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New Fox O&O Graphics


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Message added by Weeters

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This thread is for discussion about the FOX O&O graphics as a whole - discussion about individual stations implementation of these graphics should be held in their own thread. This thread's purpose is to discuss the package overall, not individual stations.

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On 1/28/2020 at 7:46 PM, Greggo said:

The different fonts being used in the weather graphics at the various O&Os are ... annoying. KDFW’s might just be the ugliest yet. 

Here's some screenshots of the various O&O's, in random order. Some of the fonts and/or transitions was imported from the previous package. (KTTV's not in there since the forecast didn't show up on their feed when was trying to catch it; I know KRIV & KTTV have an morning variant of the forecast graphics.)

d907cf1332550033.jpg 1c03eb1332550035.jpg e506341332550036.jpg 30ddce1332550039.jpg 0bb92f1332550040.jpg 9ffced1332550042.jpg 499c5a1332550045.jpg 713f4c1332550046.jpg f9c1f11332550049.jpg 9f15e51332550050.jpg 0a29d11332550052.jpg a6797b1332550054.jpg 5fd6931332550055.jpg ae26601332550058.jpg 440cda1332550059.jpg 

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Due to the way WSI's templating/scene system works (and the way the weather office tend to build weather graphics), it's unreasonably difficult to swap out graphics for a graphics package change (unless you pay WSI to do it for you.) Ultimately, what often happens is the weather office takes the new elements and replaces the old elements in a scene, and never bothers to change the fonts since that involves going into every single data element/piece of text in the scene and swapping it to the new font, across dozens of pre-existing scenes that they've amassed over time. That, or you rebuild the scenes from scratch, which is often something nobody wants to do. I'd imagine that most of the time, they're not even aware there's a font change. They're just told to make the weather graphics look a certain way.

 

This is the result. You end up with inconsistent fonts across the group, as different stations spend different amounts of time and effort implementing the graphics.

 

Unfortunately, the job of switching over the weather graphics tends to fall outside the responsibilities of the art department. Not many designers know how to use WSI, and there already aren't many artists at these stations thanks to hubbing. It's left in the hands of weather producers, presenters, and meteorologists with various levels of training on WSI to accomplish in time between their normal duties.

 

I'm aware not all of the stations use WSI, and I'm not sure how Baron's system works, but if you've ever been curious why weather graphics tend to have these crazy inconsistencies, this is why.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Weeters said:

Due to the way WSI's templating/scene system works (and the way the weather office tend to build weather graphics), it's unreasonably difficult to swap out graphics for a graphics package change (unless you pay WSI to do it for you.) Ultimately, what often happens is the weather office takes the new elements and replaces the old elements in a scene, and never bothers to change the fonts since that involves going into every single data element/piece of text in the scene and swapping it to the new font, across dozens of pre-existing scenes that they've amassed over time. That, or you rebuild the scenes from scratch, which is often something nobody wants to do. I'd imagine that most of the time, they're not even aware there's a font change. They're just told to make the weather graphics look a certain way.

 

This is the result. You end up with inconsistent fonts across the group, as different stations spend different amounts of time and effort implementing the graphics.

 

Unfortunately, the job of switching over the weather graphics tends to fall outside the responsibilities of the art department. Not many designers know how to use WSI, and there already aren't many artists at these stations thanks to hubbing. It's left in the hands of weather producers, presenters, and meteorologists with various levels of training on WSI to accomplish in time between their normal duties.

 

I'm aware not all of the stations use WSI, and I'm not sure how Baron's system works, but if you've ever been curious why weather graphics tend to have these crazy inconsistencies, this is why.

 

 

As of a user of Baron (and going through a Re-design with them) It's fairly easy. When I got my package, it was in a .ZIP file, the Font that I needed was in that folder, the movie files, boxes, banners etc. was all automatically dumped into a folder.

They will also go as far as automatically building your 7 day, skycast, etc. for you, and Zipping it up, and dropping it in with the correct font, that way all you have to do is just swap out the old banners (with new font since you can save it as a favorite) on your map frames with the new one. To me, that was the longest part was just going through my map frames and doing that.

The one thing that drives me up the wall is FOX 5 has Baron with the correct font on everything, yet FOX 26 in Houston has both Baron AND WSI. The Baron graphics have the correct font on it, but the WSI fonts are incorrect.

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16 hours ago, Weeters said:

Unfortunately, the job of switching over the weather graphics tends to fall outside the responsibilities of the art department. Not many designers know how to use WSI, and there already aren't many artists at these stations thanks to hubbing. It's left in the hands of weather producers, presenters, and meteorologists with various levels of training on WSI to accomplish in time between their normal duties.

For groups whose graphics are hubbed, you would think that the graphics hub would be responsible for setting up the graphics in each weather system; or if there are, that they would have artists that also have experience (or at least given some training) with Baron, WSI, etc.

 

16 hours ago, Weeters said:

I'd imagine that most of the time, they're not even aware there's a font change. They're just told to make the weather graphics look a certain way.

Aren't the meteorologists provided a style guide of a new graphics package in the event of a graphics overhaul? It should document what fonts to use, not to mention providing example screenshots showing what each element should look like.

 

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I’m just gonna throw out there that the average viewer cares less about what the font is and more about the high and low of the day and whether they see sun or clouds and if there are clouds what’s coming out of said clouds... so the fonts being the same is relatively picky and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things... if it triggers your OCD I understand... it gets mine rolling too... as do typos and reporters starting every live shot by answering a toss with “yes...” like they are ordering food or making an appointment with their doctor. I’d love to be in a position to make them stop or be canned but alas...

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that no normal John Q. Public will ever see more than one station and be able to tell the difference even if they traveled somewhere and watched another station. 

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People are too busy calling and complaining about our meteorologists getting the forecast wrong. I doubt they’re paying attention to typefaces. 😂🙄

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On 1/30/2020 at 2:29 PM, ns8401 said:

I’m just gonna throw out there that the average viewer cares less about what the font is and more about the high and low of the day and whether they see sun or clouds and if there are clouds what’s coming out of said clouds... so the fonts being the same is relatively picky and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things... if it triggers your OCD I understand... it gets mine rolling too... as do typos and reporters starting every live shot by answering a toss with “yes...” like they are ordering food or making an appointment with their doctor. I’d love to be in a position to make them stop or be canned but alas...

 

1. Yes, most viewers probably do not care.

2. This is TV News Talk. That's what we do here.  We talk about graphics, compare them, and share ideas about what we think may make them better.

3. Even if viewers don't explicitly notice fonts, it's possible some may have a subconscious reaction to inconsistencies and sloppiness.  

 

Story Time:  I have two Target stores near my house.  I couldn't figure out why I never felt as great about one of the locations.  I kept coming back to the word "dirtier" even though I did not actually observe any dirt or sloppiness.  Eventually I realized that the lights they use are just not as bright as my preferred store.  Just a small thing that made me come away with an unfavorable opinion, all other things being equal.  It pays to be neat.

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5 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

 

1. Yes, most viewers probably do not care.

2. This is TV News Talk. That's what we do here.  We talk about graphics, compare them, and share ideas about what we think may make them better.

3. Even if viewers don't explicitly notice fonts, it's possible some may have a subconscious reaction to inconsistencies and sloppiness.  

 

Story Time:  I have two Target stores near my house.  I couldn't figure out why I never felt as great about one of the locations.  I kept coming back to the word "dirtier" even though I did not actually observe any dirt or sloppiness.  Eventually I realized that the lights they use are just not as bright as my preferred store.  Just a small thing that made me come away with an unfavorable opinion, all other things being equal.  It pays to be neat.

And that’s all absolutely true, but I think it is very fair and very valid to point out the perspective of a viewer in all this. That is a perspective I think we overlook being in the bubble we are in as hobbyists or employees in some cases. I’ve had some “ok then...” reactions when I tell people I like to look at the production aspects of the news...

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2 minutes ago, ns8401 said:

And that’s all absolutely true, but I think it is very fair and very valid to point out the perspective of a viewer in all this. That is a perspective I think we overlook being in the bubble we are in as hobbyists or employees in some cases. I’ve had some “ok then...” reactions when I tell people I like to look at the production aspects of the news...

 

You could use that argument about any discussion on this board.  As long as we don't say something like "people are going to be protesting in the streets if the station changes their logo," I think we're fine here.

 

New anchor? Most viewers just want their news.

New graphics? Most viewers just want their news.

New set? Most viewers just want their news.

New music? Most viewers just want their news.

 

That's why we have TVNT, so that we don't have to bore our real life friends with our mostly trivial comments.  🙂

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