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RT: Branding toolkits & Asset supply

Overview

The purpose of this document is to outline in detail the preferred and recommended physical assets that will be required to implement graphics projects for automation or live programmes.

This requirement will become necessary for either:

  1. Training periods, leading to graphics implementation
  2. The creation of a new graphics project
  3. The migration of existing channel graphics to Swift engine
  4. Engaging RT Creative to author templates as a service
  5. Support cases for specific templates
  6. Proof-of-concept, end-to-end, pre-sales demonstrations

RT Creative are the in-house, specialist services provider for RT Software, who design, author and implement branded graphics templates for automation, live news, programmes and events across all broadcast sectors.

RT Creative personnel also deliver Swift CG and Swift CG+ editor training courses for template authors.

In order to proceed with a migration, rebrand or refresh, RT Creative requires the kit-of-parts that form a particular channel or programme brand.

Our expectations would be that we acquire the following types of information, documentation and assets in the following ways.

Style guides

Normally supplied in PDF form, but also obtained online. This document is provided by internal creative, design departments or external agencies. This document outlines the brand guidelines of specific channels or programmes in terms of:

  • Logo usage: For example, exclusion zones and variations
  • Branded Imagery usage: For example, backgrounds, straps and colours
  • Typography: For example, font weights, family members and usage
  • Promotional devices: For example, menus, squeezbacks, IPP’s and bugs

Examples

These assets are mostly provided by creative, design departments and are required to exemplify:

  • Current transmission graphics and styles
  • Animations, durations and variations
  • Positional and scale guidance
  • Other details such as multiple graphics on screen and layer ordering
  • Examples are often provided in these formats:
    • Movie clips that are compressed but of full resolution, at the appropriate framerate (.mov; .mpg; .mxf) etc.
    • Stills that are full resolution (.jpg)

Scheduling documents

These documents are normally provided by presentation, engineering or scheduling teams and are required for functional reasons, mostly with regard to the update of dynamic graphical properties for automation and control purposes. These documents are often:

  • Emailed or printed documents:
    • .pdf; .doc; .docx; xls
  • Shared online        :
    • Google docs; Google sheets;

Data and data sources

For graphics projects that require external data sources, it is preferable to acquire test, example or live sources during the template authoring process, because queries and sourcing are often written exclusively into templates on an individual basis. The following provisions are recommended:

  • Databases:
    • MYSQL database copies, dumps or example files
  • RSS feeds:
    • Live source urls
  • Files:
    • Test, example or genuine files for .xml; xls and xlsx; .txt; .json

Physical assets

These graphics assets are produced by graphics departments. The tools that produce them are the standard content creation tools such as Adobe Suite, Autodesk or other content creation applications.

Archives

We would normally expect to acquire these assets in one or more of the following ways:

  • Available on portable drive
  • Available on ftp of a client or partner or RT hosted
  • Available as shared Google drive
  • Available in the cloud

Structure

We would normally expect to receive assets on a channel by channel basis. For example:

  1. ChannelName
    1. ChannelNameLogos
      1. ChannelNameBug1.png
      2. ChannelNameBug2.png
        1. ChannelNameFonts
          1. Gill Sans regular.ttf
          2. Gill Sans Bold.otf
            1. ChannelNameExamples
              1. ChannelNameMenusTx.mpg
              2. ChannelNameCrossChan.mov
                1. ChannelNameMenus
                  1. ChannelNameMenu1
                    1. Menu1_0001.png
                    2. Menu1_0002.png
                    3. Menu1_0003.png, etc
                    4. Menu1.mov, etc
                      1. ChannelNameMenu2
                        1. Menu2_0001.png
                        2. Menu2_0002.png
                        3. Menu2_0003.png, etc
                          1. ChannelNameIPP’s
                            1. ChannelNameIPP1
                              1. IPP1.psd
                                1. ChannelNameIPP2
                                  1. IPP2.psd

Recommended formats for stills

Typical formats for supplied assets:

  • .png files. With or without transparency
  • .tga files. With or without alpha
  • .tif files. With or without alpha
  • .jpg files

The following files are not directly imported – but are very useful

  • .psd files        (Photoshop)
  • .aep files        (After Effects)
  • .ai files        (Illustrator)
  • .eps files        (Generic)
  • .pdf files        (Generic)

Recommended formats for sequences

  • .png sequences. With or without alpha
  • .tga sequences. With or without alpha

Recommended formats for clips

For wrapped clip formats, RT will provide further details regarding codec, resolution, target bitrate, gop lengths, audio and compression options:

  • .mov; .mxf; .avi etc (All ffmpeg compliant)

Recommended formats for 3d geometry

  • .fbx files (Industry standard)
  • .obj files (Softimage)

The following files are not directly imported – but are very useful

  • .max files; .3ds files (3dstudioMax)
  • .c4d files (Cinema 4d)
  • .mb files (Maya)
  • .lwo files (Lightwave)
  • .ply files; .stl files; .off files (Houdini)
  • .dwg files; .dxf files (CAD)

Recommended formats for fonts

  • .ttf files (True type)
  • .otf files (Open type)