Wednesday 30 November 2011

Silent Movie - Disperse

The other word that I picked from the randomiser for the silent movie brief is disperse.

In preparation for Thursdays workshop, I've to find a minimum of...

20 alternative words that relate to my word
Using the thesaurus on Word, I typed in disperse to get related words, then found related words of the ones I found that I think still best suit.

  • Disperse
  • Scatter
  • Dissolve
  • Deparate
  • Diffuse
  • Go away
  • Break up
  • Melt away
  • Throw
  • Strew
  • Fling
  • Toss
  • Sprinkle
  • Distribute
  • Disseminate
  • Dot
  • Lob
  • Heave
  • Pitch
  • Chuck
  • Soften
  • Thaw
  • Run
  • Sprint
  • Enclosure
  • Flow
  • Proceed
  • Move

20 meanings/interpretations of my word

  • Denoting a phase dispersed in another phase, as in a colloid - emulsions should be examined after storage for droplet size of the disperse phase
  • Distribute or spread over a wide area - storms can disperse seeds via high altitudes - camping sites could be dispersed among trees so as to be out of sight
  • Go or cause to go in different directions or to different destinations - the crowd dispersed - the police used tear gas to disperse the protesters
  • Cause (gas, smoke, mist, or cloud) to thin out and eventually disappear - winds dispersed the bomb's radioactive cloud high in the atmosphere
  • Thin out and disappear - the earlier mist had dispersed
  • Divide (light) into constituents of different wavelengths
  • Distribute (small particles) uniformly in a medium
  • scatter: distribute loosely; "He scattered gun powder under the wagon"
  • to cause to separate and go in different directions; "She waved her hand and scattered the crowds"
  • break up: cause to separate; "break up kidney stones"; "disperse particles"
  • move away from each other; "The crowds dispersed"; "The children scattered in all directions when the teacher approached"separate (light) into spectral rays; "the prosm disperses light"
  • circulate: cause to become widely known; "spread information"; "circulate a rumor"; "broadcast the news"
  • Biological dispersal refers to a species movement away from an existing population or away from the parent organism.
  • A dispersion is a system in which particles are dispersed in a continuous phase of a different composition (or state). See also emulsion.
  • In materials science, dispersion is the fraction of atoms of a material exposed to the surface. In general: where D is the dispersion, NS is the number of surface atoms and NT is the total number of atoms of the material.
  • To scatter in different directions; To break up and disappear; to dissipate; To disseminate; To separate rays of light etc. according to wavelength; to refract; To distribute throughout
  • Finely divided or colloidal in nature, such as pigment particles completely separated in a binder as compared with several pigments particles stuck to one another.
  • Separation of a quantity.
  • The movement of a young bird from the site where it hatched to the site where it will breed. Natal dispersal is the permanent movement of young birds from their birth sites to their own breeding locations. 
  • The act of organisms moving from one habitat to another
  • When an animal leaves an area and does not return.
  • Transport of spores to other sites.

20 objects (images) that relate to my word












20 situations relating to the word
  • blowing a dandelion
  • ink soaking into paper
  • tie dying
  • emigrating
  • transporting stock from a warehouse to a store
  • dismissing a class/lecture
  • rumours
  • smoke disappearing
  • storms
  • volcanoes
  • sieving
  • sorting money into individual piles
  • the sun
  • turning on a light
  • spilling a glass of water
  • bacteria multiplying
  • rioting getting out of hand
  • splashing
  • wind blowing something away
  • soaking
  • a tea bag being stewed
  • pulling an espresso from a coffee machine
  • playing marbles
  • sneezing

20 typefaces that relate/are appropriate to my word



I'm required to bring a small, medium, and large sized print out of each typeface for the word. So I have decided to do the small size as 12pt, medium as 36pt and big as 72pt.

Silent Movie - Float

One of the words that I picked from the randomiser for the silent movie brief is float.

In preparation for Thursday's workshop, I've to find a minimum of...

20 alternative words that relate to my word
To find the words, I used the thesaurus on Word and typed in float, then typed in related words that I thought best suited float, and got related words to these. Towards the end it feels a little off topic, but I think they are quite interesting.
  • Float
  • Drift
  • Sail
  • Glide
  • Hover
  • Soar
  • Hang
  • Lift
  • Fly
  • Sense
  • Detached
  • Moving
  • Free
  • Uncontrolled
  • Able
  • Unrestricted
  • Relaxing
  • Release
  • Exempt
  • Soothing
  • Comforting
  • Peaceful
  • Nonviolent
  • Liberated
  • Freethinking
  • Enlightened

20 meanings/interpretations of my word
I typed in Define: Float into google to find meanings.
  • A thing that is buoyant in water, in particular
  • A small object attached to a fishing line to indicate by moving when a fish bites
  • A cork or buoy supporting the edge of a fishing net
  • A hollow or inflated organ enabling an organism (such as the Portuguese man-of-war) to float in the water
  • A hollow structure fixed underneath an aircraft enabling it to take off and land on water
  • A device floating on the surface of a liquid that forms part of a valve apparatus controlling flow in and out of the enclosing container, e.g., in a toilet tank or a carburetor
  • A platform mounted on a truck and carrying a display in a parade - a carnival float
  • A hand tool with a rectangular blade used for smoothing plaster or concrete
  • A soft drink with a scoop of ice cream floating in it - root-beer floats
  • The period of time by which the duration of an activity may be extended without affecting the overall time for the process
  • Rest or move on or near the surface of a liquid without sinking - she relaxed, floating gently in the water 
  • Cause (a buoyant object) to rest or move in such a way - trees were felled and floated downstream 
  • Be suspended freely in a liquid or gas - fragments of chipped cartilage floated in the joint 
  • Move or hover slowly and lightly in a liquid or the air; drift - clouds floated across a brilliant blue sky - through the open window floated the sound of traffic 
  • Circulate - the notion was floating around Capitol Hill 
  • Come before the eyes or mind - the advice his father had given him floated into his mind 
  • Make (the ball) travel lightly and effortlessly through the air- he floated the kick into the net 
  • Put forward (an idea) as a suggestion or test of reactions 
  • Offer the shares of (a company) for sale on the stock market for the first time 
  • Fluctuate freely in value in accordance with supply and demand in the financial markets - a policy of letting the pound float

20 objects (images) that relate to my word
Images sources from Google images.






















20 situations relating to the word
Situations I thought of whilst completing the first 3 points.
  • fishing float on a wishing wire
  • sunbathing on a lilo on water
  • milk float
  • boat/ship
  • floating on water
  • life guard ring
  • swimming
  • floating in space
  • hot air baloon
  • hovercraft 
  • bubbles
  • kicked football
  • ice cubes floating in a drink
  • clouds in the sky
  • parade float

20 typefaces that relate/are appropriate to my word



I'm required to bring a small, medium, and large sized print out of each typeface for the word. So I have decided to do the small size as 12pt, medium as 36pt and big as 72pt.

Tuesday 29 November 2011

After Effects Software Workshop 1

Learning all the basics today.

Photoshop for video.


The active panel is always highlighted with yellow.

Top left is the project window - this is where compositions live, any imported documents.
To the right of this is the visual of what working with.
Bottom right has a timeline.
Bottom left is where the layers go.
The top right window is different workspaces. This should be reset to standard.


By default there is an info window which also includes an audio window.
Just below this is a preview options.
Under this is the effects menu. This gives different things that can be used in this software.



New composition
Rename the composition. The actual window of Aftereffects is a project which can have multiple compositions within it.
Next option down gives us presets. Today we're working with PAL D1/DV Widescreen Square Pixel


PAL is what we use in the UK. This is working at a frame rate of 25 per second.
Once this is selected it automatically selects the width and height.


Always start at 0 seconds for start time. The duration is important. Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames

Working to 10 seconds for today. This can be changed at any time.



The colour mode that we are using is RGB. There is also HSB but we wont use this for now. Having RGB set to 0 is nothing, meaning no light is coming through, 255 is the highest value.


Once we click ok, this now changed the look of the window.


Selecting the composition on the left then going to composition at the top will allow us to go back to the previous window and change anything if need be.


To create a layer to work with go to layer at the top. This gives multiple options to choose from. Here we are working with solid.



Anything in yellow for numbers in terms of size can either be clicked on to change or click and drag them and this will also change it.


When click ok, this places it in the center of the screen.


The toggles on the bottom left will be revealed at a later date. In the time line is had put the bar on for the full 10 seconds, so this means that this square will appear for the full 10 seconds on the screen.

To scroll between the time frame, click and drag on the little yellow icon above the red line. The rest line is what frame of the composition is being shown.


Moving the length of the red bar within the timeline window changed how long that layer is on screen and when within the composition.



Move the layer by clicking and dragging it about.


A layer can only contain one thing at a time. To add more layers just do the same process.


They each have their own bar on the time line.


There are more ways to play stuff back than clicking and dragging the red line. This is the quickest way to see if something works, and testing things out.
Another way to play things back is to press the space bar. This is useful for simple things. It can only deal with small bits at a time.
The other way to preview if something works is the menu bar on the right. This buffers up first and loads it into its ram memory and plays the project back in real time.


The 'full' option can be edited to have a lower quality which may help the real time playback. It only effects the viewing on screen whilst working on it, it doesn't change the final export of it.

The bottomlayer in the pallet is the bottom of the stack and and places on top of it will cover it in the screen also, similar to Photoshop.

To zoom in and out can either use the scroll ball on the mouse, also either the option in the bottom left of the screen, or press cmd and + or -


To zoom in on the timeline, on the grey bar at the top there is little yellow tabs (top ones). Moving these allows us to zoom in to look closer at a specific time frame within the composition. Clicking and dragging the middle then allows you to scroll between the whole composition at that zoom.


The tool key is another cool function. It is the key between shift and z. This pushes the window to the maximum I can go. The window that is selected.



Clicking and dragging on the edges of the windows can also resize them within the whole project window.

To save a project, you save the file as Adobe Aftereffects.


On the layers pallet if you click the little triangle, it reveals more options for the layer.


Using these allow you to edit the square.



You can also set key frames and give it something to do between a set amount of time.



To save to be able to upload to put on the blog, can't go to file save, need to go to composition and add to render queue.




Change the format.




Then when it's ready, click render and choose where to save it to and name it. When the projects have a lot on them the render time will get slower.