Unit 78 assignment 3

Ciaran Morton

Diary part 2

Introduction
This diary/document is a continuation from the previous diary, the
previous diary was created before I was given the assignment 3 brief, this
document is going to cover the brief.
The brief has an extensive list of subjects I need to cover, the tools I used
on MY graphics are already shown on the previous diary!
The list below is the subjects I am going to cover on the assignment.
I am going to re-edit one of the images just to screen shot how I edit the
image and how I use each of the tools, the image I am going to re-edit is
one of the backgrounds.

Plan (page 5/6)

Asset management (file storage and retrieval, naming conventions)
Workflow (schedule, efficient time management)
Deadlines (Production milestones, deliverables, quality assurance)
Asset management (Page 6/7)

Export file path

File format
Compression
File naming conventions
File backup
Legal and ethical (Page 8/10)
Legal
Copyright
Ethical
Confidentiality
Privacy
Decency
Libel
Representation Race, gender, religion and sexuality
Software interface (Page 11/14)
Work area
Tool box
Status bar

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File information
Window control
Floating palette
Docking
tabs
Workflow (Page 15/16)
Reference images
Plug ins
Optimising (bit depth, resolution, dimensions)

Plan

Asset management (file storage and retrieval, naming

conventions)

When I first started this assignment, I created

several folders, this includes layers of folders, the
image to the right is a list of the folders within
folders I created to keep all my assets in the right
place. In the image to the right the folders go:
Personal workspace > Year 2 > Unit 78 >
Assignment 3 > Finised graphics > Finished
images.
This file system written above is a very easy way to keep track of all of my
work as within the Finished graphics
file I have a two files, one for finished
images and another for image assets,
this is where I saved the old un-edited
images before I edited them.
Retrieval of files is very simple, if I
accidentally deleted any of these
images or folders I can undo this by
clicking cancel on the pop up Are you
sure you want to delete this image?, if
this bypassed I can still retrieve the
image or folder from the recycle bin
(shown to the right). The image to the

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right shows the recycling folder where all of the deleted folders are stored
until someone either retrierves them or permantly deletes them.

Workflow (schedule, efficient time management)

At the beginning of the assignment I was

given an assignment ILP, on this ILP I have
a schedule which tells me exactly what
work I have to do, when I have to finish
each document/ image, I also have to
comment on every single session at the
end of each lesson on the comment
sections on the ILP document, the image
to the right shows the ILP and the tasks
and the comment sections, I have
currently filled in two as this is the second lesson and I have written in
exactly what I am going to do this assignment. In the image above it shows
the ILP, from all of the comments I can tell wehat aspects of the brief I spent the
most amount of time on and what took the least amount of time, I can also see
how I handled eacxh section of the assignment based on the comments for the
section.
Naming conventions is very short as my naqming conventions are EXTREMLY
simple, I have a Unit folder followed
by an Assignment folder and them
individual folders with the document
title on them the example image is
the diaries, in the diary folder in the
assignment 3 folder, in the Unit 78
folder.

Deadlines (Production milestones, deliverables, quality

assurance)

At the beginning of this assignment I was handed an ILP, this is a

document with a schedule on it this tells me exactly when I have to finish
each task in order to meet the deadline and to complete the assignment
on time, the image to the right is a screen shot of the ILP. I have already
filled out two of the sections in this ILP as I am currently on the second
session of this eight session assignment, in each of these comment
sections I am going to fill out each thing that I did every session to keep
track of how long it took to complerte each of the tasks, what took the
least amount of tome and what took the most.

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Asset management
Export file path

File format

The file format for all of my images is currently JPG, this will change to a
.png when I start editing them in PhotoShop as .png is owned by Adobe
and when you start editing a photo on PhotoShop it changes the file to a
PhotoShop file, once I am finished editing/documenting the images I am
going to add an image of exporting HERE!! This is to show the .png image
being exported (by lossless compression) into a .jpg image.

Compression

I briefly mentioned compression in the file format section, this is basically

where a file is compressed to reduce file space, however I am NOT going
to use the standard (lossy) compression as it is old and out dated, instead
I am either going to not compress the files AT ALL or I am going to just
compress it with lossless which is an upgrade to lossy compression.
When exporting the finished graphics there is a window that shows
compression options, I am going to add this HERE when I finish editing the
graphics.

File naming conventions

I have already gone into GREAT detail about file naming,

however to complete this section; File naming is what
you name all of the assets/documents, images and files,
as I wanted to keep my private workspace tidy I created
layers within layers of files categorising units,
assignments and individual documents so it was very
easy to find each asset I need. The image to the right is
of this document and the layers of files that surround
this document.

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File backup

As I am working on a college computer that is

constantly updating the system on what I write I
have a constant backup, if by some reason I
accidentally click delete, then accidentally click
confirm, then accidentally open the recycling, then
accidentally click permanently delete, then
accidentally click confirm I can go to the technicians
who can then restore my file instantly. The image to
the right is the recycling, this is the most common
way to get files back when there were accidentally deleted (and
confirmed).

Legal and ethical

Legal

Legal means if the content is legal or illegal,

Copyright

The copy right law was passed in 1988, this was created/made so that
other people couldnt copy someone elses work and use it as their own.
This was made to stop people stealing work, whoever makes the work, for
example a band making a new album have it copy righted so that people
cant take the album and use it elsewhere as their own work. In the UK all
work is automatically copy righted, meaning people dont have to file for a
copy right, in other countries, they will have to get a copy right or patent
on their work, for example from the patent office, or you could go online
and file one, this is an example website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/intellectual-property-office.
By using an exact copy of someone elses work it will be breaking the

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copy right laws (and the law) meaning you could be prosecuted, taken to
court, fined or worse, this can all be avoided by not stealing other peoples
work. The only way you can use other peoples work is if you ask
permission from the owner of the work or agree to pay them royalties, this
is common for people buying the rights to use certain music tracks.
In my game I am going to create ALL of the assets/graphics/sounds myself
therefore I am not breaching ANY of the copyrights as I am solely using
my own work which is fully legal, along the way I am going to have to
check all of the copyrights and patents to see if I have to remove certain
items I create or re-name them.

Ethical

Ethical basically means no discrimination based on age, sex, gender,

religion etc. This is used everywhere e.g. the work place, online, in the
community, this is to stop people from being discriminated against, in the
aspect of my game I am ensuring that the game is not discriminating
against anyone by carefully planning exactly what content is deemed
appropriate to be featured in the game, this is so the game does not
offend anyone. An example of the game not being discriminating is the
ability to change the skin colour or gender of the
character (even though I did not have a character as
the game is first person single player so apart from
the forearms/hands the character is not going to be
shown AT ALL!) To the right is the GTA 5 online where
the gender and race of the character can be
changed, this is showing that the game is not
discriminating against anyone.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is all about keeping information away from the public, a

great example of this is at a doctors where there is patient confidentiality,
this can only be broken when the patient is a risk to someone elses
wellbeing, apart from that no one else can know. Basically, confidentiality
is a set of rules that stop certain people getting hold on certain
information just like patient confidentiality.
The only way confidentiality fits in with my game is if people have to
create an account on my game to play it, as this is a PlayStation game
they already have an account which will broadcast the information
worldwide on which games it plays, therefore I am not going to concern

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myself with confidentiality as the players have FULL control on the

confidentiality and I have little/no control over this.

Privacy

Privacy is very similar to confidentiality, it is keeping information away

from certain people, information like identity etc. The definition of privacy
differs in different countries though, but they all share the common parts
of privacy, theorist Edwin Lawrance Godkin said nothing is better worthy
of legal protection than private life, or, in other words, the right of every
man to keep his affairs to himself, and to decide for himself to what extent
they shall be the subject of public observation and discussion. Meaning
that people should be able to keep their personal life to themselves.
The only way privacy fits in with my game is if people have to create an
account on my game to play it, as this is a PlayStation game they already
have an account which will broadcast the information worldwide on which
games it plays, therefore I am not going to concern myself with privacy as
the players have FULL control on the privacy and I have little/no control
over this.

Decency

The minimal decency is a requirement according to the philosophy of

Immanuel Kant, it is basically about the minimum amount of
kindness/decency people should show, for example in a business/company
not allowed to pay under the minimum wage, have to have
confidentiality, not allowed to post liable about staff etc.

Libel

Liable means to say or write something that isnt true to damage

someone elses reputation, an example of this is someone blogging or
posting a statement taking about someone else trying to insult them, this
is liable because it will damage the other persons reputation. Libel
exposes people to public hatred, damage to his/her business/profession
and can cause the person to be ridiculed.

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Representation Race, gender, religion and sexuality

As I have mentioned above, to keep the game non-discrimination I have

decided to implement a race/gender option, this is not going to change
much apart from the hands/arms as this is THE ONLY THING THE PLAYER
will see! I have written MULTIPLE times I have NOT created a character as
this is a first person SINGLE player game so NO ONE will see the
character! I will however develop male and female character forearms.
hands and then change the skin colour to fit non-discrimination themes.
(This section is short but clearly covers race and gender as there isnt
anything else to write about race or gender).

Religion There are NO references to religion within my game, this is

basically to not have discriminating content against one. This section is
short as all I have to write is that my game is not going to affiliated with
any religion to avoid offending people, including offensive content or any
other discriminating or copyrighted content.

Software interface

Work area

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The software interface basically means

how I interact with the software on the
computer, this is simple as I interact with
the software. I interact with the software
via a computer monitor, desktop
computer, mouse and keyboard, the
images to the right are examples of
these three things.
My work area is optimised as I always
have a few different tabs on screen at
once, this is so I dont have to keep
clicking the icons at the bottom of the
screen to pull up an entire page on the
whole screen, this also makes it a lot
easier to see everything on the page as it
is easily visible, the image to the right is
a screen shot of my screen and my work
space.
The image to the right shows the
optimised screen I work on; this is
because I can access all of the
documents like this a lot quicker than if
they were all full screen.

Tool box

The tool box is an asset on the Adobe Photoshop software, the image to
the right is an image of the tool bar in PhotoShop, this shows the tool
box for all of the tools I am going to go into detail about below, as I am
going to individually write about ALL of these tools this section is going
to be quite short as EVERYTHING you need to know is going to be found
below (page numbers on the checklist).

Status bar

The status bars are al of the tops and bottoms of software and the bottom
of the home screen, this includes all of the tool bars and other rectangles
with buttons to open software or access content, the image below is the
status bar for the home screen.

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The image shows all of the tabs open, also the tabs can be pinned to this
bar for quick access instead of searching for the tab in the search files
section, this also has other content like a Cortana section that ban be
used to access the app store or the internet quickly, it can also search all
of the computer quickly, the bar also has small icons to the right that
show statuses of the computer and it components, it also has a
time/calendar function.

File information

The file information is referring to the tab that access additional

information about files, the images shown below are the additional
information tab that is shown on my diary part 2.

The images above are the additional information of this document, this
includes the exact second the file was created, when it was modified and
when it was accessed last. It also states that I have currently spend over
2.5 hours editing the document in total. This also offers previous versions
of the document e.g. before I saved the document last and th3e time
before that and the time before that etc.

Window control

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Window control on interface means

the way I control where the
files/windows are displayed on
screen, how large/small they are and
how they overlap, the image to the
right is of my screen currently as this
is a great example of window control.
The image to the right shows that I
have arranged my work space very
well as the images tab is under the
file tab, this is under the sources
document, this is s I can quickly save
a document/images to my assets,
quickly paste the http to the sources
and quickly paste it into my work so I
dont have to spend a lot of time loading up and closing files when I do
and do not need them.
Another way the image links into window is that I have sized the windows
based on the importance of the files, this is shown as the diary and the
PhotoShop is quite large, then the file explorer is a lot smaller as well as
the sources.

Floating palette

The floating palette is very short as the

floating palette is the colour changing
option on PhotoShop that allows you to
access a wider range of colours and also
the copy colours from the image to blend
in different assets, the image to the right
is an image of the floating palette from
my image. The colour that is selected on the
palette is currenty the lighter section of the
sky as I was using this as an example of how I
can access the colours from the image while using the palette, this is the main
purpose of the palette.
A fact on the palette is the bit depth corrolates with this palette as when the bit
depth is set to high (32) the palette has A LOT more colours compared to if the
bit depth is small (6) as the bit depth is all about the amount of colours appear
on the spectrum of the image, a high bit depth image has thousand of colours
into the image compared to a low bit depth image that only has around a
hundred which is a lot lower than the higher images.

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Docking

Docking refers to sound/audio, this is not directly linked into this

assignment as I am currently making images, this does not have any
sound or audio, however as I am making a horror game I am mainly going
to have suspenseful music, this will be constantly rising and dropping, this
is to build suspense, this is going to be a
simple clip that loops to build suspense and
atmosphere within the game. This is going to
be on audacity as it is easy to edit sound
clips, I can arrange to have a short
suspenseful piano song to be created and
then edit this to build up and cut to slow
again to build up and cut back to low etc.
The image to the right is a screen shot from
audacity which is the software I plan on
using to edit the music I will have composed for the game.

tabs

In software interface the tabs refer to the tabs on PhotoShop, this is

because several separate documents can be opened at once on one
PhotoShop window, this is useful when you have to access a few different
projects at once, this could be several different assets being created on
several different tabs, the assets can then be taken from the different tabs
and be added to one and all of the assets can be saved to an individual
document then exported back to a .jpg file.
The image
to the
right is of
tabs in

PhotoShop, this shows three different tabs, as I am still waiting to edit the
first image the second two are blank, I am waiting as I still need to
document how each of the tools effect the image and I am saving time by
editing them and documenting instead of editing the same image twice,
once just to edit it then again to show how edited the image.

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Workflow

Reference images

Workflow refers to the amount of work I need to

do; the reference images refer to the images
online that I could have used and traced around
but as I have no main character to create I just
took images of woods and fields myself and edited
them.
As I am not going to use any reference images my
work is COMPLETELY copyright free meaning I am
not going to run into any legal issues. The image
to the right is an image of a person outliner, this
shows the reference image layer being copied and
recoloured.

Plug ins

Plug ins refer to the additional

content that is available for
PhotoShop, however as I am not
an administrator I cannot access
any of these plug ins to improve
PhotoShop, even if I could I
could not access most of them
due to them being on different
Adobe packages or requiring
more/additional payment to
access.
The image to the right is an
example of a plug in just a
graphic of an Adobe plug in.
The image to the right also made me remember that some of the older
videos online would run on Adobe as the creators would forget to export

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the video from the .fla or other Adobe owned file formats meaning the
viewers would have to own Adobe in order to run the software. If I make
any videos I will remember to always export the image to a universally
owned file format.

Optimising (bit depth, resolution, dimensions)

Bit depth, resolution and dimensions are very important in this

assignment as I am making realistic images, the dimensions are important
as I need to make images that are the right size, this is vital as there isnt
any pint in making high quality images if I just have to stretch them out
afterwards causing massive amounts of pixilation and quality drop in the
images.
Bit depth and resolution are both similar as the higher they are the better
the image looks, to start resolution is
only correlated with raster/bitmap
images as vector graphics do not use
pixels, instead they use points and
lines in a mathematical aspect.
Resolution is the amount of pixels per
inch or centimetre. The bit depth is
very simple, this is the amount of
colours that are available in the image,
the higher the bit depth the more
colours are available for the image, the
lower the bit depth the lower the
amount of colours are available for the
image. The image to the right is the start of PhotoShop that lets you
access the resolution, canvas size and bit depth for the project.

-Continued on diary part three -

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