Digital Imaging Guide

Digital: 

• Drawings or Designs: 

  • • A4, 300 ppi, 3508x2480px, or larger. Fill the page. 

    • If you're doing thumbnails/roughs, fill the page with small drawings. 
    • Use fine, sharp tips, e.g. 0.5mm or less (5px @ A4 300ppi), especially for detail. 
    • See Ps Setup and Detail Briefs for templates. 

• Storyboard Keyframes (still images) for Film/TV/Games/Digital: 

  • • HD 1920x1080, 72 ppi, or larger. 

      • • May be oversized 2x, 3x etc., to be reframed, or rescaled later, for video  
    • See Storyboarding Fundamentals and Project 3 Detail Brief for templates. 

Traditional: 

• Drawings or Designs: 

  • Use A4 or larger, and fill the page.  

  • If you're doing thumbnails/roughs, fill the entire page with small drawings. 
  • Use sharp tips/points, e.g. 0.5mm or less, especially for detail.  

• Storyboard keyframes: 

  • • Thumbnails/Roughs stage 

      • • Old-school-TV-style page, of multiple frames, in 16x9 aspect ratio. Draw around 6 to 9 keyframes per A4 page, minimum size.   

        • This is an optional stage, and is not accepted for Project delivery.  

    • Cleanup/Fine stage: 

      • • Minimum size: 1 or 2 keyframes per A4 page, 1 preferred, 16x9 aspect ratio, must please be clean and sharp for 1920x1080p 

    • Backgrounds for camera pans/zooms: 

      • • Use larger oversized paper. Must be clean and sharp for 1920x1080p camera. 

    • See Storyboarding Fundamentals and Project 3 Detail Brief for templates. 

• Capture digitally, using 

  • • A large good-quality scanner at 300 ppi - test different scanners and controls such as contrast and brightness for best results. 

    • A decent camera and camera copy stand. 

    • The Google Photoscan app for both iOS and Android usually gives better results than your phone's default Camera app. For any type of camera or mobile: use a good spot with even light, no shadows, and angled, diffused fill light, e.g. near a big window. 

• Import (Place) into Photoshop layers 

  • • Drag and drop images into a Photoshop template canvas, such as this basic A4 landscape. 

    • See Ps Setup for all basic templates. See the Detail Briefs for Project templates. 

• Finish digitally, in Photoshop: 

  • • Straighten the image, and Crop all junk out, or Select junk and delete it. 

    • Color correct, and tone correct. First, test with Image > Auto Tone, then either Image > Adjust > Curves, or Image > Adjust > Levels, to balance tones. 

    • Erase or paint out dirt. 

    • We support Adobe Photoshop CC because of it's professional industry-strength features, and industry demand for Photoshop skills. You may investigate alternatives e.g. Krita, GIMP, Procreate, Sketchbook, photo filters, etc. on your own time, but these tools typically only have a subset of features, and we don't support them. Warning: delays occur when artists use different workflows on the same team (for example when sharing layers), and avoiding learning mainstream industry skills may limit the accessibility of your files for detail feedback, and affect your grade.  

Delivery 

• All hi-res images must be completed in Photoshop layers and supplied in your GDrive folder as layered Photoshop .TIF

Viewing 

• After cleanup & correction in Photoshop TIF, use 

  • • File > Export > Export As > JPG or PNG 

    • File > Save As a Copy > JPG or PNG 

• GSite page editor > 

  • • Insert > Images, or 

    • Insert > from Drive, or 

    • Drag and drop, or 

    • Copy and paste. 

• Upload all files, via GDrive, weekly  

  • • Technical problems uploading, or displaying images? See Digital Image File Formats, below.