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| A VISUAL COMMUNICATION COMMUNITY WEBPAGE |
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| ICT INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY The important thing to remember is that tools are not talent. The most powerful force of all is your ability to create and communicate. You need to express something, then you find the tool and then you make it. A good tool can make things easier and can open up possibilities for creative expression. But the tool is always subservient to the idea. ICT that can be used include: for Freehand drawing: using a mouse, a Drawing Tablet (wacom board) for Instrumental drawing (read 'Manual or Electronic?' below): using computer programs such as Autocad, Vector Programs such as Freehand, Corel Draw, Illustrator to construct orthogonal, paraline/perspective drawings or any straight edged work constructed with instruments for purposes such as logo design, text, layouts for Graphics (images and text): using computer programs such as Photoshop ...... IMPORTANT As you use the computer, print out progressive evidence of your development of design alternatives, annotating decisions as they are made. This allows you to make more considered decisions as they progress and it may encourage you to generate, develop and refine further ideas. Photography: black and white, colour, positive, reversal Photocopy: black and white, colour A photocopier can be used to reduce images, enlarge images (cropping), combine images and copy actual objects and materials. You can also obtain interesting effects by adjusting the contrast. Here are some links to show you examples LINK 1 LINK 2 LINK 3 LINK 4 3D process: construction, moulding - when producing design alternatives (not producing the final presentation) using equipment such as sewing machines, sanders, drills, etc. Other: Omnicrom this airbrush (powered) this Manual or Electronic ? Traditionally instrumental drawings were done by hand, either by the designer him/herself or a draftsperson and were used throughout the design and manufacturing processes. Since the late 1980s most companies have been using computer aided drawing software packages. These software packages allow the user to design on the computer screen with the appropriate scale and details in two or three dimensions. Computer aided drawing is advantageous for numerous reasons. Most would agree that the best feature is the ability to manipulate and change a drawing without redrawing or erasing. This saves a large amount of time. Most software will not only allow the user to remove or add lines, but it will scale, dimension, smooth, texturize, join and subtract solids, etc. More recent versions of CAD software allows the designer to change one dimension and the part will scale itself accordingly. The options seem endless and they continually increase with the new versions that are released. Aside from allowing the user to make modifications easily, computer designing also provides uniform and neat drawings every time, whereas hand drawings vary dramatically from draftsperson to draftsperson. For designs which are three dimensional, most software allows the user to spin an object and view it from various angles, which is very difficult to do in two dimensional drawings. Because the drawings are created on a computer, they can also be stored there and accessed or printed by other users. Storage on a computer is a convenient means of keeping a set of drawings because they will not be damaged and will not take up the physical space that a large set would. The advantages to computer aided drawing are numerous and that is why virtually all instrumental drawings are now created on the computer. Vector or Bitmap? Vector programs (CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator) create OBJECTS Bitmap programs (Corel Photopaint, Adobe Photoshop) manipulate and create IMAGES There are different kinds of graphic programs, and you need to use the right program for the job you need to do. Some graphic programs are intended to manipulate photographs, some create line art, and others let you paint with electronic oils, charcoals and waterpaints. While it's true that most can do more than just one thing, (a paint program can create a vector path, for example) every art program is intended to fall more into one of these categories. Vector programs (CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator) create OBJECTS - shapes and fills. If you draw an egg, and then put a blue square on top of it, you can move the square around, delete it, place it behind the egg, resize and reshape. The program remembers each object, with its dimensions, outline and fill. Bitmap programs (Corel Photopaint, Adobe Photoshop) manipulate the colors of pixels. The pixel has no inherent size - it could be 1/72 of an inch, or 1/300, or any other size you specify. It is a dot of color - the smallest picture element (hence the word "pixel.") If you draw an egg in a bitmap, or raster, program, and then draw a square on top of it, you have an oval with a square on it. If you erase the square, you have a hole in your egg. If you resize one, you resize both. The program doesn't care where the pixels turn blue; it only knows that there are blue pixels and egg colored ones. Vector programs, like Coreldraw and Illustrator, are used to create crisp illustrations, with distinct outlines and fills. They aren't used to manipulate photos — to put your dog's head onto your boy friend's body, for example. A designer will come into contact with two kinds of computer image files. They may look the same but upon closer inspection, one finds that they are quite different in many ways. This web page explains the differences between Bitmap-based image files and Vector-based image files. More More links with examples www.sketchpad.net/basics1.htm http://webreference.com/graphics/corel101/1a/ http://graphicdesign.about.com/library/weekly/aa042398.htm bitmap www.prepressure.com/image/bitmapvector.htm vector www.prepressure.com/image/bitmapvector2.htm ------------------- MORE BELOW Photoshop is widely regarded as the most significant development in graphic arts since color photography, perhaps since the invention of photography itself, 160-some years ago. Photoshop is used to manipulate bitmap images such as those from scanners and digital cameras. It's basically an electronic darkroom. We use it constantly to tweak and enhance photos and logos in our websites and software. Today's version 7 includes integrated vector drawing tools, an expanded Web toolkit, tighter integration with other Adobe programs, and enhanced layer management. Photoshop is primarily an Image Manipulator, or Image Editor, but it has many features that let you work in all sorts of ways. With Photoshop, you can create line art and vector shapes. Photoshop is a Bitmap, or Raster program, but you can also use it to draw and paint. About the only choice that wouldn't be right is to say that Photoshop is a 'Drawing Program'. Drawing programs are the true Vector programs, like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and Freehand. ----------------------------- Illustrator is used for vector-based drawings that are easier to manipulate than bitmaps. Illustrator is capable of producing a wide range of artwork from black and white logos to full color illustrations. Like Photoshop, Illustrator is a standard in the graphic design industry. The advantage to vector graphics is that you can resize them and tweak them and they are not going to lose resolution. Illustrator is a tool used by professionals to create text, line art, and professional logos. Illustrator is used to create and develop freehand drawings which can be manipulated and combined with other graphic elements. When used with the Wacom graphics tablet, it is a very useful tool for various types of graphic design needs. Illustrator is used to create vector graphics, made of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called vectors. You can move, resize or change the colour of a vector object without losing the quality of the graphic. As a result Illustrator is ideal for type and bold graphics that must maintain crisp lines when scaled to various sizes. examples Illustrator example 1 example 2 AutoCAD is a design application software program used by civil engineers, facility managers, architects, and others in the professional services design disciplines for creating drawings and maps in spatial relationships. AutoCAD is used to develop geometric construction techniques, orthographic projection, and oblique, and isometric drawings. AutoCAD is used to develop 2D drawings PRODUCT INFORMATION examples "We very often employ CAD (Computer Aided Design) software to accurately draw scaled layouts of marquees, so that our clients can 'relate' to what the marquee will look and feel like. Most importantly it gives them a spatial awareness (furniture layout etc) that may not be clear from simply a written quotation." autocad example 1 www.marqueecelebrations.co.uk/choosing-design-layout.htm Scroll down to 'Listed below are some example AutoCADs:-' autocad example 2 then click arrow to go to next page - 3d of bike |
| INFORMATION BELOW Manual or Electronic? Vector or Bitmap? Photoshop Illustrator AutoCAD |
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| VECTOR |
| BITMAP |
| Photoshop TUTORIALS click here |
| Illustrator TUTORIALS click here |
| AutoCAD TUTORIALS click here |