1. Introduction to multimedia.....................................................................................................................3

1.1 Definitions.........................................................................................................................................3

1.2 CD-ROM and Multimedia Highway....................................................................................................3

Virtual reality.......................................................................................................................................3

1.3 Use of Multimedia.............................................................................................................................4

2. Introduction to making multimedia.........................................................................................................5

2.1 Stages of a project.............................................................................................................................5

i. Planning and costing....................................................................................................................5

ii. Designing and producing.............................................................................................................5

iii. Testing.........................................................................................................................................5

iv. Delivery........................................................................................................................................5

2.2 Requirement......................................................................................................................................5

i. Creativity......................................................................................................................................5

ii. Organization................................................................................................................................5

iii. Hardware.....................................................................................................................................5

iv. Software......................................................................................................................................6

2.3 Multimedia team...............................................................................................................................6

i. Project manager..........................................................................................................................6

ii. Multimedia designer....................................................................................................................6

iii. Writer..........................................................................................................................................7

iv. Audio specialist............................................................................................................................7

v. Video specialist............................................................................................................................7

vi. Multimedia programmer.............................................................................................................7

3. Multimedia hardware..............................................................................................................................8

3.1 Macintosh and windows production platform...................................................................................8

3.2 Hardware peripherals........................................................................................................................8

Connection devices..............................................................................................................................8

Memory and storage device................................................................................................................9

Input device.......................................................................................................................................12

Output Device....................................................................................................................................13

Communication device......................................................................................................................13

4. Multimedia software.............................................................................................................................15

4.1 Basic Tools.......................................................................................................................................15

4.2 Multimedia authoring tools.............................................................................................................16

4.3 Cross Platform Authoring.................................................................................................................17

5. Multimedia Building Block.....................................................................................................................18

5.1. Text.................................................................................................................................................18

5.2 Sound and music..............................................................................................................................21

5.3 Color Theory....................................................................................................................................22

5.4 Graphics and Imaging......................................................................................................................24

5.5 Animation........................................................................................................................................25

5.6 Video...............................................................................................................................................26

6. The Internet and the World Wide Web.................................................................................................29

6.1 How the internet works...................................................................................................................29

6.2 Tools for the World Wide Web........................................................................................................31

6.4 Designing for the World Wide Web.................................................................................................32

7. Assembling and delivering a project......................................................................................................33

7.1 Planning and Costing.......................................................................................................................33

7.2 Designing and Producing.................................................................................................................34

7.3 Content and talent...........................................................................................................................34

7.4 Delivery............................................................................................................................................34

1. Introduction to multimedia

1.1 DefinitionsA woven combination of digitally manipulated text, photograph, graphical art, sound, animation and video elements is called multimedia. It is the integration of multiple forms of media. This includes text, graphics, audio, video, etc. Multimedia is the field concerned with the computer-controlled integration of text, graphics, drawings, still and moving images (Video), animation, audio, and any other media where every type of information can be represented, stored, transmitted and processed digitally.Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms. Interactive is one of the key features of multimedia. The user determines what content is delivered, when it is delivered and how. Multimedia presentations can be live or recorded. A recorded presentation may allow interactivity by a navigation system. A live multimedia presentation may allow interactivity by an interaction with the presenter or performer.

Linear: No navigational control from the viewer for the content to progress. E.g cinema Non-linear: user interactivity to control program. E.g video games

Due to the advancements in computer speeds and storage space, multimedia is commonplace today.

1.2 CD-ROM and Multimedia Highwayi. CD-ROM

CD ROM is a pre-press compact disc which is popularly used to hold multimedia application. It is cheap and cost effective distribution medium with the help of CD-Burner. We can convert the disk into 18 minutes of audio, video and data.

ii. DVDThey are optical disk offering higher storage capacity than CD. Single sided, single layered DVD has 4-7 GB capacity. Double sided, double layered DVD has 17.08 GB capacity.

iii. Multimedia highwaySince telecommunication network are global, information element link up online as distributed resources on a data high way. Copper wire, glass fiber cables and cellular technology serve as means for delivering multimedia files across a network.E.g

Features Film displayLectures from different university

Virtual realityVirtual reality is a computer simulated 3D world that a user can manipulate while feeling as if he/she was in that world. It requires computing horsepower to be realistic. The cyberspace is made up of many thousands of geometric objects plotted in 3D space. The more object and the more points to describe the objects, the high is the resolution, to make the view more realistic. When you move about, each action requires the computer to recalculate the position, angle, size and shape of all the objects. Hence,

virtual reality is an interactive multimedia to the fullest as it requires instrumented feedback from the user. Virtual reality modeling language (VRML) have file extension .wr.

E.g. Flight simulation, 3D games

1.3 Use of Multimediai. Multimedia in business

Business application for multimedia include presentations, training, marketing, advertising, product demos, simulations, database, catalogs, instant messaging and networked communication. Voice mail and videoconferencing are provided on many local and wide area networks (LANs and WANs) using distributed networks and internet protocols.

ii. MedicineIn Medicine, doctors can get trained by looking at a virtual surgery or they can simulate how

the human body is affected by diseases spread by viruses and bacteria and then develop techniques to prevent it.

iii. Engineering

Software engineers may use multimedia in Computer Simulations for anything from entertainment to training such as military or industrial training. Multimedia for software interfaces are often done as collaboration between creative professionals and software engineers.

iv. Industry In the Industrial sector, multimedia is used as a way to help present information to shareholders, superiors and coworkers. Multimedia is also helpful for providing employee training, advertising and selling products all over the world via virtually unlimited web-based technology.

v. Entertainment and fine artsIn addition, multimedia is heavily used in the entertainment industry, especially to develop special effects in movies and animations. Multimedia games are a popular pastime and are software programs available either as CD-ROMs or online. Some video games also use multimedia features. Multimedia applications that allow users to actively participate instead of just sitting by as passive recipients of information are called Interactive Multimedia.

vi. Education In education, multimedia is used to produce computer-based training courses and reference books.

2. Introduction to making multimedia

2.1 Stages of a projectThere are four stage of a multimedia project:

i. Planning and costingBefore beginning development, plan out the writing skills, graphic art, music, video and other multimedia expertise required. Analyze the need of the project by outlining tits objectives. Create a simple prototype to demonstrate whether the idea is feasible or not. Estimate the time needed to do all the elements then prepare a budget.

ii. Designing and producingPerform each of the plane task to rate a finished product. In this stage the product is revised by taking clients feedback to improve the program according to wish

iii. TestingTest the program to ensure that it meets all the objects. Make sure that the program is bug free and runs smoothly on the intended delivery platform. The program should meet the needs of the client or end user

iv. DeliveryPackage and deliver the project to the end user. Make follow ups overtime for repair and upgrade.

2.2 Requirement

i. CreativityDevelop a sense of scope and content of the multimedia project. The idea in our mind should shape up as a project which can deliver its message to the viewers. Creativity cannot be learned, we have to be born with it however, we must know about the hardware and software tools in details to generate a product that will look good and sound good. Creativity does not always mean generating a new idea, it could be reverse engineering as taking inspiration from existing products.

ii. OrganizationDevelop an organized plan that details the skills, time, budget, tools and resources needed for the project. Files should be kept safe and organized so that it can be quickly retrieved whenever required.

iii. HardwareThe hardware requirement for multimedia development includes: Input devices such as keyboard, optical card reader, voice recognition system etc Output devices such as monitor projectors etc

Memory and storage device such as RAM, QROM etc System devices such as DVD, microprocessor, motherboard etc Connection such as IDE, SCSI(small computer system interface) etc Communication such as modem, network etc

iv. SoftwareMultimedia software provides specific instruction to the hardware for performing tasks. Various software tools are required.

Multimedia authoring tools (such as card and page based authoring tools, icon based authoring tools, time based authoring tools)

Other basic tools (such as painting and drawing tools, 3D modeling and animation tools, image editing tools, sound edition tools)

2.3 Multimedia team

i. Project managerProject manager is responsible for:

the overall development and implementation of the project as well as the day to day operation

over seeing project timeline, resources, finances and priorities conveying information between the team and the client He/she is the glue that hold the team the design of the project (creating a vision and working out he complete functionality

with designer) the development of the project (making sure each milestone is understood and

complete on time)

ii. Multimedia designerThis sub-team consists of:

i. Graphics designerThey are the animator and image processing specialist who deals with visual, thereby making the project appealing and aesthetic.

ii. Instructional designerThey make sure that the subject matter is presented clearly for the target audience.

iii. Interface designerThey devise the navigational path way and content maps and provide a user friendly interface.

iv. Information designerThey structured the content, determine user pathway and select the presentation media

iii. WriterWriter is responsible for:

creating character, action and point of view writing proposals scripting voice-over and actors narration

iv. Audio specialistAudio specialist is responsible for:

Locating and selecting suitable music talent Scheduling recording session Digitizing and edition recorded materials into computer files

v. Video specialistVideo specialist is responsible for:

Quality management of video Editing the footage for final product using editing system Transferring video footage to a computer Delivering video files on CD,DVD or the web

vi. Multimedia programmerMultimedia programmer is responsible for:

Integrates all the multimedia elements into a project using authoring system or programming language

Writes code for display of multimedia elements

3. Multimedia hardware

3.1 Macintosh and windows production platformMacintosh

Lunch by Apple in 1984 it has had multimedia capabilities since then. It makes multimedia project development easier and smoother since it has good built-in audio and high quality graphics capabilities. It also includes hardware and software for digitizing and editing video and production DVDs.

Windows

It is a collection of different vendor neutral component that are tight together by the requirement of the windows OS. Initially focused on business computing it was not previously suitable for multimedia. However with the lunch of windows 3.0 in 1990 it is easier to find hardware and software for windows.

Network

To establish communication between Macintosh and windows Ethernet system and client/server software is required. Ethernet system is a method of wiring up computers where as client/server software is required for communication and transfer of files. Macintosh has built-in Ethernet networking while windows PC require additional Ethernet card. Macintosh needs DAVE to communicate with windows while window need MACLAN to communicate with Macintosh.

3.2 Hardware peripherals

Connection devices

i. SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)It is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computer and peripheral devices. It is commonly used for hard disks and tape drives and a wide range of other devices including scanner and CD drives. SCSI cards can be installed on both Macintosh and windows platform. SCSI is preferred in real-time videos edition network serves and situations that require mirroring.

ii. IDE (Integrated Drive Electronic)It is also known as ATA (Advance Technology Attachment). It is used to connect internal peripherals such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives that are mounted inside the PC. Its circuitry is much cheaper than of SCSI.

iii. USB (Universal Serial Bus)It is a standard for connecting devices to a computer using the ‘plug and play’ system i.e the devices are installed without he use needing to install an special cards or without the need of turning off the computer. USB connections are popularly used to connect camera, cell phones, television, mp3 player, GPS locator etc.

iv. FirewireIt was introduced by Apple and is the industry standard that supports high bandwidth serial data transfer, particularly for digital video and mass storage. It can connect multiple computers and peripheral devices using P2P (peer-to-peer) connection. Ti is the most common methods for connecting and interconnecting professional digital video equipment.

Memory and storage device

i. RAM (Random Access Memory)It enables the simultaneous running of many applications. The programs that are being used by the computers and the data that are being used with those programs are stored in RAM. It is a volatile memory because its contents are lost when the power is switched off. Types of RAM are Static RAM and Dynamic RAM.

ii. ROM (Read Only Memory)It is a memory whose contents cannot be altered. It holds BIOS program which is responsible for booting up of computer. It is a non-volatile memory as its content is not lost even when the power is switched off. Types of ROM are PROM, EPROM, and EEPROM.

iii. Hard Disk It is a data storage device used for storing and retrieving digital information using rapidly rotating disk coated with magnetic material. It has very high data storage capacity and data transfer rate.

iv. SyQuestIt is a removable hard disk responsible for storing and transferring data intensive applications such as desktop publishing, internet information management, multimedia digital photography, backup archiving.

v. Optical storage deviceStorage method in which data is written and react with a laser for archival and backup process.

Q. Explain the working principle of CD-ROM and DVD=> The full form of CD-ROM is Compact Disc-Read Only Memory.It is a read only information storage device. Mainly there are three layers in CD-ROM. It has transparent layer as its base. On the base there is a reflective metal layer which carries information. On top of it, there is a protective coating. We know that information like sound, graphics and computer software can be digitized, that is the data can be represented by binary numbers which are made up of a series of 1 and 0 digits. This information is recorded on the metal layer. If we magnify the surface of metal layer we can see pits and lands in circular direction.The CD and DVD have a single track of data form of a spiral, which starts at the center going outwards. The data is stored on the pits which are then read by the CD/DVD layer. The pits on DVD are much smaller than on CD, allowing the DVD to stored more data. DVD also comes with more storage layers compared to CDs.

Laser beam is used to read the data. When the beam travels from the direction of the base and reaches the pits, the pits on the metal layer reflects the beam like a mirror. The depth of the pits is one-fourth of the wavelength of the laser. The laser rays reflected by the pits and the lands have a path difference of half the wavelength. It leads to destructive interference, that is, the two rays cancel each other and no reflected ray is resulted, and this produces a '1' digit. The path difference is zero for two rays both reflected by the pits, or both by the lands. No destructive interference occurs and we say it is a '0' digit. Therefore we have digit '1' at the edge of pits and digit '0' elsewhere. This is the basic mechanism of information storage and retrieval using CD-ROMs.

As laser beam can be focused very sharply, we can make very narrow tracks, typically in the order of wavelength of the laser, so the storage size of a CD-ROM is much larger than that of a floppy disk. We can store a lot of data like a whole movie or much software in a single CD-ROM. No mechanical contact is required to read the data from a CD-ROM and it has a protective layer on it.

Q. Compare and contrast Macintosh and windows platform for multimedia.=>

Macintosh Windows1 Macintosh is based on Unix. 1 The windows are based on the DOS

programming language.2 Macintosh is used only on Apple’s

hardware.2 Windows is universally used.

3 It have more features then windows. 3 It has less features then windows.4 Macintosh is focused on graphics and

multimedia functions.4 Windows focuses on office function.

5 Macintosh has good graphic quality then window.

5 Windows does not have graphic quality as good as Macintosh.

6 Since Macintosh is less in use then windows they are less likely to be hacked.

6 Since windows are more in use they are more likely to be hacked.

7 Macintosh is expensive. 7 Windows is less expensive then Macintosh.

Input device

i. Keyboard It is the most commonly used input device. It is used to type text and numbers into a word processor, text editors or other program.

ii. MouseIt is a pointing device that functions by detecting 2D motion relatively to its supporting surface. Its motion typically translates into the motion of pointer on a display which allows for fine control of GUI.

iii. Trackballs It is also a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect the rotation of the ball about two axis.

iv. Touch screensIt is a monitor that usually has a textual coating across the glass face. The user can control through gesture by touching the screen with fingers.

v. Magnetic cardA magnetic card contains data which are stored by modifying the magnetism of tiny iron based magnetic particle on the card. The device used to read the card is called magnetic card encoder and reader. It is useful when an interface is needed for a database application or multimedia project that tracks users.

vi. Graphic tabletsIt is a stylus base interface which consists of a flat surface upon which the user may draw a trace and image using stylus. The image generally does not appears on the tablet but rather is displayed on the computer, monitor. It provides great control for edition finally detailed graphics elements.

vii. ScannerIt is device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. 3D scanners are used for industrial design, reverse engineering, gaming and the application.

viii. OCR (Optical Character Recognition)Conversion of scan images of handwritten, type written or printed text into machine encoded form. It is a method of digitizing printed text so they can be electronically searched, stored compactly, displayed online and copied easily. Example: book scanning i.e making textual version of printed document.

ix. Infrared remote

Commonly used in television set, DVD player and home theater system for operating the device wirelessly. IR remote use light, they require line of sight to operate the destination device. However, the signal can be reflected by mirrors.

x. Voice recognition systemIt translates spoken words into text. It implies that the computer can take the dictation but it does not understand what is being side. It is a biometric system that uses a noise-concealing microphone to automatically filter out background noise and then recognize voice prints.

xi. Digital cameraIt captures still images of a given number of pixel and the images are stored in the camera’s memory to be upload later to a computer. The resolution of digital camera is determined by the number of pixel on its chip.

Output Devicei. Audio device

The audio components required for multimedia project could be either internal or external to the computer itself. These include sound chips, speakers and amplifiers. Laptops have integrated speakers that produce low quality sound. However, when the audio output of the computer is fed into an external amplifier, the bass sound becomes deeper and richer and even music sampled at low quality may sound good. Amplifiers can be used when the project has to be presented to a large audience.

ii. Video deviceVideo creates maximum visual impact. Video devices are used for recording, copying and broad casting of moving visual images. It includes video disk player and video card. Video disk player provides precise control over the image being viewed and video card enable the user to place an image in a window on the computer monitor.

iii. MonitorA monitor is an electronic visual display for computers. Traditional monitors used CRT while newer monitors used LCD and LED. CRT monitors were cheap and offered viewing angels of 180o . LCD monitors consume less power, are light weight and smaller in size. LCD monitors provide higher contrast and better viewing angle then LCD.

iv. ProjectorProjectors are used when there is a large audience that cannot be accommodate around a computer monitor. The difference types of projector include LCOS (Liquid Crystal On Silicon) projectors. For larger project GLV (Grating Light Valve) technology are available that generate very bright and color saturated images.

Communication devicei. Modem

They modulate analog signal to encode digital information and also demodulate it to decode the transmitted information. They provide connectivity through standard phone lines. Modems can be internal or external and its speed should be at least 56 kbps.

ii. NetworkA network could be characterized by it physical capacity or its organizational purpose. LAN connects devices in a limited geographical area such as home, school or office building. MAN spans a city or a large university. WAN covers large geographical area such as a country or intercontinental distance. Wired technology use twisted pair, coaxial cable and optical fiber. Wireless technology use microwave infrared cellular and radio technologies.

4. Multimedia software

4.1 Basic Toolsi. Painting and drawing tools

The project should look attractive to the end user. These tools help to provide good graphical impact to the multimedia project. Painting software such as Photoshop, fireworks and painter are used to produce crafted bitmap images. Drawing software such as CorelDraw, freehand and canvas are used to produce vector graphics.Features

GUI with pull down menus, status bar and dialog boxes. Scalable dimension which allows resizing and stretching the images. Customizable pen and brush shape of various size Tools to create geometric shapes (rectangle, circle, square etc) Eyedropper tool that sample color Ability to pour color pattern or gradient into any area Undo capabilities and history function to allow redoing Screen capturing facility Zooming and magnifying capabilities Painting features such as smoothing edges objects into background coarse with anti-

aliasing, air brushing, blending and maskingii. 3D modeling and animation

As the name implies 3 dimensional graphic program are painted I 3 axis i.e x-axis (width), y-axis (height) and z-axis (depth). A series of rendered images make up an animation. With 3D modeling software object appears more realistic by providing simulated 3D.Features

Multiple window that allow viewing the model from each dimension Ability to drag and drop shape into a scene Ability to create and sculpt objet from scratch. Lathe and extrude feature Color and texture mapping Ability to add realistic effect such as transparency, shadowing and fog Ability to draw spine based paths for animation Unlimited cameras

iii. OCR SoftwareIt transform printed or hand printed text into electronic data. OCR start after the scanner creates an electronic images of the text (usually bitmap). OCR software then examine the scanned image to identify letters, numbers and punctuation mark and finally produce equivalent text in a machine readable form which is electronically recognizable ASCII text.

iv. Image editing tools

It is a specialized and powerful tool for creating, enhancing and retouching existing bitmap images. Features

Conversion of major image data type and industry standard file format. Employments of a virtual memory scheme that uses hard disk space as RAM for images

that require large amount of memory. The ability to create images from scratch using line, paint brush, pencil, eraser, and

pocket fills etc. 24 bit color, indexed color, fray scale black and white and customizable color pallets. Multiple windows that provide view of more than one image at a time Direct inputs of images from scanner and video scores. Selection tools such as rectangle lasso and magic wand for selecting and the want at

time Image and balance control for brightness, contrast and color balance Good masking features Multiple undo and restore capabilities Anti-aliasing capabilities, sharpening and smoothing control Color mapping control Ability to resample and resize an image Geometric transformation such as flip, skew, rotate and distorted

v. Sound editing tools

Sound editing tool for both digital and MIDI (Musical instrument digital interfaces). Sound lets we see music as well hear it. By drawing the represent of sound in a wavelength we can cut, copy paste and edit segment sound back.

vi. Animation video and digital move tools animationAnimation and digital video movies are sequences of bitmapped graphic scenes (frame) rapidly played back. Computer with fire wire or USB ports can impacts digital video directly from digital cam recorder. Movie making tools such as premiere, video ship and media shop pro lets us edit and assemble video clips captured from camera, movie segments, animation, scanned images and from digitized or MDIDI files.

4.2 Multimedia authoring toolsAuthoring tool is a preprogram tool for the development of interactive multimedia that provides important framework for organizing and editing elements of multimedia. They are used for designing interactivity, user interface and assembling all the elements into a single project.

i. Card and page-bases authoring toolsIn these authoring system elements are organized as pages of a book or stack of card. They are based used when the project consist of elements that can be viewed individually. It lets us link these pages or cards in an organized sequence. We can jump on command to any page we wish in the structured navigation pattern. It contains all the media objects like

button and textfields. Each of these objects contain programming scripts which is activated when an event occurs (like mouse click). Event triggers message to look for a matching handler and then the system executes the task specified by the handler for example livecode, toolbox etc.

ii. Icon-based authoring toolsIn these authoring system, multimedia elements all interaction events are organized as objects in a structural frame work are processed. First we build a structure or flowchart of events, task and decisions by dragging appropriate icons from library. These icons include menu choice, graphic choice, sound and computation. Then we can add our content such as text, graphics, animation, sound and video movie. These tools allow us to change sequence, add option and re-structured interaction by simply dragging and dropping icons. For example adobe author ware.

iii. Time-based authoring toolsIn these authoring system elements and events are organized along timeline. Sequentially organized graphic frame are played back at a speed that we can save. It also allows us to jump to any location in a sequence hence adding navigation an interactive control. In some time based tool visual timeline is used for sequencing events by displaying layers of various elements alongside the scale, in of one second. While in other time based tools long sequences of graphic frames are arranged together by adjusting duration of play for each frame. For example flash director etc.

iv. Object oriented toolsHere, the multimedia elements and events are treated as objects that live in a hierarchical order of parent-child relationship. Each object is assigned with ‘properties’ and ‘modifier’. When a message is sent, objects do their task without external procedures. An object-based authoring program provides objects pre-programmed with sensible properties, message and functions. For example, a video object will have duration property and will accept commands from the system such as play and stop.Examples of object oriented tools are: mTropolis, applemedia

4.3 Cross Platform AuthoringCross platform means the ability to perform on all platforms including Macintosh and windows. It is very important to use tools that can be easily transferred from one platform to another. Though most developers prefer to use Macintosh to create multimedia projects, 80% of the target market use windows. So, it is important that the developers use Macintosh tools that have compatible tools in windows or offer runtime player for other platform. Developers should also avoid those features that are not available in ether of the two platforms.

5. Multimedia Building Block

5.1. Text Typeface and Font

Typeface FontA typeface is a family of graphical character that usually includes many sizes and styles.

A font is a collection of characters of a single size and style belonging to a particular type face family.

Example: Arial is a typeface Example: individual member of Arial family like Arial Black, Arial Narrow, Arial Rounded MT Bold, Arial Unicode MS

It is the creative work of designer. It is the delivery mechanism.Typeface is a set of one or more fonts that share common design features.

Font is a digital file that describes the typeface.

Typeface is a group of related fonts which vary only in weight, orientation, width but not design.

Each font of a typeface has a specific weight, style, width and orientation.

Design Issuei. For small type use legible font as decorative ones are difficult to read.

ii. Use as few different faces as possible in the same work but vary in weight, size and style.iii. In text blocks, adjust pleasing line spacing as too tightly packet lines are difficult to read.iv. Vary the size of font according to the importance of the message.v. Explore the effects of using different color fonts on various background

vi. Use anti-aliased texts for titles and headingvii. Try drop caps as the first letter f a paragraph

viii. If we are using centered type in a text block, keep the number of lines and their width to a minimum.

ix. Bold or emphasize text to highlight ideas and concepts. x. Picks fonts that seem right for our messages, then double check our choice against other

opinions. Types of fonts

i. Bitmap: A bitmap font is essentially a image file containing b bunch of characters and control file detailing the size and location of each character within the image. Each characters is represented by a number of dots of pixels rendered in a particular font and size.Advantage: Very simple to render which make them extremely fast

Easier to create than other types

Disadvantage: The usual quality tends to be poor when sealed or zoomed

ii. Postscript It is an outline font developed b Adobe System , which uses postscript file format to encode font information. Each postscript character is a mathematical formula, so it can be easily scaled bigger or smaller. These are mainly two kinds of postscript fonts. type 3 and type 1Type 3 allows specifying shading, color and filling patterns while only Type 1 can support font hinting.Advantage: High quality, high resolutionDisadvantage: Takes longer time to computer

iii. True typeSince postscript font was adobe’s product, apple and Microsoft made a joint effort to develop a better and faster technology that give rise to true type fonts. It consists of two components: True Type Rasterizer and True Type FontsTrue Type Rasterize is software that understands the mathematical data supplied by the font and translated it into a form that the display can render. True type font contains data that describes the outline of each character in the typeface.

The JaggiesThese are the stair-like lines that appear on the edges of the fonts. it often occurs when a bitmap font is converted to a different resolution. It can be avoided by anti-aliasing the edges of the text. It smooths out the jagged lines by surrounding the jaggies with shaded pixels.

Fontographer, Font Monger, Font Chameleoni. Fontographer

It is a software application to create digital fonts. Its features includes a free-hand drawing tools to create precise inline and outline drawings of calligraphic and script characters. It allows the creation of multiple fonts from two existing typefaces. It allows adding of symbols and foreign characters to our fonts. It lets you edit both PostScript and TrueType fonts and also allows importing bitmap files.

ii. Font MongerIt converts Macintosh or Windows font to either platform as well as in any direction between PostScript Type1, Type3 and TrueType formats. To create new fonts or to manipulate existing ones Font Monger includes a free hand drawing tools; a scissors tools and a gizmo tools that rotates, slants and skew character outline. It was a product of Ares Software. Since the company’s acquisition by Adobe, this product has been discontinued.

iii. Font Chameleon

It was a font-generating tool. Based on the description about the weight, width, height and blend provided by the user, a set of generic character shape template was modified to generate desired font. It was also a product of Ares Software and was discontinued after Adobe took over the company.

Symbols and IconsSymbols are concentrated text in the form of stand-alone graphic constructs. It conveys meaningful messages. E.g. windows Hourglass Cursor tells us to wait while the computer is processing. Icons are pictogram displayed on a computer screen in order to help user navigate a computer system. User can activate them using a mouse, pointer, touch or voice commands. Both symbols and icons represent other things but icon is a pictorial representation of the product it stands for where as a symbol does not resemble what it stands for. Icons are restricted to graphical representation of object and one can easily understand what they stand for. On the other hand one has to learn what a symbol stands for as it is not similar to what it stands for.

Animating text and 3D effectsText can be animated to catch viewer’s attention. We can make our text fly from right to left, zoom in our zoom out. A headline may grow one character at a time. Flash important texts in a timed automated sequence. Fly a word, dissolve others, rotate or spine others until it is interesting to watch. We can also make our message stand out by applying 3D effects to text. With the help of 3D programs such as Typestry and Logo Motion we can make our texts have 3D effects of various shape, size, angle, color and shadow.

Typestry and Logo Motioni. Typestry

It was a 3D software program released by Pixar. It rendered and animated text entered by the user in different fonts. The fonts were extruded into 3 dimensions with various bevel styles and textures applied during rendering. It had a rubber sheet feature which allows generating texts as if they were written on a flag. We can also specify how windy it is. Another feature was the Tube features where text was written as if it was wrapped around a tube. It also allowed rotating the text in shape.

ASCII standard only 0-127American standard code for information interchange is a character coding system. It encodes 128 characters into 7 bit binary integer. These characters include number form 0-9, letters a-z and A-Z, punctuation symbols, blank space and some control codes. ASCII codes represent text in computer, MODEM, printers and other devices that use text. E.g. To a computer working on ASCII character set, the number 65 always represent an upper case letter A.

Cross platform problems (For text)Fonts are one of the greatest cross platform concerns. When multimedia project build on windows is played on Macintosh platform and a specified font doesn’t exist on the target machine, a substitute font must be provided on it. This is called font substitution. In many cross platform savvy application, font mapping can be defined explicitly.

E.g. Win -> MacArial -> Helvetica MS Serif -> New YorkChicago -> System

To avoid font displays problems, especially for headlines, we can use picture of the text or bitmaps instead of texts.

5.2 Sound and music The power of sound

When something vibrates in the air by moving back and forth, it creates waves of pressure, when they reach our eardrum we experience the changes of pressure or vibrations as sound. The branch of physics which studies about sound is Acoustics. Sound pressure level (loudness or volume) is measured in decibels (dB) while frequency is measure in Hertz. The frequency range of human hearing is from 20Hz-20KHz. As a multimedia project developer we need not know the in-depth knowledge about sound such as harmonics and sine wave but we must know how to record and edit sound on our computer and incorporate them into our multimedia project.

Multimedia System Sound (Sound control panel)Computer has sound control panel to customize system sound. In windows system sounds are wav file which reside in ~\windows\media. When window start up Microsoft sound. war is played. We can also add our own sound file and install them so that they play when a system event occurs. In Macintosh system sound are in AIF format and are stored in: ~/system/library/sound.

Digital audioDigital audio is created when we represent the characteristics of a sound wave using numbers. Sound can be digitized from a microphone, synthesizer, existing recording, live radio and television broadcast, CD & DVD. Digitized sound is sampled sound. Every n th fraction of a second, a sample of sound is taken and stored as digital information in bits and bytes. The quality of digital recording depends upon how often the samples are taken (sample rate) and how many numbers are used to represent the value of each sample (sample size). The more the sampling rate and sample size the finer is the resolution and quality of the sound. Since the quality of audio depends on the quality of recording and not the device it is played on, digital audio is said to be device independent.

MIDI audio (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)MIDI is a communication standard developed for electronic musical instrument and computers. It provides the quickest and easiest tool for composing our own original musical score. MIDI is a score which depend on the quality and capabilities of the musical instruments and sound system on which it is played, hence MIDI audio is said to be device dependent. The advantage is the ease of editing data. For e.g. is we have a music created using violin and our client decide that he wants the sound of harmonica instead. In case of digital audio we would have to re-record and re-digitized the music but in MIDI data there are unique values that designate each instrument which can be easily changed.

MIDI Audio vs. Digital Audio

In contrast to MIDI Data, Digital Audio data is the actual representation of sound, while MIDI is a communication standard. MIDI data are smaller in size than Digital Audio data; hence they load quickly when embedded on web pages. MIDI audio is easy to edit by simply changing the value of instruments, in contrast to digital audio which needs to be re-recorded and re-digitized to be edited. Since MIDI does not represent sound but musical instruments playback is accurate only if the MIDI playback device is same as the device used for production. Hence MIDI is device dependent while digital audio depends on the quality of recording and not the device independent. While preparing digital audio, deep knowledge of music theory is not essential however, MIDI data requires good knowledge about musical scores and notations.

Notation Interchange File Format (NIFF)It is a music notation file format used primarily for transferring music notation between different score writer. It is an open format that allows exchange of music between various music OCR, editing and typesetting programs. NIFF is based upon RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format), a file structure in which data is divided into lists, chunks and tags. NIFF is now considered out of data, since it has been replace by music XML format.

Professional sound standard (Red Book Standard)Red Book is the audio standard for CDs to ensure that all the music following these guidelines will play on majority of the CD players. It is named after one of the Rainbow book services, which was Red in color. The basic guidelines are:

o Allow up to 74 min of digital soundo Sample rate of 44.1 KHzo Transfer rate of 150 kbpso Contain up to 99 tracks

The standard is n0t freely available and must be licensed by Philips.

5.3 Color Theory Electromagnetic Spectrum

Color is a phenomenon that results from the way our eyes processes electromagnetic radiation. Light energy propagates through air as a series of waves. Electromagnetic spectrum extends form very short wavelength to very long wavelength. There is an inverse relationship between wavelength and frequency.

Wavelength 10-4 10-2 10 102 104 106 108 1010

(In nanometer) Frequency 1021 1019 1017 1015 1013 1011 109 107

The visibility wavelength is the wavelength that our eyes are sensitive to this region extends from 400nm to 700nm.

ROYGBIVThe wavelength within the visible spectrum is known as visible length. There are seven colors in the visible region of the spectrum that corresponds to different wavelength of radiation. These seven colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Additive Color –RGB

In additive color method, a new color is created by combining colored light sources in three primary colors red, green and blue (RGB). The process is used for CRT, LCD and plasma display. The red, green and blue dots light up when hit by electron beam. We see the combination of red, green and blue light and interpolate it to create other colors.Rule of Additive color method

o Nothing -> blacko Red + Green -> Yellowo Blue + Red -> Magentao Green +Blue -> Cyano Red + Green + Blue -> white

Subtractive Color – CMYKIn subtractive color method, color is created by combining colored medium such as paints or ink that absorb (or subtract) same parts of the color spectrum of light and reflects other back to the eye. This process is used for printing where the printed page is made up of tiny halftone dots of three primary color cyan, magenta, yellow (CMYK) and the fourth one is black (K), which is technically not a color but rather the absence of color. Subtractive color mixing:

o White – Red -> Cyano White – Green -> Magentao White – Blue -> Yellow

Color model1. RGB

RGB color model is an additive color model in which Red, Green and Blue lights are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of color. In the 24 bit RGB model, we can specify a color by setting each amount of red, green, and blue to a value in a range of 256 choices form 0 to 255. Using 8 bit for each color a total of 24 bits of memory are needed to describe the exact color, which is one of millions (256 X 256 X 256 = 16 millions approximately). In HTML a hexadecimal pair is used to represent each color.e.g. # 00 FF 00 is a pure green

2. HSB and HSLHSB: Hue, Saturation, BrightnessHSL: Hue, Saturation, Lightness

Hue: It is the actual color which is measured in angular degrees, so red=0 or 360o , green =120o

and blue=240o. Saturation: It is the purity of the color which is measure in percent. At 0% saturation, hue is

meaningless. Brightness: it is the relative lightness or darkness of a particular color expressed in percentage

from 0to 100. Lightness: it is the perceived reflection of surface. It ranges from 0=black, 100=white and pure

color is at 50%.3. CIE and YUV

Other color models include CIE and YUV. While CIE describes color values in terms of frequency, saturation and luminance, YUV is based on luminance and chrominance.

Perception of color

redGreen

Blue

Color can only exist when 3 components are present: a viewer, an object and light. Human perceive color when the different wavelengths comprising white light are selectively interfered with by matter on their way to the eye. We can only perceive color with wavelength ranging from 400 to 700 nm to the electromagnetic spectrum, which is also known as visible spectrum. When light from an external objet is refracted as it moves through the cornea and on to the pupil, it is again reflected by lens which projects upside image on retina. There it is absorbed by pigments in light sensitive cells called rods and cones. Cones are active at high levels and allow us to see the color.Palettes and color depthPalettes and mathematics tables that define the color of a pixel displayed on the screen. The most common palettes are 1,4,8,16 and 24 bits deep.

Color depth Color available1-bit Black and white4-bit 16 color8-bit 256 color16-bit Thousand of color24-bit More than 10 million color

5.4 Graphics and Imaging Types of images

i. BitmapsA bitmap is an information matrix describing the individual dots that are the smallest demands of resolution called pixels on a computer screen or printing device. A one dimensional matrix of 1-bit depth is used to display monochrome images where pixel can be either on or off, most commonly set to black or white. By using more bits to describe pixels they can represent varying shades of color with submits representing more than 16 millions color.Morphing: An effective used to manipulate still images or to create interesting and often bizarre transformation. Morphing allows to smoothly lending two images so that one image screen to melt into the next, often producing a musing results.

ii. Vector DrawingVector drawing is the use of geometric primitives such as lines, curves, rectangles, ovals and polygons to represent images in computer graphics. A vector is a line that is described by the location of its two end points. Vector drawing uses Cartesian co-ordinates where a pair describes a point in the 2-D space as the intersection of horizontal and vertical lines(x and y)e.g. <rect x=’0’ width=’200’ height=”150” fill=”#00ff00”/>

iii. 3-D Drawing and rendering3-D rendered graphics arts have become very popular since it provides more life like substance and feel to projects. For 3-D the depth (z-dimension) of cubes or spheres must be calculated and displayed so that the perspective of the rendered object scenes correct to the eye. We can use programs like Google’s sketch up or Blender to experiment with 3D drawing applying 3D effect to images of various shape, size, angle and color.

Image file formats1. Macintosh format

PICT is an image format developed by Apple for Macintosh. On Macintosh, every image application can import and export PICT files. In PICT file, both bitmaps and vector-drawn objects can live side by side and programs such as supercard or canvas can be used for editing both drawn and bit mapped graphics.

2. Windows formatWindows uses device independent bitmap (DIB) as its common image file format, usually written as .BMP, files. RIFF (Resource interchange file format) is the most preferred file format for multimedia development in windows, because this format was designed to contain many types of files including bitmap, MIDI score and formatted text. Bitmap format used in windows include DIB, BMP, PCX (personal computer exchange) and TIFF (Tagged image file format).

3. Cross-platform formatJPEG, PNG and GIF are the most common formats used in the web and are considered cross-platform as the entire browser will display them.

5.5 Animation It is the visual change over time which adds great impact to multimedia projects

Power of MotionWe can animate our whole project as just here and there, adding spices. For brief product demonstration with little user interaction, we can design the entire project as a video and keep the presentation always in motion. For speaker support, we can make texts fly onto the screen, or we can make charts grow. For parts assembly training manual, we can show each components exploding into expanded view. We can also use other visual effects such as zooms and dissolves.

Principle of animationAnimation is possible because of a biological phenomenon called persistence of vision and a psychological phenomenon called phi. An object seen y the human eye remains chemically mapped on the eye’s retina for a brief time after viewing. Combined with the human mind’s need to conceptually complete a perceived action, this makes it possible for a series of images that are changed one after another to seemingly blend together into visual illusion of movement. While creating an animation, organize it’s execution into a series of logical steps.

a. First gather up all the activities you wish to provide in the animation on your mind or write a script on paper.

b. Choose the best suited animation tool for the required job. c. Then build and tweak your sequences.d. Allow plenty of time when you are experimenting and testing.e. Finally, post-process your animation, doing any special rendering and adding sound

effects.

Animation Technique Cel Animation

This Technique uses a series of progressively different graphics or cels on each frame of a movie film which plays at 24 frames per second. The term cel is derived from clear celluloid sheets that were used for drawing each frame, which have been replaced today by layers of digital imagery.

Cel animation artwork begins with keyframes (the first and last frame of an action).The series of frames in between the key frames are drawn in a process called tweening. Tweening an action requires calculating the number of frames between keyframes, and the path the action takes, and then actually sketching onto a cell with pencil, the series of progressively different outlines.

Computer Animation This technique typically employs the same logic and procedural concept as cel animation, using layers, keyframes and tweening techniques. While in cel-based 2D animation, each frame of an animation is provided by an animator, and the frames are then composted into a single file of images to be played in sequence; In path-based 2D animation, the animator simply creates an object and describes a path for the object to follow. For 3D animation, models of individual objects are created and the characteristics of shapes and surfaces are designed. The movement of the objects within the 3-D space is then computed and hence each frame is rendered and stitched together in a digital output file.

Kinematics and morphingi. Kinematics

It is the study of the movement and motion of structures that have joints, such as a walking man. Animating a walking step is tricky as we need to calculate the position, rotation, velocity and acceleration of all the joints and articulated parts involved such as – knees bend, hips flex shoulders swing and head bobs. Smith Micro’s Poser, a 3-D modeling program provides pre-assembled adjustable human models in many poses. Inverse kinematics is the process in which we link objects such as hands to arms, and define their relationship and limits then drag these parts around and let the computer calculate the result.

ii. MorphingMorphing is a popular effect in which one images is transformed into another. It allows to smoothly blend two images so that one image seems to melt into the next. Morphing applications allows the transition of not only still images but also moving images. Some popular morphing software are Avid’s Elastic Reality, BlackBelt’s Win Images and Meta Tool’s Digital Morph etc.

Animation File FormatsFile formats that are designed specifically to contain animations along with their platform are Director (.dir and . dcr), animatorPro (.fli and .flc), 3D Studio Max (.max) GIF 89a (.gif) and flash (.fla and .swf). File compression is an essential parts of preparing animation files for the web. Hence, Director’s native movie file (.dir) is pre-processed and compressed into shockwave animation file (.dcr) for the web. Similarly, Flash’s native file (.fla) is converted into Shockwave Flash file (.swf) in order to play on web. For 3-D animation, the individual rendered frames of an animation are put together into one of the standard digital video file containers, such as windows Audio Video Interleaved Format (.avi), QuickTime(.qt, .mov) or Motion Picture Expert Group Video (.mpeg or .mpg). HTML5 is animation build within .svg file.

5.6 Video How video works?

When light reflected from an object passes through a video camera lens that light is converted into an electronic signal by a special sensor called charge-coupled device (CCP). Most video cameras have 3 CCDs to enhance the resolution of the camera and the quality of the image.

Analog video has a resolution measured in the number of horizontal scan lines, each of those lines represent continuous measurements of the color and brightness along the horizontal axis in a linear signal. In an analog system, the output of the CCD is processed by the camera into three channels of color information and synchronization pulses and the signals are recorded onto magnetic tape. The Analog Broadcast Video Standards are NTSC, PAL and SECAM. Digital video: signals consist of a discrete color and brightness value for each pixel. In a digital system, the output of the CCD is digitized by the camera into a sequence of single frames and the audio-video data are compressed before being digitally stored to a disc. The digital broadcast video standard is HDTV.

Broadcast Video Standardsi. NTSC (National Television Standards Committee)

Many North American countries (USA, Mexico, Canada) including Japan used a system for broadcasting and displaying analog video based on specifications set by NTSC. Here, a single frame of video was made up of 525 horizontal scan lines drawn onto the inside face of a phosphor-coated picture tube every 1/30th second by a fast moving electron beam. The electron beam makes two passes as it draws a single video –frame. At first it laid down all the odd-numbered lines and then all the even-numbered lines. Each of these passes painted a field, and the two fields were combined to create a single frame at a rate of 30 frames per second.

ii. PAL (Phase Alternate Line)Western Europe, South America, South Africa, Australia, UK and China used this standard. PAL increased the screen resolution to 625 horizontal lines but slowed the scan rate to 25 frames per second. Just like NTSC, here also even and odd lines were combined to create a single frame. This process is called interlacing.

iii. SECAM (Sequential Color and Memory)France, Russia and Easter Europe used this standard. Like PAL, it also had screen resolution of 625 horizontal lines and scan rate of 25 frames per second, however they different in terms of technology.

iv. HDTV (High Definition Television)It provides very high resolution. It uses both interlacing and progressive-scan technologies. It is available in the following formats:

1920 X 1080 interlaced format (1080i)1280 X 720 progressive-scan (720i)

Integrating Computer and televisionIntegrationComputer presentation of information benefits from the color, motion and sound that television offers. Similarly television benefits from the control and personalization provided by computer technology including computer games and internet access. A television and computer integration is possible due to coupler module which is electronically coupled to both the television and computer along with keyboard and mouse.

Difference Computer displays are designed for close viewing often as a solitary activity while televisions are designed for distant viewing often as a group activity. Traditionally, television uses interlacing method where two fields, odd and even are combined to form a single frame whereas computers implement progressive scan method where the entire frame is drawn in a single

pass. Television screen are usually divided into scan lines while computer images are divided into dots or pixels.

Video recording formatsAnalog recording formats are M-II, EBV-C, Beta can SP, U-Matic SP, S-VHS. Digitally Recording formats are D-1, D-2, D-3,D-4,D-6, Digitally Beta Can, Digital S, Ampex DCT, DV/DVC PRO, DVC PRO 5.0 and Beta Can SX

Video compressionVideo takes a lot of space approximately 17MB per second. So it must be compressed before it is put as web.Two types of compression are:i. Lossy compression

It means the compressed file has less data in it than the original file. Since information has been lost, in some cases, files are of low quality.

ii. Lossless compressionIt means compression where none of the information is lost.

1. JPEGStandard set by joint photographic experts group. It is a commonly used method of lossy compression. It achieves 10:1 compression with little percepable less in quality.

2. MPEGStandard set by Moving Picture Experts Group. MPEG-1: Used for CD-ROM, it could deliver 1.2 mps of video.MPEG-2: Used for DVDs, it provided broader scope and wider appeal supporting interlacing and high definition.MPEG-4: Used for Blue Ray, it also supports 3D view.

3. DVI IndeoDeveloped by Intel in 1992, I was used for the compression of television quality video onto compact discs. It was later replaced by MPEG.

Optimizing video files for CD-ROMCD-ROM provides an excellent distribution medium for videos. CD-ROM player offers slow data transfer rates, but adequate video transfer can be achieved by taking care to properly prepare the digital video files:

i. Limit the amount of synchronization required between video and audio by interlacing the audio and video segments where needed.

ii. Use regularly spaced key frames (10 to 15 frames apart) that can correct seek time delays (time required to search specific data on CD).

iii. The performance depends on the size of the video window (pixel) and frame rate, the bigger the size and faster the rate, the better is the performance.

iv. Defragment the files before burning the master v. Specialized application such as Media Cleaner Pro can automatically optimize the

digital video file for playback from CD-ROM.

6. The Internet and the World Wide Web

6.1 How the internet works The internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard protocol suite to server billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks linked by a broad array f electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies.

Internetworking A network is a cluster of computer, with one computer acting as a server to provide network services such as file transfer, email and document printing to the client computer of that network. Using gateways and routers, a Local Area Network (LAN) can be connected to other LANs to form a Wide Area Network (WAN). These LANs and WANs can be connected to the Internet through a server that provides both the necessary software for the internet and the physical data connection. Individual computer not permanently part of a network can access the internet servers through dial up or broadband access and with proper identification and onboard client software, can obtain an IP address on the Internet.

Internet AddressEvery machine on the internet has a unique number assigned to it called the IP address. Without a unique IP address on our machine, we will not be able to communicate with other devices on the Internet. It makes sure that we are not lost during our Endeavour. The current IP Address used on the network are IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) which uses 32-bit addresses and IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) which uses 128-bits addresses. An example of how an IP address appears is 192.168.1.10. The IP address can further be broken down into classes A,B,C,D and E.

Class Start Address Finish AddressABCDE

0.0.0.0128.0.0.0192.0.0.0224.0.0.0240.0.0.0

126.255.255.255191.255.255.255223.255.255.255239.255.255.255255.255.255.255

Class A: This class is allocated to very large networks such as Multinational CompaniesLoopback: Reserved as a loopback to our own computer, it is used for testing and debugging our programs and hardware. (127.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255)Class B: This class is allocated to ISPs and large networks like college, hospitalsClass C: This class is given to small to mid-sized companies. Class D: The IP addresses in this class are reserved for reserved called multicast. It is a mechanism for defining groups of nodes and sending IP messages only to that group rather than every node on LAN (broadcast) or just one other node (unicast).Class E: The IP address in this class are reserved for future or experimental purpose.

The bandwidth bottleneck

Bandwidth is how much data we can send from one computer to another in a given amount of time, expressed in bits per second. Bottleneck in a communication context is a point in the enterprise where the flow of data is impaired or stopped entirely. Effectively there is not enough data handling capacity to handle to current volume of traffic. As a result data flow slows down to the slowest point in the data path which consequently affects the application performance and may even crash the application. Bottleneck usually arises from poor network, mismatched hardware selection or poor configuration of switches. Bottleneck can be identified by systematically testing network performance at various devices along a data path and isolating devices performing noticeably slower than other points. Bottleneck can be resolved by reconfiguring, upgrading or replacing the offending device. At low bandwidth, bottleneck causes a 24bit color image to upload/download slower than a page of text. A multimedia developer can avoid bottleneck by

Compressed the data very tightly before transmitting Design very compact multimedia elements such as avoiding greater color depth The user can download data only once and then store it in a local hard disk cache Implements streaming method that allow data to be transferred and displayed as it

comes in Internet services (MIME-types)

The various internet services along with their respective protocol includes Email(SMTP), File Transfer (FTP), real-time chatting (IRC), capability to log into remote computers (telnet), participating in discussion groups (Usenet) and World Wide Web (HTTP).

MIME –Types

To indentify the nature and purpose of the data transmitted, the internet uses a standard list of filename extensions called multipurpose internet mail extension. MIME type has two parts: a type and a sub-type which are separated by a slash. E.g. MIME type for Microsoft Word files is application and the subtype is ms-word, together the complete MIME type is application/ms-word.

Other examples of MIME types:

Type Common file extension PurposeText/htmlImage/png

.html

.pngWeb pagePNG-format image

Image/jpegAudio/mpeg

.jpeg

.mpegJPEG-format imageMPEG audio file

Multimedia on the web

Multimedia experience on the internet access on World Wide Web programmed with HTML along with enhanced capabilities provided by XML, Javascript, AJAX, and special plug-ins like Flash and QuickTime. To design and make effective multimedia for this environment develops need to understand how to create, edit and deliver the multimedia elements or HTML browsers and plug-ins. A well crafted, professionally rendered site on the web includes text, image, audio and animation presented in a user friendly interface that balances the bandwidth deficit against user patience.

6.2 Tools for the World Wide Web Web server

A web server is a computer program or machine that distributes web pages as they are requested. When we enter an address in the internet browser from your computer, the browser sends a request off into the internet asking to view the web page found at that address. The web server is the program or machine that responds to the request and delivers the content of the page back to the user. This is possible because every computer or device that connects to the internet has a unique IP address while every web page on the internet has a unique URL (Unified Resource Locator). Web servers are sometime slowed down by inadequate resources and large number of requests being received in a very short time. To ensure that all the web ages and server communicate effectively, the data being transferred should comply with the standard protocol HTTP. The most common web server software used today is Apache (more than 50% of all websites) and IIS-Internet Information Services (nearly 25%).

Web browsersIt is a software application used to enable computer users t locate and access web pages. It is with the help of browsers that we can contact with the web server and request for information. Browser translates the HTML code into different web pages. Some of the common web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera etc. every browser features a toolbar that allows performing function like

o Go back to the first page called homeo Bookmark favorite websiteso Check web historyo We can go forward and backward to see the sites we viewed

Website markers and editorsThey are the tools that allow the construction of websites. They could be used either online or offline. Online website builders require the customer to sign up with the web hosting company. The company provides a range of services from creating basic personal WebPages or social content to making complete business/e-commerce websites, either template based or more flexible platform which are totally design free. It is ideal for beginners as it is quick and easy to use. Sites are generally created using either HTML or Adobe Flash. Offline website makers work

on the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processor editors. It is mostly used by professional web designers who have basic knowledge about HTML and CSS code. It is more flexible as it allows direct edition of the source code.

Plug-ins and delivery vehicles Plug-ins is software programs that work with the web browser to display media. When the browser encounters a multimedia file, it hands off the data to the plug-ins to play or display the file. Plug-ins is designed to perform special tasks which won’t be available if the plug-ins is not installed.

Text: The most popular text and document plug-ins is Adobe Acrobat Reader which can show special fonts.Images: Plug-ins like flash is very useful to display highly compressed vector image.Sound: Sound can be embedded into QuickTime, windows media and MPEG movie files. They may be either received on streaming, play back or fully downloaded.

Animation video and presentation

Animation and video containing both images and synchronized sound are commonly packed as Apple, QuickTime, Microsoft’s video for windows (AVI) and MPEG files. Also data rich are the files for proprietary formats such as Microsoft payment.

Virtual reality modeling language (VRML)This is a standard language which is used for 3D interactive simulation with the World Wide Web. VRML flies are commonly called world and have the *.wrl extensions. VRML is a text file format where vertices are edges for 3D graphics can be specified along with surface color, UV mapped textures, shininess and transparency. Using VRML, we can build a sequence of visual image into web setting with which a user can interact by viewing moving rotating and otherwise interacting with a 3D scene. E.g. we can view a room and use controls to move the room as we would experience it if we were walking through it in real space.

6.4 Designing for the World Wide Webi. Text for the web

We can specify a font and even alternate fonts using CSS but browsers can only use it if it is installed o the end user’s computer. Times Roman, verdana and courier are the most commonly used fonts on the web as they move across platforms. Using <TABLE> tag of HTML we can create columns to display us contents like a newspaper of magazine.

ii. Images for the webBrowser recognizes four image formats GIF, PNG, JPEG and SVG without resorting to special plug-ins. For other graphics format such as CGM, CMX, DXF, special creation software and browser plug-in may be required. Various tools such as Adobe’s Photoshop are used for creating images for use on the World Wide Web. Most browsers allow us to

specify an image or color to place in the background of our page. To make a graphic image clickable so that it links to another document, simply include the image tag inside the bounding tags of an HTML anchor that points to that document’s URL.

iii. Sound for the webMost browsers allow embedding of sounds into documents using the <AUDIO> tag. Inside this tag, the autoplay attribute, it present, starts the audio playing as soon as it is ready. If controls are present, a play/pause and other controls will be displayed. When preload is present, the audio will load when the page does and be ready to run.

iv. Animation for the webJavaScript with XML features, combined into AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is used for powerful interactive applications. It is possible to make simply animations by putting multiple images or frames into a single GIF89a file and display them with programmable delays. When we use the <IMG> tag to embed a GIF89a multiframe image, the browser downloads the file and stores it in the cache folder of our local hard disk. Once fully downloaded, the browser plays each frame of the image quickly and smoothly.

7. Assembling and delivering a project

7.1 Planning and CostingBeginning with the ideas, allow the project to take shape in our head as we think through the various methods available to express our message to the viewer.

As we think through the idea we must continuously weigh the purpose and goals against the feasibility of the project and the cost required.

Analyze the need of the project as to why it is needed; also analyze the market to understand who needs the developed project. Analyze the technology and the delivery medium to know the feasibility of the project under budget.

Plan out each task including the various multimedia elements and the expert skills required for the project.

Create prototype to test our ideas and mock up interfaces against different technology (will it work on proposed platform) market (can we sell it), cost (can we finish it within budget) and human interface (is it easy to use).

Prepare a schedule by estimating the total time required task and then allocate this time among the number of people working on the project.

Prepare a budget plan to estimate the cost requirement to develop and deliver the project.

7.2 Designing and ProducingHere, each of the planned tasks is fulfilled to create a finished product. The designers must work closely with producers to ensure that their ideas can be properly realized and the producers need to confirm the results of their work with the designers. Prepare a stray board; it could be either in great details or just a rough one. However, the more planning on paper the better and easier it will be to construct the project. Design the structure of your project. A navigation map outlines the connections or links among various areas of your content and helps to organized them. It could be either linear, hierarchical, non-linear or composite. Design the user interface which is consistent in both look and behavior. Multimedia authoring system provides tools to design and implement your own graphical user interface. Production is the phase when the multimedia project is actually rendered. Check the development hardware and software and review the organizational and administrative setup. The product should be revised by taking client feedback, however provide a management oversight to avoid endless feedback loops.

7.3 Content and talentThe information and material that defines the project is called content. Contents could be photographs, graphics, sound, music, text, video and animation. Content may be our own or from third parties. It is necessary to specify the format and quality of the content in the project plan. Pre-existing content can come from a variety of sources such as photo library, sound library and stock footage house. Some materials in the public domain do not require a license while some need to have permission to use the copyrighted materials. It is important to get the permission or buy the ownership rights before using them else we might get into legal troubles. Finding the right talent for the particular purpose is very important. Acquiring talents involve getting the perfect actor, model or narrator’s voice. It is also important to check their contract concerning any limitations on future use.

Justified_rt@yahoo.comWorking with sound on mac with windowInterlace color by SDSCImporting graphics

7.4 Delivery Alpha testing, beta testing and polishing to gold

1. Alpha testingAlpha releases are typically circulated internally among a selected group of mock users for testing. We should remain flexible to the changes in design and behavior of the project according to user’s feedback. Instead of friends, it is best to include aggressive people, who can provide criticism to our work. In this testing, we will uncover bugs that we might have over looked.

2. Beta testingThe beta testing groups includes representations of real users and avoids people who are involved in the project’s production. Beta testers should provide a detailed description of the hardware and problem, so that we can re-create it, analyze it and repair it.

3. Polishing to goldWhile moving through alpha and beta testing and through the debugging process towards the final release, several terms are used to indicate the current version status of the project. Bronze is used when the project is close to being finished. Gold in used when there is nothing left to change or correct in the project and it is ready to reproduce copies of the final product.

Compressing and file archives

Files containing sound and video information are usually large in size. File compression is the technique of reducing the size of the file by cutting out most of the duplication of data in the files. Files may need to be compressed while sending them electronically via mail or just to save disk space. Some of the commonly used file compression software are WinZip, peazip etc. Files are compressed or packed into a single file called an archive. When that archive is decompressed or the files are extracted, each file in the archive is reconstituted. Self-extracting files allow the user to run the executable archive where compressed files are automatically decompressed and placed on the hard disk.