The Art of Mocking

Brekkie Boy PM'd me and I concur -- there seems to be too many "how can I make mocks?" threads about, and this thread will try and capture all those various and sundry requests.

To start off, I think I can summarise a lot of Q&A that's been said already over the months, and kick things off with this thread.

What do I need to Mock?
There are two things you need to make mocks: software and skill. There's no two ways around it: lacking either is going to make you and your hard work the subject of ridicule.

All right then, what sort of software?
Of course, it would be great to use what the pros use. Paintbox, Chyron ... all that would be ideal, but chances are you don't have it (or access to it). So use what's available. The most popular applications are Photoshop, Illustrator, Paint Shop Pro, Fireworks, and Flash (for animations). Some people choose to use PowerPoint and Microsoft Paint for their mocks, because that's what they have to work with. They tend to be of pretty low quality. But then again, the tool doesn't make the artist.

So what's this skill thing I hear so much about?
Obviously, we have a whole range of skills on this forum, from beginners to professionals. It's important to note that people are using the forum to develop their skills, and are looking for constructive feedback. Alternatively, there are those who are just looking for praise ... if you're one of those people, don't post your stuff here. Critics here don't frequently dish out the praise. But the other side of that coin is that if you know what's wrong with your work, you can do better to correct it later on. It's a give and take process that works both ways.

Standards? What standards?
Television has guidelines, as most media do. So you have to stay within safe areas, use safe colours, and make sure your aspect ratios are right. If you have questions about this, visit the Mock Tips link, or ask someone in this thread.

I spent a good 30 minutes on this, so I think it's ready to post.
That's a negative, red leader. Spending time on a project is the best thing you can do to ensure quality work. If you barf something on screen in 10 minutes, it's going to look it, and it isn't gonna pass muster. It's important to make sure you have good quality time invested in your work, or else it's going to show. This applies to things other than Mocks, so if you're posting here to maybe someday get work in this field, then keep in mind that your future employer might be already looking at your work!

So that's the first round of tips I can offer. I'm going to close all the other related topics at this point, and point people here instead. So don't be offended if you find your topic locked: it's just so we can bring this discussion together.

Okay! Let's get started!

http://homepage.mac.com/robertpalmer/tvforum/sig.gif

In my experience, one of the worst things that you can be guilty of in terms of mock-making is clutter. I've never posted anything onto the Mocks forum here, but I have contributed several galleries to APFS, and I've learned over time that the less you have in your image, the better it is, by and large.

This doesn't only refer to screen junk like DOGs, "Subtitles" and "888" tags, and other sundries, but also to design. Put too much in a picture and, worse still, don't link the different elements together in a coherent way, and it'll look crap and amateurish. (Some things I've done have been guilty of this).

"Rough out" mocks first by creating basic approximations in Paint, or drawing by hand. It'll give you a better idea of how it looks once its in front of you rather than just in your head.

Apart from that, I'd go further than MrToms and say don't use MSPaint at all. It's not difficult to get hold of a copy of PaintShopPro and many new PCs come with graphics utilities. If you're serious about mock-making your finished work should always be produced in a package that's half decent - at least something that allows anti-aliasing, anyway. Mind you, I've seen some good efforts in PowerPoint - as long as it's done properly.

And never use lens flares. Even though that's something I'm guilty of myself.

Hi just thought there should be something about a good size in pixels to make your mock. So if anyone knows and could leave it here it would be great.

I think around 400 px wide by the appropriate height for the aspect ratio is reasonable, and friendly to people of all bandwidths.

http://homepage.mac.com/robertpalmer/tvforum/sig.gif

Yep! My designs used 400x300 - though Mark McMillan shrunk them before uploading them! I've got loads at home, but my PC doesn't have the web!

even though you've hardly posted any, and 400x300 is not the correct aspect ratio to use

thank God for small mercies...

I think my maths is letting me down... bear in mind



400x300 is perfect for a 4:3 (ie non widescreen) mock? or have I missed the point?

whoops, i thought he meant widescreen - sorry

But he'd still have to shrink it down to [what is it] 320x240 or something like that; otherwise the page can't be viewed properly on a 800x600 screen.

We use the following image sizes on APFS...

320 x 240 pixels (4:3 aspect ratio)
426 x 240 pixels (16:9 aspect ratio)

This is very usefull