Title Screen

The title screen is like a poster for your animated short. Here are some examples from previous semesters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOFmdzTIBsM

The design objective of the title screen is to draw the viewer’s attention with a bold visual that suggests the narrative but does not attempt to tell the whole story.

The title screen should have the title of the animated short film, and possibly a tag line, but that is all that is required for text. Credits can go at the end of the animation in a credit screen. The typography should match the theme of the animation, and you might consider using the typography capabilities of Comic Life, which runs on OS X or Windows. You can download the trial here:

https://plasq.com/apps/comiclife/macwin/

Use the blank comic page template (with styles). Drag a Lettering object onto the page and edit as you see fit. Remember readability is a key attribute. You can then select your headline text object in Comic Life and just copy and paste it into a Photoshop layer.

It’s recommended that you develop the title screen in Photoshop in order to leverage its 3D capabilities, but it’s not required. You can export models you have created in Blender as .obj or .3ds formats. In Photoshop, as demonstrated in class, you can combine 2d layers, such as photo backgrounds, with 3d objects. You can also extrude 2d layers, such as text, into 3d layers. 3d objects can be scaled, rotated, and moved in all dimensions. With the Move tool selected, the 3D manipulators appear along the top of the workspace. You can also apply materials and texture maps to parts of the model, as well as paint directly on the mesh. To create a new 3d layer by importing a 3ds or obj file, choose 3D > New 3D Layer from File. To merge 3d objects into a single scene and coordinate system, choose 3D > Merge 3D Layers.

A new tab will appear alongside the Layers palette, called 3D. In that tab you can select meshes, faces, camera, lights, and scene properties. Properties for any of these can be set in the properties panel above. In the Layers palette, the 3d object shares all the same properties as 2d layers, such as opacity and layer effects.You can render your file using 3D > Render, and then save the file as a png.

Here’s a pretty comprehensive tutorial about 3D in CS6:
https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/a-basic-guide-to-photoshops-3d-tools--psd-6042

The Title Screen should be scaled to 720 X 480 to upload to your project web site. It will also be incorporated into your final video. When the title screen is uploaded to your site, confirm the update by emailing the URL to intromm@cs.stonybrook.edu, with "title screen" in the subject line.

Rubric:

1. Followed the instructions:
• The title screen (720 X 480) was uploaded to the the student’s web site, and a URL was sent to course email.

2. Met the design criteria:
• The title screen features a bold visual that suggests the narrative of the animation without just showing a frame from the animation.
• The title screen has the title of the animated short, and possibly a tag line.
• The typography of the title is appropriate for the theme of the narration (elegant, classic, modern, sci-fi, scary, etc), and is legible.
• Good technical execution

That’s 5 criteria, or approximately 1 point each. (5 points total)