project or whatever, we will get away with it, well most of us do but I've also seen people getting caught in the act that it doesn't end very well.

When it comes to crediting, I make sure is as a truthful as it is. I never liked taking credit of something I didn't do because once someone questions me about it, I might fail to prove it, specially when my dad likes to brag about my achievements, I tend to correct his exaggerations, even though it will make me less amazing to people's eyes, I'd rather lay the truth in the first place.

Now, there are a lot of people who likes to take credit of something they didn't do, specially in forms of plagiarism. It's stealing, but this time, they are stealing intellectual property.

Definition

 Intellectual property is any innovation, commercial or artistic; any new method or formula with economic value; or any unique name, symbol, or logo that is used commercially. Intellectual property is protected by patents on inventions; trademarks on branded devices; copyrights on music, videos, patterns, and other forms of expression; and state and federal laws.

The Crime

 Stealing intellectual property is cheap and easy. All a thief has to do is copy someone else’s ideas or product. The other person or company—the victim—has done all the work, but thieves can reap huge profits. Intellectual property theft can cost people their jobs, damage the reputation of the original maker of the counterfeited product, cause sickness and bodily harm, deprive governments of desperately needed tax revenue, and even result in the spread of organized crime and gangs—which in turn can damage more lives and destroy neighborhoods. It isn’t a victimless crime

In graphic properties such as art, stock photos, images, and even videos and audios, they have a way in preventing their work to be stolen by adding watermarks

A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations in the paper.

while a digital watermark is a kind of marker covertly embedded in a noise-tolerant signal such as audio or image data. It is typically used to identify ownership of the copyright of such signal. "Watermarking" is the process of hiding digital information in a carrier signal; the hidden information should,[1] but does not need to contain a relation to the carrier signal. Digital watermarks may be used to verify the authenticity or integrity of the carrier signal or to show the identity of its owners. It is prominently used for tracing copyright infringements and for banknote authentication.

here are some examples of watermarks



some may be a form of signature, but that can be easily erased or cropped out, it depends on where the signature is placed. Here're some examples of my signatures/watermark, sometimes its barely visible

These people who commit such crimes are called Credit Alligators, they have ways to take your lunch money (its a figure of speech), but you also have your ways from stopping them.

===========================

reference:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarize\

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/credit

http://www.ncpc.org/topics/intellectual-property-theft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_watermarking

image sources 

x x 

Life's Cold Side of the Pillow

Have you ever, in your sleep, wake up just one tiny bit to move your head onto the cold side of the pillow? Because basically the side you've been sleeping on had been warm enough to make you uncomfortable and as you settle on this new side, you find relief, and continue to sleep on.

Now I'm supposed to be talking about "What is multimedia and what fascinates you about it?", well then, let me (metaphorically) help you up the stairs, or cross the road so you can understand how was my intro even connected to my homework's question?

Let's see, sleeping, its something we usually do, we NEED to do, to keep living! Now I'm gonna connect it to our daily routines like go to school, or work, eat, ride the bus, talk to people, sleep etc. And now back to the sleeping on the warm side of the pillow, this warm side of the pillow is the pressing events, stress, or just simply getting bored of all this cycle we have to do everyday, and now when we move onto the cold side of the pillow, that's the relief, the moments when we entertain ourselves, where we loosen up and chill, and what do most people involve themselves into? Music, shows, movies, reading, games, nowadays, mostly are media related.

Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. This contrasts with media that use only rudimentary computer displays such as text-only or traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material. Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, or interactivity content forms.

An example of this are video games, all of it in one package. Although I still enjoy reading novels, watching movies or shows, listening to music because even though its missing the rest of the media categories, I enjoy filling it up myself, just like how I like to drive my mind into imagination when reading books, or imagine myself in a certain place or situation based on the music I'm listening to, or how I like to speculate about what's gonna happen in the next episode, stuff like that. 

They say that TV shows degenerates the value of imagination because you won't have to imagine the scenes yourself, its already served on a silver platter in front of you, then what more in video games? In video games, the only thing you need to fill up (mainly) is the progression, and you enjoy this progression, you enjoy leveling up, you enjoy going further, you enjoy the challenge, the successions, and this makes us feel fulfilled in someway if we ever feel we fail at something else. In video games, you can make things happen that you can't do in reality.

I recommend watching this stand up comedy clip, start at 1:20-2:08 because that's what I'm heading out in this.

So basically, multimedia, or just media itself, it fills up tiny or even huge holes in our lives, and by tending to it, we also fill up these holes that these forms of media has. It's like coexisting, a pair complimentary objects, the hair to the comb, the chair to a table.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia

Walking the Tightrope of a Metaphorical Web

I've been out of school for more than 5 months, and I'm not the kind of person who enjoys going to the mall nor just basically going outside. I enjoy internet people more compared to people in real life, and in this, I spend more time in front of my laptop. And within this time span, I've observed a lot of things, and learned a lot of stuff about how things go down in the metaphorical web of bliss and lies. 

I love to blog on tumblr, and I've encountered arguments about cultural appropriation, racism, sexist, misandry, anon hate, suicide and a lot of things we take lightly.

Acceptance

One has to accept that Internet is not a value free-zone .It means World Wide Web is a place where values are considered in the broadest sense so we must take care while shaping content and services and we should recognize that internet is not apart from universal society but it is a primary component of it. 

We are obligated, in real life or in the internet, to be moral, to be kind to others. Yet an equal amount of people can't seem to follow so they just do whatever they want. I've seen death threats and you-should-kill-yourself messages thrown at people because of their behavior or just plainly because they don't like something. People should not tell other people to kill themselves just because they don't like something.

Pretending to be someone else

We must not use internet to fool others by pretending to be someone else. Hiding our own identity to fool others in the Internet world is a crime and may also be a risk to others.

I had a friend, he has a hobby of sending anonymous messages to people, sending hack threats, or just plainly "Trolling" or pranking people on the internet. He also sent me a hack threat at first before I actually met him via chat, at first I wasn't reacting violently to his threats, I just played cool and didn't show distress because I know that they enjoy what they do if people are fooled or giveaway a reaction they want to see. Even though I already met him, and were friends, he still tries to send me anon messages which could never fool me and I had to laugh because of his failure, but when he started targeting my other friends, that's where I drew the line. He's now my ex friend.

Avoid Bad language

We must not use rude or bad language while using e-Mail, chatting, blogging and social networking, We need to respect their views and should not criticize anyone on the internet.

I won't say to any of the readers to avoid it just because if I did tell you, I'd be a hypocrite. I still feel guilty and afraid if ever people who expects me to not use profane words, find out that I have betrayed them, that I have brushed their teachings under the rug. But I tell you this, I've never, EVER, in my memory, used cuss words to hurt someone's feelings, I only use it for laughs and exaggeration of certain things. And up to this day, I'm still wondering what have caused me to get used to a habit like it, I do wish I knew so I can avoid it.

Do the things you like as long as it doesn't hurt others, okay?

While Downloading 

Internet is used to listen and learn about music,It is also used to watch videos and play games we must not use it to download them or share copyrighted material. We must be aware of the importance of copyrights and issues of copyright.

"Why pay for it if you can get it for free?" A quote that has been in my life, and been in a whole lot of others. But I also go by the habit of buying softwares and games in legal copies if I can afford them, specially when I opened a paypal account, and also in my earlier teenage years where I used to listen to a rock band, I prefer buying their albums instead of just downloading their songs from the web, but I've never attempted to sell these copies for my own income.

Speaking of copyright, I really hate plagiarism, I loathe it. Just knowing someone posted my drawings somewhere else without crediting or sourcing makes me twitch. Specially if they've traced my drawings without permission nor credit, and the thing I hate the most: Art theft.

What Constitutes Art Theft?
Art Theft is taking something that you did not create yourself and reposting it/editing it and claiming it as your own.

Some examples of art theft include: Screen shots of an anime, manga scans, things found on google image search, photobucket, or deviantart/sheezyart/other art sites (ESPECIALLY art sites), photos of celebrities, etc.

All of these things belong to the original artist or photographer and are not "free use" just because they are on the internet.

I used to be cautious about posting my ideas online because I'm afraid that someone will snatch it and take all the credit.

I do my best to make original content and ideas, and I get all frustrated if someone points out that my ideas are similar to existing ones. I don't want to get bashed by people just because I made something that I wasn't aware of that I copied something. IF I do know that my ideas are inspired or references any other things, and also whenever I use a stock image, I'll make sure to credit the sources.

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Sources:
http://infosecawareness.in/students/internet-ethics
http://www.theotaku.com/worlds/eminor/view/174995/

Minimalist practice

I could've made this simpler

Just a photoshop practice because I haven't done anything in the software that's 100% made with it, I usually just use PS to refine drawings that I did in SAI

The Aliens had finally visited Earth...

only to find out that there's a Zombie Apocalypse going on

(I'm not sure if anyone has written a story like this, because I'd be glad to do it)

Communication is like a Kitchen Knife

Just like how you handle a kitchen knife, you can either drive it into someone else’s chest, ending their life, or slice a bunch of ingredients to make a delicious meal for one person or more, thus extending their life.

Now let me elaborate. Basically, this entry is about “Why communication is Important”, I’m tasked to write or type an article about it, pondering about a thing is one of my habits, others prefer to distract themselves with their phone whenever there’s nothing else to do, while I, on the other hand, I like to stare blankly into space and contemplate.

And now back to the bolded statement in the previous paragraph. Why is Communication important? (Although I’m tempted to state my own opinion and experience, have some facts first):

• “I believe good communication is the key to a good relationship”
• “It can help someone to understand what another person is saying. It also means that they can express their own needs and concerns.”
• “Think about it … how do the best leaders motivate and inspire their people? Through clear communication.” - Communication: The most important key to leadership success
• “communication improves culture of learning organisations and the behaviour of individual attitude which sharpens the confidence levels of he or she”

These are just some examples of the many merits of meeting a moderate or manifolds amount of mankind, and I agree to all of them.

Communication is powerful, take it away from a military base and it can leave a whole country defenseless, it could mean life and death as we know it.

“Considering how often poorly chosen words can lead to friction and arguments between family, friends or even strangers”

and may I add:

“You may choose your words like a connoisseur, And polish it up with art, But the word that sways, and stirs, and stays, Is the word that comes from the heart” - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I believe all of these had proven my statement, communication is a really good thing, feel free to use it but remember to handle it carefully according to your purpose.
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Just in case the links above won't work (references):
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061126110838AALS2NH
http://www.caresearch.com.au/caresearch/tabid/1095/Default.aspx
http://www.caresearch.com.au/caresearch/tabid/1095/Default.aspx
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_uses_of_communication
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christophers/2013/06/choosing-your-words-wisely-insights-on-improving-communication-skills/