1. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
1
Motion Graphics and Video Compositing Unit 64
Use of text:
(Title, Credits, animated captions, stings,
indents, interactive menus, web banner)
Channel 4 ident
Brief description:
What do you see? Someone is walking around a corner in a built up area surrounded by flats as they turn the
corner concrete blocks come into view which look like the number 4.
Techniques used:
Animation, Visual Effects, Colour Rendering,
Graphics, Movement
There aren’t really any special effects or animation. The movement is slow and smooth and the
colours used are dark mainly greys.
Advanced techniques:
Blur, Sharpen, Distortion, Rotation, Opacity The rotation around the corner is smooth. The blocks that make up the number 4 seem more
bolder and stand out more than everything else in the clip.
Technical comments:
Video Format, Screen Ratio, Resolution,
Frame rate, Compression
Most idents are created from 720p or 1080i sourced captures. The codes that idents use are
1:8 and the resolution is standard.

2. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
Creative Media Production
2
Glossary
Motion graphics - Graphics that use video footage and/or animation technology to create the illusion of motion or rotation, graphics are
usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects.
Compositing video - When there are several different clips of video are layered over one another to create a single image.
Interactive Menus – DVD Interface or Interactive Menus on a web page
Ident – The ‘call sign’ of a channel or production company to identify themselves on screen, usually shown before a programme.
Animated Captions – Animated Graphics layered over an image / video
Web Banners – A form of web advertising that is embedded into a web page. They are used to attract a viewer to their website. A Web
Banner usually a mix of motion graphics and video
Video Format - 3 Main Formats HD, PAL, NTSC. HD is the highest resolution (720 or 1080 vertical lines in the image). PAL is the UK
Standard definition image (576 vertical lines). NTSC is the US Standard definition image (480 vertical lines). Now in the
digital age we now look at video format in terms of pixels (i.e. High definition 1080; 1920 x 1080 or 2,073,600 pixels)
Screen ratio – Standard TV ratio is 4:3; this means that for every 4 units wide it is 3 units high. It is likely that the screen ratio will be
Widescreen (16:9) in a cinematic sequence.
Resolution – The amount of detail in an image or signal, such as Standard TV Definition and High Definition. See Video Format.
Frame Rate - The number of video or film frames displayed each second (frames per second; fps). PAL frame (standard UK TV) is 25
fps, NTSC (standard US TV) is 30 fps, film is 24 fps. This means as NTSC updates more regularly there is less strobing
(jerkiness).
Compression – The use of Codecs (WMV, DivX) to reduce the file size of a video by a variety of methods. This sometimes means a loss in
image quality (a “lossy”). Codecs are found in Video Cameras, DVD players / recorders, Editing Packages, Video upload
sites)