Chapter 7: Making Multimedia

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 Overview

Stages of a multimedia project

What You Need: The Intangibles
What You Need: Hardware
What You Need: Software
What You Need: Authoring Systems

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 Stages of a Multimedia Project
LECTURE WEEK 11

Planning and costing

The needs of a project are analyzed by outlining
its messages and objectives.
A plan that outlines the required multimedia
expertise is prepared.

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 Stages of a Multimedia Project
(continued)

Planning and costing (continued)

A graphic template, the structure, and navigational
system are developed.
A time estimate and a budget are prepared.
A short prototype or proof-of-concept is prepared.

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 Stages of a Multimedia Project
(continued)

Designing and producing

The planned tasks are performed to create a
finished product.
The product is revised, based on the continuous
feedback received from the client.

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 Stages of a Multimedia Project
(continued)

Testing
The program is tested to ensure that it
meets the objectives of the project,
works on the proposed delivery
platforms,
meets the client requirements.
Delivering
The final project is packaged and delivered to
the end user.

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 What You Need: The Intangibles

Creativity
In a multimedia project, being creative implies
knowledge of hardware and software.

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 What You Need: The Intangibles
(continued)

Organization
It is essential to develop an organized outline
detailing the skills, time, budget, tools, and
resources needed for the project.
Assets such as graphics, sound, and the like should
be continuously monitored throughout the projects
execution.
A standardized file-naming procedure should be
followed for precise organization and swift retrieval.
(eg: all image used in montage should be named as
mtg_imagename.

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 What You Need: The Intangibles
(continued) END of Lecture WEEK 11

Communication
Communication among the workgroup and client
is essential to the efficient and accurate completion
of your project.
Use quality equipment and software for stable
and fast networking of the workgroup.

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 What You Need: Hardware
WEEK 10

The most significant platforms for producing

and delivering multimedia projects are the
Macintosh operating system and Microsoft
Windows.
The Macintosh as well as the Windows PC
offer a combination of affordability, and
software and hardware availability.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Detailed and animated multimedia can also

be created on specialized workstations from
Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems.
Projects must be tested to ensure proper
performance in all target environments.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Windows vs. Macintosh

The Microsoft Windows operating system can run
on assemblages of hardware from countless
manufacturers. (Microsoft: sw only)
Apple Computer produces both the computer and
the operating system. (Apple: hw and sw)

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Networking Macintosh and Windows

computers
Local area networks (LANs) connect computers
that are close to each other. They are relatively
less expensive.
Ethernet and Wifi are the most common networking
technology.
Client/server software allows computers
to communicate and pass files.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Networking Macintosh and Windows

computers (continued)
Wide area networks (WANs) connect computers
over a diverse geographical area. Typically set up
and managed by large corporations, WANs are
expensive to install and maintain.
Internet service providers (ISPs) connect
computers to the internet via a WAN.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Connections
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE)
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
FireWire (IEEE 1394)

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

SCSI:
Connects internal and external peripheral
equipment and devices (disk drives, scanners, CD-
ROM player).

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Because it can connect many devices, it is preferred for

real-time video editing, network servers, and situations
that require mirroring (writing simultaneously to two or
more disks).

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics):

Connections are also known as Advanced
Technology Attachment (ATA).
These are usually to connect internal devices such
as hard drives, CD-ROM drives, and DVD-ROM
drives.
IDE requires CPU time (SCSI does not)

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

USB:
A standard for connecting devices to the computer
using the plug-and-play (devices are automatically
recognized) system.

Uses a single cable to connect 127 USB peripherals

to a single PC.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

FireWire:
Introduced by Apple in the 1980s.
In 1995, became the industry standard and
provides support for high-bandwidth serial data
transfer, particularly for digital video and mass
storage.
Can connect multiple computers and peripheral
devices (peer-to-peer) at a time.
(*USB devices can only be attached to one computer at a
time)

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Memory and storage devices

Sufficient memory must be allocated for storing
and archiving files.
Memory requirements of a multimedia project
depend on the project's content and scope.
The two types of memory are random access
memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM).

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Memory and storage devices (continued)

RAM enables the simultaneously running of many
applications. RAM is volatile (loses its contents
when power is off)
ROM is non-volatile. The BIOS program that boots
up the computer resides in the ROM. ROM is also
used in printers to hold built-in fonts.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Memory and storage devices (continued)

Hard disks are non-removable mass-storage
devices and have a high data storage capacity and
data transfer speed.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Memory and storage devices (continued)

Flash or thumb drives:
Small storage devices that can be integrated with
USB or FireWire devices.
Can store from 8 megabytes to several GB
of data.
More reliable than disk drives.
Small printed circuit board encased
in sturdy metal or plastic.
Usable, trendy, and convenient.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Memory and storage devices (continued)

CD-ROM:
CD-ROM drives are an important part of multimedia
development.
CD-ROM discs are useful for short-run distribution of
finished multimedia projects and data backup.
* CD-R (Compact Disc Readable) is a pre manufactured
blank compact disc wheredata can be written and recorded,
while Compact Disc Read Only Memory is a manufactured
compact disc with data already stored

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Memory and storage devices (continued)

CD-ROM (continued):
A CD-RW recorder can rewrite 700MB of data to a
CD-RW disc about 1,000 times.
CD-RWs are similar to CD-Rs, except CD-RWs can be
completely erased.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Memory and storage devices (continued)

DVD:
Is an optical disc technology for distributing
multimedia and feature-length movies.
They provide sharp and detailed video resolution.
The three types of DVDs are DVD-Read Write,
DVD-Video, and DVD-ROM.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Memory and storage devices (continued)

Blue-ray discs:
Were developed by motion picture industry.
Can be used for high-definition television recording,
video distribution, camcorder archiving, and mass
data storage.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Input devices
An optical character recognition (OCR) device is
used to convert printed matter into ASCII text files.
Voice recognition systems recognize spoken words
and commands.
Microphones and cables are used to capture audio.
Digital cameras use charged-coupled devices
(CCDs) to digitally capture images.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Input devices (continued)

* Use scanner
and OCR
software to
capture text
in an image

Working with a scanner, OCR software

can save many hours of rekeying text.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Output devices
For better quality audio, external stereo speakers
are required.
Many multimedia developers use more than one
monitor by adding additional display adapters to
the computer.

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 What You Need: Hardware
(continued)

Output devices (continued)

Projectors are used when you have a larger
audience than can be accommodated around
a computer monitor.
Color printers are an important part of any
multimedia production department.

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 What You Need: Software

Text editing and word processing tools

Word processors such as Microsoft Word and
WordPerfect are powerful applications that include
spell checkers, table formatters, thesauruses,
and prebuilt templates for letters, rsums,
purchase orders, and other common documents.
OpenOffice is a free, downloadable
word processing program.

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

OCR software
Converts bitmapped characters into electronically
recognizable ASCII text.
Makes use of probability and expert system
algorithms.
Is very accurate and saves time and effort.

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

Painting tools allow you to create and

modify bitmap images.
PhotoShop, Fireworks, and Painter are examples.
Bitmapped images provide the greatest choice and
power for rendering fine detail and effects.

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

Drawing tools allow you to create and

modify vector graphics.
CorelDraw, Illustrator, and Canvas are examples.
Vector graphics are used by Adobe Flash to reduce
download time and scaling problems with web
graphics.
Many authoring systems can only import bitmap
graphics.

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

Painting and drawing software features

include:
An intuitive graphical user interface
Scalable dimensions (resize, stretch, distort image)
Multiple undo capability (easy to edit and undo
multiple times)

Scalable text font support

Support for third-party special effect plug-ins
Layering capability
Zooming for magnified pixel editing

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

Painting and drawing software features

include (continued)
Painting features such as smoothing coarse-edged
objects into the background with anti-aliasing.

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

3-D modeling tools allow rendering of

objects in a three-dimensional perspective.
VectorWorks, AutoDesk Maya, and Strata 3D are
examples.
Many applications allow you to export and save
moving images as QuickTime or AVI animation
files.
3-D graphics usually take a long time to render,
so plan accordingly.

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

3-D modeling tools allow rendering of

objects in a three-dimensional perspective.

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

3-D modeling software features include:

Good color and palette management
Multiple dimension windows and unlimited cameras
Lathe and extrude features
Ability to drag and drop primitive shapes, sculpt
organic objects
Color and texture mapping

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

Image-editing tools
Are specialized and powerful tools for enhancing
and retouching existing bitmapped images.
Many painting and drawing programs also serve
as image editors.
Features include conversion of image-data types
and file formats, masking features, employment
of virtual memory scheme, etc.
Support third-party plug-ins.

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

Sound-editing
tools
Enables the user
to see music as a
waveform as well
as hear sound.
This is done by
drawing a
representation of
sound in fine
increments.

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

Animation, video, and digital movie tools

Animation is a sequence of bitmapped graphic
scenes or frames, rapidly played back.
Animations can also be made within some
authoring systems by moving objects or sprites to
simulate motion.

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 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
 What You Need: Software
(continued)

Moviemaking tools (eg: Adobe Premiere, Final Cut

Pro) take advantage of QuickTime (Apple) and AVI
(Microsoft) formats to create, edit, and present
digitized motion video segments.
Edit and assemble video clips captured from camera,
tape, other digitized movie segments, animations,
scanned images, and from digitized audio or MIDI files

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 What You Need: Software
(continued)

Helpful accessories
Screen-capture software enables the user
to move bitmapped images by placing them
on the clipboard.
Format converters are useful for projects where the
source material originates on different platforms.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
17 & 18 Aug 16

Multimedia authoring tools provide the

framework for organizing and editing the
elements (graphics, sounds, animations, videos) of a
multimedia project.
Authoring software provides an integrated
environment for combining the content and
functions of a project.
It enables the developer to create, edit, and
import data; assemble raw data into a
playback sequence; provide structured method
for responding to user input (eg: menu, button,
link when clicked, should open the respective screen.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Helpful ways to get started:

Use pre-made templates, wizards, and styles
to save time on page setup.
Improve document appearance with tables,
bulleted and numbered lists, and symbols (so that
some information/message is more readable and easier
for users to focus.)

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Helpful ways to get started (continued):

Help readers find information with tables of
contents, running headers and footers, and
indexes.
Use quick-change, spelling, and grammar checker
features.
Include identifying information in the filename.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Making instant multimedia

The scope of your project determines the
appropriate production tool.
Modern office productivity software can perform
many simple multimedia tasks.
Most modern PCs have some multimedia creation
tools built in.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Most word processing programs allow you to

include various image formats, movies, and
digitized sounds (including voice annotations).

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Spreadsheets can include embedded objects

made with other applications.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

A FileMaker Pro employee database can

include image and sound resources.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Microsoft PowerPoint provides multimedia linking

and embedding features.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Types of authoring tools

Card- and page-based authoring tools
Icon- and object-based authoring tools
Time-based authoring tools

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Card- and page-based authoring tools

Elements are arranged like pages of a book or
cards in a stack.
These tools contain media objects such as buttons,
text fields, and graphic objects.
Runtime Revolution and ToolBook are examples
of page-based systems.

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 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
HyperCard is an example of card-based systems

Card-based system uses card stack

metaphors. Cards (containing
different elements) are put in stack.
You can link the cards (by allowing
user to click on
buttons/menus/anchor) to jump to a
particular card in the stack.
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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Card- and page-based authoring tools

(continued)
Characteristics of objects are defined by properties.
Objects may contain scripts that specify a related
action.
One or more intermediate files are usually required
for handling script actions and routines.
Cards or pages can contain multiple layers.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Icon- and object-based authoring tools

Icon-based and object-based tools provide a visual
programming approach to organizing and
presenting multimedia.
Multimedia elements and interaction cues are
organized as objects in a flowchart.
Flowcharts can be built by dragging appropriate
icons from a library, and then adding the content.

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Macromedia Authorware is an example of icon-
based tool.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Time-based authoring tools

Time-based tools are best suited for messages with
a beginning and an end.
Adobes Flash and Director are time-based
development environments.

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Adobe Flash is an example of time-based tool.

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More examples of time-based tool.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Time-based authoring tools (continued)

Adobe Flash
Flash is used for delivering rich multimedia content
to the Web.
It allows the creation of simple static HTML pages
with the Flash Player plug-in.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Time-based authoring tools (continued)

Adobe Director
A multimedia database, Cast, contains still images,
sound files, text, shapes, scripts, movies, and other
Director files.
Score is a sequencer for displaying, animating, and
playing Cast members.
Lingo is an object-oriented scripting language that
enables interactivity and programmed control.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Objects
Authoring tools generally treat multimedia
elements as objects.
Objects exist in a hierarchical order of parent and
child relationships.
Each object is assigned properties and modifiers.
On receiving messages, objects perform tasks
depending on the properties and modifiers.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Choosing an authoring tool

Editing and organizing features
Programming features
Interactivity features
Performance tuning and playback features
Delivery, cross-platform, and Internet playability
features

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Editing and organizing features

Authoring systems include editing tools to create,
edit, and convert multimedia elements such as
animation and video clips.
The organization, design, and production process
for multimedia involves storyboarding and
flowcharting.
Visual flowcharting or an overview facility illustrates
project structure at a macro level.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Programming features
Visual programming with icons or objects is the
simplest and easiest authoring process.
Authoring tools offer very high level language
(VHLL) or interpreted scripting environment.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Interactivity features
Interactivity gives the end user control over the
content and flow of information in a project.
Simple branching is the ability to go to another
section of the multimedia production.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Interactivity features (continued)

Conditional branching is an activity based on the
results of IF-THEN decisions or events.
Structured language supports complex
programming logic, subroutines, event tracking,
and message passing among objects and elements.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Performance-tuning and playback features

Achieving synchronization is difficult, considering
that performance of the different computers used
for multimedia development and delivery varies.
Authoring system should facilitate precise timing
of events.
These features should enable developers to build
part of a project and then test it immediately.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Delivery features
Delivering the project may require building a run-
time version of the project, using the multimedia
authoring software.
A run-time or standalone version allows a project
to play back without the complete authoring
software and all its tools and editors.

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 What You Need: Authoring Systems
(continued)

Cross-platform and Internet-playability

features
It is important to use tools that facilitate easy
transfer across platforms.
Authoring systems provide a means for converting
their output to be delivered within the context of
HTML or DHTML.

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 Summary

The basic stages of a multimedia project are

planning and costing, design and
production, and testing and delivery.
Knowledge of hardware and software, as
well as creativity and organizational skills,
are essential for creating a high-quality
multimedia project.

2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Summary (continued)

Macintosh and Windows are the two most

common hardware platforms used in
multimedia.
LANs, WANs, Ethernet, and client/server
software facilitate communication and
connectivity among computers.
Storage devices include hard disks, RAM,
ROM, flash memory and thumb drives,
CD-ROM, DVD, and Blu-ray discs.

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 Summary (continued)

Input devices include keyboards, mice

touch-screens, scanners, OCR devices,
voice recognition software, and digital
cameras.
Output devices include audio devices,
speakers, amplifiers, monitors, video
devices, projectors, and printers.

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 Summary (continued)

Word processors and OCR software are used

to handle text in multimedia.
Painting and drawing tools, 3-D modeling
and animation tools, and image editing tools
manipulate the graphical content of the
project.
Sound-editing tools manipulate the audio
content of the project.
Format converters and screen-capture tools
are helpful accessories.

2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

 Summary (continued)

Multimedia authoring tools provide the

framework needed for organizing and
editing multimedia elements in a project.
The three types of authoring tools are card-
or page-based, icon-based or event-driven,
and time-based.

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 Summary (continued)

Choose an authoring tool based on editing,

organizing, programming, interactivity,
performance-tuning, playback, delivery,
cross-platform, and Internet playability
features.

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