Photoshop CS4 has a new Panel named Adjustments, based on the Adjustment Layers of previous versions. These adjustments can be used for non-destructive editing, can be masked to edit only a part of an image, it can be applied to several layers on a single document and even you can change the Adjustment Layer’s Blending Mode to create outstanding results. This time we’ll take a tour around this wonderful new feature.

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Having a sound knowledge of file formats is essential for digital photography and image manipulation/editing. This article explores the different file formats involved in taking the photographs, their pro’s and cons, as well correct use of file formats in a digital workflow. The last section concerns the best file formats for printing, the web, and sharing with friends & family.

Step 1: In-Camera Formats

When you take a photograph, the image is stored on your memory card. In order to fit more photos on the memory card, your camera compresses the photos. This process is known as encoding. Photos can be encoded in certain ways, and whether you’re using a compact camera or a Digital SLR the photos are encoded in JPEG format by default. Many cameras can be set to encode your photos in a variety of ways, each with its distinct pros and cons.

In order to find out what variety of file formats your camera can encode, it’s best to check your manual. Alternatively if you feel that consulting a manual is for the weak, fiddle with your camera until you stumble across what’s on offer!

General camera types and the formats they can encode:

Point & Shoot (budget digital cameras under $200):
Generally cheaper digital cameras can only take photos in JPEG format.

Compact (digital compact cameras over $200):
If you own a compact camera, as well as JPEG you may be able to take photos in RAW format. Check your manual to make sure.

Digital Single Lens Reflex:
All Digital SLRs cameras can shoot in JPEG and RAW. Some can also use TIFF and RAW+JPEG.

Step 2: Format Pros and Cons

In this next section, we’re going to look at the various pros and cons of using different formats.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPEG is great for general photographic use. Used by all digital cameras, JPEG is a lossy format, which means it sacrifices some quality to ensure minimal small file size.

The advantages of using JPEG:

Small file size: Fit more images on your memory card and transfer images to your computer faster.

Take photos faster! A smaller file size means the image is written to your memory card quicker, so you spend less time waiting and more time taking photos.

Some DSLR cameras can take photos in rapid succession, called a continuous buffer. Using JPEG the camera is able to take photos very quickly for a longer period of time in comparison to RAW.

JPEGs can be viewed on any computer without third party software.

The disadvantages of using JPEG

When capturing an image in JPEG, the noise is softened and the image is generally sharpened.  Also the camera typically reduces the image depth from 12 to 8 bits. There’s a loss of detail and quality.

Suggested use for JPEG format

JPEG is the best format for general photographic use, such as holidays and social events where you need to take photos quickly and don’t want to be waiting for your camera to save larger files such as RAW and TIFF.

(Note: Many cameras have a choice between JPEG, JPEG fine, JPEG large. Typically, a JPEG fine/large photo is double the file size of a normal JPEG photo.  The difference in quality between JPEG large/fine and a normal JPEG is noticeable depending on the size of the print.

RAW

RAW files are uncompressed and unprocessed. RAW files must firstly be processed using third party software before they can be printed or edited. Popular software for processing RAW files is Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom and Aperture (Mac only).

The advantages of using RAW

The main advantage to shooting with RAW files is that the image processing is done on the computer. This means if you are about to take a photo but you don’t know which white balance or exposure settings are best, you can simply take the photo and perfect these settings later on your computer.

For an awesome tutorial on processing your RAW files in Adobe Camera RAW (included with Photoshop) check out this article on Phototuts+.

Another advantage of RAW is that it is a lossless format. This means that the image does not lose any quality or information (unlike JPEG). As a result, RAW files are much larger than their JPEG counterparts, bringing me to…

The disadvantages of using RAW

Larger files means less images can fit on a memory card. RAW files are typically four times larger than the same image encoded into JPEG format.

RAW files take longer to save to the memory card, and the continuous buffer doesn’t last as long as JPEG.

Processing multiple RAW photos can be tedious and time consuming.

A major flaw with RAW format is that there is no single RAW format. Every manufacturer has their own variation of RAW. This means it is possible that the RAW photos you take today may be incompatible with future software.

Suggested use for RAW

Whenever your image has to be of maximum quality, use RAW (e.g. commercial/freelance work or treasured family photos)

Whenever you can’t decide what the best white balance and/or exposure settings to use (e.g. when taking photos of young children/pets who won’t sit still, take the jolly photo and tweak the settings later!)

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)

TIFF is included in most professional SLR’s. In short TIFF (like RAW) is uncompressed. However when you take a photo using TIFF you have to choose the exposure and white balance before you take the photo. Think of it this way: TIFF is like an uncompressed JPEG.

Suggested use for TIFF

TIFF should be used when you need your image to be maximum quality, but you have the time to tweak the white balance and exposure settings before taking the photo.

RAW+JPEG

When you take a photo with RAW+JPEG (you guessed it) your camera makes two copies of the photo, one RAW and one JPEG. Using RAW+JPEG carries the combined advantages of both RAW and JPEG. The only problem is your memory card will fill up much faster and your camera may take a little while to write both images into the memory card.

Suggested use for RAW+JPEG

(Note: The main purpose of JPEG is small file size convenience. When you take a RAW+JPEG, it partially defeats this purpose because not only do you have a JPEG, you’ve got a big fat RAW image as well.)

My suggested use for RAW+JPEG is when you’ve got time to set up the white balance and exposure, yet accept that you’re only human so you might make a mistake. Lucky when you take the photo it will save a RAW file as well so if the image turns out bad at least you’ve got the RAW file you can edit.

Okay, so now you’ve chosen what file format suits you, let’s continue!

Step 3: File Formats & Workflows

Consider the following situation:

You’ve been asked to create a photo montage of the beach. You go to the beach, take all your photos in JPEG then go home. When you’re at home you load all the files onto your computer. You edit each photo in Photoshop, tweaking the brightness/contrast and curves. You then save each image as a JPEG. You then combine all your edited images into Photoshop and create your montage. You then save the image as a JPEG to share with your friends. You realize the colors are too bright so you open up the JPEG, tweak, then resave.

What’s wrong here?

As you now know, each time you take an image in JPEG format it loses quality. Let’s say (hypothetically) that each time the image is saved in JPEG it loses 5% quality:

As you can see, throughout the workflow the image keeps losing quality. 5% each time may not sound like much, but it all adds up. The best way to fix this problem is to use uncompressed files. Below is a suggested workflow (using Photoshop to edit images):

• Firstly, take your images in RAW or TIFF format.
• If you chose RAW format, process the image then save as a TIFF.
• Now open up your image editing software (in this case Photoshop) and edit the image.
• When you have finished editing, save as TIFF.
• Create a new Photoshop document, and create your masterpiece.
• Save the document as a .PSD (Photoshop only).
• Save final TIFF.

Congratulations! Your image still retains 100% quality! Now if you have to make a change, you can open up your Photoshop document .PSD and make a change, then resave as a TIFF.
Using this method, your file sizes are much bigger than JPEG. That shouldn’t really be a problem as most people nowadays have fairly large hard drives. Note: Professionals never sacrifice quality for a small file size!

Now that you have your final image as a TIFF, you want to share it with the world! There are two ways to go about this:

Step 4: Optimisation for Print

So you’ve created your masterpiece, and now you want to print it. If you’ve followed the suggested workflow (listed in section 3) your image is still in TIFF format. TIFF is widely accepted as a standard printing file format, so you’re in good hands.

Before we continue, I have a little observation. Look closely at your TV or computer screen (and I mean really close!)

You will see that your screen is made up of many RGB sub pixels – that is, red green and blue. As you may know, the colors red green and blue can be added together to create a vast number of individual colors:

Now this is great for viewing on computer screens, but when it comes to printing there is another solution: CMYK or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and (K) Black. The reason we want to change our image from RGB to CMYK is that in the printing industry, CMYK is standard. To get the most accurate representation of what your image will look like when printed, you must change your image mode to CMYK. To do so (in Photoshop) click Image > Mode > CMYK then press OK (note that this will flatten your image, so make sure you have a copy saved in RGB if you want to modify later). Now you’re ready to print!

Step 5: Optimisation for Web

This process is all about a healthy balance between quality and file size. Remember: Most people have a monitor between 17 and 24 inches in size, therefore the ideal image size for the internet is 800×600. This means people with a 17” monitor can see the whole image, without having to scroll left or right.

We need to keep the file size to a minimum, as people today are not willing to wait for large files to load. I should know – I live in Australia (land of the slow internet!). An ideal image size for 800×600 photos is less than 100kb. That means that the images retain most of their original quality, yet load in less than a second. As far as file formats are concerned, you can’t beat JPEG.

Below I have two JPEG images of my favorite stapler. Image 1 is the original, and Image 2 is the optimized image. Keeping in mind the rule of thumb, 100kb for an 800×600 image, the images below should ideally be 50kb as they are half the size (400×300).

Image One: Original JPEG 129Kb

Image Two: Optimized JPEG 29Kb

As you can see both images look very similar, yet one will load four times faster than the other!

The steps for optimizing images in Photoshop are:

1. Open up your image
2. File > Save for web and devices
3. Set the preset to JPEG and tweak the quality until the image looks satisfactory

This process involves trial and error, as some photos will look good with a JPEG quality of 40 or less, others need to have a quality of 70 or 80 to look satisfactory.

I hope you’ve found the tutorial useful, and invite you to share any other tips and thoughts about image file formats in the comments!

Sources : http://photo.tutsplus.com

Ever wonder how animated films like Ice Age are made? Maya is the answer. Maya (or Autodesk Maya, having recently been acquired by Autodesk) is powerful 3D modeling, animation, texturing, rendering and visual effects software.

Maya was developed for the film industry and is now being used for design, visual effects, games, film, animation, visualization and simulation. The most significant thing that sets it apart from other 3D packages — and the reason it is used so widely in these major industries — is that it is highly customizable. Big studios can write custom code to suit their productions using the software’s development kit. This makes Maya highly adaptable to any workflow.

Below, we feature tutorials that address most Maya-related topics for beginners and advanced users. These tutorials cover almost everything Maya has to offer, from modeling to the final rendering process.

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1. Install Layer Styles in Photoshop

The question’s been asked several times around Tutorial9, “How do I download and install these custom layer styles you provide?”, and rather than answering the same thing over and over, I thought it was a nice idea to settle the issue once and for all in a convienent post for everyone!

2.Layer Styles in Photoshop

Effects can be added to individual layers in Photoshop that automatically change as a layer is modified. The combination of effects on any given layer is called its Layer Style. We’ll teach you how to use and make your own layer styles in this tutorial.

3.Photoshop’s Filters

Filters are used to change the appearance of an image, layer or selection in Photoshop. In this tutorial, I’ll introduce you to some common filters, and show you how to use them.

4.Saving Images for the Web

When saving for the web, it’s always important to consider the quality of the image, and the size of the image in order to provide visual clarity without slowing performance. This tutorial will teach you what you need to know about saving images for the web.

5.Create a Simple Flyer

This is a tutorial assignment intended to be used by School of Photoshop participants. This guide will test your abilities as a beginner in Photoshop, and show you how to create a simple flyer for an event.

6.Using Transform in Photoshop

In Photoshop, Transform is used to scale, rotate, skew, and just distort the perspective of any graphic you’re working with in general. This tutorial will teach you how to use Transform to adjust your images.

7.Drawing and Type Tools

The Drawing and Type tools are used to create vector graphics, as well as set type inside of documents. While Photoshop is not really considered a vector graphic editor, it is possible to create vector based shapes and elements that can be resized without losing quality!

8.Photoshop’s Painting Tools

In Photoshop, the painting tools are used to paint strokes, and fill areas with color or with colors that blend together. Knowing how to use the paint tools is a must for any artist who wishes to use Photoshop.

9.Retouch and Healing Tools

Photoshop offers a large selection of tools and features for retouching photographs and images. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the common touch-up tools.

10.The Selection Tools

The selection tools are used to facilitate the process of making selections of shapes, colors, and objects inside of Photoshop, and positioning them in the working image area. With tools like the magnetic lasso and magic wand, Photoshop packs a powerful array of selection gadgets!

11.Working with Layers in Photoshop

In Photoshop, layers are used to work on individual parts of an image while not affecting other parts. You might say that layers are like transparency papers stacked on top of one another which can be repositioned and separately drawn on without disturbing each other.

12.Photoshop’s Toolbox

In this lesson, you’ll be introduced to Adobe Photoshop’s Toolbox, and a lot of the tools it has to offer. A solid understanding of the tools showcased in this tutorial will lead to better comprehension of Photoshop in general.

13.Using Palettes in Photoshop

In Photoshop, palettes are used to help modify and monitor your documents. An understanding of how to use, organize, and adjust palettes is essential in learning how to use Photoshop.

14.Getting Started in Photoshop

Photoshop’s interface can be a confusing place to first time users. This lesson will show you what’s what, and how to navigate through the behemoth which is Photoshop.

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We get tons of questions on how to output After Effects project renders, mainly which format and codec to use. Topher decided to do some research and wrote this long article that aims to try and answer some questions. It is worth noting that the After Effects built-in help has improved dramatically in recent versions and it is constantly updated online. We urge anyone reading this article to also read the AE help for additional reference.

I will be the first to tell you that this is going to be a boring article. Possibly mind numbing. But I have been wanting to write this article for the longest time because I can’t count how many times I have been asked what Output Module to use, what it does, and a thousand other questions that go along with it. There is a great deal of information at help.adobe.com’s After Effects section. So go grab an energy drink or a cup of coffee, and gear up… this is a big one.

Adobe Clip Notes

Adobe Clip Notes is a pretty neat little trick when you are working with clients who might not have certain codecs enabled on their system. What this format does is output the video in either QuickTime or Windows Media, the two most standard formats on all computers… and wraps the video in a PDF file that you can choose to password protect or not. There is also an area for you to make notes about your video and save it, and your client can make notes back, save it and send through email. This is a great way to work with all the proofs you might be sending back and forth repeatedly. Check out Aharon Rabinowitz’s tutorial on this over at Creative COW.

Animated GIF

This is a pretty obvious output format, but basically it lets you set up a piece of video as an animating GIF image that you can specify for it to have transparency, background color, dithering, or looping enabled or not.

Cineon Sequence

Cineon is the format used to output the frames of your composition to be later put onto film. You can choose the correct color profile for the film stock that will be later printed to. You can assign color profiles in the Project Settings dialog box. For a very in depth look at Cineon formats, check out Pete O’Connell’s article at Creative Cow.

Electricimage IMAGE

This is the native file format for Electricimage and unless you are working with this 3D program you probably won’t use it.

F4V (H.264)

Essentially this is the same thing as an FLV. It is a MainConcept H.264 video codec wrapped in a Flash video container. The good thing about F4V is that it gives you many more high resolution output settings (up to 1080p) than the regular FLV output. It also looks better and produces smaller files than .flv. There is also a trick with .f4v files, if you literally change the file extension to .flv, it will make it more compatible with online flash video players.

FLV

This is the main Flash Video format (F4V is just the latest version of this format). Like F4V is lets you customize bitrate, frame rate, field order, and the audio settings. The main difference with this output module, is the video codec that is uses to compress: Sorenson Spark and On2 VP6. This is a very lightweight format, and with over 98% of all internet users have flash installed on their computers, it makes this file format the most popular video format on the web. If you want to reach the most people, this is probably what you want to use as your distribution format.

Filmstrip

This is a format that is made to be brought into Photoshop as a filmstrip with frame number, reel, and timecode, displaying every frame right next to the other, so that you can edit it by comparing frames side by side. This is generally used as a rotoscoping technique if you choose not to do your roto in After Effects itself.

H.264

This is the most commonly used Quicktime compression for video, because it produces really clear, very small file sizes. The format settings for this output format are very similar to the F4V settings (since it is essentially the same codec under the hood), and it gives you a bunch of settings preformatted so you can produce the videos immediately for iPod, iPhones, or PSP. This format is kind of a pain to work with when you are trying to render out HD video. You can see my tutorial on blog.videohive.net for tips on rendering HD H.264 video.

H.264 Bluray

There are two different Blu-ray codecs to render out to, but this new H.264 Blu-ray output format is a little newer and compresses a lot more than the MPEG2 version. The only catch to use this is that it takes a lot more processing power and more time. The recent new Nvidia QuadroCX card greatly increases render times by utilizing the CUDA engine built into the card. This output format creates a file with a .m4v file extension. For a comprehensive article on the different Blu-ray formats, check this out.

IFF Sequence

The .IFF Sequence is the native format of Autodesk’s Maya. This file format embeds only RGBA information, and not Z-depth.

JPG Sequence

A lot of the image sequence output formats are the same deal, in that they can only encode RGBA information. This choice, however, can’t encode alpha information into it. The file size is a lot smaller than some of the other choices, and should only be used for final output since it is highly compressed.

MP3

Kind of obvious. This renders an .mp3 audio file for the length of your work area of your composition. Options available in Format Settings are quality, sample rate, channels, and bit rate. If you want to export a .wav or .aiff file format, you can do so by going to File>Export>WAVE or AIFF, and then choose the settings that you want.

MPEG2

The different MPEG2 output formats actually gave me quite the runaround on figuring out how they work, and why they are different from each other. There are two formats to output for DVD, this one, the MPEG2 format renders to a .mpg file extension and gives you the choice in the format options, under Multiplexing to use a MPEG2, SVCD, DVD, or TS format. This seems like the output format you would want to use if you were to be making a Super Video CD.

MPEG2-Bluray

Like I wrote earlier, the H.264 Blu-ray codec compresses better, but other than that, the settings are all virtually exactly the same layout. I guess it depends on what file format your Blu-ray authoring program is calling for, because this Output Module outputs the files in a .m2v file extension rather than the .m4v that they H.264 Blu-ray module uses.

MPEG2-DVD

This is the standard format that you are going to want to render to for taking your standard definition video files into a DVD authoring program such as Adobe Encore or Apple DVD Studio Pro.

OMF

Finally! You can render files out to be used in Avid directly out After Effects… except there is only one catch, it’s only available in Windows. There are a couple little features in it once you choose the output module and hit Format Options. First off, you can choose between NTSC and PAL (obvious), choose your resolution between 1:1 or DV, and then choose a version of the file between OMFI 1.0 or 2.0. The only difference between the two, is 1.0 is supported for backward compatibility with older Avid Systems. One more little catch, this output module doesn’t render audio with it, so you are going to have to output some audio tracks to sync up later.

OpenEXR Sequence

OpenEXR was developed by Industrial Light and Magic for use in their feature films. This is a high dynamic-range image file format that allows you to recover highlights, luminance and other features of photos that you generally wouldn’t be able to without using floating point. Unlike the Radiance format, with .exr you can choose to use an array of different lossless and lossy compressions including Piz, RLE, Zip, Zip16, PXR24, B44, or B44a. There are also options to encode Luminance and Chroma information. This is becoming the de-facto HDR workflow format.

PICT Sequence

If you are a Windows user like me and had no idea what a PICT Sequence was all these years… you aren’t alone. I actually had no idea, and had to Google it myself, and found out that it is a standard graphics format on Macs. This output format actually just creates an image sequence like any of the other image sequence modules, and can contain RGBA information.

PNG Sequence

One of the more popular image sequence output formats, PNG sequences are usually preferred because they encode color and transparency really well. This format can render out RGBA information as well as progressive or interlaced.

Photoshop Sequence

Same as all the other image sequences, this renders out to .psd file extensions and has the ability to render RGBA color information.

Quicktime Movie

Alright, the big one. QuickTime is probably one of the output containers you will use most often in your rendering for almost any client. There are a lot of options for quicktime so I will describe every codec. Each one of these sub-codec compression types encode with the codec type, but keep the file extension as a .mov. Keep this in mind when you are trying to do something like get a .mp4 file from the H.264 sub-codec compression type. Depending on your platform some of these codecs might not be available. You can always install additional codecs on your system and they will show up when you hit the Format Options button.

The 3ivx MPEG-4 5.0.3 is a version that claims to be better than Apple’s native MPEG-4 compression. According to their website, 3ivx can produce the same quality video in half the size, is five times faster encoding, and is fully compatible with the Apple MPEG-4 decoder built into QuickTime. This of course is in conjunction with QuickTime alone, and I haven’t been able to actually test these facts within After Effects itself. This codec also has its own options available when you are in the Compression Settings dialog box; when you hit options, there will be Basic as well as Advanced options, specific to this codec.

Quicktime Animation is next, and is quite possibly one of the most used codecs. It renders out a lossless, visually uncompressed QuickTime movie. This means it usually produces a huge file. Supports RGBA color information encoding. Until recently, this was probably the most popular mastering codec.

CineForm HD/2K/4K is the codec you are going to want to use if you are working with RED files or any other gigantic file formats. This codec also has options specific to itself, in that you can check to enable RGB 4:4:4 encoding and if your source is an interlaced video source.

DV-PAL is kind of self explanatory. You can set your frame rate, compressor quality, scan mode and aspect ratio. Additionally, the DV/DVCPRO – NTSC has all of the same options as DV-PAL, just it encodes to NTSC instead. Finally there is the separate DVCPRO-PAL format, which, yeah you guessed it, has all the same options again, but renders to DVCPRO-PAL format.

Now, the infamous H.264 compression format. This is probably the best formats for compression that you can use. When you watch those amazing looking hollywood movie trailers on Quicktime.com, they are all compressed with h.264. It very customizable, you can set the KBytes per second to that you want it to be with the checkbox for “Limit data rate to”. You can do constant or variable bit encoding which can make better looking, smaller files. This is quickly becoming the most popular distribution codec since it began being supported by Flash in it’s latest version: F4V.

JPEG 2000 essentially renders the video as an image sequence, but then kind of “wraps” that sequence in a .mov container and gives it the ability to encode audio along with it. Unlike the JPEG Sequence output format, this codec can also encode RGBA information.

The MPEG-4 Video compression type, doesn’t use the same compression as the H.264 codec, but it does give you the same amount of options including the “Limit data rate to” specification box.

There is a major difference between the Quicktime Animation compression setting and the NONE setting. Animation does Run Length Encoding (RLE) to maintain a visually lossless image but a smaller file size. This means you get a visually uncompressed file which is going to be smaller in file size than NONE. But like animation it also lets you set keyframes in your video every however many specified frames you want. Unless your client specifically asked for the NONE codec, I would recommend you use Animation when you want an uncompressed movie.

Photo JPEG is the same as JPEG2000 except for the fact that it doesn’t support encoding of alpha information. You can still render an audio track along with it though.

PNG is another image sequence wrapped in a .mov type of format. This compression lets you choose if your video is to be interlaced, and then also provides a few filters for you to choose from, although you should probably keep it on “Best”. This codec also support RGBA information and encoding with audio.

The last codec in the Quicktime output Container is the TechSmith EnSharpen compression. Techsmith makes the Camtasia screen recording software, so this is meant to replicate their type of compressions they use in their software. It gives you the option of using RGBA information, but also gives you a numbered chart on how much compression to use having 1 be the fastest (most) compression and 9 being the slowest (least) compression.

Radiance Sequence

The Radiance Sequence output format is a 32bit image sequence format for use with high dynamic range workflows. Its extention is .hdr. These image sequences can later be brought into .hdr image editors to manipulate as a whole or as individual frames. ILM’s .exr format is probably a better format as it also a 32bit format but produces smaller file sizes.

SGI Sequence

SGI stands for Silicon Graphics Image, and was originally the native image format for Silicon Graphics workstations. It has since become a popular format for high-end 3D workflows. This format has the ability to encode RGBA information and within the Format Options dialog box there is a checkbox to switch on RLE compression.

TIFF Sequence

TIFF is another image sequence output format, but a very is very versatile and high quality. Along with being able to encode RGBA like pretty much everything else, it can also render with floating point. In the option dialog box, there are options to check on or off LZW Compression, which is a universal lossless data compression, as well as IBM PC Byte Order.

Targa Sequence

Right off the bat, when you choose the Targa Sequence output format, the format options make you choose to render to 16, 24, or 32 bits per pixel. From there you can choose to render with RGBA and also if you want to use RLE Compression.

Video for Windows

This is the output format that you are going to want if you are looking to output a .avi file format. There are almost 20 different subcodecs to choose from, and each one has a different type of compression, and different features available to it. Keep in mind that I use the K-Lite Media Codec Pack, so if I am talking about a few options you don’t have that could be the reason.

Microsoft DV is the codec that FireWire-captured DV footage is encoded in coming from miniDV tape. If you are editing together effects shots in After Effects shot on DV, and putting them together in Premiere Pro later on… this is the codec you will want.

The 8-bit and 10-bit YUV (4:2:2 YUV)‘s are the codecs recommended for capturing, processing, and displaying video in the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The TechSmith Screen Capture Codec is the codec that Camtasia encodes to when you do screen recordings in the program. This codec gives you options of keyframing however many frames as well as a slider for Faster Compression or Better Compression.

The Cinepak codec by Radius gives you the options of keyframing every certain amount of frames, as well as limiting your data rate to a specified Kb/sec. There are also options to render color or black and white.

The Heliz YV12 YUV Codec is one of the basic codecs used by Video for Windows for encoding. It is almost identical to the I420 codec. The only restriction with the Helix YUV codecs is width must be a multiple of 4 or the render will fail or the file won’t work correctly.

The Xvid MPEG-4 Codec has a ton of options that come along with it. For starters there are a bunch of Profile @ Levels to pick from, different encoding types, and Quality presets. Remember even though this is an MPEG-4 Codec, this will still give you a .avi file.

The ffdshow Video Codec has a massive menu for you to customize how your video will be rendered out. It’s almost like a second render queue. You can choose from over 20 different encoders, bitrates, how many different passes and types of passes, Masking, Quantization, Motion Estimation and a bunch more. I am not sure, but I am not sure if this comes standard with After Effects.

There is also a PICVideo M-JPEG 3 VfW Codec available which is a lot like the JPEG2000 options that Quicktime gives you. It basically creates a JPEG image sequence and wraps it in an .avi giving you the ability to render audio with it. There are also options for effecting the Luminance, Chrominance and Compression Qualities.

The DivX 6.8.5 Codec basically creates your video so that it is playable back for different profiles of DivX video players. You can choose from mobile to full HD profiles, and even go deeper into the settings to further customize your output.

Microsoft Video 1 is very basic, it has a slider to set the compression quality, and options to keyframe every certain amount of frames, and also set the data rate to conform to a specific KB/sec.

3ivx MPEG-4 3.0.5 is essentially the same options as above inside the Quicktime Movie output module.

Microsoft also has an RLE compression codec to encode video to .avi. This one is also very basic with the same features as Microsoft Video 1

Lastly, there is the No Compression option, which outputs a completely lossless .avi video file from your composition. This is optimal if you are working on shots and need to have the utmost detail possible.

WAV

Like I noted above in the MP3 output format, this one only renders an audio track. All that is able to be customized is the kHz, bitrate, and channels.

Windows Media

Yes, some people still use Windows Media. If you go into the options for the Windows Media Output Module, you will find a ton of presets for NTSC and PAL source download options catered to different speed connections as well as presets for Zune, Creative Zen and Palm devices. Everything else is completely customizeable as well as legacy .WMV video and audio codecs, bit rates, frame rates, and other settings.

Source:http://ae.tutsplus.com

Line:

Theoretical description:
“Line is just a connection of 2 points and it can be straight or curve. There are many types of line, but most lines can be simplified and represented by a combination of straight curves”

In regards to art:
Lines are specially important for special kind of art (drawings, comics, inking).
Line weight is particularly important in this case. Even lines make for a boring effect as where as different line-weight can make something more interesting. Besides it is used to hint at shapes (this would go towards inking and that would be a whole little section on its own ) Depending on what you want to achieve/say the left or the right might be more interesting. Sometimes you don’t even have to draw the whole line but a hint of an ending works much better.

Values:

Theoretical description:
“Value is how light or dark something is. Value can be determined by the local tone or color of something or by how light interacts with something (creating highlights, halftones and shadow).”

In regards to art:
Values are probably the most important aspects to consider. They are also the reason that we like black and white illustrations a lot. It is much harder to achieve the right values with colors. This is mainly the case because the more value something has the less hue of the actual color it shows. I hope I am not wrong here but most of the time we just use “brightness” instead of value. However Value is actually the relationship between the brightness of one color in regards to another.

Look at this gif: The grey a middle value and it’s exactly the same on both sides (128, 128, 128 – a neutral grey): It does look warmer while surrounded by cold colors and appears to be colder while surrounded by warm colors. That means if some elements have the same value they will react on the hue of the surrounding elements instead if you compare them.

Values are extremely important in regards to texture and surfaces as well, how objects interact and to create forms.

It’s always a good trick to desaturate your painting to check how your values are. In general you should have the biggest value contrast around the center of interest because your eye gets drawn to that point automatically. In general you should have most values in the mid range, then less in dark and lighter values. (highlight and shadows).
I think you could write a whole book about values only but generally make sure you have a the whole range from very dark to very light in your painting.

Values are also sometimes tricky to “see correctly” since our brain makes us think that we see a different value than it actually is. That is particularly hard to see if you look at something with a smooth value transient – now tell me you are not a tiiiiiiiiny bit surprised how big the difference from value a to value b is on the bottom bar?

Shape and Form:

Theoretical description:
“Shape is the first thing that you see, in 2d. Basically the silhoutte of something. Shapes are usually very simple at first sight and they easily give us the length, width and proportions of any given subject. There are also light shapes and shadow shapes, etc.”

“Form is what gives something the look of being 3d. It happens in the areas of an object where shadow turns into light, revealing the ‘topography’ or elevations of the surface of something. Subtle gradations of value usually represent smooth surfaces,like a sphere, while sharper shifts in value show surfaces that have solid and sudden plane changes, like a box or bony areas of the body.”

Art wise:
Shapes can be a great help to create a more appealing image. I tend to sketch in shadow/shape figures to check if a character or an object may look interesting (sorry for the crappy quality). You will also see that as soon as I add some values (in this case some grayscale elements) you actually start to see shapes and surfaces/textures thus the actual elements get more defined.

Forms are defined by values. If you add values to a shape you automatically create a form and it’s surface.

Colors:

Theoretical approach:
” Color is both value and hue. I think it includes how light or dark something is, plus what ‘tint’ and saturation something has.”

Artistic:
uhohh – ok – hmm – way too much to write here. Nothing about how colors work together or how they influence themselves but how they basically get created mayhaps?

Light is the main reason we see colors. Basically, if something looks green it means that all other light hues get absorbed and only the green parts of the spectrum gets bounced off into our eyes. That is also the reason you should always have your ambient color in mind because that is technically light that bounces off everywhere and influences all of the basic hues in your painting.

For me while painting I define colors by three main elements:
Hue, saturation and value (or to simplify it: brightness).
In Photoshop if you have the window with the color tab open you can chose to work with exactly those three elements. If you are not already working with the HSB (rings a bell?) Slider – you can go and click the little arrow at the top right to open a little menu and chose “HSB”.

Hue is basically what we normally call “color”. You name it: yellow, orange, purple, pink…
Saturation means how much of the actual hue there is in the color. Screaming pink or neon colors are good examples for extreme saturation. Value we already covered

There is so much to colors – warm colors, cold colors, how they interact, complementary colors – yadda yadda – too much to write about really.

Besides colors are also a matter of taste and personal style. They help tell your story in a painting and can create certain feelings in the viewer. They can be like a character to your story.

Thank to  http://www.tascha.ch

In the visual arts, color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impact of specific color combinations. Although color theory principles first appear in the writings of Leone Battista Alberti (c.1435) and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (c.1490), a tradition of “colory theory” begins in the 18th century, initially within a partisan controversy around Isaac Newton’s theory of color (Opticks, 1704) and the nature of so-called primary colors. From there it developed as an independent artistic tradition with only superficial reference to colorimetry and vision science

Introduction

For a long time, now, there has been a problem that fledgling designers have run into on a constant basis. This problem seems insignificant to most, but in actuality it is quite possibly the most important factor in a design or piece of artwork. Yes, you guessed it…I’m talking about the issue of COLOR.

Color can be a touchy subject. Sometimes artists use colors that evoke certain emotions. Other times artists use colors simply because they like the way they look. While any design instructor will tell you that the latter reason is completely wrong, I tend to disagree. In my personal opinion, color always has meaning. This meaning can be, as I mentioned, an emotional one or it can be a personal preference on the part of the artist himself, but it ALWAYS has purpose behind it.

There is nothing wrong with choosing a color because you like it because, after all, it is your work. However, when choosing a color you still want to make sure its use does not conflict with what you are trying to say with your work. Proper use of basic color theory can help you decide what colors match, as well as what each color makes people feel.

The color wheel

The color wheel has earned a place in the hearts of many artists and designers across the globe. Not because its the perfect tool, but because everybody, at some point, has had to make one of their own as part of a ridiculous art class project.

The wheel’s construction is actually quite simple. You have your 6 basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Then, depending on which wheel you’re looking at, you have extra, “in-between” colors that are mixes of the basic colors.

There are names for all of these colors, which are important to know. The following is a list of all of the names of colors and what they’re good for.

Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, Blue. These 3 colors are the base colors for every other color on the color wheel. This is why they’re called “primary.” When you mix two primaries together, you get a secondary color.
Also note the triangular positioning of the primary colors on the color wheel, and how the secondary colors are next to them.
Primary colors are useful for designs or art that needs to have a sense of urgency. Primary colors are the most vivid colors when placed next to eachother, which is why you’ll notice that most fast food joints use primary colors in their logos, as it evokes speed.

Secondary Colors: Orange, Green, Purple. These 3 colors are what you get when you mix the primary colors together.
They’re located in-between the primary colors to indicate what colors they’re made from. Notice how green is in-between yellow and blue.
Secondary colors are usually more interesting than primary colors, but they do not evoke speed and urgency.

Tertiary Colors: These are those “in-between” colors like Yellow-Green and Red-Violet. They’re made by mixing one primary color and one secondary color together. There can be endless combination’s of tertiary colors, depending on how they’re mixed.

Complementary Colors: Red and Green, Blue and Orange, Purple and Yellow. These are the colors directly across from eachother on the color wheel. Don’t let the name fool you, they rarely look good when used together. They’re called “complementary” because, when used together, they become extremely vibrant and have heavy contrast.
Complementary colors are useful when you want to make something stand out. For example, if you use a green background and have a red circle on it, the red will jump off the page and be almost blinding.

Analogous Colors: Red and Orange, Blue and Green, etc. These are colors right next to eachother on the color wheel. They usually match extremely well, but they also create almost no contrast. They’re good for very serene-feeling designs and artwork where you want viewers to feel comfortable.

Monochromatic Colors:Monochromatic colors are colors with the same hue but different tones, values and saturation. For example, a paint swatch card has several different values of one color. Using two or more monochromatic colors creates a stylish and pleasant look.

Other terms

There are plenty of other names and titles that refer to different aspects of color, but this is where it starts getting complex. If you want to know more about color, read on.

Warm Colors: Colors such as red, yellow, and orange. These colors evoke warmth because they remind us of things like the sun or fire.

Cool Colors: Colors like blue, green, and purple (violet). These colors evoke a cool feeling because they remind us of things like water or grass.

Neutral Colors: Gray, Brown. These aren’t on most color wheels, but they’re considered neutral because they don’t contrast with much of anything. They’re dull and uneventful.

Value: Usually refers to the amount of black in a color. The more black a color has, the darker its value.

Brightness: Refers to the amount of white in a color. The more white a color has, the brighter it is.

Saturation: Refers to the amount of a color used. When a color is at full saturation, it is extremely vibrant. When a color is “desaturated,” a large amount of color has been removed. Desaturated colors tend to be close to being neutral because there is so much gray in them.

Hue: Another name for color

Value: the lightness or darkness of a color

Intensity: the brightness or dullness of a color

Tint: color + white, resulting in a lighter value

Tone: color + grey, resulting in a darker value

Shade: color + black, delivering the darkest versions of color

Types of color

As you might suspect, there are different types of color. Now is when you can throw the color wheel out the window.

RGB Color: This is color based upon light. Your computer monitor and television use RGB. The name “RGB” stands for Red, Green, Blue, which are the 3 primaries (with green replacing yellow). By combining these 3 colors, any other color can be produced. Remember, this color method is only used with light sources; it does not apply to printing.

CMYK Color: This is the color method based upon pigments. “CMYK” stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (its what the K stands for). Using these 4 colors, most other colors can be achieved. Unfortunately, CMYK cannot reproduce the same amount of colors as RGB can, which is why yellow-greens sometimes look a bit muddy when printed.
This is the method used by printers the world over, and is also a clever way of mixing paints.

Pantone (PMS) Color: This is yet another printing color method. PMS stands for “Pantone Matching System,” and is a large list of specially mixed colors made by the Pantone Corporation. Instead of using CMYK to create colors, the pigments are created individually for purity.
For example, if I wanted to use a Red-Violet color, I’d pick PMS 233M. The color would be made exclusively for my project and would always print exactly how I want.
The only drawback to using PMS colors is that they’re only useful for projects with few colors. They’re also expensive.