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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Most Common Mistakes in Screencasting

When people think about how to start screencasting, they often forget that screencasting is not only a very interesting way of showing something quickly, comprehensibly and easily; it’s also a way of advertising their products. It’s a shame to see how many websites out there lack a beautiful looking screencast, as this can make products look a lot more attractive to potential customers.

What most hobby screencasters don’t know, is that screencasting is not simply the act of sitting down and recording the screen; simple screen recording was something we did four to five years ago. Screencasts have a long history, starting from “I just record my screen” to the fancy product demos you see today. Nowadays, a screencast is almost necessary for start-ups and new products, especially in the tech business.

My career as a screencaster started a couple of years ago. By that time, I was already blogging; sitting in front of Ableton Live (which I found to be a very original new workflow), I asked myself: what would be the best way to show others what I’m doing? The answer was clear: to record my screen.

That same night, I started using Snapz Pro X. My English was terrible and it felt awkward to record this thing — then to re-record it about ten times. Since then I have recorded hundreds of screencasts, including for Mac OS X Screencasts. Having gained a lot of experience, it’s now time to share this experience with others.

How Not To Do a Screencast

In the early days of screencasting, there were a lot of YouTube videos which now look like screencasting “dinosaurs.” This was to be expected then, but there are still people making the same terrible mistakes we all made in the early days.

Handheld Cameras

We probably all know that scenario; we’ve found a new function that apparently nobody uses in a program, and are so excited that we instantly want to share that idea on YouTube. It’s easy to grab a video camera or mobile phone and just point it at the computer screen, right? No. Never ever do that, as the videos will look terrible!

On the other hand, if the video shows something really, really extraordinary, people will watch it anyway. Content is king! If that video ends up on another website that showcases a product or service, it’s obvious that someone should invest precious money in screencasting software.

Facial Cameras

We have seen this a lot of times around the Web: screencasts with a smaller rectangular screen showing the person recording the screencast. Most of the time this screen is put somewhere in the video, and is always on. Even famous people like Merlin Mann are doing it. Merlin is great, by the way, although he’s no professional screencaster; all he intended to do was show his cool new workflow in TextExpander, which is great. Recording with built-in cameras is great too, but as I will describe later, use these functions wisely.

Consider the following:

Is it necessary for a face to be there all the time?
Does the audience really need to see a face to follow the screencast?
Will the face distract people from watching the screencast?

I agree that for introduction purposes, it’s a good idea to show someone on a built-in or external webcam; but as soon as we move to the main content, it’s a good idea to fade that video out. In my latest screencasts, I do exactly that: at the intro my facial camera is on while I tell my audience what they are about to see — and then when I get to the first section, I fade this video out.

Here’s a recommendation: do a big close-up as your introduction, centered on the screen. Then say something like, “Hi, my name is Andreas and today I’m showing you Whatever™ product by Some, Inc. Whatever™ is great, and I love it; you will love it too, and here’s why.” Right after “…and here’s why,” either fade the video out or decrease the size of the video while moving it to the lower right/left corner. Then, leave that video a couple more seconds on screen before fading it out completely.

Distractions During Screencasting

When I started recording screencasts, this was one of the hardest things to learn: leave the mouse pointer wherever it is on the screen and don’t use it as an extension of your hand. If you own good recording or production software, callouts or zooms and pans are better tools to emphasize a particular thing on screen. It’s not necessary to move the mouse while describing something. Also, when you are editing the screencast later on, it’s much easier to make your edits when the mouse stays still so there is no distracting mouse movement between shots, or mouse jump at a jump cut.

On the other hand, the mouse pointer has to be used at times as it’s the only thing people can focus on to follow detailed instructions. Just using keyboard shortcuts is a bad idea. I would recommend on first showing, that you display the menu entry and point out that there’s a keyboard shortcut. On the second showing, use the shortcut (please do tell the listeners prior to execution, otherwise they won’t be able to recognize what you just did).

Don’t Annoy People

A crucial part of a good screencast is entertainment, a fact that many people — especially beginners — don’t realize. Someone watches a screencast to get information, but why not make it a pleasurable experience? Try to create interest by using animations and other techniques.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that there are some things a screencaster can assume: for example, that people can read and have used computers before, so they know how to click on parts of the screen and they know how to write.

In an online review of Snowtape, a Web radio recording application for Mac, the screencaster reads (starting at 0:38) every menu item in the Preferences. You don’t need to do that. Aside from being boring, the screencaster loses precious time for the screencast. On YouTube, a video is usually limited to ten minutes in length. (Pro tip: I have successfully uploaded videos which were 10:50 without getting rejected.) Just going through every single menu entry cost the presenter two minutes of precious time! That means only eight more minutes to show the rest of the application.

Some of my clients refuse to upload their videos to YouTube: Why should one want to upload a video to YouTube, rather that hosting on their own website? Creating a chic, customized Flash video player and all that stuff is fun, isn’t it? There’s one main reason why that’s not a good idea: YouTube is one of the biggest video websites we currently have on the Web. It attracts millions of users daily and has an embedding feature. Think of all the thousands of blogs out there. Creating a player just for one website is attractive, because the owner remains in control over the design and the video itself, but on the other hand, disallows and discourages their product from getting mentioned in — for instance — Smashing Magazine.

I would recommend staying within YouTube’s length boundaries not only for the sake of uploading a screencast, but also for the sake of audience attention span. Audience attention span seems to be gradually decreasing, which is another reason to keep a long story short. Common lengths for screencasts:

Instructional (tutorial) screencasts: 8 – 10 minutes.
Advertising videos: 1 – 4 min.

Preparing Yourself

My recommendation is to write your script before an actual recording. I have found mind maps handy for this job (I’m a big mindmap fan anyway and use it for all kinds of things, like planning; sorting; thinking).

A screencast should have

Reference: http://ping.fm/JAolC

JournalCrunch WordPress 3.0+ Theme: Free Theme for Portfolios and Magazines

In this post we release a yet another freebie: JournalCrunch WordPress 3.0+ theme, a theme for magazines or portfolios with an integrated journal. The theme was designed by Site5 and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. As usual, the theme is absolutely free to use in private and commerical projects.

Download the theme for free!

The theme is released under GPL. You can use it for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish.

live demo
large preview (.jpg, 0.7 Mb)
full installation guide and documentation
download the .zip-package (zip, 0.3 Mb)
download the .zip-package from a mirror site (zip, 0.3 Mb)
release on the developer’s site

Features

Widget ready (footer and sidebar)
Easy to setup, Theme Options Page
Custom Homepage with 2 different views (featured posts or slider)
WordPress Post Thumbnail Enabled
WordPress 3.0+ Menu Management Support
Latest Tweets Built-in Widget
Built-in Pagination
9 shortcodes
Grid and standard posts listing
Ninvo Slider, easy to setup from Admin panel
JQuery Drop-down menu
JQuery PrettyPhoto Lightbox
JQuery Forms
Ajax based contact form
Live form email validation

Comments (large preview)

Grid listing (large preview)

‘Featured posts’ view (large preview)

‘Slider view’ (large preview)

‘Latest tweets’ widget (large preview)

Live form validation (large preview)

‘Normal’ listing (large preview)

‘Options’ page (large preview)

Shortcodes (large preview)

Sidebar (large preview)

Reference: http://ping.fm/Rwija

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

New Smashing eBook: How to Create Selling E-Commerce Websites

Designing and developing an e-commerce website takes a lot of brain power, knowledge and research before starting. Not only do you have to please your client with a beautiful layout and thoughtful structure, but you have to make your client’s customers easily understand what it’s all about; that is, you have to deliver a great user experience and high conversion rates. What that in mind, our brand new Smashing eBook is all about “How to Create Selling E-Commerce Websites.”

This eBook walks you through the process of preparing your e-commerce project, showing you what it takes to present merchandise beautifully and convincingly, and how to run valid and effective A/B and multivariate testing of various designs.

The eBook is a selection of the best articles on Smashing Magazine from 2009 and 2010 that deal with creating e-commerce websites. They have been carefully edited and prepared in PDF format and in ePUB and Mobipocket versions for compatible eBook readers, such as the Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle. Some screenshots and links were removed in order to make the book easier to read and print.

We have put this book together to give you all the information you need to create a successful e-commerce website in one fell swoop. Enjoy, and good luck with your work!

Download a free PDF sample (3.0 MB),
Download a free ePUB sample (ZIP, 1.6 MB),
Download a free Mobipocket sample (ZIP, 2.2 MB),
Buy the eBook (PDF, ePUB, Mobipocket) for only $9.90!

At over 260 pages, this eBook consists of articles about the following:

Getting Started With E-Commerce,
5 Universal Principles for Successful E-Commerce Websites,
12 Tips for Designing an Excellent Check-Out Process,
How to Engage Customers on Your E-Commerce Website,
Principles of Effective Search in E-Commerce Design,
15 Common Mistakes in E-Commerce Design,
E-Commerce: Fundamentals of a Successful Redesign,
Improve Your E-Commerce Design With Brilliant Product Photos,
How to Use Photos to Sell More Online,
Design to Sell: 8 Useful Tips to Help Your Website Convert,
7 More Useful Tips to Help Your Website Convert,
Optimizing Conversion Rates: Less Effort, More Customers,
Optimizing Conversion Rates: It’s All About Usability,
Use Conversions to Generate More Conversions,
The Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing,
Multivariate Testing: 5 Simple Steps to Increase Conversion Rates.

The authors are Rachel Andrew, Cameron Chapman, James Chudley, Paras Chopra, Peter Crawfurd, Dmitry Fadeyev, Jeffrey Olson, András Rung and Frank Puscher.

The Smashing eBook Bundle

You can buy the complete Smashing eBook Series as one bundle for just $39.90! All Smashing eBooks are available in PDF, ePUB and Mobipocket formats:

Smashing eBook #1: Professional Web Design,
Smashing eBook #2: Successful Freelancing for Web Designers,
Smashing eBook #3: Mastering Photoshop for Web Design,
Smashing eBook #4: Mobile Design for iPhone and iPad,
Smashing eBook #5: How to Create Selling E-Commerce Websites.

Advantages Of Smashing eBooks

Now, why should readers buy a Smashing eBook? Good question. Although much of the content is available online for free, an eBook feels a bit more permanent, secure and reliable and is often much better optimized for reading than Web pages. In fact, eBooks present many more advantages over the Web, including these:

Portability
You can carry all your books with you in a notebook, smartphone or eBook reader without worrying about weight. Also, being compact, they are much more convenient for reading offline or on smartphones. All Smashing eBooks are available in PDF, ePUB or Mobipocket.
Search functionality
With built-in search functionality, you can easily search for keywords and even passages of text in a book.
Bookmarks, highlights and notes
Advanced eBook readers automatically remember where you’ve stopped reading each time you close a book. They also allow you to bookmark pages, highlight favorite passages and write notes.
Built-in dictionaries
Advanced eBook readers provide built-in dictionaries. For example, if you are reading an English-language book but are not a native speaker, the built-in dictionary can help you understand the content.
Text-to-speech
The latest eBook readers provide built-in text-to-speech functionality, which is especially useful on mobile devices with small screens. Text-to-speech also allows you to rest your eyes after a long day in front of the computer.
No advertising
Unlike the articles published on Smashing Magazine, Smashing eBooks do not contain any advertising.
No DRM
Smashing eBooks are not protected by DRM. That makes it easy for you to read the content on any eBook reader. Please respect our work and the hard efforts of our writers. If you have received a Smashing eBook from a source other than the Smashing Shop, please support us by purchasing your copy in our online shop. Thank you.

(al)

Reference: http://ping.fm/KiThE

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Preparing Artwork for Screen Printing in Adobe Illustrator

Getting t-shirts printed is an ideal way to promote your business, organization or event. They are a promotional item that people can actually use, and they have the added bonus of being an advertisement for you. In this post, Adobe Illustrator will be used to create a three-color screen print using a fictional company logo, and have it set up to allow a screen printer to easily print the color separations that create the separate screens for each color print.

Although some printers prefer to create their own separations, it’s always good to understand the process. Be sure to communicate with your printer as they will specify their requirements, and will often give you tips for avoiding potential issues in the process.

Printing Techniques

As the t-shirt is going to be printed in three colors, we have to create separate artwork for each layer of color. Each of these layers interact with each other to form a complete image.

Examples of Trap, Knockout and Overprint

There are three artwork techniques commonly used for this type of printing: Trap, Knockout and Overprint. The Trap technique is when the bottom color “bleeds” under the top color, ensuring no gaps are left from inaccurate printing of the second color (when the so-called “registration” between the colors is “off”).

Screen printing is not always an exact printing technique, especially when printing onto fabric surfaces; for this reason the Knockout technique is rarely used, as it relies on printing a color precisely in a gap left on the bottom color. The third technique, Overprint, is the easiest to achieve as the top color prints directly on top of the bottom color; often this produces a new color, as the top ink color is not always opaque.

Preparing Your Artwork File

1. Create Layers for Each Color

The most reliable way to produce artwork for screen printing is to manually prepare it in Adobe Illustrator. Each of the three colors is going to form a separate artwork in a separate layer, using elements from the main image for each color. Using Layers does not affect how your artwork is output by your screen printer; it just makes it easier for you to work on.

Opening the vector artwork in Illustrator presents the graphic in Layer 1. Select the drop-down menu in the Layers window and select Duplicate Layer twice, to produce three layers of the same graphic; name the three layers after their respective colors, as this will help prevent confusion later on. Ensure the order of the colors is correct: the bottom layer is White; the next color layer is Orange; and the top layer is the Dark Red, which will be printed last, on top of the other colors.

Layers being created and renamed

2. Create a Temporary Background Color Layer

At this stage — because the artwork is being prepared to be printed on a dark t-shirt — create a fourth layer for a temporary background color and name it Temporary Background. A rectangle is drawn the full size of the art board, and given a dark color; this layer will be removed later in the process. Drag the layer to the bottom of the layers, and Lock it. Each color of your artwork produces a separate screen, and the order in which the colors are printed is usually from the lightest to the darkest color.

A Temporary Background layer is created

3. Remove Excess Objects From the Layer

The first layer to be worked on, is the bottom White layer. Hide the Orange and Dark Red layers by clicking the Eye icon next to their layers, and make sure the White layer is selected in the Layers window by clicking on its name. As the artwork layer was duplicated in full, all the objects of the graphic are on this layer; some objects must be removed, leaving the shapes that form the white outline of the rocket, the text, and the orange fan shapes used in the background.

4. Outline All Strokes

The rocket outline is a solid shape so no further work is needed on the rocket, but the white outline of the text is a thick stroke applied to the text shapes; working with strokes can be unpredictable, so it’s best to create outlines from the stroke by selecting the text and choosing Object ? Path ? Outline Stroke. This ensures consistency if the artwork needs to be resized (Strokes can often be pushed out of proportion when resized with the Scale tool).

Outline Stroke on text objects

5. Create and Apply a Custom Spot Color

Select all the objects in this layer and apply a light color to each of them. Avoid using absolute white, as you won’t be able to see the objects when checking Separations later. Apply a color of 20% Yellow to the objects and then, in the Swatches window, select New Swatch from the drop-down menu. Name the swatch “White base” and choose Spot Color from the Color Type menu. Even though it’s set to 20% yellow, it will output as a solid color, titled “White base.”

Creating a new Spot Color Swatch

The swatch now will be in the Swatches window and there will be a dot in the corner to denote a Spot color. The Spot color should be applied to all the objects in the White layer.

Potential mis-registration of two colours, seen between orange and dark red

Select an Orange object and choose Object ? Path ? Offset Path. Offset the path by 1 mm to make the object larger in shape. Oftentimes printers specify how much Trap they require, similar to how they might specify Bleed. On this artwork, the white background outlines the color objects, but if you wanted the white to be printed directly behind the colors, without a white outline, you could offset the path of the White objects by a minus figure (for example -1mm).

Reference: http://c.notify.me/qxlLBw

Monday, December 6, 2010

Using the LESS CSS Preprocessor for Smarter Style Sheets

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As a Web designer you’re undoubtedly familiar with CSS, the style sheet language used to format markup on Web pages. CSS itself is extremely simple, consisting of rule sets and declaration blocks—what to style, how to style it—and it does pretty much everything you want, right? Well, not quite.

You see, while the simple design of CSS makes it very accessible to beginners, it also poses limitations on what you can do with it. These limitations, like the inability to set variables or to perform operations, mean that we inevitably end up repeating the same pieces of styling in different places. Not good for following best practices—in this case, sticking to DRY (don’t repeat yourself) for less code and easier maintenance.

Enter the CSS preprocessor. In simple terms, CSS preprocessing is a method of extending the feature set of CSS by first writing the style sheets in a new extended language, then compiling the code to vanilla CSS so that it can be read by Web browsers. Several CSS preprocessors are available today, most notably Sass and LESS.

What’s the difference? Sass was designed to both simplify and extend CSS, so things like curly braces were removed from the syntax. LESS was designed to be as close to CSS as possible, so the syntax is identical to your current CSS code. This means you can use it right away with your existing code. Recently, Sass also introduced a CSS-like syntax called SCSS (Sassy CSS) to make migrating easier.

If It Ain’t Broke…?

By now you might be thinking, “So what? Why should I care about these things, and how exactly will they make my life as a Web designer easier?” I’ll get to that in a moment, and I promise it will be worth your time. First, let me clarify the focus of this article.

In this tutorial, I’ll be using LESS to demonstrate how CSS preprocessing can help you code CSS faster. But that doesn’t mean you must use LESS. It’s my tool of choice, but you may find that Sass fits your workflow better, so I suggest giving them both a shot. I’ll talk a bit more about their differences at the end of the article.

I’ll start off by explaining how LESS works and how to install it. After, I’ll list a set of problems that large CSS files pose, one by one, and exactly how you can use LESS to solve them.

Let’s go!

Installing It

There are two parts to any CSS preprocessor: the language and the compiler. The language itself is what you’ll be writing. LESS looks just like CSS, except for a bunch of extra features. The compiler is what turns that LESS code into standard CSS that a Web browser can read and process.

Many different compilers are actually available for LESS, each programmed in a different language. There’s a Ruby Gem, a PHP version, a .NET version, an OS X app and one written in JavaScript. Some of these are platform-specific, like the OS X app. For this tutorial, I recommend the JavaScript version (less.js) because it’s the easiest to get started with.

Using the JavaScript compiler is extremely easy. Simply include the script in your HTML code, and then it will process LESS live as the page loads. We can then include our LESS file just as we would a standard style sheet. Here’s the code to put between the tags of your mark-up:

Note that I’m referencing the less.js script directly from the Google Code server. With this method, you don’t even have to download the script to use it. The style sheet link goes above the script to ensure it gets loaded and is ready for the preprocessor. Also, make sure that the href value points to the location of your .less file.

That’s it. We can now begin writing LESS code in our .less file. Let’s go ahead and see how LESS makes working with CSS easier.

1. Cleaner Structure With Nesting

In CSS, we write out every rule set separately, which often leads to long selectors that repeat the same stuff over and over. Here’s a typical example:

#header {}
#header nav {}
#header nav ul {}
#header nav ul li {}
#header nav ul li a {}

LESS allows us to nest rule sets inside other rule sets, as a way to show hierarchy. Let’s rewrite the above example with nesting:

# header {
  nav {
    ul {
      li {
        a {}
      }
    }
  }
}

I’ve omitted the content from the selectors for simplicity, but you can see how the structure of the code quickly changes. Now you don’t have to repeat selectors over and over again; simply nest the relevant rule set inside another to indicate the hierarchy. It’s also a great way to keep code organized because it groups related items together visually.

Also, if you want to give pseudo-classes this nesting structure, you can do so with the & symbol. Pseudo-classes are things such as :hover, :active and :visited. Your code would look as follows:

a {
  &:hover {}
  &:active {}
  &:visited {}
}

2. Variables For Faster Maintenance

We usually apply a palette of colors across an entire website. Any given color could be used for multiple items and so would be repeated throughout the CSS code. To change the color, you’d have to do a “Find and replace.”

But that’s not quite it. You could also isolate those values into separate rule sets; but with this method, the rule sets would keep growing as you add more colors across the website, leading to bloated selectors. Here’s what I’m talking about:

#header, sidebar .heading, sidebar h2, footer h3, .aside h3 { color: red; }

To make a simple color change, we’re faced with long selectors, all dedicated to that one color. It’s not pretty. LESS allows us to specify variables in one place—such as for brand colors, border lengths, side margins and so on—and then reuse the variables elsewhere in the style sheet. The value of the variable remains stored in one place, though, so making a change is as simple as changing that one line. Variables start with an @ and are written like this:

@brand-color: 4455EE;

#header { background-color: @brand-color; }
footer { color: @brand-color; }
h3 { color: @brand-color; }

In LESS, variables also have scope, so you could use variables with the same name in various places; when they’re called, the compiler would check for the variable locally first (i.e. is there anything with that name where the declaration is currently nested?), and then move up the hierarchy until it finds it. For example, the following code:

@great-color: 4455EE;

#header {
  @great-color: EE3322;
  color: @great-color;
}

…compiles to:

#header { color: EE3322; }

3. Reusing Whole Classes

Variables are great, but we often reuse more than single values. A good example is code that’s different for every browser, like the CSS3 property border-radius. We have to write at least three declarations just to specify it:

-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;

If you use a lot of CSS3, then this sort of repeating code adds up quickly. LESS solves this by allowing us to reuse whole classes simply by referencing them in our rule sets. For example, let’s create a new class for the above border-radius and reuse it in another rule set:

.rounded-corners {
  -webkit-border-radius: 5px;
  -moz-border-radius: 5px;
  border-radius: 5px;
}
#login-box {
  .rounded-corners;
}

Now #login-box will inherit the properties of the rounded-corners class. But what if we want more control over the size of the co

Reference: http://ping.fm/yBkey

Friday, December 3, 2010

Post-Production Trends in 3D Visualizations

Post-production might well be the most underappreciated part of creating 3D visualizations. It gives you the power to easily make some changes; put in the sky you like, add some dirt, make the colors more vibrant and even correct some little mistakes in your 3D mesh.

Most of the traditional 3D artists tried to do as much as possible wihtin their 3D package since these packages were not focusing on post, but rather on the 3D products themselves. Rendering masks for the different color corrections one would like to do was a painstaking job of fixing the lighting and materializing — making artists choose to do most of the work in 3D (such as adding dirt and textures) and so leaving only color correction for post-work.

The techniques and styles of correcting images in post-production have changed a lot over the last couple of years. First, we shall take a look at some of the trends and techniques that are happening right now. Next to that, we will take a look at the most impressive architectural visualization shot that CGI has ever seen and at the post-production in that shot. Next to that, the trend it started in terms of post-production.

Different Styles of Post-Production

This is what a 3D image should look like according to the corporate industry. Basically, what you do is the following: take a render, do some minor color correction and add some glow. Despite the fact that this is mostly considered standard, it should belong to the past. There are a lot of techniques out now to create better looking, more beautiful images with the help of post-production software. Let’s look at some examples.

This image, created by a Dutch company called “Trazar” explains exactly what the “standard” is. The image looks great and a client would absolutely love it because the building is so clearly visible, but it looks too perfect. So to a 3D specialist, it still looks fake.

Some things that immediately come to mind:

Everything is completely balanced; you can see the sky clearly (it is not too bright), but you can also see every little detail in the shadows.
There is a blank spot at the horizon, which is odd, because it’s situated in the middle of a city.

Here is another example, made by a company called “Archiform”. This render too looks very realistic, but still doesn’t look quite as good as it could with some heavy post production.

Same thing here:

The colors are too vibrant.
The glow of the sky makes the trees blue

Degraded photorealism

A synopsis to explain what I’m talking about: “Degrading your images in post with scratches, vignetting, lens blur and many more things, making your image look more like a photo taken by a (bad or old) camera that uses film rather then a 3D render”.

What we make in our 3D packages can look perfect: our edges can be exactly 90 degrees (or 89 for that matter), our tabletops can be completely clean without dents in them, as well as that we can produce images in low light condition with an ISO of 6400 without a single drop of grain in the final images. This technique focuses on how to overcome the perfectness of 3D. It is unmistakably the most popular post-production trend at the moment used in non-corporate 3D visuals.

Let’s look at the only example needed to illustrate this technique. This video is made by Alex Roman, a 3D visualization expert.

Now, the thirst thing that’s noteworthy is that everything except the people and the birds is 3D. The art of 3D visuals has come a long way and if we would give a good 3D artist one year of free time on his hands to make whatever he wants, this is what he would come up with (at least, “Alex Roman” did).

Alex Roman’s “The Third & The Seventh” shook-up the 3D world by using a great cinematic style to make the architecture stand out. Most of the time, you don’t even realize it’s 3D.

So, what part of this is done in his 3D package, and what part is done in post? To let Alex answer the question himself, here is another video of the compositing breakdown. He shows a wireframe or smooth shaded view of the model inside 3D studio max, after that the bare render. Each next frame includes a new step of post-production.

As we can clearly see he replaced the sky, added people, corrected the color and added some other visual elements in post. Those things are purely decorative. What really sets the mood, is the use of vignetting, lens flares and lens blur. He makes it look like this was a movie shot in the early nineties. Don’t get confused, it is not only the post-production that made this mood happen (cameramen wearing somewhat classic clothing etcetera), but this is certainly something that helps a lot! This movie would have been completely different if it hadn’t been corrected in post.

Lets discuss how we can achieve this effect, and look at the stuff that will work, and how the same stuff, applied in a wrong way, won’t work. In the examples below, these effects have been exaggerated to better see the difference. I’ve had to limit myself to a couple effects since it is simply too much to discuss all of the techniques I use. The ones I’ll describe below should get the basics though.

Large view

When using old camera’s with film, there very often is some grain in the darker areas of the image because the film won’t pick up the details in the darker part of the image. This effect can be easily achieved in our post-production package. I used photoshop here.

Do:

Make the effect barely visible, only noticeable if you look good.
Use plugins like “NIK color effects” that can simulate actual grain from a certain film. This will boost the credibility of the grain.

Don’t:

Add noise in brighter areas of the image, this will look unrealistic.
Overdo it. Some noise is good, but don’t make it disturbing, the end product should still look good.

Large view

Vignetting can have different causes in photography. The main cause is using a cheap lens / camera. Most of the time this effect is unwanted, but sometimes it can create an image that centers your eye, or guides it to a specific part of the image.

In post, we can use two types of vignetting, one brightens the middle of the image, the other darkens the edges. Normally, the last one is used, since the 3D render still has to maintain it’s function of showing the subject properly, when it’s too bright, this isn’t always possible.

Do:

Add vignetting to your renders! It looks cool.