Computer Graphics For Communication (1982)

[Music] Graphic art work that requires the manual skills of a craftsman and the imaginative eye of an artist. The laborintensive products of the graphic artist are found in every communications effort. The products may be as simple as a title card or as complex as fullcolor animation. But the graphic design process is changing. Computer technology is making the production of art faster and more flexible than ever [Music] before. Computer graphic systems produce art in all commonly used graphic formats. [Music] Before we take a closer look at computer graphics systems, let's consider how art is traditionally produced. You're back from lunch early. Yeah, it's diet time. Did you finish those pie charts you've been working on? Yeah, I finished them this morning and I set some type for a flowchart. Flowchart? Just what the world needs. Another flowchart. Yeah, but you might be interested in this one, Walt. This is a flowchart about a computer. With what I've got to do this afternoon, who's got time for computers? True. [Music] [Music] against computers, Walt. Nothing really. It's just that I've not been around them that much. Call it a familiarity problem. Yeah, I don't know much about computers either, but I do know I got to get this graphic done. Got work to do myself. [Music] [Music] Hey, nice work, Mary. Yeah. Yeah. Did a nice job on the layout, I think. Um, it's just one thing. You might want to check your spelling before you go home. Check my spelling. See you bright and early tomorrow, Mary. What gives, kiddo? You going to camp here all night? I'm going to camp here all night. Oh, yeah. What's the problem? Oh, I got a typo. And this thing's due first thing in the morning. Oh, wow. Back to square one. Square one it is. Kiddo, I'm sorry I can't stick around and help you. Some people think graphics computers will make artists unnecessary, but the truth is the computer is a tool to relieve artists from hours of tedious work. It frees them to concentrate on design. The artist makes the decisions. The computer does the work. For the sake of comparison, let's see our flowchart constructed again. this time by computer and with the client as a participant. Copy of the slide I was telling you about. It looks pretty straightforward. Let's start with the boxes. The boxes are pretty quick and easy to make. Once we have the first box, it can be duplicated to make the others. Now, let's add some color. Could we go for a shade of yellow? Oh, okay. Can we lighten the boxes just slightly? Sure. Well, let's try this. Great. Want me to read the text to you? Sure. Okay. Computer information flow. The first block is information storage. Information storage. Right. But the words aren't in the right place. Oh, copy always comes up in the middle. Now all we have to do is move them. You won't actually see the words move now. They'll be in place when we make the entry in the computer. Let's try that title a little larger and in a lighter color. Now, let's see how those changes look. That looks good. Now, we need some arrows. I've got some arrows stored in our library. Let me call them up for you. We just capture those arrows and slide them into place. That looks good. Now we just need I think we misspelled a word. Shouldn't computer be spelled with an E? You're right. Let me change that. There. Great. Now we need is a slide like this and one with different color center block. Okay. What color would you like? I'm not sure. Shade of red, I think. Okay. Let's run through some. there. Now, how do we make slides? These two slides will be written on a discet, sent to the camera, and you'll have them by tomorrow. Gee, that's great, Sue. I really appreciate that. It's amazing what you were able to do with this rough drawing. It only took a few minutes for the artist to construct this visual with the computer's aid. Unlike the conventional art process, it was a simple matter for the client to spot the spelling error and for the artist to correct it. Our artist is Sue Adams. A graphics computer is simply a sophisticated tool for the artist. The heart of the system is the computer itself. Each component is tied directly to it. Information is entered into the system through the keyboard. Another common input device is the graphics tablet or digitizer. It's used to enter drawings into the computer's memory. The artist keeps track of what's happening inside the computer by watching the monitor. As you can see, it's a lot like a television set. On the screen are the visual and a list of words. These words are the commands that tell the computer what to do next. We use the graphics tablet to select these commands and to change elements on the screen. The cross is called the cursor. The cursor's movements on the screen show what the hand unit is doing on the graphics tablet. Now, let's make that title even bigger. The pink box is called a reference rectangle. It lets us preview changes before they take place. In this sleeve is a discet, also known as a bobby disc. Once inserted into a disc drive, a magnetic head scans the discet to record and retrieve information. Data can also be stored on a hard disk which is left in the computer. Once stored, it can easily be recalled to use in another slide or sent to an output device. This may not look like a camera, but this output device does make highresolution 35 mm slides. It can also produce color transparencies in sizes up to 8x 10 in as well as highquality camera ready art. Another device that is well suited to the computer is a plotter which can produce multiolor overhead transparencies. You've seen the system. Now, let's construct a barraph to see how it works. I'll use a keyboard to input most of my information. Let's start with a standard rectangular plotting area. Next, I'll introduce the vertical scale. Let's let this scale range from 0 to 100. I'll also introduce a horizontal scale and give the computer some instructions about color and format. Let's label the bars January, February, March, and April. As you can see, the text is rather small, but I can increase the size. Our routine here is to capture the groups of information, tell the computer we want them to grow, and let the cursor trace out the change in size. Let's see the change. Okay, that looks better. Let's add a title and some grid marks. The next step is to indicate the size of the bars. And there it is. In just a few minutes, we've constructed a graph. And this is the highresolution image which is recorded on film. Okay, graphs. Pretty simple stuff. Now, let's try something more elaborate. How about a slide on vacationing in Mexico? We're starting with a world map from our symbols file on disc. We take the world map and zoom in on North and South America so we can isolate Mexico. That should give us a good starting point. Let's add some text to the slide. Fun in Mexico. Now capture the text, increase its size, and position it in the lower left corner of the screen. H maybe the words could be larger there. Let's try that. The type style we now have on the screen is Cra Clarendon. If I want another font style such as Helvetica Medium, all I have to do is enter it through the computer. [Applause] It's just as easy to change the color of the text. Let's use one of the computer's greens and drop it into the words. On this system, we can control the hue, chroma, and value to create over 8 million colors. Now, since this slide is about Mexico, let's put Mexico in the limelight. Now, I'll capture Mexico and enlarge it on the left. And we'll let the computer fill in the space between the two maps for a special zoom effect. The last step is to color the map. There, it's finished. Now it's ready to be sent to the camera. And this is the finished product. Here are some other examples of computerenerated art. [Music] You may wonder how these electron Ronic Marbvels can help you. If you're in a small graphics shop, it may not be practical to purchase your own graphics computer. Instead, you may want to have your art prepared at a production center that specializes in computer art. In larger art departments, it may be cost effective to lease or purchase your own system. However, since the camera is the most expensive component of the system, it can be used on a timesharing basis. In such cases, in-house design stations are linked by telephone lines to a service center where the art is photographed. Where the volume of art is great enough, the purchase of a camera may be justified. Having a camera permits the entire production process to occur on site. Computers offer many advantages to the graphic artist. The biggest of which is productivity. By taking over the tedious and repetitive production tasks, the computer frees the artists to concentrate on effective design. And that makes the computer a tool for expanding creativity and communication. [Music]