Guy Bickel's
Corporate Video Backgrounds

Corporate Video Backgrounds was originally designed out of the day-to-day needs of a busy video artist. At the time that award-winning video artist Guy Bickel began creating the highly attractive images which comprise Corporate Video Backgrounds (CVB), there was no such product on the market to meet his needs.

When asked about the origins of CVB, Guy Bickel said:

"I wanted them - I needed them. I wanted to just order some backgrounds from a supply house and get to work, but I ended up having to make them myself. Everything was designed for print. There were plenty of print-based clip-art images out there to choose from, but because they were made in PhotoShop specifically for print media, as soon as you dropped them into the video buffer, BOOM - weird strobing and bizarre artifacts appeared all over the place, and there was constant trouble with luminance and over-saturation problems. Not only that, but they tended to be in all of these weird sizes like 576 x 768. I needed a collection of convenient NTSC broadcast-legal images which had been specifically designed in a video frame buffer on an NTSC screen with video and text in mind"

So, from his constant need to stay on top of his demanding workload at Tampa's Business Video Productions, Guy began designing Corporate Video Backgrounds.

"They still come in extremely handy. I work in a high volume corporate video editing system, and there are tons and tons of projects coming up all of the time. Sometimes, little projects pop in here and there that you really can't devote a lot of time to - you just need to get it done and still have it look real nice. Or sometimes, nobody remembered to make that background for the credits at the end. Now that I have CVB, I can get around these potential hazards by having a handy and convenient collection of images that I can either use alone, or use them as a base for creating something new. Sometimes, I just pop them into AdPro or AlphaPaint for a quick blur routine. I also get interesting results in PhotoShop using Kai's Power Tools. You can run a pixel storm, mosaic, stained glass, or zig-zag routine and get something really cool, or a lot of times I'll blend two or more of them together with a gentle rub-through."

Guy spent a long time working on the various images in CVB, and by the time he had amassed a large enough collection of them, he figured that his experience was not unique and that there were probably other video artists out there who needed such a collection. So, he carefully selected 250 of the very best images and teamed up with longtime friend and associate Jeff White to release the Corporate Video backgrounds package as a new product in the Visual Inspirations product line.

"There's tons of corporate video suites out there that are just a one or two guy operation. There's no time to be the artist too. There's also a lot of small TV stations without an art department or an art staff, as well as cable editing systems and multimedia departments in schools - I figured all of these usually time-scarce operations could use the CVB package."

Corporate Video Backgrounds comes on a single CD-ROM, and all 250 images are provided in PICT, TARGA, and IFF formats. This cross-platform compatability makes them available for use in any MAC, IBM, or Amiga-based Video Editing Facility, and they are perfect for use with Avid, ImMix, Matrox, and the Newtek Video Flyer.

Each image in the CVB collection is identified by a specific prefix which provides some basic information about the image in question. These prefixes are usually abbreviated colors first followed by a phonetic word designed to have it recognizable at a glance.

For Example:
GRY&GRN.BGD = Grey & Green Background
GLDDIAG.LIN = Gold Diagonal Linear Ramp
YELLOUCH.TEX = Yellow Texture That's Hard To Look At

Here is a list of the prefixes used:

BLACK = BLK or BK
BLUE = BLU or BL
GOLD = GLD
GREEN = GRN or GN
GRAY = GRY or GY
LAVENDER = LAV
MAGENTA = MAG
ORANGE = ORG or OR
PEACH = PCH
PINK = PNK
RED = RED or RD
WHITE = WHT or WT
LIGHT = LT or LITE
DARK = DK or DRK

All images in the CVB collection are also identified by a specific suffix which relates to the general layout of the image in question. This will help greatly in selecting the right background for the right job.

For Example:
BGD - Background Page Usually with No Defining Borders or Sections
BOX - Image Usually has a Squared Off Section for Text or Video
EMB - Embossed Image; Majority of Image Etched in Stone

Because of the way that PCs handle extensions, all of the images for the PC have .TGA extensions. However, there is a collection of thumbnails of all the images, and these thumbnails have the correct names of the files on them.

Here is a list of the suffixes used:

BGD - Background Page Usually with No Defining Borders or Sections
BLT - Bullet Build Page with Divided Portion on Upper 5th for Title
BOR - Bordered Image; Usually with Section of Screen for Titles
BOX - Image Usually has a Squared Off Section for Text or Video
CRV - Image is Divided by Large Curved Border
DIV - Divided Screen; Image Divided in Abnormal Fashion
EMB - Embossed Image; Majority of Image Etched in Stone
FRC - Fractal; Undefined, 2 Color Blend With Specific Direction
HOR - Image has Center Third Divided Horizontally
LIN - Linear Pattern; Usually Diagonal
PAT - Pattern; A Full Screen Repeated Pattern with No Defined Borders
RAD - Radial Spread Pattern
TEX - Image is Base Texture for Many of the Backgrounds
VER - Image is Divided Vertically

The Corporate Video Backgrounds collection truly is a must for any busy video artist.

Corporate Video Backgrounds
By Guy Bickel
Suggested Retail Price: $199.95
Sale Price: $149.95
(Includes FREE Shipping)

Available from:

Visual Inspirations
809 W. Hollywood
Tampa, FL 33604

(813) 935-6410 Voice/FAX
(813) 935-6513 BBS

E-Mail: visual@vionline.com
URL: http://www.vionline.com/merlin/