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It's easy to
create good-looking screens for use with
Interactive Messaging Unlimited. There are two main ways to do this:
- Use the tools in the Video Messaging
Unlimited software to create your screens directly. As described on the
VMU page, you can place graphic elements
including video feeds, pictures, animations, titles, voting results and
scrolling text.
- Use a graphics program such as Photoshop
or Corel Draw to create your desired screen. Then bring this into VMU as
a background image. Finally, position graphic elements on top of the
background image.
Example screens
The example
screens on this page were all created using Photoshop-type programs. They
were originally done for clients or as demo samples of IMU's capabilities.
Generally,
there are four main sections in the background screen. One area is for
video, which can be an advertisement, a movie trailer or a live feed
(e.g., a concert). There is also a window for bitmap (non-moving) ads, one
for chat, and one for user profiles. In addition, there may be an area for
scrolling text such as "Call 321-555-1212 to chat".
For example,
this background screen for a dating service shows the four main areas:
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Click to enlarge
Here's what it looks like in operation -- with
video, profiles and chat added:
Click to enlarge
HBO Fight Night
For this screen, the client provided a
sample layout:
However, this
was not very exciting artistically. Also, it also was in standard TV
proportions. For HDTV use, the screen had to be wider. The artist came up
with this final version. It included two areas for text and voting, plus a
black rectangle for video.
Click to enlarge
Fantastic Four
This screen was
done for a proposed Fantastic Four chat program. The four areas are for
the movie trailer, a "Making the movie" featurette, a window where viewers
can vote for their favorite Fantastic Four character, and at the bottom
right, a wide chat window.
Click to enlarge
Mountain Dew
A Mountain Dew can was photographed and
used as the background to this screen. By use of drop shadows, the various
elements were given apparent depth on top of the background can.
Click to enlarge
New York Mets
This was a demo for a proposed New York
Mets fan chat on standard TV (not HDTV). The original concept was to put a
baseball diamond in the background:
However, the
various windows covered up so much of the baseball field that it was hard
to make out the diamond. So the final version used the Mets logo as a
graphic element:
Click to enlarge
Yellowcard concert
This screen was
done for the first High Definition interactive TV cable program in the
U.S. It was a "fan chat" presented before a live concert by the band
Yellowcard. You can read more about the event and the technology on
this page.
The background
image consisted of a "ticket" to the Yellowcard concert with a window to
show their videos, a picture of their album, a photo of the band, and a
blue area for the chat text.
Click to enlarge
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Click on the example
screens on this page, to see a larger image.
Most of these screens were originally done for High Definition TV,
at sizes such as 1280 x 720 pixels, or even 1920 x 1080. For use on
this website, the larger versions have been reduced to 900 pixels in
width.. |
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