When creating idents for television there are certain things you need to consider, the purpose of the ident being one of them. You then need to consider certain issues such as: Audience Targeting, Scheduling, Channel Ethos, Channel Identity and Branding. When creating an ident it is important that the ident represents the channel it is being made for and shows a strong brand identity so that when viewers see the ident they instantly recognize it as a part of a certain channel. By fitting the ident in with the branding it makes it stand out from other idents and this helps the channel to receive more views. An ident is created and designed specifically to portray what the channel is about and to attract the desired audience. When the ident is designed colour, images, objects etc. are very important as each of these represent the channels identity as well as using all these things the logo will also be included throughout the entirety of the ident, this is done so that people know what channel the ident is for throughout. When marketing it is important for the channel to have an ident so that they are able to play this before and after programmes and possible during the adverts if the channel is funded in this way. The idents are also placed there to advertise the channels identity and branding to the audience they do this so that the audience return to the channel and watch more of their content as if they like the programme they are currently watching they are likely to enjoy other programmes which the channel airs. Idents can be extremely useful for a channel when they begin airing a popular programme, this is the audience may only come to the channel to watch the specific programme but if they see the ident on a regular occasion then they will begin to subconsciously begin to think about the channel and begin to watch other programmes which are aired. The channels ident is also important as it helps to create the channels ethos and it is always very important to have a clear ethos so that people can see what kind of programmes your channel airs and helps them to decide whether or not they wish to watch the shows.
Design features are key when creating idents as each channel has their own style and way they like to do things. For example; the BBC has different colours for each of there channels, BBC1 is red, as well as being red all of the idents they create for this channel involve circles in one way or another and this is something they have been doing for a very long time and they are known for this. Idents tend to be no longer than 15 seconds as this is enough time to inform the audience what channel they are watching without boring them and making them want to change the channel. Idents can come in many shapes and forms, some can be serious and others can be humorous it depends on the style of the channel this is something you need to take into careful consideration when making idents for an already well known channel as it has to fit the channels ethos. The last thing you need to consider when making an ident is image or text, if you are making an ident for a channel like BBC4 the ident will be a lot more wordy then if you were making an ident for CBBC as the target audiences are completely different and a wordy ident won’t appeal to the target audience of CBBC.
Before the 1950s BBC 1 was the only channel to broadcast on TV and anyone who had the money to buy a TV and watch this 1 channel were very lucky. In the September of 1955 ITV was founded and BBC 1 had some competition then much later on in 1982 Channel 4 was created. Back in those days watching TV wasn't an everyday thing and not everyone had the opportunity to have a television in their home. However now a days everyone has a TV in their home and there are 100s of channels to choose from, it is no longer a luxury. Because there are so many channels it has become extremely important for the right advertisement to be created as they want to attract as many people as they can to watch the programmes which they are airing on their channels. The competition created by having the 3 channels was great as it allows the channels to create a brand identity and this made it a lot easier for them to attract their desired audience. Due to the mass increase of television channels available these days it has because a requirement that if they channel wishes to broadcast they must have an ident, this is a great chance for the channels as it is making it easier for themselves to create easy advertisement and it allows them to show who they are to their audience without them really realising, its important to show the audience the ident as this will slowly create brand loyalty and without them even realising it makes them think about the channel even when they’re not watching the channel. As well as attracting the viewers the channel already has the ident is made to attract the target audience and new viewers, people become attracted to things by seeing things they like so if a channel includes certain things throughout the ident it should attract their target audience. When watching TV a lot of people do something else like doing work or playing on their phones if the ident is good enough it should grab the viewers attention and make them watch the ident for a little while. An ident has the chance to set the whole tone and mood of the channel this is extremely important as it helps the audience connect with what is being aired on the channel.
When creating an ident there are some limitations like with everything but these limitations include; typography, size/aspect ratio, screen resolution and colour, all of these things have to be taken into careful consideration when each ident is made so that continuity is followed throughout the entirety of the brand. When thinking about creating an ident the first thing you should think about is typography, you should pick a font you like as you are going to see a lot of it and if you don’t like it the chances are you won’t like the idents. The font you choose needs to represent the channel you are making the ident for and needs to fit in with advertising they may already have. Most channels will use the same font in every bit of text you see throughout the channel and a viewer should notice what channel it is straight away just by seeing the text, in the same way as typography colour is important, as soon as you turn the TV on if an ident is playing you should know what channel it is just by the colour, the colour you pick needs to be recognizable so when the audience see it they instantly know what channel they are watching. BBC3 for example use black and pink and the audience instantly know what channel they are watching because of this. When creators are making idents they need to think about the screen resolution as if they make something to small and with lots of detail unless it’s shown on a screen with a high resolution it would be pointless and a waste of time. They need to create idents which are shown the same on every TV screen, you don’t want to have too much going on as not everyone has a massive TV and you need to take this into account if there is too much going on on a little screen the viewer’s won’t be able to focus and this could lose you viewers. When making an ident you should aim to make it to fit on a screen between 32 and 40 inches as this seems to be the average size TV in households. The last thing you need to think about are the size and aspect ratios, these are the dimensions of the screens and video picture elements, all popular video formats are rectilinear, this means they can be described by a ratio between height and width of areas on the TV screen where the picture can be seen, older TVs can display less on the outside of this space so this is something you also need to consider.
The first 2D animation to be created was the flick book and this was created by John Barnes Linnet in 1868. He called it ‘Kineograph’ and it was the first type of 2D animation to use a linear sequence of images instead of the Phenakistocope. A flick book is a book that has an image on each page. The image slightly changes throughout the book so that when you flick through it the image looks like it’s moving. Cel animation was then created in 1914 and was first used by Earl Hurd. Cel is a sheet of transparent material which objects or images are drawn onto, a background image would usually be drawn onto a sheet for a particular scene and then used on other cells to reduce how long it would take to produce each scene. The year after cel animation rotoscoping was created, this is when the animators trace over footage, it was used in live action and animated films and was originally projected onto frosted glass and then re-drawn, like everything though this technique has been made digital. Drawn on film is a technique created in 1912 where the animator draws straight onto blank film to create the images, this allows you to draw, paint and attach other objects if you wish. Photographic stills were created in 1810 and were intended for marketing and publicising feature films and television productions. When using stills to create animation there are two types you can try the first being stop motion and the second is Photoanimation. Although some of these techniques are still used today like stop motion for example a lot of them have been replaced by digital ways and methods. 2D Bitmap Graphics were created in the 1960s. a bitmap image is associated with its name because the image is a map of pixels and tends to suffer from image quality loss when scaling. The graphics are dependent on resolution and the amount of pixels that are in the image, Bitmap graphics are easier compared to vector graphics as there are no complicated equations which allows it to be as complex as it likes. 2D Vector Graphics were also created in the 60s they use geometrical shapes lines and curves. Due to vector based images not being made up of dots or pixels they can be scaled without them loosing there image quality. The file size of a vector graphic depends on the number of elements it contains this means the file sizes are not affected in a large way as the information is within the structure.
Joseph Plateau was the creator of the Phenakitoscope in 1832. He was the first person to demonstrate an moving image. The phenakitoscope is spinning disks with slits in them placed on a handle. You spin the disks and are able to see a moving image by looking through the slits. On the 6th October 1833 William Horner became the creator of the Zoetrope, a cylinder with slits all around the edge, on the opposite side of the slits there are a series of images and when you spin the cylinder and look through the slits an illusion of motion is produced. Emily Reynaud invented the Theatre Optigue in 1982, the device was a combination of a projector with a praxinoscope. In the late 1800s Eadward Muybridge invented the Zoepraxiscope. The device was a sequence of still photographs which were then shown at a rapid pace to create the look of a moving image. Albert, Harry, Sam And Jack Warner are the creators of Warner Bros. Pictures, they created it in 1923 and it is still hugely successful and famous today. Warner Bros. have produce many well-known TV serials and films which are still very popular today. Walt Disney started his animation career in 1920. In 1928 he then went on to release the first animated cartoon to include synchronized sound ‘Steamboat Willie’ the sound was directed by Walt Disney and UB Iwerks, the animation was created by Walt Disney Studio. In 1937 Disney went on to produce its first feature film which was fully animated, this film was ‘Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs’ which is still a highly popular film to this day.
When we first started planning our idents I really struggle to come up with ideas and this really put me behind and gave me less time to actually create my idents and do the paperwork. Once I had finally come up with an idea the 2nd and 3rd idea came quite easily which meant I didn't have to waste much time thinking of further ideas. I decided to create my idents based on MTV at first I thought this was a great idea because I love watching the channel myself but at college the websites I needed were blocked which meant I had to do a lot of the research at home. I always struggle with the preproduction paperwork and always end up forgetting something but for this unit I was pretty organised. I made basic sketches and storyboards of what I wanted my idents to look like and I did plenty of research so I knew what they had to look like and how they had to come across. For 2 of my idents I used CGI and then for the other I did stop motion. The stop motion ident took a lot longer to do than the others as everything had to be very precise and if I knocked something I had to start all over and this happened plenty of times. The CGI idents took a little less time but still took longer than I thought they would, I’m not into animation so I had to learn how to do everything from scratch and I'm pleased with how they turned out. For my different idents I wanted different audio, for the stop motion I decided to use the sound of cameras as this was the look I was going for. For ident 1 I was a sound which I felt fitted in with the logo pumping and for the 3rd ident I used a rockier soundtrack as I felt this fitted with the logo trying to escape. All of the people I have shown my idents to seem to like them, some people have said that they are a tad basic but are strong bearing in mind that I had only just learnt how to do it. Most people said that they liked the use of colour in my 2 CGI animations and liked the idea behind them but some said that they could have been done a little bit better and I agree with that. People who watched my Stop motion animation said that it was a little jumpy and quite boring, they also said that they didn’t really like the sound was playing in the background as they felt it became too much.
Design features are key when creating idents as each channel has their own style and way they like to do things. For example; the BBC has different colours for each of there channels, BBC1 is red, as well as being red all of the idents they create for this channel involve circles in one way or another and this is something they have been doing for a very long time and they are known for this. Idents tend to be no longer than 15 seconds as this is enough time to inform the audience what channel they are watching without boring them and making them want to change the channel. Idents can come in many shapes and forms, some can be serious and others can be humorous it depends on the style of the channel this is something you need to take into careful consideration when making idents for an already well known channel as it has to fit the channels ethos. The last thing you need to consider when making an ident is image or text, if you are making an ident for a channel like BBC4 the ident will be a lot more wordy then if you were making an ident for CBBC as the target audiences are completely different and a wordy ident won’t appeal to the target audience of CBBC.
Before the 1950s BBC 1 was the only channel to broadcast on TV and anyone who had the money to buy a TV and watch this 1 channel were very lucky. In the September of 1955 ITV was founded and BBC 1 had some competition then much later on in 1982 Channel 4 was created. Back in those days watching TV wasn't an everyday thing and not everyone had the opportunity to have a television in their home. However now a days everyone has a TV in their home and there are 100s of channels to choose from, it is no longer a luxury. Because there are so many channels it has become extremely important for the right advertisement to be created as they want to attract as many people as they can to watch the programmes which they are airing on their channels. The competition created by having the 3 channels was great as it allows the channels to create a brand identity and this made it a lot easier for them to attract their desired audience. Due to the mass increase of television channels available these days it has because a requirement that if they channel wishes to broadcast they must have an ident, this is a great chance for the channels as it is making it easier for themselves to create easy advertisement and it allows them to show who they are to their audience without them really realising, its important to show the audience the ident as this will slowly create brand loyalty and without them even realising it makes them think about the channel even when they’re not watching the channel. As well as attracting the viewers the channel already has the ident is made to attract the target audience and new viewers, people become attracted to things by seeing things they like so if a channel includes certain things throughout the ident it should attract their target audience. When watching TV a lot of people do something else like doing work or playing on their phones if the ident is good enough it should grab the viewers attention and make them watch the ident for a little while. An ident has the chance to set the whole tone and mood of the channel this is extremely important as it helps the audience connect with what is being aired on the channel.
When creating an ident there are some limitations like with everything but these limitations include; typography, size/aspect ratio, screen resolution and colour, all of these things have to be taken into careful consideration when each ident is made so that continuity is followed throughout the entirety of the brand. When thinking about creating an ident the first thing you should think about is typography, you should pick a font you like as you are going to see a lot of it and if you don’t like it the chances are you won’t like the idents. The font you choose needs to represent the channel you are making the ident for and needs to fit in with advertising they may already have. Most channels will use the same font in every bit of text you see throughout the channel and a viewer should notice what channel it is straight away just by seeing the text, in the same way as typography colour is important, as soon as you turn the TV on if an ident is playing you should know what channel it is just by the colour, the colour you pick needs to be recognizable so when the audience see it they instantly know what channel they are watching. BBC3 for example use black and pink and the audience instantly know what channel they are watching because of this. When creators are making idents they need to think about the screen resolution as if they make something to small and with lots of detail unless it’s shown on a screen with a high resolution it would be pointless and a waste of time. They need to create idents which are shown the same on every TV screen, you don’t want to have too much going on as not everyone has a massive TV and you need to take this into account if there is too much going on on a little screen the viewer’s won’t be able to focus and this could lose you viewers. When making an ident you should aim to make it to fit on a screen between 32 and 40 inches as this seems to be the average size TV in households. The last thing you need to think about are the size and aspect ratios, these are the dimensions of the screens and video picture elements, all popular video formats are rectilinear, this means they can be described by a ratio between height and width of areas on the TV screen where the picture can be seen, older TVs can display less on the outside of this space so this is something you also need to consider.
The first 2D animation to be created was the flick book and this was created by John Barnes Linnet in 1868. He called it ‘Kineograph’ and it was the first type of 2D animation to use a linear sequence of images instead of the Phenakistocope. A flick book is a book that has an image on each page. The image slightly changes throughout the book so that when you flick through it the image looks like it’s moving. Cel animation was then created in 1914 and was first used by Earl Hurd. Cel is a sheet of transparent material which objects or images are drawn onto, a background image would usually be drawn onto a sheet for a particular scene and then used on other cells to reduce how long it would take to produce each scene. The year after cel animation rotoscoping was created, this is when the animators trace over footage, it was used in live action and animated films and was originally projected onto frosted glass and then re-drawn, like everything though this technique has been made digital. Drawn on film is a technique created in 1912 where the animator draws straight onto blank film to create the images, this allows you to draw, paint and attach other objects if you wish. Photographic stills were created in 1810 and were intended for marketing and publicising feature films and television productions. When using stills to create animation there are two types you can try the first being stop motion and the second is Photoanimation. Although some of these techniques are still used today like stop motion for example a lot of them have been replaced by digital ways and methods. 2D Bitmap Graphics were created in the 1960s. a bitmap image is associated with its name because the image is a map of pixels and tends to suffer from image quality loss when scaling. The graphics are dependent on resolution and the amount of pixels that are in the image, Bitmap graphics are easier compared to vector graphics as there are no complicated equations which allows it to be as complex as it likes. 2D Vector Graphics were also created in the 60s they use geometrical shapes lines and curves. Due to vector based images not being made up of dots or pixels they can be scaled without them loosing there image quality. The file size of a vector graphic depends on the number of elements it contains this means the file sizes are not affected in a large way as the information is within the structure.
Joseph Plateau was the creator of the Phenakitoscope in 1832. He was the first person to demonstrate an moving image. The phenakitoscope is spinning disks with slits in them placed on a handle. You spin the disks and are able to see a moving image by looking through the slits. On the 6th October 1833 William Horner became the creator of the Zoetrope, a cylinder with slits all around the edge, on the opposite side of the slits there are a series of images and when you spin the cylinder and look through the slits an illusion of motion is produced. Emily Reynaud invented the Theatre Optigue in 1982, the device was a combination of a projector with a praxinoscope. In the late 1800s Eadward Muybridge invented the Zoepraxiscope. The device was a sequence of still photographs which were then shown at a rapid pace to create the look of a moving image. Albert, Harry, Sam And Jack Warner are the creators of Warner Bros. Pictures, they created it in 1923 and it is still hugely successful and famous today. Warner Bros. have produce many well-known TV serials and films which are still very popular today. Walt Disney started his animation career in 1920. In 1928 he then went on to release the first animated cartoon to include synchronized sound ‘Steamboat Willie’ the sound was directed by Walt Disney and UB Iwerks, the animation was created by Walt Disney Studio. In 1937 Disney went on to produce its first feature film which was fully animated, this film was ‘Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs’ which is still a highly popular film to this day.
When we first started planning our idents I really struggle to come up with ideas and this really put me behind and gave me less time to actually create my idents and do the paperwork. Once I had finally come up with an idea the 2nd and 3rd idea came quite easily which meant I didn't have to waste much time thinking of further ideas. I decided to create my idents based on MTV at first I thought this was a great idea because I love watching the channel myself but at college the websites I needed were blocked which meant I had to do a lot of the research at home. I always struggle with the preproduction paperwork and always end up forgetting something but for this unit I was pretty organised. I made basic sketches and storyboards of what I wanted my idents to look like and I did plenty of research so I knew what they had to look like and how they had to come across. For 2 of my idents I used CGI and then for the other I did stop motion. The stop motion ident took a lot longer to do than the others as everything had to be very precise and if I knocked something I had to start all over and this happened plenty of times. The CGI idents took a little less time but still took longer than I thought they would, I’m not into animation so I had to learn how to do everything from scratch and I'm pleased with how they turned out. For my different idents I wanted different audio, for the stop motion I decided to use the sound of cameras as this was the look I was going for. For ident 1 I was a sound which I felt fitted in with the logo pumping and for the 3rd ident I used a rockier soundtrack as I felt this fitted with the logo trying to escape. All of the people I have shown my idents to seem to like them, some people have said that they are a tad basic but are strong bearing in mind that I had only just learnt how to do it. Most people said that they liked the use of colour in my 2 CGI animations and liked the idea behind them but some said that they could have been done a little bit better and I agree with that. People who watched my Stop motion animation said that it was a little jumpy and quite boring, they also said that they didn’t really like the sound was playing in the background as they felt it became too much.