Multimedia:
Making It Work
Eighth Edition
Tay Vaughan
New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London
Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan
Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
Contents
acknowledgments vii
about this book x
introduction xii
1
iv
4
Sound 104
he Power of Sound 104
Digital Audio 106
Making Digital Audio Files 108
MIDI Audio 113
MIDI vs. Digital Audio 118
Multimedia System Sounds 120
Audio File Formats 121
Vaughan’s Law of Multimedia Minimums 123
Adding Sound to Your Multimedia Project 124
Space Considerations 125
Audio Recording 126
Keeping Track of Your Sounds 128
Audio CDs 128
Sound for Your Mobile 129
Sound for the Internet 130
Testing and Evaluation 131
Copyright Issues 131
Text 18
he Power of Meaning 20
he Power and Irregularity of English 21
About Fonts and Faces 22
Cases 24
Serif vs. Sans Serif 24
Using Text in Multimedia 25
Designing with Text 26
Fields for Reading 36
HTML Documents 39
Computers and Text 40
he Font Wars Are Over 40
Character Sets and Alphabets 42
Mapping Text Across Platforms 45
Languages in the World of Computers 46
Font Editing and Design Tools 50
Fontlab 51
Making Pretty Text 52
Hypermedia and Hypertext 53
he Power of Hypertext 55
Using Hypertext 56
Searching for Words 57
Hypermedia Structures 58
Hypertext Tools 60
Images 68
Before You Start to Create 68
Plan Your Approach 69
Organize Your Tools 69
Conigure Your Computer Workspace 69
Making Still Images 70
Bitmaps 71
Vector Drawing 80
Vector-Drawn Objects vs. Bitmaps 81
3-D Drawing and Rendering 83
Color 88
Understanding Natural Light and Color 88
Computerized Color 91
Color Palettes 94
Image File Formats 97
What Is Multimedia? 1
Deinitions 1
Where to Use Multimedia 2
Multimedia in Business 2
Multimedia in Schools 3
Multimedia at Home 5
Multimedia in Public Places 7
Virtual Reality 9
Delivering Multimedia 9
CD-ROM, DVD, Flash Drives 10
he Broadband Internet 10
2
3
5
Animation 140
he Power of Motion 140
Principles of Animation 141
Animation by Computer 142
Animation Techniques 143
Animation File Formats 149
Making Animations hat Work 150
A Rolling Ball 151
A Bouncing Ball 152
Creating an Animated Scene 155
Contents
6
Video 164
Using Video 164
How Video Works and Is Displayed 165
Analog Video 166
Digital Video 168
Displays 170
Digital Video Containers 173
Codecs 174
Video Format Converters 178
Obtaining Video Clips 179
Shooting and Editing Video 180
he Shooting Platform 181
Storyboarding 183
Lighting 183
Chroma Keys 184
Composition 185
Titles and Text 186
Nonlinear Editing (NLE) 188
7
8
he Team 241
Project Manager 241
Multimedia Designer 243
Interface Designer 245
Writer 246
Video Specialist 248
Audio Specialist 250
Multimedia Programmer 251
Producer of Multimedia for the Web 253
he Sum of Parts 254
9
Planning and Costing 260
he Process of Making Multimedia 260
Idea Analysis 262
Pretesting 266
Task Planning 266
Prototype Development 268
Alpha Development 271
Beta Development 271
Delivery 271
Scheduling 273
Estimating 274
Billing Rates 277
RFPs and Bid Proposals 280
he Cover and Package 286
Table of Contents 286
Needs Analysis and Description 286
Target Audience 287
Creative Strategy 287
Project Implementation 287
Budget 287
Making Multimedia 196
he Stages of a Multimedia Project 196
What You Need: he Intangibles 197
Creativity 197
Organization 198
Communication 200
What You Need: Hardware 200
Windows vs. Macintosh 201
Connections 203
Memory and Storage Devices 205
Input Devices 209
Output Devices 210
What You Need: Software 212
Text Editing and Word Processing Tools 214
OCR Software 215
Painting and Drawing Tools 216
3-D Modeling and Animation Tools 218
Image-Editing Tools 220
Sound-Editing Tools 221
Animation, Video, and Digital Movie Tools 221
Helpful Accessories 222
What You Need: Authoring Systems 222
Helpful Ways to Get Started 223
Making Instant Multimedia 224
Types of Authoring Tools 227
Objects 230
Choosing an Authoring Tool 231
Multimedia Skills 240
10
Designing and Producing 294
Designing 295
Designing the Structure 296
Designing the User Interface 308
A Multimedia Design Case History 314
Producing 318
Starting Up 319
Working with Clients 320
Tracking 321
Copyrights 321
Hazards and Annoyances 322
v
vi
11
Multimedia: Making It Work
Images for the Web 402
GIF and PNG Images 402
JPEG Images 403
Using Photoshop 405
Backgrounds 409
Clickable Buttons 411
Client-Side Image Maps 411
Sound for the Web 413
Animation for the Web 413
GIF89a 413
Video for the Web 414
Plug-ins and Players 415
Content and Talent 330
Acquiring Content 331
Using Content Created by Others 332
Ownership of ContentCreated for a Project 343
Acquiring Talent 347
Locating the Professionals You Need 348
Working with Union Contracts 349
Acquiring Releases 351
12
The Internet and Multimedia 358
Internet History 359
Internetworking 360
Internet Addresses 361
Connections 365
he Bandwidth Bottleneck 365
Internet Services 367
MIME-Types 369
he World Wide Web and HTML 372
Multimedia on the Web 374
Tools for the World Wide Web 374
Web Servers 375
Web Browsers 376
Search Engines 377
Web Page Makers and Site Builders 377
Plug-ins and Delivery Vehicles 381
Beyond HTML 383
13
Designing for the World Wide Web 392
Developing for the Web 392
HTML Is a Markup Language 393
he Desktop Workspace 396
he Small-Device Workspace 396
Nibbling 397
Text for the Web 398
Making Columns of Text 398
Flowing Text Around Images 400
14
Delivering 422
Testing 423
Alpha Testing 423
Beta Testing 423
Polishing to Gold 425
Preparing for Delivery 425
File Archives 427
Delivering on CD-ROM 429
Compact Disc Technology 429
Compact Disc Standards 431
Delivering on DVD 434
DVD Standards 436
Wrapping It Up 436
Delivering on the World Wide Web 438
Appendix 446
System Requirements 446
Installing and Running
CD Software and Features 448
Help 449
Removing MasterExam 449
McGraw-Hill Technical Support 449
LearnKey Technical Support 449
Trial Software Technical Support 449
Index 450
Acknowledgments
his eighth edition of Multimedia: Making It Work includes the cumulated input and advice of many colleagues
and friends over a twenty-year period. Each time I revise and update this book, I am pleased to see that the
acknowledgments section grows. Indeed, it is diicult to delete people from this (huge) list because, like the
stones of a medieval castle still occupied, new and revised material relies upon the older foundation. I will continue accumulating the names of the good people who have helped me build this ediice and list them here, at
least until my publisher cries “Enough!” and provides substantial reason to press the delete key.
At McGraw-Hill, Meghan Riley was instrumental in producing this eighth edition. Molly Sharp from
ContentWorks did the layout, Melinda Lytle oversaw graphic quality, and Bob Campbell and Paul Tyler copyedited and proofread, respectively. As technical editor for this edition, Brad Borch helped to bring current the
detailed descriptions of the many elements of multimedia that are discussed in the book.
In past editions, Tim Green, Jennifer Housh, Jody McKenzie, Julie Smith, Jimmie Young from Tolman Creek
Design, Joe Silverthorn, Chris Johnson, Jennie Yates, John and Kathryn Ross, Madhu Prasher, Frank Zurbano,
Judith Brown, Athena Honore, Roger Stewart, Alissa Larson, Cindy Wathen, Eileen Corcoran, Megg Bonar,
Robin Small, Lyssa Wald, Scott Rogers, Stephane homas, Bob Myren, Heidi Poulin, Mark Karmendy, Joanne
Cuthbertson, Bill Pollock, Jef Pepper, Kathy Hashimoto, Marla Shelasky, Linda Medof, Valerie Robbins, Cindy
Brown, Larry Levitsky, Frances Stack, Jill Pisoni, Carol Henry, and Linda Beatty went out of their way to keep
me on track. Chip Harris, Donna Booher, Takis Metaxas, Dan Hilgert, Helayne Waldman, Hank Duderstadt,
Dina Medina, Joyce Edwards, heo Posselt, Ann Stewart, Graham Arlen, Kathy Gardner, Steve Goeckler, Steve
Peha, Christine Perey, Pam Sansbury, Terry Schussler, Alden Trull, Eric Butler, and Michael Allen have contributed to making the work more complete since its irst edition.
Since the ifth edition, peer reviewers Sandi Watkins, Dana Bass, David Williams, Joseph Parente, Elaine
Winston, Wes Baker, Celina Byers, Nancy Doubleday, Tom Duf, Chris Hand, Scott Herd, Kenneth Hofman,
Sherry Hutson, Judith Junger, Ari Kissilof, Peter Korovessis, Sallie Kravetz, Jef Kushner, heresa McHugh, Ken
Messersmith, Marianne Nilsson, Lyn Pemberton, Samuel Shifman, and Dennis Woytek have added signiicant
structure to the book’s foundation.
I would also like to acknowledge many friends in the computer and publishing industries who continue to
make this book possible. hey send me quotes and multimedia anecdotes to enliven the book; many arranged for
me to review and test software and hardware; many have been there when I needed them. Some from editions past
have changed companies or left the industry; my friend Dana Atchley, the well-known digital storyteller, has died.
Whole companies in the list below have died, too, since the irst edition of this book, but their discorporation is
mourned diferently from the heartfelt loss of the real people and real creators who launched the information age.
I would like to thank them all for the time and courtesy they have aforded me on this long-legged project:
Grace Abbett, Adobe Systems
Jennifer Ackman, Edelman Worldwide
Eric Alderman, HyperMedia Group
Heather Alexander, Waggener Edstrom
Laura Ames, Elgin/Syferd PR
Kurt Andersen, Andersen Design
Ines Anderson, Claris
Travis Anton, BoxTop Software
David Antoniuk, Live Oak Multimedia
Yasemin Argun, Corel Systems
Cornelia Atchley, Comprehensive
Technologies
Dana Atchley, Network Productions
Pamela Atkinson, Pioneer Software
Paul Babb, Maxon Computer
Ann Bagley, Asymetrix
Patricia Baird, Hypermedia Journal
Gary Baker, Technology Solutions
Richard Bangs, Mountain Travel-Sobek
Sean Barger, Equilibrium
Jon Barrett, Dycam
Kathryn Barrett, O’Reilly & Associates
Heinz Bartesch, The Search Firm
Bob Bauld, Bob Bauld Productions
Thomas Beinar, Add-On America/Rohm
Bob Bell, SFSU Multimedia Studies Program
George Bell, Ocron
Mike Bellefeuille, Corel Systems
Andrew Bergstein, Altec Lansing
Kathy Berlan, Borland International
Camarero Bernard, mFactory
Brian Berson, Diamondsoft
Bren Besser, Unlimited Access
Time Bigoness, Equilibrium
Ken Birge, Weber Shandwick
Nancy Blachman, Variable Symbols
Dana Blankenhorn, Have Modem Will Travel
Brian Blum, The Software Toolworks
Sharon Bodenschatz, International Typeface
Michele Boeding, ICOM Simulations
Donna Booher, Timestream
Gail Bower, TMS
Kellie Bowman, Adobe Systems
Susan Boyer, Blue Sky Software
Deborah Brown, Technology Solutions
vii
viii
Multimedia: Making It Work
Eric Brown, NewMedia Magazine
Russell Brown, Adobe Systems
Tifany Brown, Network Associates
Stephanie Bryan, SuperMac
Ann Marie Buddrus, Digital Media Design
David Bunnell, NewMedia Magazine
Jef Burger, Creative Technologies
Steven Burger, Ricoh
Bridget Burke, Gryphon Software
Dominique Busso, OpenMind
Ben Calica, Tools for the Mind
Doug Campbell, Spinnaker Software
Teri Campbell, MetaCreations
Doug Camplejohn, Apple Computer
Norman Cardella, Best-Seller
Tim Carrigan, Multimedia Magazine
Mike Childs, Global Mapper Software
Herman Chin, Computer Associates
International
Curtis Christiansen, Deneba Software
Jane Chuey, Macromedia
Angie Ciarloni, Hayes
Kevin Clark, Strata
Cathy Clarke, DXM Productions
Regina Cofman, Smith Micro
Frank Colin, Equilibrium
David Collier, decode communications
Kelly Anne Connors, Alien Skin
David Conti, AimTech
Freda Cook, Aldus
Renee Cooper, Miramar Systems
Wendy Cornish, Vividus
Patrick Crisp, Caere
Michelle Cunningham, Symantec
Lee Curtis, CE Software
Eric Dahlinger, Newer Technology
Kirsten Davidson, Autodesk
John deLorimier, Kallisto Productions
John Derryberry, A&R Partners/Adobe
Systems
Jef Dewey, Luminaria
Jennifer Doettling, Delta Point
Sarah Duckett, Sonic Solutions
Hank Duderstadt, Timestream
Mike Dufy, The Software Toolworks
Eileen Ebner, McLean Public Relations
Dawn Echols, Oracle
Dorothy Eckel, Specular International
Joyce Edwards, Timestream
Kevin Edwards, c|net
Mark Edwards, Independent Multimedia
Developer
Dan Elenbaas, Amaze!
Ellen Elias, O’Reilly & Associates
Shelly Ellison, Tektronix
Heidi Elmer, Sonic Foundry
Kathy Englar, RayDream
Jonathan Epstein, MPC World
Jef Essex, Audio Synchrosy
Sharron Evans, Graphic Directions
Kiko Fagan, Attorney at Law
Joe Fantuzzi, Macromedia
Lee Feldman, Voxware
Laura Finkelman, S & S Communications
Holly Fisher, MetaTools
Sean Flaherty, Nemetschek/VectorWorks
Terry Fleming, Timeworks
Patrick Ford, Microsoft
Marty Fortier, Prosonus
Robin Galipeau, Mutual/Hadwen Imaging
Kathy Gardner, Gardner Associates
Peter Gariepy, Zedcor
Bill Gates, Microsoft
Petra Gerwin, Mathematica
John Geyer, Terran Interactive
Jonathan Gibson, Form and Function
Brittany Gidican, Edelman
Karen Giles, Borland
Amanda Goodenough, AmandaStories
Danny Goodman, Concentrics Technology
Howard Gordon, Xing Technology
Jessica Gould, Corel
Jonathan Graham, Iomega
Catherine Greene, LightSource
Fred Greguras, Fenwick & West
Maralyn Guarino, Blue Sky Software
Cari Gushiken, Copithorne & Bellows
Kim Haas, McLean Public Relations
Marc Hall, Deneba Software
Johan Hamberg, Timestream
Lynda Hardman, CWI - Netherlands
Tom Hargadon, Conference
Communications
Chip Harris, InHouse Productions
Scott Harris, Chief Architect
Sue Hart, FileMaker
Robin Harwood, Maritime Energy
Trip Hawkins, 3DO/Electronic Arts
Randy Haykin, Apple Computer
Jodi Hazzan, SoftQuad
Ray Heizer, Heizer Software
Dave Heller, Salient Software
Josh Hendrix, CoSA
Maria Hermanussen, Gold Disk
Allan Hessenlow, HandMade Software
Lars Hidde, The HyperMedia Group
Erica Hill, Nuance
Dave Hobbs, LickThis
Petra Hodges, Mathematica
Kerry Hodgins, Corel
John Holder, John V. Holder Software
Elena Holland, Traveling Software
Mike Holm, Apple Computer
Robert Hone, Red Hill Studios
Kevin Howat, MacMillan Digital
Joy Hsu, Sonnet Technologies
Tom Hughes, PhotoDisc
Claudia Husemann, Cunningham
Communications
Les Inanchy, Sony CD-ROM Division
Tom Inglesby, Manufacturing Systems
Carl Jafe, Yale University School of
Medicine
Farrah Jinha, Vertigo 3D
Cynthia Johnson, BoxTop Software
Scott Johnson, NTERGAID
JoAnn Johnston, Regis McKenna
Neele Johnston, Autodesk
Jedidah Karanja, Genealogy.com
Dave Kaufer, Waggener Edstrom
David Kazanjian, AFTRA Actor
Jenna Keller, Alexander Communications
Helen Kendrick, Software Publishing
Benita Kenn, Creative Labs
Duncan Kennedy, Tribeworks
Trudy Kerr, Alexander Communications
Gary Kevorkian, ULead Systems
Deirdre Kidd, Nemetschek
David Kleinberg, NetObjects
Jef Kleindinst, Turtle Beach Systems
Kevin Klingler, Sonic Desktop Software
Sharon Klocek, Visual In-Seitz
Christina Knighton, Play Incorporated
Lewis Kraus, InfoUse
Katrina Krebs, Micrografx
Kevin Krejci, Pop Rocket
Bob Kremers, Waggoner Edstrom
Larry Kubo, Ocron
Jennifer Kuhl, Peppercom
Howard Kwak, Multimedia SourceBook
Irving Kwong, Waggener Edstrom
Craig LaGrow, Morph’s Outpost
Lisa Lance, Vectorworks
Kimberly Larkin, Alexander
Communications
Kevin LaRue, Allegiant Technologies
Mark Law, Extensis
Nicole Lazzaro, ONYX Productions
Dick Lehr, Boston University
Alan Levine, Maricopa Community
Colleges
Bob LeVitus, LeVitus Productions
Steven Levy, MacWorld
Kitten Linderman, LaserSoft Imaging
Leigh-Ann Lindsey, Mathematica
Rob Lippincott, Lotus
Mark Lissick, C-Star Technology
Jason Lockhart, G3 Systems
Elliot Luber, Technology Solutions
David Ludwig, Interactive Learning
Designs
Acknowledgments
Kirk Lyford, Vivid Details
Jennifer Lyng, Aladdin Systems
John MacLeod, FastForward
Philip Malkin, Passport Designs
Kevin Mallon, FileMaker
Basil Maloney, Winalysis
Kathy Mandle, Adobe Systems
Audrey Mann, Technology Solutions
Lisa Mann, O’Reilly & Associates
Brent Marcus, Bender/Helper Impact
Nicole Martin, Netopia/Farallon Division
Jim Matthews, Fetch Software
Robert May, Ikonic
Georgia McCabe, Applied Graphics
Technologies
Rod McCall, Runtime Revolution
Russ McCann, Ares Software
Kevin McCarthy, Medius IV
Charles McConathy, MicroNet Technology
Carol McGarry, Schwartz Communications
Peter McGill, Pilot and Photographer
Laurie McLean, McLean Public Relations
Amy McManus, Delta Point
Bert Medley, The NBC Today Show
Art Metz, Metz
Steve Michel, Author
Aline Mikaelian, Screenplay Systems
Nancy Miller, Canto Software
Doug Millison, Morph’s Outpost
Karen Milne, Insignia Solutions
Brian Molyneaux, Heizer Software
Molly Morelock, Macromedia
Jef Morgan, Radmedia
Rob Morris, VGraph
Glenn Morrisey, Asymetrix
Terry Morse, Terry Morse Software
Brendan Mullin, Peppercom
Rachel Muñoz, Caere
Philip Murray, Knowledge Management
Associates
Heather Nagey, LiveCode/RunRev
Chuck Nakell, Inspiration Software
Kee Nethery, Kagi Engineering
Chris Newell, Musitek
Mark Newman, Photographer
Wendy Woods Newman, Newsbytes
Terry Nizko, AimTech
Glenn Ochsenreiter, MPC Marketing
Council
Maureen O’Conell, Apple Computer
Jim O’Gara, Altsys
Eric Olson, Virtus
Karen Oppenheim, Cunningham
Communications
Kim Osborne, Symantec
Nicole DeMeo Overson, GoLive Systems
Andy Parng, PixoArts
David Pawlan, Timestream
Naomi Pearce, Bare Bones Software
Susan Pearson, Waggener Edstrom
Lorena Peer, Chroma Graphics
Steve Peha, Music Technology Associates
Sylvester Pesek, Optical Media
International
Christiane Petite, Symantec
Paul Phelan, INESC (Portugal)
Michael Pilmer, Alien Skin
Scott Pink, Bronson
Audrey Pobre, Quarterdeck
Dave Pola, Equilibrium
JB Popplewell, Alien Skin Software
Melissa Rabin, Miramar
Shirley Raieetary, Medius IV
Tom Randolph, FM Towns/Fujitsu
Steven Rappaport, Interactive Records
Ronelle Reed, Switzer Communications
David Reid, Author
Diane Reynolds, Graphsoft
Laurie Robinson, Gold Disk
Chuck Rogers, MacSpeech
Connie Rolof, Software Products
International
John Rootenberg, Paceworks
Amedeo Rosa, Alien Skin Software
Upasana Nattoji Roy, SWITCH!
Steve Rubenstein, San Francisco Chronicle
Jill Ryan, McLean Public Relations
Marie Salerno, AFTRA/SAG
John Sammis, DataDescription
Jay Sandom, Einstein & Sandom
Pam Sansbury, Disc Manufacturing
Richard Santalesa, R&D Technologies
Anne Sauer, Fast Electronic U.S.
Joe Scarano, DS Design
Sonya Schaefer, Adobe Systems
Rochelle Schifman, Electronics for
Imaging
Rachel Schindler, Macromedia
Melissa Scott, Window Painters
Sandy Scott, Soft-Kat
Brigid Sealy, INESC (Portugal)
Karl Seppala, Gold Disk
Chip Shabazian, Ocron
Ashley Sharp, Virtus
Philip Shaw, CodeStyle
Elizabeth Siedow, Macromedia
Adam Silver, Videologic
Stephanie Simpson, Adaptec
Marlene Sinicki, Designer
Chris Smith, VideoLabs
Brian Snook, Visual In-Seitz
Kent Sokolof, Timestream
ix
Simone Souza, Roxio
David Spitzer, Hewlett-Packard
Chris Sprigman, King & Spalding
Domenic Stansberry, Author
Ann Stewart, Interactive Dimensions
Polina Sukonik, Xaos Tools
Lisa Sunaki, Autodesk
Lee Swearingen, DXM Productions
Joe Taglia, Insignia Solutions
Meredith Taitz, Bare Bones Software
Marty Taucher, Microsoft
Bill Tchakirides, U-Design Type Foundry
Toni Teator, NetObjects
Amy Tenderich, Norton-Lambert
Lori Ternacole, SoftQuad
Dave Terran, WordPerfect
Leo Thomas, Eastman Kodak
Terry Thompson, Timestream
Bill Thursby, Thursby Software Systems
Alexandrea Todd, McLean Public Relations
Kim Tompkins, Micrografx
Tom Toperczer, Imspace Systems
Cara Ucci, Autodesk
Ross Uchimura, GC3
Jane Van Saun, Scansoft
David Vasquez, SFSU Multimedia Studies
Program
Sally von Bargen, 21st Century Media
Dan Wagner, Miramar Systems
Helayne Waldman, SFSU Multimedia
Studies Program
James J. Waldron, Visage
Arnold Waldstein, Creative Labs
Keri Walker, Apple Computer
Brad Walter, Leister Productions
Jon Ward, Tribeworks
Stefan Wennik, Bitstream
Chris Wheeler, TechSmith
Tom White, Roland
John Wilczak, HSC Software
Darby Williams, Microsoft
Laura Williams, Waggener Edstrom
Mark Williams, Microsoft
Shelly Williams, Prosonus
Hal Wine, Programmer
Sara Winge, O’Reilly & Associates
Warren Witt, Thursby Software Systems
Marcus Woehrmann, Handmade Software
Sandy Wong, Fenwick & West
Greg Wood, Corel
Chris Yalonis, Passport Designs
Alexandra Yessios, auto*des*sys
Karl-Heinz Zahorsky, LaserSoft Imaging
Barbara Zediker, Pioneer
Frank Zellis, KyZen
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Important Multimedia Skills
Multimedia ofers many career paths that can lead to occupations in such ields as graphic design, web design, animation,
audio and video production, and project management. To
become competent in any multimedia ield, however, you
need to learn the fundamental multimedia concepts irst.
104
Multimedia: Making It Work builds a foundation for success in
the discipline of multimedia by introducing you to the multimedia building blocks of text, images, sound, animation, and
video while going one step further to develop an understanding of the process of making multimedia.
78
CHAPTER 4
Multimedia: Making It Work
transformations. Morphing (see Figure 3-6) allows you to smoothly blend
two images so that one image seems to melt into the next, often producing
some amusing results.
Sound
■
Learning Objectives set
the goals of the chapter
■
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■
■■ Describe
the
componen
Describe the
components
■
digital
audio
t
■ Use
process,
and edit
sound
and measurements
of
and
measuremen
sound
sound
Quote sidebars provide
insight from experienced
multimedia professionals
■ Use digital audio to record,
andunderstand
edit sound
Use MIDI and
its
■ process,
attributes, especially relative
to digitized audio
ound is perhaps the most sensuous element of multimedia. It
is meaningful “speech” in any language, from a whisper to a scream. It
can provide the listening pleasure of music, the startling accent of special
efects, or the ambience of a mood-setting background. Some feel-good
music powerfully ills the heart, generating emotions of love or otherwise
elevating listeners closer to heaven. How you use the power of sound can
make the diference between an ordinary multimedia presentation and a
professionally spectacular one. Misuse of sound, however, can wreck your
project. Try testing all 56 of your ringtones on a crowded bus: your fellow
passengers will soon wreck your day.
■ Use MIDI and understand its
■
use of MIDI and digitized
production
■ List the important steps and
considerations in recording
and editing digital audio
■
The Power of Sound
attributes, especially r
■ Compare and contrast the
■ audio in a multimedia
■
Notes, Tips and
Warningscreate
a road map for success
S
■■ Determine which audio ile
formats are best used in a
multimedia project
■ Cite the considerations
■ involved in managing audio
iles and integrating them
into multimedia projects
When something vibrates in the air by moving back and forth (such as
the cone of a loudspeaker), it creates waves of pressure. hese waves spread
like the ripples from a pebble tossed into a still pool, and when they reach
your eardrums, you experience the changes of pressure, or vibrations, as
sound. In air, the ripples propagate at about 750 miles per hour, or Mach
1 at sea level. Sound waves vary in sound pressure level (amplitude) and in
frequency or pitch. Many sound waves mixed together form an audio sea
of symphonic music, speech, or just plain noise.
Acoustics is the branch of physics that studies sound. When you quadruple the sound output power, there is only a 6 dB increase; when you
make the sound 100 times more intense, the increase in dB is not hundredfold, but only 20 dB. A logarithmic scale (seen below) makes sense
because humans perceive sound pressure levels over an extraordinarily
broad dynamic range.
■
0
1
Keywords, identiied in
red, point out important
vocabulary and deinitions
you need to know
10
100
1000
1000
10000
measured
in decibels
decibel
Sound pressure levels
are measured
in decibels(dB);
(dB); aadecibel
measurement is actually the ratioeen
between
a chosen
reference point
a chosen
reference
pointon a logarithmic scale and the level that is actually experienced. A logarithmic scale
ctually experienced. A logarithmic
is also used for measuring the power of earthquakes (the Richter Scale)
of earthquakes
and stellar magnitudes (a irster
magnitude
star is 100 (the
times Ric
as bright as a
Figure 3-6 Morphing software was used to seamlessly transform the images of 16
kindergartners. When a sound track of music and voices was added to the four-minute
piece, it made a compelling video about how similar children are to each other.
We have
keep
saturaWe
haveto to
keep
s
tion ininmind
all the
tion
mind
all time
th
when doing our web pages...
when
doing our web
viewing the graphics on-both
viewing
Macs andthe
PCsgraphics
before actue,
ally using them. For instance,
n
when doing our Halloween
pages, we used a very lcool
pumpkin background that
t
was beautifully saturated on
n
the Mac side. On Windows,
s,
though, it was way too dark,
and you couldn’t read k,
the
TIP
When
impa color or gray-scale bitmap from the Macintosh to
TIP When
youyou
import
Windows, the
colors
will seem
darker and
Windows,
the
colors
will seem
darkricher, even though they have precisely
the same red, green, and blue (RGB) values. In some cases, this may improve the
the
same red, green, and blue (R
look of your image, but in other cases you will want to irst lighten (increase the
look
of your
other
c of the Macintosh bitmap before bringbrightness
andimage,
possibly but
lowerinthe
contrast)
brightness
and possibly lo
ing it into Windows.
ing it into Windows.
Rich Santalesa, Editor,
NetGuide Magazine
Scanning Images After poring through countless clip art collections,
you still haven’t found the unusual background you want for a screen about
gardening. Sometimes when you search for something too hard, you don’t
realize that it’s right in front of you. Everyday objects can be scanned and
manipulated using image-editing tools, such as those described in the preceding section, to create unusual, attention-getting efects. For example, to
overlying text. We had to
lighten the GIF on the Mac
side a few times before using
it cross-platform.
Image-editing programs may, indeed, represent the single most significanttruly
advance
in computer image processing during the late 1980s, bringing
amazing
ing truly amazing
power toprPC desktops. Such tools are indispensable for
excellent
multimedia
excellent multimedia production.
magnitude star is 100 times as
Engaging and Motivational—The author explains
technical concepts in a clear and interesting way
using real-world examples.
Makes Learning Fun!—Rich, colorful text
and artwork bring multimedia techniques and
technologies to life.
Proven Learning Method Keeps You on Track
Multimedia: Making It Work is structured to give you a comprehensive understanding of multimedia tools, technologies,
and techniques. The book’s active learning methodology guides you beyond mere recall and through thought-provoking
sidebars, essay topics, and lab projects. It is designed to foster your creativity and the development of critical-thinking and
communication skills.
Efective Learning Tools
This feature-rich book is designed to make learning easy and
enjoyable as you develop the skills and abilities that will aid
you in your multimedia education and career. Woven directly
into the text are the author’s own personal insights gained
Chapter 2 Text
51
Chapter
er11Review
Review
■
WARNING If your commercial project includes special fonts, be sure that
your license agreement with the font supplier allows you to distribute them with
your project.
Deine common multimedia terms such as
multimedia, integration, interactive, HTML, and
authoring and qualify various characteristics of
multimedia: nonlinear versus linear content
■
www.fontfoundry.com
www.fontfoundry.com
www.larabiefonts.com
www.larabiefonts.com
drawn by others. For starters, try these two.
■
First
irstPerson
Person
the attendant waved to my dad; he
probably didn’t know we were there
on family business. It was all pretty
serious.
We found Mommy’s car behind the
mmy’s car behind the
police station. I stayed in my seat
. I got
stayed
in walked
my seat
while my father
out and
very slowly around
theout
twisted
er got
and walked
metal. He was calculating the impact
forces, visualizing the accident in
slow-motion freeze frames, and at
one point, he leaned in through the
broken glass and ran his hand across
the dent in the steel glove compartment where my brother had smashed
his face. He went around only the
one time, then got back in. “She must
have been doing about forty when
were an adult, and we drove out the
narrow circular drive alongside the
station house. It was a crisp, clear,
football-and-pumpkins Saturday
afternoon in October.
■
■
■
Areas in which multimedia presentations are
include education, training, marketing,
■suitable
advertising, product demos, databases, catalogs,
entertainment, and networked communications.
■
Describe the primary multimedia delivery
methods—the Internet, wireless, CD-ROM, and
DVD—as well as cite the history of multimedia
and note important projected changes in the
future of multimedia
■
Multimedia is any combination of text, graphic
art, sound, animation, and video delivered by
computer or other electronic means.
■
Multimedia production requires creative,
technical, organizing, and business ability.
■
Multimedia presentations can be nonlinear (interactive) or linear (passive).
■
Multimedia can contain structured linking called
hypermedia.
■
Multimedia developers produce multimedia titles
using authoring tools.
■■Web
■
Multimedia projects, when published, are multimedia titles.
■
■
drawn by others. For star
My father said that Mommy was still
in a coma and my little brother was
sleeping. We should go home now. So
we went out the back way to the physician’s parking lot—down the elevator and past the noisy kitchen with its
racks of trays, white-uniformed cooks,
piles of canned goods, and the steamy
smells of institutional stew. The
green screen door slammed indelibly
■ Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
Occasionally in your projects you may require special characters. With
the tools described in the paragraphs that follow, you can easily substitute
characters of your own design for any unused characters in the extended
company
logoset.orYou
other
character
can even include several custom versions of your client’s
other special symbols relevant to your content or subject
right company
in your logo
textorfont.
right in your text font.
Embedding multimedia materials
into text documents can be quick,
easy, and helpful. For example, a
working draft of a manuscript sent
to an editor might read:
from more than 20 years in the multimedia industry. This
expertise, combined with a personal and humorous style,
makes learning interesting, motivational, and fun.
Describe several diferent environments in which
multimedia might be used, and several diferent
aspects of multimedia that provide a beneit over
other forms of information presentation
■
Multimedia is appropriate wherever a human
interacts with electronic information.
■
Multimedia projects often require a large amount
of digital memory; hence they are often stored on
CD-ROM or DVDs.
also includes web pages in HTML or
■Multimedia
DHTML (XML) on the World Wide Web, and
can include rich media created by various tools
using plug-ins.
■
sites with rich media require large amounts
of bandwidth.
he promise of multimedia has spawned
numerous mergers, expansions, and other ventures.
hese include hardware, software, content, and
delivery services.
■
■ he future of multimedia will include highbandwidth access to a wide array of multimedia
and learning materials.
■resources
the bill... Thanks! See you next week.
■
■
authoring tools (2)
bandwidth (9)
browser (2)
burner (10)
CD-ROM (10)
content (2)
convergence (5)
DHTML (1)
digitally manipulated (1)
distributed resource (10)
DVD (10)
■
environment (2)
font (1)
graphical user interface (GUI) (2)
HTML (1)
hypermedia (1)
integrated multimedia (2)
interactive multimedia (1)
ITV (4)
linear (2)
multimedia (0)
multimedia developer (1)
Suggested Resources
point to web sources to
aid you in the creation
and development of
multimedia projects
First Person notes
employ the author’s
personal experiences
to emphasize key
points
■ Key Terms
Note to Sally: Per your comment
last week, pick a good illustration
Chapter Review
sections provide
concept summaries and
key term lists, as well as
questions and projects
multimedia element (11)
multimedia project (1)
multimedia title (1)
nonlinear (2)
platform (2)
scripting (2)
storyboarding (2)
web site (1)
XML (1)
13
Provides Professional Insight— Quotes from
experts in the ield and notes from the author put key
concepts into the context of real-world situations.
Robust Learning Tools— Summaries, key terms
lists, quizzes, essay questions, and lab projects help
you practice skills and measure progress.
Each chapter includes:
■ Learning objectives that set measurable goals for chapterby-chapter progress
■ Full-color artwork that provides step-by-step illustrations of
techniques, making diicult concepts easy to visualize and
understand
■ Shared personal expertise from experts in the ield in the form
of First Person notes, sidebar quotes, Vaughan’s Laws and
Vaughan’s Rules
■ Notes, Tips, and Warnings that highlight important concepts
and guide you through diicult areas
■ Highlighted Key Terms, Key Terms lists, and Chapter
Summaries that provide you with an easy way to review
important concepts and vocabulary
■ Challenging End-of-Chapter Quizzes that include vocabularybuilding exercises, multiple-choice questions, essay questions,
and on-the-job lab projects
Introduction
Since the irst edition of this book in 1992, it has been necessary to update its content every few years. In writing
this eighth edition, it has become clear that changes in multimedia tools, technologies, and delivery platforms
are occurring at an increasingly rapid pace. Indeed, the rate of change itself seems exponential as new ideas and
new applications of multimedia are born, gain traction, and then bear yet newer ideas in often unpredictable
and immediate follow-ons. Overnight, words like “tweet” and “mashup” enter the lexicon and explode through
the Internet into common usage. With cloud computing and ever-more powerful browsers, cross-platform dificulties among Windows, Mac, and Linux systems are diminished. With new mechanical designs, new tools are
invented: “spudgers” are as necessary now as screwdrivers in the world of computer and electronic gear repair.
Happily for the longevity of this book, the
fundamental concepts and techniques required
his “Black Stick” opens Apple iPhones and iPods, Mac Laptops
to work with the elements of multimedia remain
and Desktops. Also used to open MP3/MP4 Players, Mobile
unchanged, and there are serious learning curves
Phones, Laptops, PCs, and any other Electronic Device. Will
to climb before you can make your multimedianot scratch surfaces. Temperature resistant. Flat (screwdriver)
capable computer stand up and dance!
end for spudging wire leads. Notch end for hooking and pulling
his is a book about the basic parts of mulwires or components. Pointed end used to form leads, probe,
timedia
as much as about how to sew these parts
point, and hold objects for soldering. 6" long.
together with current technology and tools. It is a
book that shows you how to use text, images, sound,
Spudger: Three Tools In One!
and video to deliver your messages and content in
meaningful ways. It is about designing, organizing,
and producing multimedia projects of all kinds and avoiding technical and legal pitfalls along the way. Above all, it is a
practical guide to making multimedia, complete with keywords, quizzes, exercises, tips, pointers, and answers.
he irst part deals with the basic elements of multimedia and the skills required to work with them. Hardware and software tools are described in detail. You will learn about the importance of text and how to make
characters look pretty, about making graphic art on your computer and how to choose colors, and about how to
digitize sound and video segments. You will learn about human interaction and how to design a user-friendly
computer interface. hen you will be introduced to the step-by-step creative and organizing process that results
in a inished multimedia project. Today, the fastest moving wavefront in multimedia may be seen on the Internet,
so I have updated and enlarged the chapters about designing, creating, and delivering multimedia for the Web
and for Internet-connected multimedia devices such as mobile phones, e-books, and PDAs.
I have written this book for people who make or want to make multimedia, for people who gladly take up
new challenges and are unafraid of intensely creative work. he words and ideas of this book are the harvest of
many years in the computer industry and of hands-on experience deep in the factory where multimedia is being
made. he book is intended to be, above all, useful.
I have made a great efort to include in this book references to as much multimedia software and hardware
as I could, trying not to miss any players. But because the industry is fast paced and rapidly evolving, and because, while writing this book, I have rediscovered the inite limits of my own time, I am sure some have fallen
into the bit bucket anyway. Immutable physical laws have prevented me from including the ine details of 40 or
50 hardware and software manuals and technical resources into the pages allowed for this book. he distillation
presented here should, however, point you toward further information and study. I have also made a great efort
to double-check my words and statements for accuracy; if errors have slipped past, they are mine alone.
Two decades ago, people’s experience on the information highway was a smooth ride paved with behavioral
etiquette and with many kindnesses evolved from properly socialized dot-EDU users. Commerce was prohibited.
Discourse and idea exchange through e-mail and newsgroups was encouraged. Language shortcuts such as IMHO
(In My Humble Opinion) and smiley faces were de jure. RTFM was reserved for only the most surly.
xii
Introduction
xiii
Who could have predicted the impact of commerce, when the dot-com top-level-domain was opened for
business? Well, Adam Smith’s free hand of capitalism is at work, straining First Amendment rights to free speech
and inciting road rage on the information highway. Now you can buy a million e-mail addresses, and if only half a
percent of recipients respond to your body part enhancement, vitamin, or mortgage rate spam, you can make a fortune. Not only are computer platforms and multimedia implements changing, so is our notion of etiquette. With
the tools described in this book, you will be able to shape the very nature of information and how it is accessed and
presented, and you will invent the future. Remember to be polite: some people suggest that if you go lying back
through time and you see somebody else lying forward into the future, it’s probably best to avoid eye contact.
Some years ago, after completing a book about HyperCard, I swore never to write another. Writing a book is
much like childbirth, I believe. In the beginning, it gestates slowly, usually over a few months. hen it ramps up
inexorably and quickly toward deadline, until all attention is focused upon the delivery itself, and the pain and
workload are great. Editors cry, “Push.” Afterwards, you remember it was rough, but memories of the pain itself
become difused, and one is only too easily persuaded to do it again. I am glad to share my multimedia experiences with you, and hope that in reading this book you will become better at what you do.
Tay Vaughan
Appleton, Maine
November 2010
INSTRUCTOR AND STUDENT WEB SITE
For instructor and student resources, check out www.Vaughanmultimedia8e.com.
Additional Resources for Students
he Student Edition of the web site includes all of the textbook’s learning objectives and multiple-choice questions by chapter. he multiple-choice questions can be taken electronically as quizzes, with the results submitted
to the instructor.
Additional Resources for Instructors
Instructor support materials, organized the same way as the textbook, are provided on the Instructor Edition of
the site. his edition of the site includes the following:
■
■
■
■
■
■
Answer keys to the end-of-chapter activities in the textbook
Instructor’s Manual that contains learning objectives, classroom preparation notes, instructor tips, and a
lecture outline for each chapter
Engaging PowerPoint slides on the lecture topics with full-color artwork from the book
Access to EZ Test online and test iles that allow you to generate a wide array of tests (features automatic
grading)
EZ Test features hundreds of practice questions and a wide variety of question types and diiculty levels,
enabling you to customize each test to maximize student progress
LMS cartridges and other formats may also be available upon request; contact your sales representative
Contributors to the Instructor Resources
Brad Borch
President,
Activa Digital Media Design
Laura Osterweis
Assistant Professor,
Communication Arts Department,
Framingham State University
CHAPTER 1
What Is Multimedia?
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Deine common multimedia
terms such as multimedia,
integration, interactive,
HTML, and authoring and
qualify the characteristics
of multimedia: nonlinear
versus linear content
■ Describe several diferent
environments in which multimedia might be used, and
several diferent aspects of
multimedia that provide a
beneit over other forms of
information presentation
■ Describe the primary
multimedia delivery
methods—the Internet,
wireless, CD-ROM, and
DVD—as well as cite the
history of multimedia and
note important projected
changes in the future of
multimedia
M
ultimedia is an eerie wail as two cat’s eyes appear on a
dark screen. It’s the red rose that dissolves into a little girl’s face when
you press “Valentine’s Day” on your iPhone. It’s a small window of video
laid onto a map of India, showing an old man recalling his dusty journey
to meet a rajah there. It’s an e-catalog of hybrid cars with a guide to help
you buy one. It’s a real-time video conference with colleagues in Paris,
London, and Hong Kong, using whiteboards, microphones, and question
techniques (see www.webtrain.com) on your oice computer. At home, it’s
an interactive geometry lesson for a ifth-grader. At the arcade, it’s gogglefaced kids lying ighter planes in sweaty, virtual reality. On a DVD, it’s the
interactive video sequence (or screen hot spots) that explain how the Harry
Potter movie was made—all using your remote control.
Multimedia is any combination of text, art, sound, animation, and
video delivered to you by computer or other electronic or digitally manipulated means. It is richly presented sensation. When you weave together
the sensual elements of multimedia—dazzling pictures and animations,
engaging sounds, compelling video clips, and raw textual information—
you can electrify the thought and action centers of people’s minds. When
you give them interactive control of the process, they can be enchanted.
his book is about creating each of the elements of multimedia and
about how you can weave them together for maximum efect. his book is
for computer beginners as well as computer experts. It is for serious multimedia producers—and for their clients as well. It is for desktop publishers and video producers who may need a leg-up as they watch traditional
methods for delivery of information and ideas evolve into new, technologydriven formats. his book is also for hobbyists, who want to make albums
and family histories on the World Wide Web; for mainstream businesses,
where word-processed documents and spreadsheets are illustrated with
audio, video, and graphic animations; for public speakers, who use animation and sound on large monitors and auditorium projection systems to
present ideas and information to an audience; for information managers,
who organize and distribute digital images, sound, video, and text; and for
educators and trainers, who design and present information for learning.
If you are new to multimedia and are facing a major investment in
hardware, software, and the time you will need to learn each new tool, take
a gradual approach to these challenges. Begin by studying each element of
Chapter 1 What Is Multimedia?
multimedia and learning one or more tools for creating and editing that
element. Get to know how to use text and fonts, how to make and edit
colorful graphic images and animate them into movies, and how to record
and edit digital sound. Browse the computer trade periodicals that contain
the most up-to-date information. Your skills will be most valuable if you
develop a broad foundation of knowledge about each of the basic elements
of multimedia.
Producing a multimedia project or a web site requires more than creative skill and high technology. You need organizing and business talent
as well. For example, issues of ownership and copyright will be attached
to some elements that you wish to use, such as text from books, scanned
images from magazines, or audio and video clips. he use of these resources
often requires permission, and even payment of a fee to the owner. Indeed,
the management and production infrastructure of a multimedia project
may be as intense and complicated as the technology and creative skills
you bring to bear in rendering it. Keys to successful development of a multimedia project are management of digital tools and skill sets, teamwork,
general project management, documenting and archiving the process, and
delivering the completed product on time and within budget.
Deinitions
Multimedia is, as described previously, a woven combination of digitally
manipulated text, photographs, graphic art, sound, animation, and video
elements. When you allow an end user—also known as the viewer of a
multimedia project—to control what and when the elements are delivered, it is called interactive multimedia. When you provide a structure
of linked elements through which the user can navigate, interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia.
Although the deinition of multimedia is a simple one, making it work
can be complicated. Not only do you need to understand how to make
each multimedia element stand up and dance, but you also need to know
how to use multimedia computer tools and technologies to weave them
together. he people who weave multimedia into meaningful tapestries are
called multimedia developers.
he software vehicle, the messages, and the content presented on a
computer, television screen, PDA (personal digital assistant), or mobile
phone together constitute a multimedia project. If the project is to be
shipped or sold to consumers or end users, typically delivered as a download on the Internet but also on a CD-ROM or DVD in a box or sleeve,
with or without instructions, it is a multimedia title. Your project may
also be a page or site on the World Wide Web, where you can weave the
elements of multimedia into documents with HTML (Hypertext Markup
Language) or DHTML (Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language) or XML
(eXtensible Markup Language) and play rich media iles created in such
1
he implementation of
multimedia capabilities in
computers is just the latest
episode in a long series:
cave painting, hand-crafted
manuscripts, the printing
press, radio, and television.
. . . hese advances relect
the innate desire of man to
create outlets for creative
expression, to use technology
and imagination to gain
empowerment and freedom
for ideas.
Glenn Ochsenreiter, Director,
Multimedia PC Council
2
Multimedia: Making It Work
Multimedia is a very efective
presentation and sales tool.
If you’re being driven somewhere in the back seat of a car,
you may not remember how
you got to your destination.
If you had been driving the
car yourself, chances are you
could get there again. Studies
indicate that if you’re stimulated with audio, you will have
about a 20 percent retention rate. With audio-visual,
retention is up to 30 percent
and in interactive multimedia
presentations, where you are
really involved, the retention
rate is as high as 60 percent.
Jay Sandom,
Einstein & Sandom
For viewers presented with
graphics and words, not just
words alone, there was a 23
percent increase in retention
(ability to remember information) and an 89 percent
increase in transfer (ability to
creatively apply information).
From: Multimedia Learning by
Richard E. Mayer, Cambridge
University Press, 2001
100
89
50
programs as Adobe’s Flash, LiveMotion, or Apple’s QuickTime by installing plug-ins into a browser application such as Internet Explorer, Safari,
Google Chrome, or Firefox. Browsers are software programs or tools for
viewing content on the Web. See Chapter 12 for more about plug-ins,
multimedia, and the Web.
A multimedia project need not be interactive to be called multimedia:
users can sit back and watch it just as they do a movie or the television.
In such cases a project is linear, or starting at the beginning and running
through to the end. When users are given navigational control and can
wander through the content at will, multimedia becomes nonlinear and
user interactive, and is a powerful personal gateway to information.
Determining how a user will interact with and navigate through the
content of a project requires great attention to the message, the scripting
or storyboarding, the artwork, and the programming. You can break an
entire project with a badly designed interface. You can also lose the message in a project with inadequate or inaccurate content.
Multimedia elements are typically sewn together into a project using
authoring tools. hese software tools are designed to manage individual
multimedia elements and provide user interaction. Integrated multimedia is the “weaving” part of the multimedia deinition, where source documents such as montages, graphics, video cuts, and sounds merge into a inal
presentation. In addition to providing a method for users to interact with
the project, most authoring tools also ofer facilities for creating and editing text and images and controls for playing back separate audio and video
iles that have been created with editing tools designed for these media.
he sum of what gets played back and how it is presented to the viewer on
a monitor is the graphical user interface, or GUI (pronounced “gooey”).
he GUI is more than just the actual graphics on the screen—it also often
provides the rules or structure for the user’s input. he hardware and software that govern the limits of what can happen here are the multimedia
platform or environment.
Where to Use Multimedia
Multimedia is appropriate whenever a human user is connected to electronic information of any kind, at the “human interface.” Multimedia
enhances minimalist, text-only computer interfaces and yields measurable
beneit by gaining and holding attention and interest; in short, multimedia
improves information retention. When it’s properly constructed, multimedia can also be profoundly entertaining as well as useful.
23
Multimedia in Business
0
% increase in
retention
% increase in
transfer
Business applications for multimedia include presentations, training,
marketing, advertising, product demos, simulations, databases, catalogs,
Chapter 1 What Is Multimedia?
instant messaging, and networked communications. Voice mail and video
conferencing are provided on many local and wide area networks (LANs
and WANs) using distributed networks and Internet protocols.
After a morning of mind-numbing overhead presentations delivered
from the podium of a national sales conference, a multimedia presentation
can make an audience come alive. Most presentation software packages let
you make pretty text and add audio and video clips to the usual slide show
of graphics and text material.
Multimedia is enjoying widespread use in training programs. Flight
attendants learn to manage international terrorism and security through
simulation. Drug enforcement agencies of the UN are trained using interactive videos and photographs to recognize likely hiding places on airplanes and ships. Medical doctors and veterinarians can practice surgery
methods via simulation prior to actual surgery. Mechanics learn to repair
engines. Salespeople learn about product lines and leave behind software
to train their customers. Fighter pilots practice full-terrain sorties before
spooling up for the real thing. Increasingly easy-to-use authoring programs
and media production tools even let workers on assembly lines create their
own training programs for use by their peers.
Multimedia around the oice has also become more commonplace.
Image capture hardware is used for building employee ID and badging
databases, scanning medical insurance cards, for video annotation, and for
real-time teleconferencing. Presentation documents attached to e-mail
and video conferencing are widely available. Laptop computers and highresolution projectors are commonplace for multimedia presentations on
the road. Mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) utilizing
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi communications technology make communication
and the pursuit of business more eicient.
As companies and businesses catch on to the power of multimedia,
the cost of installing multimedia capability decreases, meaning that more
applications can be developed both in-house and by third parties, which
allow businesses to run more smoothly and efectively. hese advances
are changing the very way business is transacted by airming that the
use of multimedia ofers a signiicant contribution to the bottom line
while also advertising the public image of the business as an investor in
technology.
Multimedia in Schools
Schools are perhaps the destination most in need of multimedia. Many
schools in the United States today are chronically underfunded and occasionally slow to adopt new technologies, and it is here that the power of
multimedia can be maximized for the greatest long-term beneit to all.
he U.S. government has challenged the telecommunications industry to connect every classroom, library, clinic, and hospital in America to
3
History has proven that
advances in the way we
communicate can give rise
to entirely new communication cultures. Much like
the transition from radio to
TV, the evolution from text
messaging to multimedia
messaging (MMS) marks
a whole new era of mobile
communications, combining
images with sound and text.
Jorma Ollila,
Chairman and CEO of Nokia
Here, in the country that
invented the Internet, every
child should have the chance
to get online.
Barack Obama,
President of the United States
4
Multimedia: Making It Work
Figure 1-1 Multimedia e-learning is a
powerful, convenient, and cost-efective
tool for both instructors and students.
From Tintinalli’s Emergency Medicine: A
Comprehensive Study Guide, 6e, available
online at www.accessmedicine.com.
the information superhighway. Funded by telephone surcharges (eRate),
most schools and libraries in America are now connected. Steps have also
been taken to provide governmental support for state-of-the-art technology in low-income rural and urban school districts. he National Grid for
Learning (NGfL) has established similar aims for schools in the United
Kingdom.
Multimedia will provoke radical changes in the teaching process during the coming decades, particularly as smart students discover they can
go beyond the limits of traditional teaching methods. here is, indeed, a
move away from the transmission or passive-learner model of learning
to the experiential learning or active-learner model. In some instances,
teachers may become more like guides and mentors, or facilitators of
learning, leading students along a learning path, rather than the more
traditional role of being the primary providers of information and understanding. he students, not teachers, become the core of the teaching and
learning process. E-learning is a sensitive and highly politicized subject
among educators, so educational software is often positioned as “enriching” the learning process, not as a potential substitute for traditional
teacher-based methods.
Figure 1-1 shows a selection of instructional videos used for training emergency medicine specialists. Such online e-learning provides a
cost-efective vehicle to learn clinical techniques outside of the hospital
setting. From real-time echocardiographic images to explanations of the
chemistry of synaptic transmission, multimedia is used as an efective
teaching medium in medicine and other disciplines.
An interesting use of multimedia in schools involves the students
themselves. Students can put together interactive magazines and newsletters, make original art using image-manipulation software tools,
and interview students, townspeople, coaches, and teachers. hey can
even make video clips with cameras and mobile phones for local use
or uploading to YouTube. hey can also design and run web sites. As
schools become more a part of the Internet, multimedia arrives by glass
iber and over a network
ITV (Interactive TV ) is widely used among campuses to join students from diferent locations into one class with one teacher. Remote
trucks containing computers, generators, and a satellite dish can be dispatched to areas where people want to learn but have no computers or
schools near them. In the online version of school, students can enroll at
schools all over the world and interact with particular teachers and other
students—classes can be accessed at the convenience of the student’s
lifestyle while the teacher may be relaxing on a beach and communicating via a wireless system. Washington On Line (www.waol.org), for
Chapter 1 What Is Multimedia?
example, ofers classes to students who do not wish to spend gas money,
ight traic, and compete for parking space; they even provide training to
professors so they can learn how best to present their classes online.
Multimedia at Home
From gardening, cooking, home design, remodeling, and repair to genealogy software (see Figure 1-2), multimedia has entered the home. Eventually, most multimedia projects will reach the home via television sets or
monitors with built-in interactive user inputs—either on old-fashioned
color TVs or on new high-deinition sets. he multimedia viewed on these
sets will likely arrive on a pay-for-use basis along the data highway.
Today, home consumers of multimedia own either a computer with
an attached CD-ROM or DVD drive or a set-top player that hooks up
to the television, such as a Nintendo Wii, X-box, or Sony PlayStation
machine. here is increasing convergence or melding of computerbased multimedia with entertainment and games-based media traditionally described as “shoot-em-up.” Nintendo alone has sold over 118 million
game players worldwide along with more than 750 million games. Users
with TiVo technology (www.tivo.com) can store 80 hours of television
viewing and gaming on a stand-alone hard disk.
Figure 1-2 Genealogy software such as Reunion from Leister Productions lets families add text, images, sounds, and video clips as they build
their family trees.
5
An interactive episode of
Wild Kingdom might start
out with normal narration.
“We’re here in the Serengeti
to learn about the animals.”
I see a lion on the screen
and think, “I want to learn
about the lion.” So I point
at the lion, and it zooms up
on the screen. he narration is now just about the
lion. I say, “Well that’s really
interesting, but I wonder
how the lion hunts.” I point
at a hunt icon. Now the lion
is hunting, and the narrator
tells me about how it hunts. I
dream about being the lion. I
select another icon and now
see the world from the lion’s
point of view, making the
same kinds of decisions the
lion has to make—with some
hints as I go along. I’m told
how I’m doing and how well
I’m surviving. Kids could get
very motivated from experiencing what it’s like to be a
lion and from wanting to be
a competent lion. Pretty soon
they’d be digging deeper into
the information resource,
inding out about animals in
diferent parts of the world,
studying geography from
maps displayed on the screen,
learning which animals are
endangered species. . . .
Trip Hawkins, Founder,
Electronic Arts
6
Multimedia: Making It Work
First Person
From time to time during my childhood I would hear bits and pieces
of family lore about my greatgrandfather, Victor C. Vaughan, who
had been, at least it seemed from
snatches of occasional conversation,
a Famous Person many years ago.
Not until adulthood, though, did I
come across his autobiography and
have a chance to meet him as a real
person. Today he comes to mind
when we discuss “radical changes
in the teaching process.” He was
educated the old-fashioned way on
a small farm in Missouri; I’ll let him
tell you what it was like:
. . . I received the better
part of my education at
home. My wise mother
did not pretend to dictate
my instruction. She simply
placed the books she desired
me to read within my reach
and supplied no others. I sat
many a night into the wee
small hours and absorbed,
by the light of a sycamore
ball loating in a cup of
grease, the wonderful stories
of Walter Scott. I knew
every one of his characters
in detail and sought their
prototypes among those
about me. I clothed the farm
and the neighboring hills
and dales with romance. Rob
Roy’s cave was a certainty. I
discovered it in a high bluf
on the creek. I read the
works of Dickens and Thackeray with like avidity and
recited the Prisoner of Chillon
and the Corsair. These and
books of like character illed
my library shelves. There
were also volumes of ancient
history and I remember with
what eagerness and enthusiasm I read the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire.
“Poor training,” a presentday educator would say, for
one whose adult life was
to be devoted to science.
This may be true, but I am
reciting facts. I cannot deny
that my scientiic work might
have been more productive
had my early training been
diferent. However, I am not
making a plea for a handicap, and I remain grateful
to my mother for the books
I read in childhood. They
continue to be associated
with her hallowed memory.
I never open one of these
now ancient volumes without seeing her face, as with
lighted candle she came to
my room and gently urged
me to go to bed.
Victor C. Vaughan continued to learn
and apply eagerness and enthusiasm to every subject. Among his
accomplishments, he became Dean
of the Medical School at the University of Michigan and President of
the American Medical Association.
He was Surgeon General during the
great Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918
and, it is said, he remained bitter to
his last days that science, his great
love, was unable to unravel the
causes of that disaster.
It may be that today’s multimedia
and interactive distance learning
using video and audio delivered
across broadband connections may
not be suicient to compete with
the light of a sycamore ball loating
in a cup of grease. It may be that
the fundamental driver toward the
success of any person’s education
remains, simply and plainly, eagerness and enthusiasm.
Live Internet pay-for-play gaming with multiple players has also
become popular, bringing multimedia to homes on the broadband Internet, often in combination with CD-ROMs or DVDs inserted into the
user’s machine. Microsoft’s Internet Gaming Zone and Sony’s Station web
site boast more than a million registered users each—Microsoft claims to
Chapter 1 What Is Multimedia?
be the most successful, with tens of thousands of people logged on and
playing every evening.
Multimedia in Public Places
In hotels, train stations, shopping malls, museums, libraries, and grocery
stores, multimedia is already available at stand-alone terminals or kiosks,
providing information and help for customers. Multimedia is piped to
wireless devices such as cell phones and PDAs. Such installations reduce
demand on traditional information booths and personnel, add value, and
are available around the clock, even in the middle of the night, when live
help is of duty. he way we live is changing as multimedia penetrates our
day-to-day experience and our culture. Imagine a friend’s bout of maudlin
drunk dialing (DD) on a new iPhone, with the camera accidentally
enabled.
Figure 1-3 shows a menu screen from a supermarket kiosk that provides services ranging from meal planning to coupons. Hotel kiosks list
nearby restaurants, maps of the city, airline schedules, and provide guest
services such as automated checkout. Printers are often attached so that
users can walk away with a printed copy of the information. Museum
kiosks are not only used to guide patrons through the exhibits, but when
installed at each exhibit, provide great added depth, allowing visitors to
browse through richly detailed information speciic to that display.
Figure 1-3 Kiosks in public places can make everyday life simpler.
7
My wife, the keeper of
remotes, has rigged an
entertainment system in our
house that includes a remote
controlled, ceiling mounted
96" × 96" drop-down
screen, a 27" 16 × 9 format
LCD screen, and an 1100
lumin Dell LCD projector
connected to Wavecable,
our Internet provider. We
can watch our own CDs or
Internet or Wavecable’s TV/
HDTV on our big screen
while we track a sports show
on the smaller screen of
another Wavecable box. We
have three cable boxes in
our house.
Joe Silverthorn,
Interactive Media Professor,
Olympic College
8
Multimedia: Making It Work
he power of multimedia has been part of the human experience for
many thousands of years, and the mystical chants of monks, cantors, and
shamans accompanied by potent visual cues, raised icons, and persuasive
text has long been known to produce efective responses in public places.
Scriabin, the 19th-century Russian composer, used an orchestra, a piano, a
chorus, and a special color organ to synthesize music and color in his Fifth
Symphony, Prometheus. Probably sufering from synesthesia (a strange
condition where a sensory stimulus, such as a color, evokes a false response,
such as a smell), Scriabin talked of tactile symphonies with burning incense
scored into the work. He also claimed that colors could be heard; Table 1-1
lists the colors of his color organ.
Frequency (Hz)
Note
Scriabin’s Color
256
C
Red
277
C#
Violet
298
D
Yellow
319
D#
Glint of steel
341
E
Pearly white shimmer of moonlight
362
F
Deep red
383
F#
Bright blue
405
G
Rosy orange
426
G#
Purple
447
A
Green
469
A#
Glint of steel
490
B
Pearly blue
Table 1-1 Scriabin’s Color Organ
Prometheus premiered before a live audience in Moscow in 1911, but
the color organ had proved technologically too complicated and was eliminated from the program. hen Scriabin died suddenly of blood poisoning
from a boil on his lip, so his ultimate multimedia vision, the Mysterium,
remained unwritten. He would have reveled in today’s world of MIDI synthesizers (see Chapter 4), rich computer colors, and video digitizers, and,
though smell is not yet part of any multimedia standard, he would surely
have researched that concept, too. he platforms for multimedia presentation have much improved since Scriabin’s time. Today, multimedia is found
in churches and places of worship as live video with attached song lyrics
Chapter 1 What Is Multimedia?
shown on large screens using elaborate sound systems with special efects
lighting and recording facilities. Scriabin would have loved this.
Virtual Reality
At the convergence of technology and creative invention in multimedia is
virtual reality, or VR. Goggles, helmets, special gloves, and bizarre human
interfaces attempt to place you “inside” a lifelike experience. Take a step
forward, and the view gets closer; turn your head, and the view rotates.
Reach out and grab an object; your hand moves in front of you. Maybe the
object explodes in a 90-decibel crescendo as you wrap your ingers around
it. Or it slips out from your grip, falls to the loor, and hurriedly escapes
through a mouse hole at the bottom of the wall.
VR requires terriic computing horsepower to be realistic. In VR, your
cyberspace is made up of many thousands of geometric objects plotted
in three-dimensional space: the more objects and the more points that
describe the objects, the higher the resolution and the more realistic your
view. As you move about, each motion or action requires the computer to
recalculate the position, angle, size, and shape of all the objects that make
up your view, and many thousands of computations must occur as fast as
30 times per second to seem smooth.
On the World Wide Web, standards for transmitting virtual reality
worlds or scenes in VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) documents (with the ilename extension .wrl) have been developed. Intel and
software makers such as Adobe have announced support for new 3-D
technologies.
Using high-speed dedicated computers, multi-million-dollar light
simulators built by Singer, RediFusion, and others have led the way in
commercial application of VR. Pilots of F-16s, Boeing 777s, and Rockwell space shuttles have made many simulated dry runs before doing the
real thing. At the Maine Maritime Academy and other merchant marine
oicer training schools, computer-controlled simulators teach the intricate
loading and unloading of oil tankers and container ships.
Virtual reality (VR) is an extension of multimedia—and it uses the
basic multimedia elements of imagery, sound, and animation. Because it
requires instrumented feedback from a wired-up person, VR is perhaps
interactive multimedia at its fullest extension.
Delivering Multimedia
Multimedia requires large amounts of digital memory when stored in an
end user’s library, or large amounts of bandwidth when distributed over
9
People who work in VR do
not see themselves as part
of “multimedia.” VR deals
with goggles and gloves
and is still a research ield
where no authoring products are available, and you
need a hell of a computer to
develop the real-time 3-D
graphics. Although there is
a middle ground covered by
such things as QuickTime
VR and VRML that gives
multimedia developers a
“window” into VR, people
often confuse multimedia
and VR and want to create
futuristic environments
using multimedia-authoring
tools not designed for that
purpose.
Takis Metaxis, Assistant
Professor of Computer Science,
Wellesley College
10
Multimedia: Making It Work
wires, glass iber, or airwaves on a network. he greater the bandwidth,
the bigger the pipeline, so more content can be delivered to end users
quickly.
CD-ROM, DVD, Flash Drives
CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory, see Chapter 7) discs can be
mass-produced for pennies and can contain up to 80 minutes of full-screen
video, images, or sound. he disc can also contain unique mixes of images,
sounds, text, video, and animations controlled by an authoring system to
provide unlimited user interaction.
Discs can be stamped out of polycarbonate plastic as fast as cookies on
a baker’s production line and just as cheaply. Virtually all personal computers sold today include at least a CD-ROM player, and the software that
drives these computers is commonly delivered on a CD-ROM disc. Many
systems also come with a DVD player combination that can read and burn
CD-ROMs as well. Multilayered Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) technology increases the capacity and multimedia capability of CDs to 4.7GB on
a single-sided, single-layered disc to as much as 17.08GB of storage on a
double-sided, double-layered disc. CD and DVD burners are used for
reading discs and for making them, too, in audio, video, and data formats.
DVD authoring and integration software allows the creation of interactive
front-end menus for both ilms and games.
In the very long term, however, CD-ROM and DVD discs are but
interim memory technologies that will be replaced by new devices such as
lash drives and thumb drives that do not require moving parts. As highspeed connections become more and more pervasive and users become
better connected, copper wire, glass iber, and radio/cellular technologies
may prevail as the most common delivery means for interactive multimedia iles, served across the broadband Internet or from dedicated computer
farms and storage facilities.
The Broadband Internet
hese days telecommunications networks are global, so when information
providers and content owners determine the worth of their products and
how to charge money for them, information elements will ultimately link up
online as distributed resources on a data highway (actually more like a toll
road), where you will pay to acquire and use multimedia-based information.
Curiously, the actual glass iber cables that make up much of the physical backbone of the data highway are, in many cases, owned by railroads
and pipeline companies who simply buried the cable on existing rights of
way, where no special permits and environmental studies are necessary.
Chapter 1 What Is Multimedia?
One railroad in the United States invested more than a million dollars in
a special cable-laying trenching car; in the United Kingdom, iber-optic
cable runs in the towpaths of the decaying 19th-century canal and barge
system. Bandwidth on these iber-optic lines is leased to others, so competing retailers such as AT&T, Verizon, MCI, and Sprint may even share
the same cable.
Full-text content from books and magazines is downloadable; feature movies are played at home; real-time news feeds from anywhere on
earth are available; lectures from participating universities are monitored
for education credits; street maps of cities are viewable—with recommendations for restaurants, in any language—and online travelogues
include testimonials and video tracks. Just think—each of these interfaces or gateways to information is a multimedia project waiting to be
developed!
http://earth.google.com
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview
www.moviefone.com
www.netflix.com
www.travelocity.com
www.nytimes.com
www.5pm.co.uk
Showtimes for many major cities, restaurants, vacation trips, and current
news items are quickly available on the Web.
Interactive multimedia is delivered to many homes throughout the
world. Interest from a conluence of entertainment mega-corps, information publishers and providers, cable and telephone companies, and hardware and software manufacturers is driving this inevitable evolution, and
profound changes in global communications strategy are on the drawing
boards. What will be piped through this new system for entertainment,
reference, and lifelong learning experiences are the very multimedia elements discussed in the chapters of this book, including text, graphics, animation, sound, and video.
he actual content provided, let us hope, will be excellent fare, generated by thinking and caring creative people using ideas that will propel
all of us into a better world. Entertainment companies that own content
easily converted to multimedia projects are teaming up with cable TV
companies. Film studios are creating new divisions to produce interactive
multimedia and wealthy talents have formed new companies to join in on
11
12
Multimedia: Making It Work
the action. Google is scanning millions of books and periodicals. Even
without a clear business model with known proits, large media corporations are uniting to create huge conglomerates to control the content and
delivery of tomorrow’s information.
Some companies will own the routes for carrying data, other companies will own the hardware and software interfaces at the end of the line,
at oices and homes. Some will knit it all together and provide supply-ondemand and billing services. Regardless of who owns the roadways and the
hardware boxes, multimedia producers will create the new literature and
the rich content sent along them. his is a fresh and exciting industry that
is coming of age, but one that is still faced with many growing pains.
Chapter 1 Review
■ Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
Deine common multimedia terms such as
multimedia, integration, interactive, HTML, and
authoring and qualify various characteristics of
multimedia: nonlinear versus linear content
■
Multimedia is any combination of text, graphic
art, sound, animation, and video delivered by
computer or other electronic means.
■
Multimedia production requires creative,
technical, organizing, and business ability.
■
Multimedia presentations can be nonlinear (interactive) or linear (passive).
■
Multimedia can contain structured linking called
hypermedia.
■
■
Areas in which multimedia presentations are
suitable include education, training, marketing,
advertising, product demos, databases, catalogs,
entertainment, and networked communications.
Describe the primary multimedia delivery
methods—the Internet, wireless, CD-ROM, and
DVD—as well as cite the history of multimedia
and note important projected changes in the
future of multimedia
■
Multimedia projects often require a large amount
of digital memory; hence they are often stored on
CD-ROM or DVDs.
■
Multimedia also includes web pages in HTML or
DHTML (XML) on the World Wide Web, and
can include rich media created by various tools
using plug-ins.
Multimedia developers produce multimedia titles
using authoring tools.
■
Web sites with rich media require large amounts
of bandwidth.
Multimedia projects, when published, are multimedia titles.
■
he promise of multimedia has spawned
numerous mergers, expansions, and other ventures.
hese include hardware, software, content, and
delivery services.
■
he future of multimedia will include highbandwidth access to a wide array of multimedia
resources and learning materials.
Describe several diferent environments in which
multimedia might be used, and several diferent
aspects of multimedia that provide a beneit over
other forms of information presentation
■
■
Multimedia is appropriate wherever a human
interacts with electronic information.
■ Key Terms
authoring tools (2)
bandwidth (9)
browser (2)
burner (10)
CD-ROM (10)
content (2)
convergence (5)
DHTML (1)
digitally manipulated (1)
distributed resource (10)
DVD (10)
environment (2)
font (1)
graphical user interface (GUI) (2)
HTML (1)
hypermedia (1)
integrated multimedia (2)
interactive multimedia (1)
ITV (4)
linear (2)
multimedia (0)
multimedia developer (1)
multimedia element (11)
multimedia project (1)
multimedia title (1)
nonlinear (2)
platform (2)
scripting (2)
storyboarding (2)
web site (1)
XML (1)
13
■ Key Term Quiz
1. _______________ is any combination of text, graphic art, sound, animation, and video delivered to you by
computer or other electronic means.
2. _______________ allows an end user to control what and when the elements are delivered.
3. _______________ is a structure of linked elements through which the user can navigate.
4. A _______________ multimedia project allows users to sit back and watch it just as they do a movie or
the television.
5. _______________ tools are software tools designed to manage individual multimedia elements and
provide user interaction.
6. he sum of what gets played back and how it is presented to the viewer on a monitor is the
_______________.
7. he hardware and software that govern the limits of what can happen are the multimedia
_______________.
8. he information that makes up a multimedia presentation is referred to as _______________.
9. CD and DVD _______________ are used for reading and making discs.
10. HTML and DHTML web pages or sites are generally viewed using a _______________.
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. LAN stands for:
a. logical access node
b. link/asset navigator
c. local area network
d. list authoring number
e. low-angle noise
2. A browser is used to view:
a. program code
b. storyboards
c. fonts
d. Web-based pages and documents
e. videodiscs
3. he “ROM” in “CD-ROM” stands for:
a. random-order memory
b. real-object memory
c. read-only memory
d. raster-output memory
e. red-orange memory
4. he software vehicle, the messages, and the
content presented on a computer or television
screen together make up:
14
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
a multimedia project
a CD-ROM
a web site
a multimedia title
an authoring tool
5. A project that is shipped or sold to consumers or
end users, typically in a box or sleeve or on the
Internet, with or without instructions, is:
a. a CD-ROM
b. an authoring tool
c. a multimedia project
d. a multimedia title
6. he 19th-century Russian composer who used
an orchestra, a piano, a chorus, and a special color
organ to synthesize music and color in his Fifth
Symphony, Prometheus was:
a. Rachmaninof
b. Tchaikovsky
c. Scriabin
d. Rimsky-Korsakof
e. Shostakovich
7. Which one of the following is not/are not
typically part of a multimedia speciication?
a. text
b. odors
c. sound
d. video
e. pictures
8. VR stands for:
a. virtual reality
b. visual response
c. video raster
d. variable rate
e. valid registry
9. According to one source, in interactive
multimedia presentations where you are really
involved, the retention rate is as high as:
a. 20 percent
b. 40 percent
c. 80 percent
d. 60 percent
e. 100 percent
10. Which of the following is displayable on a web
page after installation of a browser plug-in?
a. Windows 7
b. Adobe Flash
c. Mozilla
d. Internet Explorer
e. Firefox
11. PDA stands for:
a. primary digital asset
b. processor digital application
c. personal digital assistant
d. practical digital accessory
e. portable digital armor
12. he glass iber cables that make up much of the
physical backbone of the data highway are, in
many cases, owned by:
a. local governments
b. Howard Johnson
c. television networks
d. railroads and pipeline companies
e. book publishers
13. DVD stands for:
a. Digital Versatile Disc
b. Digital Video Disc
c. Duplicated Virtual Disc
d. Density-Variable Disc
e. Double-View Disc
14. Genealogy software is used to
a. Study benthic sediments
b. Organize class reunions
c. Display family trees
d. Compute shortest routes for ambulances
e. Open e-mail
15. Which of the following is not a technology likely
to prevail as a delivery means for interactive
multimedia iles?
a. copper wire
b. glass iber
c. radio/cellular
d. loppy disk
e. CD-ROM
■ Essay Quiz
1. Briely discuss the history and future of multimedia. How might multimedia be used to improve the lives
of its users? How might it inluence users in negative ways? What might be its shortcomings?
2. You are a marketing director for a small telecommunications company. You are considering using
multimedia to market your company’s product. Put together an outline detailing the beneits and
drawbacks of using a CD-ROM presentation, a multimedia web site, or a television advertisement.
3. Multimedia is shifting from being localized (contained on a CD-ROM) to being distributed (available
on the World Wide Web). What are some of the implications of this? Who will have access to the
presentation? How will you keep it secure? How will you distribute it?
15
Lab Projects
■Project 1.1
You have been given the task of creating an interactive Web presentation for marketing a new bicycle. Visit four
diferent bicycle web sites using a suitable search tool. For each web site you visit, write in the table below the
name of the site, its URL, and:
1. Describe each site in terms of its multimedia incorporation.
2. Discuss whether its multimedia content is appropriate and where and how additional media content might
improve the site.
3. Describe what multimedia presentation formats it uses. Video? Virtual reality? 3-D animations?
Site 1
URL (address):
Describe the GUI. What navigational elements
does it have? What colors does it use? Is it
cluttered?
Is the content relevant and appropriate? What
additions/deletions of content might improve
the site?
Describe any multimedia presentations of
speciic products. What formats did they use?
Site 2
URL (address):
Describe the GUI. What navigational elements
does it have? What colors does it use? Is it
cluttered?
Describe any multimedia presentations of
speciic products. What formats did they use?
Site 3
URL (address):
Describe the GUI. What navigational elements
does it have? What colors does it use? Is it
cluttered?
Describe any multimedia presentations of
speciic products. What formats did they use?
Site 4
URL (address):
Describe the GUI. What navigational elements
does it have? What colors does it use? Is it
cluttered?
Describe any multimedia presentations of
speciic products. What formats did they use?
16
■Project 1.2
Review an educational multimedia CD-ROM title, and then ill out the table that follows.
Title of CD
Describe the GUI. What navigational elements does it
have? What color scheme(s) does it use? Is it cluttered?
Describe the educational content. Is it well organized?
Would you be able to easily learn the subject matter using
this package?
Describe the product in terms of its multimedia
incorporation.
Discuss whether its multimedia content is appropriate and
where and how additional media content might improve
the site.
■Project 1.3
Contact a local multimedia development company. Ask them what kinds of products they develop and whether
they would describe two projects they have recently completed. Be sure that they provide you with enough information to answer each of the following questions.
Multimedia Project 1
1. Name of project.
5. How did the production of the project develop?
2. Kind of product created.
6. How long did the project take to complete?
3. What authoring tool(s) were used to create the
project?
7. What problems were encountered?
4. Who made up the development team for the
project?
Multimedia Project 2
1. Name of project.
5. How did the production of the project develop?
2. Kind of product created.
6. How long did the project take to complete?
3. What authoring tool(s) were used to create the
project?
7. What problems were encountered?
4. Who made up the development team for the
project?
■Project 1.4
Visit a large public area such as a shopping mall, the downtown area of a city, or a museum. Locate a kiosk or
other public multimedia installation. Spend 15 minutes observing who uses it and for how long.
1. Describe the installation. Where was it located? Is there a lot of foot traic going past it? Is it conveniently
located? Is it accessible to a wide range of users (tall, short, disabled, wheelchair, or vision impaired)?
2. Describe the usage pattern. Characterize the users. Were children attracted to it? Did users “play” with it?
17
18
CHAPTER 2
Text
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Recognize the importance
of word choice
■ Describe the diference
between a typeface and a
font and list at least three
attributes of a font, for
example, upper/lowercase,
serif/sans serif, PostScript/
TrueType/OpenType
■ Discuss the importance of
text and the ways in which
text can be leveraged in
multimedia presentations
■ Discuss the presentation
of text on Windows and
Macintosh platforms
U
sing text and symbols for communication is a very recent human
development that began about 6,000 years ago in the Mediterranean Fertile
Crescent—Mesopotamia, Egypt, Sumeria, and Babylonia—when the irst
meaningful marks were scraped onto mud tablets and left to harden in the
sun. Only members of the ruling classes and the priesthood were allowed
to read and write the pictographic signs and cuneiforms. he earliest messages delivered in written words typically contained information vital to
the management of people, politics, and taxes. Because this new medium
did not require rote memorization by frail human gray matter, written
messages became popular among the elite. Unlike their human counterparts, these new messages were less likely to perish due to dysentery or acts
of God, or sufer from amnesia. Even if a message were intercepted by foes
or competitors, it would still be indecipherable—except by those few who
had acquired reading skills.
In fact, because those who could read probably attended the same private school or shared the same tutors, in those days reading, writing, and
power politics were naturally intertwined. In some former eras it was a
capital ofense to read unless you belonged to the proper social class or
possessed a patent granted to you by your rulers.
■ Find sources for free and
shareware fonts
■ Deine hypermedia, hyper-
text, links, anchors, and
nodes and be able to discuss both the potential and
limitations of hypertext and
hyperlinking systems
Today, text and the ability to read it are doorways to power and knowledge. Reading and writing are expected and necessary skills within most
modern cultures. Now, depending upon your proiciency with words, you
may be awarded a doctorate instead of the death penalty. And, as has been
the case throughout history, text still delivers information that can have
potent meaning.
Chapter 2 Text
19
Since the explosion of the Internet and the World Wide Web, text
has become more important than ever. Indeed, the native language of the
Web is HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), originally designed to display simple text documents on computer screens, with occasional graphic
images thrown in as illustrations (see Chapter 12 for more history of the
Internet). Academic papers, magazine articles, complex instruction manuals, and even the contents of entire books are now available for reading
with a web browser. Add a built-in function that links, with a click of the
mouse, selected words and phrases to other related and perhaps moredetailed material (the “hypertext” part of HTML, discussed later in this
chapter), and you can surf the Net in a medium much richer than the paper
pages of a book.
First Person
In the 15th century, when the
Church was a strong power throughout Europe, Johann Gensleisch zum
Gutenberg, a trained goldsmith
from Mainz, Germany, invented
movable type for printing presses.
He used this new invention for the
task of producing religious literature, indulgence slips, and the Holy
Bible. In the case of the Bible, he
sold his copies to people who could
read Latin and pay the equivalent
of three years of a clerk’s wage to
own a personal copy of this Great
Work. Other printers, including the
Estienne family in France and Aldus
Manutius in Italy, soon entered the
publishing marketplace to compete,
and they changed the fabric of
society. The mass production of
identical copies of text enabled an
information-based paradigm shift
that changed the human universe
in a substantial way. Lots of scribes
and illuminators were put out of
business.
By way of pointing out that some
elements of the human equation
may be constant throughout history, I would remark that like many
adventurers suring the waves of
today’s revolution, Gutenberg took
on a inancial investor, Johann Fust.
Gutenberg, who was a visionary
craftsman perhaps better suited to
lab and shop work, defaulted on a
payment to Fust in 1455, was sued,
and lost his press and all its profits. Toward the end of his life, it is
said that he was granted a place as
courtier to the archbishop of Mainz.
This position had perhaps better
remuneration than the diminishing social security plan rewarding
today’s surfer who wipes out while
hanging ten at the leading edge of
the business world.
(From a speech by Tay Vaughan to
the jointly held World Conference
on Educational Multimedia and
Hypermedia and World Conference
on Educational Telecommunications,
Freiburg, Germany, June 1998)
he social impact of this text-biased medium on the way people access
and use information will be profound as the Web matures further. In contrast to today’s television medium, which consists of sound and images
with a few text headlines “dumbed down” to the level of a perceived lowest common denominator of passive audience, the Web ofers an active
experience laden with enough choices to challenge even bright people
20
Multimedia: Making It Work
With its penchant for interactivity, multimedia too often
ignores the power of narrative, of stories. here’s really
something to be said for
documents with a beginning,
middle, and end.
Steven Levy, author of Hackers,
Artificial Life, Insanely Great,
Unicorn’s Secret, and Crypto;
Senior Editor and chief
technology writer for Newsweek
who can read. More than television, with its 50 or 100 or even 400 channels, the Web ofers an explorer’s paradise of billions of HTML documents. Yahoo! Search once claimed, “Our index now provides access to
over 20 billion items. For those who are curious, this update includes just
over 19.2 billion web documents, 1.6 billion images, and over 50 million
audio and video iles.” Until 2009, the search engines displayed (bragged
about) the total number of documents they indexed, in the billions. hese
huge numbers were very inaccurate, it turned out, and they have ceased
making precise statements about quantity. A trick in the Google search
engine is to type in “site:” and the name of a domain. Google will tell you
how many pages from that domain are indexed:
As bandwidth improves and more information is successfully embedded within these documents, developers of content will not escape the dificult design issues discussed in Chapter 10. Who is the audience? What
words should I use? What typeface is best?
The Power of Meaning
I’d like to write something
that comes from things the
way wine comes from grapes.
Walter Benjamin,
Philosopher/Writer
Even a single word may be cloaked in many meanings, so as you begin
working with text, it is important to cultivate accuracy and conciseness in
the speciic words you choose. In multimedia, these are the words that will
appear in your titles, menus, and navigation aids as well as in your narrative
or content.
Today’s poets and songwriters concentrate text by distilling lengthy
prose into few words heavy with meaning. Advertising wordsmiths render
the meaning of entire product lines into an evocative single word, logo, or
tag line. Multimedia authors weave words, symbols, sounds, and images,
and then blend text into the mix to create integrated tools and interfaces
for acquiring, displaying, and disseminating messages and data.
he words “Barbie,” “green,” and “lite” may each easily trigger a rush
of diferent meanings. A piercing cry in the night, the sight of ire engines
leaving your street as you steer your car into your neighborhood, the scent
of drying kelp along the seashore, the feel of rough pine bark against your
chest as you climb, ingernails on a chalkboard—all these raw sensory messages are important only because of what they mean to you. Indeed, you
alone know the words that will stop you dead in your tracks with anger,
or, better, soothe you seductively over a quiet dinner for two. hese words
have meaning.
Chapter 2 Text
21
All of these examples demonstrate the following multimedia principle:
it’s important to design labels for title screens, menus, and buttons or tabs
using words that have the most precise and powerful meanings to express
what you need to say. Understand the subtle shadings. GO BACK! is more
powerful than Previous; Quit is more powerful than Close. TERRIFIC!
may work better than hat Answer Was Correct. Experiment with the
words you plan to use by letting others try them. If you have the budget,
set up a focus group to have potential users experience your words. Watch
them work. See if users linch, balk, or click the Help button in confusion.
See if they can even ind the Help button.
Words and symbols in any form, spoken or written, are the most
common system of communication. hey deliver the most widely understood meaning to the greatest number of people—accurately and in detail.
Because of this, they are vital elements of multimedia menus, navigation
systems, keyword lists, and content. You will reward yourself and your users
if you take the time to use excellent words. Let your poet loose!
TIP
Browse through a thesaurus. You will be surprised at the number of
synonyms and related words that are closely associated to the word you start
with, and you will certainly ind the one word that most perfectly its your need.
The majority of today’s popular word processors ship with a bundled electronic
thesaurus; many are also available for free on the Internet.
The Power and Irregularity of English
If you are reading this book in English, you might consider yourself lucky.
A study by the British Council estimated that one billion people spoke
English by the beginning of the second millennium as a irst, second, or
“foreign” language. English is the oicial or joint oicial language of more
than 75 countries, and Algeria, when it dumped French in favor of English
as the second language in schools, irritated a great many Parisian intellectuals. More than two-thirds of the world’s scientists read English, and
three-quarters of the world’s mail is written in English. It is estimated that
80 percent of the world’s information that is stored on computers is written in English. As Dutch-born Professor Boeree of Shippensburg University has said, “Unfortunately for learners of English, it still has several
irregular verbs (e.g., to be and to have) and a large number of strong verbs
(e.g. sing-sang-sung), plus a few irregular plurals (e.g. child-children, manmen...). Nevertheless, people around the world ind English relatively easy,
with one huge exception: English has the worst spelling of any language
using the Latin alphabet!”
he most recent changes in English spelling have been driven by
technology limits as SMS (Short Message Service) text messages commonly used by social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to
When we have a technical
meeting with engineers
coming from Germany,
France, Spain, Sweden,
Japan, and other countries,
people say “Hello!” when
they walk into the room;
English is clearly the international common language
of business and commerce
and science. Sometimes the
etiquette of polite speech
is even more fascinating:
when you have a room with
a group of Germans talking
to each other in German and
suddenly a foreign visitor
comes in, from one sentence
to the other, they seamlessly
switch to English.
Dipl.-Ing. Roland Cuny
Karlsruhe, Germany
22
Multimedia: Making It Work
communicate and “tweet” allow only about 160 characters per message
(140 bytes). As today’s most pervasive method of human-to-human data
communication (more than three billion texters worldwide sending trillions of short text messages from phone to phone each year), users speaking many languages quickly developed word shortcuts to pack the most
meaning into the fewest characters. NetLingo (www.netlingo.com) maintains a list of almost two thousand English acronyms and instant messaging jargon words such as XOXO (hugs & kisses), U (you), and NME
(enemy). When assembled into a message, you might discover “were I a
tear in ur eye i wood roll down onto ur lips. but if u were a tear in my eye
i wood never cry as i wood be afraid 2 lose u!” With the arrival of MMS
(Multimedia Messaging Service), which allows for 350,000-byte transmissions, perhaps these shortcut spellings will fade away. But perhaps not.
About Fonts and Faces
A typeface is a family of graphic characters that usually includes many type
sizes and styles. A font is a collection of characters of a single size and style
belonging to a particular typeface family. Typical font styles are boldface
and italic. Your computer software may add other style attributes, such as
underlining and outlining of characters. Type sizes are usually expressed
in points; one point is 0.0138 inch, or about 1/72 of an inch. he font’s
size is the distance from the top of the capital letters to the bottom of the
descenders in letters such as g and y. Helvetica, Times, and Courier are
typefaces; Times 12-point italic is a font. In the computer world, the term
font is commonly used when typeface or face would be more correct.
A font’s size does not exactly describe the height or width of its characters. his is because the x-height (the height of the lowercase letter x)
of two fonts may vary, while the height of the capital letters of those fonts
may be the same (see Figure 2-1). Computer fonts automatically add space
below the descender (and sometimes above) to provide appropriate line
spacing, or leading (pronounced “ledding,” named for the thin strips of
lead inserted between the lines by traditional typesetters).
Figure 2-1 The measurement of type
Chapter 2 Text
Leading can be adjusted in most programs on both the Macintosh
and the PC. Typically you will ind this ine-tuning adjustment in the Text
menu of image-editing programs or the Paragraph menu of word processing programs, though this is not an oicial standard. No matter where your
application has placed the controls for leading, you will need to experiment with them to achieve the best result for your font. With a font editing program like Fontographer from Fontlab, Ltd. at www.fontlab.com
(you’ll see an example of it later in the chapter), adjustments can also be
made along the horizontal axis of text. In this program the character metrics of each character and the kerning of character pairs can be altered.
Character metrics are the general measurements applied to individual
characters; kerning is the spacing between character pairs. When working
with PostScript, TrueType, and Master fonts—but not bitmapped fonts—
(see “Computers and Text” later in this chapter), the metrics of a font can
be altered to create interesting efects. For example, you can adjust the
body width of each character from regular to condensed to expanded,
as displayed in this example using the Sabon font:
Regular
Condensed
Expanded
Or you can adjust the spacing between characters (tracking) and the
kerning between pairs of characters:
Tighter Track
Av Av
Looser Track
Kerned
Unkerned
When it converts the letter A from a mathematical representation to a
recognizable symbol displayed on the screen or in printed output (a process
called rasterizing), the computer must know how to represent the letter
using tiny square pixels (picture elements), or dots. It does this according
to the hardware available and your speciication, from a choice of available
typefaces and fonts. Search for “free fonts.” High-resolution monitors and
printers can make more attractive-looking and varied characters because
there are more ine little squares or dots per inch (dpi). And today’s broad
selection of software fonts makes it easier to ind the right typeface and
23
24
Multimedia: Making It Work
font for your needs. he same letter can look very diferent when you use
diferent fonts and faces:
Cases
In centuries when type was set by hand, the type for a single font was
always stored in two trays, or cases; the upper tray held capital letters, and
the lower tray held the small letters. Today, a capital letter is called uppercase, and a small letter is called lowercase.
TIP
Studies have shown that words and sentences with mixed upper- and lowercase letters are easier to read than words or sentences in all caps (uppercase).
While uppercase can make your message appear important or urgent, use this
sparingly; in online messaging it’s known as “SHOUTING” or “YELLING” and can be
annoying, if not ofensive.
In some situations, such as for passwords, a computer is case sensitive, meaning that the text’s upper- and lowercase letters must match
exactly to be recognized. But nowadays, in most situations requiring keyboard input, all computers recognize both the upper- and lowercase forms
of a character to be the same. In that manner, the computer is said to be
case insensitive.
WARNING
The directory names and ilenames used in Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) addresses on the Internet are case sensitive! Thus, http://www.
timestream .com/info/people/biotay/biotay1.html points to a diferent directory
and ile than http://www.timestream.com/info/people/bioTay/biotay1.html. On
the other hand, the record type (HTTP) and the domain name (www.timestream.
com), and e-mail addresses (tay@timestream.com) as well, are usually case insensitive. Read more about addresses on the Internet in Chapter 12.
Company and product names such as WordPerfect, OmniPage, PhotoDisc, FileMaker, and WebStar have become popular. Placing an uppercase
letter in the middle of a word, called an intercap, is a trend that emerged
from the computer programming community, where coders discovered
they could better recognize the words they used for variables and commands when the words were lowercase but intercapped.
Serif vs. Sans Serif
Typefaces can be described in many ways, just as a home advertised by a
realtor, a wine described by a food critic, or a political candidate’s platform
Chapter 2 Text
can all be described in many ways. Type has been characterized as feminine, masculine, delicate, formal, capricious, witty, comic, happy, technical, newsy—you name it. But one approach for categorizing typefaces is
universally understood, and it has less to do with the reader’s response to
the type than it does with the type’s mechanical and historical properties.
his approach uses the terms serif and sans serif.
Serif versus sans serif is the simplest way to categorize a typeface; the
type either has a serif or it doesn’t (sans is French for “without”). he serif
is the little decoration at the end of a letter stroke. Times, New Century
Schoolbook, Bookman, and Palatino are examples of serif fonts. Helvetica,
Verdana, Arial, Optima, and Avant Garde are sans serif. Notice the diference between serif (on the left) and sans serif:
On the printed page, serif fonts are traditionally used for body text
because the serifs are said to help guide the reader’s eye along the line of
text. Sans serif fonts, on the other hand, are used for headlines and bold
statements. But the computer world of standard, 72 dpi monitor resolution
is not the same as the print world, and it can be argued that sans serif fonts
are far more legible and attractive when used in the small sizes of a text
ield on a screen. Indeed, careful selection of a sans serif font designed to be
legible in the small sizes (such as Tahoma or Verdana) makes more sense
when you are presenting a substantial amount of text on the screen. he
Times font at 9-point size may look too busy and actually be diicult and
tiring to read. And a large, bold serif font for a title or headline can deliver a
message of elegance and character in your graphic layout. Use what is right
for your delivery system, which may not necessarily be the same as what is
right when you’re printing the material to paper. his is because when you’re
printing out what you create on a computer monitor, WYSIWYG (What
You See Is What You Get) is more of a goal than an absolute fact.
Using Text in Multimedia
Imagine designing a project that used no text at all. Its content could not
be at all complex, and you would need to use many pictures and symbols
to train your audience how to navigate through the project. Certainly voice
and sound could guide the audience, but users would quickly tire of this
because greater efort is required to pay attention to spoken words than to
browse text with the eye.
25
26
Multimedia: Making It Work
A single item of menu text accompanied by a single action (a mouse
click, keystroke, or inger pressed to the monitor) requires little training
and is clean and immediate. Use text for titles and headlines (what it’s all
about), for menus (where to go), for navigation (how to get there), and for
content (what you see when you get there).
TIP In designing your navigation system, bring the user to a particular destination with as few actions and as short a wait as possible. If the user never needs
the Help button to get there or never has to click the Back button when at a dead
end, you’re doing everything right!
Designing with Text
Computer screens provide a very small workspace for developing complex
ideas. At some time or another, you will need to deliver high-impact or
concise text messages on the computer screen in as condensed a form
as possible. From a design perspective, your choice of font size and the
number of headlines you place on a particular screen must be related both
to the complexity of your message and to its venue.
If your messages are part of an interactive project or web site where
you know the user is seeking information, you can pack a great deal of
text information onto the screen before it becomes overwhelmingly busy.
Seekers want dense material, and while they travel along your navigational
pathways, they will scroll through relevant text and study the details. Here
is where you must strike a balance, however. Too little text on a screen
requires annoying page turns and unnecessary mouse clicks and waits; too
much text can make the screen seem overcrowded and unpleasant.
On the other hand, if you are creating presentation slides for publicspeaking support, the text will be keyed to a live presentation where the
text accents the main message. In this case, use bulleted points in large
fonts and few words with lots of white space. Let the audience focus on the
speaker at the podium, rather than spend its time reading ine points and
subpoints projected on a screen.
TIP A lengthy text document read by a web browser may scroll for hundreds of
lines without annoying the user because it’s expected. As a rule of thumb, however, try to make your web pages no longer than one-and-a-half to two screenfuls
of text. On a 1024 × 768–pixel monitor, for example, you have about 600 pixels
in height to work with before scrolling is necessary while viewing web content in
a browser. Limit the width of your lines by using columns—reading a line of text
across an entire 21-inch monitor screen is cumbersome, if not uncomfortable, For
printing text documents, provide a separate link to a complete document in either
Chapter 2 Text
plain text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf), word processor format (.doc, .odt, or .wpd),
or Adobe PDF format (.pdf) instead of relying on a browser’s print facilities. It is
often more convenient to print and read a document than to scroll through many
pages of text on a monitor.
Choosing Text Fonts
Picking the fonts to use in your multimedia presentation may be somewhat diicult from a design standpoint. Here again, you must be a poet,
an advertising psychologist, and also a graphic designer. Try to intuit the
potential reaction of the user to what is on the screen. Here are a few
design suggestions that may help:
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
For small type, use the most legible font available. Decorative fonts
that cannot be read are useless, as shown at right.
Use as few diferent faces as possible in the same work, but vary the
weight and size of your typeface using italic and bold styles where
they look good. Using too many fonts on the same page is called
ransom-note typography. Visit http://lifehacker.com/software/writing/
faster-ransom-notes-for-busy-kidnappers-248692.php to make your
own ransom notes.
In text blocks, adjust the leading for the most pleasing line spacing.
Lines too tightly packed are diicult to read.
Vary the size of a font in proportion to the importance of the message
you are delivering.
In large-size headlines, adjust the spacing between letters (kerning)
so that the spacing feels right. Big gaps between large letters can turn
your title into a toothless waif. You may need to kern by hand, using a
bitmapped version of your text.
To make your type stand out or be more legible, explore the efects of
diferent colors and of placing the text on various backgrounds. Try
reverse type for a stark, white-on-black message.
Use anti-aliased text where you want a gentle and blended look
for titles and headlines. his can give a more professional appearance. Anti-aliasing blends the colors along the edges of the letters
(called dithering) to create a soft transition between the letter and its
background.
ry drop caps (like the T to the left) and initial caps to accent your
words. Most word processors and text editors will let you create
drop caps and small caps in your text. Adobe and others make initial
caps (such as the one shown to the right from Adobe, called Gothic).
he letters are actually carefully drawn artwork and are available in
special libraries as encapsulated PostScript iles (EPSF).
T
27
28
Multimedia: Making It Work
■
Coding an initial cap for a web page is simple. Use CSS attributes:
p:first-letter { font-size: 200%; }
p:first-line { line-height: 100%; }
■
■
■
■
■
■
If you are older than eleven
years, never ever use the
Comic Sans face or the
“fantasy” CSS attribute on
a web page.
Brad Borch, Designer
■
■
If you are using centered type in a text block, keep the number of lines
and their width to a minimum.
For attention-grabbing results with single words or short phrases, try
graphically altering and distorting your text and delivering the result
as an image. Wrap your word onto a sphere, bend it into a wave, or
splash it with rainbow colors.
Experiment with drop shadows. Place a copy of the word on top of the
original, and ofset the original up and over a few pixels. hen color the
original gray (or any other color). he word may become more legible
and provide much greater impact. With web sites, shadowed text and
graphics on a plain white background add depth to a page. Surround
headlines with plenty of white space. White space is a designer’s term
for roomy blank areas, while programmers call the invisible character
made by a space (ASCII 32) or a tab (ASCII 9) white space. Web
designers use a nonbreaking space entity ( ) to force spaces into
lines of text in HTML documents.
Pick the fonts that seem right to you for getting your message across,
then double-check your choice against other opinions. Learn to accept
criticism.
Use meaningful words or phrases for links and menu items.
Text links on web pages can accent your message: they normally stand
out by color and underlining. Use link colors consistently throughout
a site, and avoid iridescent green on red or purple on puce.
Bold or emphasize text to highlight ideas or concepts, but do not make
text look like a link or a button when it is not.
On a web page, put vital text elements and menus in the top 320 pixels.
Studies of surfer habits have discovered that only 10 to 15 percent of
surfers ever scroll any page.
NOTE Characters identiied in a particular font (say, Garamond 10-point)
do not always look the same on a Macintosh as they do on Windows display
monitors. Typically, what is called 12-point on a Macintosh will be a 10- or
9-point size in Windows. And the actual shape of the characters may be different (see Figure 2-2). Take care to visually test the low of your text on all
platforms.
Chapter 2 Text
Uppercase 10 pt Garamond T on a Macintosh
Uppercase 10 pt Garamond T in Windows
Figure 2-2 Examples of Garamond typeface displayed on a Macintosh (top) and in
Windows
Installed Fonts Before you can use a font, it must be recognized by
the computer’s operating system. If you want to use fonts other than
those installed with your basic operating system, you will need to install
them. When you install applications, fonts are often added to your
collection.
Philip Shaw at www.codestyle.org maintains a useful list of the
most commonly installed fonts for both Mac and Windows, shown in
Figure 2-3. he most commonly reported fonts available on Windows
computers are Tahoma, Microsoft Sans Serif, Verdana, and Courier
New. On Macs expect Helvetica, Lucida Grande, and Courier.
29
My parents ofered my
brother and sister $50 to
teach me the alphabet, but
that didn’t work. So I lunked
second grade. I had the
same nun again, and she was
mean. She paddled me for
two years, but I still didn’t
learn the alphabet or how to
read. By the time I was 15
or 16, I could get by in class
with reading. But I could
never spell. I was a woodshop
major in high school, and
my typical report card was
two Cs, three Ds, and an F.
I just got used to it. hough
reading is still diicult for
me, I do like readers. I like
the written language because
I like photocopying. I believe
in double-spacing, since it
helps my business!
Paul Orfalea,
founder of Kinko’s,
discussing his reading disability
Figure 2-3 The most
commonly installed fonts on
Windows, Macintosh, and Linux
(March, 2010)
30
Multimedia: Making It Work
Use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), preferred over the deprecated
HTML <font> tag, allows you to be quite precise about font faces, sizes,
and other attributes (see Table 2-1).
Property
Value
Description
color
color
Sets the color of text
direction
ltr
rtl
Sets the text direction. Use with
Unicode-bidi property
line-height
normal
number
length
%
Sets the distance between lines
letter-spacing
normal
length
Increases or decreases space
between characters
text-align
left
right
center
justify
Aligns the text in an element
text-decoration
none
underline
overline
line-through
blink
Adds decoration to text
text-indent
length
%
Indents the irst line of text in an
element
text-shadow
none
color
length
text-transform
none
capitalize
uppercase
lowercase
Controls the letters in an element
unicode-bidi
normal
embed
bidi-override
inherit
Use for languages that run from left
to right or both. Works with direction
property
vertical-align
baseline
sub
super
top
text-top
middle
bottom
text-bottom
length
%
Sets the vertical alignment of an
element
Table 2-1 Available Text Properties Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Chapter 2 Text
Property
Value
Description
white-space
normal
pre
nowrap
Sets how white space inside an
element is handled
word-spacing
normal
length
Increases or decreases space
between words
Table 2-1 Available Text Properties Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) (Continued)
WARNING
Although in HTML and using CSS you can specify a base font
size, color, and other attributes for displaying text on a web page, you still have no
guarantee that the font is installed in the user’s system. If it is missing, a browser
will attempt to substitute a similar font, but the look is not guaranteed to be the
same as the one you have designed. In the font-family property you should add
a generic catch-all such as “serif” or “sans serif” to cover an instance when your
speciied fonts are unavailable. If the right look is important to you, provide a
way to download the font to the end user’s computer. If the look is crucial, use a
bitmap image of the text drawn in the selected font.
In a font-family list, you can include the names of both Windows and
Macintosh fonts; if a font is not found on the local computer, the browser’s
preference-speciied default font will be used.
h1 {font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;}
To address copyright and cross-platform font issues, Microsoft hired
type designer Matthew Carter of Carter & Cone Type, Inc. (http://new.
myfonts.com/foundry/Carter_and_Cone_Type_Inc./) to design a serif
font and a sans serif font that display well on a computer monitor. he
two fonts Carter designed are Georgia (the serif font) and Verdana (the
sans serif font), both of which Microsoft makes available for free. Since
they are freely available and designed speciically for screen display, many
designers recommend them as a “irst choice” when specifying font faces
for web pages.
Animating Text here are plenty of ways to retain a viewer’s attention
when displaying text. For example, you can animate bulleted text and have
it “ly” onto the screen. You can “grow” a headline a character at a time.
For public speakers, simply highlighting the important text works well as
a pointing device. When there are several points to be made, you can stack
keywords and lash them past the viewer in a timed automated sequence
(as in the roadside Burma Shave ads—signs placed every half mile or so
along the highway, each ofering the motorist just a few more words toward
a complete slogan). You might ly in some keywords, dissolve others, rotate
or spin others, and so forth, until you have a dynamic bulleted list of words
31
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Multimedia: Making It Work
that is interesting to watch. But be careful—don’t overdo the special efects,
or they will become boring. For simple presentations, PowerPoint (see the
custom Animation Palette at left) has bells and whistles to reveal a line of
text one word or one letter at a time, or to animate an entire line.
Symbols and Icons
Symbols are concentrated text in the form of stand-alone graphic constructs.
Symbols convey meaningful messages. he trash can symbol, for instance,
tells you where to throw away old iles; the hourglass cursor tells you to
wait while the computer is processing. hough you may think of symbols
as belonging strictly to the realm of graphic art, in multimedia you should
treat them as text—or visual words—because they carry meaning. Symbols
such as the familiar trash can and hourglass are more properly called icons:
these are symbolic representations of objects and processes common to the
graphical user interfaces of many computer operating systems.
Certainly text is more eicient than imagery and pictures for delivering a precise message to users. On the other hand, pictures, icons, moving
images, and sounds are more easily recalled and remembered by viewers.
With multimedia, you have the power to blend both text and icons (as well
as colors, sounds, images, and motion video) to enhance the overall impact
and value of your message.
Word meanings are shared by millions of people, but the special symbols you design for a multimedia project are not; these symbols must be
learned before they can be useful message carriers. Some symbols are more
widely used and understood than others, but readers of even these common
symbols had to grow accustomed to their meanings. Learning a system of
symbols can be as diicult as lessons in any foreign language.
WARNING
Do not be seduced into creating your own language of symbols
and icons.
Here are some symbols you may already know:
And here are some astronomer’s symbols from the days of Kepler and
Galileo that you may not have learned. Still in heavy use by astrologers,
they represent the 12 constellations of the zodiac:
Chapter 2 Text
But why are there 13 icons in the preceding illustration? Or did you
notice? Find the sign for the planet Venus among the constellations. Not
easy if you are unfamiliar with the meaning of these symbols.
When early computers began to display bitmaps as well as lines of text,
there was a lurry of creative attempts by graphic artists to create interesting navigational symbols to alleviate the need for text. he screens were
pure graphic art and power—all lines and angles and stunning shadows.
But many users were frustrated because they could not get to the data
right away and had to irst wade through help and guidance material to
learn the symbols. In this context it is clearly safer, from a product design
point of view, to combine symbols with text cues. his ensures the graphic
impact of the symbols but allows prompting the user on their meaning. he
Macintosh trash can icon, incidentally, also has a text label, “Trash,” just
in case people don’t get the idea from the symbol. Indeed, long arguments
occur among designers dealing with clarity of meaning and ambiguity: the
Macintosh trash can is used to obliterate iles but is also used to eject discs
and mounted volumes, which are not “trashed” when ejected.
Nonetheless, a few symbols have emerged in the interactive multimedia world as an accepted lexicon of navigation cues that do not need text.
hese symbols are by no means universal, but Figure 2-4 shows some that
have roots from the days of teletypewriters, others from early computer
software and hardware development, and yet others from the consumer
electronics world. Even for these “common symbols,” text labels are often
added to the graphic icons to avoid uncertainty. Microsoft’s Word and
Adobe’s Acrobat, for example, use an icon representing a 3.5" diskette to
indicate “Save to Disk.” While this storage medium has been relegated to
museums, the iconic meaning persists.
Figure 2-4 Some symbols, like Play, Pause, and Fast Forward, are easily recognized
but may still be more precise with text titles. “Smiley” symbols, or emoticons, used
in Internet conversation to express mood, once were made up entirely of text and
punctuation characters. These have been replaced by both custom-made graphic
symbols and oicial type characters as part of the international Unicode library (Block
1F600..1F64F). Indeed, sometimes it’s diicult to know what a smiley really means! J
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34
Multimedia: Making It Work
Menus for Navigation
An interactive multimedia project or web site typically consists of a body
of information, or content, through which a user navigates by pressing
a key, clicking a mouse, or pressing a touch screen. he simplest menus
consist of text lists of topics. Users choose a topic, click it, and go there. As
multimedia and graphical user interfaces become pervasive in the computer
community, certain intuitive actions are being widely learned.
For example, if there are three words on a computer screen, the typical
response from the user, without prompting, is to click one of these words
to evoke activity. Sometimes menu items are surrounded by boxes or made
to look like push buttons. Or, to conserve space, text such as hrow Tomatoes, Play Video, and Press to Quit is often shortened to Tomatoes, Video,
and Quit. Regardless, the user deduces the function.
Text is helpful to users to provide persistent cues about their location
within the body of content. When users must click up and down through
many layers of menus to reach their goal, they may not get lost, but they
may feel transported to the winding and narrow streets of a medieval city
where only the locals know the way. his is especially true if the user moves
slowly from screen to screen en route to that goal. If hrow Tomatoes leads
to Red or Green, then to California or Massachusetts, then to President or
Vice President, then to Forehead or Chest, then to Arrested or Got Away,
and so on, the user can end up tangled in the branches of a navigation tree
without cues or a map. However, if an interactive textual or symbolic list
of the branches taken (all the way from the beginning) is continuously
displayed, the user can at any time skip intervening steps in a nonlinear
manner or easily return to one of the previous locations in the list.
Tomatoes
Red
Massachusetts
President
Chest
Arrested
he more locations included in the menu list, the more options available for navigation. On the Web, designers typically place on every page at
least a Main Menu of links that ofers the user a handhold and mechanism
for returning to the beginning. Often they will also place a list, such as
Ho m e > S t o re > Ho m e & Ga rd e n > Pa t io & Grillin g > Ga s Grills & Acce s s o rie s > Ga s Grills > Bu rn e rs
along the tops of storefronts to let shoppers know where they are currently
located within the store. Inventive interface developers irst referred to this
Chapter 2 Text
35
array of menu items as “breadcrumbs,” for they represent a map of the
virtual forest and often the “trail” users have taken, like the edible markers
so intelligently placed by Hänsel und Gretel along the way to the witch’s
house in the Brother Grimms’ famous fairytale.
Navigation methodologies and navigation maps are discussed in
greater detail in Chapter 13.
TIP Avoid using more than a few levels of GO BACKs or RETURNs if you do not
provide a map. Too much tunneling in and out with repetitive mouse clicks will
frustrate users and discourage exploration. Display a perpetual menu of interactive text or symbolic cues so users can always extricate themselves from any place
in the tunnel. In a web browser, this can be handled by a Back or Previous button
containing a history of pages visited.
Buttons for Interaction
In most modern cultures a doorbell is recognized by its context (next to the
door itself, possibly lit); but if you grew up in a high-rise apartment, you
may have seen 50 or more buttons at the entrance. Unless you knew that
yours was the third from the top on the left, you could ind your button
only by reading the printed or scrawled name beside it. And certainly your
Aunt Barbara needed this text cue to avoid having to push the Help button,
which in this case rang in the building superintendent’s apartment.
In multimedia, buttons are the objects, such as blocks of text, a pretty
blue triangle, or a photograph, that make things happen when they are
clicked. hey were invented for the sole purpose of being pushed or prodded with cursor, mouse, key, or inger—and to manifest properties such
as highlighting or other visual or sound efects to indicate that you hit
the target. On the Web, text and graphic art may be buttons. Buttons and
the art of button design and human interaction are discussed in detail in
Chapter 10. For now, remember that the rules for proper selection of text
and fonts in your projects apply to buttons as well as headlines, bulleted
items, and blocks of text.
he automatic button-making tools supplied with multimedia and
HTML page authoring systems are useful, but in creating the text for you,
they ofer little opportunity to ine-tune the look of the text. Characterand word-wrap, highlighting, and inverting are automatically applied to
your buttons, as needed, by the authoring system. hese default buttons
and styles may seem overused or trite, but by using common button styles,
shapes, borders, and highlights, you increase the probability that users will
know what to do with them—especially when they are also labeled.
Pick a font for buttons that is, above all, legible; then adjust the text
size of the labels to provide adequate space between the button’s rim and
When I was four years
old, a button was the little
plastic knob mounted in
brass next to the front door.
When I pushed it, a muled
ringing sound worked its
way through the house
from the kitchen. Sometimes I would push the
button a lot and somebody
would always come to the
door. As an adult, I’m still
pushing buttons to make
things happen.
Ann Stewart, Multimedia
Developer, Smyrna, Tennessee
36
Multimedia: Making It Work
the text. You can choose from many styles of buttons and several standard
methodologies for highlighting. You will want to experiment to get the
right combinations of font, spacing, and colors for just the right look.
In most authoring platforms, it is easy to make your own buttons
from bitmaps or drawn objects. In a message-passing authoring system,
where you can script activity when the mouse button is up or down over
an object, you can quickly replace one bitmap with another highlighted or
colored version of the bitmap to show that the button has been “pushed”
or that the mouse is hovering over it. Making your own buttons from
bitmaps or drawn objects gives you greater design power and creative
freedom and also ensures against the missing font problem. On the other
hand, this custom work may require a good deal more time. You can also
implement these graphic image rollovers on web pages, using JavaScript
to replace the image when there is a MouseOver or hover event; when a
MouseUp event occurs on the image, the user can be directed to another
page (see “Clickable Buttons” in Chapter 13). Typically the destination
address (URL) is displayed in the status bar of the browser when the
mouse is over a linked image or text element. So users know irst if the
mouse is over an active button and second, where that button will take
them if they click.
Whether default or custom, treat the design and labeling of your buttons as an industrial art project: buttons are the part of your project the
user touches.
Fields for Reading
You are already working uphill when you design text to be read on the
screen. Experiments have shown that reading text on a computer screen is
slower and more diicult than reading the same text in hard-copy or book
form. Indeed, many users, it seems, would rather print out their reports and
e-mail messages and read them on paper than page through screens of text.
Reading hard copy is still more comfortable.
WARNING
Research has shown that when people read text on a computer
screen they blink only 3 to 5 times per minute, but they blink 20 to 25 times per
minute when reading text on paper. This reduced eye movement may cause
dryness, fatigue, and possibly damage to the eyes. Research also suggests that
monitors should be placed lower than eye level.
Unless the very purpose of your multimedia project or web site is to
display large blocks of text, try to present to the user only a few paragraphs
of text per page. Use a font that is easy to read rather than a prettier font
that is illegible. Try to display whole paragraphs on the screen, and avoid
Chapter 2 Text
breaks where users must go back and forth between pages to read an entire
paragraph.
Portrait vs. Landscape
Traditional hard-copy and printed documents in the taller-than-wide
orientation are simply not readable on a typical monitor with a widerthan-tall aspect ratio. he taller-than-wide orientation used for printed
documents is called portrait; this is the 8.5-by-11-inch size unique to the
United States or the internationally designated standard A4 size, 8.27 by
11.69 inches. he wider-than-tall orientation normal to monitors is called
landscape. Shrinking an 11-inch-tall portrait page of text into your available monitor height usually yields illegible chicken tracks. here are four
possible solutions if you are working with a block of text that is taller than
what will it:
Put the text into a scrolling ield. his is the solution used by web
browsers.
■ Put the text into a single ield or graphic image in a project window,
and let the user move the whole window up or down upon command.
his is most appropriate when you need to present text with page
breaks and formatting identical to the printed document. his is used
by Adobe’s popular Acrobat Reader for displaying PDF iles.
■ Break the text into ields that it on monitor-sized pages, and design
control buttons to lip through these pages.
■ Design your multimedia project for a special monitor that is taller than
it is wide (portrait) or a normal monitor rotated onto its side. Dedicated “page view” monitors are expensive; they are used for commercial
print-based typesetting and layout. Video controllers can rotate the
text display for you:
■
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Multimedia: Making It Work
eBooks, E-Readers, and Tablet Computers
Electronic ink is a proprietary material
that is processed into a ilm for integration into electronic displays. Although
revolutionary in concept, electronic ink
is a straightforward fusion of chemistry,
physics and electronics to create this
new material. he principal components
of electronic ink are millions of tiny
microcapsules, about the diameter of a
human hair. In one incarnation, each
microcapsule contains positively charged
white particles and negatively charged
black particles suspended in a clear luid.
When a negative electric ield is applied,
the white particles move to the top of the
microcapsule where they become visible
to the user. his makes the surface appear
white at that spot. At the same time,
an opposite electric ield pulls the black
particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing
this process, the black particles appear at
the top of the capsule, which now makes
the surface appear dark at that spot.
To form an E Ink electronic display, the
ink is printed onto a sheet of plastic ilm
that is laminated to a layer of circuitry.
he circuitry forms a pattern of pixels
that can then be controlled by a display
driver. hese microcapsules are suspended
in a liquid “carrier medium” allowing
them to be printed using existing screen
printing processes onto virtually any
surface, including glass, plastic, fabric,
and even paper. Ultimately electronic ink
will permit most any surface to become a
display, bringing information out of the
conines of traditional devices and into
the world around us.
From E Ink Corporation
(www.eink.com)
eBooks are books digitized and formatted to be read using an
eReader. eReaders display text, graphics, and multimedia—
most using E Ink screens between ive and ten inches diagonal,
some with touch screens, some with wi-i and 3G connectivity,
and all with varying and sometimes non-standard input formats
(see Table 2-2). Among eBook devices are the Apple iPad,
Arrow, Astak EZ Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, BeBook Neo,
COOL-ER, Cybook, Foxit eSlick, iLiad, iRex Digital Reader,
Jetbook, Kindle, and the Sony Reader.
Format
Filename Extension
Plain text
.txt
HTML
.html
PostScript
.ps
Portable Document Format
.pdf
DjVu
.djvu
EPUB
.epub
FictionBook
.fb2
Mobipocket
.prc, .mobi
Kindle
.azw
eReader
.pdb
Broadband eBook
.lrf, .lrx
WOLF
.wol
Tome Raider
.tr2, .tr3
ArghosReader
.aeh
Microsoft Reader
.lit
Multimedia EBook
.exe
Table 2-2
E-Readers Can Read Many File Formats, Some Proprietary
he e-Ink screen is a technology for “electronic paper,”
designed to imitate the appearance of ordinary ink on paper (see
sidebar). e-Ink displays can be used in direct sunlight and boast
a long battery life. But e-Ink is not required to read eBooks,
which can be viewed on most computers and many Personal
Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones using format
converting/reading software such as Adobe Digital Editions.
Chapter 2 Text
HTML Documents
he standard document format used for displaying text pages on the Web
is called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In an HTML document
you can specify typefaces, sizes, colors, and other properties by “marking up”
the text in the document with tags. he process of marking up documents
or “styling” them is simple: Where you want text to be bold, surround it
with the tags <B> and </B> or <STRONG> and </STRONG>; the text
between the tags will then be displayed by your browser application in
bold type. Where you have a header, surround it with <H1> and </H1>;
for an ordered list of things (1, 2, 3, … or a, b, c, …, etc.), surround your
list with <OL> and </OL>. here are many tags you can use to lay out a
page. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) work in conjunction with HTML and
provide ine tuning and control of text and layout. How HTML and CSS
work is discussed in greater detail in Chapters 12 and 13, and there are
many good learning guides and references available on the Web.
www.w3.org/TR/html4/
www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/
www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
www.w3.org/Style/CSS/
Check out these web sites for more information about HTML
he remarkable growth of the Web is straining the “old” designs for
displaying text on computers. Indeed, while marked-up text iles (HTML
documents) remain at the foundation of Web activity, when you visit a
well-designed web site, you often discover graphic images, animations, and
interactive work-arounds contrived to avoid displaying text. he neat paragraphs, indented lists, and formats for text documents for which HTML
was originally intended are evolving into multimedia documents, not text
documents, and the original HTML method and standard is consequently
sufering great stress.
HTML Version 5 is a redesign that stretches into a multimedia delivery tool, making HTML no longer just a text display tool with assorted
attachments and plugged-in objects. A new <canvas> element allows a box
to be deined on a web page in which 2-D graphics can be drawn under
program control. Video and audio (timed media) playback is supported.
Still, HTML doesn’t provide you with much lexibility to make pretty text
elements, which are often done as graphical bitmaps placed within the
HTML document’s layout with image tags, <IMG>, or incorporated into
Flash animation iles. Indeed, using plain HTML, you do not know what
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Multimedia: Making It Work
font a reader will use to view your document—the default display font
is a preference that can be set in the viewer’s browser, which knows it’s
installed on that viewer’s machine. So some viewers may read your words
in serif Times Roman, others in sans serif Helvetica or Arial.
Computers and Text
Very early in the development of the Macintosh computer’s monitor hardware, Apple chose to use a resolution of 72 pixels per inch. his matches
the standard measurement of the printing industry (72 points per inch)
and allows desktop publishers and designers to see on the monitor what
their printed output will look like (WYSIWYG). In addition, Apple made
each pixel square-shaped, providing even measurements in all directions.
Until the Macintosh was invented, and the VGA video standard set for
the PC (at 96 pixels per inch), pixels were typically taller than they were
wide. he aspect ratio for a pixel on older EGA monitors, for example, is
1.33:1, taller than it is wide. VGA and SVGA monitor resolutions for both
Macintosh and Windows display pixels at an aspect ratio of 1:1 (square).
The Font Wars Are Over
In 1985, the desktop publishing revolution was spearheaded by Apple
and the Macintosh computer, in combination with word processing and
page layout software products that enabled a high-resolution 300 dpi laser
printer using special software to “draw” the shapes of characters as a cluster
of square pixels computed from the geometry of the character. his special
software was the Adobe PostScript page description and outline font
language. It was licensed by Apple and included in the irmware of Apple’s
LaserWriter laser printer.
PostScript is really a method of describing an image in terms of mathematical constructs (Bézier curves), so it is used not only to describe the
individual characters of a font but also to describe entire illustrations and
whole pages of text. Because each PostScript character is a mathematical
formula, it can be easily scaled bigger or smaller so it looks right whether
drawn at 24 points or 96 points, whether the printer is a 300 dpi LaserWriter or a high-resolution 1200, 2400, or even 3600 dpi image setter suitable for the inest print jobs. And the PostScript characters can be drawn
much faster than in the old-fashioned way. Before PostScript, the printing software looked up the character’s shape in a bitmap table containing
a representation of the pixels of every character in every size. PostScript
quickly became the de facto industry font and printing standard for desktop publishing and played a signiicant role in the early success of Apple’s
Macintosh computer.
Chapter 2 Text
here are two kinds of PostScript fonts: Type 3 and Type 1. Type
3 font technology is older than Type 1 and was developed for output to
printers; it is rarely used by multimedia developers. here are currently over
6,000 diferent Type 1 typefaces available. Type 1 fonts also contain hints,
which are special instructions for grid-itting to help improve resolution.
Hints can apply to a font in general or to speciic characters at a particular
resolution.
Other companies followed Adobe into the desktop publishing arena
with their own proprietary and competitive systems for scalable outline
fonts. In 1989, Apple and Microsoft announced a joint efort to develop
a “better and faster” quadratic curves outline font methodology, called
TrueType. In addition to printing smooth characters on printers, TrueType would draw characters to a low-resolution (72 dpi or 96 dpi) monitor.
Furthermore, Apple and Microsoft would no longer need to license the
PostScript technology from Adobe for their operating systems. Because
TrueType was based on Apple technology, it was licensed to Microsoft.
Adobe and Microsoft then developed a new and improved font management system incorporating the best features of both PostScript and
TrueType, and by 2007, OpenType became a free, publicly available international standard. he font wars were over.
WARNING
TrueType, OpenType, and PostScript fonts do not display (or
print) exactly the same, even though they may share the same name and size.
The three technologies use diferent formulas. This means that word-wrapping
in a text ield may change. So if you build a ield or a button that precisely its text
displayed with a PostScript font, be aware that if you then display it with the same
font in TrueType or OpenType, the text may be truncated or wrapped, wrecking
your layout.
Font Foundries
Today collections of fonts are available through retail channels or directly
from their manufacturers. Typefaces are created in a foundry, a term much
like case, that has carried over from times when lead was poured into molds
to make letter faces. here is also a special interest group (SIG) at America
Online (go to Computing:Software Libraries:Desktop & Web Publishing
Forum:Fonts) where people who enjoy designing and making interesting fonts post them for others to download—hundreds and hundreds
of them with names like Evil of Frankenstein, CocaCola, Kerouac, LED,
PonchoVia (sic), Spaghetti, TreeFrog, and Sassy. When you purchase some
applications, such as CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator, many extra fonts are
included for free.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
www.typequarry.com/
www.oldfonts.com/
www.myfonts.com/
www.bitstream.com/
www.will-harris.com/
Commercial type foundries and font sites. hese gateways lead to a
discussion of fonts and where to ind them. With Esperfonto, Will
Harris provides an interesting tool for making font decisions: Casual or
Formal, Body or Display, Friendly or Serious, Cool or Warm, Modern or
Traditional.
WARNING
It is easy to spend hours and hours downloading neat and interesting fonts; they are like the midnight snack table on a Caribbean cruise liner—
ice carvings and delectable goodies laid out as far as the eye can see.
Character Sets and Alphabets
Knowing that there is a wide selection of characters available to you on
your computer and understanding how you can create and use special and
custom-made characters will broaden your creative range when you design
and build multimedia projects.
The ASCII Character Set
he American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
is the 7-bit character coding system most commonly used by computer
systems in the United States and abroad. ASCII assigns a number or value
to 128 characters, including both lower- and uppercase letters, punctuation
marks, Arabic numbers, and math symbols. Also included are 32 control
characters used for device control messages, such as carriage return, line
feed, tab, and form feed.
ASCII code numbers always represent a letter or symbol of the English alphabet, so that a computer or printer can work with the number that
represents the letter, regardless of what the letter might actually look like
on the screen or printout. To a computer working with the ASCII character set, the number 65, for example, always represents an uppercase letter
A. Later, when displayed on a monitor or printed, the number is turned
into the letter.
Chapter 2 Text
ASCII was invented and standardized for analog teletype communication early in the age of bits and bytes. he capabilities of the technology
have now moved far beyond the original intent of the standard, but because
millions of installed computers and printers use ASCII, it is diicult to set
any new standards for text without the expense and efort of replacing
existing hardware. At least, for these 128 characters, most computers and
printers share the same values.
The Extended Character Set
A byte, which consists of eight bits, is the most commonly used building
block for computer processing. ASCII uses only seven bits to code its 128
characters; the eighth bit of the byte is unused. his extra bit allows another
128 characters to be encoded before the byte is used up, and computer
systems today use these extra 128 values for an extended character set.
he extended character set is most commonly illed with ANSI (American
National Standards Institute) standard characters, including often-used
symbols, such as ¢ or ∞, and international diacritics or alphabet characters,
such as ä or ñ. his fuller set of 255 characters is also known as the ISOLatin-1 character set; it is used when programming the text of HTML
web pages.
NOTE The rules for encoding extended characters are not standardized. Thus
ASCII value 165, for example, may be a bullet (•) character on the Macintosh or the
character for Japanese yen (¥) in Windows (ANSI).
Unicode
As the computer market has become more international, one of the
resulting problems has been handling the various international language
alphabets. It was at best diicult, and at times impossible, to translate the
text portions of programs from one script to another. For example, the
diferences between the Latin script (also known as “Roman”) used by
western European writers and the kanji script used by Japanese writers
made it particularly challenging to transfer innovative programs from one
market to another.
Since 1989, a concerted efort on the part of linguists, engineers, and
information professionals from many well-known computer companies
has been focused on a 16-bit architecture for multilingual text and character encoding. Called Unicode, the original standard accommodated up
to about 65,000 characters to include the characters from all known languages and alphabets in the world.
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44
Multimedia: Making It Work
Figure 2-5 Writing systems currently in use around the world. Unicode provides a consistent methodology for encoding the
characters of any alphabet.
While 65,000 characters
are suicient for encoding
most of the many thousands
of characters used in major
languages of the world, the
Unicode standard and ISO/
IEC 10646 now support
three encoding forms that
use a common repertoire
of characters but allow
for encoding as many as a
million more characters.
his is suicient for all
known character encoding
requirements, including full
coverage of all historic scripts
of the world, as well as
common notational systems.
he Unicode® Standard: A
Technical Introduction
(www.unicode.org/unicode/
standard/principles.html)
Where several languages share a set of symbols that have a historically
related derivation, the shared symbols of each language are uniied into
collections of symbols (called scripts). A single script can work for tens or
even hundreds of languages (for example, the Latin script used for English
and most European languages). Sometimes, however, only one script will
work for a language (such as the Korean Hangul). Figure 2-5 shows a map
of writing systems used in the world today.
he Unicode standard includes more than 18,000 Han characters
(ideographs for Japanese, Chinese, and Korean) as well as obsolete alphabets such as cuneiform, hieroglyphs, and ancient Han characters. In addition, character space is reserved for users and publishers to create their own
scripts, designed especially for their own applications. For example, a carpenter might develop a script that included a character meaning “half-inch
Sheetrock,” another character meaning “three-quarter-inch plywood,” and
so forth. HTML allows access to the Unicode characters by numeric reference. hus 水 (in hexadecimal) represents the Chinese character
for water:
Chapter 2 Text
Mapping Text Across Platforms
If you build your multimedia project on a Windows platform and play
it back on a Macintosh platform (or vice versa), there will be subtle (and
sometimes not-so-subtle) diferences. Fonts are perhaps the greatest crossplatform concern, because they must be mapped to the other machine.
If a speciied font doesn’t exist on the target machine, a substitute must
be provided that does exist on the target. his is font substitution. In
many cross-platform-savvy applications, you can explicitly deine the
font mapping. Table 2-3 shows some typical mappings when crossing
platforms.
Mac➞Win
Win➞Mac
Mac:Chicago➞Win:System
Win:Arial➞Mac:Helvetica
Mac:Courier➞Win:Courier New
Win:Courier➞Mac:Courier
Mac:Geneva➞Win:MS Sans Serif
Win:Courier New➞Mac:Courier
Mac:Helvetica➞Win:Arial
Win:MS Serif➞Mac:New York
Mac:Monaco➞Win:Terminal
Win:MS Sans Serif➞Mac:Geneva
Mac:New York➞Win:MS Serif
Win:Symbol➞Mac:Symbol Map None
Mac:Symbol➞Win:Symbol Map None
Win:System➞Mac:Chicago
Mac:Times➞Win:Times New Roman
(sizes: 14➞12, 18➞14, 24➞18, 30➞24)
Win:Terminal➞Mac:Monaco
Mac:Palatino➞Win:Times New Roman
Win:Times New Roman➞Mac:Times
(sizes: 12➞14, 14➞18, 18➞24, 24➞30)
Table 2-3 Typical Mappings for Common Macintosh and Windows Fonts
TIP
Never assume that the fonts you have installed on your computer will
also be installed on another person’s computer. Pay attention to the way you
include fonts in a project so that you never face the nightmare of your carefully
picked fonts being replaced by an ill-suited default font like Courier (see the next
“First Person”). If your work is being distributed to sites that may not have the
fonts you are using, or if you do not license these fonts for distribution with your
work, be sure to bitmap the special font text you use for titles, headlines, buttons,
and so forth. For text to be entered by users, it is safest to stay with the installed
Windows or Macintosh fonts, because you know they are universally available
on that platform. In Windows, use the TrueType fonts installed during the Setup
procedure.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
First Person
We had a short break between
sessions to install the software for
a panel discussion about multimedia. Four of us brought media with
discussion material. Our moderator
installed her presentation irst, and
we heard her wail, “Something’s
wrong with my fonts!” We all looked
at her ugly 48-point Courier and
felt sorry for her; we knew her
mistake. The beautiful fonts she had
installed on her home system were
not installed in the system of the
computer being used for the bigscreen projector, and she had failed
to bring the fonts along. By then, it
was too late anyway.
Always be sure your fonts travel with your application when you are
delivering software to run on a hardware platform other than the one you
used to create the application. To avoid many font display problems, particularly for menus and headlines, you may wish to snap a picture of your
text with a screen capture utility and use this image, or bitmap, instead
of text that you type into a text ield. (Chapter 3 describes bitmaps and
how to capture and edit images.) his will ensure that the screen always
looks right, regardless of what hardware platform you use or what fonts
are installed.
It is not just fonts that are problematic; characters, too, must be mapped
across platforms. Character mapping allows bullets, accented characters,
and other curious characters that are part of the extended character set on
one platform to appear correctly when text is moved to the other platform.
Curly quotation marks, for example, rarely, if ever, map successfully across
platforms.
Languages in the World of Computers
In modern Western languages, words are made up of symbols or letters
strung together, representing as a whole the sounds of a spoken word. his
is not so for Eastern languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
(and the ancient languages of Sumeria, Egypt, and Mesopotamia). In these
languages, an entire concept might be represented by a single word symbol
that is unrelated to a speciic phonetic sound.
he letters or symbols of a language are its alphabet. In English, the
alphabet consists of 26 Roman or Latin letters; in Japanese, the kanji alphabet comprises more than 3,000 kanas, or whole words. he Russian alphabet,
made up of Cyrillic characters based on the ancient Greek alphabet, has
about the same number of letters as the Roman alphabet. All languages,
from Navajo to Hebrew, have their own unique alphabets.
Chapter 2 Text
47
First Person
While we were in the early phases of
producing my CD-ROM, Multimedia:
Working It Out! I sold the rights to
distribute it into Korea and Mainland
China. Nobody on the production
team had ever seen a computer
that typed short-form Mandarin,
and we knew that even when the
English was localized, we would be
hard pressed to recognize any of the
text, much less edit or alter it in its
new form.
So we devised a structured system
of labels and names for Multimedia:
Working It Out! and converted all
the text in the project (about 600
“pages” of about a paragraph each)
into 1-bit bitmaps in a Director
movie. Donna Booher edited and
formatted the text in Microsoft
Word, Dan Hilgert bitmapped and
screen-captured each page with
Capture and Photoshop, and Peter
Wolf imported the PICT iles into
Director (by the hundreds) as cast
members. Each cast member had
a unique (but systematic) name
associated with a Director movie, a
heading, and various icons. It took
a while.
The localizers across the Paciic,
then, would simply translate a page
or a series of pages using their own
native-language word processor,
capture their own bitmaps, and we
would substitute the new bitmaps
for the old using the unique identiication labels. No language skills
required!
When we started, Terry Thompson
devised a color-coded master iling
system and database so that all the
word-processed text and the screencaptured bitmaps would remain
neatly side by side and concurrent.
This is called version control. By the
time this project shipped, Donna’s
computer was crashing four or ive
times a day and we had lost iles,
Dan had gone back to school, Peter
and I were slapping miscellaneous
text elements into the project
without tracking where they came
from, and we were changing labels
and moving cast members around
as we streamlined performance,
debugged, and staggered toward
a golden master and the Federal
Express drop-of. We had converted
Terry’s neatly organized system into
chaos.
After the CD-ROMs were pressed,
and there wasn’t anything anybody
could change anymore anyway,
we did a tricky thing with Lingo
programming, DeBabelizer, and
OmniPage Pro to convert the inal
project’s bitmapped text back into
word processor text.
First we collected all the bitmapped
text into a single Director movie (we
weren’t interested in pretty pictures,
QuickTime, sounds, or other types
of cast members, just text). Then
we placed each page of bitmapped
text into a movie frame (Cast to
Time), neatly labeled that frame at
the top with the identifying code
of the image using a Lingo handler,
and saved all of the frames as PICT
images (an automatic command
in Director’s Export menu). With
DeBabelizer, we batch-converted
these hundreds of PICT images from
72 dpi (screen capture resolution)
to 300 dpi (printer resolution) and
saved each as a 1-bit TIFF image. The
process was automatic.
OmniPage Pro is a powerful optical
character recognition (OCR) program that usually reads documents
on a latbed scanner and turns them
into nicely formatted word processing documents. OmniPage (ah ha!)
allows batch processing of TIFF
(and more recently, PICT) images at
300 dpi, so we ran all of these TIFFs
(automatically) through OmniPage,
and bingo!, they came out as archival word processing iles. Then we
sent the word iles to Guido Mozzi in
Italy so that his team of translators
could begin localizing there.
Some eforts are cyclical, we have
discovered. The trick is to learn
something and improve the process
each time the task comes around!
48
Multimedia: Making It Work
he written Japanese
language consists of three
diferent types of character
sets, namely: kanji, katakana, and hiragana. Kanji
was originally taken from
the Chinese language and
is essentially a pictographic
representation of the spoken
word. Each kanji has two
diferent readings, “on-yomi”
and “kun-yomi,” respectively,
the “Chinese rendering” and
the “Japanese rendering.”
Both are used depending on
the conjugation of the kanji
with other kanji.
Due to certain incompatibilities between the Japanese
spoken word and kanji, two
sets of kana or phonetic
syllabary (alphabet) were
developed. Katakana is
the “square” kana and is
used today for writing only
foreign words or onomatopoeic expressions. Hiragana
is the “cursive” kana and can
be used alone to represent
a certain word or combined
with kanji to form other
words and sentences. Romaji,
a more recent addition to the
alphabets of Japan, allows for
the phonetic spelling of the
Japanese language using the
Roman characters familiar to
the Western world.
Ross Uchimura, Executive
Vice-President, GC3 Ltd., a
cross-cultural expert
Most modern alphabets share one very important attribute: the graphic
shapes and method for writing the Arabic numbers 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.
his is a simple system for representing decimal numbers, which lends
itself to easy reading, writing, manipulation, and calculation. Expressing
and performing
16 + 32 = 48
is much easier in Arabic numbers than in Roman or Greek numerals:
XVI + XXXII = XLVIII
ις + λβ = µη
Use of Arabic notation has gradually spread across the world to supplant other systems, although Roman numerals are still used today in
Western languages in certain forms and contexts.
Translating or designing multimedia (or any computer-based material) into a language other than the one in which it was originally written
is called localization. his process deals with everything from the month/
day/year order for expressing dates to providing special alphabetical characters on keyboards and printers. Even the many Western languages that
share the Roman alphabet have their own peculiarities and often require
special characters to represent special sounds. For example, German has its
umlaut (¨); French its various accents (é), the cedilla (ç), and other diacritics; and Spanish its tilde (ñ). hese characters are typically available in the
extended character set of a font.
Special Characters in HTML
In HTML, character entities based upon the ISO-Latin-1 standard
make up the alphabet that is recognized by browser software on the
World Wide Web. All of the usual characters of an English keyboard are
included (the 7-bit ASCII set is built in), but for the extended character
set that includes tildes, umlauts, accents, and special symbols, you must
use an escape sequence to represent them in an ISO-Latin-1 HTML
document. A character entity is represented either by a number or by a
word and is always preixed by an ampersand (escape) and followed by a
semicolon. For example, the name for the copyright symbol is “copy” and
its number is 169. he symbol may be inserted into a document either
as © or as ©—either way, the character © is generated by
the browser. he list of character entities allowed in standard HTML is
growing and will soon include mathematical symbols and even icons to
represent things like trash cans, clocks, and disk drives. Word processors
Chapter 2 Text
49
First Person
When I was in Germany some years
ago, I read a curious report in the
Frankfurter Allgemeine about a fellow who was suing the local electric
utility for not correcting the spelling
of his name to its proper form in the
German alphabet. His name had
an umlaut in it (Wörm), but his bill
always read Woerm. In German, the
letter ö sounds diferent from the
letter o, so I can’t say I blamed him.
At irst he didn’t pay his bill, claiming
that he wasn’t that person; then the
courts told him to pay anyway. So
he initiated a civil suit to protect his
name.
It seems the utility was using a
legacy IBM system with a highspeed chain printer to produce
the monthly bills, and none of the
umlaut characters were available
on the ASCII-based chain. By longstanding convention, when you are
limited to the English alphabet, the
letter e immediately follows any
for languages other than English automatically insert the necessary character entities when a document is saved in HTML format or specify the
character set to use.
www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/sgml/entities.html
An encyclopedic discussion and reference for HTML character entity
references
Multilanguage Web Pages
When building a project in more than one language for the Web, consider
translating the languages that use Roman fonts and displaying them as
text in the browser in the normal way. Languages other than English may
have many escaped characters, as you can see in Figure 2-6. If Chinese or
Japanese or Arabic is desired, translate the Roman text onto a computer
running an operating system using that native language. For the web
page, the translator can then capture a screen image of the translated text,
and you can embed that image into your web page. his process takes
precise coordination among the designers, the content providers, and the
translators, but it can be done smoothly with careful labeling of the bits
and pieces.
umlautless vowel, to indicate that
the umlaut should be there but isn’t.
Today, with high-speed laser printers and special fonts, the problem
has probably gone away.
More recently, there are reports that
the California Department of Motor
Vehicles cannot handle blank spaces
in the name ields of its massive
database, so Rip Van Winkle’s name
was changed to Rip VanWinkle without his permission. Expect a lawsuit.
50
Multimedia: Making It Work
<p>
What can this integrated network solution ofer your business? Lower
costs, increased lexibility, and greater reliability by supporting all voice
and data requirments, including:</p>
<p>
O que esta solução de rede integrada pode oferecer a sua
empresa? Menores custos, elevada lexibilidade, e maior coniabilidade,
pelo suporte a todos os requisitos de voz e dados, incluindo:</p>
<p>
Qué puede ofrecerle a su negocio esta solución integrada
de redes? Menores costos, mayor lexibilidad y mayor iabil-idad mediante
la compatibilidad con todos los requisitos para voz y datos, incluso:</p>
<p>
<img src="images/chinese/story 1-1.gif ">
</p>
<p>
<img src="images/japanese/story 1-1.gif ">
</p>
Figure 2-6 Portion of a ive-language web site using normal HTML code for the
Roman languages and screen-captured graphic images to display the Chinese and
Japanese translations
Font Editing and Design Tools
Special font editing tools can be used to make your own type, so you
can communicate an idea or graphic feeling exactly. With these tools,
professional typographers create distinct text and display faces. Graphic
designers, publishers, and ad agencies can design instant variations of
existing typefaces.
Typeface designs fall into the category of industrial design and have
been determined by the courts in some cases to be protected by patent. For
example, design patents have been issued for Bigelow & Holmes’ Lucida,
ITC Stone, and Adobe’s Minion.
Chapter 2 Text
51
WARNING
If your commercial project includes special fonts, be sure that
your license agreement with the font supplier allows you to distribute them with
your project.
Occasionally in your projects you may require special characters. With
the tools described in the paragraphs that follow, you can easily substitute
characters of your own design for any unused characters in the extended
character set. You can even include several custom versions of your client’s
company logo or other special symbols relevant to your content or subject
right in your text font.
www.fontfoundry.com
www.larabiefonts.com
here are hundreds of sites for downloading free and shareware fonts
drawn by others. For starters, try these two.
Fontlab
Fontlab, Ltd., located at www.fontlab.com, specializes in font editors
for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. You can use this software
to develop PostScript, TrueType, and OpenType fonts for Macintosh,
Windows, and Sun workstations. Designers can also modify existing typefaces, incorporate PostScript artwork, automatically trace scanned images,
and create designs from scratch. A sample of the Fontographer screen is
shown in Figure 2-7.
Figure 2-7 Fontographer
is a powerful font editor for
Macintosh and Windows.
52
Multimedia: Making It Work
Fontographer’s features include a freehand drawing tool to create
professional and precise inline and outline drawings of calligraphic and
script characters, using either the mouse or alternative input methods
(such as a pressure-sensitive pen system). Fontographer allows the creation of multiple font designs from two existing typefaces, and you can
design lighter or heavier fonts by modifying the weight of an entire
typeface.
Making Pretty Text
To make your text look pretty, you need a toolbox full of fonts and special
graphics applications that can stretch, shade, shadow, color, and anti-alias
your words into real artwork. Pretty text is typically found in bitmapped drawings where characters have been tweaked, manipulated, and blended
into a graphic image. Simply choosing the font is
the irst step. Most designers ind it easier to make
pretty type starting with ready-made fonts, but
some will create their own custom fonts using font
editing and design tools.
With the proper tools and a creative mind,
you can create endless variations on plain-old
type, and you not only choose but also customize
the styles that will it with your design needs.
Most image-editing and painting applications (see Figure 2-8 for a PowerPoint example)
let you make text using the fonts available in your
system. You can colorize the text, stretch, squeeze,
and rotate it, and you can ilter it through various
plug-ins to generate wild graphic results.
As a multimedia developer, you may only
need to be concerned about how your fonts look
on monitors, not how they are printed to paper—
unless, of course, you are printing perfect proposals, bids, storyboards, reports, and above all,
invoices J. TrueType, OpenType, and PostScript
outline fonts allow text to be drawn at any size on
your computer screen without jaggies:
Figure 2-8 PowerPoint lets you manipulate text in many ways.
Chapter 2 Text
53
Jaggies are avoided by anti-aliasing the edges of the text characters, making them seem smoother to the eye. Note the improved look
of the anti-aliased letters in the bottom row of letters in Figure 2-9.
Pasting an image that was anti-aliased against a light background onto
a darker-colored background using transparency (so that the new, dark
background is seen, instead of the old, light one) can be problematic: the
blending pixels along the edge will show as a halo and may have to be
edited pixel by pixel.
Macintosh and PCs handle anti-aliasing diferently. Authoring programs such as Adobe Flash allow you to ine-tune anti-aliasing settings for
text ields (see Figure 2-10), useful when you want a diferent look for text
that will be static versus text that will be animated.
Figure 2-9 Anti-aliasing text and
graphics creates “smooth” boundaries
between colors. The top row of letters is
not anti-aliased; the bottom row is.
Figure 2-10 In some authoring programs, anti-aliasing can be ine-tuned.
Hypermedia and Hypertext
Multimedia—the combination of text, graphic, and audio elements into a
single collection or presentation—becomes interactive multimedia when
you give the user some control over what information is viewed and when
it is viewed. Interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia when its designer
provides a structure of linked elements through which a user can navigate
and interact.
When a hypermedia project includes large amounts of text or symbolic content, this content can be indexed and its elements then linked
When they irst invented
typesetting, there were variants cut of each character
so that text would look as if
it had been handwritten by
a monk! Desktop designers
have been ighting so hard to
get their setting to look like
it’s come from a Berthold
system, that most of the new
potential of desktop typography has been overlooked.
David Collier, Author of
Collier’s Rules for Desktop Design
and Typography
54
Multimedia: Making It Work
together to aford rapid electronic retrieval of the associated information.
When words are keyed or indexed to other words, you have a hypertext
system; the “text” part of this term represents the project’s content and
meaning, rather than the graphical presentation of the text. Hypertext is
what the World Wide Web is all about.
When text is stored in a computer instead of on printed pages, the
computer’s powerful processing capabilities can be applied to make the
text more accessible and meaningful. he text can then be called hypertext; because the words, sections, and thoughts are linked, the user can
navigate through text in a nonlinear way, quickly and intuitively.
Using hypertext systems, you can electronically search through all
the text of a computer-resident book, locate references to a certain word,
and then immediately view the page where the word was found. Or you
can create complicated Boolean searches (using terms such as AND, OR,
NOT, and BOTH) to locate the occurrences of several related words, such
as “Elwood,” “Gloria,” “mortgage,” and “happiness,” in a paragraph or on a
page. Whole documents can be linked to other documents.
A word can be made hot, as can a button, thus leading the user from
one reference to another. Click on the word “Elwood,” and you may ind
yourself reading a biography or resume; click on “mortgage,” and a calculator pops up. Some authoring systems incorporate a hypertext facility that
allows you to identify words in a text ield using a bold or colored style,
then link them to other words, pages, or activities, such as playing a sound
or video clip related to that hot word. You cannot do this kind of nonlinear and associative navigation in a sequentially organized book. But on
a CD-ROM, where you might have more than 100,000 pages of text to
investigate, search, and browse, hypertext is invaluable.
Because hypertext is the organized cross-linking of words not only to
other words but also to associated images, video clips, sounds, and other
exhibits, hypertext often becomes simply an additional feature within an
overall multimedia design. he term “hyper” (from the Greek word “over”
[υπερ]) has come to imply that user interaction is a critical part of the
design, whether for text browsing or for the multimedia project as a whole.
When interaction and cross-linking is then added to multimedia, and the
navigation system is nonlinear, multimedia becomes hypermedia.
In 1945, Vannevar Bush wrote a seminal eight-page article, “As We
May hink,” for the Atlantic Monthly (www.theatlantic.com/unbound/
lashbks/computer/bushf.htm). his short treatise, in which he discusses
the need for new methodologies for accessing information, has become
the historic cornerstone of hypertext experimentation. Doug Englebart
(inventor of the mouse) and Ted Nelson (who coined the term “hypertext”
in 1965) have actively championed the research and innovations required
of computer technology for implementing useful hypertext systems, and
they have worked to combat the historic inertia of linear thought. Nelson
Chapter 2 Text
would claim that the very structure of thought is neither sequential nor
linear and that computer-based hypertext systems will fundamentally alter
the way humans approach literature and the expression of ideas during the
coming decades.
he argument against this theory of associative thought is that people
are, indeed, more comfortable with linear thinking and are easily overwhelmed by too much freedom, becoming quickly lost in the chaos of
nonlinear gigabytes. As a practical reminder, it is important always to provide location markers, either text-and-symbol menus or illustrative maps,
for users who travel the threads of nonlinear systems.
The Power of Hypertext
In a fully indexed hypertext system, all words can be found immediately.
Suppose you search a large database for “boats,” and you come up with
a whopping 1,623 references, or hits—among them, Noah’s Ark (open
boat in water), television situation comedies (he Love Boat), political
criticisms of cabinet members who challenged the status quo (rocked the
boat), cabinet members who were stupid (missed the boat), and Christmas
dinner trimmings (Grandmother’s gravy boat). So you narrow your search
and look for “boats” and “water” when both words are mentioned on the
same page; this time you get 286 hits. “Boats,” “water,” and “storms” gets
you 37; “boats,” “water,” “storms,” and “San Francisco,” a single hit. With
over a thousand hits, you are lost. With one hit, you have something! But
you still may not ind what you are looking for, as you can see in this
ictional example:
he storm had come and gone quickly across the Colorado plains, but
water was still puddled at the foot of the house-high bank of mud
that had slid into town when the dam burst. In front of the general
store, which had remained standing, four strong men carefully lifted a
tiny boat onto the large dray wagon borrowed from the woodcutters.
On a layer of blankets in the bilge of the boat, the undertaker had
carefully laid out the remains of both the mayor and his paramour.
he mayor had not drowned in the lood, but died of a heart attack
in the midst of the panic. Children covered the boat with freshly cut
pine boughs while horses were quickly harnessed to the wagon, and
a strange procession began to move slowly down San Francisco Street
toward the new cemetery. …
he power of such search-and-retrieval systems provided by a computer for large volumes of data is immense, but clearly this power must be
channeled in meaningful ways. Links among words or clusters of information need to be designed so that they make sense. Judgments must be made
about relationships and the way information content is organized and
made available to users. he lenses through which vast amounts of data
55
[Vannevar] Bush identiied the problem—and the
need to provide new ways
to access information—but
was he right about how the
mind works? I suspect a
purely associative model of
human memory and mental
processes is too simplistic.
Philip Murray, From Ventura
to Hypertext, Knowledge
Management Associates,
Danvers, MA
56
Multimedia: Making It Work
he hype about hypertext may be justiied. It
can provide a computersupported information environment which can add to
our appreciation of the text,
can go some way towards
aping the mental agility of
the human mind, can allow
navigation along patterns
of association, can provide a
nonlinear information environment. But the problems
of constructing nonlinear
documents are not few and
can prove to be very complex.
Patricia Baird, Editor of
Hypermedia, a scientiic journal
published in the United
Kingdom
Hypermedia on its own
simply functions as a reference tool. But when it is
integrated within a goalbased activity, it becomes a
powerful learning resource.
Brigid Sealy and Paul Phelan,
INESC, Porto, Portugal
(conclusions from research
funded by the European
Commission’s Human Capital
and Mobility Program)
are viewed must necessarily be ground and shaped by those who design the
access system.
he issue of who designs the lenses and how the designers maintain
impartial focus is troubling to many scientists, archivists, and students of
cognitive thinking. he scientists would remain “hermeneutically” neutral,
they would balance freedom against authority and warn against the epistemological unknowns of this new intellectual technology. hey are aware of
the forces that allow advertising and marketing craftspeople to intuitively
twist meanings and spin events to their own purposes, with actions that
can afect the knowledge and views of many millions of people and thus
history itself. But these forces remain poorly understood, are not easily
controlled by authority, and will express themselves with immeasurably
far-reaching, long-term impact on the shape of human culture.
he multimedia designer controls the iltering mechanisms and places
the lenses within the multimedia project. A manufacturer, for instance,
that presents its products using interactive multimedia can bring abundant
information and selling power within reach of the user, including background information, collateral marketing material, pricing statistics, and
technical data. he project design will be, of course, biased—to sell more
of the manufacturer’s products and generate more proit; but this bias is
assumed and understood in these circumstances. When the assumptions
and understandings of inherent bias in any information base break down,
when iction or incomplete data is presented as full fact, these are the times
when the powerful forces of multimedia and hypermedia can have their
greatest deleterious efect.
WARNING Bad multimedia projects will not alter the collective view of history; really bad projects might.
Using Hypertext
Special programs for information management and hypertext have been
designed to present electronic text, images, and other elements in a database fashion. Commercial systems have been used for large and complicated mixtures of text and images—for example, a detailed repair manual
for a Boeing 747 aircraft, a parts catalog for Pratt & Whitney jet turbine
engines, an instant reference to hazardous chemicals, and electronic reference libraries used in legal and library environments. Such searchable
database engines are widely used on the Web, where software robots
visit millions of web pages and index entire web sites. Hypertext databases rely upon proprietary indexing systems that carefully scan the entire
body of text and create very fast cross-referencing indexes that point to
Chapter 2 Text
the location of speciic words, documents, and images. Indeed, a hypertext
index by itself can be as large as 50 percent to 100 percent the size of the
original document. Indexes are essential for speedy performance. Google’s
search engine produces about 1,220,000,000 hits in less than a quarter of
a second!
Commercial hypertext systems were developed historically to retroit
gigantic bodies of information. Licenses for use and distribution of these
commercial systems are expensive, and the hypertext-based projects typically require the large mass-storage capability of one or many CD-ROMs
and/or dedicated gigabyte hard disks. Simpler but efective hypertext
indexing tools are available for both Macintosh and Windows, and they
ofer fairly elaborate features designed to work in concert with many multimedia authoring systems. Server-based hypertext and database engines
designed for the Web are now widely available and competitively priced.
TIP
Rather than designing an elaborate, fully cross-referenced hypertext system for your multimedia project, you can “hardwire” the links between the most
salient words (highlight them in your text) so that a mouse click leads to a topic
menu speciic to the chosen word. Though this constrains the user’s movement
through the text, the user will not perceive it as such, and you can thus maintain
strict control over your navigation pathways and design.
Searching for Words
Although the designer of a hypermedia database makes assumptions, he
or she also presents users with tools and a meaningful interface to exercise
the assumptions. Employing this interface, users can tailor word searches
to ind very speciic combinations. Following are typical methods for word
searching in hypermedia systems:
Categories Selecting or limiting the documents, pages, or ields of
text within which to search for a word or words.
■ Word relationships Searching for words according to their general proximity and order. For example, you might search for “party”
and “beer” only when they occur on the same page or in the same
paragraph.
■
57
58
Multimedia: Making It Work
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Adjacency Searching for words occurring next to one another, usually in phrases and proper names. For instance, ind “widow” only when
“black” is the preceding adjacent word.
Alternates Applying an OR criterion to search for two or more
words, such as “bacon” or “eggs.”
Association Applying an AND criterion to search for two or more
words, such as “skif,” “tender,” “dinghy,” and “rowboat.”
Negation Applying a NOT criterion to search exclusively for references to a word that are not associated with the word. For example,
ind all occurrences of “paste” when “library” is not present in the same
sentence.
Truncation Searching for a word with any of its possible suixes.
For example, to ind all occurrences of “girl” and “girls,” you may need
to specify something like girl#. Multiple character suixes can be
managed with another speciier, so geo* might yield “geo,” “geology,”
and “geometry,” as well as “George.”
Intermediate words Searching for words that occur between what
might normally be adjacent words, such as a middle name or initial in
a proper name.
Frequency Searching for words based on how often they appear: the
more times a term is mentioned in a document, the more relevant the
document is to this term.
Hypermedia Structures
Two buzzwords used often in hypertext systems are link and node. Links
are connections between the conceptual elements, that is, the nodes,
which may consist of text, graphics, sounds, or related information in the
knowledge base. Links connect Caesar Augustus with Rome, for example,
and grapes with wine, and love with hate. he art of hypermedia design lies
in the visualization of these nodes and their links so that they make sense,
not nonsense, and can form the backbone of a knowledge access system.
Along with the use of HTML for the World Wide Web, the term anchor
is used for the reference from one document to another document, image,
sound, or ile on the Web (see Chapter 13).
Links are the navigation pathways and menus; nodes are accessible topics, documents, messages, and content elements. A link anchor is where
you come from; a link end is the destination node linked to the anchor.
Some hypertext systems provide unidirectional navigation and ofer no
return pathway; others are bidirectional.
he simplest way to navigate hypermedia structures is via buttons that
let you access linked information (text, graphics, and sounds) that is contained at the nodes. When you’ve inished examining the information, you
Chapter 2 Text
return to your starting location. A typical navigation structure might look
like the following:
Navigation becomes more complicated when you add associative
links that connect elements not directly in the hierarchy or sequence.
hese are the paths where users can begin to get lost if you do not provide location markers. A link can lead to a node that provides further
links, as shown here:
When you ofer full-text search through an information base, there
may be links between any number of items at your current node and any
number of other nodes with items that meet your relationship criteria.
When users are browsing freely through this system, and one page does
not follow the next (as expected in the linear metaphor of books and literature), users can get lost in the associative maze of the designer’s content:
One publisher of hypermedia products claims that becoming lost in
“hyperspace” may not be all that bad. he struggle to ind your way back
can be valuable in itself, and certainly a learning experience.
59
60
Multimedia: Making It Work
Hypertext Tools
Hypermedia can take advantage of powerful capabilities
that are becoming clearer
as the new multimedia
medium matures, giving us
a greater choice in exploration, if not in outright plot
deinition, for example. From
my experiences with “Playa
Sirenas,” the real challenge
facing storytellers in this
new medium is allowing
readers appropriate choices
(some authorship of the
story, really) while they
navigate through the hypermedia experience, without
destroying the successful
and basic patterns that have
been part of storytelling
since people irst gathered
around campires.
here is something organic
about these time-proven
storytelling patterns. As an
author in the new medium,
you must irst design the
DNA or template of your
story, then allow (and
promote) mutation along
evolutionary lines that you,
as the author, have created as
part of the template…
Hermann Stefen, hypermedia
novelist, San Jose, Costa Rica
Two functions are common to most hypermedia text management systems,
and they are often provided as separate applications: building (or authoring)
and reading. he builder creates the links, identiies nodes, and generates
the all-important index of words. he index methodology and the search
algorithms used to ind and group words according to user search criteria
are typically proprietary, and they represent an area where computers are
carefully optimized for performance—inding search words among a list of
many tens of thousands of words requires speed-demon programming.
Hypertext systems are currently used for electronic publishing and
reference works, technical documentation, educational courseware, interactive kiosks, electronic catalogs, interactive iction, and text and image
databases. Today these tools are used extensively with information organized in a linear fashion; it still may be many years before the majority of
multimedia project users become comfortable with fully nonlinear hypertext and hypermedia systems. When (and perhaps if ) they do, the methodology of human thought and conceptual management—indeed, the way
we think—will be forever changed.
Chapter 2 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
■
Type sizes are usually expressed in points (about
72 per inch).
Recognize the importance of word choice
■
Leading is the space between lines.
■
Kerning is the space between individual characters.
■
Alignment can be left, right, centered, or justiied.
■
With the recent explosion of the Internet and
the World Wide Web, text has become more
important than ever. Words and symbols in any
form, spoken or written, are the most common
system of communication. It’s important to design
labels for title screens, menus, and buttons using
words that have the most precise and powerful
meanings to express what you need to say. Experiment with the words you plan to use by letting
others try them.
Discuss the importance of text and ways text can
be leveraged in multimedia presentations
■
Size, color, background color, style, and leading are
factors that afect the legibility of text.
■
On the printed page, serif fonts are traditionally
used for body text because the serifs are said to
help guide the reader’s eye along the line of text.
Sans serif fonts, on the other hand, are used for
headlines and bold statements. But sans serif fonts
are far more legible and attractive when used in
the small sizes of a text ield on a screen.
You must strike a balance between too little text
on a screen and too much text.
Describe the diference between a typeface and
a font and list at least three attributes of a font,
for example, upper/lowercase, serif/sans serif,
PostScript/TrueType/OpenType
■
A typeface is a family of graphic characters that
usually includes many type sizes and styles.
■
■
Serif versus sans serif is the simplest way to
categorize a typeface.
Discuss the presentation of text on Windows and
Macintosh platforms
■
A font is a collection of characters of a single size
and style belonging to a particular typeface family.
■
■
hree common font styles are bold, italic, and
underline, but there are several others; some, such
as superscript, emboss, or strikethrough, have
specialized uses.
Find sources for free and shareware fonts
■
here will be subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle)
diferences in how text looks on Windows and
Macintosh platforms.
Download free fonts and use shareware tools to
modify fonts by adding special characters and even
logos.
Deine hypermedia, hypertext, links, anchors, and
nodes and be able to discuss both the potential
and limitations of hypertext and hyperlinking
systems
■
Multimedia—the combination of text, graphic,
and audio elements into a single collection or
presentation—becomes interactive multimedia
when you give the user some control over what
61
information is viewed and when it is viewed.
Interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia when
its designer provides a structure of linked elements
through which a user can navigate and interact.
■
When a hypermedia project includes large
amounts of text or symbolic content, this content
can be indexed and its elements then linked
together to aford rapid electronic retrieval of the
associated information. When words are keyed
or indexed to other words, you have a hypertext
system; the “text” part of this term represents the
project’s content and meaning, rather than the
graphical presentation of the text. Hypertext is
what the World Wide Web is all about.
■
When text lives in a computer instead of on
printed pages, the computer’s powerful processing
capabilities can be applied to make the text more
accessible and meaningful. he text can then be
called hypertext; because the words, sections, and
thoughts are linked, the user can navigate through
text in a nonlinear way, quickly and intuitively.
Because hypertext is the organized cross-linking
of words not only to other words but also to
associated images, video clips, sounds, and other
exhibits, hypertext often becomes simply an
additional feature within an overall multimedia
design.
■
Links are connections between the conceptual
elements, that is, the nodes containing text,
graphics, sounds, or related information in the
knowledge base. he term anchor is formally used
in HTML as the reference from one document
to another document, image, sound, or ile. Links
are the navigation pathways and menus; nodes
are accessible topics, documents, messages, and
content elements. A link anchor is where you
come from; a link end is the destination node
linked to the anchor.
62
■
he standard
document format
used for pages on
the Web is called
Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML).
In an HTML
document you can
specify typefaces,
sizes, colors, and
other properties by
“marking up” the text
in the document with
tags. he remarkable
growth of the Web
is straining the “old”
designs for displaying
text on computers.
Dynamic HTML
uses Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS)
to deine choices
ranging from line
height to margin
width to font face.
HTML character
entities are represented either by a
number or by a word
and always preixed
by an ampersand
(escape) and followed
by a semicolon.
■
You can search and
view potentially
billions of documents
and iles (information), but you can
also become “lost in
hyperspace.”
■ Key Terms
Adobe PostScript (40)
American Standard Code for
InformationInterchange
(ASCII) (42)
anchor (58)
anti-aliasing (27)
attribute (22)
button (35)
Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS) (30)
case insensitive (24)
case sensitive (24)
character entity (48)
character metrics (23)
condensed (23)
dithering (27)
dots per inch (dpi) (23)
Dynamic HTML (DHTML) (62)
expanded (23)
font (22)
font mapping (45)
font substitution (45)
foundry (41)
hint (for Type 1 PostScript
fonts) (41)
hypertext (54)
hypertext system (54)
icon (32)
intercap (24)
jaggies (53)
kerning (23)
landscape (37)
leading (22)
link (58)
link anchor (58)
link end (58)
localization (48)
lowercase (24)
node (58)
OpenType (41)
outline font (40)
pixel (23)
point (22)
portrait (37)
rasterizing (23)
rollovers (36)
sans serif (25)
scripts (44)
serif (25)
software robots (56)
style (22)
tag (39)
tracking (23)
TrueType (41)
typeface (22)
Unicode (43)
uppercase (24)
white space (28)
WYSIWYG (25)
x-height (22)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. Type sizes are usually expressed in _______________.
2. When a password must be entered in upper- or lowercase in order to match the original password, it is said
to be _______________.
3. Symbolic representations of objects and processes common to the graphical user interfaces of many
computer operating systems are called _______________.
4. Special HTML characters, always preixed by an ampersand (escape) and followed by a semicolon, are
called _______________.
5. “What you see is what you get” is spoken as _______________.
6. Translating or designing multimedia (or any computer-based material) into a language other than the one
in which it was originally written is called _______________.
7. he little decoration at the end of a letter stroke is a _______________.
8. Designers call roomy blank areas _______________.
9. _______________ blends the colors along the edges of the letters (called dithering) to create a soft
transition between the letter and its background.
10. Conceptual elements consisting of text, graphics, sounds, or related information in the knowledge base are
called _______________.
63
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. A family of graphic characters that usually
includes many type sizes and styles is called a:
a. typeface
b. font
c. point
d. link
e. node
2. Which of the following is a term that applies to
the spacing between characters of text?
a. leading
b. kerning
c. tracking
d. points
e. dithering
3. Intercapping, the practice of placing a capital in
the middle of a word, is a trend that emerged
from the computer programming community
because:
a. it looks cool
b. they wanted to copy marketing practices in
the electronics industry
c. they found they could see the words used
for variables and commands better
d. one of the irst computer programmers had
a faulty shift key on his keyboard
e. it increases security in case-sensitive
passwords
4. Dynamic HTML uses _______ to deine
choices ranging from line height to margin
width to font face.
a. Cascading Style Sheets
b. font mapping
c. font substitution
d. software robots
e. encapsulated PostScript
64
5. If a DHTML document includes a font face
that is not installed on the user’s computer, a
browser will:
a. automatically download the correct font
b. refuse to load the page
c. leave a blank space where that text is
d. crash
e. try to substitute the font with a similar
looking font
6. In the URL http://www.timestream.com/info/
people/biotay/biotay1.html, which part is case
sensitive?
a. the record type: “http://”
b. the domain name: “timestream.com”
c. the subdomain “www”
d. the document path: “info/people/biotay/
biotay1.html”
e. all are case sensitive
7. Multimedia becomes interactive multimedia
when:
a. the user has some control over what
information is viewed and when it is viewed
b. the information is displayed by a computer
with a touchscreen or other input device
c. the information is available on the Web—
either the Internet or a local area network
d. quizzes and tests with evaluations and
scoring are included
e. the user can change such attributes as
volume and type size
8. Interactive multimedia becomes hypermedia
when:
a. the information is available on the Web—
either the Internet or a local area network
b. quizzes and tests with evaluations and
scoring are included
c. it includes a structure of linked elements
through which a user can navigate and
interact
d. the user can change such attributes as
volume and type size
e. the content formatting complies with the
American Standard Code for Information
Interchange
9. Web pages are coded using:
a. Unicode
b. American Standard Code for Information
Interchange
c. File Transfer Protocol
d. Hypertext Markup Language
e. encapsulated PostScript
10. Which of the following provides a system for
dynamically displaying a font?
a. Apache
b. PostScript
c. HTTPD
d. serif
e. WYSIWYG
11. A printed page might be presented in which of
these orientations?
a. newsscape
b. portrait
c. lat-ile
d. x-height
e. node
13. he reference from one document to another
document, image, sound, or ile on the Web is
a(n):
a. sweetspot
b. anchor
c. node
d. tag
e. button
14. Which of the following is a problem that might
apply to hypermedia?
a. Users’ eye movements afect their ability
to link.
b. Users will be turned of by excessive
animation.
c. Hypermedia software might create
inappropriate links.
d. Current hyperlinking technology far exceeds
what today’s desktop computers can handle.
e. Search results generally are too granular to
be useful.
15. Which of the following is a typical method for
word searching in a hypermedia system?
a. best it
b. adjacency
c. popularity
d. tracking
e. localization
12. Which of the following is a character encoding
system?
a. FontTab
b. HTML
c. CSS
d. WYSIWYG
e. Unicode
■ Essay Quiz
1. Describe what characteristics a block of text might have.
2. Describe what characteristics a typeface might have.
3. Discuss the problems encountered using text across computer platforms and in diferent languages.
65
4. Discuss the diferences among multimedia, interactive multimedia, hypertext, and hypermedia.
5. Your boss wants you to create a hypermedia system for Web visitors to ind technical support information
about your company. What are some of the implications in creating this system? Should you hand-build
the links or use an automatic indexing system? Why?
Lab Projects
■Project 2.1
Visit a web site and print out a page. Visit the same page on another computer (preferably on another operating
system), and print out the same page.
Compare the pages. Are the printouts diferent? Why?
■Project 2.2
From three diferent publications, select a printed page. Circle the diferent blocks of text. Characterize the types
of text used in each block by providing for each page:
■
Publication name and page number.
■
Which blocks are headlines? What type of font is used? Is it bold? serif? Characterize the text. How is
it spaced?
■
Which blocks are body text? What type of font is used? Is it bold? serif? Characterize the text. How is
it spaced?
■Project 2.3
Access a computer. Identify two programs that allow you to manipulate text. Write some text in varied styles and
fonts. Print the results. For each, list:
■
he program’s name.
■
he ways in which that program allows you to change text. Can you easily change the font? the color?
the style? the spacing?
■Project 2.4
Create a new document in a word processing application. Next, type in a line of text and copy the line ive times.
Now change each line into a diferent font. Recopy the entire set of lines three times. Finally, change the size of
the irst set to 10-point text, the second set to 18-point text, and the third set to 36-point text.
66
■
Which of the smallest lines of text is most readable?
■
Which line of text stands out the most?
■Project 2.5
Review two diferent games or educational programs delivered on CD-ROM. Create a diagram that shows how
the information in each is structured. For each, describe:
■
How are the navigational structures similar in the two programs?
■
What words are common to both programs (for example, “Quit,” “Home,” “Help,” etc.)?
67
68
CHAPTER 3
Images
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Work out your graphical
approach by planning your
approach, organizing your
tools, and coniguring your
computer workspace
■ Diferentiate among bitmap,
vector, and 3-D images and
describe the capabilities
and limitations of all three
■ Describe the use of colors
and palettes in multimedia
■ Cite the various image ile
types used in multimedia
M
ultimedia on a computer screen is a composite of
elements: text, symbols, photograph-like bitmaps, vector-drawn graphics,
three-dimensional renderings, distinctive buttons to click, and windows
of motion video. Some parts of this image may even twitch or move so
that the screen never seems still and tempts your eye. It may be a very
colorful screen with gentle pastel washes of mauve and puce, or it may
be brutally primary with splashes of Crayola red and blue and yellow and
green. It might be stark black and white, full of sharp angles, or softened
with gray-scale blends and anti-aliasing. It may be elegant or, by design,
not. he computer screen is where the action is, and it contains much more
than your message; it is also the viewer’s primary connection to all of your
project’s content.
his chapter will help you understand the visual elements that make
up a multimedia presentation. Graphic elements can usually be scaled
to diferent sizes, colorized or patterned or made transparent, placed
in front of or behind other objects, or be made visible or invisible on
command. How you blend these elements, how you choose your colors
and fonts, the tricks that you use to catch the eye, how adept you are at
using your tools—these are the hallmarks of your skill, talent, knowledge,
and creativity coalesced into the all-important visual connection to your
viewers.
Before You Start to Create
At the beginning of a project, the screen is a blank canvas, ready for you,
the multimedia designer, to express your craft. he screen will change again
and again during the course of your project as you experiment, as you
stretch and reshape elements, draw new objects and throw out old ones,
and test various colors and efects—creating the vehicle for your message.
Indeed, many multimedia designers are known to experience a mild shiver
when they pull down the New menu and draw their irst colors onto a
fresh screen. Just so; this screen represents a powerful and seductive avenue
for channeling creativity.
Chapter 3 Images
WARNING Multimedia designers are regularly lured into agonizingly steep
learning curves, long nights of cerebral problem solving, and the pursuit of performance perfection. If you are fundamentally creative, multimedia may become a
calling, not a profession.
Plan Your Approach
Whether you use templates and ready-made screens provided by your
authoring system, clip art or objects crafted by others, or even if you simply
clone the look and feel of another project—there will always be a starting
point where your page is “clean.” But even before reaching this starting
point, be sure you have given your project a good deal of thought and
planning. Work out your graphic approach, either in your head or during
creative sessions with your client or colleagues. here are strong arguments
against drawing on a fresh screen without such foresight and preparation.
To get a handle on any multimedia project, you start with pencil, eraser,
and paper. Outline your project and your graphic ideas irst: make a lowchart; storyboard the project using stick igures; use three-by-ive index
cards and shule them until you get it right.
You may not “nail it” with the irst design you submit to a client. Get a
few examples from them or have them look at templates from a site such
as www.templatemonster.com. When you have a clear idea what they want,
submit a few variations—diferent visual designs, color palettes, and layouts.
Organize Your Tools
Most authoring systems provide the tools with which you can create the
graphic objects of multimedia (text, interactive buttons, vector-drawn
objects, and bitmaps) directly on your screen. If one of these tools is not
included, the authoring system usually ofers a mechanism for importing
the object you need from another application. When you are working with
animated objects or motion video, most authoring systems include a feature
for activating these elements, such as a programming language or special
functions for embedding them. Likely, too, your tools will ofer a library of
special efects—including zooms, wipes, and dissolves. Many multimedia
designers do not limit their toolkits to the features of a single authoring
platform, but employ a variety of applications and tools to accomplish
many specialized tasks.
Conigure Your Computer Workspace
When developing multimedia, it is helpful to have more than one monitor
to provide lots of screen real estate (viewing area). In this way, you can
69
he organizing and creative
process begins with drawings
in pen or pencil on paper.
Too many times we are
enthused about the color and
the computer graphics tools,
but they can overwhelm the
creative design process.
Dennis Woytek, Assistant
Professor, Duquesne University
I like “do-overs,” where
you make quick and dirty
buttons now, or live text now,
but go back later and replace
those placeholders with more
reined images or pretty
bitmapped text. his do-over
approach lets you work two
ends against the middle—
you can get right into
designing navigation and
animation, but know that
you will put in the “good”
images later.
Sherry Hutson, Lecturer,
University of Illinois at
Springield
70
Multimedia: Making It Work
display the full-screen working area of your project or presentation and
still have space to put your tools and other menus. his is particularly
important in an authoring system such as Flash or Director, where the
edits and changes you make in one window are immediately visible in the
presentation window—provided the presentation window is not obscured
by your editing tool! During development there is a lot of cutting and
pasting among windows and among various applications, and with an extra
monitor, you can open many windows at once and spread them out. Both
Macintosh and Windows operating systems support this extra hardware.
NOTE A few weeks of having to repeatedly bring windows to the front, and
then hide them again to see the results of your editing, will probably convince you
to invest in a second monitor.
TIP Your operating system has keyboard shortcuts for moving among windows and applications, accessing your desktop, and for standard commands such
as cut, copy, paste, and undo. Learning to use these commands—and using them
consistently—will enable you to work eiciently.
Making Still Images
Still images may be small or large, or even full screen. hey may be colored,
placed at random on the screen, evenly geometric, or oddly shaped. Still
images may be a single tree on a wintry hillside; stacked boxes of text against
a gray, tartan, or Italian marble background; an engineering drawing; a
snapshot of your department manager’s new BMW. Whatever their form,
still images are generated by the computer in two ways: as bitmaps (or
paint graphics) and as vector-drawn (or just plain “drawn”) graphics.
Bitmaps may also be called “raster” images. Likewise, bitmap editors are
sometimes called “painting” programs. And vector editors are sometimes
called “drawing” programs.
Bitmaps are used for photo-realistic images and for complex drawings
requiring ine detail. Vector-drawn objects are used for lines, boxes, circles,
polygons, and other graphic shapes that can be mathematically expressed
in angles, coordinates, and distances. A drawn object can be illed with
color and patterns, and you can select it as a single object. he appearance
of both types of images depends on the display resolution and capabilities
of your computer’s graphics hardware and monitor. Both types of images
are stored in various ile formats and can be translated from one application to another or from one computer platform to another. Typically, image
iles are compressed to save memory and disk space; many bitmap image
Chapter 3 Images
71
ile formats already use compression within the ile itself—for example,
GIF, JPEG, and PNG.
Still images may be the most important element of your multimedia project or web site. If you are designing multimedia by yourself, put
yourself in the role of graphic artist and layout designer. Take the time
necessary to discover all the tricks you can learn about your drawing software. Competent, computer-literate skills in graphic art and design are
vital to the success of your project. Remember—more than anything else,
the user’s judgment of your work will be heavily inluenced by the work’s
visual impact.
Bitmaps
A bit is the simplest element in the digital world, an electronic digit that
is either on or of, black or white, or true (1) or false (0). his is referred to
as binary, since only two states (on or of ) are available. A map is a twodimensional matrix of these bits. A bitmap, then, is a simple matrix of the
tiny dots that form an image and are displayed on a computer screen or
printed.
First Person
A few years ago a large corporation asked us and one other
multimedia developer to bid on a
long-term contract for computerbased training. Though busy
with other active projects, we
didn’t want this possibly lucrative
opportunity to slip by, so we spent
a few days hastily putting together
a demonstration of our technical
skills for building nifty databases,
designing tricky telecommunications systems, and integrating live
video. We even “wire-framed” a bit
of a working multimedia database
with real data we got from the
corporation.
We showed our demo to about a
dozen management and training
executives, in a fancy boardroom
that had a built-in projector and
sound system with mixers and light
dimmers—a place where we could
knock the socks of anybody. But
within 30 seconds, the disaster bells
started tinkling: most of our presentation was going way over their
heads. Afterward, there were one
or two vague questions and some
thank-you’s.
Our competitor’s presentation, on
the other hand, provided a slick
series of inely rendered bitmapped
screen images and elegant visuals. It
was heavy on pretty menu screens
and very light on how-it-is-done
technology. We later learned that
one of their graphic artists had
worked for two solid weeks on the
color bitmaps for that demo. In the
follow-up phone call, we were told
by our potential clients that the
competition’s “incredible artwork”
had won out over our “excellent
technology demonstration.”
To cover our disappointment, we
mumbled something to ourselves
about not wanting to work with
computer illiterates, anyway—
people who could be taken to the
cleaners by fresh paint. But we
knew we’d missed a hefty piece of
contract work because we hadn’t
invested serious graphic art talent
in our demonstration. We decided
that’s why the real peas in the can
are never the same bright green as
the ones on the label. So we learned
a marketing lesson.
72
Multimedia: Making It Work
A one-dimensional matrix (1-bit depth) is used to display monochrome images—a bitmap where each bit is most commonly set to black
or white. Depending upon your software, any two colors that represent
the on and of (1 or 0) states may be used. More information is required
to describe shades of gray or the more than 16 million colors that each
picture element might have in a color image, as illustrated in Figure 3-1.
hese picture elements (known as pels or, more commonly, pixels) can be
either on or of, as in the 1-bit bitmap, or, by using more bits to describe
them, can represent varying shades of color (4 bits for 16 colors; 8 bits for
256 colors; 15 bits for 32,768 colors; 16 bits for 65,536 colors; 24 bits for
16,772,216 colors). hus, with 2 bits, for example, the available zeros and
ones can be combined in only four possible ways and can, then, describe
only four possible colors:
Bit Depth
Number of
Colors Possible
Available Binary Combinations for
Describing a Color
1-bit
2
0, 1
2-bit
4
00, 01, 10, 11
4-bit
16
0000, 0001, 0011, 0111, 1111, 0010, 0100,
1000, 0110, 1100, 1010, 0101, 1110, 1101,
1001, 1011
Figure 3-1 A bitmap is a data matrix
that describes the characteristics of all
the pixels making up an image. Here,
each cube represents the data required
to display a 4 × 4–pixel image (the face
of the cube) at various color depths
(with each cube extending behind the
face indicating the number of bits—
zeros or ones—used to represent the
color for that pixel).
Together, the state of all the pixels on a computer screen make up the
image seen by the viewer, whether in combinations of black and white or
colored pixels in a line of text, a photograph-like picture, or a simple background pattern. Figure 3-2 demonstrates various color depths and compression formats. Image 1 is 24 bits deep (millions of colors); Image 2 is
dithered to 8 bits using an adaptive palette (the best 256 colors to represent
the image); Image 3 is also dithered to 8 bits, but uses the Macintosh system
palette (an optimized standard mix of 256 colors). Image 4 is dithered to 4
bits (any 16 colors); Image 5 is dithered to 8-bit gray-scale (256 shades of
gray); Image 6 is dithered to 4-bit gray-scale (16 shades of gray); and Image
7 is dithered to 1 bit (two colors—in this case, black and white).
Chapter 3 Images
1
2
3
4
5
6
73
Is there a colour scheme
that will appear coloured or
at least solid black for the
colour-impaired?
If you’re gathering empirical
evidence, I have something called red-green
colour blindness (it is quite
common in males). It
doesn’t mean that you don’t
know which traic light is
showing! What it means
mainly is that the tone of
red-type colours doesn’t seem
so diferent to the tone of
greens—the obvious case
is a poppy ield. I can see
the poppies as red OK if I
look carefully or they are
pointed out to me, but other
people see them kind of
exploding out of the green...
For people like me, a vibrant
yellow always works. I read
somewhere that black on
yellow is a reliable “strong”
combination. Certainly it is
used by one of the motoring
organisations in the UK for
special diversion notices and
the like.
Graham Samuel, Educational
Software Developer, he Living
Fossil Co., London
7
Figure 3-2 These images show the color depth of bitmaps as described in Figure 3-1.
Note that Images 4 and 6 require the same memory (same ile size), but the gray-scale
image is superior. If ile size (download time) is important, you can dither GIF bitmap iles
to the lowest color depth that will still provide an acceptable image.
74
Multimedia: Making It Work
Bitmap Sources
Where do bitmaps come from? How are they made? You can do the
following:
Make a bitmap from scratch with a paint or drawing program.
■ Grab a bitmap from an active computer screen with a screen capture
program, and then paste it into a paint program or your application.
■ Capture a bitmap from a photo or other artwork using a scanner to
digitize the image.
■ Once made, a bitmap can be copied, altered, e-mailed, and otherwise
used in many creative ways.
■
If you do not want to make your own, you can get bitmaps from suppliers
of clip art, and from photograph suppliers who have already digitized the
images for you. Libraries of clip art are available on CD-ROMs and downloadable through online services. Many graphics applications are shipped
with clip art and useful graphics. A clip art collection may contain a random
assortment of images, or it may contain a series of graphics, photographs,
sound, and video related to a single topic. Some 3-D modeling programs
incorporate libraries of pre-made 3-D models into the application, allowing
you to drag and drop common objects into a scene.
You can also download an image bitmap from a web site: in most
browsers right-click over the image to see a menu of options. Choose
“Download image to disk,” “Copy Image,” or “Save picture as….” Regardless of the source of the image, you should be aware of who owns the
copyright to the image you wish to use and what is required to reproduce
the image legally.
WARNING
To avoid legal problems, always assume that an image on the
Web is protected by copyright, even if there is no copyright notice shown. Just
because you can easily download an image from a web site, doesn’t mean that
you can reuse that image in your own work without permission or paying a
license fee. See Chapter 11 for more about copyright protection.
Legal rights protecting use of images from clip libraries fall into three
basic groupings. Public domain images were either never protected by a
copyright or their copyright protection has ended. Generally these can be
freely used without obtaining permission or paying a license fee, though
there still may be an ownership issue for a particular work of art (such as a
painting owned by an art gallery). Royalty-free images are purchased and
then used without paying additional license fees. Rights-managed images
require that you negotiate with the rights holder regarding terms for using
the image and how much you will pay for that use.
Figure 3-3 shows a page of thumbnails describing a commercially
available resource of royalty-free images called Photodisc, a part of Getty
Chapter 3 Images
75
Images (www.gettyimages.com). he Photodisc collections contain highresolution bitmaps with a license for their “unlimited use.” But you should
note that “unlimited use” often contains caveats: in many cases there is an
upper limit to the number of “units” of your own product that you may
distribute without paying more, so you need to read the ine print. hese
additional fees are usually reasonable, however, and afect only commercial
multimedia publishers.
Figure 3-3 A page of thumbnails
showing the content of various royaltyfree Photodisc collections from Getty
Images
Regardless of the source, once you have a bitmap, you can manipulate
and adjust many of its properties (such as brightness, contrast, color depth,
hue, and size). You can also cut and paste among many bitmaps using an
image-editing program. If the clip art image is high resolution (aimed at
300 or 600 dpi printers, not 72 dpi monitors), you may discover that you
can grab just a tiny portion of the high-res image—say, a sheep in the far
corner of a farmyard or a car in a parking lot—and it will look great when
displayed at monitor resolution.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Bitmap Software
he abilities and features of painting and image-editing programs range
from simple to complex. he best programs are available in versions that
work the same on both Windows and Mac platforms, and the graphics
iles you make can be saved in many formats, readable across platforms.
Macintosh computers do not ship with a painting tool, and Windows
provides only a rudimentary Paint program, so you will need to acquire this
very important software separately. Many multimedia authoring tools ofer
built-in bitmap editing features. Director, for example, includes a powerful image editor that provides advanced tools such as “onion-skinning”
and image iltering using common plug-ins. Adobe’s Photoshop, however,
remains the most widely used image-editing tool among designers worldwide; it is available without some bells and whistles in a less-expensive
version, Photoshop Elements, which may have all the features you need
for your projects.
Many designers also use a vector-based drawing program such as
Adobe’s Illustrator, CorelDRAW, or InDesign to create curvy and complicated looks that they then convert to a bitmap. You can use your imageediting software to create original images, such as cartoons, symbols,
buttons, bitmapped text, and abstract images that have a reined “graphic”
look, but it is virtually impossible to create a realistic-looking photo
from scratch using an image-editing program. he artistic painting tools
ofered by Corel’s Painter (www.corel.com/painter) include hundreds of
brushes, sprays, watercolors, inks, and textures to mimic the output of
natural media in a bitmap (see Figure 3-4). here are also many open
source and free bitmap editors available—just type “graphics editors” in
a search engine. Regardless of your program of choice, learning to use a
high-powered paint program and image editor is a necessary investment
in your multimedia future.
Figure 3-4 Painter is used for
creating original artwork; for book,
medical, and architectural illustration;
to transform photographs into realisticlooking paintings; to build seamless
patterns for fabrics; and for storyboarding scene concepts and costumes
for movies and theater.
Chapter 3 Images
77
Capturing and Editing Images he image you see on your monitor is a
digital bitmap stored in video memory, updated about every 1/60 of a second. As you assemble images for your multimedia project, you may often
need to capture and store an image directly from your screen. he simplest
way to capture what you see on the screen at any given moment is to press
the proper keys on your computer keyboard. his causes a conversion from
the screen bufer to a format that you can use.
Both the Macintosh and Windows environments have a clipboard—
an area of memory where data such as text and images is temporarily
stored when you cut or copy them within an application. In Windows,
when you press print screen, a copy of your screen’s image goes to the
clipboard. From the clipboard, you can then paste the captured bitmap
into an application (such as Paint, which comes with Windows).
■ On the Macintosh, the keystroke combination command-shift-3
creates a readable PNG-format ile named Picture and places it on
your desktop. You can then import this ile’s image into your multimedia authoring system or paint program. You can also press commandcontrol-shift-4 to drag a rectangle on your screen and capture what
is inside the rectangle onto the clipboard, ready for pasting.
■
he way to get more creative power when manipulating
bitmaps is to use an image-editing program, likely one of the
programs named previously. hese are the king-of-the-mountain programs that let you not only retouch the blemishes
and details of photo images, but also do tricks like placing an
image of your own face at the helm of a square-rigger or right
on the sideline at last year’s Super Bowl. Figure 3-5 shows
just such a composite image, made from two photographs.
It was created by graphic artist Frank Zurbano and shows
his iancée, Brandy Rowell, chasing after wedding gifts on
the lawn where they will be married. Isolating and extracting
parts of an image is an essential skill in multimedia production. Most bitmap editors have “lasso” type tools that select
areas by drawing a path. his selection can be “feathered,”
or made to include partially transparent pixels outside the
selected area.
In addition to letting you enhance and make composite images, image-editing tools allow you to alter and distort
images. A color photograph of a red rose can be changed into
a purple rose, or blue if you prefer. A small child standing
next to her older brother can be “stretched” to tower over him.
Morphing is another efect that can be used to manipulate Figure 3-5 Image-editing programs let you add and
still images or to create interesting and often bizarre animated delete elements in layers.
78
Multimedia: Making It Work
transformations. Morphing (see Figure 3-6) allows you to smoothly blend
two images so that one image seems to melt into the next, often producing
some amusing results.
Figure 3-6 Morphing software was used to seamlessly transform the images of 16
kindergartners. When a sound track of music and voices was added to the four-minute
piece, it made a compelling video about how similar children are to each other.
We have to keep saturation in mind all the time
when doing our web pages...
viewing the graphics on both
Macs and PCs before actually using them. For instance,
when doing our Halloween
pages, we used a very cool
pumpkin background that
was beautifully saturated on
the Mac side. On Windows,
though, it was way too dark,
and you couldn’t read the
overlying text. We had to
lighten the GIF on the Mac
side a few times before using
it cross-platform.
Rich Santalesa, Editor,
NetGuide Magazine
Image-editing programs may, indeed, represent the single most significant advance in computer image processing during the late 1980s, bringing truly amazing power to PC desktops. Such tools are indispensable for
excellent multimedia production.
NOTE When you import a color or gray-scale bitmap from the Macintosh to
Windows, the colors will seem darker and richer, even though they have precisely
the same red, green, and blue (RGB) values. In some cases, this may improve the
look of your image, but in other cases you will want to irst lighten (increase the
brightness and possibly lower the contrast) of the Macintosh bitmap before bringing it into Windows.
Scanning Images After poring through countless clip art collections,
you still haven’t found the unusual background you want for a screen about
gardening. Sometimes when you search for something too hard, you don’t
realize that it’s right in front of you. Everyday objects can be scanned and
manipulated using image-editing tools, such as those described in the preceding section, to create unusual, attention-getting efects. For example, to
Chapter 3 Images
enliven a screen with a gardening motif, scan a mixture of seeds, some fall
foliage, or grass-stained garden gloves. Open the scan in an image-editing
program and experiment with diferent ilters, the contrast, and various
special efects. Be creative, and don’t be afraid to try strange combinations—sometimes mistakes yield the most intriguing results.
Another alternative to computer-generated graphics is to create artwork using traditional methods: watercolors, pastels, and even crayons. You
can then scan the image, make necessary alterations, and tweak pixels on
the computer. Too many designers have fallen into the trap of trying to
draw detailed sketches using a mouse or drawing tablet, when a pencil or
pen on paper would have produced better results quicker. In Chapter 10,
Figure 10-7 shows a web page that uses a large image map of a seacoast
village for navigation. he picture of the village was drawn on a large sheet
of paper by artist Carolyn Brown using a ine pen. hen it was digitized
in sections because the original drawing was too large for the scanner top.
Four scans were stitched together into a single image using Photoshop
layers, and the image was resized to it the web page. Finally, it was colorized to look “old” and reduced in color depth to 4 bits so that it would load
quickly on the Internet as a GIF.
Powerful ilters and plug-ins are ofered by most image-editing programs (see illustration to right) to manipulate bitmaps in many diferent
ways. Experiment with your ilters and plug-ins. Alien Skin’s Exposure,
for example, brings the creative tools of ilm photography to the world
of digital editing with presets for many looks: discontinued ilms, darkroom tricks, lo-i camera quirks like Holga and Lomo, vintage looks like
Technicolor movie ilm and old Kodachrome that are distressed with dust,
scratches, and lens blur, warped vignettes, and funky colors from crossprocessing (see Figure 3-7).
Figure 3-7 Exposure from Alien Skin, ofering photography efects, is one of
hundreds of commercial plug-ins and ilters available for manipulating bitmapped
images. Here a digital color image has been processed to look like it came from a
photographer’s darkroom.
79
80
Multimedia: Making It Work
Vector Drawing
Most multimedia authoring systems provide for use of vector-drawn
objects such as lines, rectangles, ovals, polygons, complex drawings created
from those objects, and text.
Computer-aided design (CAD) programs have traditionally used
vector-drawn object systems for creating the highly complex and
geometric renderings needed by architects and engineers.
■ Graphic artists designing for print media use vector-drawn objects
because the same mathematics that put a rectangle on your screen can
also place that rectangle (or the fancy curves of a good line-art illustration) on paper without jaggies. his requires the higher resolution
of the printer, using a page description format such as Portable Document Format (PDF).
■ Programs for 3-D animation also use vector-drawn graphics. For
example, the various changes of position, rotation, and shading of light
required to spin an extruded corporate logo must be calculated mathematically. (Animation is discussed in Chapter 5.)
■
How Vector Drawing Works
A vector is a line that is described by the location of its two endpoints.
Vector drawing uses Cartesian coordinates where a pair of numbers
describes a point in two-dimensional space as the intersection of horizontal and vertical lines (the x and y axes). he numbers are always listed
in the order x,y. In three-dimensional space, a third dimension—depth—
is described by a z axis (x,y,z). his coordinate system is named for the
French philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes. So a line might
be simply
<line x1="0" y1="0" x2="200" y2="100">
where x1 and y1 deine the starting point (in the upper-left corner of the
viewing box) and x2 and y2 deine the end point.
A simple rectangle is computed from starting point and size: your
software will draw a rectangle (rect) starting at the upper-left corner of
your viewing area (0,0) and going 200 pixels horizontally to the right and
100 pixels downward to mark the opposite corner. Add color information like
<rect x="0" y="0" width="200" height="100" fill="#FFFFFF" stroke="#FF0000"/>
and your software will draw the rectangle with a red boundary line and ill
it with the color white. You can, of course, add other parameters to describe
a ill pattern or the width of the boundary line. Circles are deined by a
location and a radius:
Chapter 3 Images
81
<circle cx="50" cy="50" r="10" fill="none" stroke="#000000" />
Type the following code into a text editor and save it as plain text with
a .svg extension. his is a Scalable Vector Graphics ile. Open it in an
HTML5-capable browser (File:Open File…) and you will see:
SVG
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
width="200"
height="200"
viewBox="-100 -100 300 300">
<rect x="0" y="0" fill="yellow" stroke="red" width="200" height="100"/>
<text transform="matrix(1 0 0 1 60 60)" font-family="'TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT'" font-size="36">SVG</text>
</svg>
Because these SVG iles can be saved in
a small amount of memory and because
they are scalable without distortion (try
changing the width and height of the
view box in the preceding code), SVG
(Tiny) is supported by browsers on
most mobile phones and PDAs. he
SVG speciication also includes timebased changes or animations that can
be embedded within the image code
(see www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/animate.
html#AnimationElements). Figure 3-8
shows Adobe Illustrator saving a ile
in SVG format. Vector drawing tools
use Bézier curves or paths to mathematically represent a curve. In practical terms, editing software shows you
points on the path, each point having a
“handle.” Changing the location of the
handle changes the shape of the curve. Figure 3-8 Drawing software such as Adobe Illustrator can save vector
Mastering Bézier curves is an impor- graphics in SVG format.
tant skill: these curves not only create
graphic shapes but represent motion paths when creating animations.
Vector-Drawn Objects vs. Bitmaps
Vector-drawn objects are described and drawn to the computer screen
using a fraction of the memory space required to describe and store the
same object in bitmap form. he ile containing the vector-drawn colored
82
Multimedia: Making It Work
rectangle described in the preceding section is less than 698 bytes of alphanumeric data (even less—468 bytes—when the description is tokenized or
compressed as .svgz). On the other hand, the same rectangle saved as a .gif
image with a 64-color palette takes 1,100 bytes.
Because of this ile size advantage, web pages that use vector graphics
as SVG iles or in plug-ins such as Flash download faster and, when used
for animation, draw faster than pages displaying bitmaps. It is only when
you draw many hundreds of objects on your screen that you may experience a slowdown while you wait for the screen to be refreshed—the size,
location, and other properties for each of the objects must be computed.
hus, a single image made up of 500 individual line and rectangle objects,
for example, may take longer for the computer to process and place on the
screen than an image consisting of just a few drawn circle objects.
A vector-drawn object is created “on the ly,” that is, the computer
draws the image from the instructions it has been given, rather than displaying a precreated image. his means that vector objects are easily scalable without loss of resolution or image quality. A large drawn image can
be shrunk to the size of a postage stamp, and while it may not look good
on a computer monitor at 72 dpi, it may look great when printed at 300 dpi
to a color printer. Resizing a bitmapped image requires either duplicating
pixels (creating a blocky, jagged look called pixelation) or throwing pixels
away (eliminating details). Because vector images are drawn from instructions on the ly, a rescaled image retains the quality of the original.
TIP Using a single bitmap for a complicated image may give you faster screenrefresh performance than using a large number of vector-drawn objects to make
that same screen.
Converting Between Bitmaps and Drawn Images
Most drawing programs ofer several ile formats for saving your work,
and, if you wish, you can convert a drawing that consists of several vectordrawn objects into a bitmap when you save the drawing. You can also grab
a bitmapped screen image of your drawn objects with a screen capture
program.
Converting bitmaps to drawn objects is more diicult. here are, however, programs and utilities that will compute the bounds of a bitmapped
image or the shapes of colors within an image and then derive the polygon
object that describes the image. his procedure is called autotracing and
is available in vector drawing applications such as Illustrator or Freehand.
Flash has a Trace Bitmap menu option that converts a bitmapped image
into a vector image. Be cautious: the size of your Flash ile may actually balloon because the bitmapped image is replaced by hundreds or even
Chapter 3 Images
83
thousands of tiny vector-drawn objects, leading to slow processing and
display.
WARNING
Some bitmap applications allow vector images to be pasted into
them. Be careful to save your vector drawing separately because you will not be
able to edit the curves when they are bitmapped.
3-D Drawing and Rendering
Drawing in perspective or in 3-D on a two-dimensional surface takes special
skill and talent. Creating objects in three dimensions on a computer screen
can be diicult for designers comfortable with squares, circles, and other
x (width) and y (height) geometries on a two-dimensional screen. Dedicated software is available to help you render three-dimensional scenes,
complete with directional lighting and special efects, but be prepared for
late nights and steep learning curves as you become familiar with nurbs,
deformations, mesh generations, and skinning! From making 3-D text to
creating detailed walkthroughs of 3-D space, each application will demand
study and practice before you are eicient and comfortable with its feature
set and power.
he production values of multimedia projects have increased dramatically, and as the production bar has risen, end users’ expectations have also
ratcheted upward. he multimedia production bar moves like a high jump
or pole vault contest—as each new project improves on the last, competitors must jump to meet the new, higher standard. Flat and colorless 2-D
screens are no longer suicient for a successful commercial multimedia
project. 3-D-rendered graphic art and animation has become commonplace since the late 1980s, providing more lifelike substance and feel to
projects. Luckily, in an arena where only high-powered workstations could
supply the raw computing horsepower for efective 3-D designing, inexpensive desktop PCs and excellent software have made 3-D modeling
attainable by most multimedia developers.
Today many products—including Daz3D (www.daz3d.com) and
form•Z (www.formz.com)—are touted as essential tools for illustration, animation, and multimedia production. NewTek’s Lightwave (www
.newtek.com/lightwave) and Autodesk’s Maya (www.autodesk.com/
Maya) are industry-standard, high-end animation programs used for
everything from multimedia programs and game designs to special efects
in ilms and even feature-length movies. For experimenting with 3-D,
Google’s SketchUp (sketchup.google.com) provides a simple (and free)
cross-platform tool. To delve deeply into 3-D, the open-source Blender
(www.blender.org) is a powerful tool—but its complex interface presents
a steep learning curve.
Form•Z, the 3-D form
synthesizer, is above all a
3-D modeling program,
even though it also includes
drafting, rendering and
animation. Additional
photo-realistic rendering is
ofered by form•Z RenderZone Plus. It combines
solids and surface modeling.
It also combines faceted
(boundary) representations with parametric spline
representations, NURBS,
patches, and metaballs. his
unique mixture of modeling
personalities allows you to
create any form, existing or
imaginary, while working in
a single package.
Marketing literature from
auto•des•sys, Inc.
(www.formz.com)
84
Multimedia: Making It Work
For 3-D, the depth (z dimension) of cubes and spheres must be calculated and displayed so that the perspective of the rendered object seems
correct to the eye. As illustrated in Figure 3-9, most 3-D software packages provide adjustable views so that you can see your work from the top,
bottom, or sides.
Figure 3-9 3-D applications provide x, y, and z axes and adjustable perspective views.
A great deal of information is needed to display a 3-D scene. Scenes
consist of objects that in turn contain many small elements such as blocks,
cylinders, spheres, or cones (described using mathematical constructs or
formulas). he more elements contained in an object, the more complicated
its structure will be and, usually, the iner its resolution and smoothness.
Objects and elements in 3-D space carry with them properties such
as shape, color, texture, shading, and location. A scene contains many different objects. Imagine a scene with a table, chairs, and a background.
Zoom into one of the objects—the chair, for example, in Figure 3-10. It
has 11 objects made up of various blocks and rectangles. Objects are created by modeling them using a 3-D application.
Figure 3-10 A chair modeled
in 3-D is made up of various
blocks and rectangles.
Chapter 3 Images
To model an object that you want to place into your scene, you must
start with a shape. You can create a shape from scratch, or you can
import a previously made shape from a library of geometric shapes called
primitives, typically blocks, cylinders, spheres, and cones. In most 3-D
applications, you can create any 2-D shape with a drawing tool or place the
outline of a letter, then extrude or lathe it into the third dimension along
the z axis (see Figure 3-11). When you extrude a plane surface, its shape
extends some distance, either perpendicular to the shape’s outline or along
a deined path. When you lathe a shape, a proile of the shape is rotated
around a deined axis (you can set the direction) to create the 3-D object.
Other methods for creating 3-D objects difer among the various software
packages.
Figure 3-11 A free-form object
created by extrusion and a wine
lute created by lathing
Once you have created a 3-D object, you can apply textures and colors to it to make it seem more realistic, whether rough and coarse or shiny
and smooth. You can also apply a color or pattern, or even a bitmapped
picture, to texture your object. hus you can build a table, apply an oak inish, and then stain it purple or blue or iridescent yellow. You can add cofee
cup rings and spilled cheese dip with appropriate coloring and texturing.
To model a scene, you place all of your objects into 3-D space. Some
complex scenes may contain hundreds (if not thousands) of elements. In
modeling your scene, you can also set up one or more lights that will create
difuse or sharp shades and shadows on your objects and will also relect,
or lare, where the light is most intense. hen you can add a background
and set a camera view, the location and angle from which you will view the
inal rendered scene.
85
86
Multimedia: Making It Work
Shading can usually be applied in several ways. As illustrated in Figure
3-12, lat shading (b) is the fastest for the computer to render and is most
often used in preview mode. Gouraud shading (a), Phong shading (d), and
ray tracing (c) take longer to render but provide photo-realistic images.
Figure 3-12 A scene rendered with four diferent methods of shading
When you have completed the modeling of your scene or an object in
it, you then must render it for inal output. Rendering is when the computer inally uses intricate algorithms to apply the efects you have speciied on the objects you have created. Figure 3-13 shows a background, an
object, and the rendered composite.
Rendering an image requires great computing muscle and often takes
many hours for a single image, and you will feel the strength (or weakness)
of your hardware. Indeed, some multimedia and animation companies
dedicate certain computers solely for rendering. he inal images for the
classic animated movie Toy Story were rendered on a “farm” of 87 dualprocessor and 30 quad-processor 100 MHz SPARCstation 20s. It took
46 days of continuous processing to render that ilm’s 110,000 frames at a
rate of about one frame every one to three hours.
NOTE Farms of many computers hooked together may also be called “clusters
of workstations,” or COWs. There is occasionally humorous contention regarding
proper nomenclature: it seems that developers who live and work in cities tend
to prefer the notion of computer farms; developers in rural communities already
familiar with farms prefer to call these beasts COWs.
Chapter 3 Images
Figure 3-13 A background and
object rendered into an image with
shadows and lighting efects
87
88
Multimedia: Making It Work
Panoramas
Media players such as QuickTime and RealPlayer let you view a single
surrounding image as if you were “inside” the picture and able to look up or
down, turn, or zoom in on features. To make this work, you need to stitch
together many images taken from diferent angles around a circle. Software such as ULead COOL 360 (www.ulead.com/cool360) or Panorama
Factory (www.panoramafactory.com) works by importing a sequence of
photos and letting you adjust them precisely into a single seamless bitmap,
where the right edge attaches to the left edge and the color and lighting
diferences among the image are smoothed. You should allow some overlap
when you take each photo for a 360-degree panorama, and you may need
to adjust each photo’s contrast, brightness, hue, and saturation while
stitching, if that feature is not provided by your software. Most programs
also allow you to adjust perspective to compensate for diferent focal
lengths or camera heights.
Color
Color is a vital component of multimedia. he next few sections explain
where color comes from and how colors are displayed on a computer monitor.
Management of color is both a subjective and a technical exercise. Picking
the right colors and combinations of colors for your project can involve
many tries until you feel the result is right. But the technical description of
a color may be expressed in known physical values (humans, for example,
perceive colors with wavelengths ranging from 400 to 600 nanometers on
the electromagnetic spectrum), and several methods and models describe
color space using mathematics and values (see Figure 3-14).
Understanding Natural Light and Color
Light comes from an atom when an electron passes from a higher to a
lower energy level; thus each atom produces uniquely speciic colors. his
explanation of light, known as the quantum theory, was developed by
physicist Max Planck in the late 19th century. Niels Bohr, another physicist, later showed that an excited atom that has absorbed energy and whose
electrons have moved into higher orbits will throw of that energy in the
form of quanta, or photons, when it reverts to a stable state. his is where
light comes from.
Color is the frequency of a light wave within the narrow band of the
electromagnetic spectrum to which the human eye responds. he letters of
the mnemonic ROY G. BIV, learned by many of us to remember the colors
of the rainbow, are the ascending frequencies of the visible light spectrum:
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Light that is infrared, or
below the frequency of red light and not perceivable by the human eye, can
Chapter 3 Images
Figure 3-14 Color pickers allow you to
select a color using one or more diferent
models of color space.
89
90
Multimedia: Making It Work
be created and viewed by electronic diodes and sensors, and it is used for
TV and VCR remote controls, for wireless communications among computers, and for night goggles used in the military. Infrared light is radiated
heat. Ultraviolet light, on the other hand, is beyond the higher end of the
visible spectrum and can be damaging to humans.
he color white is a noisy mixture of all the color frequencies in the
visible spectrum. Sunlight and luorescent tubes produce white light
(though, technically, even they vary in color temperature—sunlight is
afected by the angle at which the light is coming through the atmosphere,
and luorescent tubes provide spikes in the blue-green parts of the color
spectrum); tungsten lamp ilaments produce light with a yellowish cast;
sodium vapor lamps, typically used for low-cost outdoor street lighting,
produce an orange light characteristic of the sodium atom. hese are the
most common sources of light in the everyday (or every night) world. he
light these sources produce typically reaches your eye as a relection of that
light into the lens of your eye.
he cornea of the eye acts as a lens to focus light rays onto the retina.
he light rays stimulate many thousands of specialized nerves, called rods,
which cover the surface of the retina. Receptors in the cones are sensitive
to red, green, and blue light, and all the nerves together transmit the pattern of color information to the brain. he eye can diferentiate among
about 80,000 colors, or hues, consisting of combinations of red, green,
and blue.
As color information is sent to the brain, other parts of the mind massage the data en route to its point of cognitive recognition. Human response
to color is complicated by cultural and experiential ilters that cause otherwise straightforward color frequencies to carry pleasant, unpleasant, soothing, depressing, and many other special meanings. In Western cultures, for
example, red is the color of anger and danger; in Eastern cultures, red is
the color of happiness. Red is the traditional color for Chinese restaurant
motifs, to make them attractive and happy places; Western restaurants are
often decorated in quieter pastels and earth tones. White, not black, is the
color of funerals in Chinese culture.
Green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, pink, brown, black, gray, and white
are the ten most common color-describing words used in all human languages and cultures. Komar and Melamid’s interesting tongue-in-cheek
Internet study (www.diacenter.org/km/index.html) has determined that
the favorite color in the world is blue.
See what an image looks like to someone with glaucoma, cataracts,
macular degeneration, or a color deicit:
www.vischeck.com/examples
www.webaim.org
Chapter 3 Images
Computerized Color
Because the eye’s receptors are sensitive to red, green, and blue light, by
adjusting combinations of these three colors, the eye and brain will interpolate the combinations of colors in between. his is the psychology, not
the physics, of color: what you perceive as orange on a computer monitor
is a combination of two frequencies of green and red light, not the actual
spectral frequency you see when you look at that namesake fruit, an orange,
in sunlight. Various color models are illustrated in Figure 3-14. Although
the eye perceives colors based upon red, green, and blue, there are actually
two basic methods of making color: additive and subtractive.
Additive Color
In the additive color method, a color is created by combining colored
light sources in three primary colors: red, green, and blue (RGB). his is
the process used for cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal (LCD), and
plasma displays. On the back of the glass face of a CRT are thousands of
phosphorescing chemical dots. hese dots are each about 0.30mm or less
in diameter (the dot pitch), and are positioned very carefully and very
close together, arranged in triads of red, green, and blue. hese dots are
bombarded by electrons that “paint” the screen at high speeds (about 60
times a second). he red, green, and blue dots light up when hit by the
electron beam. Your eye sees the combination of red, green, and blue light
and interpolates it to create all other colors. Like CRTs, LCD and plasma
screens utilize tiny red, green, and blue elements energized through tiny
transparent conductors and organized in a Cartesian grid as illustrated by
Marvin Raaijmakers and Angelo La Spina:
GLASS
LAYERS
COLOR
FILTERS
NEMATIC
MOLECULES
HORIZONTAL
FILTER
VERTICAL
FILTER
Subtractive Color
In the subtractive color method, color is created by combining colored
media such as paints or ink that absorb (or subtract) some parts of the
91
92
Multimedia: Making It Work
color spectrum of light and relect the others back to the eye. Subtractive
color is the process used to create color in printing. he printed page is
made up of tiny halftone dots of three primary colors: cyan, magenta, and
yellow (designated as CMY). Four-color printing includes black (which is
technically not a color but, rather, the absence of color). Since the letter B is
already used for blue, black is designated with a K (so four-color printing is
designated as CMYK). he color remaining in the relected part of the light
that reaches your eye from the printed page is the color you perceive.
All these factors make computerized color pretty tricky to manage.
he fact that a paint program uses RGB to create the colors on your monitor, while your printer uses CMYK to print out your image, explains the
problem of matching what you see on the screen with your printout. Highend image-editing programs such as Photoshop deal with this problem by
allowing you to calibrate your monitor with your printer.
he following chart shows the three primary additive colors and how,
when one of the primary colors is subtracted from this RGB mix, the subtractive primary color is perceived. he numbers in parentheses indicate
the amount of red, green, and blue (in that order) used to create each of
the colors in 24-bit color, which is described in the next section. A zero
indicates a lack of that primary color, while 255 is the maximum amount
of that color.
RGB Combination (R,G,B)
Perceived
Color
Red only (255,0,0)
Red
Green only (0,255,0)
Green
Blue only (0,0,255)
Blue
Red and green (blue subtracted) (255,255,0)
Yellow
Red and blue (green subtracted) (255,0,255)
Magenta
Green and blue (red subtracted) (0,255,255)
Cyan
Red, green, and blue (255,255,255)
White
None (0,0,0)
Black
Computer Color Models
Models or methodologies used to specify colors in computer terms are
RGB, HSB, HSL, CMYK, CIE, and others. Using the 24-bit RGB (red,
green, blue) model, you specify a color by setting each amount of red, green,
and blue to a value in a range of 256 choices, from 0 to 255. Eight bits of
memory are required to deine those 256 possible choices, and that has to
be done for each of the three primary colors; a total of 24 bits of memory
(8 + 8 + 8 = 24) are therefore needed to describe the exact color, which is
Chapter 3 Images
93
one of “millions” (256 × 256 × 256 = 16,777,216). When web browsers
were irst developed, the software engineers chose to represent the color
amounts for each color channel in a hexadecimal pair. Rather than using
one number between 0 and 255, two hexadecimal numbers, written in
a scale of 16 numbers and letters in the range “0123456789ABCDEF”
represent the required 8 bits (16 × 16 = 256) needed to specify the intensity of red, green, and blue. hus, in HTML, you can specify pure green as
#00FF00, where there is no red (irst pair is #00), there is maximum green
(second pair is #FF), and there is no blue (last pair is #00). he number
sign (#) speciies the value as hexadecimal.
Red
Green
Blue
Color
255 (#FF)
255 (#FF)
255 (#FF)
White (#FFFFFF)
255 (#FF)
255 (#FF)
0 (#00)
Yellow (#FFFF00)
255 (#FF)
0 (#00)
255 (#FF)
Magenta (#FF00FF)
0 (#00)
255 (#FF)
255 (#FF)
Cyan (#00FFFF)
255 (#FF)
0 (#00)
0 (#00)
Red (#FF0000)
0 (#00)
255 (#FF)
0 (#00)
Green (#00FF00)
0 (#00)
0 (#00)
255 (#FF)
Blue (#0000FF)
0 (#00)
0 (#00)
0 (#00)
Black (#000000)
In the HSB (hue, saturation, brightness) and HSL (hue, saturation,
lightness) models, you specify hue or color as an angle from 0 to 360 degrees
on a color wheel, and saturation, brightness, and lightness as percentages.
Saturation is the intensity of a color. At 100 percent saturation a color is
pure; at 0 percent saturation, the color is white, black, or gray. Lightness or
brightness is the percentage of black or white that is mixed with a color. A
lightness of 100 percent will yield a white color; 0 percent is black; the pure
color has a 50 percent lightness.
he CMYK color model is less applicable to multimedia production.
It is used primarily in the printing trade where cyan, magenta, yellow, and
black are used to print process color separations.
Color
Degrees
Red
0°
Yellow
60°
Green
120°
Cyan
180°
Blue
240°
Magenta
300°
here are many valid color
names for HTML and CSS
listed by he World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C)
that can be used in place of
#Hex values: for example,
aqua, black, blue, fuchsia,
gray, green, lime, maroon,
navy, olive, purple, red,
silver, teal, white, and yellow.
Check out www.w3.org/TR/
css3-color/#svg-color for a
full list.
94
Multimedia: Making It Work
Other color models include CIE, YIQ, YUV, and YCC. CIE describes
color values in terms of frequency, saturation, and illuminance (blue/yellow or red/green, which in turn corresponds to the color receptors in
the cones of the eye). CIE more closely resembles how human beings
perceive color, but certain devices such as scanners are unable to replicate
the process.
YIQ and YUV were developed for broadcast TV (composite NTSC).
hey are based on luminance and chrominance expressed as the amplitude
of a wave and the phase of the wave relative to some reference. Detail is
carried by luminance (black and white), so reduction in color does not
result in the loss of image deinition detail. his analog process can be
translated to a number value so that the computer can use a palette to
assign a color to a pixel.
he Photo YCC model has been developed by Kodak to provide a definition that enables consistent representation of digital color images from
negatives, slides, and other high-quality input. YCC is used for PhotoCD
images.
Macintosh System
Color Palettes
Palettes are mathematical tables that deine the color of a pixel displayed
on the screen. he most common palettes are 1, 4, 8, 16, and 24 bits deep:
Windows System
Web-Safe
Color Depth
Colors Available
1-bit
Black and white (or any two colors)
4-bit
16 colors
8-bit
256 colors (good enough for color images)
16-bit
Thousands of colors (65,536; excellent for color images)
24-bit
More than 16 million colors (16,777,216; totally
photo-realistic)
When color monitors became available for computers, managing
the computations for displaying colors severely taxed the hardware and
memory available at the time. 256-color, 8-bit images using a color lookup
table or palette were the best a computer could do. 256 default system
colors were statistically selected by Apple and Microsoft engineers (working independently) to be the colors and shades that are most “popular” in
photographic images; their two system palettes are, of course, diferent.
Web authorities also decided on a palette of 216 “web-safe” colors that
would allow browsers to display images properly on both Macintosh and
Windows computers.
Chapter 3 Images
GIF iles using 256-color palettes are saved in a lossless format. he
PNG format also uses palettes (24-bits or 32 bits if an “alpha” mask is
included for transparency), and is lossless. It was developed for the Internet
(it supports only the RGB color space) to expand GIF’s limited 256 colors
to millions of colors.
In 24-bit color systems, your computer works with three channels of
256 discrete shades of each color (red, green, and blue) represented as the
three axes of a cube. his allows a total of 16,777,216 colors (256 × 256
× 256). Just as the 44.1 kHz sampled-sound standard for CD music on
compact discs that is discussed in Chapter 4 covers the range of human
hearing, the color range ofered by 24-bit systems covers what the human
eye can sense.
Dithering
If you start out with a 24-bit scanned image that contains millions of
colors and need to reduce it to an 8-bit, 256-color image, you get the
best replication of the original image by dithering the colors in the
image. Dithering is a process whereby the color value of each pixel is
changed to the closest matching color value in the target palette, using
a mathematical algorithm. Often the adjacent pixels are also examined,
and patterns of diferent colors are created in the more limited palette
to best represent the original colors. Since there are now only 256 colors
available to represent the thousands or even millions of colors in the
original image, pixels using the 256 remaining colors are intermixed and
the eye perceives a color not in the palette, created by blending the colors
mixed together. hus any given pixel might not be mapped to its closest
palette entry, but instead to the average over some area of the image;
this average will be closer to the correct color than a substitute color
would be. How well the dithered image renders a good approximation
of the original depends upon the algorithm used and whether you allow
the image-editing program to select the best set of 256 colors from the
original image (called an adaptive palette) or force it to use a predetermined set of 256 colors (as, for example, with a System palette or
the browser-safe web palette). Figure 3-15 compares the same scanned
image dithered from millions of colors to 256 colors, 16 colors, 16 grays,
and black and white.
Dithering concepts are important to understand when you are working with bitmaps derived from RGB information or based upon diferent palettes. he palette for the image of a rose, for example, may contain
mostly shades of red with a number of greens thrown in for the stem and
leaves. he image of your pretty Delft vase, into which you want to electronically place the rose, may be mostly blues and grays. Your software will
95
To generate a palette which
is best for representing a
particular image, we support
Heckbert’s median cut algorithm. his algorithm irst
builds a three-dimensional
table (a histogram cube)
indicating how popular any
given colour in the RGB
cube is in the image being
converted. It then proceeds
to subdivide this histogram
cube (by dividing boxes in
half ) until it has created
as many boxes as there are
palette entries.
he decision as to where
to divide a box is based on
the distribution of colours
within the box. his algorithm attempts to create
boxes which have approximately equal popularity in
the image. Palette entries are
then assigned to represent
each box. here are other
methods of generating a
palette from an image, but
Heckbert’s algorithm is
generally regarded as the
best trade-of between speed
and quality.
Allan Hessenlow of
HandMade Software, makers
of Image Alchemy, describing
how an 8-bit palette is made
96
Multimedia: Making It Work
Multimedia is just another
way to transform ambiguity. here were so many
ambiguous colors in this
scan, I decided to make them
unambiguous. How do you
like the purple?
Lars Hidde, explaining why
he dithered a perfectly ine
256-color image into a 16-color
default palette
Figure 3-15 These images were dithered in Photoshop to best it the 8-bit palettes
of GIF iles (Adaptive, System, or Custom 216 Netscape). Also shown are JPEG iles
compressed with highest and lowest quality and their actual ile sizes. The iles were
then displayed using a browser at 16-bit and then 8-bit color depth. Note the subtle
diferences among palettes and systems, especially in the gradient blue background.
Gradients do not usually dither well into 8-bit palettes.
use a dithering algorithm to ind the 256 color shades that best represent
both images, generating a new palette in the process.
Dithering software is usually built into image-editing programs and is
also available in many multimedia authoring systems as part of the application’s palette management suite of tools.
Chapter 3 Images
97
Image File Formats
Most applications on any operating system can manage JPEG, GIF,
PNG, and TIFF image formats. An older format used on the Macintosh, PICT, is a complicated but versatile format developed by Apple
where both bitmaps and vector-drawn objects can live side by side. he
device-independent bitmap (DIB), also known as a BMP, is a common
Windows palette–based image ile format similar to PNG. PCX iles
were originally developed for use in Z-Soft MS-DOS paint packages;
these iles can be opened and saved by almost all MS-DOS paint software and desktop publishing software. TIFF, or Tagged Interchange File
Format, was designed to be a universal bitmapped image format and
is also used extensively in desktop publishing packages. Often, applications use a proprietary ile format to store their images. Adobe creates
a PSD ile for Photoshop and an AI ile for Illustrator; Corel creates a
CDR ile. DXF was developed by AutoDesk as an ASCII-based drawing
interchange ile for AutoCAD, but the format is used today by many
computer-aided design applications. IGS (or IGES, for Initial Graphics
Exchange Standard) was developed by an industry committee as a
broader standard for transferring CAD drawings. hese formats are also
used in 3-D rendering and animation programs.
JPEG, PNG, and GIF images are the most common bitmap formats
used on the Web and may be considered cross-platform, as all browsers
will display them. Adobe’s popular PDF (Portable Document File) ile
manages both bitmaps and drawn art (as well as text and other multimedia
content), and is commonly used to deliver a “inished product” that contains multiple assets.
First Person
I needed to get about 40 bitmap
iles from the Macintosh to the
Sun SPARCstation. “Piece of cake,” I
said. “Give me a few minutes.” The
network hadn’t gone down in three
days, and we were connected at
broadband speeds. Well, the iles
had been saved in native Photoshop format on the Macintosh. So I
launched Photoshop, opened each
ile, and then saved it in PICT format.
The translator program I wanted to
use to convert Macintosh PICT iles
to Sun raster iles was an MS-DOS
application, so I renamed all the
Macintosh iles to it the DOS eightplus-three-character ilename convention. Then I cranked up the PC,
launched the translator, and batchprocessed all of the iles into RAS
iles using the network. The 40 new
iles were now on the Macintosh,
mixed in with the original PICTs. I
collected the needed raster iles into
a single folder on the Macintosh and
then sent the whole thing over to
the Sun.
A few minutes? The process kept
three chairs warm for about
two hours.
Chapter 3 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
■
he image’s bit-depth determines the number of
colors that can be displayed by an individual pixel.
Work out your graphical approach by planning
your approach, organizing your tools, and coniguring your computer workspace
■
You can grab a bitmap image from a screen, scan
it with a scanner, download it from a web site, or
capture it from a video capture device.
■
You can then manipulate and adjust many of its
properties, and cut and paste among many bitmaps
using specialized image-editing or “darkroom”
programs.
■
Vector images are most appropriate for lines,
boxes, circles, polygons, and other graphic shapes
that can be mathematically expressed in angles,
coordinates, and distances.
■
A vector object can be illed with color and
patterns, and you can select it as a single object.
■
Vector-drawn objects use a fraction of the
memory space required to describe and store the
same object in bitmap form.
■
Most drawing programs can export a vector
drawing as a bitmap.
■
Converting bitmaps to vector-drawn objects
is diicult; however, autotracing programs can
compute the boundaries of shapes and colors in
bitmapped images and then derive the polygon
object that describes those bounds.
■
For 3-D, the depth (z dimension) of cubes and
spheres must be calculated and displayed so that
the perspective of the rendered object seems
correct to the eye.
■
What you see on a multimedia computer screen
is the viewer’s primary connection to all of your
project’s content.
■
Work out your graphic approach before you begin,
either in your head or during creative sessions with
your client or colleagues.
■
■
■
To get a handle on any multimedia project, start
with pencil, eraser, and paper. Outline your project
and your graphic ideas irst: make a lowchart;
storyboard the project using stick igures; use
three-by-ive index cards and shule them until
you get it right.
Most authoring systems provide simple tools
for creating the graphic objects directly on your
screen. Most can also import objects from other
applications.
Multimedia designers employ a variety of applications and tools to accomplish many specialized
tasks.
Diferentiate among bitmap, vector, and 3-D
images and describe the capabilities and limitations of all three
■
Bitmaps are an image type most appropriate for
photo-realistic images and complex drawings
requiring ine detail.
■
■
Limitations of bitmapped images include large
iles sizes and the inability to scale or resize the
image easily while maintaining quality.
Objects and elements in 3-D space carry with
them properties such as shape, color, texture,
shading, and location.
■
■
A bitmap is a simple information matrix
describing the individual dots of an image, called
pixels.
To model an object that you want to place into
your scene, you must start with a shape.
■
When you extrude a plane surface, it extends its
shape some distance, either perpendicular to the
shape’s outline or along a deined path.
98
■
When you lathe a shape, a proile of the shape
is rotated around a deined axis (you can set the
direction) to create the 3-D object.
■
Rendering is when the computer inally uses
intricate algorithms to apply the efects you have
speciied on the objects you have created.
Describe the use of colors and palettes in
multimedia
■
Color is the frequency of a light wave within the
narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum to
which the human eye responds.
■
Diferent cultures associate certain colors with
diferent meanings.
■
For 8-bit GIF images, the computer uses a palette
of 256 colors to determine which colors to display.
■
Dithering is a process whereby the color value of
each pixel is changed to the closest matching color
value in the target palette, using a mathematical
algorithm.
■
If you are using a specialized application to make
bitmaps or drawings, make sure your multimedia
authoring package can import the image iles you
produce, and that your application can export such
a ile.
Cite the various ile types used in multimedia
■
GIF and PNG images use palettes of colors.
■
Windows uses device-independent bitmaps
(DIBs) as its common image ile format, usually
written as BMP iles.
■
TIFF, or Tagged Interchange File Format, was
designed to be a universal bitmapped image
format and is also used extensively in desktop
publishing packages.
■
For handling drawn objects across many
platforms, there are two common formats: DXF
and IGS. JPEG and GIF images are the most
common bitmap formats used on the Web and
may be considered cross-platform, as all browsers
will display them.
■ Key Terms
additive color (91)
autotracing (82)
Bézier (81)
binary (71)
bit (71)
bitmap (70)
BMP (97)
Cartesian coordinates (80)
CIE (92)
clipboard (77)
CMYK (92)
device-independent bitmap
(DIB) (97)
dithering (95)
dot pitch (91)
DXF (97)
extrude (85)
lare (85)
GIF (71)
hexadecimal (93)
HSB (92)
HSL (92)
hue (90)
IGS or IGES (Initial Graphics
Exchange Standard) (97)
JPEG (71)
lathe (85)
modeling (84)
morphing (77)
object (84)
palette (94)
PCX (97)
pel (72)
PICT (97)
pixel (72)
pixelation (82)
PNG (71)
primitive (85)
property (84)
quantum theory (88)
real estate (69)
rendering (86)
RGB (91)
rotated (85)
ROY G. BIV (88)
scene (84)
shading (86)
shape (85)
subtractive color (91)
SVG (Scalable Vector
Graphics)(81)
texture (85)
TIFF (97)
vector (80)
vector-drawn (70)
YCC (94)
YIQ (94)
YUV (94)
z dimension (84)
99
■ Key Term Quiz
1. he working area of a computer display is sometimes called _______________.
2. he type of image used for photo-realistic images and for complex drawings requiring ine detail is the
_______________.
3. he type of image used for lines, boxes, circles, polygons, and other graphic shapes that can be
mathematically expressed in angles, coordinates, and distances is the _______________.
4. he picture elements that make up a bitmap are called _______________.
5. _______________ allows you to smoothly blend two images so that one image seems to melt into the next.
6. he process that computes the bounds of the shapes of colors within a bitmap image and then derives the
polygon object that describes that image is called _______________.
7. _______________ is when the computer uses intricate algorithms to apply the efects you have speciied
on the objects you have created for a inal 3-D image.
8. ________________ is the blocky, jagged look resulting from too little information in a bitmapped image.
9. A collection of color values available for display is called a _______________.
10. _______________ is a process whereby the color value of each pixel is changed to the closest matching
color value in the target palette, using a mathematical algorithm.
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. What is the best way to start creating your
project’s interface?
a. Start with pencil, eraser, and paper.
b. Outline your project and graphic ideas.
c. Storyboard using stick igures.
d. Use three-by-ive index cards and shule
them.
e. All of the above
2. Which image ile type is best for photographs?
a. vector
b. encapsulated PostScript
c. bitmap
d. Shockwave
e. laser
3. A 24-bit image is capable of representing how
many diferent colors?
a. 2
b. 16
c. 256
d. 65,536
e. 16,772,216
100
4. Vector-drawn objects are used for all of the
following except:
a. lines
b. circles
c. polygons
d. photographs
e. boxes
5. “Unlimited use” of stock photography may
actually impose a limitation on:
a. the number of units you can distribute
without paying more.
b. the number of changes you can make to the
image.
c. converting the image to another ile format.
d. the ilters you may use to alter the image.
e. the price you can charge for your product.
6. Name the area of memory where data such as
text and images is temporarily stored when you
cut or copy within an application.
a. scrapbook
b. notepad
c. junkyard
d. iledump
e. clipboard
7. Perhaps the single most signiicant advance in
computer image processing during the late 1980s
was the development of:
a. digital cameras
b. 3-D modeling programs
c. image-editing programs
d. scanners
e. electronic crayons
8. When an image created on a Macintosh is
viewed on a PC:
a. it appears darker and richer because the
values have changed
b. it appears lighter and less saturated because
the values have changed
c. it appears darker and richer even though the
values have not changed
d. it appears lighter and less saturated even
though the values have not changed
e. it appears exactly the same
9. Graphic artists designing for print media use
vector-drawn objects because:
a. they can contain more subtle variations in
shading than bitmap graphics
b. printing inks respond better to them
c. they can be converted across platforms more
easily
d. they can be scaled to print at any size
e. they can be viewed directly in Web browsers
10. he 3-D process of extending a plane surface
some distance, either perpendicular to the shape’s
outline or along a deined path, is called:
a. lathing
b. rendering
c. modeling
d. extruding
e. skinning
11. A GIF image may contain:
a. 8 bits of color information per pixel
b. 16 bits of color information per pixel
c. 24 bits of color information per pixel
d. 32 bits of color information per pixel
e. 48 bits of color information per pixel
12. Which of these is the correct HTML
hexadecimal representation of magenta (red +
blue)?
a. 00GGHH
b. #FF00FF
c. 255,0,255
d. %R100-%G0-%B100
e. <color = “magenta”>
13. Which of the following is not a color speciication
format?
a. RGB
b. HSB
c. GIF
d. CMYK
e. CIE
14. Which of the following is not a native Windows
graphics ile format?
a. BMP
b. RIFF
c. TIFF
d. PCX
e. PICT
15. TIFF stands for:
a. Transitional Image File Format
b. Total Inclusion File Format
c. Tagged Interchange File Format
d. Temporary Instruction File Format
e. Table Index File Format
■ Essay Quiz
1. Discuss the diference between bitmap and vector graphics. Describe ive diferent graphic elements you
might use in a project, for example, the background, buttons, icons, or text. Would you use a vector tool or
a bitmap tool for each element? Why?
2. You are assigned to create an interface that will look good across platforms. What is the diference between
images as shown on a Macintosh and PC? How would you deal with this problem?
101
3. List several simple geometric shapes. If you have a 3-D modeling program available, using these shapes,
extrude or lathe them to create various objects, such as a teapot, a tree, a car, a table, or a lamp. hink of
some other objects. How would you use the simple geometric shapes (called “primitives” ) to create the
3-D object?
4. You are a designer given the task of creating a web site for a new division of your company. Start by
deining the characteristics of the customers of the company and the kind of image the company wishes to
present to its customers. hen specify a color palette to be used for the design of the site. Defend your color
choices by discussing the associations people have with the colors and how they relate to your customers
and the company’s image.
Lab Projects
■Project 3.1
Select ive diferent web pages, each from a diferent web site. Select pages that contain lots of colors and images,
both photographs and graphics. View the ive diferent pages on both a Macintosh and PC screen, preferably
side by side, as well as on more than one computer on the same platform (for example, one Mac, two Windows
computers). Note the diferences in how each page appears across platforms and across screens. For each page,
write a paragraph describing how they difer in terms of color tone, saturation, and any other characteristics that
you notice.
■Project 3.2
Using the capture tool built into the operating system or another dedicated tool, capture and save ive diferent
screens. Use the tools to save the entire screen, areas of the screen, the frontmost window, an image with a menu
pulled down, and an image with the cursor (some capture programs may not be able to capture all these diferent
types of images). Save the iles and print them out.
■Project 3.3
Download three diferent images from a web site. One should be photographic, one should be a graphic (solid
colors or gradients), and one should be a mix. Convert the images to 256 colors. Use the tools available to use
diferent dithering patterns and palettes. Print out the iles before and after reducing to 256 colors. Write the
ile sizes on each one. Use an image-editing program to compare the efects of applying diferent palettes and
compression methods to the original images.
■Project 3.4
Visit diferent web sites. Describe the use of colors for each in subjective terms. Is each site vibrant? childish?
muted? subtle? Why? What cultural or other factors determined the color selection? Print out a page from each
site, and write a paragraph describing the colors and images used in each one.
102
■Project 3.5
Open an image in an image-editing program capable of identifying colors. Select three diferent pixels in the
image. Sample the color and write down its value in RGB, HSB, CMYK, and web (hexadecimal) color.
Point
RGB
HSB
CMYK
Hexadecimal
1
2
3
103
104
CHAPTER 4
Sound
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Describe the components
and measurements of
sound
■ Use digital audio to record,
process, and edit sound
■ Use MIDI and understand its
attributes, especially relative
to digitized audio
S
ound is perhaps the most sensuous element of multimedia. It
is meaningful “speech” in any language, from a whisper to a scream. It
can provide the listening pleasure of music, the startling accent of special
efects, or the ambience of a mood-setting background. Some feel-good
music powerfully ills the heart, generating emotions of love or otherwise
elevating listeners closer to heaven. How you use the power of sound can
make the diference between an ordinary multimedia presentation and a
professionally spectacular one. Misuse of sound, however, can wreck your
project. Try testing all 56 of your ringtones on a crowded bus: your fellow
passengers will soon wreck your day.
The Power of Sound
■ Compare and contrast the
use of MIDI and digitized
audio in a multimedia
production
■ List the important steps and
considerations in recording
and editing digital audio
■ Determine which audio ile
formats are best used in a
multimedia project
■ Cite the considerations
involved in managing audio
iles and integrating them
into multimedia projects
When something vibrates in the air by moving back and forth (such as
the cone of a loudspeaker), it creates waves of pressure. hese waves spread
like the ripples from a pebble tossed into a still pool, and when they reach
your eardrums, you experience the changes of pressure, or vibrations, as
sound. In air, the ripples propagate at about 750 miles per hour, or Mach
1 at sea level. Sound waves vary in sound pressure level (amplitude) and in
frequency or pitch. Many sound waves mixed together form an audio sea
of symphonic music, speech, or just plain noise.
Acoustics is the branch of physics that studies sound. Sound pressure levels (loudness or volume) are measured in decibels (dB); a decibel
measurement is actually the ratio between a chosen reference point on
a logarithmic scale and the level that is actually experienced. When you
quadruple the sound output power, there is only a 6 dB increase; when you
make the sound 100 times more intense, the increase in dB is not hundredfold, but only 20 dB. A logarithmic scale (seen below) makes sense
because humans perceive sound pressure levels over an extraordinarily
broad dynamic range.
0
1
10
100
1000
10000
A logarithmic scale is also used for measuring the power of earthquakes (the Richter Scale) and stellar magnitudes (a irst magnitude star is
Chapter 4 Sound
105
100 times as bright as a typical sixth magnitude star, which is at the limit
of human visual perception—magnitude 31.5 is the faintest visible light
object detectable by the Hubble Space Telescope). You can recognize logarithmic scales because they use divisions that are multipliers (1, 10, 100,
1000) instead of additions (1, 2, 3, 4).
he decibel scale, with some examples, is shown in Table 4-1; notice
the relationship between power (measured in watts) and dB.
dB
Watts
Example
195
25–40 million
Saturn rocket
170
100,000
Jet engine with afterburner
160
10,000
Turbojet engine at 7,000-pounds thrust
150
1,000
ALSETEX splinterless stun grenade
140
100
2 JBL2226 speakers pulling 2,400 watts inside
an automobile
130
10
75-piece orchestra, at fortissimo
120
1
Large chipping hammer
110
0.1
Riveting machine
100
0.01
Automobile on highway
90
0.001
Subway train; a shouting voice
80
0.0001
Inside a 1952 Corvette at 60 mph
70
0.00001
Voice conversation; freight train 100 feet away
60
0.000001
Large department store
50
0.0000001
Average residence or small business oice
40
0.00000001
Residential areas of Chicago at night
30
0.000000001
Very soft whisper
20
0.0000000001
Sound studio
Table 4-1 Typical Sound Levels in Decibels (dB) and Watts
Sound is energy, just like the waves breaking on a sandy beach, and
too much volume can permanently damage the delicate receiving mechanisms behind your eardrums, typically dulling your hearing in the 6 kHz
range. In terms of volume, what you hear subjectively is not what you hear
objectively. he perception of loudness is dependent upon the frequency or
pitch of the sound: at low frequencies, more power is required to deliver the
same perceived loudness as for a sound at the middle or higher frequency
ranges. You may feel the sound more than hear it. For instance, when the
ambient noise level is above 90 dB in the workplace, people are likely to
make increased numbers of errors in susceptible tasks—especially when
there is a high-frequency component to the noise. When the level is above
106
Multimedia: Making It Work
80 dB, it is quite impossible to use a telephone. Experiments by researchers
in residential areas have shown that a sound generator at 45 dB produces
no reaction from neighbors; at 45 to 55 dB, sporadic complaints; at 50
to 60 dB, widespread complaints; at 55 to 65 dB, threats of community
action; and at more than 65 dB, vigorous community action, possibly more
aggressive than when you tested your ringtones on the bus. his neighborhood research from the 1950s continues to provide helpful guidelines for
practicing rock musicians and multimedia developers today.
Human hearing is less able to identify the location from which lower
frequencies are generated. In surround sound systems, subwoofers can be
placed wherever their energy is most eiciently radiated (often in a corner), but midrange speakers should be carefully placed.
here is a great deal more to acoustics than just volume and pitch. If
you are interested, many texts will explain why middle C on a cello does
not sound like middle C on a bassoon; or why a ive-year-old can hear a
1,000 Hz tone played at 20 dB, while an older adult with presbycusis (loss
of hearing sensitivity due to age) cannot. Your use of sound in multimedia
projects will not likely require highly specialized knowledge of harmonics, intervals, sine waves, notation, octaves, or the physics of acoustics and
vibration, but you do need to know how to record and edit sounds on your
computer and incorporate them into your multimedia work
Digital Audio
Digital audio is created when you represent the characteristics of a sound
wave using numbers—a process referred to as digitizing. You can digitize
sound from a microphone, a synthesizer, existing recordings, live radio and
television broadcasts, and popular CD and DVDs. In fact, you can digitize
sounds from any natural or prerecorded source.
Digitized sound is sampled sound. Every nth fraction of a second, a
sample of sound is taken and stored as digital information in bits and
bytes. he quality of this digital recording depends upon how often the
samples are taken (sampling rate or frequency, measured in kilohertz,
or thousands of samples per second) and how many numbers are used to
represent the value of each sample (bit depth, sample size, resolution, or
dynamic range). he more often you take a sample and the more data you
store about that sample, the iner the resolution and quality of the captured
sound when it is played back. Since the quality of your audio is based on
the quality of your recording and not the device on which your end user
will play the audio, digital audio is said to be device independent.
he three sampling rates most often used in multimedia are 44.1 kHz
(CD-quality), 22.05 kHz, and 11.025 kHz. Sample sizes are either 8 bits
or 16 bits. he larger the sample size, the more accurately the data will
Chapter 4 Sound
107
describe the recorded sound. An 8-bit sample size provides 256 equal measurement units to describe the level and frequency of the sound in that
slice of time. A 16-bit sample size, on the other hand, provides a staggering 65,536 equal units to describe the sound in that same slice of time. As
you can see in Figure 4-1, slices of analog waveforms are sampled at various frequencies, and each discrete sample is then stored either as 8 bits or
16 bits (or more) of data.
Figure 4-1 It is impossible to
reconstruct the original waveform if
the sampling frequency is too low.
he value of each sample is rounded of to the nearest integer
(quantization), and if the amplitude is greater than the intervals available,
clipping of the top and bottom of the wave occurs (see Figure 4-2). Quantization can produce an unwanted background hissing noise, and clipping
may severely distort the sound.
Figure 4-2 Examples of quantizing
and clipping
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Making Digital Audio Files
I have a 20-second sample
of a song which I play to my
class at 8K, 22K, 44K, and
48K, and I have the students
listen and compare quality.
hey comment that 8K does
not sound all that bad until
they hear the 44K and 48K.
hey also see (hear) very
little diference between 44K
and 48K.
Dennis Woytek, Assistant
Professor of Multimedia
Technology,
Duquesne University
Making digital audio iles is fairly straightforward on most computers.
Plug a microphone into the microphone jack of your computer. If you want
to digitize archived analog source materials—music or sound efects that
you have saved on videotape, for example—simply plug the “Line-Out” or
“Headphone” jack of the device into the “Line-In” jack on your computer.
hen use audio digitizing software such as Audacity (see Figure 4-3), to
do the work.
You should focus on two crucial aspects of preparing digital audio iles:
Balancing the need for sound quality against ile size. Higher quality
usually means larger iles, requiring longer download times on the
Internet and more storage space on a CD or DVD.
■ Setting proper recording levels to get a good, clean recording.
■
Setting Proper Recording Levels
A distorted recording sounds terrible. If the signal you feed into your
computer is too “hot” to handle, the result will be an unpleasant crackling
or background ripping noise. Conversely, recordings that are made at too
low a level are often unusable because the amount of sound recorded does
not suiciently exceed the residual noise levels of the recording process
itself. he trick is to set the right levels when you record.
Any good piece of digital audio recording and editing software will
display digital meters to let you know how loud your sound is. Watch the
meters closely during recording, and you’ll never have a problem. Unlike
analog meters that usually have a 0 setting somewhere in the middle and
extend up into ranges like +5, +8, or even higher, digital meters peak out.
To avoid distortion, do not cross over this limit. If this happens, lower your
volume (either by lowering the input level of the recording device or the
output level of your source) and try again. Try to keep peak levels between
–3 and –10. Any time you go over the peak, whether you can hear it or not,
you introduce distortion into the recording. In digital meter displays, if you
see red, you are over the peak.
Editing Digital Recordings
Once a recording has been made, it will almost certainly need to be
edited. Shown in Figure 4-3 with its special efects menu, Audacity is
a free open-source sound editing application for Windows, Macintosh,
and Linux (http://audacity.sourceforge.net). With such a tool you can
create sound tracks and digital mixes. he basic sound editing operations
that most multimedia producers need are described in the paragraphs
that follow.
Chapter 4 Sound
Figure 4-3 Audacity is an open-source, cross-platform editing tool for digitizing sound (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/).
Trimming Removing “dead air” or blank space from the front of a
recording and any unnecessary extra time of the end is your irst sound
editing task. Trimming even a few seconds here and there might make
a big diference in your ile size. Trimming is typically accomplished by
dragging the mouse cursor over a graphic representation of your recording
and choosing a menu command such as Cut, Clear, Erase, or Silence.
Splicing and Assembly Using the same tools mentioned for trimming,
you will probably want to remove the extraneous noises that inevitably
creep into a recording. Even the most controlled studio voice-overs require
touch-up. Also, you may need to assemble longer recordings by cutting
and pasting together many shorter ones. In the old days, this was done by
splicing and assembling actual pieces of magnetic tape.
Volume Adjustments If you are trying to assemble ten diferent recordings into a single sound track, there is little chance that all the segments
will have the same volume. To provide a consistent volume level, select
all the data in the ile, and raise or lower the overall volume by a certain
amount. Don’t increase the volume too much, or you may distort the ile.
It is best to use a sound editor to normalize the assembled audio ile to a
particular level, say 80 percent to 90 percent of maximum (without clipping), or about –16 dB. Without normalizing to this rule-of-thumb level,
your inal sound track might play too softly or too loudly. Even pros can
leave out this important step. Sometimes an audio CD just doesn’t seem
to have the same loudness as the last one you played, or it is too loud and
you can hear clipping. Figure 4-4 shows the normalizing process at work
in Adobe’s Soundbooth.
109
110
Multimedia: Making It Work
Figure 4-4 Normalizing evens out the sound level in an audio ile.
Format Conversion In some cases, your digital audio editing software might read a format diferent from that read by your presentation
or authoring program. Most sound editing software will save iles in your
choice of many formats, most of which can be read and imported by multimedia authoring systems. Data may be lost when converting formats. If,
for example, you have a Digital Rights Management (DRM)–protected
M4P ile downloaded from the iTunes store and burn that ile to an Audio
CD track, the DRM data will be lost because the Audio CD format does
not provide for DRM data. he now-unprotected tune on the CD can
then be ripped into a playable MP3 format.
Resampling or Downsampling If you have recorded and edited your
sounds at 16-bit sampling rates but are using lower rates and resolutions in
your project, you must resample or downsample the ile. Your software
will examine the existing digital recording and work through it to reduce
the number of samples. his process may save considerable disk space.
Fade-ins and Fade-outs Most programs ofer enveloping capability,
useful for long sections that you wish to fade in or fade out gradually. his
enveloping helps to smooth out the very beginning and the very end of a
sound ile.
Equalization Some programs ofer digital equalization (EQ) capabilities that allow you to modify a recording’s frequency content so that it
sounds brighter (more high frequencies) or darker (low, ominous rumbles).
Chapter 4 Sound
Time Stretching Advanced programs let you alter the length (in time)
of a sound ile without changing its pitch. his feature can be very useful,
but watch out: most time-stretching algorithms will severely degrade the
audio quality of the ile if the length is altered more than a few percent in
either direction.
Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Some programs allow you to process
the signal with reverberation, multitap delay, chorus, lange, and other special efects using digital signal processing (DSP) routines.
Being able to process a sound source with efects can greatly add to a
project. To create an environment by placing the sound inside a room, a hall,
or even a cathedral can bring depth and dimension to a project. But a little
can go a long way—do not overdo the sound efects!
TIP Once a sound efect is processed and mixed onto a track, it cannot be
further edited, so always save the original so that you can tweak it again if you are
not happy.
Reversing Sounds Another simple manipulation is to reverse all or a
portion of a digital audio recording. Sounds, particularly spoken dialog,
can produce a surreal, otherworldly efect when played backward.
Multiple Tracks Being able to edit and combine multiple tracks (for
sound efects, voice-overs, music, etc.) and then merge the tracks and
export them in a “inal mix” to a single audio ile is important.
File Size vs. Quality
Remember that the sampling rate determines the frequency at which
samples will be taken for the recording. Sampling at higher rates (such
as 44.1 kHz or 22.05 kHz) more accurately captures the high-frequency
content of your sound. Audio resolution (such as 8- or 16-bit) determines the accuracy with which a sound can be digitized. Using more
bits for the sample size yields a recording that sounds more like its
original.
WARNING
The higher the sound quality, the larger your file will be.
Stereo recordings are more lifelike and realistic because human beings
have two ears. Mono recordings are ine but tend to sound a bit “lat” and
uninteresting when compared with stereo recordings. Logically, to record
stereo you need two microphones (left and right), and the sound ile generated will require twice as much storage space as the mono ile for the same
length of play time.
111
112
Multimedia: Making It Work
Table 4-2 provides some commonly used sampling rates and resolutions, with resulting ile sizes.
Sampling
Rate
Resolution
Stereo
or
Mono
Bytes
Needed
for 1
Minute
Comments
44.1 kHz
16-bit
Stereo
10.5MB
CD-quality recording; the recognized standard of audio quality.
44.1 kHz
16-bit
Mono
5.25MB
A good trade-of for high-quality recordings of mono sources
such as voice-overs.
44.1 kHz
8-bit
Stereo
5.25MB
Achieves highest playback quality on low-end devices such as
most of the sound cards in Windows PCs.
44.1 kHz
8-bit
Mono
2.6MB
An appropriate trade-of for recording a mono source.
22.05 kHz
16-bit
Stereo
5.25MB
Darker sounding than CD-quality recording because of the lower
sampling rate, but still full and “present” because of high bit resolution and stereo. Preferred for CD-ROM projects.
22.05 kHz
16-bit
Mono
2.5MB
Not a bad choice for speech, but better to trade some idelity for a
lot of disk space by dropping down to 8-bit.
22.05 kHz
8-bit
Stereo
2.6MB
A popular choice for reasonable stereo recording where full bandwidth playback is not possible.
22.05 kHz
8-bit
Mono
1.3MB
A thinner sound than the previous choice, but very usable. Any
Macintosh or any MPC can play back this type of ile. About as
good as listening to your TV set.
11 kHz
8-bit
Stereo
1.3MB
At this low a sampling rate, there are few advantages to using
stereo.
11 kHz
8-bit
Mono
650KB
In practice, probably as low as you can go and still get usable
results; very dark and muled.
5.5 kHz
8-bit
Stereo
650KB
Stereo not efective.
5.5 kHz
8-bit
Mono
325KB
About as good as a bad telephone connection.
Table 4-2 One-Minute Digital Audio Recordings at Common Sampling Rates and Resolutions
TIP The only reason to digitize audio at a higher speciication than can be
used by the target playback device is for archiving it. As playback technologies
and bandwidth improve over time, you may wish (someday) for higher-quality
original iles when you upgrade a product. Save the originals!
Consumer-grade audio compact discs provide stereo at a sampling
rate of 44.1 kHz and 16-bit resolution. Sound studios using high-end
equipment digitally record and edit performances at much higher sampling rates and depths than this target distribution platform, and the inal
mix is downsampled before mass replication.
Chapter 4 Sound
Audiophiles (listeners seriously interested in perfect sound reproduction) have driven a small market for very high-end equipment that
can play back SACD (Super Audio CD) or DVD-Audio formats written on special audio-only DVDs that require dedicated players and a
system with as many as ive full-frequency speakers and a subwoofer.
his sound is typically sampled at a depth of 24 bits and frequency of
96 kHz. It is said by some that, while the limit of human hearing may
be about 21 kHz, the unheard higher frequency harmonics (easily heard
by dogs to 60 kHz, bats to 120 kHz, and dolphins to 150 kHz) “lood”
the brain with pleasure-causing endorphins and lead to a fuller sensory
experience.
Here are the formulas for determining the size (in bytes) of a digital
recording. For a monophonic recording:
sampling rate * duration of recording in seconds * (bit resolution / 8) * 1
For a stereo recording:
sampling rate * duration of recording in seconds * (bit resolution / 8) * 2
(Remember, sampling rate is measured in kHz, or thousand samples per
second, so to convert from kHz to a whole number, you must multiply by
1,000. Resolution is measured in bits per sample. Since there are 8 bits in
a byte, you have to divide the bit resolution by 8.) hus the formula for a
10-second recording at 22.05 kHz, 8-bit resolution would be
22050 * 10 * 8 / 8 * 1
which equals 220,500 bytes. A 10-second stereo recording at 44.1 kHz,
16-bit resolution (meeting the CD-quality Red Book Audio standards—an
international recording standard discussed later in this chapter) would be
44100 * 10 * 16 / 8 * 2
which equals 1,764,000 bytes. A 40-second mono recording at 11 kHz,
8-bit resolution would be
11000 * 40 * 8 / 8 * 1
which equals 440,000 bytes.
Fortunately, for hard disk storage requirements at least, and for ringtone iles sent over a mobile phone, user expectations of audio quality
are somewhat lower than for Grammy Award–winning recordings. (See
Vaughan’s Law of Multimedia Minimums later in this chapter.)
MIDI Audio
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a communications standard developed in the early 1980s for electronic musical instruments and
113
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Multimedia: Making It Work
computers. It allows music and sound synthesizers from diferent manufacturers to communicate with each other by sending messages along cables
connected to the devices. MIDI provides a protocol for passing detailed
descriptions of a musical score, such as the notes, the sequences of notes,
and the instrument that will play these notes. But MIDI data is not digitized sound; it is a shorthand representation of music stored in numeric
form. Digital audio is a recording, MIDI is a score—the irst depends
on the capabilities of your sound system, the other on the quality of your
musical instruments and the capabilities of your sound system.
A MIDI ile is a list of time-stamped commands that are recordings of musical actions (the pressing down of a piano key or a sustain
pedal, for example, or the movement of a control wheel or slider). When
sent to a MIDI playback device, this results in sound. A concise MIDI
message can cause a complex sound or sequence of sounds to play on an
instrument or synthesizer; so MIDI iles tend to be signiicantly smaller
(per second of sound delivered to the user) than equivalent digitized
waveform iles.
Composing your own original score can be one of the most creative
and rewarding aspects of building a multimedia project, and MIDI is the
quickest, easiest, and most lexible tool for this task. Yet creating an original MIDI score is hard work. Knowing something about music, being
able to play a keyboard, and having a lot of good ideas are just the prerequisites to building a good score; beyond that, it takes time and musical
skill to work with MIDI.
Happily, you can always hire someone to do the job for you. In addition to the talented MIDI composers who charge substantial rates for
their services, many young composers are also available who want to get
into multimedia. With a little research, you can often ind a MIDI musician to work for limited compensation. Remember, however, that you often
get what you pay for.
he process of creating MIDI music is quite diferent from digitizing existing recorded audio. If you think of digitized audio as analogous
to a bitmapped graphic image (both use sampling of the original analog
medium to create a digital copy), then MIDI is analogous to structured
or vector graphics (both involve instructions provided to software to be
able to re-create the original on the ly). For digitized audio you simply
play the audio through a computer or device that can digitally record the
sound. To make MIDI scores, however, you will need notation software
(see Figure 4-5), sequencer software (see Figure 4-6), and a sound
synthesizer (typically built into the software of multimedia players in
most computers and many handheld devices). A MIDI keyboard is also
useful for simplifying the creation of musical scores.
Chapter 4 Sound
115
Figure 4-5 Notation and composition software such as Sibelius provides a way for composers and musicians to create and
arrange scores using MIDI instruments.
Figure 4-6 Sequencer software such as Pro Tools allows you to record, edit, and save music generated from a MIDI keyboard or
instruments and blend it with digital audio.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Rather than recording the sound of a note, MIDI software creates data
about each note as it is played on a MIDI keyboard (or another MIDI
device)—which note it is, how much pressure was used on the keyboard to
play the note, how long it was sustained, and how long it takes for the note
to decay or fade away, for example. his information, when played back
through a MIDI device, allows the note to be reproduced exactly. Because
the quality of the playback depends upon the end user’s MIDI device
rather than the recording, MIDI is device dependent. he sequencer
software quantizes your score to adjust for timing inconsistencies (a great
feature for those who can’t keep the beat), and it may also print a neatly
penned copy of your score to paper.
An advantage of structured data such as MIDI is the ease with which
you can edit the data. Let’s say you have a piece of music being played on a
honky-tonk piano, but your client decides he wants the sound of a soprano
saxophone instead. If you had the music in digitized audio, you would have
to re-record and redigitize the music. When it is in MIDI data, however,
there is a value that designates the instrument to be used for playing back
the music. To change instruments, you just change that value. Instruments
that you can synthesize are identiied by a General MIDI numbering system that ranges from 0 to 127 (see Table 4-3). Until this system came
along, there was always a risk that a MIDI ile originally composed with,
say, piano, electric guitar, and bass, might be played back with piccolo, tambourine, and glockenspiel if the ID numbers were not precisely mapped
to match the original hardware setup. his was usually the case when you
played a MIDI ile on a MIDI coniguration diferent from the one that
recorded the ile.
ID
Sound
ID
Sound
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Acoustic grand piano
Bright acoustic piano
Electric grand piano
Honky-tonk piano
Rhodes piano
Chorused piano
Harpsichord
Clarinet
Celesta
Glockenspiel
Music box
Vibraphone
Marimba
Xylophone
Tubular bells
Dulcimer
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Hammond organ
Percussive organ
Rock organ
Church organ
Reed organ
Accordion
Harmonica
Tango accordion
Acoustic guitar (nylon)
Acoustic guitar (steel)
Electric guitar (jazz)
Electric guitar (clean)
Electric guitar (muted)
Overdriven guitar
Distortion guitar
Guitar harmonics
Table 4-3 General MIDI Instrument Sounds
Chapter 4 Sound
ID
Sound
ID
Sound
ID
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
Acoustic bass
Electric bass (inger)
Electric bass (pick)
Fretless bass
Slap bass 1
Slap bass 2
Synth bass 1
Synth bass 2
Violin
Viola
Cello
Contrabass
Tremolo strings
Pizzicato strings
Orchestral harp
Timpani
String ensemble 1
String ensemble 2
SynthStrings 1
SynthStrings 2
Choir aahs
Voice oohs
Synth voice
Orchestra hit
Trumpet
Trombone
Tuba
Muted trumpet
French horn
Brass section
Synth brass 1
Synth brass 2
Soprano saxophone
Alto saxophone
Tenor saxophone
Baritone saxophone
Oboe
English horn
Bassoon
Clarinet
Piccolo
Flute
Recorder
Pan lute
Bottle blow
Shakuhachi
Whistle
Ocarina
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
Lead 1 (Square)
Lead 2 (Sawtooth)
Lead 3 (Calliope lead)
Lead 4 (Chif lead)
Lead 5 (Charang)
Lead 6 (Voice)
Lead 7 (Fifths)
Lead 8 (Bass + lead)
Pad 1 (New Age)
Pad 2 (Warm)
Pad 3 (Polysynth)
Pad 4 (Choir)
Pad 5 (Bowed)
Pad 6 (Metallic)
Pad 7 (Halo)
Pad 8 (Sweep)
FX 1 (Rain)
FX 2 (Soundtrack)
FX 3 (Crystal)
FX 4 (Atmosphere)
FX 5 (Brightness)
FX 6 (Goblins)
FX 7 (Echoes)
FX 8 (Sci-Fi)
Sitar
Banjo
Shamisen
Koto
Kalimba
Bagpipe
Fiddle
Shanai
Tinkle bell
Agogo
Steel drums
Wood block
Taiko drum
Melodic tom
Synth drum
Reverse cymbal
Guitar fret noise
Breath noise
Seashore
Bird tweet
Telephone ring
Helicopter
Applause
Gunshot
Percussion Keys
35
Acoustic bass drum
36
Bass drum 1
37
Side stick
38
Acoustic snare
39
Hand clap
40
Electric snare
41
Low-loor tom
42
Closed high-hat
43
High-loor tom
44
Pedal high-hat
45
Low tom
46
Open high-hat
47
Low-mid tom
48
High-mid tom
49
Crash cymbal 1
50
High tom
51
Ride cymbal 1
52
Chinese cymbal
53
Ride bell
54
Tambourine
55
Splash cymbal
56
Cowbell
57
Crash cymbal 2
58
Vibraslap
59
Ride cymbal 2
60
High bongo
61
Low bongo
62
Mute high conga
63
Open high conga
64
Low conga
65
High timbale
66
Low timbale
67
High agogo
68
Low agogo
69
Cabasa
70
Maracas
71
Short whistle
72
Long whistle
73
Short guiro
74
Long guiro
75
Claves
76
High wood block
77
Low wood block
78
Mute cuica
79
Open cuica
80
Mute triangle
81
Open triangle
Table 4-3 General MIDI Instrument Sounds (Continued)
Sound
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Multimedia: Making It Work
TIP
Making MIDI iles is as complex as recording good sampled iles; so it often
pays to ind someone already set up with the equipment and skills to create your
score, rather than investing in the hardware, software, and the learning curve.
Once you have gathered your audio material, you will need to edit it to precisely it
your multimedia project. As you edit, you will continue to make creative decisions.
Because it is so easy to edit MIDI data, you can make many ine adjustments to
your music as you go along.
Since MIDI is device dependent and the quality of consumer MIDI
playback hardware varies greatly, MIDI’s true place in multimedia work
may be as a production tool rather than a delivery medium. MIDI is by far
the best way to create original music, so use MIDI to get the lexibility and
creative control you want. hen, once your music is completed and its your
project, lock it down for delivery by turning it into digital audio data.
In addition to describing the instrument and the note, MIDI data
can also describe the envelope of the sound: the attack (how quickly a
sound’s volume increases), the sustain (how long the sound continues),
and the decay (how quickly the sound fades away).
TIP
Test your MIDI iles thoroughly by playing them back on a variety of hardware devices or with diferent MIDI players before you incorporate them into your
multimedia project. Windows Media Player and QuickTime will play MIDI on your
computer.
MIDI vs. Digital Audio
In contrast to MIDI data, digital audio data is the actual representation of
a sound, stored in the form of thousands of individual numbers (samples).
he digital data represents the instantaneous amplitude (or loudness) of a
sound at discrete slices of time. MIDI data is to digital audio data what
vector or drawn graphics are to bitmapped graphics. hat is, MIDI data
is device dependent; digital data is not. Just as the appearance of vector
graphics difers depending on the printer device or display screen, the
sounds produced by MIDI music iles depend on the particular MIDI
device used for playback. Similarly, a roll of perforated player-piano score
played on a concert grand would sound diferent than if played on a honkytonk piano. Digital data, on the other hand, produces sounds that are more
or less identical regardless of the playback system. he MIDI standard lets
instruments communicate in a well-understood language.
MIDI has several advantages over digital audio and two huge disadvantages. First, the advantages:
■
MIDI iles are much more compact than digital audio iles, and the
size of a MIDI ile is completely independent of playback quality. In
Chapter 4 Sound
■
■
■
■
general, MIDI iles will be 200 to 1,000 times smaller than CD-quality
digital audio iles. Because MIDI iles are small, they don’t take up as
much memory, disk space, or bandwidth.
Because they are small, MIDI iles embedded in web pages load and
play more quickly than their digital equivalents.
In some cases, if the MIDI sound source you are using is of high quality, MIDI iles may sound better than digital audio iles.
You can change the length of a MIDI ile (by varying its tempo) without changing the pitch of the music or degrading the audio quality.
MIDI data is completely editable—right down to the level of an individual note. You can manipulate the smallest detail of a MIDI composition (often with submillisecond accuracy) in ways that are impossible
with digital audio.
Because they represent the pitch and length of notes, MIDI iles can
generally be converted to musical notation, and vice versa. his is useful when you need a printed score; in reverse, you can scan a printed
score and convert it to MIDI for tweaking and editing.
Now for MIDI’s disadvantages:
Because MIDI data does not represent sound but musical instruments,
you can be certain that playback will be accurate only if the MIDI playback device is identical to the device used for production. Imagine the
emotional humming chorus from Madame Butterfly sung by a chorus of
Budweiser frogs—same score, wrong instrument. Even with the General
MIDI standard (see the General MIDI table of instrument sounds in
Table 4-3), the sound of a MIDI instrument varies according to the electronics of the playback device and the sound generation method it uses.
■ Also, MIDI cannot easily be used to play back spoken dialog, although
expensive and technically tricky digital samplers are available.
■
In general, use MIDI in the following circumstances:
Digital audio won’t work because you don’t have enough memory or
bandwidth.
■ You have a high-quality MIDI sound source.
■ You have complete control over the machines on which your program
will be delivered, so you know that your users will have high-quality
MIDI playback hardware.
■ You don’t need spoken dialog.
■
he most important advantage of digital audio is its consistent playback quality, but this is where MIDI is the least reliable! With digital
audio you can be more conident that the audio track for your multimedia
project will sound as good in the end as it did in the beginning when you
created it. For this reason, it’s no surprise that digital audio is used far more
frequently than MIDI data for multimedia sound delivery.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
here are two additional and often more compelling reasons to work
with digital audio:
A wider selection of application software and system support for
digital audio is available for both the Macintosh and Windows
platforms.
■ he preparation and programming required for creating digital audio
do not demand knowledge of music theory, while working with MIDI
data usually does require a modicum of familiarity with musical scores,
keyboards, and notation, as well as audio production.
■
In general, use digital audio in the following circumstances:
You don’t have control over the playback hardware.
■ You have the computing resources and bandwidth to handle digital
iles.
■ You need spoken dialog.
■
Multimedia System Sounds
You can use sound right of the bat on your computer because beeps and
warning sounds are available as soon as you install the operating system.
Open the Sound Control Panel to listen to your system sounds, change
them, or make a new, custom sound (see Figure 4-7).
In Windows, system sounds are WAV iles, and they reside in the
Windows\Media subdirectory. System event sounds include start.wav,
chimes.wav, chord.wav, ding.wav, logof.wav, notify.wav, recycle.wav, tada.
wav, and the Microsoft sound.wav that typically plays when Windows
starts up.
As you can see in Figure 4-7, you can assign these sounds to system
events such as Windows startup, warnings from other applications, or
clicks outside of an open dialog box (which causes the default beep in
Windows). And you can create schemes of sounds and select a particular
scheme according to your mood. You can also add your own sound iles and
install them so they play when system events occur: place the WAV sound
iles into your ~\Windows\Media directory and use the Sound Control
Panel to select them.
In OS X on a Macintosh, you can only change your system alert sound.
Put your custom sound ile (in AIF format) into ~/System/Library/Sounds,
then select it in the Sound preference pane.
TIP If you are new to computers, your irst multimedia sound experience might
be simply inding one of these system sounds in the Sound Control Panel and testing it.
Chapter 4 Sound
Figure 4-7 Sound Control Panels for Macintosh and Windows
Audio File Formats
When you create multimedia, it is likely that you will deal with ile formats
and translators for text, sounds, images, animations, or digital video clips.
A sound ile’s format is simply a recognized methodology for organizing
and (usually) compressing the digitized sound’s data bits and bytes into a
data ile. he structure of the ile must be known, of course, before the data
can be saved or later loaded into a computer to be edited and/or played as
sound. he ile name extension identiies which method of storage is used.
here are many ways to store the bits and bytes that describe a sampled waveform sound. he method used for consumer-grade music CDs
is Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM), often shortened to PCM. An
audio CD provides up to 80 minutes of playing time, which is enough
for a slow-tempo rendition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Incidentally,
being able to contain Beethoven’s Ninth is reported to have been Philips’s
and Sony’s actual size criterion during early research and development for
determining the length of the sectors and ultimately the physical size of
the compact disc format itself. he CD-ROM/XA (extended architecture) format for reading and writing CDs was developed later so you
could put several recording sessions of music or data onto a single CD-R
(recordable) disc. LPCM tracks from an audio CD are usually converted
and stored on a computer in uncompressed AIFF (Audio Interchange File
Format) or wave format (WAV) iles when copied from the CD.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
AIFF is historically used for Macintosh sound iles. he WAV format was introduced by Microsoft when Windows was irst released. Both
formats contain uncompressed sound data. But there are huge numbers
of sound ile formats and “multimedia containers” that store sound data
(more than three hundred diferent ile name extensions are used for sound
iles), and often a converter is required to read or write sound iles in the
format you need. Hoo Technologies (www.hootech.com) ofers MP3 to
SWF, SWF/FLV to MP3, AIFF to MP3, MIDI to MP3, WMA to MP3,
WAV to MP3, and OGG to MP3 converters. heir AIFF to MP3 converter will read the following formats: 3G2, 3GP, 3GP2, 3GPP, 4XM,
AAC, AC3, ADX, AFC, AIF, AIFC, AIFF, ALAW, AMR, AMV, APE,
ASF, AU, AVI, AWB, CAF, CDA, CDATA, DIF, DIVX, DTS, DV, DVD,
DVR-MS, DXA, FLAC, FLC, FLI, FLIC, FLV, FLX, GSM, GXF, H261,
H263, H263+, H264, IT, KAR, M1A, M1V, M2A, M2TS, M2V, M4A,
M4B, M4V, MID, MIDI, MJ2, MJPEG, MJPG, MKA, MKV, MLP,
MLV, MMF, MO3, MOD, MOV, MP+, MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPA,
MPC, MPE, MPEG, MPG, MPGA, MPP, MPV, MTM, MTS, MTV,
MVI, MXF, NSA, NSV, NUT, NUV, OGA, OGG, OGM, OGV, OGX,
OMA, PSP, PSX, PVA, QCP, QT, RA, RAM, RM, RMI, RMVB, ROQ,
RPL, S3M, SDP, SHN, SMK, SND, SOL, SPX, STR, SWF, TS, TTA,
UMX, VFW, VID, VMD, VOB, VOC, VQF, W64, WAV, WAVE64, WM,
WMA, WMD, WMV, WV, XA, XM, XVID, XWMV, and YUV. And it
will output to MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, MP4, M4A (MPEG-4 Audio),
M4B (MPEG-4 AudioBook), OGG, AMR, and AWB formats. But rest
easy—you will likely only work with a handful of sound ile types.
he MP3 format was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group
(MPEG) and evolved during the 1990s into the most common method
for storing consumer audio. It incorporates a “lossy” compression algorithm to save space. An audio CD, for example, may hold an hour or so
of uncompressed LPCM sound. hat same CD, using MP3 compression,
can store almost seven hours of the same music, but with a slight loss of
quality. WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a proprietary Microsoft format developed to improve MP3. OGG was developed as an open-source
and royalty-free “container” for sound compressed using Vorbis algorithms
similar to MP3—because the Vorbis sound data resides within an Ogg
container, these audio iles are normally called “Ogg Vorbis.”
MP4 is a format based on Apple’s QuickTime movie (.mov) “container” model and is similar to the MOV format, which stores various
types of media, particularly time-based streams such as audio and video.
he mp4 extension is used when the ile streams audio and video together.
he m4a extension is used when the ile contains only audio data. M4p
iles contain only audio, but are encrypted for Digital Rights Management
(DRM). M4r iles are used for ringtones on Apple’s iPhone. Other GSM
Chapter 4 Sound
123
(Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phones use 3gp iles
for their ringtones, a format also based on the MPG container model.
he AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) format, which is part of the
MP4 model, was adopted by Apple’s iTunes store, and many music iles
are commercially available in this format. ACC is the default format for
iPod, iPhone, PlayStation, Wii, Dsi, and many mobile phones including
Motorola, Nokia, Philips, Samsung, Siemens, and Sony Ericsson. he
SWF format is a container for vector-based graphics and animations,
text, video, and sound delivered over the Internet. Typically created using
Adobe’s Flash, SWF iles require a plug-in or player be installed in the
user’s browser. Adobe claims that the Flash Player is installed in more than
98 percent of Web users’ browsers and in more than 800 million handsets
and mobile devices. Flash video iles (FLV) contain both a video stream
and an audio stream, and the FLV format has been adopted by YouTube,
Google, Yahoo, Reuters.com, BBC.com, CNN.com, and other news providers for Internet delivery of content.
TIP The most common sound formats you might use are wav, aif, aac, lv, mp3,
mp4, mov, swf, wma, ogg, or for ringtones, m4r, aac, midi, mmf, 3g2, 3gp, 3gp2,
and 3gpp. Be sure your audio software can read and write the formats you need.
A codec (compressor-decompressor) is software that compresses a
stream of audio or video data for storage or transmission, then decompresses it for playback. here are many codecs that do this with special
attention to the quality of music or voice after decompression. Some are
“lossy” and trade quality for signiicantly reduced ile size and transmission
speed; some are “lossless,” so original data is never altered. While editing
your audio iles, be sure to save your iles using a lossless format or codec—
with repetitive saves in a lossy format, you will notice a quality degradation
each time. A container format such as MP4, MOV, or OGG may encapsulate data streams that use one of many codecs available in that container.
Vaughan’s Law of Multimedia Minimums
A classic physical anthropology law (Liebig’s Law of the Minimum)
proposes that the evolution of eyesight, locomotor speed, sense of smell,
or any other species trait will cease when that trait becomes suiciently
adequate to meet the survival
requirements of the competitive
Vaughan’s Law of Multimedia Minimums
environment. If the trait is good
enough, the organism expends no
here is an acceptable minimum level of adequacy that will satisfy the
more efort improving it. hus, if
audience, even when that level may not be the best that technology,
consumer-grade electronics and
money, or time and efort can buy.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
a handheld microphone are good enough for making your sound, and if
you, your client, and your audience are all satisied with the results, conserve
your energy and money and avoid any more expenditure. And keep this
Law of Minimums in mind when you make all your trade-of decisions
involving other areas of high technology and multimedia, too.
Adding Sound to Your Multimedia Project
he original 128K Macintosh, released in January 1984, was technically
a multimedia-capable machine. It displayed bitmapped graphics (albeit
in black and white) and, more signiicantly, boasted 8-bit digital audio
capability right on the motherboard. In fact, the very irst Macintosh
actually introduced itself by voice when it was unveiled by Steve Jobs.
Here’s a little history: In order to use the Apple moniker, the original
founders of Apple Computer, Inc., worked out an arrangement with the
Beatles (yes, those Beatles). One part of that agreement stipulated that
Apple Computer, Inc., would never venture into the music business. To
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, working out of their garage in the late
1970s on a machine that could barely manage a convincing system beep,
that clause probably seemed a harmless one. Little did they know that
years later their computer and the Apple itself would become the most
popular provider of music in the world through its iTunes facility. he
company did inally pay representatives of the Beatles about $30 million
to settle the issue once and for all.
Whether you’re working on a Macintosh or in Windows, you will
need to follow certain steps to bring an audio recording into your multimedia project. Here is a brief overview of the process:
1. Determine the ile formats that are compatible with your multimedia authoring software and the delivery medium(s) you will be
using (for ile storage and bandwidth capacity).
2. Determine the sound playback capabilities (codecs and plug-ins)
that the end user’s system ofers.
3. Decide what kind of sound is needed (such as background music,
special sound efects, and spoken dialog). Decide where these audio
events will occur in the low of your project. Fit the sound cues into
your storyboard (see Chapter 10), or make up a cue sheet.
4. Decide where and when you want to use either digital audio or
MIDI data.
5. Acquire source material by creating it from scratch or purchasing it.
Chapter 4 Sound
6. Edit the sounds to it your project.
7. Test the sounds to be sure they are timed properly with the project’s
images. his may involve repeating steps 1 through 4 until everything is in sync.
When it’s time to import your compiled and edited sounds into your
project, you’ll need to know how your particular multimedia software
environment handles sound data. Each multimedia authoring program
or web browser handles sound a bit diferently, but the process is usually
fairly straightforward: just tell your software which ile you want to play
and when to play it. his is usually handled by an importing or “linking”
process during which you identify the iles to play.
Scripting languages such as revTalk (RunRev), Lingo (Director),
and ActionScript (Flash) provide a greater level of control over audio
playback, but you’ll need to know about the programming language and
environment. In multimedia authoring environments, it is usually a simple matter to play a sound when the user clicks a button, but this may
not be enough. If the user changes screens while a long ile is playing,
for example, you may need to program the sound to stop before leaving
the current screen. If the ile to be played cannot be found, you may need
to code an entire section for error handling and ile location. Sample
code is generally provided in both printed and online documentation for
software that includes sound playback. For web pages, you will need to
embed a player and point to your sound ile using HTML code.
Space Considerations
he substantial amount of digital information required for highquality sound takes up a lot of storage space, especially when the quantity is doubled for two-channel stereo. It takes about 1.94MB to store
11 seconds of uncompressed stereo sound.
If monaural sound is adequate for your project, you can cut your
storage space requirement in half or get double the playing time in the
same memory space. With compression codecs, you might be able to
store the sound in one-eighth the space, but you will lose some idelity.
Further, to conserve space you can downsample, or reduce the number
of sample slices you take in a second. Many multimedia developers use
8-bit sample sizes at 22.05 kHz sampling rates because they consider the
sound to be good enough (about the quality of AM radio), and they save
immense amounts of digital real estate.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
he following formula will help you estimate your storage needs. If
you are using two channels for stereo, double the result.
(sampling rate * bits per sample) / 8 = bytes per second
If you prefer to solve for kilobytes (KB), not bytes, then try:
sample rate * sample size / 8 * # seconds * 2 (if stereo) = file size in KB
For example, 60 seconds of stereo in Red Book Audio:
44.1 * 16 / 8 * 60 * 2 = 10,584KB ≅ 10.59MB
his is an approximate result using 1000 instead of 1024 bytes per KB,
but yielding the quick handy answer “…about ten and a half megabytes.”
You face important trade-ofs when deciding how to manage digitized
sound in your multimedia project. How much sound quality can you sacriice in order to reduce storage? What compression techniques make sense?
Will compressed sound work in your authoring platform? What is good
enough but not amateurish? Can you get away with 8 bits at 11.025 kHz
for voice mail, product testimonials, and voice-overs and then switch to
higher sampling rates for music?
Many people feel that MP3s iles sampled at 128 Kbps provide decent
audio quality for music, especially when played through small speakers. For
better quality, sample your music at 192 Kbps. Because the human voice
does not use a wide range of frequencies, you can sample speech or voice
at 96 Kbps or even 64 Kbps.
TIP The sound of the human voice comes from one point (the mouth), so there
is not much to gain by recording (or playing) it in stereo.
Audio Recording
If your project requires CD-quality digitized sound at 44.1 kHz and
16 bits, you should hire a sound studio. High-idelity sound recording is a
specialized craft, a skill learned in great part by trial and error, much like
photography. If you do decide to do it yourself at CD-quality levels, be
prepared to invest in an acoustically treated room, high-end ampliiers and
recording equipment, and expensive microphones.
As already stated, there are many trade-ofs involved in making multimedia. For example, if you are satisied with 22.05 kHz in your project or
are constrained to this rate by storage considerations, any consumer-grade
digital or analog recorder of reasonable quality will do ine. his, of course,
also applies to conversations recorded from the telephone, where a sampling rate of 11.025 kHz is adequate. Noise reduction circuits and metal
Chapter 4 Sound
With the collaboration of composer Dave Soldier, Komar & Melamid’s Most Wanted
Painting project (www.diacenter.org/km/index.html) was extended into the realm
of music. A poll, written by Dave Soldier, was conducted on Dia’s web site (www.
diacenter.org). Approximately 500 visitors took the survey. Dave Soldier and Nina
Mankin used the survey results to write music and lyrics for the Most Wanted and
Most Unwanted songs.
A Note from the Composer
his survey conirms the hypothesis that popular music indeed provides an accurate
estimate of the wishes of the vox populi. he most favored ensemble, determined
from a rating by participants of their favorite instruments in combination, comprises
a moderately sized group (three to ten instruments) consisting of guitar, piano, saxophone, bass, drums, violin, cello, synthesizer, with low male and female vocals singing
in rock/r&b style. he favorite lyrics narrate a love story, and the favorite listening
circumstance is at home. he only feature in lyric subjects that occurs in both most
wanted and unwanted categories is “intellectual stimulation.” Most participants
desire music of moderate duration (approximately 5 minutes), moderate pitch range,
moderate tempo, and moderate to loud volume, and display a profound dislike of the
alternatives. If the survey provides an accurate analysis of these factors for the population, and assuming that the preference for each factor follows a Gaussian (bellcurve) distribution, the combination of these qualities, even to the point of sensory
overload and stylistic discohesion, will result in a musical work that will be unavoidably and uncontrollably “liked” by 72 plus or minus 12 percent (standard deviation; Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic) of listeners. he most unwanted music is over
25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow
tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy
presented in abrupt transition. he most unwanted orchestra was determined to be
large and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13 percent as the most
unwanted instrument), banjo, lute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument
that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic
soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and “elevator”
music, and a children’s choir sings jingles and holiday songs. he most unwanted
subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commercials and elevator music.
herefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance—someone who dislikes
bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ,
for example—fewer than 200 individuals of the world’s total population
would enjoy this piece.
Dave Soldier, composer and musician, who provides the
Most Wanted Song and the Most Unwanted Song on a CD
at www.diacenter.org/km/musiccd.html
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Multimedia: Making It Work
tapes are helpful to remove hiss, but at a sampling rate of 22.05 kHz you
are only going to be digitizing audio frequencies as high as about 11 kHz,
anyway. Both the high and low ends of the audio hearing spectrum are
therefore less important to you, and that is OK, because those areas are
precisely the add-value focus of very elaborate and expensive consumer
equipment.
Digital audio tape (DAT) systems provide a tape-based 44.1 kHz,
16-bit record and playback capability. You may, however, ind that DAT is
high-idelity overkill for your needs, because the recordings are too accurate, precisely recording glitches, background noises, microphone pops,
and coughs from the next room. A good editor can help reduce the impact
of these noises, but at the cost of time and money.
Mobile phones can often record audio (and video), and applications
and hardware attachments are available to manage external microphones
and ile transfer. USB and lash memory recorders range in quality, some
suitable for voice only, some generating compressed MP3 iles, and some
recording in CD-quality stereo. Recordings can be directly downloaded as
digital iles using a USB cable or lash memory card reader.
Keeping Track of Your Sounds
In an elaborate project with many sounds, it is important to maintain a good
database, keeping a physical track of your original material—just in case you
need to revert to it when your disk drive crashes or you accidentally delete
the work ile. A database is particularly important because you may need
to give your sound iles such unhelpful names as janesEyesOpenWide.aif
or Chapter11inSpanish03.wav; these names contain some clues about the
iles’ actual content, but you may need a more descriptive cross-reference.
You don’t want to have to load and play many sound iles just to ind the
one you need.
Audio CDs
he method for digitally encoding the high-quality stereo of the consumer
CD music market is an international standard, called ISO 10149. his is
Chapter 4 Sound
also known as the Red Book Audio standard (derived simply from the
color of the standard’s book jacket). Developers of this standard claim
that the digital audio sample size and sampling rate of Red Book Audio
(16 bits at 44.1 kHz) allow accurate reproduction of all the sounds that
humans can hear. Until recently, dedicated professional sound-studio
equipment was used for this high-idelity recording; today most of-theshelf computers will record and play 16-bit sampled sound at 44.1 kHz and
at 48 kHz. Converter and burning software such as Toast and CD-Creator
from Roxio can translate the digital iles of Red Book Audio found on
consumer compact discs directly into a digital sound ile formats such as
MP3 or WAV.
Unlike DVDs, audio CDs do not contain information about artists,
titles, or tracklists of songs. But player software such as Apple iTunes and
AOL Winamp will automatically link to a database on the Internet when
you insert a music CD. he precise length of your CD’s Table of Contents
(TOC) is then matched against the known TOC length for more than
ive million CDs containing more than 60 million songs. When it inds a
match, the database service sends back what it knows about the CD you
inserted. he database, formerly known as the Compact Disc Database or
CDDB, was built up over the years by fans from all over the world submitting information about their favorite CDs. he database is currently maintained by Gracenote Media Recognition Service (www.gracenote.com).
Sound for Your Mobile
Ringtones are perhaps the most widely- and often-heard sounds in today’s
world. Unlike plain old telephones, where a pulsating 90-volt signal is sent
down copper wires to energize a hammer that klangs a bell, there is no
bell in a digital mobile telephone. When the mobile receives a notice that
someone is calling, the unit’s software takes over and, depending on the
programmed options, plays the user’s choice of ringtone—either generated
by internal MIDI software or played from a stored sound ile. Ringtones
play on a very small speaker and often compete in a noisy environment.
Perhaps an urban myth, it is reported that an inventive sales executive
recorded herself coughing and sent that awful sound to her phone as a
ringtone. When she received an incoming call during a meeting, she would
quickly cover her mouth, continue the cough, and excuse herself from the
room in order to take the call. Ringtones aren’t the end of it. Into the daily
lexicon have entered answertones, ringbacktones, truetones, realtones,
singtones, videotones, and “ringles.” Most are for sale from enterprising
small and large businesses all over the world. MP3 iles will play on most
mobiles; check your phone’s manual to be sure.
129
130
Multimedia: Making It Work
Sound for the Internet
here are several methods for playing digital or MIDI sound from a web
page. he sound is actually not part of the web page but is a separate ile
with its own address on the Internet, which is “embedded” in the page. Web
browsers associate iles with applications and plug-ins: Figure 4-8 shows
the Preferences panel from Firefox, which lets you specify what to do when
the browser downloads a particular ile type. he simplest way to embed a
sound ile in a web page is to call it from an inline HTML anchor:
<a href="mysound.wav"> Click here to play MySound! </a>
As an HTML anchor, the text “Click here to play MySound!” will usually be underlined, and when that link is clicked,
the browser will ind the ile mysound.wav (in this
case, in the same directory as the web page), will
download it, and, depending on how the user has
instructed the browser to manage WAV iles, will
open a player and play the sound.
Media players are designed to play iles as soon
as enough of the data is cached in your computer’s
bufer (a place where data is stored temporarily).
he downloading continues to ill the bufer faster
than you empty it by playing the sound ile, allowing the sound ile to stream into your computer
in the background, keeping ahead of what has
already been played so the playback doesn’t pause
or break up. Streaming iles are dependent upon
connection speed: you must wait longer (streaming latency) before the streamed sound begins
to play when using a dial-up modem (low bandFigure 4-8 Web browsers must be told what to do when they
width) than when using a high-speed DSL condownload ile types.
nection (high bandwidth).
TIP
See Chapter 13 for more about the HTML5 <AUDIO> tag, which can be
used to play sound on a Web page without requiring a special player or helper
application.
Adobe’s Flash allows you to integrate the sound tracks that you have
made using a sound editor into a Web-based multimedia presentation,
including both event sounds like button clicks and streaming sounds like
background music. Because it can read and save MP3 iles, Flash ofers
web designers serious and powerful options for solving the quality conundrum of high-quality (big) iles and slow downloads versus low-quality
(small) iles and speedy delivery—with nice results. Because it must break
Chapter 4 Sound
a sound into “frames” so it plays in sync with the timeline, Flash resamples
the audio track if you ask it to “stream” in a movie clip; for the best quality,
import an uncompressed audio clip into the Flash library and let Flash do
the compression.
Testing and Evaluation
Putting everything together can be tough, but testing and evaluating what
you’ve done can be even tougher—especially if your project involves a
complicated live presentation, or if you’re shipping a commercial multimedia application. Unless you plan ahead, problems will not emerge until
you begin testing.
TIP
During editing and authoring, regularly test the sound-and-image synchronization of your project. If you are delivering your sound on the Web, test it
with diferent browsers and diferent connection speeds.
Don’t forget to evaluate your sound storage medium. How much RAM
does your project need to run efectively? Some authoring and delivery
packages will stream sound directly of the hard disk or CD-ROM; others require the sound to be loaded into memory from the hard disk before
they play. Sometimes you will need to break a sound or a music ile into
smaller parts. And MIDI iles that sound terriic with expensive General
MIDI during development will not have the same quality on a low-end
FM-synthesis device at the end user’s site or on a handheld.
In the world of professional ilm and video production, sound is incorporated during post-production, or a post-session, after all the ilm and
video footage has been assembled. Just so with multimedia—and don’t give
it short shrift because of time or budget constraints. he sound track can
make or break your project!
Copyright Issues
Ownership rights are signiicant issues for multimedia producers who
would love to use a few bars of Beyonce’s latest hit or a nostalgic background of Bach suites played by Pablo Casals. Producers may rightfully fret
about copyrights and permissions. Most developers play it safe by always
making their own custom music from scratch in a sound studio, or with
synthesizers, or by using sounds that have a clear and paid-for ownership
and permission trail. Others simply take a risk and break the law.
WARNING
You are breaking the law if you record and use copyrighted
material without first securing the appropriate rights from the owner or publisher
of the material.
131
132
Multimedia: Making It Work
As more and more multimedia is produced by more and more developers who are hungry for sound content, the copyright of sounds and images
has become a major issue—not so much about who owns something, but
how much of it they own. Because it is so easy to manipulate and edit a
sound, just how much of someone’s original work do you have to change
before it then becomes your own? here are separate licensing issues for
use of a musical composition (even if you create a MIDI performance of
it yourself ) and for use of a particular recording of a musical composition
(as when you make a copy of a song downloaded from iTunes). Diferent
licensing arrangements may be required, depending upon exactly how you
use the music in diferent types of multimedia programs—from a presentation you create for a client’s annual stockholders meeting, to a musical foundation beneath a commercial application. As this suggests, music
licensing is a specialized and complicated area, so you should make sure
you have cleared all the necessary rights before using any music in a product. he Harry Fox Agency (www.harryfox.com), for example, represents
more than 27,000 music publishers and is the premier licensing resource
for the mechanical use of music reproduced in all formats and media.
Copyright issues and methods of securing permission for use (equally
relevant for sounds, still images, and motion video) are discussed in more
detail in Chapter 11.
A number of software vendors have entered the multimedia marketplace by selling digitized clip sounds with an unlimited-use, royaltyfree license. Some of these products include musical clips, and some just
include sound efects (doors closing, dogs barking, and water dripping).
Other products have a mixture of both. But beware of sources claiming
to be public domain that ofer clips of Bella Swan and Edward in the
Twilight Saga, or one-liners from Humphrey Bogart movies, because
these sounds have likely been used without permission. Also, carefully
read the licensing terms that come with any collection you purchase.
Although the box may claim that the sounds are “unlimited-use, royalty
free,” the ine print inside most likely limits their use to your personal
machine and does not include the right to use them in any commercial
use or republication in a form that would allow others to obtain them
(such as using them on a web site).
WARNING
Taking a camera or tape or video recorder to some public events
may be illegal without proper permission.
Chapter 4 Sound
133
Police Fight Cellphone Recordings
Witnesses taking audio of oicers arrested, charged with illegal surveillance
Simon Glik, a lawyer, was walking
down Tremont Street in Boston
when he saw three police oicers
struggling to extract a plastic bag
from a teenager’s mouth. Thinking
their force seemed excessive for a
drug arrest, Glik pulled out his cellphone and began recording.
Within minutes, Glik said, he was in
handcufs.
“One of the oicers asked me
whether my phone had audio
recording capabilities,’’ Glik, 33, said
recently of the incident, which took
place in October 2007. Glik acknowledged that it did, and then, he said,
“my phone was seized, and I was
arrested.’’
The charge? Illegal electronic
surveillance.
Jon Surmacz, 34, experienced a similar situation. Thinking that Boston
police oicers were unnecessarily
rough while breaking up a holiday
party in Brighton he was attending
in December 2008, he took out his
cellphone and began recording.
Police confronted Surmacz, a webmaster at Boston University. He was
arrested and, like Glik, charged with
illegal surveillance.
There are no hard statistics for
video recording arrests. But the
experiences of Surmacz and Glik
highlight what civil libertarians call
a troubling misuse of the state’s
wiretapping law to stile the kind of
street-level oversight that cellphone and video technology make
possible.
In 1968, Massachusetts became a
“two-party’’ consent state, one of 12
currently in the country. Two-party
consent means that all parties to
a conversation must agree to be
recorded on a telephone or other
audio device; otherwise, the recording of conversation is illegal. The
law, intended to protect the privacy
rights of individuals, appears to
have been triggered by a series of
high-proile cases involving private
detectives who were recording
people without their consent.
In arresting people such as Glik
and Surmacz, police are saying that
they have not consented to being
recorded, that their privacy rights
have therefore been violated, and
that the citizen action was criminal.
It took ive months for Surmacz,
with the ACLU, to get the charges of
illegal wiretapping and disorderly
conduct dismissed. Surmacz said he
would do it again.
“Because I didn’t do anything
wrong,’’ he said. “Had I recorded
an oicer saving someone’s life, I
almost guarantee you that they
wouldn’t have come up to me and
say, ‘Hey, you just recorded me saving that person’s life. You’re under
arrest.’ ’’
Excerpted from http://necir-bu.org/
wp/?page_id=1702 with permission.
The New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University is
an investigative reporting collaborative. This story was done under the
guidance of BU professors Dick Lehr
and Mitchell Zuckof.
Chapter 4 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
Describe the components and measurements
of sound
■
■
How you use the power of sound can make
the diference between an ordinary multimedia
presentation and a professionally spectacular one.
Misuse of sound, however, can wreck your project.
When something vibrates in the air by moving
back and forth, it creates waves of pressure. hese
waves spread, and when they reach your eardrums,
you experience the vibrations as sound.
■
Acoustics is the branch of physics that studies
sound.
■
Sound pressure levels (loudness or volume) are
measured in decibels (dB).
Use digital audio to record, process, and
edit sound
■
Digital audio data is the actual representation
of a sound, stored in the form of thousands of
individual samples that represent the amplitude
(or loudness) of a sound at a discrete point in time.
■
How often the samples are taken is the
sampling rate.
■
he three sampling frequencies most often used in
multimedia are CD-quality 44.1 kHz (kilohertz),
22.05 kHz, and 11.025 kHz.
■
Digital audio is not device dependent, and sounds
the same every time it is played. For this reason
digital audio is used far more frequently than
MIDI data for multimedia sound tracks.
■
You can digitize sounds from any source, live or
prerecorded.
■
he amount of information stored about each
sample is the sample size and is determined by the
134
number of bits used to describe the amplitude of
the sound wave when the sample is taken.
■
Sample sizes are either 8 bits or 16 bits.
■
he value of each sample is rounded of to the
nearest integer (quantization).
■
he preparation and programming required for
creating digital audio do not demand knowledge
of music theory.
Use MIDI and understand its attributes, especially
relative to digitized audio
■
MIDI data is not digitized sound; it is a
shorthand representation of music stored in
numeric form.
■
MIDI iles tend to be signiicantly smaller than
equivalent digitized waveform iles.
■
MIDI data is device dependent; its playback
depends on the capabilities of the end user’s
system.
■
Because they are small, MIDI iles embedded in
web pages load and play more quickly than their
digital equivalents.
■
You can change the length of a MIDI ile (by
varying its tempo) without changing the pitch of
the music or degrading the audio quality. MIDI
data is completely editable.
■
MIDI cannot easily be used to play back spoken
dialog.
■
Working with MIDI requires familiarity with
musical scores, keyboards, and notation as well as
audio production.
Compare and contrast the use of MIDI and
digitized audio in a multimedia production
■
MIDI is analogous to structured or vector
graphics, while digitized audio is analogous to
bitmapped images.
■
MIDI is device dependent, meaning the quality
of the playback is dependent upon the hardware
installed on the user’s machine, while digitized
audio is device independent.
■
Use MIDI only when you have control over the
playback hardware and know your users will be
using a high-quality MIDI device for playback.
■
MIDI iles are much smaller than digitized audio,
so they may be used for delivery of music under
the right circumstances.
■
Use digitized audio for spoken dialog.
List the important steps and considerations in
recording and editing digital audio
■
■
he ile size (in bytes) of a digital recording is
sampling rate * duration of recording in seconds *
(bit resolution / 8) * number of tracks (1 for mono,
2 for stereo).
Consumer-grade audio compact discs are recorded
in stereo at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz and a
16-bit resolution. Other sampling rates include
22.05 and 11 kHz, at either 16 or 8 bits.
■
When recording (digitizing) audio, it’s important
to keep the recording level near the maximum
without going over it.
■
Important steps in digital sound editing include
removing blank space from the start and end of a
recording and normalizing the sound to bring all
clips to approximately the same level.
■
■
he native sound ile formats for most Macintosh
sound editing software are the SND and AIF
formats, and most authoring systems will read
these formats. In Windows, the native sound ile
format for most editing software is a WAV ile.
Many audio editors provide tools such as resampling, fade-ins and -outs, equalization, time
stretching, various digital signal processing efects,
and reversing sounds.
Determine which audio ile formats are best used
in a multimedia project
■
■
he General MIDI format standardizes a set
of MIDI instruments, ensuring that the MIDI
sequence is played correctly.
■
Streaming iles begin playing when part of the ile
has been bufered into the computer’s memory
and are dependent upon connection speed.
■
Adobe’s Flash provides powerful tools for
integrating and streaming sounds, including the
MP3 format.
■
Apple’s QuickTime is a ile format that, among
other capabilities, enables digital audio to be interleaved with video information.
Cite the considerations involved in managing
audio iles and integrating them into multimedia
projects
■
Because sounds are time based, you may need to
consider what happens to sounds that are playing
in your project when the user goes to a diferent
location.
■
Appropriate use of sound requires technical
considerations of disk space or bandwidth as
well as the abilities of the authoring system
to use various ile formats and compression
algorithms.
■
Do not use equipment and standards that exceed
what your project requires.
■
Keep track of your audio iles, and be sure to back
them up.
■
Regularly test the sound-and-image synchronization of your project.
■
Evaluate your sound’s RAM requirements as well
as your users’ playback setup.
■
Be sure you understand the implications of using
copyrighted material. You are breaking the law if
you record and use copyrighted material without
irst securing the appropriate rights from the
owner or publisher.
■
You can purchase and use digitized clip sounds
with an unlimited-use, royalty-free license.
MIDI scores require sequencer software and a
sound synthesizer.
135
■ Key Terms
acoustics (104)
AIF format (120)
AIFF (121)
attack (118)
audio resolution (111)
bit depth (106)
bufer (130)
CD-quality (106)
CD-ROM/XA (extended
architecture)(121)
codec (123)
decay (118)
decibels (dB) (104)
device dependent (116)
device independent (106)
digital audio (106)
digital audio tape (DAT) (128)
digital equalization (EQ) (110)
digital signal processing
(DSP) (111)
downsample (110)
envelope (118)
General MIDI (116)
Linear Pulse Code Modulation
(LPCM) (121)
lossy (122)
MIDI (113)
MIDI keyboard (114)
MP3 (110)
MPEG (122)
normalize (109)
notation software (114)
post-production, postsession(131)
quantization (107)
QuickTime movie (.mov) (122)
Red Book Audio (129)
resample (110)
sample (106)
sample size (106)
sampling rate (106)
sequencer software (114)
SND (135)
sound synthesizer (114)
streaming (130)
streaming latency (130)
sustain (118)
time stretching (111)
wave format (WAV) (121)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. he branch of physics that studies sound is _______________.
2. Sound pressure levels (loudness or volume) are measured in _______________.
3. To adjust the level of a number of tracks to bring them all up to about the same level is to
_______________ them.
4. When audio is measured in order to be digitally stored, the value of each measurement is rounded of to
the nearest integer in a process called _______________.
5. Reducing the number of separate measurements of an audio ile is called _______________.
6. he standard ile format for displaying digitized motion video on the Macintosh is _______________.
7. he most common ile format for editing sound on the Macintosh is _______________.
8. he audio ile format introduced by Microsoft and IBM with the introduction of Windows is the
_______________.
9. he process of playing a sound ile while part of the ile is still downloading is called _______________.
10. Some software allows you to begin playing a downloading sound ile as soon as enough of the sound is
cached in your computer’s _______________.
136
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. he ile format that uses a shorthand
representation of musical notes and durations
stored in numeric form is:
a. AIFF
b. CD-ROM/XA
c. DSP
d. MIDI
e. QuickTime
2. Which of these statements regarding the MIDI
audio format is not true?
a. he sound can easily be changed by
changing instruments.
b. Spoken audio can easily be included.
c. Sound tracks can be created using
sequencing software.
d. Files are generally smaller than the same
digital audio sound.
e. Sounds can be stretched and timing
changed with no distortion of the quality.
3. he primary beneit of the General MIDI over
the previous MIDI speciication is that:
a. the ile sizes are much smaller due to the
compression scheme
b. users can easily edit and adjust the data
structures
c. it can be easily converted into the CDROM/XA format
d. MIDI iles can be easily integrated into
the computer’s operating system as system
sounds
e. the instruments are the same regardless of
the playback source
4. What happens when an audio signal exceeds the
recording device’s maximum recording level?
a. he signal is compressed to an appropriate
level.
b. “Clipping” of the signal occurs, introducing
distortion.
c. he audio clip is extended to accommodate
the extra data.
d. he entire clip’s volume is reduced
correspondingly.
e. he extra bits go into a bufer for later use.
5. As one story goes, the criterion used to set the
length of the sectors and ultimately the physical
size of the compact disc format was based on the
length of:
a. the Beatles’ “White Album”
b. Handel’s Messiah
c. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
d. Bach’s St. John’s Passion
e. Iron Butterly’s live rendition of
“Innagaddadavida”
6. he process of recording a sound, stored in the
form of thousands of individual measurements,
each at a discrete point in time, is called:
a. sampling
b. synthesizing
c. sizing
d. quantizing
e. streaming
7. he ile size of a ive-second recording sampled
at 22 kHz, 16-bit stereo (two tracks) would be
about:
a. 110,000 bytes
b. 220,000 bytes
c. 440,000 bytes
d. 550,000 bytes
e. 880,000 bytes
8. Which of the following sound ile characteristics
does not directly afect the size of a digital
audio ile?
a. sample rate
b. sample size
c. tracks (stereo vs. mono)
d. volume
e. compression
9. Each individual measurement of a sound that is
stored as digital information is called a:
a. bufer
b. stream
c. sample
d. capture
e. byte
137
10. Audio recorded at 44.1 kHz (kilohertz), 16-bit
stereo is considered:
a. phone-quality
b. voice-quality
c. FM-quality
d. CD-quality
e. AM-quality
11. Removing blank space or “dead air” at the
beginning or end of a recording is sometimes
called:
a. quieting
b. pre-rolling
c. quantizing
d. trimming
e. lashing
12. DSP stands for:
a. dynamic sound programming
b. data structuring parameters
c. direct splicing and partitioning
d. delayed streaming playback
e. digital signal processing
13. Sequencing software:
a. places audio clips in order in a soundtrack
b. records and edits MIDI data
c. applies ilters to digital audio clips in a
predetermined order
d. manages a project by creating a timeline of
events
e. helps synchronize images with a sound track
14. he slower a user’s connection, the longer he
must wait for enough of the sound to download
so that the entire ile will have downloaded by
the time the sound reaches the end. his efect is
called:
a. streaming latency
b. post-processing
c. compression
d. digital signal processing
e. multitap delay
15. he Red Book standard was so named because:
a. the standard was pioneered in the former
Soviet Union
b. red is an acronym for “Registered Electronic
Data”
c. the standard’s book jacket was red
d. it was so expensive to produce CDs early on
that most producers were “in the red”
e. the dye in the irst recordable CDs had a
reddish tint
■ Essay Quiz
1. Discuss the implications of using audio in a production, focusing on the purpose of the audio, how to
manage audio iles, and copyright issues.
2. List the four main sampling rates and the two sampling depths. Briely describe what each is most useful
for. How does mono versus stereo come into the equation?
3. You have been assigned to design and produce the audio portions of a multimedia project. he program
will be delivered on a CD-ROM, and video clips will take up most of the CD. You have only 50MB
of storage space to store 20 one-minute clips of speech, 10 songs averaging three minutes long, and a
background sound loop. What sampling rates and depths should you use for the speech, for the music, and
for the background sound? Why? Roughly calculate the ile size totals for these speciications, and be sure
that you end up with less than the 50MB of storage space allotted. Discuss your reasoning.
4. Describe what MIDI is, what its beneits are, and how it is best used in a multimedia project.
5. List the steps you would go through to record, edit, and process a set of sound iles for inclusion on a web
site. How would you digitally process the iles to ensure they are consistent, have minimum ile size, and
sound their best?
138
Lab Projects
■Project 4.1
Go online and locate three sound editors (either from a shareware site or demo versions of commercial software).
Document their capabilities. What ile formats can they import from and export to? How many tracks can they
handle? What DSP efects do they provide?
■Project 4.2
Record two sounds using a simple recording device—a cassette recorder will work. One sound should be of
speech, and one should be music. Connect the output from the recorder to a computer’s audio input. Using a
sound capture and editing tool, capture both clips in 44 kHz, 16-bit stereo (if you can’t record in stereo, ignore
the applicable directions). Capture the clips three times—once at a very low level, once at the correct level (just
below peaking), and once at levels that are well over the maximum. Listen to the six clips. Note your observations
regarding noise and distortion. Run all three clips through the editor’s Normalize efect. Again, listen to the clips
and note your observations.
■Project 4.3
Down-convert the two normalized samples recorded at the correct level to 22.05, 11, and 5 kHz. Convert each
of these eight (four sampling rates × two iles) to mono. You should now have 16 diferent iles: 8 of the speech
and 8 of music. Document the ile size of each, and make a note of how each sounds (even better, enlist the aid of
someone else who can listen while you play the sounds back, without telling them which you are playing). Which
are acceptable? At what point does the lowered quality become unacceptable?
■Project 4.4
Visit three web sites that use sound (you may need to ind Flash-based web sites). Where, when, and how is
sound used? Does the sound it the mood of the site? Is there background sound? Can the sounds be turned on
and of? Document your indings.
■Project 4.5
Locate three web sites that ofer “royalty-free” or “buyout” music. Such sites almost always allow visitors to listen
to low-quality samples. What formats are the samples provided in? Listen to some of the samples. Try to identify
which are synthesized and which are actual instruments playing the music. What are the license arrangements for
using the music? Document your indings, noting the various lengths and formats the music is provided in.
■Project 4.6
Visit the web site for the Harry Fox Agency and check the licensing terms for diferent uses of musical compositions and recordings of music. Briely describe the terms for using music for which you have created a performance, for using a recording of a piece of music in a multimedia program, and for selling a product that contains
music. Identify diferences in rates for use of music in diferent types of media (for example, using as part of a
one-time presentation to a limited audience, using in a multimedia product for commercial release, and using as
part of a radio or TV broadcast).
139
140
CHAPTER 5
Animation
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Deine animation and
describe how it can be used
in multimedia
■ Discuss the principles of
animation
■ Discuss the animation tech-
niques of cel and computer
animation and choose
the correct ile types for
animations
■ Create computer-generated
animations from multiple
still images
B
y deinition, animation makes static presentations come alive. It
is visual change over time and can add great power to your multimedia
projects and web pages. Many multimedia applications for both Macintosh
and Windows provide animation tools.
The Power of Motion
You can animate your whole project, or you can animate here and there,
accenting and adding spice. For a brief product demonstration with little
user interaction, it might make sense to design the entire project as a video
and keep the presentation always in motion. For speaker support, you
can animate bulleted text or ly it onto the screen, or you can use charts
with quantities that grow or dwindle; then, give the speaker control of
these eye-catchers. In a parts-assembly training manual, you might show
components exploding into an expanded view.
Visual efects such as wipes, fades, zooms, and dissolves are available in most multimedia authoring packages, and some of these can be
used for primitive animation. For example, you can slide images onto the
screen with a wipe, or you can make an object implode with an iris/close
efect. Figure 5-1 shows examples of many transition efects that may be
available in your editing software (in this case, an early version of Adobe’s
Premiere).
But animation is more than wipes, fades, and zooms. Animation is
an object actually moving across or into or out of the screen; a spinning
globe of our earth; a car driving along a line-art highway; a bug crawling
out from under a stack of papers, with a screaming voice from the speaker
telling you to “Shoot it, now!” Until video became more commonplace
(see Chapter 6), animations were the primary source of dynamic action in
multimedia presentations.
WARNING Overuse of animation and annoying visual efects can ruin a
multimedia project. (Check out www.dack.com/web/lash_evil.html for a discussion of gratuitous use.)
Chapter 5 Animation
Figure 5-1 Animation authoring applications typically ofer many visual efects and transitions.
Principles of Animation
Animation is possible because of a biological phenomenon known as
persistence of vision and a psychological phenomenon called phi. An
object seen by 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 very slightly and very rapidly, one after
the other, to seemingly blend together into a visual illusion of movement.
he illustration shows a few cels, or frames, of a rotating logo. When the
images are progressively and rapidly
changed, the arrow of the compass is
perceived to be spinning.
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Digital television video builds 24, 30, or 60 entire frames or pictures
every second, depending upon settings; the speed with which each frame is
replaced by the next one makes the images appear to blend smoothly into
movement. Movies on ilm are typically shot at a shutter rate of 24 frames
per second, but using projection tricks (the projector’s shutter lashes light
through each image twice), the licker rate is increased to 48 times per second, and the human eye thus sees a motion picture. On some ilm projectors, each frame is shown three times before the pull-down claw moves to
the next frame, for a total of 72 lickers per second, which helps to eliminate the licker efect: the more interruptions per second, the more continuous the beam of light appears. Quickly changing the viewed image is
the principle of an animatic, a lip-book, or a zoetrope. To make an object
travel across the screen while it changes its shape, just change the shape
and also move, or translate, it a few pixels for each frame. hen, when
you play the frames back at a faster speed, the changes blend together and
you have motion and animation. It’s the same magic as when the hand is
quicker than the eye, and you don’t see the pea moving in the blur of the
gypsy’s cups.
Animation by Computer
Using appropriate software and techniques, you can animate visual images
in many ways. he simplest animations occur in two-dimensional (2-D)
space; more complicated animations occur in an intermediate “2½-D” space
(where shadowing, highlights, and forced perspective provide an illusion
of depth, the third dimension); and the most realistic animations occur in
three-dimensional (3-D) space.
In 2-D space, the visual changes that bring an image alive occur on the
lat Cartesian x and y axes of the screen. A blinking word, a color-cycling
logo (where the colors of an image are rapidly altered according to a formula), a cel animation (described more fully later on in this chapter), or
a button or tab that changes state on mouse rollover to let a user know it
is active are all examples of 2-D animations. hese are simple and static,
not changing their position on the screen. Path animation in 2-D space
increases the complexity of an animation and provides motion, changing
the location of an image along a predetermined path (position) during a
speciied amount of time (speed). Authoring and presentation software
such as Flash or PowerPoint provide user-friendly tools to compute position changes and redraw an image in a new location, allowing you to generate a bouncing ball or slide a corporate mascot onto the screen. Combining
changes in an image with changes in its position allows you to “walk” your
corporate mascot onto the stage. Changing its size from small to large as it
walks onstage will give you a 3-D perception of distance.
Chapter 5 Animation
In 2½-D animation, an illusion of depth (the z axis) is added to an
image through shadowing and highlighting, but the image itself still rests
on the lat x and y axes in two dimensions. Embossing, shadowing, beveling, and highlighting provide a sense of depth by raising an image or cutting it into a background. Zaxwerks’ 3D Invigorator (www.zaxwerks.com),
for example, provides 3-D efects for text and images and, while calling
itself “3D,” works within the 2-D space of image editors and drawing programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks, and After Efects.
In 3-D animation, software creates a virtual realm in three dimensions, and changes (motion) are calculated along all three axes (x, y, and z),
allowing an image or object that itself is created with a front, back, sides,
top, and bottom to move toward or away from the viewer, or, in this virtual
space of light sources and points of view, allowing the viewer to wander
around and get a look at all the object’s parts from all angles. Such animations are typically rendered frame by frame by high-end 3-D animation
programs such as NewTek’s Lightwave or AutoDesk’s Maya.
Today, computers have taken the handwork out of the animation and
rendering process, and commercial ilms such as Shrek, Coraline, Toy Story,
and Avatar have utilized the power of computers. (See Chapter 3 for an
account of the historic “computer wall” of 117 Sun SPARCstations used to
render the animated feature Toy Story.)
Animation Techniques
When you create an animation, organize its execution into a series of logical
steps. First, gather up in your mind all the activities you wish to provide in
the animation. If it is complicated, you may wish to create a written script
with a list of activities and required objects and then create a storyboard
to visualize the animation. Choose the animation tool best suited for the
job, and then build and tweak your sequences. his may include creating
objects, planning their movements, texturing their surfaces, adding lights,
experimenting with lighting efects, and positioning the camera or point of
view. Allow plenty of time for this phase when you are experimenting and
testing. Finally, post-process your animation, doing any special renderings
and adding sound efects.
Cel Animation
he animation techniques made famous by Disney use a series of progressively diferent graphics or cels on each frame of movie ilm (which plays
at 24 frames per second). A minute of animation may thus require as many
as 1,440 separate frames, and each frame may be composed of many layers
of cels. he term cel derives from the clear celluloid sheets that were used
for drawing each frame, which have been replaced today by layers of digital
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I grew up using cel techniques and a huge animation crane to photograph
with. I can tell you the
static electricity caused hell
with dust on the cels. Do
you know why most 2-D
animated characters in the
past, like Mickey Mouse,
wore white gloves? It was
an inside joke…We all wore
white gloves to protect the
cels! And the reason most
animated characters had
only three ingers and a
thumb inside their gloves
was because it saved us time
and money to drop that
extra inger.
Joe Silverthorn, Integrated
Multimedia Professor,
Olympic College
imagery. Cels of famous animated cartoons have become sought-after,
suitable-for-framing collector’s items.
Cel animation artwork begins with keyframes (the irst and last
frame of an action). For example, when an animated igure of a woman
walks across the screen, she balances the weight of her entire body on one
foot and then the other in a series of falls and recoveries, with the opposite
foot and leg catching up to support the body. hus the irst keyframe to
portray a single step might be the woman pitching her body weight forward of the left foot and leg, while her center of gravity shifts forward;
the feet are close together, and she appears to be falling. he last keyframe
might be the right foot and leg catching the body’s fall, with the center of
gravity now centered between the outstretched stride and the left and right
feet positioned far apart.
he series of frames in between the keyframes are drawn in a process
called tweening. Tweening is an action that requires calculating the number of frames between keyframes and the path the action takes, and then
actually sketching with pencil the series of progressively diferent outlines.
As tweening progresses, the action sequence is checked by lipping through
the frames. he penciled frames are assembled and then actually ilmed as
a pencil test to check smoothness, continuity, and timing.
When the pencil frames are satisfactory, they are permanently inked,
photocopied onto cels, and given to artists who use acrylic colors to paint
the details for each cel. Women were often preferred for this painstaking
inking and painting work as they were deemed patient, neat, and had great
eyes for detail. In the hands of a master, cel paint applied to the back of
acetate can be simply lat and perfectly even, or it can produce beautiful
and subtle efects, with feathered edges or smudges.
he cels for each frame of our example of a walking woman—which
may consist of a text title, a background, foreground, characters (with perhaps separate cels for a left arm, a right arm, legs, shoes, a body, and facial
features)—are carefully registered and stacked. It is this composite that
becomes the inal photographed single frame in an animated movie. To
replicate natural motion, traditional cel animators often utilized “motion
capture” by photographing a woman walking, a horse trotting, or a cat
jumping to help visualize timings and movements. Today, animators use
relective sensors applied to a person, animal, or other object whose motion
is to be captured. Cameras and computers convert the precise locations of
the sensors into x,y,z coordinates and the data is rendered into 3-D surfaces moving over time.
TIP
For experimenting with frame editing and timing, Lunch Box DV from
Animation Toolworks (www.animationtoolworks.com) requires only a video
camera and a monitor to get started.
Chapter 5 Animation
145
Computer Animation
Computer animation programs typically employ the same logic and
procedural concepts as cel animation and use the vocabulary of classic
cel animation—terms such as layer, keyframe, and tweening. he primary
diference among animation software programs is in how much must be
drawn by the animator and how much is automatically generated by the
software (see Figure 5-2). In path-based 2-D and 2½-D animation, an
animator simply creates an object (or imports an object as clip art) and
describes a path for the object to follow. he computer software then
takes over, actually creating the animation on the ly as the program is
being viewed by your user. In cel-based 2-D animation, each frame of an
animation is provided by the animator, and the frames are then composited (usually with some tweening help available from the software) into
a single ile of images to be played in sequence. ULead’s GIF Animator
(www.ulead.com/ga) and Alchemy’s GIF Construction Set Pro (www
.mindworkshop.com) simply string together your collection of frames.
Figure 5-2 Several
cels or digital image
layers in a frame from the
movie Zathura (Columbia
Pictures/ Imageworks)
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Multimedia: Making It Work
For 3-D animation, most of your efort may be spent in creating the
models of individual objects and designing the characteristics of their
shapes and surfaces. It is the software that then computes the movement
of the objects within the 3-D space and renders each frame, in the end
stitching them together in a digital output ile or container such as an AVI
or QuickTime movie.
On the computer, paint is most often illed or drawn with tools using
features such as gradients and anti-aliasing. he word inks, in computer
animation terminology, usually means special methods for computing color
values, providing edge detection, and layering so that images can blend or
otherwise mix their colors to produce special transparencies, inversions,
and efects.
You can usually set your own frame rates on the computer. 2-D celbased animated GIFs, for example, allow you to specify how long each
frame is to be displayed and how many times the animation should loop
before stopping. 3-D animations output as digital video iles can be set
to run at 15 or 24 or 30 frames per second. However, the rate at which
changes are computed and screens are actually refreshed will depend on
the speed and power of your user’s display platform and hardware, especially for animations such as path animations that are being generated by
the computer on the ly. Although your animations will probably never
push the limits of a monitor’s scan rate (about 60 to 70 frames per second), animation does put raw computing horsepower to task. If you cannot
compute all your changes and display them as a new frame on your monitor within, say, 1/15th of a second, then the animation may appear jerky
and slow. Luckily, when the iles include audio, the software maintains the
continuity of the audio at all cost, preferring to drop visual frames or hold
a single frame for several seconds while the audio plays.
TIP
The smaller the object in path-based 2-D animation, the faster it can
move. Bouncing a 10-pixel-diameter tennis ball on your screen provides far snappier motion than bouncing a 150-pixel-diameter beach ball.
3-D animations are typically delivered as “pre-rendered” digital video
clips. Software such as Flash or PowerPoint, however, render animations as
they are being viewed, so the animation can be programmed to be interactive: touch or click on the jumping cat and it turns toward you snarling;
touch the walking woman and…
Kinematics Kinematics is the study of the movement and motion of
structures that have joints, such as a walking man. Animating a walking step is tricky: you need to calculate the position, rotation, velocity,
and acceleration of all the joints and articulated parts involved—knees
bend, hips lex, shoulders swing, and the head bobs. Smith Micro’s Poser
Chapter 5 Animation
147
(http://my.smithmicro.com), a 3-D modeling program, provides preassembled adjustable human models (male, female, infant, teenage, and
superhero) in many poses, such as “walking” or “thinking.” As you can see
in Figure 5-3, you can pose igures in 3-D and then scale and manipulate individual body parts. Surface textures can then be applied to create
muscle-bound hulks or smooth chrome androids. Inverse kinematics,
available in high-end 3-D programs such as Lightwave and Maya, is the
process by which you link objects such as hands to arms and deine their
relationships and limits (for example, elbows cannot bend backward).
Once those relationships and parameters have been set, you can then
drag these parts around and let the computer calculate the result.
Figure 5-3 Smith
Micro’s Poser understands
human motion and inverse
kinematics: move an arm,
and the shoulders follow.
Morphing Morphing is a popular (if not overused) efect in which one
image transforms into another. Morphing applications and other modeling tools that ofer this efect can transition not only between still images
but often between moving images as well. Some products that ofer morphing features are Black Belt’s Easy Morph and WinImages (www.blackbeltsystems.com) and Human Software’s Squizz (www.humansoftware.
com). Figure 5-4 illustrates part of a morph in which 16 kindergarten
children are dissolved one into the other in a continuous, compelling
motion video.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Figure 5-4 Morphing software was used to seamlessly transform the images of 16 kindergartners. When a sound track of music and voices was added to the four-minute piece, it made a
compelling QuickTime video about how similar children are to each other. Matching key points
(red) in the start and end image guide the morphing transition.
he morphed images were built at a rate of eight frames per second,
with each transition taking a total of four seconds (32 separate images for
each transition), and the number of key points was held to a minimum to
shorten rendering time. Setting key points is crucial for a smooth transition between two images. he point you set in the start image will move
to the corresponding point in the end image—this is important for things
like eyes and noses, which you want to end up in about the same place
Chapter 5 Animation
149
(even if they look diferent) after the transition. he more key points, the
smoother the morph. In Figure 5-4, the red dot on each child’s temple is a
matching key point.
Animation File Formats
Some ile formats are designed speciically to contain animations, so they
can be ported among applications and platforms with the proper translators. hose formats include Director (.dir and .dcr), AnimatorPro (.li
and .lc), 3D Studio Max (.max), GIF89a (.gif ), and Flash (.la and .swf ).
Because ile size is a critical factor when downloading animations to play
on web pages, ile compression is an essential part of preparing animation
iles for the Web. A Director’s native movie ile (.dir), for example, must
be preprocessed and compressed into a proprietary Shockwave animation ile (.dcr) for the Web. Compression for Director movies is as much
as 75 percent or more with this tool, turning 100K iles into 25K iles
and signiicantly speeding up download/display times on the Internet.
Flash, widely used for web-based animation, makes extensive use of vector
graphics (see Chapter 3) to keep the post-compression ile size at absolute minimums. As with Director, its native .la iles must be converted to
Shockwave Flash iles (.swf ) in order to play on the Web. To view these
animations within a web page, special plug-ins or players are required (see
Chapter 6).
In some cases, especially with 3-D animations, the individual rendered
frames of an animation are put together into one of the standard digital
video ile containers, such as the Windows Audio Video Interleaved format (.avi), QuickTime (.qt, .mov), or Motion Picture Experts Group video
(.mpeg or .mpg). hese can be played using the media players shipped with
computer operating systems.
New with HTML5 is animation built within a .svg (scalable vector
graphics) ile, where graphic elements can be programmed to change over
time (www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/animate.html). In the following simple
code, a patch of red expands within a rectangle, illing it in three seconds.
Type this code into a text processor and save it as plain text with a .svg
extension. Open the ile with “File Open…” from a HTML5-compliant
web browser to see it work. Change some parameters (duration, colors,
location) and reload or refresh the ile to see the efects of your changes.
<svg width="8cm" height="3cm" viewBox="0 0 800 300" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1">
<rect x="1" y="1" width="800" height="300" fill="none" stroke="rgb(255,0,255)" stroke-width="4" />
<rect id="RectElement" x="300" y="100" width="300" height="100" fill="rgb(255,0,0)" >
<animate attributeName="x" attributeType="XML" begin="0s" dur="3s" fill="freeze" from="300" to="0" />
<animate attributeName="y" attributeType="XML" begin="0s" dur="3s" fill="freeze" from="100" to="0" />
<animate attributeName="width" attributeType="XML" begin="0s" dur="3s" fill="freeze" from="300" to="800" />
<animate attributeName="height" attributeType="XML" begin="0s" dur="3s" fill="freeze" from="100" to="300" />
</rect>
</svg>
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Making Animations That Work
Animation catches the eye and makes things noticeable. But, like sound,
animation quickly becomes trite if it is improperly applied. Unless your
project has a backbone of movie-like, animated imagery, use animation
carefully (and sparingly) like spice to achieve the greatest impact. Your
screens may otherwise become busy and “noisy.”
Multimedia authoring systems typically provide tools to simplify
creating animations within that authoring system, and they often have a
mechanism for playing the special animation iles created by dedicated
animation software. Today, the most widely used tool for creating multimedia animations for Macintosh and Windows environments and for
the Web is Adobe’s Flash. Flash directly supports several 2½-D features,
including z-axis positioning, automatic sizing and perspective adjustment, and kinematics. External libraries can extend Flash’s capabilities:
open-source Papervision3D (http://blog.papervision3d.org) provides
extensive support for true 3-D modeling and animation; Figure 5-5
shows GreenSock’s TweenMax (www.greensock.com/tweenmax) providing sophisticated tweening capabilities within Flash.
Figure 5-5 Plug-ins for Flash can make tweening easier.
Chapter 5 Animation
A Rolling Ball
First, create a new, blank image ile that is 100 × 100 pixels, and ill it with
a sphere.
Create a new layer in Photoshop, and place some white text on this
layer at the center of the image.
Make the text spherical using Photoshop’s “Spherize” distortion ilter,
and save the result.
To animate the sphere by rolling it across the screen, you irst need
to make a number of rotated images of the sphere. Rotate the image in
45-degree increments to create a total of eight images, rotating a full circle
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Multimedia: Making It Work
of 360 degrees. When each is displayed sequentially at the same location,
the sphere spins:
For a realistic rolling efect, the circumference (calculated at pi times
100, or about 314 pixels) is divided by 8 (yielding about 40 pixels). As each
image is successively displayed, the ball is moved 40 pixels along a line.
Being where the rubber meets the road, this math applies when you roll
any round object in a straight line perpendicular to your line of sight.
A Bouncing Ball
With the simplest tools, you can make a bouncing ball to animate your
web site using GIF89a, an image format that allows multiple images to
be put into a single ile and then displayed as an animation in a web
browser or presentation program that recognizes the format. he individual frames that make up the animated GIF can be created in any
paint or image-processing program, but it takes a specialized program
to put the frames together into a GIF89a animation. (Animating with
GIF89a iles is discussed in Chapter 13.) As with the rolling ball example,
you simply need to lash a ball on the computer screen rapidly and in a
diferent place each time to make it bounce up and down. And as with the
rolling ball, where you should compute the circumference of the ball and
divide by the number of images to determine how far it rolls each time
it lashes, there are some commonsense computations to consider with a
bouncing ball, too. In the formula, s equals distance, a equals acceleration
due to gravity, and t equals time:
s = ½ at 2
Gravity makes your bouncing ball accelerate on its downward course
and decelerate on its upward course (when it moves slower and slower
until it actually stops and then accelerates downward again). As Galileo
discovered while dropping feathers and rocks from the Leaning Tower
of Pisa, a beach ball and a golf ball accelerate downward at the same rate
until they hit the ground. But the real world of Italy is full of air, so the
feather falls gently while the rock pounds dirt. It is in this real world that
you should compose your animations, tempering them always with commonsense physics to give them the ring of truth.
Unless your animation requires precision, ignore the hard numbers
you learned in high school (like 32 feet per second per second), and
Chapter 5 Animation
simply igure that your ball will uniformly accelerate and decelerate up
and down the pixels of your screen by the squares: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64,
81, 100 are the squares of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. his is illustrated
in Figure 5-6. In the case of a perpetual-motion bouncing ball (even better than Silly Putty), it goes up the same way it comes down, forever,
and this makes the job easy, because the up and down movements are
symmetrical. You can use the same images for downward motion as you
use for upward—as in frames 11 through 18 in Figure 5-5—by reversing
them. You might also add a squash frame (not shown in Figure 5-6) when
the ball hits the loor. he amount of squash would be determined by the
type of ball—a steel ball or a balloon or a very soft rubber ball. he ball
would squash when it hit and un-squash as it bounced up again. With a
bit of programming, you might allow the user to choose the elasticity of
the object, the amount of gravity, and the length of fall. Some animation
software provides tools for this: it’s called “easing.”
Figure 5-6 To make a bouncing ball seem natural, don’t forget the acceleration efects of gravity. If you loop the
18 images shown here, the ball will bounce forever.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Open a graphics program and paint a ball about 15 pixels in diameter
(if you have an odd-number diameter, there is a middle pixel that can be
your center alignment point). If you wish to be fancy, make the ball with
a 3-D graphics tool that will shade it as a sphere. hen duplicate the ball,
placing each copy of it in a vertical line at the ten locations 1, 4, 9, 16,
25, 36, 49, 64, 81, and 100. he goal is to create a separate image ile for
each location of the ball, like the pages of a lip-book. With Photoshop,
you can create a single ile with ten layers to contain each ball at its
proper location, and you can add an eleventh background layer, too. hen
save each layer showing against the background as a separate ile. (Use
numbers in your ilenames like ball01, ball02, and so on, to keep them
organized.)
his is a construction process also easily managed with Director or
Flash, in which you can place the same cast member or object (the ball)
where you wish on the presentation stage.
You can also add a background and other art elements, and when you
are done, you can export each frame as a graphics ile using the export
function. You will probably also wish to set the size of your stage to a small
area just suicient for your animation, say 32 × 120 pixels. he smaller the
better if users will be downloading this animated GIF ile into their web
browsers.
Chapter 5 Animation
To turn your collection of images into a GIF89a animation, you
need an application like Stone Design’s GIFfun (for Macintosh; see
Figure5-7) or ULead’s GIF Animator (for Windows). hese tools organize the sequence of images to be shown, set timing and transparency,
and (most importantly) let you save the inal GIF ile in the proper
format. See Chapter 13 for more details about animated GIF iles and
where to use them.
Figure 5-7 Many applications are available for Windows and Mac that will help
build animated GIF iles. Shown here is GIFfun for Mac, free from Stone Design (www
.stone.com/GIFfun/), for organizing images and creating animations.
Creating an Animated Scene
A creative committee organized a brief storyboard of a gorilla chasing a
man. From a stock library containing many images licensed for unlimited
use, a photograph was chosen of Manhattan’s Central Park where a bridge
crossed a small river and high-rise apartments lined the horizon. he chase
scene would occur across the bridge. To produce frames of the running
man, a real actor was videotaped running in place against an Ultimatte
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Multimedia: Making It Work
chroma-keyed blue background in a studio; a few frames of this were
grabbed, and the blue background was made transparent in each image.
he gorilla was diicult to ind, so a toy model dinosaur about 25 centimeters tall was used; again, a few frames were captured and the background
made transparent to form a composite. hat was all that was required for
image resources.
As illustrated in Figure 5-8a, the background was carefully cut in half
along the edge of the bridge, so that the bridge railing could be placed
in front of the runners. he running man was organized in a series of six
frames that could be repeated many times across the screen to provide
the pumping motions of running. he same was done for the dinosaur, to
give him a lumbering, bulky look as he chased the little man across the
bridge (see Figure 5-8b). he result, in Figure 5-8c, was simple and quickly
achieved.
First Person
The animation storyboard called for
a photo-realistic monster chasing
a running man through a city park
amid screams of terror. The man was
already in Director, running in great
strides across an arched footbridge
in a woodsy scene with high-rises
in the background; he even looked
over his shoulder a few times in
panic. We were scouting around
for an efective Godzilla when a
friend dropped by with a motorized,
12-inch Tyrannosaurus Rex from
Toys’R’Us. It was perfect—opening
a toothy, gaping mouth every few
steps as it lumbered along on C
batteries.
I took the dinosaur and a video camera home to the delight and fascination of my three-year-old daughter,
who helped rig a white sheet in
front of the living room ireplace
and a cardboard-box runway where
Mr. TRex could strut his stuf before
the camera. A couple of lamps gave
him a sweaty sheen. We recorded
about ive minutes of video as my
daughter happily retrieved Mr. TRex
each time he nosed of the “clif” at
the end of the stage.
I grabbed a still image about every
fourth frame of the recording and
imported the resulting iles into
Director as cast members. They
needed a little cleanup and scaling,
but the fellow looked really convincing when he was inally scored to
run across the bridge. Next day, I
mixed a bunch of sounds—singing
birds, running footsteps, screams,
roars, sirens, and gunshots—and it
was done.
Chapter 5 Animation
157
b
Figure 5-8 The upper
c
portion of the photo was placed
behind the runners (b) and the
lower portion in front of them,
to make them appear to run
behind the bridge railing (c).
Chapter 5 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
■
Cel animation artwork begins with keyframes;
these are the irst and last frames of an action.
Deine animation and describe how it can be
used in multimedia
■
By deinition, animation is the act of making
something come alive.
Tweening is an action that involves creating
the frames to depict the action that happens
between keyframes.
■
Depending on the size of the project, you can
animate the whole thing or you can just animate
parts of it.
Computer animation programs typically employ
the same logic and procedural concepts as cel
animation.
■
You can usually set your own frame rates on
the computer, but the rate at which changes are
computed and screens are actually refreshed will
depend on the speed and power of your display
platform and hardware.
■
Kinematics is the study of the movement and
motion of structures that have joints.
■
Inverse kinematics is the process in which you
link objects such as hands to arms and deine
their relationships and limits, then drag these
parts around and let the computer calculate the
result.
■
Morphing is an efect in which one image
transforms into another.
■
Some ile formats are designed speciically to
contain animations, and they can be ported
among applications and platforms with the
proper translators.
■
■
■
Visual efects such as wipes, fades, zooms, and
dissolves, available in most authoring packages,
are a simple form of animation.
■
Animation is an object actually moving across,
into, or out of the screen.
Discuss the principles of animation
■
Animation is possible because of a biological
phenomenon known as persistence of vision and
a psychological phenomenon called phi.
■
With animation, a series of images are changed
very slightly and very rapidly, one after the
other, seemingly blending together into a visual
illusion of movement.
■
Digital display video builds 24, 30, or 60 entire
frames or pictures every second. Movies on ilm
are typically shot at a shutter rate of 24 frames
per second.
Discuss the animation techniques of cel and
computer animation and choose the correct ile
types for animations
■
Cel animation, an animation technique made
famous by Disney, uses a series of progressively
diferent graphics on each frame of movie ilm.
158
Create computer-generated animations from
multiple still images
■
Multimedia authoring systems typically provide
tools to simplify creating animations within that
authoring system.
■
he most widely used tool for creating multimedia animations for Macintosh and Windows
environments is Adobe’s Flash.
■
With the simplest tools, you can make a
bouncing ball to animate your web site using
GIF89a.
■
Making animations appear natural requires a
basic understanding of the principles of physics.
You should compose your animations using these
principles, tempering them always with commonsense physics to give them the ring of truth.
■ Key Terms
animated GIF (152)
animation (140)
cel (143)
cel animation (144)
color cycling (142)
easing (153)
inks (146)
inverse kinematics (147)
keyframe (144)
kinematics (146)
morphing (147)
path animation (142)
pencil test (144)
persistence of vision (141)
phi (141)
3-D animation (143)
translate (142)
tweening (144)
2-D animation (142)
2½-D animation (143)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. An object seen by the human eye remains chemically mapped on the retina for a brief time after viewing.
his phenomenon is called _______________.
2. he human mind needs to conceptually complete a perceived action. his phenomenon is called
_______________.
3. To make an object travel across the screen while it changes its shape, just change the shape and also move
or _______________ it a few pixels for each frame.
4. he animation technique made famous by Disney involves showing a diferent image for each frame. his
technique is called _______________ animation.
5. he irst and last frames of an action are called _______________.
6. he series of frames in between the irst and last frames in an action are drawn in a process called
_______________.
7. In computer animation terminology, _______________ usually refers to special methods that allow images
to blend or otherwise mix their colors to produce special transparencies, inversions, and efects.
8. he study of the movement and motion of structures that have joints is called _______________.
9. he efect in which one image transforms into another is known as _______________.
159
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. Most authoring packages include visual efects
such as:
a. panning, zooming, and tilting
b. wipes, fades, zooms, and dissolves
c. morphing
d. tweening
e. inverse kinematics
2. he term cel derives from:
a. the concept of each action in a sequence
being a separate element or “cell”
b. the fact that the inks used in early
animations were based on extracts from
celery plants
c. an abbreviation of the phrase “composite
element”
d. the fact that the irst animations were the
work of communist dissidents who were
organized into cells
e. the clear celluloid sheets that were used for
drawing each frame
3. Which of these is not a reason why animation is
perceived as motion?
a. An image remains in the eye chemically
for a brief time after viewing.
b. Our mind tries to “connect the dots” by
completing perceived actions.
c. he use of darker colors for moving objects
is interpreted by the mind as motion.
d. A sequence of images is read as continuous
motion.
e. All of the above are valid reasons.
4. Movies on ilm are typically shot at a shutter
rate of:
a. 15 frames per second
b. 24 frames per second
c. 29.97 frames per second
d. 30 frames per second
e. 48 frames per second
160
5. he clear sheets that were used for drawing
each frame of animation have been replaced
today by:
a. acetate or plastic
b. titanium
c. iberglass
d. epoxy resin
e. digital paper
6. Today’s computer animation programs most
closely resemble:
a. ilm “rotoscoping” techniques
b. the “phi” phenomenon described by
Carl Jung
c. neuro-kinetics techniques pioneered
by NASA
d. traditional cel animation
e. none of the above
7. he technical limitation you are likely to
encounter in creating animations is:
a. the monitor’s refresh rate
b. the computer’s processing capability
c. the ability to accurately calculate physical
actions
d. the “persistence of vision” phenomenon
e. the monitor’s color gamut
8. In general, the animation may appear jerky and
slow if each frame is displayed for more than
about:
a. 1/30 of a second
b. 1/15 of a second
c. 1/4 of a second
d. 1/2 of a second
e. 1 second
9. he process in which you link objects such as
hands to arms and deine their relationships
and limits (for example, elbows cannot bend
backward), then drag these parts around and let
the computer calculate the result is called:
a. rotoscoping
b. de-morphing
c. meta-articulation
d. cyber-motion
e. inverse kinematics
10. To create a smooth transition between two
images when morphing, it’s important to set
numerous:
a. layers
b. keyframes
c. key points
d. anchor tags
e. splines
11. he standard frame rate of computer
animations is:
a. 10 frames per second
b. 15 frames per second
c. 24 frames per second
d. 30 frames per second
e. here is no standard; it depends on the
ile’s settings.
12. Today, the most widely used tool for creating
vector-based animations is:
a. Adobe’s Flash
b. Adobe’s GoLive
c. Corel’s CorelDraw
d. Microsoft’s KineMatix
e. Activa’s InterStudio
13. he Director ile format has which extension?
a. .dir and .dcr
b. .li and .lc
c. .avi
d. .qt, .mov
e. .mpeg or .mpg
14. he ile format that is most widely supported
for web animations is:
a. PICT
b. .DCR
c. GIF89a
d. JPEG
e. AIFF
15. To keep the post-compression ile size at
absolute minimums, Flash makes extensive
use of:
a. inverse kinematics
b. cel-type animation
c. vector graphics
d. inks
e. NURBS
■ Essay Quiz
1. Discuss the physical and psychological principles as to why animation works, as well as how it is usually
presented.
2. Briely discuss the origins of cel animation and the concepts that go into creating these animations. Be sure
to include keyframes, tweening, and inks.
161
3. You need to create a simple animation of an animated logo. he logo depicts a planet orbiting the sun.
Describe the motion in a storyboard. List the points in the action that would make good keyframes,
and explain why. How would you need to manipulate the planet to make its motion look natural?
4. You need to create a simple animation of a man bowling, with the ball rolling down the alley and
striking the pins. Describe the sequence of motions in a storyboard. Discuss the various techniques and
principles you might employ to accurately represent the motion of the man moving, the ball rolling,
and the pins falling.
5. Discuss where and how you might use animation in one of the following projects. Be creative. Where
would animation be appropriate? Where would it be distracting? How could it best be used to visually
illustrate a concept?
a. a web site for sports car enthusiasts
b. a presentation to shareholders of a inancial report
c. a training CD on a printing press
d. a CD that depicts the history of a railroad
Lab Projects
■Project 5.1
Use a search engine to search on the words “animation” and “deinition.” Create a document that provides
many diferent deinitions of the term animation. Describe the diferences among deinitions. Which elements
make the most diference among them—type of motion, process used for creation, method of playback, or
something else? What do all (or, at least, most) of the deinitions have in common?
■Project 5.2
Locate a GIF animation at any web site. (Go to Google and do an image search using the term “animated GIF.”
You may get as many as 6,460,000 hits!) Save the ile of your choice to your computer’s hard drive. (On the
Mac you can generally drag the image onto your desktop. On Windows, right-click and select “Save Picture (or
Image) As”.) Using one of the shareware or freeware GIF animators available, open the ile. Save the individual
frames as separate iles and print them out. Note how the GIF89a speciication enables iles to be saved so that
only the diferences between keyframes are saved.
■Project 5.3
Pick an animation software package available for either the Macintosh or Windows that ofers at least one
form of animation (for example, 2-D cel animation, animated GIF, or 3-D animation). List its name and
discuss its capabilities. Is the software capable of layers? Keyframes? Tweening? Morphing? Will it allow you
to create cross-platform iles for playback? Does it require a plug-in for viewing in a web browser?
162
■Project 5.4
Conceptualize a brief animated sequence. Include a number of moving elements that move into and out of the
frame. Consider where the keyframes should be. How do the elements move? Do they get bigger or smaller?
Do they rotate? Do they “deform” (change shape)?
Create a storyboard with sketches showing at least ten of the keyframes.
163
164
CHAPTER 6
Video
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Consider the implications
of using digital video in
multimedia
■ Discuss video analog and
digital technologies and
displays
■ Work with digital video
containers and codecs to
select the best video recording formats for multimedia
projects
■ Find and acquire video clips
■ Shoot and edit video for use
in multimedia
S
ince the irst silent ilm movie lickered to life, people have been
fascinated with “motion” pictures. To this day, motion video is the element
of multimedia that can draw gasps from a crowd at a trade show or irmly
hold a student’s interest in a computer-based learning project. Digital
video is the most engaging of multimedia venues, and it is a powerful tool
for bringing computer users closer to the real world. It is also an excellent method for delivering multimedia to an audience raised on television. With video elements in your project, you can efectively present your
messages and reinforce your story, and viewers tend to retain more of what
they see. But take care! Video that is not thought out or well produced can
degrade your presentation.
Using Video
Carefully planned, well-executed video clips can make a dramatic diference in a multimedia project. A clip of John F. Kennedy proclaiming “Ich
bin ein Berliner” in video and sound is more compelling than a scrolling
text ield containing that same speech. Before deciding whether to add
video to your project, however, it is essential to have an understanding of
the medium, its limitations, and its costs. his chapter provides a foundation to help you understand how video works, the diferent formats and
standards for recording and playing video, and the diferences between
computer and television video. he equipment needed to shoot and edit
video, as well as tips for adding video to your project, are also covered.
Video standards and formats are still being reined as transport, storage, compression, and display technologies take shape in laboratories and
in the marketplace and while equipment and post-processing evolves from
its analog beginnings to become fully digital, from capture to display.
Working with multimedia video today can be like a Mojave Desert camping trip: you may pitch your tent on comfortable high ground and ind
that overnight the shifting sands have buried both your approach and your
investment.
Of all the multimedia elements, video places the highest performance demand on your computer or device—and its memory and storage.
Chapter 6 Video
Consider that a high-quality color still image on a computer screen could
require as much as a megabyte or more of storage memory. Multiply this
by 30—the number of times per second that the picture is replaced to provide the appearance of motion—and you would need at least 30 megabytes
of storage to play your video for one second, more than 1.8 gigabytes of
storage for a minute, and 108 gigabytes or more for an hour. Just moving all this picture data from computer memory to the screen at that rate
would challenge the processing capability of a supercomputer. Some of the
hottest and most arcane multimedia technologies and research eforts have
dealt with compressing digital video image data into manageable streams
of information. Compression (and decompression), using special software
called a codec, allows a massive amount of imagery to be squeezed into a
comparatively small data ile, which can still deliver a good viewing experience on the intended viewing platform during playback.
If you control the delivery platform for your multimedia project,
you can specify special hardware and software enhancements that will
allow you to work with high-deinition, full-motion video, and sophisticated audio for high-quality surround sound. Or you can design a project
to meet a speciic compression standard, such as MPEG2 for Digital
Versatile Disc (DVD) playback or MPEG4 for home video. You can
install a superfast RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)
system that will support high-speed data transfer rates. You can include
instructions in your authoring system that will spool video clips into
RAM, ready for high-speed playback before they need to play. Having
control of the playback platform is always good, but it is seldom available
in the real world, so as you develop your video elements, you will need
to make many choices and compromises based upon your assessment of
the “lowest common denominator” playback platform where your project
will be used.
How Video Works and Is Displayed
When light relected from an object passes through a video camera lens,
that light is converted into an electronic signal by a special sensor called a
charge-coupled device (CCD). Top-quality broadcast cameras and even
camcorders may have as many as three CCDs (one for each color of red,
green, and blue) to enhance the resolution of the camera and the quality
of the image.
It’s important to understand the diference between analog and digital video. Analog video has a resolution measured in the number of horizontal scan lines (due to the nature of early cathode-tube cameras), but
each of those lines represents continuous measurements of the color and
brightness along the horizontal axis, in a linear signal that is analogous
165
Since multimedia gives you
the ability to present information in a variety of ways,
let the content drive the
selection of media for each
chunk of information to be
presented. Use traditional
text and graphics where
appropriate; add animation
when “still life” won’t get
your message across; add
audio when further explanation is required; resort to
video only when all other
methods pale by comparison.
David A. Ludwig, Interactive
Learning Designs
166
Multimedia: Making It Work
to an audio signal. Digital video signals consist of a discrete color and
brightness (RGB) value for each pixel. Digitizing analog video involves
reading the analog signal and breaking it into separate data packets. his
process is similar to digitizing audio, except that with video the vertical
resolution is limited to the number of horizontal scan lines.
For some multimedia projects you may need to digitize legacy analog
video. he following discussion will help you understand the diferences
between analog and digital video and the old and new standards for horizontal lines, aspect ratios, and interlacing.
Analog Video
In an analog system, the output of the CCD is processed by the camera
into three channels of color information and synchronization pulses (sync)
and the signals are recorded onto magnetic tape. here are several video
standards for managing analog CCD output, each dealing with the amount
of separation between the components—the more separation of the color
information, the higher the quality of the image (and the more expensive
the equipment). If each channel of color information is transmitted as a
separate signal on its own conductor, the signal output is called component
(separate red, green, and blue channels), which is the preferred method for
higher-quality and professional video work. Lower in quality is the signal
that makes up Separate Video (S-Video), using two channels that carry
luminance and chrominance information. he least separation (and thus
the lowest quality for a video signal) is composite, when all the signals
are mixed together and carried on a single cable as a composite of the three
color channels and the sync signal. he composite signal yields less-precise
color deinition, which cannot be manipulated or color-corrected as much
as S-Video or component signals.
he analog video and audio signals are written to tape by a spinning
recording head that changes the local magnetic properties of the tape’s
surface in a series of long diagonal stripes. Because the head is canted or
tilted at a slight angle compared with the path of the tape, it follows a
helical (spiral) path, which is called helical scan recording. As illustrated
in Figure 6-1, each stripe represents information for one ield of a video
frame. A single video frame is made up of two ields that are interlaced
(described in detail later in the chapter). Audio is recorded on a separate straight-line track at the top of the videotape, although with some
recording systems (notably for ¾-inch tape and for ½-inch tape with highidelity audio), sound is recorded helically between the video tracks. At the
bottom of the tape is a control track containing the pulses used to regulate speed. Tracking is the ine adjustment of the tape during playback so
that the tracks are properly aligned as the tape moves across the playback
Chapter 6 Video
head. hese are the signals your grandmother’s VCR reads when you rent
Singing in the Rain (on video cassette) for the weekend.
Helical scan tape path
Video head
Half-inch videotape
Audio track
Video track
Control track
Figure 6-1 Diagram of tape path across the video head for analog recording
Many consumer set-top devices like video cassette recorders
(VCRs) and satellite receivers add the video and sound signals to a subcarrier and modulate them into a radio frequency (RF) in the FM broadcast band. his is the NTSC, PAL, or SECAM signal available at the
Antenna Out connector of a VCR. Usually the signal is modulated on
either Channel 3 or Channel 4, and the resulting signal is demodulated
by the TV receiver and displayed on the selected channel. Many television
sets today also provide a composite signal connector, a S-Video connector, and a High-Deinition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connector for
purely digital input. Video displays for computers typically provide analog
component (red, green, blue) input through a 15-pin VGA connectorand
also a purely digital Digital Visual Interface (DVI) and/or an HDMI
connection.
hree analog broadcast video standards are commonly in use around
the world: NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. In the United States, the NTSC
standard has been phased out, replaced by the ATSC Digital Television
Standard. Because these standards and formats are not easily interchangeable, it is important to know where your multimedia project will be used. A
video cassette recorded in the United States (which uses NTSC) will not
play on a television set in any European country (which uses either PAL
or SECAM), even though the recording method and style of the cassette
is “VHS.” Likewise, tapes recorded in European PAL or SECAM formats
will not play back on an NTSC video cassette recorder. Each system is
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Multimedia: Making It Work
based on a diferent standard that deines the way information is encoded
to produce the electronic signal that ultimately creates a television picture. Multiformat VCRs can play back all three standards but typically
cannot dub from one standard to another. Dubbing between standards
still requires high-end, specialized equipment.
NTSC
Sometimes we deine
“NTSC” as “Never he Same
Color.”
Richard Santalesa, R&D
Technologies
he United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and many other countries
used a system for broadcasting and displaying video that is based upon
the speciications set forth by the 1952 National Television Standards
Committee (NTSC). hese standards deined a method for encoding
information into the electronic signal that ultimately created a television picture. As speciied by the NTSC standard, 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 of a second by a fast-moving
electron beam. he drawing occurred so fast that your eye would perceive
the image as stable. he electron beam actually made two passes as it drew
a single video frame—irst it laid down all the odd-numbered lines, and
then all the even-numbered lines. Each of these passes (which happen at
a rate of 60 per second, or 60 Hz) painted a ield, and the two ields were
then combined to create a single frame at a rate of 30 frames per second
(fps). (Technically, the speed is actually 29.97 Hz.)
PAL
he Phase Alternate Line (PAL) system was used in the United Kingdom,
Western Europe, Australia, South Africa, China, and South America. PAL
increased the screen resolution to 625 horizontal lines, but slowed the scan
rate to 25 frames per second. As with NTSC, the even and odd lines were
interlaced, each ield taking 1/50 of a second to draw (50 Hz).
SECAM
he Sequential Color and Memory (SECAM) (taken from the French
name, reported variously as Système Électronic pour Couleur Avec
Mémoire or Séquentiel Couleur Avec Mémoire) system was used in France,
Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and a few other countries. Although
SECAM is a 625-line, 50 Hz system, it difered greatly from both the
NTSC and the PAL color systems in its basic technology and broadcast
method. Often, however, TV sets sold in Europe utilized dual components
and could handle both PAL and SECAM systems.
Digital Video
In digital systems, the output of the CCD is digitized by the camera into
a sequence of single frames, and the video and audio data are compressed
Chapter 6 Video
before being written to a tape (see Figure 6-2) or digitally stored to disc or
lash memory in one of several proprietary and competing formats. Digital
video data formats, especially the codec used for compressing and decompressing video (and audio) data, are important; more about them later in
this chapter.
Figure 6-2 Diagram of tape path across the video head for digital recording
In 1995, Apple’s FireWire technology was standardized as IEEE
1394, and Sony quickly adopted it for much of its digital camera line
under the name i.Link. FireWire and i.Link (and USB 2) cable connections allow a completely digital process, from the camera’s CCD to the
hard disk of a computer; and camcorders store the video and sound data
on an onboard digital tape, writable mini-DVD, mini–hard disk, or lash
memory.
HDTV
What started as the High Deinition Television (HDTV) initiative of
the Federal Communications Commission in the 1980s changed irst
to the Advanced Television (ATV) initiative and then inished as the
Digital Television (DTV) initiative by the time the FCC announced the
change in 1996. his standard, which was slightly modiied from both the
Digital Television Standard (ATSC Doc. A/53) and the Digital Audio
Compression Standard (ATSC Doc. A/52), moved U.S. television from
an analog to a digital standard. It also provided TV stations with suicient
bandwidth to present four or ive Standard Television (STV, providing the
NTSC’s resolution of 525 lines with a 3:4 aspect ratio, but in a digital signal) signals or one HDTV signal (providing 1,080 lines of resolution with
a movie screen’s 16:9 aspect ratio).
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170
Multimedia: Making It Work
HDTV provides high resolution in a 16:9 aspect ratio (see
Figure 6-3). his aspect ratio allows the viewing of Cinemascope and
Panavision movies. here was contention between the broadcast and
computer industries about whether to use interlacing or progressive-scan
technologies. he broadcast industry promulgated an ultra-high-resolution, 1920 × 1080 interlaced format (1080i) to become the cornerstone
of the new generation of high-end entertainment centers, but the computer industry wanted a 1280 × 720 progressive-scan system (720p) for
HDTV. While the 1920 × 1080 format provides more pixels than the
1280 × 720 standard, the refresh rates are quite diferent. he higherresolution interlaced format delivers only half the picture every 1/60 of
a second, and because of the interlacing, on highly detailed images there
is a great deal of screen licker at 30 Hz. he computer people argue that
the picture quality at 1280 × 720 is superior and steady. Both formats
have been included in the HDTV standard by the Advanced Television
Systems Committee (ATSC), found at www.atsc.org.
Safe title area
512 x 384 (4:3)
Monitor 640x480 (4:3)
NTSC television overscan
approx. 648 x 486 (4:3)
35mm slide / photo
768 x 512 (3:2)
HDTV
1280 x 720 (16:9)
Figure 6-3 Here you can see the diference between VGA and HDTV aspect ratios.
Displays
Colored phosphors on a cathode ray tube (CRT) screen glow red, green,
or blue when they are energized by an electron beam. Because the intensity
of the beam varies as it moves across the screen, some colors glow brighter
Chapter 6 Video
than others. Finely tuned magnets around the picture tube aim the electrons precisely onto the phosphor screen, while the intensity of the beam
is varied according to the video signal. his is why you needed to keep
speakers (which have strong magnets in them) away from a CRT screen.
A strong external magnetic ield can skew the electron beam to one area of
the screen and sometimes caused a permanent blotch that cannot be ixed
by degaussing—an electronic process that readjusts the magnets that
guide the electrons. If you had the misfortune to forget and wear a watch,
the degausser might stop it permanently and then, if you are particularly
unlucky, erase the magnetic strips on the credit cards in your wallet as well.
If a computer displays a still image or words onto a CRT for a long time
without changing, the phosphors will permanently change, and the image
or words can become visible, even when the CRT is powered down. Screen
savers were invented to prevent this from happening.
Flat screen displays are all-digital, using either liquid crystal display
(LCD) or plasma technologies, and have supplanted CRTs for computer
use. Some professional video producers and studios, however, prefer CRTs
to lat screen displays, claiming colors are brighter and more accurately
reproduced.
Full integration of digital video in cameras and on computers eliminates the analog television form of video, from both the multimedia production and the delivery platform. If your video camera generates a digital
output signal, you can record your video direct-to-disk, where it is ready for
editing. If a video clip is stored as data on a hard disk, CD-ROM, DVD,
or other mass-storage device, that clip can be played back on a computer’s
monitor without special hardware.
Interlacing and Progressive Scan
he process of building a single frame from two ields is called interlacing,
a technique that helps to prevent licker on CRT screens. Computer monitors use a diferent progressive-scan technology, and draw the lines of an
entire frame in a single pass, without interlacing them and without licker.
In television, the electron beam actually makes two passes on the screen as
it draws a single video frame, irst laying down all the odd-numbered lines,
then all the even-numbered lines, as they are interlaced. On a computer
monitor, lines are painted one-pixel thick and are not interlaced. Singlepixel lines displayed on a computer monitor look ine; on a television, these
thin lines licker brightly because they only appear in every other ield. To
prevent this licker on CRTs, make sure your lines are greater than two
pixels thick and that you avoid typefaces that are very thin or have elaborate serifs. If you are capturing images from a video signal, you can ilter
them through a de-interlacing ilter provided by image-editing applications such as Photoshop and Fireworks. With typefaces, interlacing licker
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Multimedia: Making It Work
can often be avoided by anti-aliasing the type to slightly blur the edges of
the characters. he term “interlacing” has a diferent meaning on the Web,
where it describes the progressive display of lines of pixels as image data is
downloaded, giving the impression that the image is coming from blurry
into focus as increasingly more data arrives (see Chapter 13).
Most computers today provide video outputs to CRT, LCD, or plasma
monitors at greater than 1024 × 768 resolution. Table 6-1 describes the
various aspect ratios and width/heights in pixels used by computer displays
since IBM’s VGA standard was adopted in 1987. he VGA’s once ubiquitous 640 × 480 screen resolution is again becoming common for handheld
and mobile device displays.
Acronym
Name
Aspect
Width
Height
Ratio
(pixels)
(pixels)
VGA
Video Graphics Array
4:3
640
480
SVGA
Super Video Graphics Array
4:3
800
600
XGA
eXtended Graphics Array
4:3
1024
768
XGA+
eXtended Graphics Array Plus
4:3
1152
864
WXGA
Widescreen eXtended Graphics Array
5:3
1280
768
WXGA
Widescreen eXtended Graphics Array
8:5 (16:10)
1280
800
SXGA
Super eXtended Graphics Array
4:3
1280
960
SXGA
Super eXtended Graphics Array
5:4
1280
1024
HD
High Deinition (Basic)
16:9
1366
768
WSXGA
Widescreen Super eXtended Graphics Array
8:5 (16:10)
1440
900
HD+
High Deiniton (Plus)
16:9
1600
900
UXGA
Ultra eXtended Graphics Array
4:3
1600
1200
WSXGA+
Widescreen Super eXtended Graphics Array Plus
8:5 (16:10)
1680
1050
HD-1080
Full High Deinition
16:9
1920
1080
WUXGA
Widescreen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array
8:5 (16:10)
1920
1200
Table 6-1 Screen Resolutions for Computer Monitors
In the realm of digital television displays, Table 6-2 shows the most
common screen resolutions. Note that the highest resolution, 1080p, does
not include a 60-per-second frame refresh rate. When the ATSC standard
was written in the early 1990s, that was simply too fast for the broadcast
digital signal to keep up. Not shown is the 720 × 576 resolution used in
PAL systems.
Chapter 6 Video
Scan Lines from
Top to Bottom
Pixels from
Left to Right
Aspect Ratio
Display Rate in
Frames per Second
1080p (progressive)
1920
16:9
30, 24
1080i (interlaced)
1920
16:9
30
720p (progressive)
1280
16:9
60, 30, 24
480p (progressive)
704 or 640
16:9 or 4:3
60, 30, 24
480i (interlaced)
704 or 640
16:9 or 4:3
30
Table 6-2 Common Digital Television Resolutions
Overscan and the Safe Title Area
As illustrated earlier in Figure 6-3, it is common practice in the television industry to broadcast an image larger than will it on a standard TV
screen so that the “edge” of the image seen by a viewer is always bounded
by the TV’s physical frame, or bezel. his is called overscan. In contrast,
computer monitors display a smaller image on the monitor’s picture tube
(underscan), leaving a black border inside the bezel. Consequently, when
a digitized video image is displayed on a CRT, there is a border around the
image; and, when a computer screen is converted to video, the outer edges
of the image will not it on a TV screen. Only about 360 of the 480 lines of
the computer screen will be visible. Video editing software often will show
you the safe areas while you are editing.
TIP Avoid using the outer 15 percent of the screen when producing computergenerated graphics and titles for use in television video. The safe title area,
where your image will not be afected by overscanning, even in the worst conditions, is illustrated in Figure 6-3.
Digital Video Containers
A digital video architecture is made up of an algorithm for compressing
and encoding video and audio, a container in which to put the compressed
data, and a player that can recognize and play back those iles. Common
containers for video are Ogg (.ogg, heora for video, Vorbis for audio),
Flash Video (.lv), MPEG (.mp4), QuickTime (.mov), Windows Media
Format (.wmv), WebM (.webm), and RealMedia (.rm). Containers may
include data compressed by a choice of codecs, and media players may
recognize and play back more than one video ile container format.
Container formats may also include metadata—important information about the tracks contained in them—and even additional media
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Multimedia: Making It Work
First Person
Captain’s Log: We received some
excellent design tips from Bernice
T. Glenn:
As intermedia applications continue to proliferate, producers
and designers need to know how
to loat between print and color
pigment, digital color and RGB as
viewed on a monitor, and analog
color as viewed on a television
screen. Color formulas for multimedia, especially when it is interactive, depend heavily on human
factors. Contrast—or the degree
of tonal diference between one
color and another—is often more
important when working with color
on a computer screen. A combination of pure yellow with pure violet,
or blue and orange, for example,
will vibrate when viewed in RGB.
On video, disturbing lickers, extraneous colors, and other artifacts
usually appear on the borders
between pure complementary
colors. On top of that, colors that
look great on your computer monitor may not even show up when
transferred to video. Important
elements can be emphasized by
using fully saturated colors against
a neutral background, whose color
may complement as a grayed-down
tint of the color.
When readability is important, contrast in color saturation and value
between the type and its background really works, using almost
any color combination.
Red or green may need to be
avoided as cue colors [for menu buttons and icons] because eight percent of the population is color blind
to some extent and cannot see reds
or greens in their true color value.
From “Ask the Captain,” a monthly
column written by Tay Vaughan for
NewMedia magazine
besides audio and video. he QuickTime container, for example, allows
inclusion of text tracks, chapter markers, transitions, and even interactive
sprites. Totally Hip’s LiveStage Pro (www.totallyhip.com) is an authoring
tool that can produce interactive multimedia self-contained within a single
QuickTime .mov container.
Codecs
To digitize and store a 10-second clip of full-motion video in your computer
requires the transfer of an enormous amount of data in a very short amount
of time. Reproducing just one frame of digital video component video at
24 bits requires almost 1MB of computer data; 30 seconds of full-screen,
uncompressed video will ill a gigabyte hard disk. Full-size, full-motion
uncompressed video requires that the computer deliver data at about 30MB
per second. his overwhelming technological bottleneck is overcome using
digital video compression schemes or codecs (coders/decoders). A codec is
the algorithm used to compress a video for delivery and then decode it in
real time for fast playback. Diferent codecs are optimized for diferent
methods of delivery (for example, from a hard drive, from a DVD, or over
the Web). Codecs such as Theora and H.264 compress digital video information at rates that range from 50:1 to 200:1. Some codecs store only
Chapter 6 Video
the image data that changes from frame to frame instead of the data that
makes up each and every individual frame. Other codecs use computationintensive methods to predict what pixels will change from frame to frame
and store the predictions to be deconstructed during playback. hese are all
lossy codecs where image quality is (somewhat) sacriiced to signiicantly
reduce ile size.
MPEG
he MPEG standards were developed by the Moving Picture Experts
Group (MPEG, www.mpeg.org), a working group convened by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International
Electro-technical Commission (IEC), which created standards for the
digital representation of moving pictures as well as associated audio and
other data. Using MPEG-1 (speciications released in 1992), you could
deliver 1.2 Mbps (megabits per second) of video and 250 Kbps (kilobits
per second) of two-channel stereo audio using CD-ROM technology.
MPEG-2 (speciications released in 1994), a completely diferent system
from MPEG-1, required higher data rates (3 to 15 Mbps) but also delivered higher image resolution, improved picture quality, interlaced video
formats, multiresolution scalability, and multichannel audio features.
MPEG-2 became the video compression standard required for digital
television (DTV) and for making DVDs.
he MPEG speciications since MPEG-2 include elements beyond
just the encoding of video. As a container, MPEG-4 (speciications released
in 1998 and 1999) provides a content-based method for assimilating multimedia elements. It ofers indexing, hyperlinking, querying, browsing,
uploading, downloading, and deleting functions, as well as “hybrid natural
and synthetic data coding,” which will enable harmonious integration of
natural and synthetic audiovisual objects. With MPEG-4, multiple views,
layers, and multiple sound tracks of a scene, as well as stereoscopic and 3-D
views, are available, making virtual reality workable. MPEG-4 can adjust
to varied download speeds, making it an attractive option for delivery of
video on the Web. he MPEG-4 AVC standard (Advanced Video Coding, Part 10) requires the H.264 codec for Blu-ray discs.
Because the software behind MPEG-4 is patented by more than two
dozen companies, developers who build video editors and players that
read and write MPEG-4 iles must purchase licenses and make royalty
payments.
The Codec Wars
he high bit rate requirements of video and the (relatively) low bit rates
available from CD-ROMs, and later from the Web, have led to a long
and occasionally confusing progression in the development of codecs.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
My client had just completed
a production run of 5,000
CDs containing my project
for them. I was pretty proud
of it: it had a 3D ly-in
opening, integrated testing,
Flash elements, customizable
printing, the ability to save
paths through the program.
I thought I had thoroughly
tested the golden master.
But late in development
I had changed the audio
codec in three of the video
clips and, sure enough, the
audio wouldn’t play on the
Macintosh on those three
clips. he client tossed the
production run. I was a
victim of the killer codec.
Brad Borch, Activa Design
Generally, the greater the compression, the more processing “horsepower” (and waiting time) is needed to compress and decompress the
video. So only relatively new computers are capable of decompressing
highly compressed video at a rate that can keep up with the video data
stream. Using the best or “latest” codecs in your project is a good idea,
but it must be balanced by ensuring that the video will play on the widest
range of computers.
Unencumbered by licensing and royalty fees, and supported by many
but not all implementations of the HTML5 browsers’ <VIDEO> tag
(see Chapter 13), the heora video codec and the Vorbis audio codec
in an Ogg container is both platform independent and widely available, particularly within free and open-source video editing software. At
one point in the development of the HTML5 speciication, Ogg (using
heora and Vorbis codecs) was the video container required to be available in all compliant browsers, thus providing a single video format web
developers could count on. But some manufacturers complained that
their own favored (but proprietary and patented) codecs worked better and no container should be speciied at all. To the consternation of
the open-source and web developer community, midway through the
evolution of the draft HTML5 spec the language was changed from
efectively requiring all compliant browsers to support at minimum Ogg
heora video and Ogg Vorbis audio, as well as the Ogg container format,
to simply suggesting that browsers support the same codecs, thus leaving
standardization of the <VIDEO> containers and codecs in limbo (see
Table 6-3).
he Flash video container, which uses the older VP6 and a newer
H.263 codec (depending upon version), is used by YouTube and at many
web sites but requires the Flash plug-in to be installed in the user’s browser.
For playing WMV containers, Macintosh computers require installing the
Silverlight plug-in, a Microsoft development framework similar to Flash.
he H.264 codec was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group,
is patented and proprietary, and is required on Blu-ray discs and used by
YouTube, iTunes, and some broadcast services. Google’s open-source VP8
codec works within the WebM container (www.webmproject.org), and
was launched as an efort to replace Flash and H.264 on the Web. Google
is re-encoding all its Flash holdings at YouTube to work with WebM and
VP8 as well as with the H.264 codec.
Because of this codec and container war, for web developers wishing to place video elements onto their pages, programming with the
HTML5 <VIDEO> tag (which was supposed to simplify and standardize inclusion of video at web sites) remains as complicated as ever (see
Table 6-3). his is a constantly changing area of development, so check
these browsers from time to time to see which codecs and containers are
currently supported:
Chapter 6 Video
177
Chrome: www.chromium.org/
Safari: www.apple.com/safari/
Internet Explorer: ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/
Opera: www.opera.com/
Firefox: www.mozilla.com/
A discussion of the HTML5 <VIDEO> tag can be found in Chapter 13
along with snippets of code for launching your video using HTML5.
Internet
Explorer 9
MP4 Container
with H.264 video
and ACC audio
codecs
Firefox
4.0+
yes
MOV Container
with H.264 video
and ACC audio
codecs
Safari
3.0+
Chrome
6+
yes
yes
Opera
11.0+
yes
OGG Container
with Theora
video and Vorbis
audio codecs
Apple
iPhone/
iPad
Android
Devices
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
WebM Container
with VP8 video
and Vorbis audio
codecs
yes
yes
Flash FLV
Container with
VP6 video and
MP3 audio
codecs
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
Flash FLV
Container with
H.263 video
and MP3 audio
codecs
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
Flash MP4
Container with
H.264 video
and AAC audio
codecs
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
plug-in
required
yes
Table 6-3 Not All HTML5 Video Containers and Their Codecs Are Recognized as Playable by All Browsers
yes
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Video Format Converters
Be prepared to produce more than one version of your video (codecs in
a container) to ensure that the video will play on all the devices and in
all the browsers necessary for your project’s distribution. DVD video uses
MPEG-2 compression. Blu-ray video uses MPEG-4 AVC compression.
hese are known standards and few choices are necessary: simply click
“Save for DVD” or “Save for Blu-ray.” But if you need to prepare a video
ile that will run on an iPod, a Droid, and an Atom-based netbook, as well
as in all web browsers, you will need to convert your material into multiple
formats. here are many free, shareware, and inexpensive ile format converters available for multiple platforms. Figure 6-4 shows a menu of video
format selections and proiles available in the free converter Handbrake
for Mac and Windows (http://handbrake.fr).
Figure 6-4
Working with many
video formats
(containers and
codecs) is made
simpler with conversion software.
Chapter 6 Video
Obtaining Video Clips
After you’ve decided that your project should and will include video,
consider whether you should shoot new “footage” (a legacy term from the
ilm and analog world) or acquire preexisting content for your video clips.
here are many sources for ilm and video clips: a friend’s home movies
may suice, or you can go to a “stock” footage house or a television station
or movie studio. But acquiring footage that you do not own outright can
be a nightmare—it is expensive, and licensing rights and permissions may
be diicult, if not impossible, to obtain. Each second of video could cost
$50 to $100 or more to license. Even material from a “public domain clip”
from the National Archives must be researched:
Generally, materials produced by Federal agencies are in the
public domain and may be reproduced without permission.
However, not all materials appearing on this web site are in
the public domain... Items found in our holdings may be copyrighted. Please note that it is your responsibility to identify the
copyright owner and to obtain permission before making use of
this material in any way.
NOTE
Many companies sell royalty-free video stock speciically for multimedia productions—these are lower resolution than broadcast quality and typically less than full-frame video.
On some projects, you will have no choice but to pay the price for
required footage. If it is absolutely essential that your project include a clip
of Elvis Presley crooning “You Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog,” and an
Elvis impersonator just won’t do, you will have to negotiate for rights to
use the real thing. If your budget can’t cover the cost of licensing a particular video clip, you may want to consider using other alternatives. You could
try locating a less expensive archival video source, using a series of still
images rather than video, or shooting your own video. If you shoot your
own video for a project, make sure you have talent releases from all persons
who appear or speak and permission to use the audio efects and music you
weave into it. Licensing, permissions, and legal issues are discussed more
fully in Chapter 11.
For projects that are focused on training, particularly training people to use software applications, video screen capture of mouse and key
activity is widely used along with a voice-over sound track. Video screen
capture tools for both PC and Macintosh systems will generate video
iles that can then be edited and integrated with audio. One eLearning
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Multimedia: Making It Work
and courseware authoring program, Adobe’s Captivate (www.adobe.com/
products/captivate/), will not only capture your own screen activity but
allow you to import video in a wide variety of formats (AVI, MOV, FLV,
MPEG) and edit it into your inal project.
TIP
Before nonlinear video editing suites became commonplace in television studios, video was edited into a master using two tape decks (A and B).
The A deck contained video of an event or the reporter doing an interview;
the B deck contained ancillary and supporting material and scenery. “B-roll”
is what editors call the collection of general footage that supports the main
theme or narration. Locating and integrating B-roll, especially using royaltyfree or public domain footage, can greatly enhance your project while keeping
your costs down.
Shooting and Editing Video
Before you head out to the ield with your camcorder in hand, it is important to understand at least the basics of video recording and editing, as well
as the constraints of using video in a multimedia project.
Setting up a production environment for making digital video requires
hardware that meets minimum speciications for processing speed, data
transfer, and storage. here are many considerations to keep in mind when
setting up your production environment, depending on the capabilities of
your camcorder:
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Fast processor(s)
Plenty of RAM
Computer with FireWire (IEEE 1394 or i.Link) or USB connection
and cables
Fast and big hard disk(s)
A second display to allow for more real estate for your editing
software
External speakers
Nonlinear editing (NLE) software
Expensive professional video equipment and services may not yield
proportionately greater beneits than if you used consumer-grade equipment and nonlinear editors. As with audio equipment, you need to make
balancing decisions using Vaughan’s Law of Multimedia Minimums (see
Chapter 4). Most likely, your goal is to expend resources without diminishing returns—in other words, to produce multimedia that is adequate
and does its job, but doesn’t break your bank. If you can, experiment with
Chapter 6 Video
various combinations of video recording and playback devices hooked to
your computer, and test the results using your multimedia-authoring platform. You can do a great deal of satisfactory work with consumer-grade
video cameras and recording equipment if you understand the limitations
of the technology.
The Shooting Platform
Never underestimate the value of a steady shooting platform. A classic
symbol of amateur home movies is shaky camera work. Using a tripod or
even placing the camera on a stable platform, such as a rolled-up sweater
on the hood of a car, can improve a shot. With a little care, and careful
adjustment of the lockdown screws, a sturdy conventional tripod can do
wonders. If you must shoot handheld, try to use a camera with an electronic image stabilization feature for static shots, use a “steady-cam” balancing attachment, or use camera moves and a moving subject to mask
your lack of steadiness. Even using a rolling oice chair and sitting facing
the back with the camera balanced on the chair-back makes a convenient,
stable dolly. If you must shoot handheld, set the camera’s lens to the widest
angle: at a wide angle, camera motion becomes smaller relative to the ield
of view and is thus less apparent.
And invest in an external microphone, like a Lavaliere. It will give
you better audio than the on-camera microphone during interviews, and
you can easily hide it in the scene during general use. Or use a “shotgun”
mic on a boom, with an operator who can “ride levels” by monitoring the
recorded volume.
Most important, learn the features and controls of your camera—there
are many tiny icons and menu selections! Study the manual. Experiment
and practice. Stay organized—keep your extra batteries, spare memory
cards and tapes, your charger and cables, and even your manual (in case
you haven’t studied it hard enough) in a good camera bag. Learn how
to connect the camera to your computer and how to access your video
footage with nonlinear editing software. Learn how to use the editing
software. If you are new to video, this is a steep learning curve with many
small annoyances, but it is forgiving: if you mess up your video, there is
often something from it that can be recovered and used.
Many digital camcorders will allow you to choose 4:3 or 16:9 aspect
ratios for your recording, one or the other. Unfortunately, there is no easy
way to convert between these aspect ratios, so you should decide up front
which to use in your multimedia project. As shown in Figure 6-5, there
are three ways to convert from a 4:3 aspect ratio for display on a 16:9
aspect ratio screen: you can stretch the 4:3 image to ill the 16:9 frame
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Multimedia: Making It Work
(this distortion can make people look fat), you can zoom the width of
the image to it the 16:9 frame (you lose part of the top and bottom of
the image), or you can place the image into the center of the 16:9 frame
(leaving empty pillars right and left). here are two ways to convert from
16:9 to 4:3. he Letterbox or hard matte method produces blank bars at
top and bottom, but leaves the original image untouched; Pan and Scan,
on the other hand, loses both sides of the original image. When using
the Pan and Scan method for conversion, editors will carefully pan across
wide scenes to capture the best area to show. Videographers and widescreen moviemakers often consider a 4:3 “safe frame” area when setting
up their wide shots, knowing that their work will be converted to 4:3 for
the DVD aftermarket. Some DVDs use an anamorphic widescreen
coding system to squeeze 16:9 widescreen image data into a DVD’s standard 4:3 aspect ratio format; with a compatible player, these “Enhanced
for Widescreen Televisions” discs will play the original video properly on
a 16:9 screen.
Converting 16:9 to 4:3
Oi i l
Original
L
b
Letterbox
P and
d Scan
S
Pan
Converting 4:3 to 16:9
Original
Oi i l
Pillars
Pill
Zoom
Z
Stretch
S
h
Figure 6-5 Methods for converting 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios in video production
TIP If your camera is HD-capable, it is a good idea to shoot your footage
in HD. While it may be diicult to deploy HD video in your project due to
bandwidth and memory constraints, you will have archived the footage at the
highest resolution available to you. You can easily convert the high-deinition
Chapter 6 Video
source video to standard deinition, but you cannot convert the other way
without enhancer software that attempts to increase the resolution and make
the video “good looking.”
Storyboarding
Preplanning a video project is a factor that cannot be ignored without
costing time loss, lots of unnecessary aggravation, and money that would
be better spent elsewhere. Successful video production, of any sort,
deserves the time it takes to make a plan to carry it out. It may take a
little time at irst, but you’ll ind it to be very helpful in the long run.
Storyboards are like any sequential comic you read daily. Every day there
are three or four panels showing a progression of story or information.
Take the time to structure your production by writing it down and then
engineer a sequential group of drawings showing camera and scene,
shooting angles, lighting, action, special efects, and how objects move
through from start to inish. A storyboard can get everyone on one page
quickly.
Lighting
Perhaps the greatest diference between professional camcorders and
consumer camcorders is their ability to perform at low light levels. With
proper lighting, however, it may be diicult for uninitiated viewers to
diferentiate between shots taken with an expensive studio-grade video
camera and an inexpensive camcorder. Using a simple loodlight kit, or
even just being sure that daylight illuminates the room, can improve your
image. Onboard battery lights for camcorders can be useful, but only in
conditions where the light acts as a “ill light” to illuminate the details
of a subject’s face. As in photography, good lighting techniques separate
amateurs from professionals in video shoots.
Illustrated in Figure 6-6 is a screen from he Lighting Lab. he standard lighting arrangement of a studio is displayed with ill, key, rim, and
background lights. Changing any of these lights can make a dramatic difference in the shot. his project originally used a QuickTime container
of several hundred single-frame images of the model as she is lighted by
every permutation of lamp and intensity; clicking a light switch instantly
shows the efect of that combination. If you are not convinced that lighting
is critical to the success of a photo or video shoot, it will become immediately clear with this exercise! Try it at www.tayvaughan.com/multimedia/
stuf/lightinglab.html.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Figure 6-6 Good
lighting is essential for
quality video results.
When I worked in live video
at KCAL in Los Angeles,
one of our anchor women
wore a blouse that was the
same chroma-key blue that
we could program into our
Ultimatte. Actually, the
anchor should have known
better. We, being the naughty
guys we were, keyed a closeup
of two big eyes from one
of the other anchors onto
her blouse and fed it into
the stage loor monitor and
waited to see how long it
would take before she noticed
it. It was a couple of minutes,
while everyone was trying to
keep a straight face, before
she saw what we had done.
She threw her script at us,
and we all broke up laughing.
Joe Silverthorn, Integrated
Multimedia Professor,
Olympic College
Chroma Keys
Chroma keys allow you to choose a color or range of colors that become
transparent, allowing the video image to be seen “through” the computer
image. his is the technology used by a newscast’s weather person, who
is shot against a blue background that is made invisible when merged
with the electronically generated image of the weather map. he weatherman controls the computer part of the display with a small handheld
controller.
A useful tool easily implemented in most digital video editing
applications is blue screen, green screen, Ultimatte, or chroma key
editing. When Captain Picard of Star Trek fame walks on the surface of
the moon, it is likely that he is actually walking on a studio set in front of
a screen or wall painted blue. Actually placing Picard on the moon was,
no doubt, beyond the budget of the shoot, but it could be faked using
blue screen techniques. After shooting the video of Picard’s walk against
a blue background and shooting another video consisting of the desired
background moonscape, the two videos were mixed together: wherever
there was blue in the Picard shot, it was replaced by the background
image, frame by frame.
Blue screen is a popular technique for making multimedia titles
because expensive sets are not required. Incredible backgrounds can be
generated using 3-D modeling and graphic software, and one or more
actors, vehicles, or other objects can be neatly layered onto that background. Video editing applications provide the tools for this.
When you are shooting blue screen, be sure that the lighting of the
screen is absolutely even; luctuations in intensity will make this “key”
Chapter 6 Video
appear choppy or broken. Shooting in daylight, and letting the sun
illuminate the screen, will mitigate this problem. Also be careful about
“color spill.” If your actors stand too close to the screen, the colored light
relecting of the screen will spill onto them, and parts of their body will
key out. While adjustments in most applications can compensate for this,
the adjustments are limited. Beware of ine detail, such as hair or smoke,
that wisps over the screen; this does not key well.
Figure 6-7 shows frames taken from a video of an actor shot against
blue screen on a commercial stage. he blue background was removed
from each frame, and the actor himself was turned into a photo-realistic
animation that walked, jumped, pointed, and ran from a dinosaur.
Figure 6-7 This walking, jumping, and pointing actor was videotaped against a blue screen.
Composition
he general rules for shooting quality video for broadcast use also apply
to multimedia. When shooting video for playback in a small window, it is
best to avoid wide panoramic shots, as the sweeping majesty will be lost.
Use close-ups and medium shots, head-and-shoulders or even tighter.
Depending upon the compression algorithm used (see the discussion on
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Multimedia: Making It Work
video codecs earlier in the chapter), consider also the amount of motion
in the shot: the more a scene changes from frame to frame, the more
“delta” information needs to be transferred from the computer’s memory
to the screen. Keep the camera still instead of panning and zooming; let
the subject add the motion to your shot, walking, turning, talking.
Beware of excessive backlighting—shooting with a window or a
bright sky in the background—is a common error in amateur video
production. Many cameras can be set to automatically compensate for
backlighting. If you adjust for this, the background may be “blown out”
(so bright the video signal peaks), but at least the foreground image
you’re focusing on will be visible. Of course, the best choice in this situation is to light the foreground.
Non-professional cameras are set to always adjust the iris (the opening in the lens) to keep the image’s overall exposure at a constant level.
When you go from a dark to light setting the camera will adjust, and
you can often see this shift. Pro cameras allow the iris setting to be
locked down to avoid this.
In diferent situations, white may not be white, depending on the color
temperature (warmth or coolness) of the light source. White balancecorrects for bluish, orange, or greenish color casts resulting from an uneven
distribution of colors in the spectrum your eye tells you is white, but your
less forgiving digital camera says is not quite white. Many cameras automatically set white balance with best guesses, but they also ofer adjustable
settings for daylight, shady, cloudy, tungsten, and luorescent lighting conditions. Try to get the white balance correct when shooting; then you won’t
be spending time with your editing software to remove the greenish tinge
from your client’s white wedding dress.
Titles and Text
Titles and text are often used to introduce a video and its content. hey may
also inish of a project and provide credits accompanied by a sound track.
Titles can be plain and simple, or they can be storyboarded and highly
designed. For plain and simple, you can use templates (see Figure 6-8)
in an image editor and then sequence those images into your video using
your video editing software. Or you can create your own imagery or animations and sequence them. More elaborate titles, typical for feature ilms
and commercial videos, can become multimedia projects in themselves.
Upasana Nattoji Roy’s title design for Director Indrajit Nattoji’s “Aagey
Se Right,” for example, began with creative ideas (see Chapter 10), transitioned into a detailed storyboard and animations (see Chapter 7), and was
inally rendered using AfterEfects (see Figure 6-9).
Chapter 6 Video
187
Figure 6-8 Title templates are available for downloading. This template
from “Westie” is at www.mediacollege.
com/downloads/video/titles/.
Figure 6-9 Elaborate titles are storyboarded, animated, and rendered to video using many multimedia tools. This title sequence
was designed for a short ilm and stitched together using AfterEfects at Switch! Check out http://theswitchsite.wordpress.com/ to
view the inished title sequence.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
If you make your own, here are some suggestions for creating good
titles:
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Fonts for titles should be plain, sans serif, and bold enough to be
easily read.
When you are laying text onto a dark background, use white or a light
color for the text.
Use a drop shadow to help separate the text from the background
image.
Do not kern your letters too tightly.
If you use underlining or drawn graphics, always make your lines at
least two pixels wide. If you use a one-pixel-wide line (or a width measured in an odd number of pixels), the line may licker when transferred to video due to interlacing.
Use parallel lines, boxes, and tight concentric circles sparingly. When
you use them, draw them large and with thick lines.
Avoid colors like bright reds and magenta that are too “hot”; they
might twinkle and buzz.
Neighboring colors should be markedly diferent in intensity. For
example, use a light blue and a dark red, but not a medium blue and a
medium red.
Keep your graphics and titles within the safe area of the screen. Remember that CRT televisions overscan (see the earlier section “Overscan
and the Safe Title Area”).
Bring titles on slowly, keep them on screen for a suicient time, and
then fade them out.
Avoid making busy title screens; use more pages or a longer sequence
instead.
Nonlinear Editing (NLE)
Top-of-the-line nonlinear editing (NLE) software includes Adobe’s
Premiere, Apple’s Final Cut, and Avid’s Media Composer, the “A Team” of
professional video editors. hese are feature-packed and expensive packages designed to work hand-in-hand with fast and powerful computers
(six gigabytes of RAM recommended) and dedicated ile servers. Many
hours of training and many days of experience are needed before users
become proicient.
If your project involves simple cutting and editing of footage, with
a few transitions and titles thrown in, then you may be satisied with
simpler software such as Microsoft’s Windows Live Movie Maker (see
Figure6-10) or Apple’s iMovie for Macs (see Figure 6-11) that come free
with the operating system. Table 6-4 contains a list of free video editing
software applications to choose from.
Chapter 6 Video
Name
Platform
Download Address
Avidemux
Windows/Mac/BSD/Linux
www.avidemux.org
Cinelerra
Linux/Mac
www.heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php
iMovie
Mac
www.apple.com/ilife/imovie
Kdenlive
Linux/BSD/Mac
www.kdenlive.org
Kino
Linux/BSD
http://kinodv.org
LiVES
Linux/BSD/Mac
http://lives.sourceforge.net
OpenShot
Linux
www.openshotvideo.com
Pinnacle Videospin
Windows
www.videospin.com/Redesign
PiTiVi
Linux
www.pitivi.org
VideoLab
Windows
www.mitov.com/html/videolab.html
VideoThang TM
Windows
www.videothang.com
VirtualDub
Windows
www.virtualdub.org
Windows Live Movie Maker
Windows
http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker
189
Table 6-4 Free Video Editing Software
Figure 6-10
Windows Live
Movie Maker comes
free with Windows
and can edit photos
and videos, add
special efects, and
make DVDs and
iles for the Web.
190
Multimedia: Making It Work
Figure 6-11 iMovie is a robust video editor that comes free with Macintosh computers and provides full
libraries of title templates, video efects, and transitions.
Remember not to edit and re-edit and re-edit again. he video codecs
used are lossy, so each time you inalize a ile, it will be less true than the
original material—this is called generation loss. Because NLE software
works with EDLs (edit decision lists) based upon the raw source video, be
sure you have suicient disk space to store your original footage.
Chapter 6 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
Consider the implications of using digital video
in multimedia
■
Video places the highest performance demand on
any computer system.
■
A massive amount of imagery must be squeezed
into a comparatively small data ile using
compression (and decompression) software
called a codec.
■
You will need to make many choices and compromises based upon your assessment of the “lowest
common denominator” playback platform where
your project will be used.
Discuss video analog and digital technologies
and displays
■
A charge-coupled device (CCD) converts the light
that has been relected from an object through the
camera’s lens.
■
Four broadcast and video standards and recording
formats are commonly in use around the world:
NTSC, PAL, SECAM, and HDTV.
■
■
HDTV provides high resolution in a 16:9
aspect ratio.
Flat screen displays are all-digital, using
either liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma
technologies, and have supplanted CRTs for
computer use.
■
he process of building a single frame from two
ields is called interlacing, a technique that helps
to prevent licker.
■
Progressive-scan technology draws the lines of an
entire video frame in a single pass, without interlacing them and without licker.
■
Don’t place critical information such as text in the
outer 15 percent of the screen. Keep it within the
“safe title area.”
Work with digital video containers and codecs to
select the best video recording formats for multimedia projects
■
Codecs are digital video and audio compression
schemes that compress a video into a container for
delivery and then decode it during playback.
■
Video containers may include data compressed
by a choice of codecs, and media players may
recognize and play back more than one video ile
container format.
■
he MPEG standards were developed by the
Moving Picture Experts Group.
■
he HTML5 <VIDEO> tag was supposed to
simplify and standardize inclusion of video at
web sites, but it remains embroiled in a codec and
container war.
Find and acquire video clips
■
here are many sources for digital video, but
getting the rights can be diicult, time-consuming,
and expensive.
■
eLearning projects often employ screen capture
programs to record mouse and keyboard activities
to teach about a software application.
Shoot and edit video for use in multimedia
■
Always shoot using a steady shooting platform.
■
Storyboards are a useful exercise when planning
a shoot.
■
Good, even lighting is extremely important.
■
Expensive stages are not required when using blue
screen or matte techniques.
191
■
Avoid wide panoramic shots and camera motion
when shooting for a small computer window on
CD-ROM or the Web.
■
Fonts for titles should be plain, sans serif, and bold
enough to be easily read.
■
Most editing is now being done on computers
using nonlinear editing (NLE) software such as
Avid, Premiere, and Final Cut.
■ Key Terms
16:9 (170)
Advanced Television Systems Committee
(ATSC) (170)
anamorphic widescreen (182)
ATSC Digital Television Standard (167)
B-roll (180)
blue screen (184)
cathode ray tube (CRT) (170)
charge-coupled device (CCD) (165)
chroma key (184)
chroma key editing (184)
codec (165)
component (166)
composite (166)
degaussing (171)
Digital Television (DTV) (169)
Digital Visual Interface (DVI) (167)
dubbing (168)
DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) (165)
EDL (edit decision list) (190)
footage (179)
generation loss (190)
green screen (184)
helical scan (166)
High Deinition Television (HDTV) (169)
High-Deinition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) (167)
interlacing (166)
liquid crystal display (LCD) (171)
Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) (175)
National Television Standards Committee
(NTSC) (168)
MPEG-1 (175)
MPEG-2 (175)
MPEG-4 (175)
nonlinear editing (NLE) (188)
overscan (173)
Phase Alternate Line (PAL) (168)
pillar (182)
plasma (171)
progressive-scan (171)
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent
Disks) (165)
safe title area (173)
Separate Video (S-Video) (166)
Sequential Color and Memory (SECAM) (168)
Theora (174)
tracking (166)
Ultimatte (184)
underscan (173)
VGA connector (167)
video cassette recorder (VCR) (167)
white balance (186)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. A redundant hard-disk system that will support high-speed data transfer rates is called a
________________.
2. he television signal format used in the United States, Japan, and many other countries is known as
________________.
192
3. Television screens use a process of building a single frame from two ields to help prevent licker on CRTs
in a technique called ________________.
4. When creating graphics for conversion to video, do not place any critical information such as text in the
outside 15 percent of the image. Instead, keep it within the ________________ (three words).
5. High-Deinition Television (HDTV) is displayed in a(n) ________________ aspect ratio.
6. he television signal format used in France, Russia, and a few other countries is known as ____________.
7. he digital video and audio compression schemes that compress a video for delivery and then decode it
during playback are called ________________.
8. When reformatting a 4:3 aspect ratio video to it in the center of a HDTV screen, leaving the sides empty,
the efect is called ________________.
9. he video compression/decompression scheme used in an Ogg container is called _____________.
10. MPEG is an acronym for ________________.
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. In a video camera, the sensor that picks up light
is called a CCD. CCD stands for:
a. color-coding data
b. custom color descriptor
c. chroma-calculation daemon
d. charge-coupled device
e. carbon crystal digitizer
2. A computer’s output on a CRT is calibrated to
display an image:
a. smaller than the actual monitor’s capability
b. larger than the actual monitor’s capability
c. exactly the same size as the actual monitor’s
capability
d. that adjusts automatically to the monitor’s
capability
e. of a ixed size; whether it is larger or smaller
than the monitor’s capability depends on the
monitor
3. Removing a residual magnetic ield that distorts
the colors on a television screen is called:
a. tracking
b. dubbing
c. streaming
d. lattening
e. degaussing
4. A video signal transmitted with all the signals
mixed together and carried on a single cable is
called:
a. RGB video
b. composite video
c. component video
d. multiformat video
e. chroma-key video
5. Which of the following is not a television signal
format?
a. MPEG
b. NTSC
c. PAL
d. SECAM
e. HDTV
6. Computer displays draw the lines of an entire
frame in a single pass; this technique is called:
a. streaming
b. progressive-scan
c. packing
d. lattening
e. overscan
193
7. he video technique that allows you to choose a
color or range of colors that become transparent,
allowing the video image to be visible behind
those colors in the overlying image, is known by
all of the following except:
a. blue screen
b. Ultimatte
c. chroma key
d. interlacing
e. green screen
8. Which of the following is a multimedia container
format?
a. JPEG
b. DVD-RW
c. ComponentY
d. Hi-8
e. Ogg
9. Red or green should be avoided as cue colors
because:
a. they represent negative ideas in some
cultures
b. they do not blend well with other colors
c. color-blind individuals cannot see them
correctly
d. they are associated with “stop” and “go”
e. they remind people of Christmas
10. Which of the following is not a good idea when
creating titles (text) to be used in video?
a. Fonts for titles should be plain, sans serif,
and bold enough to be easily read.
b. When you are laying text onto a dark
background, use white or a light color for
the text.
c. Do not kern your letters too tightly.
d. If you use underlining or drawn graphics,
make sure your lines are only one pixel wide.
e. Use a drop shadow to help separate the text
from the background.
194
11. Which of the following is not a typical studio
light?
a. rim light
b. ill light
c. key light
d. background light
e. focal light
12. Which of the following is not a codec?
a. H.264
b. heora
c. NTSC
d. VP6
e. VP8
13. Generation loss occurs when:
a. an analog tape is copied to another analog
tape
b. a digital ile is copied to another hard disk
c. a digital ile is copied to another hard drive
d. a digital ile is compressed with a lossy
codec
e. your teenage son gets his tongue pierced
14. MPEG stands for:
a. Multiformat Processed-Event Graphics
b. Multi-Phase Element Grid
c. Meta-Program Environment Graph
d. Moving Picture Experts Group
e. Micro-Phase Electronic Guidance
15. Which of the following HTML5 tags is used in
the display of multimedia video?
a. <LOAD>
b. <ANIMATE>
c. <FORWARD>
d. <PLAY>
e. None of the above
■ Essay Quiz
1. List the steps involved in capturing video, compressing the video, and preparing it for DVD. Briely discuss
the decisions you need to make with each step regarding compromises on image quality and other limiting
factors.
2. Discuss how the computer monitor image difers from a television image. List the limitations in creating
images on the computer destined for a television screen.
3. Discuss several considerations in shooting and editing video for multimedia. What techniques would you
use to produce the best possible video, at a reasonable cost? Which of these techniques apply to all video,
and which apply speciically to multimedia?
4. Briely discuss what deines the quality of a video signal. What factors afect this quality? How do the
various analog television signal formats difer in quality? How does the recording format afect this quality?
What about digital format? How can you ensure that your video is of the best possible quality? If the end
result is going to be a postage-stamp-sized streaming video clip at 10 frames per second, why would quality
matter?
5. Deine codec and list an example of a codec.
Lab Projects
■Project 6.1
Go to a local electronics superstore. What kinds of video cameras are available? What capabilities do the “prosumer”
cameras have? What features do they have that would be useful in multimedia? Document your indings.
■Project 6.2
Locate three web sites that include video clips. What format are they served in? Examine the HTML source
code to discover what method of video delivery is used. Make a note of your indings. Some clips are available in
a streaming format and are not easily downloadable. Others can be downloaded. Download the clips you can and
open them in QuickTime or Windows Media Player. List the codecs that were used to compress the clips.
■Project 6.3
Prepare ive graphic images using a paint or drawing program. Be sure to include a variety of colors and contrasts.
Add text to the images. Use small text, large text, text with serifs, bold text, and text in contrasting and similar
colors. Add drop shadows. Add boxes and other shapes to the images, in various weights.
Locate a computer with video-out capabilities, and view the images on a digital display and on a CRT. Note
your indings:
■
Which color combinations worked well? Which did not?
■
Were any colors distracting?
■
What about the text and graphics? Which looked best?
■
What about the safe title area? What percentage of the image was clipped? (Note that some computers
have video outputs that underscan rather than overscan. Remember, such a setup does not accurately relect
the image size that would result from a computer-to-video conversion.)
195
196
CHAPTER 7
Making Multimedia
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Describe the four primary
stages in a multimedia
project
■ Discuss the intangible
elements needed to make
good multimedia: creativity,
organization, and communication skill
■ Discuss the hardware
most often used in making
multimedia and choose an
appropriate platform for a
project
■ Understand common
software programs used
to handle text, graphics,
audio, video, and animation
in multimedia projects and
discuss their capabilities
■ Determine which multi-
media authoring system is
most appropriate for any
given project
I
n this chapter, you will be introduced to the workshop where multimedia is made, with guidance and suggestions for getting started, and
you will learn about planning a project. In later chapters, you will learn
about producing, managing, and designing a project; getting material and
content; testing your work; and, ultimately, shipping it to end users or
posting it to the Web.
The Stages of a Multimedia Project
Most multimedia and web projects must be undertaken in stages. Some
stages should be completed before other stages begin, and some stages may
be skipped or combined. Here are the four basic stages in a multimedia
project:
1. Planning and costing A project always begins with an idea or a
need that you then reine by outlining its messages and objectives.
Identify how you will make each message and objective work within
your authoring system. Before you begin developing, plan out the
writing skills, graphic art, music, video, and other multimedia expertise that you will require. Develop a creative “look and feel” (what a
user sees on a screen and how he or she interacts with it), as well as a
structure and a navigational system that will allow the viewer to visit
the messages and content. Estimate the time you’ll need to do all the
elements, and then prepare a budget. Work up a short prototype
or proof-of-concept, a simple, working example to demonstrate
whether or not your idea is feasible. he ease with which you can
create materials with today’s production and authoring tools tempts
new developers to immediately move into production—jumping in
before planning. his often results in false starts and wasted time
and, in the long run, higher development cost. he more time you
spend getting a handle on your project by deining its content and
structure in the beginning, the faster you can later build it, and the
less reworking and rearranging will be required midstream. hink it
through before you start! Your creative ideas and trials will grow into
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
screens and buttons (or the look and feel), and your proof-of-concept
will help you test whether your ideas will work. You may discover
that by breaking the rules, you can invent something terriic!
2. Designing and producing Perform each of the planned tasks
to create a inished product. During this stage, there may be many
feedback cycles with a client until the client is happy.
3. Testing Test your programs to make sure that they meet the
objectives of your project, work properly on the intended delivery
platforms, and meet the needs of your client or end user.
4. Delivering Package and deliver the project to the end user. Be
prepared to follow up over time with tweaks, repairs, and upgrades.
What You Need: The Intangibles
You need hardware, software, and good ideas to make multimedia. To make
good multimedia, you need talent and skill. You also need to stay organized,
because as the construction work gets under way, all the little bits and pieces
of multimedia content—the six audio recordings of Alaskan Eskimos, the
Christmas-two-years-ago snapshot of your niece, the 41 articles still to
scan with your optical character recognition (OCR) program—will get lost
under growing piles of paper, CDs, videotapes, phone messages, permissions and releases, cookie crumbs, Xerox copies, and yesterday’s mail. Even
in serious oices, where people sweep all lat surfaces clear of paperwork
and rubber bands at ive o’clock, there will be a mess.
You will need time and money (for consumable resources such as CD-R
blanks and other memory or digital storage, for telephoning and postage,
and possibly for paying for special services and time, yours included), and
you will need to budget these precious commodities (see Chapter 9).
You may also need the help of other people. Multimedia development
of any scale greater than the most basic level is inherently a team efort:
artwork is performed by graphic artists, video shoots by video producers,
sound editing by audio producers, and programming by programmers (see
Chapter 8). You will certainly wish to provide plenty of cofee and snacks,
whether working alone or as a team. Late nights are often involved in the
making of multimedia.
Creativity
Before beginning a multimedia project, you must irst develop a sense of
its scope and content. Let the project take shape in your head as you think
through the various methods available to get your message across to your
viewers.
197
198
Multimedia: Making It Work
he most precious asset you can bring to the multimedia workshop is
your creativity. It’s what separates run-of-the-mill or underwhelming multimedia from compelling, engaging, and award-winning products, whether
we’re talking about a short sales presentation viewed solely by colleagues
within your irm or provided for a fully immersive online game.
You have a lot of room for creative risk taking, because the rules for
what works and what doesn’t work are still being empirically discovered,
and there are few known formulas for multimedia success. Indeed, companies that produce a terriic multimedia title are usually rewarded in the
marketplace, but their success can be leeting. his is because competitors often reverse-engineer the product, and then produce knockofs using
similar approaches and techniques, which appear on the market six months
later. Good web site ideas and programming are easily cloned.
he evolution of multimedia is evident when you look at some of the
irst multimedia projects done on computers and compare them to today’s
titles. Taking inspiration from earlier experiments, developers modify and
add their own creative touches for designing their own unique multimedia
projects.
It is very diicult to learn creativity. Some people might say it’s
impossible—and that you have to be born with it. But, like traditional
artists who work in paint, marble, or bronze, the better you know your
medium, the better able you are to express your creativity. In the case of
multimedia, this means you need to know your hardware and software
irst. Once you’re proicient with the hardware and software tools, you
might ask yourself, “What can I build that will look great, sound great, and
knock the socks of the viewer?” his is a rhetorical question, and its answer
is actually another question—which is simply, “How creative are you?”
WARNING If you are managing a multimedia project, remember that
creative talent is priceless, so be certain to reward it well. If you don’t, you may ind
that your talent takes a job elsewhere, even at lower pay!
Organization
It’s essential that you develop an organized outline and a plan that rationally details the skills, time, budget, tools, and resources you will need for a
project. hese should be in place before you start to render graphics, sounds,
and other components, and a protocol should be established for naming
the iles so you can organize them for quick retrieval when you need them.
hese iles—called assets—should continue to be monitored throughout
the project’s execution. Chapter 9 provides planning and costing models
for a multimedia project, while Chapter 10 discusses the details of multimedia project and asset management.
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
199
First Person
The Credit Alligator usually appears
late in a multimedia project and
has nothing to do with MasterCard
or Visa. This gnarly animal typically lives unseen in the delicate
fringes of workgroup politics, but
can appear very suddenly, causing
great distraction during beta testing, adding moments of personal
tension, and occasionally destroying friendships and business
relationships.
After hard cash, the most satisfying remuneration for your sweaty
efort and creative, late-night
contributions to a multimedia
project is to see your name listed in
the credits for a particular project.
Indeed, getting visible credit is a
special, high-value currency, in part
because it can be added to your
portfolio to help you land the next
job. The more of this currency you
have, the higher your potential
wage and the more likely you will
remain employed doing what you
like to do. Start building defenses
against this alligator up front. When
you negotiate the original contract
with whoever pays the multimedia
bill, be sure to include wording
such as: “We shall be allowed to
include a production credit display
on the closing screen or in another
mutually agreeable position in
the inished work.” If you are an
individual who is contracting to a
producer, be sure it is understood
that if there is a credit page, your
name will be on it.
Not all clients will stand for a credit
page. Large companies, for example,
use many outside contractors to
produce multimedia, but as a policy
rarely allow contributors to be
credited by name. Some contractors
and frustrated employees develop
ingenious workarounds for burying
these important intellectual credits
within their work.
The Credit Alligator raises its bumpy
head over the little things, too,
and there are often no appropriate
defenses for it. For example, if your
name begins with a letter that is
toward the end of the alphabet, you
may never appear irst on the list of
contributors, even if your contribution was major. Of course, if your
name is Walsh or Young, you have
endured this ordering system since
irst-grade lineups. Warning: reversing an alphabetic credit list from last
to irst will only create or heighten
tension; to propose such a list is, in
itself, ego-driven and self-serving.
Learn to work around it.
The most treacherous place for the
Credit Alligator to lurk is in the busy
stretch of time during the inalizing
of a CD-based project and the “going
gold” process of producing a inal
master. If you are not participating in
the inal mastering but have contributed a piece or pieces to the project,
you must trust the person doing the
mastering to do it the right way. But,
unfortunately it doesn’t always happen the way you want it to.
One company recently consulted on
a job where their work represented
the second-greatest contribution
from a group of about 15 contributors, all of whom had credit screens.
Their contract required credit, but in
the inal version of the storyboard,
they discovered their screen buried
at the end of a four-minute linear
sequence of all the other credits
and advertisements. They asked the
producer to move it up. “Sorry,” said
the producer, “it was an oversight.”
Then in the last-minute process of
re-sequencing, the producer also
switched the contracted company’s
custom music to his own company’s
credit screen, leaving our friend’s
screen attached to a pretty ugly
leftover sound byte. Because the
company was not included in the
inal feedback and approval loop,
they discovered this “little mistake”
only after mass replication. It’s tough
to change 50,000 shrink-wrapped
CD-ROMs, so at that point there was
nothing to say.
Crediting creative talent is sensitive
stuf. Avoid recurring bouts with the
Credit Alligator by publicizing your
policy about credit screens. Talk
about intellectual credit openly, not
as a last-minute thing. Negotiate
hard for inclusion of credit in all the
projects you undertake for clients.
Remember, multimedia doesn’t
spring from the bankrolls of investors and publishers—it’s the result
of the hard work of talented, real
people.
200
Multimedia: Making It Work
Communication
Many multimedia applications are developed in workgroups comprising
instructional designers, writers, graphic artists, programmers, and musicians located in the same oice space or building. he workgroup members’
computers are typically connected on a local area network (LAN). he
client’s computers, however, may be thousands of miles distant, requiring
other methods for good communication.
Communication among workgroup members and with the client is
essential to the eicient and accurate completion of your project. If your
client and you are both connected to the Internet, a combination of Skype
video and voice telephone, e-mail, and the File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
may be the most cost-efective and eicient solution for both creative development and project management. In the workplace, use quality equipment
and software for your communications setup. he cost—in both time and
money—of stable and fast networking will be returned to you.
What You Need: Hardware
his book will help you understand the two most signiicant platforms
for producing and delivering multimedia projects: the Apple Macintosh
operating system (OS) and the Microsoft Windows OS, found running
on most Intel-based PCs (including Intel-based Macintoshes). hese
computers, with their graphical user interfaces and huge installed base of
many millions of users throughout the world, are the most commonly used
platforms for the development and delivery of today’s multimedia.
Certainly, detailed and animated multimedia is also created on specialized workstations from Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, and even on
mainframes, but the Macintosh and the Windows PC ofer a compelling
combination of afordability, software availability, and worldwide obtainability. Regardless of the delivery vehicle for your multimedia—whether
it’s destined to play on a computer, on a Wii, Xbox, or PlayStation game
box, or as bits moving down the data highway—most multimedia will
probably be made on a Macintosh or on a PC.
he basic principles for creating and editing multimedia elements are
the same for all platforms. A graphic image is still a graphic image, and a
digitized sound is still a digitized sound, regardless of the methods or tools
used to make and display it or to play it back. Indeed, many software tools
readily convert picture, sound, and other multimedia iles (and even whole
functioning projects) from Macintosh to Windows format, and vice versa,
using known ile formats or even binary compatible iles that require no
conversion at all. While there is a lot of talk about platform-independent
delivery of multimedia on the Internet, with every new version of a browser
there are still annoying failures on both platforms. hese failures in crossplatform compatibility can consume great amounts of time as you prepare
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
201
for delivery by testing and developing workarounds and tweaks so your
project performs properly in various target environments.
Selection of the proper platform for developing your multimedia project
may be based on your personal preference of computer, your budget constraints, project delivery requirements, and the type of material and content
in the project. Many developers believe that multimedia project development
is smoother and easier on the Macintosh than in Windows, even though
projects destined to run in Windows must then be ported and tested across
platforms. Table 7-1 shows the penetration of operating systems.
Windows
Mac
Other
90.76%
4.32%
4.92%
Table 7-1 Worldwide Operating System Market Share in September, 2010 (Source:
http://marketshare.hitslink.com)
Windows vs. Macintosh
A Windows computer is not a computer per se, but rather a collection of
parts that are tied together by the requirements of the Windows operating
system. Power supplies, processors, hard disks, CD-ROM and DVD players
and burners, video and audio components, monitors, keyboards, mice, WiFi,
and Bluetooth transceivers—it doesn’t matter where they come from or who
makes them. Made in Texas, Taiwan, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Mexico, or
Malaysia by widely known or little-known manufacturers, these components
First Person
In November 1985, during the
COMDEX trade show in Las Vegas,
members of the computer press
were invited to the birthing party
for a new Microsoft product called
Windows. A crowd of journalists and friends of Microsoft had
gathered in a small, low-ceilinged
hotel ballroom and were munching on hors d’oeuvres and sipping
wine when the swinging doors to
the pantry opened suddenly, and
Bill Gates drove a golf cart onto the
loor, towing a small trailer loaded
down with hundreds of blue boxes
illed with the new product. A cheer
went up, and the boxes disappeared
into waiting hands. It was a fun
party held in the time before Gates
had become the richest man in the
world and necessarily employed a
personal security force, before his
personal income would skew by
two dollars the diference between
the mean and median income of all
Americans. He chatted with a few of
us and proudly autographed some
User Guides. Mine says “I hope you
like the product; thanks for coming,
Tay.” Back in my oice after the show,
I loaded the software onto my XT
from the ive 5.25-inch loppy disks
in the box and ran it. Windows was
a dog. Indeed, during the ensuing
days and months, Windows had
a very hard time in the “operating
environment” popularity contest
and dropped to low-visibility status.
But Gates seemed to have a vision,
and while we didn’t hear too much
about Windows during the next
years, Gates and Microsoft worked
on the product steadily and didn’t
give up. Windows 3.0, released many
years later, changed the world.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
are assembled and branded by Dell, HP, Sony, and others into computers
that run Windows. If you are handy with a Phillips screwdriver and can read
instructions, you can even order the parts and assemble your own computer
“clone” to run Windows—at a considerable cost savings!
In the early days, Microsoft organized the major PC hardware
manufacturers into the Multimedia PC Marketing Council, in order to
develop a set of speciications that would allow Windows to deliver a
dependable multimedia experience. Since then, the multimedia PC, or
MPC, speciication has evolved into “what a computer does.” And it
does it all.
Unlike Microsoft, primarily a software company, Apple is a hardware
manufacturing company that developed its own proprietary software to
run the hardware. In 2006, Apple adopted Intel’s processor architecture, an
engineering decision that allows Macintoshes to run natively with any x86
operating system, same as Windows. All recent models of Macintosh come
with the latest Mac operating system, and using Boot Camp or Parallels
software, Macs can also run the Windows operating system.
Networking Macintosh and Windows Computers
If you are working in a multimedia development environment consisting
of a mixture of Macintosh and Windows computers, you will want them to
communicate with each other. You will also wish to share other resources
among them, such as printers.
Local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) can
connect the members of a workgroup. In a LAN, workstations are usually
located within a short distance of one another, on the same loor of a building, for example. WANs are communication systems spanning greater distances, typically set up and managed by large corporations and institutions
for their own use, or to share with other users.
LANs allow direct communication and sharing of peripheral resources
such as ile servers, printers, scanners, and network routers. hey use a variety of proprietary technologies to perform the connections, most commonly Ethernet (using twisted-pair copper wires) and WiFi (using radio).
If you are operating a cross-platform multimedia development shop, you
should install a local Ethernet system so that your PCs and Macintoshes
can talk to each other and to your network printers as well. his is many
times more eicient than carrying removable media among your machines.
Ethernet is only a method for wiring up computers, so you still will need
client/server software to enable the computers to speak with each other
and pass iles back and forth. he Windows and Mac operating systems
provide this networking software, but you may need expert help to set it
up—it can be complicated!
Unless you are in a large business or part of government, your WAN
is likely the Internet connected to you by an Internet service provider
(ISP); the Internet is worldwide and connects tens of millions of computers
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
and other devices! If you are working with people in various time zones
(an artist in New York, a programmer in San Francisco, and a client in
Singapore), all can communicate and share information with other locations at any time of day or night using the Internet network. Chapter 12
discusses the Internet in greater detail.
Connections
he equipment required for developing your multimedia project will
depend on the content of the project as well as its design. You will certainly need as fast a computer as you can lay your hands on, with lots of
RAM and disk storage space. Table 7-2 shows various device connection
methodologies and their data transfer rates.
If you can ind content such as sound efects, music, graphic art, clip
animations, and video to use in your project, you may not need extra tools
for making your own. Typically, however, multimedia developers have
separate equipment for digitizing sound from tapes or microphone, for
scanning photographs or other printed matter, and for making digital still
or movie images.
Connection
Transfer Rate
Serial port
115 Kbps (0.115 Mbps)
Standard parallel port
115 Kbps (0.115 Mbps)
USB (Original 1.0)
12 Mbps (1.5 Mbps)
SCSI-2 (Fast SCSI)
80 Mbps
SCSI (Wide SCSI)
160 Mbps
Ultra2 SCSI
320 Mbps
FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394)
400 Mbps
USB (Hi-Speed 2.0)
480 Mbps
SCSI (Wide Ultra2)
640 Mbps
FireWire 800 (IEEE 1394)
800 Mbps
SCSI (Wide Ultra3)
1,280 Mbps
SATA 150
1,500 Mbps
SCSI (Ultra4)
2,560 Mbps
SATA 300
3,000 Mbps
FireWire 3200 (IEEE 1394)
3,144 Mbps
USB (Super-Speed 3.0)
3,200 Mbps
SCSI (Ultra5)
5,120 Mbps
SATA 600
6,000 Mbps
Fibre Channel (Optic)
10,520 Mbps
Table 7-2 Maximum Transfer Rates for Various Connections in Megabits Per Second
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SCSI
he Small Computer System Interface (SCSI—pronounced “scuzzy”)
adds peripheral equipment such as disk drives, scanners, CD-ROM players, and other peripheral devices
that conform to the SCSI stanVaughan’s One-Way Rule
dard. SCSI connections may connect internal devices such as hard
Once you’ve tried it, you can’t go back.
drives that are inside the chassis of
Years ago, a few weeks after HyperCard was released by Apple, I went
your computer and use the comto work there, designing and building the guided tour for an informaputer’s power supply, and external
tion management tool used in-house by Apple. I said I didn’t know
devices, which are outside the chasthe software, but they said that’s okay, nobody else does, either. hey
sis, use their own power supply, and
gave me a cubicle with my name on it, a Macintosh Plus with a 20MB
are plugged into the computer by
hard disk, and I was up and running. he Macintosh II had been shipcable.
ping for a short while, and every department at Apple was attempting
he hardware and the drivers
to get this latest and hottest color-enabled CPU—but most units were
for SCSI have improved over the
going to the retail channel. here were three Macintosh IIs among
years to provide faster data transfers
about 40 of us.
across wider buses. Unlike the lessOne afternoon, I sat at a Macintosh II and ran my software. I
expensive IDE scheme described
couldn’t believe it! he screen-to-screen dissolves and special efects
next, a SCSI controller does not
I had carefully programmed on the old computer went by so fast I
demand CPU time, and because it
couldn’t see them. I had to reprogram everything, with a special test
can support many devices, it is often
to check for CPU speed. If it was a fast machine, I programmed the
preferred for real-time video editvisual efects to run slower; on a slow machine, faster. But the sad
ing, network servers, and situations
part was that I not only wanted this faster machine, I felt I needed it!
in which writing simultaneously to
I had the same experience moving from a dial-up modem to a DSL
two or more disks (mirroring) is
broadband Internet connection, and knew I’d never go back.
required.
IDE, EIDE, Ultra IDE, ATA, and Ultra ATA
If the label on the cable on
the table at your house says
you hook up the camera
simple as a mouse, but the
packets burn a pocket on a
socket on the port, then get
your receipt and call them
to abort.
Tay Vaughan
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) connections, also known as
Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) connections, are typically
only internal, and they connect hard disks, CD-ROM drives, and other
peripherals mounted inside the PC. With IDE controllers, you can install
a combination of hard disks, CD-ROM drives, or other devices in your
PC. he circuitry for IDE is typically much less expensive than for SCSI,
but comes with some limitations. For example, IDE requires time from the
main processor chip, so only one drive in a master/slave pair can be active
at once.
USB
A consortium of industry players including Compaq, Digital Equipment,
IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Northern Telecom was formed in 1995
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
to promote a Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard for connecting devices
to a computer. hese devices are automatically recognized (“plug-andplay”) and installed without users needing to install special cards or turn
the computer of and on when making the connection (allowing “hotswapping”). USB technology has improved in performance since its
introduction (see Table 7-2) and has become the connection method of
choice for many peripheral devices, from cameras to keyboards to scanners and printers. USB uses a single cable to connect as many as 127 USB
peripherals to a single personal computer. Hubs can be used to “daisychain” many devices. USB connections are now common on video game
consoles, cameras, GPS locators, cell phones, televisions, MP3 players,
PDAs, and portable memory devices.
FireWire and i.LINK (IEEE 1394)
FireWire was introduced by Apple in the late 1980s, and in 1995 it
became an industry standard (IEEE 1394) supporting high-bandwidth
serial data transfer, particularly for digital video and mass storage. Like
USB, the standard supports hot-swapping and plug-and-play, but it is
faster, and while USB devices can only be attached to one computer at
a time, FireWire can connect multiple computers and peripheral devices
(peer-to-peer). Both the Mac OS and Windows ofer IEEE 1394 support.
Because the standard has been endorsed by the Electronics Industries
Association and the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC),
it has become a common method for connecting and interconnecting
professional digital video gear, from cameras to recorders and edit suites.
Sony calls this standard i.LINK. FireWire has replaced Parallel SCSI in
many applications because it’s cheaper and because it has a simpler, adaptive cabling system.
Memory and Storage Devices
As you add more memory and storage space to your computer, you can
expect your computing needs and habits to keep pace, illing the new
capacity. So enjoy the weeks that follow a memory storage upgrade or the
addition of a gigabyte hard disk; the honeymoon will eventually end.
To estimate the memory requirements of a multimedia project—the
space required on a hard disk, thumb drive, CD-ROM, or DVD, not the
random access memory (RAM) used while your computer is running—
you must have a sense of the project’s content and scope. Color images,
text, sound bites, video clips, and the programming code that glues it all
together require memory; if there are many of these elements, you will
need even more. If you are making multimedia, you will also need to allocate memory for storing and archiving working iles used during production, original audio and video clips, edited pieces, and inal mixed pieces,
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Multimedia: Making It Work
production paperwork and correspondence, and at least one backup of
your project iles, with a second backup stored at another location.
It is said that when John von Neumann, often called “the father of
the computer,” was designing the ENIAC computer in 1945, there was an
argument about how much memory this irst computer should have. His
colleagues appealed for more than the 2K Dr. von Neumann felt was suficient. In the end, he capitulated and agreed to install 4K in the ENIAC,
commenting “...but this is more memory than you will ever need.”
Random Access Memory (RAM)
If you are faced with budget constraints, you can certainly produce a
multimedia project on a slower or limited-memory computer. On the
other hand, it is profoundly frustrating to face memory (RAM) shortages
time after time, when you’re attempting to keep multiple applications and
iles open simultaneously. It is also frustrating to wait the extra seconds
required of each editing step when working with multimedia material on
a slow processor.
In spite of all the marketing hype about processor speed, this speed is
inefective if not accompanied by suicient RAM. A fast processor without enough RAM may waste processor cycles while it swaps needed portions of program code into and out of memory. In some cases, increasing
available RAM may show more performance improvement on your system
than upgrading the processor chip.
Read-Only Memory (ROM)
Unlike RAM, read-only memory (ROM) is not volatile. When you turn
of the power to a ROM chip, it will not forget, or lose its memory. ROM is
typically used in computers to hold the small BIOS program that initially
boots up the computer, and it is used in printers to hold built-in fonts.
Programmable ROMs (called EPROMs) allow changes to be made that
are not forgotten when power is turned of.
Hard Disks
Adequate storage space for your production environment can be provided
by large-capacity hard disks, server-mounted on a network. As multimedia has reached consumer desktops, makers of hard disks have built
smaller-proile, larger-capacity, faster, and less-expensive hard disks.
As network and Internet servers drive the demand for centralized data
storage requiring terabytes (one trillion bytes), hard disks are often
conigured into fail-proof redundant arrays ofering built-in protection
against crashes.
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
Flash Memory or Thumb Drives
hese lash memory data storage devices are about the size of a thin cigarette lighter and can be integrated with USB or FireWire interfaces to
store from eight megabytes to several GB of data. hey are available in
every color of the rainbow, are extremely portable, and, because they have
fewer moving parts, are more reliable than disk drives. Consisting of a
small printed circuit board encased in a sturdy metal or plastic casing with
a USB connector covered with a cap, the lash drive is trendy as a status
symbol, and convenient to use. his same solid-state storage is used in
digital cameras, cell phones, and audio recording devices, and for solidstate hard drives (no spinning platters or moving parts) that are found in
some netbooks and other handheld devices.
CD-ROM Discs
Compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) players have become
an integral part of the multimedia development workstation and are an
important delivery vehicle for mass-produced projects. A wide variety of
developer utilities, graphic backgrounds, stock photography and sounds,
applications, games, reference texts, and educational software are available
on this medium. CD-ROM players have typically been very slow to access
and transmit data (150 KBps, which is the speed required of consumer
Audio CDs), but developments have led to double-, triple-, quadruplespeed, 24x, 48x, and 56x drives designed speciically for computer (not
Red Book Audio) use. hese faster drives spool up like washing machines
on the spin cycle and can be somewhat noisy, especially if the inserted
compact disc is not evenly balanced. With a compact disc recorder, you can
make your own CDs, using CD-recordable (CD-R) blank discs to create a
CD in most formats of CD-ROM and CD-Audio (see Chapter 4). Software, such as Roxio’s Toast and Easy CD Creator, lets you organize iles on
your hard disk(s) into a “virtual” structure, and then writes them to the CD
in that order. CD-R discs are manufactured diferently than normal
CDs but can play in any CD-Audio or CD-ROM player. hese writeonce, enhanced CDs make excellent high-capacity ile archives and are
used extensively by multimedia developers for pre-mastering and testing
CD-ROM projects and titles. Because they have become very inexpensive,
they are also used for short-run distribution of inished multimedia projects and data backup. A CD-RW (read and write) recorder can rewrite
700MB of data to a CD-RW disc about 1,000 times.
Digital Versatile Discs (DVD)
In December 1995, nine major electronics companies (Toshiba, Matsushita,
Sony, Philips, Time Warner, Pioneer, JVC, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Electric) agreed to promote a new optical disc technology for distribution
of multimedia and feature-length movies called Digital Versatile Disc
(DVD) (see Table 7-3).With a DVD capable not only of gigabyte storage
capacity but also full-motion video (MPEG2) and high-quality audio in
surround sound, this is an excellent medium for delivery of multimedia
projects. Commercial multimedia projects will become more expensive
to produce, however, as consumers’ performance expectations rise. here
are three types of DVD, including DVD-Read Write, DVD-Video, and
DVD-ROM. hese types relect marketing channels, not the technology.
Blu-ray Discs
Driven by the implementation of High Deinition TV (HDTV) and by the
motion picture industry, a new technology was needed to increase storage
capacity and throughput beyond DVD. Two competing and incompatible
solutions were promoted and a war was fought in the marketplace between
HD-DVD, backed by Toshiba, and Blu-ray, backed by Sony. By 2008,
Toshiba had sold about one million HD-DVD players, but Sony had sold
close to ten million Blu-ray players, which were also included in popular
PlayStation game machines. Toshiba announced it was quitting.
Blu-ray is promoted not only for high deinition television recording
and high deinition video distribution, but also for high deinition camcorder archiving, mass data storage, and digital asset management and professional storage when used as a recording medium in BD-R format.
DVD Feature
DVD Speciication
Blu-ray Speciication
Disc diameter
120 mm (5 inches)
120 mm (5 inches)
Disc thickness
1.2 mm (0.6 mm thick disc × 2)
1.2 mm (0.6 mm thick disc × 2)
Memory capacity
4.7 gigabytes/single side
25 gigabytes/single layer
Wave length of laser
diode
650 nanometer/635 nanometer (red)
405 nanometer (blue-violet)
Data transfer rate 1x
Variable speed data transfer at an average
rate of 4.69 Mbps for image and sound
Variable speed data transfer at an average
rate of 36 Mbps for image and sound
Image compression
MPEG2 digital image compression
MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and
SMPTE VC-1
Audio
Dolby AC-3 (5.1 ch), LPCM for NTSC and
MPEG Audio, LPCM for PAL/SECAM (a maximum of 8 audio channels and 32 subtitle
channels can be stored)
Dolby Digital (AC-3), DTS, and linear PCM
Running time (movies)
Single Layer (4.7GB): 133 minutes a side (at
an average data rate of 4.69 Mbps for image
and sound, including three audio channels
and four subtitle channels)
Single Layer (25GB): Encoded using MPEG-2
video, about two hours of HD content; using
VC-1 or MPEG-4 AVC codecs, about 4 hours
of HD quality video and audio
Table 7-3 DVD and Blu-ray Speciications
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
Input Devices
A great variety of input devices—from the familiar keyboard and handy
mouse to touchscreens and voice recognition setups—can be used for the
development and delivery of a multimedia project. If you are designing
your project for a public kiosk, use a touchscreen. If your project is for a
lecturing professor who likes to wander about the classroom, use a remote
handheld mouse. If you create a great deal of original computer-rendered
art, consider a pressure-sensitive stylus and a drawing tablet. Scanners
enable you to use optical character recognition (OCR) software, such
as OmniPage from ScanSoft, a division of Nuance Communications (see
Figure 7-1), or Recore from Maxsoft-Ocron. With OCR software and a
scanner, you can convert paper documents into a word processing document on your computer without retyping or rekeying.
Figure 7-1 Working with a scanner, OCR software can save many hours of rekeying text.
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Barcode readers are probably the most familiar optical character recognition devices in use today—mostly at markets, shops, and other pointof-purchase locations. Using photo cells and laser beams, barcode readers
recognize the numeric characters of the Universal Product Code (UPC)
that are printed in a pattern of parallel black bars on merchandise labels.
With OCR, or barcoding, retailers can eiciently process goods in and
out of their stores and maintain better inventory control.
An OCR terminal can be of use to a multimedia developer because it
recognizes not only printed characters but also handwriting. his facility
may be beneicial at a kiosk or in a general education environment where
user friendliness is a goal, because there is growing demand for a more
personal and less technical interface to data and information.
For hands-free interaction with your project, try voice recognition
systems. hese behavioral biometric systems usually provide a unidirectional cardioid, noise-canceling microphone that automatically ilters out
background noise and learns to recognize voiceprints. Most voice recognition systems currently available can trigger common menu events such
as Save, Open, Quit, and Print, and you can teach the system to recognize other commands that are more speciic to your application. Systems
available for the Macintosh and Windows environments typically must be
taught to recognize individual voices and then be programmed with the
appropriate responses to the recognized word or phrase. Dragon’s Naturally
Speaking takes dictation, translates text to speech, and does command-toclick, a serious aid for people unable to use their hands.
he quality of your audio recordings is greatly afected by the caliber of
your microphone and cables. A unidirectional microphone helps ilter out
external noise, and good cables help reduce noise emitted from surrounding electronic equipment.
Digital cameras use the same CCD technology as video cameras,
described in Chapter 6. hey capture still images of a given number of
pixels (resolution), and the images are stored in the camera’s memory
to be uploaded later to a computer. he resolution of a digital camera is
determined by the number of pixels on the CCD chip, and the higher
the megapixel rating, the higher the resolution of the camera. Images are
uploaded from the camera’s memory using a serial, parallel, or USB cable,
or, alternatively, the camera’s memory card is inserted into a PCMCIA
reader connected to the computer. Digital cameras are small enough to it
in a cell phone, and in a more complicated manner they can be used in a
television studio or spy camera on an orbiting spacecraft.
Output Devices
Presentation of the audio and visual components of your multimedia project
requires hardware that may or may not be included with the computer
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
itself, such as speakers, ampliiers, projectors, and motion video devices. It
goes without saying that the better the equipment is, of course, the better
the presentation. here is no greater test of the beneits of good output
hardware than to feed the audio output of your computer into an external
ampliier system: suddenly the bass sounds become deeper and richer, and
even music sampled at low quality may sound acceptable.
TIP
Design your project to use many shorter-duration audio iles rather than
one long ile. This simpliies the redaction of your project within your authoring
system, and it may also improve performance because you will load shorter
segments of sound into RAM at any one time.
Often the speakers you use during a project’s development will not be
adequate for its presentation. Speakers with built-in ampliiers or attached
to an external ampliier are important when your project will be presented
to a large audience or in a noisy setting.
WARNING Always use magnetically shielded speakers to prevent color
distortion or damage to nearby CRT monitors.
he monitor you need for development of multimedia projects
depends on the type of multimedia application you are creating, as well
as what computer you’re using. A wide variety of monitors is available for
both Macintoshes and PCs. High-end, large-screen graphics monitors and
LCD panels are available for both, and they are expensive.
Serious multimedia developers will often attach more than one monitor to their computers because they can work with several open windows
at a time. For example, you can dedicate one monitor to viewing the work
you are creating or designing, and you can perform various editing tasks in
windows on other monitors that do not block the view of your work.
No other contemporary message medium has the visual impact of
video, but keep in mind that while good video greatly enhances your project, poor video will ruin it.
When you need to show your material to more viewers than can huddle
around a computer monitor, you will need to project it onto a large screen
or even a white-painted wall. Cathode-ray tube (CRT) projectors, liquid
crystal display (LCD) panels, Digital Light Processing (DLP) projectors,
and liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) projectors, as well as (for larger projects) Grating-Light-Valve (GLV) technologies, are available. CRT projectors have been around for quite a while—they are the original “big-screen”
televisions and use three separate projection tubes and lenses (red, green,
and blue). he three color channels of light must “converge” accurately on
the screen. Setup, focusing, and alignment are important for getting a clear
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and crisp picture. CRT projectors are compatible with the output of most
computers as well as televisions.
Graphic print designers often use special color-correction hardware to
ensure that what they see on screen matches precisely what will be printed.
Multimedia does not usually require the same level of precision—mostly
because the multimedia will likely be presented on any number of monitors with widely varying color settings.
Hard-copy printed output has also entered the multimedia scene.
From storyboards to presentations to production of collateral marketing material, printouts are an important part of the multimedia development environment. Color helps clarify concepts, improve understanding
and retention of information, and organize complex data. As multimedia
designers already know, intelligent use of color is critical to the success of
a project.
What You Need: Software
Multimedia software tells the hardware what to do. Display the color red.
Move that tiger three leaps to the left. Slide in the words “Now You’ve
Done It!” from the right and blink them on and of. Play the sound of
cymbals crashing. Run the digitized trailer for Avatar. Turn down the
volume on that MP3 ile!
he basic tool set for building multimedia projects contains one or
more authoring systems and various editing applications for text, images,
sounds, and motion video. A few
additional applications are also
Vaughan’s Rule for Keeping Up
useful for capturing images from
the screen, translating ile forUpgrade to proven products that lie in the calm water, slightly behind
mats, and moving iles among
the leading edge of the wave.
computers when you are part of
a team—these are tools for the
housekeeping tasks that make your creative and production life easier.
he software in your multimedia toolkit—and your skill at using it—
determines what kind of multimedia work you can do and how ine and
fancy you can render it. Making good multimedia means picking a successful route through the software swamp. Alligators and learning curves
can rise up out of this swamp to nip you in the knees.
You don’t have to be a programmer or a computer scientist to make
multimedia work for you, but you do need some familiarity with terms and
building blocks; as even the simplest multimedia tools require a modicum of
knowledge to operate. If someone asks to borrow a metric 13 mm wrench,
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
213
you should know they are probably working with a nut or a bolt (and if you
are an expert, you might know that a 1/2-inch wrench can usually be substituted). If someone sends you a ile in Macintosh AIF format, you should
know that you’re getting digitized sound. Don’t be afraid of the little things
that so easily depress the uninformed. From plumbing to nuclear physics,
learning is a matter of time and practice. You will be frustrated as you work
your way up the learning curves of multimedia. here will be things you
want to do, but you will not know how to work the tools. Take the time to
learn the fundamentals of computers and multimedia taught in this book.
hen, load up your tools and open the help iles; your learning curve will
be easier to manage because you have the bigger picture.
First Person
After getting my pilot’s license for
lying small, single-engine airplanes,
I traveled from San Francisco to
New York on a Boeing 747. Looking
out the window at those perfectly
circular irrigated farms in Nebraska
and Iowa, my lazy thoughts drifted
from corn to water to Chevys on levies to girls to football to rope swings
splashing into sun-drenched rivers.
version of this scenario, with the
“tower” talking us down, would
never work because I couldn’t even
turn on the radio.
There was a small airport below.
Would that make a good emergency ield for a dead-stick Cessna?
Mmmmm, I drifted. What if this
plane had an emergency?
Mmmmm. What if the crew had
been poisoned and we were on
autopilot, and a light attendant
had just interrupted the movie to
ask if there were a pilot on board?
Mmmmm. I knew that if I had to
sit in the pilot’s seat of that 747
I wouldn’t have a clue, and the
plane would go down. Thousands of
switches, glass screens, levers, pedals, blinking lights, and somewhere
a radio, all waiting for me to do
something with them. Hollywood’s
It’s like that when you learn multimedia. The same sinking feeling,
frustration, and not knowing. But,
because you have this book in hand,
you’re already in the pilot’s seat and
are on the way toward a successful landing. Relax. Step-by-step it
will get easier. Manuals, online help
systems, and instructors are your
tower, and you have plenty of fuel.
In the same way tens of thousands
of pilots have learned to ly, you will
learn to make multimedia!
(Photo by Pete McGill, who not only
learned to ly heavies, but learned to
make multimedia and shoots with a
Canon 400D.)
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Multimedia: Making It Work
TIP
As you explore the workings of multimedia, you should know that web
addresses are not guaranteed to be permanent but can abruptly disappear, just
like the addresses for physical locations when the house burns down or loats
away in a lood.
Microsoft.com, walmart.com, mcdonalds.com, and visa.com, however,
represent such monoliths of business that it seems unlikely that they will loat
away, at least soon, in the river of time. If, when trying to connect to a URL, you
receive a “404 – not found” error message, try stripping away the directories and
subdirectories and ilenames from the URL and then connect to the domain name
itself. If you can connect to the domain name, you may ind a menu that will then
take you to the relocated document from another direction. If, for example, you
are looking for a list of tools useful to web service providers at www.w3.org/hypertext/www/tools/ and the document is not there, try to connect to www.w3.org/,
and then follow the hypertext menus provided. If none of these eforts brings you
to your destination, you can try one of the search engines listed in Chapter 12.
Keep your tools sharp by upgrading them when new software and
features become available, by thoroughly studying and learning each tool,
by keeping an eye on the conversations and FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions) iles online and in Internet blogs, and by observing the practices and products of other multimedia developers. Remember, each new
tool has a learning curve.
TIP
Always ill out the registration card for your new software and return it to
the vendor, or register online. If the vendor pays attention to product marketing,
you will frequently receive upgrade ofers, special newsletters, and e-mails with
helpful information.
he tools used for creating and editing multimedia elements on both
Windows and Macintosh platforms do image processing and editing,
drawing and illustration, 3-D and CAD, OCR and text editing, sound
recording and editing, video and moviemaking, and various utilitarian
housekeeping tasks.
Text Editing and Word Processing Tools
A word processor is usually the irst software tool computer users learn.
From letters, invoices, and storyboards to project content, your word
processor may also be your most often used tool, as you design and build
a multimedia project. he better your keyboarding or typing skills, the
easier and more eicient your multimedia day-to-day life will be.
Typically, an oice or workgroup will choose a single word processor to share documents in a standard format. And most often, that word
processor comes bundled in an oice suite that might include spreadsheet, database, e-mail, web browser, and presentation applications.
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215
First Person
When I left graduate school, I joined
the Carpenters Union and worked
on highway bridges, apartment
houses, and ine custom homes.
The wholesale tool supply store that
catered to the trade had one wall
covered with more than a hundred
diferent hammers—some for nailing big nails, some for tiny upholstery tacks, some for metal work,
others with a hatchet on one side for
shingles, or with a waled striking
head that would drive slick and wet
nails under the roughest conditions.
They all came in diferent weights
and handle lengths and shapes.
I tested a few framing hammers
and chose a 24-ounce wale-head
framing hammer that felt good. With
it, I could drive big 16d nails in a
single stroke. It had a wicked curved
handle. It was a Vaughan hammer.
Next day at noon, the job boss took
me aside and quietly told me that
he limited hammer weight to 22
ounces, because the older guys
on the crew couldn’t keep up. My
hammer was illegal, and if he saw
it the next day, I’d be sent back to
Word processors such as Microsoft Word and WordPerfect are powerful applications that include spell checkers, table formatters, thesauruses,
and prebuilt templates for letters, résumés, purchase orders, and other
common documents.
Many developers have begun to use OpenOice (www.openoice.org)
for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases, and
more. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any
purpose and is available in many languages. It can read and write iles from
other, more expensive, oice packages. In many word processors, you can
embed multimedia elements such as sounds, images, and video. Luckily,
the population of single-inger typists is decreasing over time as children
are taught keyboarding skills in conjunction with computer lab programs
in their schools.
OCR Software
Often you will have printed matter and other text to incorporate into your
project, but no electronic text ile. With OCR software, a latbed scanner,
and your computer, you can save many hours of rekeying printed words,
and get the job done faster and more accurately than a roomful of typists.
OCR software turns bitmapped characters into electronically recognizable ASCII text. A scanner is typically used to create the bitmap.
hen the software breaks the bitmap into chunks according to whether
the hiring hall. “Sorry,” I said, “jeez, I
didn’t know.” He let me leave early so
I could get to the tool store before it
closed.
In producing multimedia, no tool
is illegal. You should use the best
tools that it your talent, needs, and
budget.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
it contains text or graphics, by examining the texture and density of areas
of the bitmap and by detecting edges. he text areas of the image are then
converted to ASCII characters using probability and expert system algorithms. Most OCR applications claim about 99 percent accuracy when
reading 8- to 36-point printed characters at 300 dpi and can reach processing speeds of about 150 characters per second. hese programs do, however, have diiculty recognizing poor copies of originals where the edges
of characters have bled; these and poorly received faxes in small print may
yield more recognition errors than it is worthwhile to correct after the
attempted recognition.
Painting and Drawing Tools
Painting and drawing tools, as well as 3-D modelers, are perhaps the most
important items in your toolkit because, of all the multimedia elements,
the graphical impact of your project will likely have the greatest inluence
on the end user. If your artwork is amateurish, or lat and uninteresting,
both you and your users will be disappointed. Look in Chapters 10 and 13
for tips on designing efective graphical screens and in Chapter 3 for more
about computer graphics.
Painting software, such as Photoshop, Fireworks, and Painter, is
dedicated to producing crafted bitmap images. Drawing software, such
as CorelDraw, FreeHand, Illustrator, Designer, and Canvas, is dedicated to
producing vector-based line art easily printed to paper at high resolution.
Some software applications combine drawing and painting capabilities, but many authoring systems can import only bitmapped images. he
diferences between painting and drawing (that is, between bitmapped and
drawn images) are described in Chapter 3. Typically, bitmapped images
provide the greatest choice and power to the artist for rendering ine detail
and efects, and today bitmaps are used in multimedia more often than
drawn objects. Some vector-based packages such as Macromedia’s Flash
are aimed at reducing ile download times on the Web and may contain
both bitmaps and drawn art.
Look for these features in a drawing or painting package:
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An intuitive graphical user interface with pull-down menus, status
bars, palette control, and dialog boxes for quick, logical selection
Scalable dimensions, so that you can resize, stretch, and distort both
large and small bitmaps
Paint tools to create geometric shapes, from squares to circles and
from curves to complex polygons
he ability to pour a color, pattern, or gradient into any area
he ability to paint with patterns and clip art
Customizable pen and brush shapes and sizes
An eyedropper tool that samples colors
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217
An autotrace tool that turns bitmap shapes into vector-based outlines
Support for scalable text fonts and drop shadows
Multiple undo capabilities, to let you try again
A history function for redoing efects, drawings, and text
A property inspector
A screen capture facility
Painting features such as smoothing
coarse-edged objects into the background with anti-aliasing (see illustration); airbrushing in variable sizes,
shapes, densities, and patterns; washing colors in gradients; blending;
and masking.
Support for third-party special-efect plug-ins
Object and layering capabilities that allow you to treat separate elements independently
Zooming, for magniied pixel editing
All common color depths: 1-, 4-, 8-, and 16-, 24-, or 32-bit color, and
gray-scale
Good color management and dithering capability among color depths
using various color models such as RGB, HSB, and CMYK
Good palette management when in 8-bit mode
Good ile importing and exporting capability for image formats such as
PIC, GIF, TGA, TIF, PNG, WMF, JPG, PCX, EPS, PTN, and BMP
If you are new to multimedia and to these tools, you should take time
to examine more than one graphics software package. Find someone who
is already familiar with graphics applications. You will spend many days
learning to use your painting and drawing software, and if it does not it
you and your needs, you will be unhappy. Many artists learn to use a single,
powerful tool well.
First Person
Years ago, I founded an accredited
maritime school at Pier 66 in San
Francisco, where we ofered courses
in everything from high-tech composite plastics and welding to Rules
of the Road and celestial navigation. We also ran several marine
trade certiication programs. When
I talked with Ford, General Motors,
Cummins, and Caterpillar about
setting up a course for marine diesel
mechanics, I was surprised at their
competitive interest in supporting
the program. It turned out that a
widely publicized survey had shown
that a mechanic trained to work
on a particular brand of engine
would stick with it for life, loyally
recommending and supporting that
brand.
The same holds true for software. By
the time you master an application,
you have spent many hours on its
learning curve. You will likely stay
with that product and its upgrade
path rather than change to another.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
3-D Modeling and Animation Tools
3-D modeling software has increasingly entered the mainstream of
graphic design as its ease of use improves. As a result, the graphic production values and expectations for multimedia projects have risen.
3-D is an abbreviation for “three dimensions.” While in a 2-D graphics
program, images are painted in the “x” (horizontal or width) and “y” (vertical or height) axes, in 3-D depth is labeled as the “z” axis. Every program
that layers objects on the screen must know each object’s “z” axis. Web
browsers, for example, place objects on the screen using the CSS “z-index”
attribute. Some software programs (such as Flash CS4 and ToonBoom
Studio) can simulate depth by automatically scaling images based on a
z-axis value to create a cartoonish or simulated 3-D efect. his difers
from true 3-D modeling and rendering, where objects can be rotated and
viewed from any direction or angle.
With 3-D modeling software, objects rendered in perspective appear
more realistic; you can create stunning scenes and wander through them,
choosing just the right lighting and perspective for your inal rendered
image. Powerful modeling packages such as VectorWorks (see Figure 7-2),
AutoDesk’s Maya, Strata 3D, and Avid’s SoftImage are also bundled with
assortments of prerendered 3-D clip art objects such as people, furniture,
buildings, cars, airplanes, trees, and plants. Blender is a powerful (and free)
cross-platform 3-D modeling program ofering an extensive feature set.
Google SketchUp is a free 3-D modeling program with limited capabilities, but with a large online library of components. Important for multimedia development, many 3-D modeling applications include export
facilities for creating and saving a moving view or journey through a scene
as a QuickTime or MPEG ile.
Each rendered 3-D image takes from a few seconds to a few hours to
complete, depending upon the complexity of the drawing and the number
of drawn objects included in it. If you are making a complex walkthrough
or lyby, plan to set aside many hours of rendering time on your computer.
TIP If there are small errors or things you would like to change in a rendered
movie sequence, it may take less time to edit each frame of the afected sequence
by hand, using an image-editing program, rather than re-rendering the corrected
original.
A good 3-D modeling tool should include the following features:
Multiple windows that allow you to view your model in each dimension, from the camera’s perspective, and in a rendered preview
■ he ability to drag and drop primitive shapes into a scene
■ he ability to create and sculpt organic objects from scratch
■ Lathe and extrude features
■
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
219
Color and texture mapping
he ability to add realistic efects such as transparency, shadowing,
and fog
■ he ability to add spot, local, and global lights, to place them anywhere, and manipulate them for special lighting efects
■ Unlimited cameras with focal length control
■ he ability to draw spline-based paths for animation
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■
WARNING
3-D imaging programs require speedy computers with lots of
memory, and the learning curve is steep when you enter this world of nurbs,
splines, and bump maps.
Figure 7-2 VectorWorks and other CAD applications can translate precise 2-D drawings into 3-D perspectives with lighting and
shadows, but they can be complicated and very diicult to learn.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Image-Editing Tools
Image-editing applications are specialized and powerful tools for
creating, enhancing, and retouching existing bitmapped images. hese
applications also provide many of the features and tools of painting and
drawing programs and can be used to create images from scratch as well
as images digitized from scanners, video frame-grabbers, digital cameras,
clip art iles, or original artwork iles created with a painting or drawing
package.
TIP
If you want to print an image to a 300 dpi printer for collateral reports and
attractive print-matter icons, work with the image in the image-editing application at 300 dpi (every pixel will be a very ine laser printer dot). Then, save your
work as a tif or bmp ile and import it into your word processor. The printed result
is a inely detailed image at a high resolution.
Here are some features typical of image-editing applications and of
interest to multimedia developers:
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Multiple windows that provide views of more than one image at a time
Conversion of major image-data types and industry-standard ile
formats
Direct inputs of images from scanner and video sources
Employment of a virtual memory scheme that uses hard disk space as
RAM for images that require large amounts of memory
Capable selection tools, such as rectangles, lassos, and magic wands,
for selecting portions of a bitmap
Image and balance controls for brightness, contrast, and color balance
Good masking features
Multiple undo and restore features
Anti-aliasing capability, and sharpening and smoothing controls
Color-mapping controls for precise adjustment of color balance
Tools for retouching, blurring, sharpening, lightening, darkening,
smudging, and tinting
Geometric transformations such as lip, skew, rotate, and distort, and
perspective changes
he ability to resample and resize an image
24-bit color, 8- or 4-bit indexed color, 8-bit gray-scale, black-andwhite, and customizable color palettes
he ability to create images from scratch, using line, rectangle, square,
circle, ellipse, polygon, airbrush, paintbrush, pencil, and eraser tools,
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
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with customizable brush shapes and user-deinable bucket and gradient ills
Multiple typefaces, styles, and sizes, and type manipulation and masking routines
Filters for special efects, such as crystallize, dry brush, emboss, facet,
fresco, graphic pen, mosaic, pixelize, poster, ripple, smooth, splatter,
stucco, twirl, watercolor, wave, and wind
Support for third-party special-efect plug-ins
he ability to design in layers that can be combined, hidden, and
reordered
Sound-Editing Tools
Sound-editing tools for both digitized and MIDI sound let you see music
as well as hear it. By drawing a representation of a sound in ine increments, whether a score or a waveform, you can cut, copy, paste, and otherwise edit segments of it with great precision—something impossible to do
in real time (that is, with the music playing). he basics of computerized
sound are discussed in Chapter 4.
Animation, Video, and Digital Movie Tools
Animations and digital video movies are sequences of bitmapped graphic
scenes (frames), rapidly played back. But animations can also be made
within the authoring system by rapidly changing the location of objects,
or sprites, to generate an appearance of motion. Most authoring tools
adopt either a frame- or object-oriented approach to animation, but
rarely both.
To make movies from video, you may need special hardware to convert
an analog video signal to digital data. Macs and PCs with FireWire (IEEE
1394) or USB ports can import digital video directly from digital camcorders. Moviemaking tools such as Premiere, Final Cut Pro, VideoShop,
and MediaStudio Pro let you edit and assemble video clips captured from
camera, tape, other digitized movie segments, animations, scanned images,
and from digitized audio or MIDI iles. he completed clip, often with
added transition and visual efects, can then be played back—either standalone or windowed within your project.
WARNING Digital video editing and playback requires an immense amount
of free disk space, even when the video iles are compressed.
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TIP Because digital movie data must stream rapidly and without interruption
from your disk drive, be sure that you defragment and optimize your disk with a
utility such as Norton’s speed disk before recording and playing back your movie
iles. If your movie ile is fragmented, the read head of the disk drive may need to
pause sending data while it physically moves to wildly diferent locations on the
disk; a defragmented ile lets the head read sequentially from one adjoining sector
to the next. Use disk optimizing utilities with caution, however: accidents have
been known to happen, causing permanent data loss.
Helpful Accessories
No multimedia toolkit is complete without a few indispensable utilities for
performing some odd, but oft-repeated, tasks. hese are the comfortable
and well-worn accessories that make your computer life easier.
On both the Macintosh and in Windows, a screen-grabber is essential.
Because bitmapped images are so common in multimedia, it is important
to have a tool for grabbing all or part of the screen display so that you can
import it into your authoring system or copy it into an image-editing application for custom work. Screen-grabbing to the clipboard, for example, lets
you move a bitmapped image from one application to another without the
cumbersome steps of irst exporting the image to a ile and then importing it back into the destination application. In Windows, press the print
screen key to place the contents of your screen onto the clipboard. On a
Macintosh, press the command key, the control key, the shift key, and
the number 4 all at the same time, and then drag a rectangle across the
screen. Whatever is in the rectangle is then placed on the clipboard, ready
for pasting into an image-editing application. In Mac OS X, you can also
use the Grab utility to capture the screen.
Format converters are additional indispensable tools for projects
in which your source material may originate on Macintoshes, PCs, Unix
workstations, or even mainframes. his is an issue particularly with video
and audio iles, because there are many formats and many compression
schemes.
What You Need: Authoring Systems
Multimedia authoring tools provide the important framework you need for
organizing and editing the elements of your multimedia project, including
graphics, sounds, animations, and video clips. Authoring tools are used for
designing interactivity and the user interface, for presenting your project
on screen, and for assembling diverse multimedia elements into a single,
cohesive product.
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
Authoring software provides an integrated environment for binding
together the content and functions of your project, and typically includes
everything you need to create, edit, and import speciic types of data;
assemble raw data into a playback sequence or cue sheet; and provide a
structured method or language for responding to user input. With multimedia authoring software, you can make
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Video productions
Animations
Games
Interactive web sites
Demo disks and guided tours
Presentations
Kiosk applications
Interactive training
Simulations, prototypes, and technical visualizations
Helpful Ways to Get Started
Don’t be overwhelmed when starting your multimedia project—there may
be a lot of things to think about, but there are also a lot of things that have
already been done for you. As the cliché goes, “here’s no need to reinvent
the wheel!” Consider the following tips for making your production work
go smoothly:
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Use templates that people have already created to set up your production. hese can include appropriate styles for all sorts of data, font
sets, color arrangements, and particular page setups that will save
you time.
Use wizards when they are available—they may save you much time
and pre-setup work.
Use named styles, because if you take the time to create your own
it will really slow you down. Unless your client speciically requests
a particular style, you will save a great deal of time using something
already created, usable, and legal.
Create tables, which you can build with a few keystrokes in many programs, and it makes the production look credible.
Help readers ind information with tables of contents, running headers and footers, and indexes.
Improve document appearance with bulleted and numbered lists and
symbols.
Allow for a quick-change replacement using the global change
feature.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Reduce grammatical errors by using the grammar and spell checker
provided with the software. Do not rely on that feature, though, to set
all things right—you still need to proofread everything.
■ Include identifying information in the ilename so you can ind the
ile later.
■
Making Instant Multimedia
While this section discusses dedicated multimedia authoring systems, there
is no reason to invest in such a package if your current software (or an inexpensive upgrade) can do the job. Indeed, not only can you save money by
doing multimedia with tools that are familiar and already at hand, but you
also save the time spent on the arduous and sometimes lengthy learning
curves involved in mastering many of the dedicated authoring systems.
Common desktop tools have become multimedia-powerful.
Some multimedia projects may be so simple that you can cram all the
organizing, planning, rendering, and testing stages into a single efort, and
make “instant” multimedia.
Here is an example: he topic at your weekly sales meeting is sales
force performance. You want to display your usual spreadsheet so that the
group can see real names and numbers for each member of the team, but
then you want to add an animated, multicolored 3-D bar graph for visual
impact. Preparing for your meeting, you annotate the cell containing the
name of the most productive salesperson for the week, using sounds of
applause found on the Web or a recording of your CEO saying “Good
job!” or a colleague’s “Wait till next week, Pete!” At the appropriate time
during the meeting, you click that cell and play the ile. And that’s it—you
have just made and used instant multimedia.
WARNING You need special multimedia tools for digitizing your sounds and
for creating animations and movies before you can attach these objects to your
text, data, or presentation documents.
You can use a voice annotation, picture, or video clip in many word processing applications (see Figure 7-3). You can also click a cell in a spreadsheet to enhance its content with graphic images, sounds, and animations
(see Figure 7-4). If you like, your database can include pictures, audio clips,
and movies (see Figure 7-5), and your presentation software can generate
interesting titles, visual efects, and animated illustrations for your product
demo (see Figure 7-6). With these multimedia-enhanced software packages, you get many more ways to efectively convey your message than just
a slide show.
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
Figure 7-3 Most word processing programs allow you to include various image formats,
movies, and digitized sounds (including voice annotations).
Figure 7-4 Spreadsheets can include embedded objects made with other applications.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Figure 7-5 A FileMaker Pro employee database can include image and sound resources.
Figure 7-6 Microsoft PowerPoint provides multimedia linking and embedding features.
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
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First Person
Embedding multimedia materials
into text documents can be quick,
easy, and helpful. For example, a
working draft of a manuscript sent
to an editor might read:
My father said that Mommy was still
in a coma and my little brother was
sleeping. We should go home now. So
we went out the back way to the physician’s parking lot—down the elevator and past the noisy kitchen with its
racks of trays, white-uniformed cooks,
piles of canned goods, and the steamy
smells of institutional stew. The
green screen door slammed indelibly
into my ive-year-old memory, and
the attendant waved to my dad; he
probably didn’t know we were there
on family business. It was all pretty
serious.
We found Mommy’s car behind the
police station. I stayed in my seat
while my father got out and walked
very slowly around the twisted
metal. He was calculating the impact
forces, visualizing the accident in
slow-motion freeze frames, and at
one point, he leaned in through the
broken glass and ran his hand across
the dent in the steel glove compartment where my brother had smashed
his face. He went around only the
one time, then got back in. “She must
have been doing about forty when
she hit the pole,” he ofered as if I
were an adult, and we drove out the
narrow circular drive alongside the
station house. It was a crisp, clear,
football-and-pumpkins Saturday
afternoon in October.
Types of Authoring Tools
Each multimedia project you undertake will have its own underlying structure and purpose and will require diferent features and functions.
E-learning modules such as those seen on PDAs, MP3 players, and
intra-college networks may include web-based teaching materials, multimedia CD-ROMs or web sites, discussion boards, collaborative software,
wikis, simulations, games, electric voting systems, blogs, computer-aided
assessment, simulations, animation, blogs, learning management software,
and e-mail. his is also referred to as distance learning or blended learning,
where online learning is mixed with face-to-face learning.
he various multimedia authoring tools can be categorized into three
groups, based on the method used for sequencing or organizing multimedia elements and events:
Card- or page-based tools
Icon-based, event-driven multimedia and game-authoring tools
■ Time-based tools
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Note to Sally: Per your comment
last week, pick a good illustration
from the ile of images that I have
embedded. One of them should it
the bill... Thanks! See you next week.
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Card- and Page-Based Authoring Tools
Card-based or page-based tools are authoring systems, wherein the
elements are organized as pages of a book or a stack of cards. housands
of pages or cards may be available in the book or stack. hese tools are best
used when the bulk of your content consists of elements that can be viewed
individually, letting the authoring system link these pages or cards into
organized sequences. You can jump, on command, to any page you wish in
the structured navigation pattern.
Page-based authoring systems such as LiveCode from Runtime
Revolution (www.runrev.com) and ToolBook (www.toolbook.org) contain media objects: buttons, text ields, graphic objects, backgrounds,
pages or cards, and even the project itself. he characteristics of objects are
deined by properties (highlighted, bold, red, hidden, active, locked, and
so on). Each object may contain a programming script, usually a property
of that object, activated when an event (such as a mouse click) related to
that object occurs. Events cause messages to pass along the hierarchy of
objects in the project; for example, a mouse-clicked message could be sent
from a button to the background, to the page, and then to the project
itself. As the message traveled, it looks for handlers in the script of each
object; if it inds a matching handler, the authoring system then executes
the task speciied by that handler.
Following are some typical messages that might pass along the object
hierarchy of the LiveCode and ToolBook authoring systems:
LiveCode Message
ToolBook Message
closeCard
leavePage
closeStack
leaveBook
idle
idle
mouseDown
buttonDown
mouseStillDown
buttonStillDown
mouseUp
buttonUp
newBackground
newBackground
openCard
enterPage
openStack
enterBook
Now let’s look at speciic examples. To go to the next card or page
when a button is clicked, place a message handler into the script of that
button. An example in RunRev’s LiveCode language would be:
on mouseUp
go next card
end mouseUp
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
An example in ToolBook’s OpenScript language would look like:
to handle buttonUp
go next page
end buttonUp
he handler, if placed in the script of the card or page, executes its
commands when it receives a “mouseUp” or “buttonUp” event message that
occurs at any location on the card or page—not just while the cursor is
within the bounds of a button.
Card- and page-based systems typically provide two separate layers on
each card: a background layer that can be shared among many cards, and
a foreground layer that is speciic to a single card.
Icon- and Object-Based Authoring Tools
Icon- or object-based, event-driven tools are authoring systems, wherein
multimedia elements and interaction cues (events) are organized as objects
in a structural framework or process. Icon- or object-based, event-driven
tools simplify the organization of your project and typically display low
diagrams of activities along branching paths. In complicated navigational
structures, this charting is particularly useful during development.
Icon-based, event-driven tools provide a visual programming approach
to organizing and presenting multimedia. First you build a structure or
lowchart of events, tasks, and decisions, by dragging appropriate icons
from a library. hese icons can include menu choices, graphic images,
sounds, and computations. he lowchart graphically depicts the project’s
logic. When the structure is built, you can add your content: text, graphics,
animation, sounds, and video movies. hen, to reine your project, you edit
your logical structure by rearranging and ine-tuning the icons and their
properties.
With icon-based authoring tools, non-technical multimedia authors
can build sophisticated applications without scripting. In Authorware
from Adobe, by placing icons on a low line, you can quickly sequence
events and activities, including decisions and user interactions. hese tools
are useful for storyboarding, as you can change sequences, add options,
and restructure interactions by simply dragging and dropping icons. You
can print out your navigation map or lowchart, an annotated project index
with or without associated icons, design and presentation windows, and a
cross-reference table of variables.
Time-Based Authoring Tools
Time-based tools are authoring systems, wherein elements and events
are organized along a timeline, with resolutions as high as or higher than
1/30 second. Time-based tools are best to use when you have a message
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Multimedia: Making It Work
with a beginning and an end. Sequentially organized graphic frames are
played back at a speed that you can set. Other elements (such as audio
events) are triggered at a given time or location in the sequence of events.
he more powerful time-based tools let you program jumps to any location
in a sequence, thereby adding navigation and interactive control.
Each tool uses its own distinctive approach and user interface for
managing events over time. Many use a visual timeline for sequencing
the events of a multimedia presentation, often displaying layers of various
media elements or events alongside the scale in increments as precise as
one second. Others arrange long sequences of graphic frames and add the
time component by adjusting each frame’s duration of play.
Flash Flash is a time-based development environment. Flash, however,
is also particularly focused on delivery of rich multimedia content to the
Web. With the Flash Player plug-in installed in more than 95 percent of
the world’s browsers, Flash delivers far more than simple static HTML
pages. ActionScript, the proprietary, under-the-hood scripting language of
Flash, is based upon the international ECMAScript standard (www.ecmainternational.org) derived from Netscape’s original JavaScript.
Director Adobe’s Director is a powerful and complex multimedia
authoring tool with a broad set of features to create multimedia presentations, animations, and interactive multimedia applications. It requires a signiicant learning curve, but once mastered, it is among the most powerful
of multimedia development tools. In Director, you assemble and sequence
the elements of your project, called a “movie,” using a Cast and a Score. he
Cast is a multimedia database containing still images, sound iles, text, palettes, QuickDraw shapes, programming scripts, QuickTime movies, Flash
movies, and even other Director iles. You tie these Cast members together
using the Score facility, which is a sequencer for displaying, animating,
and playing Cast members, and it is made up of frames that contain Cast
members, tempo, a palette, timing, and sound information. Each frame is
played back on a stage at a rate speciied in the tempo channel. Director
utilizes Lingo, a full-featured object-oriented scripting language, to enable
interactivity and programmed control.
Objects
In multimedia authoring systems, multimedia elements and events are
often treated as objects that live in a hierarchical order of parent and
child relationships. Messages passed among these objects order them to
do things according to the properties or modiiers assigned to them. In
this way, for example, Teen-child (a teenager object) may be programmed
to take out the trash every Friday evening, and does so when they get a
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
message from Dad. Spot, the puppy, may bark and jump up and down
when the postman arrives, and is deined by barking and jumping modiiers. Objects typically take care of themselves. Send them a message and
they do their thing without external procedures and programming. Objects
are particularly useful for games, which contain many components with
many “personalities,” all for simulating real-life situations, events, and their
constituent properties.
Object-based authoring programs typically provide objects preprogrammed with sensible properties, messages, and functions. A video
object, for example, will likely have a duration property (how long the
video plays) and a source property (the location of the video ile) and it will
likely accept commands from the system such as “play” and “stop.”
Choosing an Authoring Tool
In the best case, you must be prepared to choose the tool that best its the
job; in the worst case, you must know which tools will at least “get the
job done.” Authoring tools are constantly being improved by their makers,
who add new features and increase performance with upgrade development cycles of six months to a year. It is important that you study the
software product reviews in the blogs and computer trade journals, as well
as talk with current users of these systems, before deciding on the best ones
for your needs. Here’s what to look for:
Editing Features
he elements of multimedia—images, animations, text, digital audio and
MIDI music, and video clips—need to be created, edited, and converted
to standard ile formats, using the specialized applications described in
Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, which provide these capabilities. Also, editing
tools for these elements, particularly text and still images, are often included
in your authoring system. he more editors your authoring system has, the
fewer specialized tools you may need. In many cases, however, the editors
that may come with an authoring system will ofer only a subset of the
substantial features found in dedicated tools. According to Vaughan’s Law
of Multimedia Minimums (see Chapter 4), these features may very well be
suicient for what you need to do; on the other hand, if editors you need
are missing from your authoring system, or if you require more power, it’s
best to use one of the specialized, single-purpose tools.
Organizing Features
he organization, design, and production process for multimedia involves
storyboarding and lowcharting. Some authoring tools provide a visual
lowcharting system or overview facility for illustrating your project’s
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Multimedia: Making It Work
structure at a macro level. Storyboards or navigation diagrams can also
help organize a project and can help focus the overall project scope for all
involved. Because designing the interactivity and navigation low of your
project often requires a great deal of planning and programming efort,
your storyboard should describe not just the graphics of each screen, but
the interactive elements as well. Features that help organize your material
are a plus. Many web-authoring programs such as Dreamweaver include
tools that create helpful diagrams and links among the pages of a web site.
Planning ahead in an organized fashion may prevent countless moments
of indecision, keep the client from changing her mind without periodic
sign-ofs on the materials included, and, in the long run, save you money.
Programming Features
Multimedia authoring systems ofer one or more of the following
approaches, as explained in the following paragraphs:
Visual programming with cues, icons, and objects
■ Programming with a scripting language
■ Programming with traditional languages, such as Basic or C
■ Document development tools
■
Visual programming with icons or objects is perhaps the simplest
and easiest authoring process. If you want to play a sound or put a picture
into your project, just drag the element’s icon into the playlist—or drag it
away to delete it.
Authoring tools that ofer a very high level language (VHLL) or
interpreted scripting environment for navigation control and for enabling
user inputs or goal-oriented programming languages—such as Flash,
LiveCode, Director, and ToolBook—are more powerful by deinition.
he more commands and functions provided in the scripting language,
the more powerful the authoring system. Once you learn a scripting
language, you will be able to learn other scripting languages relatively
quickly; the principles are the same, regardless of the command syntax
and keywords used.
As with traditional programming tools, look for an authoring package
with good debugging facilities, robust text editing, and online syntax reference. Other scripting augmentation facilities are advantageous, as well.
In complex projects, you may need to program custom extensions of the
scripting language for direct access to the computer’s operating system.
A powerful document reference and delivery system is a key component of some projects. Some authoring tools ofer direct importing of
preformatted text, indexing facilities, complex text search mechanisms, and
hypertext linkage tools. hese authoring systems are useful for development
Chapter 7 Making Multimedia
of CD-ROM information products, online documentation and help systems, and sophisticated multimedia-enhanced publications.
With scripts, you can perform computational tasks; sense and respond
to user input; create character, icon, and motion animations; launch other
applications; and control external multimedia devices.
Interactivity Features
Interactivity empowers the end users of your project by letting them control
the content and low of information. Authoring tools should provide one
or more levels of interactivity:
Simple branching, which ofers the ability to go to another section of
the multimedia production (via an activity such as a keypress, mouse
click, or expiration of a timer)
■ Conditional branching, which supports a go-to based on the results
of IF-THEN decisions or events
■ A structured language that supports complex programming logic, such
as nested IF-THENs, subroutines, event tracking, and message passing among objects and elements
■
Performance Tuning Features
Complex multimedia projects require exact synchronization of events—
for example, the animation of an exploding balloon with its accompanying
sound efect. Accomplishing synchronization is diicult because performance varies widely among the diferent computers used for multimedia
development and delivery. Some authoring tools allow you to lock a production’s playback speed to a speciied computer platform, but others provide
no ability whatsoever to control performance on various systems. In many
cases, you will need to use the authoring tool’s own scripting language or
custom programming facility to specify timing and sequence on systems
with diferent (faster or slower) processors. Be sure your authoring system
allows precise timing of events.
Playback Features
As you build your multimedia project, you will be continually assembling
elements and testing to see how the assembly looks and performs. Your
authoring system should let you build a segment or part of your project
and then quickly test it as if the user were actually using it. You should
spend a great deal of time going back and forth between building and
testing as you reine and smooth the content and timing of the project.
You may even want to release the project to others who you trust to run it
ragged and show you its weak points.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Delivery Features
Why is programming fun? What delights may its practitioner
expect as his reward?
First is the sheer joy of making things. As the child delights
in his mud pie, so the adult enjoys building things, especially
things of his own design. I think this delight must be an
image of God’s delight in making things, a delight shown in
the distinctiveness of each leaf and each snowlake.
Second is the pleasure of making things that are useful to
other people. Deep within, we want others to use our work
and to ind it helpful. In this respect the programming system
is not essentially diferent from the child’s irst clay pencil
holder “for Daddy’s oice.”
hird is the fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like
objects of interlocking moving parts and watching them work
in subtle cycles, playing out the consequences of principles
built in from the beginning. he programmed computer
has all the fascination of the pinball machine or the jukebox
mechanism, carried to the ultimate.
Fourth is the joy of always learning, which springs from the
non-repeating nature of the task. In one way or another the
problem is ever new, and its solver learns something: sometimes practical, sometimes theoretical, and sometimes both.
Finally, there is the delight of working in such a tractable
medium. he programmer, like the poet, works only slightly
removed from pure thought-stuf. He builds his castles in
the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few
media of creation are so lexible, so easy to polish and rework,
so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.
(As we shall see later, this tractability has its own problems.)
Yet the program construct, unlike the poet’s words, is real in
the sense that it moves and works, producing visible outputs
separately from the construct itself. It prints results, draws
pictures, produces sounds, moves arms. he magic of myth
and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct
incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life,
showing things that never were nor could be.
Programming then is fun because it gratiies creative longings built deep within us and delights sensibilities we have in
common with all men.
From he Mythical Man-Month: Essays in Software Engineering
by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., Kenan Professor of Computer Science,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Delivering your project may require
building a run-time version of the project
using the multimedia authoring software.
A run-time version or standalone
allows your project to play back without
requiring the full authoring software
and all its tools and editors. Often, the
run-time version does not allow users to
access or change the content, structure,
and programming of the project. If you
are going to distribute your project widely,
you should distribute it in the run-time
version. Make sure your authored project
can be easily distributed.
Cross-Platform Features
It is also increasingly important to use
tools that make transfer across platforms
easy. For many developers, the Macintosh remains the multimedia authoring
platform of choice, but 80 percent of that
developer’s target market may be Windows
platforms. If you develop on a Macintosh,
look for tools that provide a compatible
authoring system for Windows or ofer a
run-time player for the other platform.
Internet Playability
Because the Web has become a signiicant delivery medium for multimedia,
authoring systems typically provide a
means to convert their output so that it can
be delivered within the context of HTML
or DHTML, either with special plug-ins
or by embedding Java, JavaScript, or other
code structures in the HTML document.
Test your authoring software for Internet
delivery before you build your project. Be
sure it performs on the Web as you expect!
Test it out for performance stability on as
many platforms as you can.
Chapter 7 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
Describe the four primary stages in a multimedia
project
■
Planning and costing
■
Designing and producing
■
Testing
■
Delivering
Discuss the intangible elements needed to make
good multimedia
■
Creativity
■
Organization
■
Communication skill
Discuss the hardware most often used in making
multimedia and choose an appropriate platform
for a project
Understand common software programs used to
handle text, graphics, audio, video, and animation
in multimedia projects and discuss their
capabilities
■
A word processor is a regularly used tool in
designing and building a multimedia project.
■
Image-editing software: bitmapped images
provide the greatest choice and power to the artist
for rendering ine detail and efects.
■
Animations and digital video movies are sequences
of bitmapped graphic scenes or frames, rapidly
played back.
■
With proper editing software, you can digitize
video, edit, add special efects and titles, mix sound
tracks, and save the clip.
■
To master an application, you may have spent
many hours learning it, and you will likely stay
with that product rather than change to another.
Determine which multimedia authoring system is
most appropriate for any given project
■
Windows and Macintosh are the two computer
platforms most often used.
■
Hardware elements such as hard disks and
networked peripherals must be connected
together.
■
hree metaphors are used by authoring tools that
make multimedia: card- and page-based, icon- and
object-based, and time-based.
■
Memory and storage devices include hard drives,
random access memory (RAM), read-only
memory (ROM), lash memory and thumb drives,
and CD-ROM, DVD, and Blu-ray discs.
■
When choosing an authoring system, consider
its editing, organizing, programming, interactivity, performance, playback, cross-platform, and
delivery features.
■
Input and output devices such as microphones,
recorders, speakers, and monitors are required
when working with multimedia elements.
235
■ Key Terms
3-D modeling software (218)
Advanced Technology
Attachment (ATA)(204)
Apple Macintosh operating
system (OS) (200)
assets (198)
background layer (229)
barcoding (210)
binary compatible (200)
Blu-ray (208)
card-based (228)
Cast (230)
cathode-ray tube (CRT) (211)
client/server software (202)
clone (202)
compact disc read-only
memory (CD-ROM)(207)
conditional branching (233)
cross-platform (200)
Digital Versatile Disc
(DVD) (208)
drawing software (216)
DVD-ROM (208)
DVD-Video (208)
ECMAScript (230)
Ethernet (202)
event-driven (229)
FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions)(214)
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) (200)
ilter (221)
FireWire (205)
format converter (222)
frame (221)
handler (228)
High Deinition TV (HDTV) (208)
hot-swapping (205)
icon- or object-based (229)
image-editing application (220)
Integrated Drive Electronics
(IDE) (204)
Internet service provider
(ISP) (202)
keyboarding (214)
Lingo (230)
local area network (LAN) (202)
look and feel (196)
Microsoft Windows (200)
mirroring (204)
modiier (230)
MPC speciication (202)
object (230)
oice suite (214)
optical character recognition
(OCR) (209)
page-based (228)
painting software (216)
parent and child
relationship(230)
platform-independent (200)
plug-and-play (205)
programmable ROM
(EPROM) (206)
proof-of-concept (196)
property (230)
prototype (196)
random access memory
(RAM) (205)
read-only memory (ROM) (206)
run-time version (234)
Score (230)
scripting language (232)
simple branching (233)
Small Computer System
Interface (SCSI)(204)
sprite (221)
stage (230)
standalone (234)
terabyte (206)
time-based (229)
Universal Product Code
(UPC) (210)
Universal Serial Bus (USB) (205)
very high level language
(VHLL) (232)
visual programming (232)
voice recognition system (210)
wide area network (WAN) (202)
WiFi (202)
word processor (214)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. A(n) _______________ is a simple, working example that demonstrates whether or not an idea is feasible.
2. A(n) _______________ ile requires no cross-platform conversion.
3. FAQ stands for _______________.
4. A package of software applications that might include a spreadsheet, database, e-mail, web browser, and
presentation applications is called a(n) _______________ (two words).
5. A program that changes an image from one type of graphics ile to another is a(n) _______________
(two words).
236
6. A network of workstations located within a short distance of one another that allows direct
communication and sharing of peripheral resources such as ile servers, printers, scanners, and network
modems is called a(n) _______________.
7. he type of memory used by a computer to run several programs at the same time is called
_______________.
8. he type of memory that is not erased when power is shut of to it is called _______________.
9. Elements and events are organized along a timeline in a(n) _________________ (two words) authoring
system.
10. Each graphic scene in an animation is referred to as a(n) _______________.
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. As you design and build a multimedia project,
your most often used tool may be your:
a. word processor
b. authoring system
c. image processor
d. drawing program
e. format converter
5. When you turn of the power to this type of
storage, any data stored in it is lost.
a. CD-ROM
b. ROM
c. OROM
d. EPROM
e. RAM
2. Of all the multimedia elements in a project, the
one that will likely have the greatest inluence on
the end user is the:
a. video footage
b. sound efects
c. graphical impact
d. packaging
e. musical background
6. A barcode reader can:
a. scan graphics into a computer
b. read Universal Product Code patterns
c. provide pressure-sensitive input
d. recognize spoken words when trained
e. all of the above
3. Painting software is dedicated to producing:
a. vector images
b. animations
c. 3-D images
d. bitmap images
e. video clips
4. DVD stands for:
a. Dynamically-Variable Disc
b. Distributed Video Disc
c. Data-Vision Disc
d. Double-Volume Disc
e. Digital Versatile Disc
7. Which of these is not a common platform for
producing and delivering multimedia projects?
a. Macintosh OS X
b. Windows 98
c. Macintosh Classic
d. Windows XP
e. IBM VMS
8. A scripting language is considered:
a. a very low level language (VLLL)
b. an assembler language
c. a subset of HTML
d. a form of BASIC
e. a very high level language (VHLL)
237
9. For a project whose content consists of elements
that can be viewed individually, this type of
authoring system is particularly useful during
development.
a. card- or page-based tool
b. icon-based, event-driven tool
c. time-based tool
d. scripting language
e. All are equally useful.
10. Scripting languages operate by processing small
blocks of code when certain events occur. Such a
block of code is called:
a. a function
b. a handler
c. a process
d. a script
e. a protocol
11. Most card-based programs have a layer that
stays constant behind a layer above it that can be
diferent on all other cards. his layer is called the:
a. master layer
b. system layer
c. prime layer
d. background layer
e. static layer
13. Which of the following is not a stage of
multimedia production?
a. testing
b. planning and costing
c. designing and producing
d. marketing
e. delivering
14. Which of these is not a problem you might
encounter in porting a program from a Mac to
the PC (or from the PC to Mac)?
a. Bitmapped images are larger on a PC.
b. Font sizes and shapes are slightly diferent.
c. Special characters are not the same.
d. Graphics with 256 colors show diferent
colors.
e. All are potential problems.
15. he most precious asset you can bring to the
multimedia workshop is your:
a. creativity
b. programming skill
c. musical ability
d. ilm and video production talent
e. checking account
12. In multimedia authoring systems, multimedia
elements and events are often treated as objects
that exist in a hierarchical relationship. his
relationship is often called:
a. servant and master
b. host and client
c. property and modiier
d. creator and creature
e. parent and child
■ Essay Quiz
1. You are a team leader who has been given six months to produce a multimedia title that will demonstrate
your company’s capabilities. Write a brief outline describing the timeline and the possible costs associated
with the four stages of the project (you do not have to estimate actual amounts, just estimate percentage of
budget). Justify your estimates.
2. Consider your own skills, abilities, and goals. Where do you see yourself itting into a multimedia
production team? What abilities would you bring to a team now? What abilities do you need to work to
238
develop? What are your creative abilities? What is your level of mastery of multimedia tools (software and
hardware)?
3. You have been assigned to develop a complex multimedia kiosk for an auto club that will allow users with
an account to enter a start point and an ending point, and have a map printed out. What input devices
could be used to identify the user? What input devices could be used to enter start and end locations?
Could one device do both functions? What about printing out the maps?
4. List the various methods of connecting a computer with the “world,” and discuss the beneits and
drawbacks of each.
5. Describe the problems you are likely to encounter in creating a cross-platform program, and list several
ways to deal with these problems.
Lab Projects
■Project 7.1
Create the credits for an imaginary multimedia production. Include several outside organizations, such as video
production companies and audio mixing/post-production facilities. Don’t forget to include copywriters and other
content providers. It may be helpful to look at the credits for an actual production.
■Project 7.2
Visit the web sites of three video-editing programs, and locate a page that summarizes the capabilities of each.
List the formats each is able to import from and export or output to. How do they handle clips? Is there an
easy, intuitive, “drop and drag” interface? How many audio and video tracks are included? How are transitions
and ilters included? What features do all of them have in common? What unique features does each one have?
Document your indings.
■Project 7.3
Diagram a network of three workstations; designate one a scanning workstation, one a graphics development
workstation, and one a testing workstation. Include at least two input devices and two storage devices for each
one, making logical choices (for example, backups, testing, etc.). Add a server for backup, a printer, and a connection to the Internet to your diagram.
■Project 7.4
Locate three DVD-Videos. If possible, select DVDs of something besides feature ilms, making sure they include
“bonus” materials. What extra materials are included? What materials are only available on a PC? Why are these
materials not available on the television? Document your indings.
■Project 7.5
You have been assigned to manage a major training project. his project is to include a complex simulation
of a workplace task and a reference database of images. Create a hypothetical low diagram that illustrates
the relationship between the simulation and the database. Discuss how you might design and produce this
project.
239
240
CHAPTER 8
Multimedia Skills
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Identify the typical mem-
bers of a multimedia project
team and describe the skills
that they need for their work
■ Understand the importance
of selecting and managing
a team in order to produce
successful multimedia
projects
C
omputer scientists, physicians, and iremen share highest
honors as the most respected professions in the United States, according
to a recent study of occupations. Are multimedia developers computer
scientists? Or are they programmers, graphic artists, musicians, animators, storyboard craftspeople, information specialists, instructional
designers, and/or Renaissance authors? However you deine them, they
come from all corners of the computer, art, literary, ilm, and audio worlds.
Video producers become experts with computer-generated animations
and MIDI controls for their edit suites. Architects become bored with
two-dimensional drafting and create three-dimensional animated walkthroughs. Oil ield engineers get tired of manipulating complex data sets
and design mouse-driven human interfaces. Classical painters learn the
electronic elements of red, green, and blue and create fantastic, computerbased artwork. A multimedia developer might be any or all of these and
typically doesn’t it a traditional management information system (MIS)
or computer science mold; many have never seen a line of C++ code or
booted up a Linux server. Perhaps, in the broadest deinition, multimedia
developers might simply be called information technology workers.
Consider Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance man who was scientist, architect, builder, creative designer, craftsman, and poet folded into
one. To produce good multimedia, you will need a similar diverse range
of skills—detailed knowledge of computers, text, graphic arts, sound, and video.
hese skills, the multimedia skill set, may
be available in a single individual or, more
likely, in a composite of individuals working as a team. Complex multimedia projects are, indeed, often assembled by teams
of artists and computer craftspeople, where
tasks can be delegated to those most skilled
in a particular discipline or craft. Many job
titles and collaborative team roles for multimedia development are being adapted to pull from a mix of motion picture industry, radio and television broadcasting, and computer software
industry experiences.
Chapter 8 Multimedia Skills
241
WARNING
A multimedia expert working alone will be hard-pressed to
compete with a multidisciplinary team of experts and may be overwhelmed by
the sheer amount of efort required to build a complex project single-handedly.
The Team
A typical team for developing multimedia for DVD or the Web consists of
people who bring various abilities to the table. Often, individual members
of multimedia production teams wear several hats: graphic designers may
also do interface design, scanning, and image processing. A project manager
or producer may also be the video producer or scriptwriter. Depending
upon the scope and content of your project and the mix of people required,
according to Wes Baker, a professor at Cedarville University in Cedarville,
Ohio, a multimedia production team may require as many as 18 discrete
roles, including:
Executive Producer
Producer/Project Manager
Creative Director/Multimedia Designer
Art Director/Visual Designer
Artist
Interface Designer
Game Designer
Subject Matter Expert
Instructional Designer/Training Specialist
Scriptwriter
Animator (2-D/3-D)
Sound Producer
Music Composer
Video Producer
Multimedia Programmer
HTML Coder
Lawyer/Media Acquisition
Marketing Director
Project Manager
A project manager’s role is at the center of the action. He or she is responsible for the overall development and implementation of a project as well
as for day-to-day operations. Budgets, schedules, creative sessions, time
sheets, illness, invoices, and team dynamics—the project manager is the
glue that holds it together.
Mere possession of the
equipment does not make
one into a videographer,
ilm editor, set designer,
scriptwriter, audio engineer,
animator, and programmer.
Some people do possess
all of the innate talents
required to produce decent
multimedia, but few have
mastered all the skills
required to bring a major
project to fruition. More
typically, world-class productions are realized through
the teamwork of a variety of
talented people with specialized experience.
Jef Burger,
Contributing Editor,
NewMedia magazine
242
Multimedia: Making It Work
Mark Williams
Production of a CD-ROM reference guide at Microsoft involved a core
team headed by project manager Mark Williams, along with additional
specialists, technicians, and assistants, who were brought on board as
needed.
At Microsoft, project managers are called program managers, but it means exactly the same thing. he program
manager has two major areas of responsibility: design
and management. Design consists of devising a vision
for the product, working out the complete functionality
with the design team, and then putting it into a complete
functional spec and adjusting it as necessary throughout
the development of the product. he management side consists of scheduling and assigning tasks, running meetings, and managing milestones—
essentially overseeing all aspects of product development from beginning
to end.
Our core team consisted of a project manager (me), a subject matter
expert (who is called an editor at Microsoft), a graphic designer, and a
programmer (also called a software development engineer). Another
important team member was the product manager—a marketing person
who is responsible for representing the product to the outside world. We
also found that it was very valuable to get early design input from the person who creates the online and printed help for the product and from the
person who eventually manages the testing of the product.
In the production phase we brought in additional talent for scanning
images, digitizing sound, proofreading, and other production tasks. We
also worked with numerous specialists along the way, such as an audio producer for securing sound track material and, crucially, acquisitions specialists. he acquisitions folks were vital to the efort because we were trying
to get a variety of media from people who really didn’t understand what
we were doing.
Speccing the right content and being able to acquire it was critical.
Our pictures and content are all of the highest quality, and the design is
clear and easy to use. Keeping a vision of the product in mind—and making sure that the design really meets the needs of the end user—is very
important. Constant usability testing gives us a way to keep the end user
involved in the design process.
A good project manager must completely understand the strengths
and limitations of hardware and software so that he or she can make good
decisions about what to do and what not to do. Aside from that I’d say
the most important skills are people skills (keeping your team happy and
motivated), organizational skills, and attention to all the myriad details of a
Chapter 8 Multimedia Skills
project. At the same time, it’s critical to keep the big picture, the vision, in
mind, so that everything that needs to get done does in fact get done.
Project Manager/Interface Expert
Multimedia company looking to immediately fill position working on
interactive television project for major telecommunications company.
Project manager needed to manage production and design efforts on
large-scale, interactive television project for air in United States.
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Must be adept and experienced at managing complex projects,
preferably with large corporate accounts.
Must have solid understanding of interactivity and experience
with interactive media in the broadcast television world.
Must have several years of experience with interface design or
have worked in management of an interface design group.
Must have good design sensibilities.
Communication skills a must; candidate must be an articulate and
effective communicator, an excellent listener, and should be able
to act as a conduit for the information passing between our team
and the client’s teams.
Superior attention to detail and ability to coordinate large amounts
of information a must.
Prefer entertainment experience—ideally, television or video
production.
Solid computer or digital media experience and knowledge a
must.
Travel required for visiting focus groups and gathering consumer
information.
Must function well in fast-paced, team-oriented environment.
Position must be filled immediately.
Multimedia Designer
he look and feel of a multimedia project should be pleasing and aesthetic,
as well as inviting and engaging. Screens should present an appealing mix
of color, shape, and type. he project should maintain visual consistency,
using only those elements that support the overall message of the program.
Navigation clues should be clear and consistent, icons should be meaningful, and screen elements should be simple and straightforward. If the
project is instructional, its design should be sensitive to the needs and styles
of its learner population, demonstrate sound instructional principles, and
promote mastery of subject matter. But who puts it all together?
Graphic designers, illustrators, animators, and image processing specialists deal with the visuals. Instructional designers are specialists in
education or training and make sure that the subject matter is clear and
properly presented for the intended audience. Interface designers devise
the navigation pathways and content maps. Information designers
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structure content, determine user pathways and feedback, and select presentation media based on an awareness of the strengths of the many separate media that make up multimedia. All can be multimedia designers.
Kurt Andersen
Kurt Andersen is an instructional designer and was a senior designer at the
George Lucas Educational Foundation, where he designed multimedia
prototypes for middle school math and science curricula.
A multimedia designer often wears many hats, but most importantly he or she looks at the overall content of a project, creates a structure
for the content, determines the design elements required to support that
structure, and then decides which media are appropriate for presenting
which pieces of content. In essence, the multimedia designer (sometimes
called an information designer) prepares the blueprint for the entire project: content, media, and interaction.
From an interactive standpoint, many multimedia projects
are too passive—you click and watch. he challenge is to
get beyond what is appealing visually and design products
that are activity-based. A multimedia project needs to be
truly interactive, and this means that as a designer you
have to have a clear picture of what goes on whenever the
user interacts with the program.
Advances in technology are bringing us closer to this point. For example, one of the most interesting things going on is the development of
adaptive systems, which accept user input and modify themselves based on
this input. In training projects, they’re called intelligent tutors. Right now,
we’re working on a medical application that will analyze a patient’s history
and background in order to present information that is personalized to
that particular patient.
I was recently a member of two diferent teams that developed multimedia prototypes for middle school science and mathematics at the
George Lucas Educational Foundation. Our approach was to develop
prototypes that might be distributed as exemplars of rigorous, engaging,
efective multimedia design using leading-edge technology. he real challenge was to create a program that presented mathematics so that users
could play, explore, and develop their own conceptual schema around the
concepts we were developing. We were also challenged to implement our
ideas from a technological standpoint. For example, we wound up hooking up a high-end rendering machine so that we could do 3-D graphics
on the ly.
Multimedia designers need a variety of skills. You need to be able to
analyze content structurally and match it up with efective presentation
Chapter 8 Multimedia Skills
methods. You need to be an expert on diferent media types, and a capable
media integrator, in order to create an overall vision. he ability to look at
information from diferent points of view and a willingness to shift your
own point of view to be empathetic with end users are absolutely essential. So are interpersonal skills, because you spend so much of your time
interacting with other team members and with clients, as well as extracting information from subject matter experts. You must be able to “talk the
talk” with all of them. Finally, you must understand the capabilities of your
resources, both technological and human, and know when to push ahead
and when to stop.
Multimedia Designer/Producer
Seeking an experienced, new-media professional who loves inventing
the future and enjoys the challenge of integrating complex information and media systems.
Our ideal candidate has solid experience in interface design, product
prototyping, and marketing communication. Knowledge of image
manipulation is critical, as well as proven skills in Lingo scripting and
the use of digital time-based authoring tools. We seek a team player
with excellent communication skills and grace under pressure.
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Must have experience designing large information and/or entertainment systems.
Must have experience creating system flows and program
architectures.
Must have solid organizational skills and attention to detail.
Interface Designer
Like a good ilm editor, an interface designer’s best work is never seen by
the viewer—it’s “transparent.” In its simplest form, an interface provides
control to the people who use it. It also provides access to the “media” part
of multimedia, meaning the text, graphics, animation, audio, and video—
without calling attention to itself. he elegant simplicity of a multimedia
title screen, the ease with which a user can move about within a project,
efective use of windows, backgrounds, icons, and control panels—these
are the result of an interface designer’s work.
Nicole Lazzaro
Nicole Lazzaro is an award-winning interface designer with XEODesign
in Oakland, California, and teaches interface design at San Francisco State
University’s Multimedia Studies Program. She spends her days thinking of
new ways to design multimedia interfaces that feel more like real life.
he role of an interface designer is to create a software device that
organizes the multimedia content, lets the user access or modify that content, and presents the content on screen. hese three areas—information
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design, interactive design, and media design—are central to the creation of
any interface, and of course they overlap.
In the real world, design responsibilities are often assigned
diferently depending on the project. An interface designer
may also be the multimedia designer or the graphic
designer. Sometimes all of the design is given to one person; sometimes it is divided among group members; and
sometimes the interface springs from the group as a whole.
In the best of all worlds, everyone has input into the inal
vision, but realistically, everyone also has other responsibilities outside of
interface design. he advantage of dedicating one team member experienced in a number of interface solutions to this particular task is to make
sure the end user does not get left out of the equation. A good interface
designer will create a product that rewards exploration and encourages use.
You have to design the interface from the ground up, not just slap on some
graphics and fancy icons after most of the programming is done.
A crucial skill is being familiar with a lot of multimedia interfaces
so that you are able to visualize ideas as they are discussed. What is the
best way to represent this function? Will this program look better using
a hierarchical menu or a book metaphor? What will be the user’s experience? Being familiar with ilm or video editing can be helpful, because telling a story with sounds and images is what most multimedia experiences
are all about. From a visual perspective, cinematography and ilm editing
are, I think, the closest parallels to what we would call interface design.
hese techniques can seamlessly change a point of view or tell a story more
efectively, and they are being used by interface designers today. Knowing
an authoring system is also crucial, so that you can develop your ideas in
some interactive fashion and be able to present them to your design group.
Having basic drawing skills also helps, because then you can describe how
a screen looks using pencil and paper. Also, learn how to do user testing,
and do lots of it!
Artist/Designer needed to create graphics for interactive multimedia titles aimed at children. Solid experience in graphic design,
including knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere.
Must have superior illustration ability. Must have experience in animation. Experience in video graphics and editing (Premiere, Avid,
Media100, etc.) a plus.
Writer
Multimedia writers do everything writers of linear media do, and more.
hey create character, action, and point of view—a traditional scriptwriter’s
Chapter 8 Multimedia Skills
tools of the trade—and they also create interactivity. hey write proposals,
they script voice-overs and actors’ narrations, they write text screens to
deliver messages, and they develop characters designed for an interactive
environment.
Writers of text screens are sometimes referred to as content writers.
hey glean information from content experts, synthesize it, and then communicate it in a clear and concise manner. Scriptwriters write dialog, narration, and voice-overs. Both often get involved in overall design.
Domenic Stansberry
Domenic Stansberry is a writer/designer who has worked on interactive multimedia dramas for commercial products. He has also written for
documentary ilm and published two books of iction.
he role of the writer changes with each diferent project, depending
on the people you’re working with. But multimedia writing is always different from writing a ilm or video script. In a ilm or video, you’re plotting
a story the way a dramatist or novelist would. With multimedia, it can
be more diicult: you’re still thinking dramatically, but in smaller, more
discrete units that have to interrelate to each other, and that have to be
compiled into a puzzle of sorts.
In traditional drama there are characters and an inevitability about what happens to those characters. You build
circumstances that have certain signiicance for your characters as they go on to meet their destiny. In multimedia, we plot out stories that can go many diferent ways.
his is inherently contradictory to the way we’ve thought
about dramatic structure. Intelligent writers are still working hard to invent interactive dramatic structures: we see some attempts
in games, which are obstacle driven. he user needs to perform a task and
is presented with an obstacle—and then a need to overcome the obstacle
and move on. his is not unlike the position a character takes in a story
or movie where characters are presented with physical or psychological
obstacles and must ind a way to get beyond them. It’s really too bad that
writers are not brought in on more game projects…the quality of the interaction would be much higher if they were.
I work best when I am involved at the conceptual level of a project,
but in many projects, the lowcharts are generated irst. hen as the writing process unfolds, you ind that the lowchart doesn’t work because the
material isn’t what the lowchart wants it to be. When you’re working on
a dramatic script, you have to make the characters and the drama work
irst, before you start doing lowcharts. So if the writer is invited into
the process at Step 7 and handed a lowchart, you’re going to run into a
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problem. Another problem lies in working with people who are mainly
from computer backgrounds. hey are used to the writer as a writer of
documentation—someone who comes in at the end of a project and writes
a manual about how the product works. Computer people are often very
uncomfortable with media people playing a role at the heart of the creative
process. You need to develop a sense about where other team members
are coming from when you are brought on to a project, and try to educate
them if necessary.
But in the inal analysis, the producer or project manager has to be the
person to handle conlict in difering team members’ visions. A good producer will get the most out of team members by getting them to work not
against each other, but together toward their strengths. here are bound to
be competing visions on a project, and in the best-case scenario, the team
members will work out their diferences through a consensus process. But
if they can’t, the producer has to have a guiding vision.
Multimedia Writer needed for multimedia kiosk in retail outlet. Must
be familiar with interactive design and user interface issues. Background in marketing or copywriting a plus. Ability to work under tight
deadlines in a team environment essential. Candidates will be asked to
provide writing samples.
Video Specialist
Prior to the 2000s, producing video was extremely expensive, requiring
a large crew and expensive equipment. Recently, however, the cost of the
equipment and the size of the crew needed have dropped dramatically, and
digital video presentation methods have combined increasingly capable
hardware and software. he result is that video images delivered in a multimedia production have improved from postage-stamp-sized windows
playing at low frame rates to full-screen (or nearly full-screen) windows
playing at 30 frames per second. As shooting, editing, and preparing video
has migrated to an all-digital format and become increasingly afordable to
multimedia developers, video elements have become more and more part
of the multimedia mix.
For high-quality productions, it may still be necessary for a video
specialist to be responsible for an entire team of videographers, sound
technicians, lighting designers, set designers, script supervisors, gafers,
grips, production assistants, and actors. However, for many modest projects, a video specialist may shoot and edit all of the footage without outside help.
Whether working individually or managing a large crew, a video specialist needs to understand how to shoot quality video, how to transfer
the video footage to a computer, how to edit the footage down to the
Chapter 8 Multimedia Skills
inal product using a digital nonlinear editing system (NLE), and how to
prepare the completed video iles for the most eicient delivery on DVD
or the Web.
Oliver Streuli
Oliver Streuli has worked as a post-production editor on several Hollywood productions (Silence of the Lambs, Family Man, and Rush Hour 2). He
currently works in Switzerland where he specializes in post-production of
commercials, corporate marketing and educational videos, and broadcast
programming.
Editing images into a creative and understandable low is
a rewarding career, although the actual work is generally
done behind-the-scenes. Most people never notice good
video editing, but practically everyone notices lousy work
with sync problems and poor color correction. Post production includes mixing, adding titles, creating graphics and
special efects, and tweaking audio. A working knowledge
of tools like Adobe Photoshop, AfterEfects, and ProTools is immensely
helpful, while extensive knowledge of nonlinear editing programs like
Final Cut Pro or Avid is mandatory.
he worklow of a successful video project starts with good video
and sound material—if the raw material is bad, there is only so much an
editor can do to improve it. Editing a project can take anywhere from a
few hours to a few months. For a 30-second commercial, you might have
hours and hours of raw footage (also called dailies or rushes). he irst
edit is considered an “oline edit” and is done with compressed video
and with titles and efects roughed in to save disk space. An Edit Decision List (EDL) is created during the oline editing process. his list
of selected scenes becomes the “online edit,” which incorporates only
footage speciied in the EDL. Special efects, titles, graphics, and color
corrections are then added. A sound studio will likely make an audio
track of voiceovers, background music, and jingles that need to be mixed
in, so a misstep during the oline editing process can trickle down and
create plenty of problems later during online or audio sessions. Attention
to detail and a willingness to ask questions goes a very long way towards
a smooth project.
Video Specialist wanted for multimedia production. Must have strong
background in video direction, nonlinear editing, and preparing digital
video for efficient delivery. Good understanding of shooting for interactive programming required. A background working with Ultimatte
green screens for compositing live video with computer-generated
backgrounds a plus.
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Audio Specialist
he quality of audio elements can make or break a multimedia project.
Audio specialists are the wizards who make a multimedia program come
alive, by designing and producing music, voice-over narrations, and sound
efects. hey perform a variety of functions on the multimedia team and
may enlist help from one or many others, including composers, audio
engineers, or recording technicians. Audio specialists may be responsible
for locating and selecting suitable music and talent, scheduling recording
sessions, and digitizing and editing recorded material into computer iles
(see Chapter 4).
Chip Harris
Chip Harris studied trumpet and electronic music composition at the
Peabody Conservatory of Music, and he has worked with the noted
composer Jean Eichelberger Ivy. He has recorded releases on major and
independent labels, including Atlantic, RCA, and Warner Brothers,
has composed music for CD-ROM titles for Virgin Games, Accolade,
and E-greetings, and has created soundtracks for Clio and Joey awardwinning spots.
An audio specialist working in multimedia should have a
thorough understanding of the requirements involved in
producing a successful sound track. Most often this person will be either an engineer, technician, composer, sound
designer, or any combination of the above. On the rare
occasion where all of these skills are requisite for employment, the position would most likely be for an audio
department manager for a good-sized and well-funded multimedia company with in-house production facilities. However, even though positions
such as these aren’t plentiful, the skills and talents necessary for quality
multimedia audio production are needed every day by companies who have
opted to outsource their audio to independent contractors.
Whether it’s recording voice-over talent for a business application,
composing a musical score for a shoot-’em up game, or designing sound
efects that relect the particular feel of a product, the end result will rely
on knowing the medium going in. By this I mean, for example, at what
sampling rate will the audio be delivered? How much space is available
for all audio combined? Can diferent sampling rates be applied to voiceover and music to save space and enhance overall quality? In composition will looping be required of individual pieces to provide a seamless
score and to save valuable space? And who will do the looping, the composer or the engineer? Will some voice-over talents sound presentable
Chapter 8 Multimedia Skills
at higher sampling rates but not at lower? Will the producer understand
the diference?
Of course, these are only a few examples of the questions and problems
to be dealt with in multimedia audio production. But attention to detail,
listening for a cohesive presentation, and quality recording techniques
are the strong glue that successfully binds the diverse audio components
together.
Multimedia Audio Specialist
Audio specialist needed for multimedia project.
Must have strong background in studio recording techniques—
preferably with time spent in the trenches as an engineer in a
commercial studio working on a wide range of projects. Must be
comfortable working with computers and be open and able to learn
new technology and make it work, with high-quality results. Familiarity with standard recording practices, knowledge of music production,
and the ability to work with artists a definite plus. Requires fluency
in MIDI; experience with sequencing software, patch librarians, and
synth programming; and knowledge of sampling/samplers, hard disk
recording, and editing. In addition to having a solid technical foundation, you must be able to survive long hours in the studio riding faders
and pushing buttons.
Multimedia Programmer
A multimedia programmer or software engineer integrates all
the multimedia elements of a project into a seamless whole using an
authoring system or programming language. Multimedia programming
functions range from coding simple displays of multimedia elements to
controlling peripheral devices and managing complex timing, transitions,
and record keeping. Creative multimedia programmers can coax extra
(and sometimes unexpected) performance from multimedia-authoring
and programming systems. Without programming talent, there can be
no multimedia. Code, whether written in JavaScript, OpenScript, Lingo,
RevTalk, PHP, Java, or C++, is the sheet music played by a well-orchestrated multimedia project.
Hal Wine
Hal Wine is a programmer familiar with both the Windows and Macintosh environments. In his many years of experience, he has worked in
most of the important areas of computing and for many of the leading
computing companies.
he programmer on a multimedia team is called on to perform a number of tasks, from assisting producers in organizing their code more efectively to enhancing the production and playback tools. he most important
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skill a multimedia programmer can bring to a team is the ability to quickly
learn and understand systems—and not just understand the various calls,
but know why those calls are needed. In other words, you should be able to
read between the lines of the technical manuals, so that your solutions are
harmonious with the philosophy and intent of the system designers.
Multimedia products are displayed on a large variety of display systems, and the enhancement needed often requires
going behind the normal system safeguards to meet the
objective. Such programming requires a thorough understanding of the target operating system and the device
capabilities needed to produce a robust solution.
While multimedia authoring tools are continually
improving, they are also still evolving. Many times a producer will want to
do something slightly beyond the built-in capabilities of the tools, and the
programmer will build extensions to the authoring and presentation suite
in order to add the desired capability or efect.
Many of the workers on a multimedia team have come to computing
from a background in another discipline such as graphic art or journalism, and while they may have strong creative skills, most can beneit from
learning more about computing techniques. Often, a multimedia programmer acts as a teacher and technical coach to the team. his implies having
better than average communication and comprehension skills, both verbal
and written, and the ability to listen!
I often come in to handle “emergencies” in multimedia projects, rather
than participate in the whole project’s life cycle. his provides me with
maximum variety in my own work, which really keeps me on my toes.
Sometimes, I’ll be working for several clients simultaneously. he downside is that I miss out on a lot of the creative synergy; but even so, coming
in on the spur of the moment, trying to understand the parameters of the
problem, and producing robust solutions quickly leads to quite a bit of
creativity, too. Knowing how to make your own latte is also useful.
Interactive Programmer (HTML, JavaScript, Flash, PHP, and C/C++)
needed to work on multimedia prototyping and authoring tools for
DVD and interactive web-based projects.
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Thorough knowledge of ActionScript, JavaScript, Flash, HTML5,
PHP, and C/C++, Macintosh and Windows environments required.
Must have working familiarity with digital media, particularly digital video.
Must have a demonstrated track record of delivering quality programming on tight schedules.
Must function well in fast-paced, team-oriented environment.
Knowledge of AJAX methodologies desired.
Chapter 8 Multimedia Skills
Producer of Multimedia for the Web
Web site producer is a new occupation, but putting together a coordinated
set of pages for the World Wide Web requires the same creative process,
skill sets, and (often) teamwork as any kind of multimedia does. With a
little efort, many of us could put up a simple web page with a few links,
but this difers greatly from designing, implementing, and maintaining
a complex site with many areas of content and many distinct messages.
A web site should never be inished, but should remain dynamic, luid,
and alive. Unlike a DVD multimedia product replicated many times in
permanent plastic, the work product at a web site is available for tweaking
at any time.
Kevin Edwards
Kevin Edwards is Senior Multimedia Producer for CNET, a publicly traded
media company that integrates television programming with a network of
sites on the World Wide Web. In both types of media, CNET provides
information about computers, the Internet, and future technology using
engaging content and design. CNET has about two million members on
the Internet, and its television programming—which airs on the USA
Network, on the Sci-Fi Channel, and in national syndication—reaches an
estimated weekly audience of more than eight million viewers.
Years ago I headed out to San Francisco to join CNET.
I wore a lot of diferent hats at CNET, but my primary
responsibility was with the company’s online foray into
multimedia. For example, early on we did a year-long project with Intel, where I was involved from original concept
through implementation. he project merged hot media
properties with cutting-edge technology to create a brandnew experience in web-based browsing, allowing users to become participants in the experience rather than just observers.
What helped me keep this project in focus was my well-rounded
knowledge and ability to perform in all of the diferent roles required to
produce the site—whether graphics, HTML, editorial, support, audio/
video, or some other task. While it’s a lot of fun to change hats and do
many diferent tasks, it can be a lot of responsibility and pretty stressful.
For me, building the original site meant that for a year and a half I was
totally plugged into the Net, checking on our site, looking at stats, and
analyzing what was going on in the entertainment/technology industries.
his meant keeping Web profession hours rather than banker’s hours,
which meant it was pretty rare for me to take a day of, even on weekends,
and my oice became more of my living space than my apartment. To keep
from burning out, you have to have a sense of ownership and a passion for
what you’re doing.
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he best situation is when your team is composed of people who also
turn into close friends. During this project we worked incredibly well
together: each knew his or her particular ield 100 percent and respected
the other team members. We worked hard, played hard, and were able to
really rock when put to the test. In fact, there were a couple of people who
started the project with very little experience, but their eagerness and ability to learn, and the group’s willingness to teach, made it happen.
Web Site Producer Excellent full-time opportunity with a large
manufacturing firm. Responsible for developing Web projects from
concept through implementation for internal and external clients.
Interact with all levels of management, network teams, and development teams to provide efficient project solutions. Knowledge of HTML
coding of tables, frames, and forms, knowledge of CGI scripting, and
knowledge of Photoshop and Flash required. Exciting opportunity
for a self-motivated individual looking for a career in new media. This
new entry-level position in the firm’s national marketing department
requires a team player with creative ideas who is interested in gaining
experience and knowledge in every aspect of web site development.
Job responsibilities include maintaining/updating site content, managing documents, and developing new site features.
The Sum of Parts
Successful multimedia projects begin with selecting “team players.” But
selection is only the beginning of a team-building process that must
continue through a project’s duration. Team building refers to activities
that help a group and its members function at optimal levels of performance
by creating a work culture that incorporates the styles of its members. You
should encourage communication styles that are luid and inclusive, and
you should develop models for decision making that respect individual
talents, expertise, and personalities. his isn’t easy, but repeated studies have
shown that workgroup managers with well-developed team skills are more
successful than managers who dive headlong into projects without attention to team dynamics. Although it’s usually a project manager who initiates team building, all team members should recognize their role; gentle
collaboration is a key element of successful projects.
Currently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not have a category
for jobs speciic to multimedia. Some related areas listed by the bureau
include
Artists and related workers
Multi-Media Artists
■ Animators
■ Designers
■ Motion picture production and distribution
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Chapter 8 Multimedia Skills
■
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255
Television, video, and motion picture camera operators and editors
Writers and editors
You can also check out career information sites such as SkillsNet.net,
Vault.com, and WetFeet.com for current information on careers in new
media.
Graphic Designers
Graphic designers—or graphic
artists—plan, analyze, and create
visual solutions to communications
problems. They ind the most efective way to get messages across in
print and electronic media using
color, type, illustration, photography, animation, and various print
and layout techniques. Graphic
designers develop the overall layout
and production design of magazines, newspapers, journals, corporate reports, and other publications.
They also produce promotional
displays, packaging, and marketing
brochures for products and services,
design distinctive logos for products and businesses, and develop
signs and signage systems—called
environmental graphics—for business and government. An increasing
number of graphic designers also
develop material for Internet Web
pages, interactive media, and multimedia projects. Graphic designers
also may produce the credits that
appear before and after television
programs and movies.
The irst step in developing a new
design is to determine the needs of
the client, the message the design
should portray, and its appeal to
customers or users. Graphic designers consider cognitive, cultural,
physical, and social factors in planning and executing designs for the
target audience. Designers gather
relevant information by meeting
with clients, creative or art directors, and by performing their own
research. Identifying the needs of
consumers is becoming increasingly
important for graphic designers as
they continue to develop corporate
communication strategies in addition to creating designs and layouts.
Graphic designers prepare sketches
or layouts—by hand or with the aid
of a computer—to illustrate their
vision for the design. They select
colors, sound, artwork, photography, animation, style of type, and
other visual elements for the design.
Designers also select the size and
arrangement of the diferent elements on the page or screen. They
may create graphs and charts from
data for use in publications, and
they often consult with copywriters
on any text that accompanies the
design. Designers then present the
completed design to their clients or
art or creative director for approval.
In printing and publishing irms,
graphic designers also may assist
the printers by selecting the type
of paper and ink for the publication
and reviewing the mock-up design
for errors before inal publication.
Graphic designers use specialized
computer software packages to
help them create layouts and design
elements and to program animated
graphics.
Graphic designers sometimes
supervise assistants who follow
instructions to complete parts
of the design process. Designers
who run their own businesses also
may devote a considerable time to
developing new business contacts,
choosing equipment, and performing administrative tasks, such as
reviewing catalogues and ordering
samples. The need for up-to-date
computer and communications
equipment is an ongoing consideration for graphic designers.
From The Occupational Outlook
Handbook, U.S. Department of Labor,
Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://stats
.bls.gov/oco/ocos090.htm)
Chapter 8 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
Identify the typical members of a multimedia
project team and describe the skills that they need
for their work
■
he project manager is responsible for the overall
development and implementation of a project as
well as for the day-to-day operations.
■
Instructional designers make sure that the subject
matter is clear and properly presented.
■
Interface designers devise the navigation pathways
and content maps on screen that let the user access
or modify that content.
■
Information designers structure content,
determine user pathways and feedback, and select
presentation media.
■
■
Multimedia writers, sometimes called content
writers, create characters, action, and point of
view—and they also create interactivity.
Multimedia video specialists must know the basics
about shooting good video, and be thoroughly
familiar with the tools and techniques used for
digital editing on computers. hey also must
understand the potentials and limitations of the
medium, including interactivity, how it will afect
the video, and how these limitations afect the
video production itself.
■
Audio specialists design and produce music, voiceover narrations, and sound efects. hey may also
be responsible for locating and selecting suitable
music and talent, scheduling recording sessions,
and digitizing and editing recorded material into
computer iles.
■
A multimedia programmer or software engineer
uses an authoring system or programming
language to integrate the multimedia elements
of a project into a seamless whole. Sometimes
programmers need to build extensions to the
authoring and presentation suite in order to
extend the system’s capabilities.
■
Web site producers not only put together a coordinated set of pages for the World Wide Web but
also constantly coordinate updates and changes.
Understand the importance of selecting and
managing a team in order to produce successful
multimedia projects
■
In any project, including multimedia, teambuilding activities improve productivity by
fostering communication and a work culture
that helps its members work together.
■ Key Terms
audio specialist (250)
information designer (243)
instructional designer (243)
interface designer (243)
multimedia designer (244)
256
multimedia programmer (251)
multimedia skill set (240)
producer (253)
project manager (241)
scriptwriter (246)
subject matter expert (242)
team building (254)
video specialist (248)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. he diverse range of abilities needed to produce a new-media project is called the _______________
(three words).
2. he person responsible for overall development and implementation of a project, as well as for day-to-day
operations, is the _______________ (two words).
3. he most appropriate title for the people whose job it is to look at the overall content of a project, create
a structure, determine the design elements, and assign media to the content is the _______________
(two words).
4. he work of a(n) _______________ (two words) is best when it is “transparent”—as in never noticed by
the user.
5. he most appropriate title for the person whose job it is to devise the navigation pathways and content
maps is the _______________ (two words).
6. he most appropriate title for the person whose job it is to structure content, determine user pathways and
feedback, and select presentation media based on an awareness of the strengths of the many separate media
that make up the total multimedia is the _______________ (two words).
7. he most appropriate title for the person whose job it is to create characters, action, point of view, and
interactivity, as well as write proposals, script voice-overs, actors’ narrations, and text screens, is the
_______________.
8. he most appropriate title for the person whose job it is to integrate all the multimedia elements of a
project into a seamless whole using an authoring system or programming language is the ______________
(two words).
9. Activities that help a group and its members function at optimal levels of performance by creating a work
culture that incorporates the styles of its members is called _______________ (two words).
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. According to a recent study of occupations,
which of these professions is not among the most
respected professions in the United States?
a. computer scientists
b. physicians
c. lawyers
d. dentists
e. all are among those listed
2. At Microsoft Corporation, the product manager:
a. coordinates the project’s internal resources
b. represents the product to the outside world
c. oversees the entire team
d. acquires the assets used in the project
e. ensures the project does not go over budget
3. Which of these is not likely to be the
responsibility of a project manager?
a. managing the overall development and
implementation of a project
b. overseeing budgets, schedules, creative
sessions, and team dynamics
c. acting as the “glue” that holds the project
together
d. understanding the strengths and limitations
of hardware and software
e. developing extensions to the authoring
system
257
4. Which of these is not likely to be the
responsibility of a multimedia designer?
a. creating interfaces
b. creating budgets and timelines for the
project
c. ensuring the visual consistency of the
project
d. structuring content
e. selecting media types for content
5. A multimedia designer might also be called:
a. a digital media engineer
b. a pixologist
c. an information designer
d. a meta-data designer
e. a media integrator
6. From an interactive standpoint, many multimedia
projects are too:
a. interactive
b. fast-paced
c. game-like
d. passive
e. complex
7. An interface should:
a. be “transparent” to the user
b. provide control to the people who use it
c. allow the user to move about within the
project
d. provide access to the “media” in the project
e. all of the above
8. From a visual perspective, interface design most
closely parallels:
a. mapmaking
b. cinematography and ilm editing
c. technical writing
d. ine art
e. technical drawing and illustration
9. Interface designers should:
a. be familiar with ilm editing
b. know an authoring system
c. have basic drawing skills
d. know how to do user testing
e. all of the above
258
10. Multimedia writers are typically involved in
writing all of the following except:
a. proposals
b. script voice-overs
c. actors’ narrations
d. authoring-language scripts
e. text screens to deliver messages
11. Writing for multimedia can be more diicult
than writing for other media because:
a. character development is much more critical
b. the dramatic structures of multimedia are
much more conined
c. multimedia development cycles are much
shorter
d. writers must think in smaller, more discrete
and interconnected units
e. all of the above
12. Which of these is not a necessary capability for a
multimedia video specialist?
a. skill in managing all phases of video
production
b. familiarity with the tools and techniques
used for digital video editing on computers
c. ability to incorporate all the sophisticated
video efects into a multimedia production
d. ability to make a video look larger than it
really is
e. familiarity with interactivity and how it will
afect the video
13. Which of the following is probably not a
consideration of the multimedia audio specialist?
a. the sampling rate at which the audio will be
delivered
b. how much space is available for all audio
c. which authoring system or programming
language to use
d. locating and selecting suitable music and
talent
e. digitizing and editing recorded material into
computer iles
14. he most important skill a multimedia
programmer can bring to a team is the ability to:
a. quickly learn and understand systems
b. control peripheral devices such as laserdisc
players
c. manage complex timing, transitions, and
record keeping
d. coax extra performance from multimedia
authoring and programming systems
e. act as a teacher and technical coach to
the team
15. Producing multimedia for the Web is diferent
from producing for DVD because:
a. the Web development industry is much
more focused on sales and marketing
b. Web development is much better adapted to
larger, longer media
c. Web design is much closer to print design;
multimedia is more like ilm
d. Web interface design is much more complex
than DVD interface design
e. a web site is never inished, but is always
available for changes
■ Essay Quiz
1. Discuss why the multimedia skill set is diferent from other project skill sets.
2. List and deine the skills in the multimedia skill set. Describe several ways of categorizing the skills; for
example, how each skill is related to project management, to design, to media, and to programming.
3. Describe the skills related to organizing, structuring, and editing the information in a multimedia project.
What are the various titles within this category, and what are the distinctions among these skills?
4. Deine multimedia computer programming. How does the programmer it into the team? Is he or she at the
end of the process, simply putting all the parts together after everyone else is inished? How can the other
skill sets beneit from understanding what the programmer does, and the authoring tools he or she uses?
5. Why are multimedia projects most frequently performed by teams? Whose responsibility is it to ensure
that the team operates efectively? What can be done to promote team efectiveness?
Lab Projects
■Project 8.1
Locate three multimedia projects and review the credits. How many members were on the team? What were
their titles? How many team members performed more than one role? What tasks were “outsourced” (performed
by outside companies)? Make a table that compares the titles for similar roles among the three projects. For each
one, discuss how the team related to the product. (For example, if the product included original video footage,
how large was the video production team?)
■Project 8.2
Locate three web sites and locate the credits (sites should be large enough to have a professional web development team). How many members were on the team? What were their titles? How many team members
performed more than one role? What tasks were “outsourced” (performed by outside companies)? Make a table
that compares the titles for similar roles among the sites. For each one, discuss how the team related to the site.
■Project 8.3
“Easter eggs” are small features hidden in web sites, games, and other software. hey often include personal information about the development team that produced the project. Do a search for Easter eggs on the Web, and try
to locate several. Describe what you ind there. What do these hidden features say about the team that worked
on the project?
259
260
CHAPTER 9
Planning and
Costing
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Determine the scope of a
multimedia project
■ Schedule the phases, tasks,
and work items required to
complete a project
■ Estimate the cost, timeline,
and tasks required to complete a project
■ Write and structure the
elements of a multimedia
project proposal
B
efore you begin a multimedia project, you must irst develop a
sense of its scope and content, letting the project take shape in your head
as you think through the various methods available to get your message
across to your viewers. hen you must develop an organized outline and a
plan that is rational in terms of the skills, time, budget, tools, and resources
you have at hand. Proper project planning is as important as planning the
layout and content. Your plans should be in place before you start to render
graphics, sounds, and other components, and you should refer to them
throughout the project’s execution.
First Person
When I was nine, my father told me
about China. He brought the big
spinning globe into the kitchen
and used a fork to point out where
we were and where China was. He
explained that if we dug a hole
deep enough in the backyard,
eventually we would come out in a
place called Peking. After school the
next day, I began, unannounced,
trenching a pit into the rocky soil
of our New England backyard. The
irst layer was tough sod, then there
was some topsoil and loam, and
then a thick stratum of moist pea
gravel. I was knee-deep into the
next layer— hard-packed clay—
when my father discovered my
work site when he came home at
the end of the day. He was pleased
I had missed the septic tank by
several feet and sternly suggested
that more study would be required
before I dug any further. This was
my irst lesson in project planning,
not to mention my irst experience
with project abandonment. Be sure
you analyze the requirements of
your multimedia project before you
go to the toolshed.
The Process of Making Multimedia
Usually something will click in your mind or in the mind of a client that
says, “Hey, wouldn’t it be neat if we could…” Your visions of sound and
music, lashy images, and perhaps a video will solve a business need, provide
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
261
an attention-grabbing product demo, or yield a slick front end to an otherwise drab computer database. You might want to spark a little interest or
a laugh in an otherwise dull meeting, build an interactive photo album for
Christmas greetings to your family, or post your company’s annual report
in a new set of pages on the Web.
Plan for the entire process: beginning with your irst ideas and ending
with completion and delivery of a inished product. hink in the overview.
he stepwise process of making multimedia is illustrated in Figure 9-1.
Use this chart to help you get your arms around a new web site or DVD
production! Note the feedback loops for revisions based upon testing and
experiment. Note also the constant presence of an “evaluation committee”
(who could be simply a project manager) to oversee the whole.
Figure 9-1
The process of
making multimedia
262
Multimedia: Making It Work
We locked eight people in
a room with pizza and out
popped a design...
Mike Dufy,
Chief Technical Oicer,
Software Toolworks,
describing how the design
for the “20th Century
Almanac” was developed
It is, of course, easiest to plan a project using the experience you have
accumulated in similar past projects. Over time, you can maintain and
improve your multimedia-planning format, just like a batch of sourdough
starter. Just keep adding a little rye and water every time you do a project,
and the starter for your next job gets a bit more potent as your estimates
become tempered by experience.
Idea Analysis
he important thing to keep in mind when you are toying with an idea is
balance. As you think through your idea, you must continually weigh your
purpose or goal against the feasibility and cost of production and delivery.
Use whiteboard, notepaper, and scratch pads as you lesh out your idea,
or use a note-taking or outlining program on your computer. Start with
broad brushstrokes, and then think through each constituent multimedia
element. Ultimately, you will generate a plan of action that will become
your road map for production. Who needs this project? Is it worthwhile?
Do you have the materials at hand to build it? Do you have the skills to
build it? Your idea will be in balance if you have considered and weighed
the proper elements:
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
What is the essence of what you want to do? What is your purpose
and message?
Who is your intended audience? Who will be your end users? What
do they already know about the subject? Will they understand industry terms (jargon), and what information do they need your project
to communicate to them? What will their multimedia playback platforms be, and what are the minimal technical capabilities of those
platforms?
Is there a client, and what does the client want?
How can you organize your project?
What multimedia elements (text, sounds, and visuals) will best deliver
your message?
Do you already have content material with which you can leverage
your project, such as old videotapes or video iles, music, documents,
photographs, logos, advertisements, marketing packages, and other
artwork?
Will interactivity be required?
Is your idea derived from an existing theme that can be enhanced with
multimedia, or will you create something totally new?
What hardware is available for development of your project? Is it
enough?
How much storage space do you have? How much do you need?
What multimedia software is available to you?
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
■
■
■
■
■
■
What are your capabilities and skills with both the software and the
hardware?
Can you do it alone? Who can help you?
How much time do you have?
How much money do you have?
How will you distribute the inal project?
Will you need to update and/or support the inal product?
You can maintain balance between purpose and feasibility by dynamically adding and subtracting multimedia elements as you stretch and shape
your idea. You can start small and build from minimum capabilities toward
a satisfactory result in an additive way. Or you can shoot the moon with
a heavy list of features and desired multimedia results, and then discard
items one by one because they are just not possible. Both additive and
subtractive processes can work in concert and can yield very useful cost
estimates and a production road map.
Consider the following scenario: You have a video clip with four headand-shoulders testimonials that will be perfect for illustrating your message. So add motion video to your list. You will need to purchase digitizing
software, so add that item and its cost to your list as well. But you want
to make your product available at a web site frequented by rural students
without high-speed connections who will wait minutes for the video
to play. Subtract motion video, but add tiny framed still images of the
four talking heads (captured with your new video software) using short,
one-sentence voice-overs of the speakers (recorded from the video clip).
Subtract one of the four testimonials because you discover that particular
executive is no longer with the irm and you don’t have a signed release.
Add animation instead. Subtract. Add. Subtract. In this manner, you will
lesh out your idea, adding and subtracting elements within the constraints
of the hardware, software, and your budget of cost and expertise.
he time you spend deining your project in this way—reality-testing
it against technology and your abilities—might be your most valuable
investment, even before you boot up a computer. At any point, you can
decide to go forward or bail out.
TIP
Treat your multimedia idea like a business venture. As you visualize in your
mind’s eye what you want to accomplish, balance the project’s proit potential
against the investment of efort and resources required to make it happen.
Idea Management Software
Software such as dotProject, kForge, OpenProj, GanttProject (see
Figure 9-2), outlining programs, and spreadsheets such as Excel can be
useful for arranging your ideas and the many tasks, work items, employee
263
264
Multimedia: Making It Work
resources, and costs required of your multimedia project. Project management tools provide the added beneit of built-in analysis to help you stay
within your schedule and budget during the rendering of the project
itself.
Figure 9-2 GanttProject, an open-source, web-based integrated project scheduling and management tool,
generates helpful documents for instructional designers.
WARNING Budget your time if you are new to project management software. It may be diicult to learn and to use efectively.
Project management software typically provides Critical Path
Method (CPM) scheduling functions to calculate the total duration
of a project based upon each identiied task, earmarking tasks that are
critical and that, if lengthened, will result in a delay in project completion. Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) charts provide
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
graphic representations of task relationships, showing prerequisites, the
tasks that must be completed before others can commence. Gantt charts
depict all the tasks along a timeline.
www.dotproject.net
www.ganttproject.biz
www.kforgeproject.com
http://openproj.org
The Paper Napkin
While not as high-tech as idea management software, any writing surface
can serve as a repository for ideas when you have no other tools at hand.
For example, the very early ideas of processing and preliminary planning
can be sketched on a paper napkin (a real one is shown in Figure 9-3, which
evolved into a complex multimedia project of many months’ duration).
Figure 9-3 The ideas on this
luncheon napkin evolved into an
animated guided tour for Lotus’s
multimedia version of 1-2-3 in
SmartSuite Millennium.
Around a lunch table, ideas were discussed, reined, and cultivated into
a preliminary project plan. A prototype would be built, shown as the A–B
portion of the napkin notes, which quite literally answered the question
“How do we get from A to B with this idea?” he prototype would then be
carefully examined in terms of projected work efort and the technology
required for implementing a full-blown version. A more complete plan
and cost estimate for full implementation would be developed, and the
project would be launched in earnest.
265
266
Multimedia: Making It Work
First Person
Then I broke my promise and, after a
sleepless night on the plane, found
myself sitting in the muggy summer
air on the bank of the Charles River,
having lunch with Rob Lippincott
and his multimedia team from Lotus.
I pretended to be alert, but residual
white noise from the plane ride beat
in my ears, and my dry eyes wouldn’t
focus in the umbrella sunlight. Rob
made intelligent notes with a ballpoint pen on a paper napkin while
my own input to the creative process
Last time I took the red-eye home,
the fat guy behind me was pretty
ill—sneezing and hawking incessantly over my headrest on the full,
hot plane. My glasses blurred with
misty droplets, and I wiped the fog
away with the damp cocktail napkin
under my Coke. That trip cost me
four days sick in bed, and I promised
I would never ly night coach again
to make a meeting, no matter how
important.
was reduced to grunts and short
sentences. The smartest thing I did,
though, was slip the paper napkin
with its notes into my briefcase as we
left the table. After some sleep, I was
able to retrieve the napkin and craft
those luncheon thoughts into the
backbone of a rational project proposal and action plan. We launched
the venture, and about ten months
later it went gold, shipping with
Lotus’s new Multimedia product,
Lotus SmartSuite Millennium 9.8.
Pretesting
If you decide that your idea has merit, take it to the next step. Deine your
project goals in greater detail and spell out what it will take in terms of
skills, content, and money to meet these goals. If you envision a commercial product, sketch out how you will sell it. Work up a prototype of the
project on paper, with an explanation of how it will work. All of these steps
help you organize your idea and test it against the real world.
Task Planning
here may be many tasks in your multimedia project. Here is a checklist of
action items for which you should plan ahead as you think through your
project:
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
Design Instructional Framework
Hold Creative Idea Session(s)
Determine Delivery Platform
Determine Authoring Platform
Assay Available Content
Draw Navigation Map
Create Storyboards
Design Interface
Design Information Containers
Research/Gather Content
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
Assemble Team
Build Prototype
Conduct User Test
Revise Design
Create Graphics
Create Animations
Produce Audio
Produce Video
Digitize Audio and Video
Take Still Photographs
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
r
Program and Author
Test Functionality
Fix Bugs
Conduct Beta Test
Create Golden Master
Replicate
Prepare Package
Deliver or Install at Web Site
Award Bonuses
hrow Party
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
In a white paper about producing educational
software, elearnity (www.elearnity.com) has allocated
percentages of efort, as shown to the right:
Building a Team
267
Task
Percentage of Efort
Analyze need
3%
Draft mission statement
1%
Create audience proile
2%
Write objectives
2%
Multimedia is an emerging technology requiring a set
of skills so broad that multimedia itself remains poorly
Analyze and outline content
6%
deined. Players in this technology come from all corners
Lay out course map
2%
of the computer and art worlds as well as from a variety
Deine treatment
2%
of other disciplines, so if you need to assemble a team,
Select learner activities
2%
you need to know the people and skills it takes to make
Storyboard the course
19%
multimedia. (Refer to Chapter 8 for a description of the
various skills and talents needed and how others have
Author the course
28%
built successful teams.)
Evaluate the course
20%
Building a matrix chart of required skills is often
Produce media
13%
helpful to describe the makeup of your team. he skills
and software capabilities available to you are not as
limiting as your list of required hardware–you can always budget for
new and more powerful software and for the learning curve (or conIn a business where success and
sultant fees) required to make use of it. Indeed, authoring software is
failure often depends upon our
usually necessary only for development of the project, not its playback
ability to monitor and anticior delivery, and should be a cost or learning burden not directly passed
pate emerging technology, job
to end users.
recruiters see multimedia as very
Figure 9-4 shows a skill matrix developed when four medium-sized
challenging. Not only does the
multimedia development companies came together to bid on a single,
ledgling multimedia industry
large CD-ROM project. If you are building a complex web site, subincorporate some of the hottest
stitute Java/Ruby programmer, HTML/CSS programmer, and Server
computer technology tools, it
Specialist into the proper row.
draws on talent that comes from
Staying at the leading edge is important. If you remain knowledgeoutside the traditional boundable about what’s new and expected, you will be more valuable to your
aries of data processing and MIS
own endeavors, to your team, and to your employer or prospective clirecruitment. he ill-deined
ents. But be prepared for steep learning curves and diicult challenges
but very technical skills needed
in keeping your own skills (and those of your employees) current and in
for multimedia provide us, the
demand. And don’t neglect team morale as hours grow long, deadlines
industry recruiters, an exceptional
slip, and tempers lare.
opportunity for creativity. Our
clients, too, need to be openTIP If you are looking for multimedia talent, try placing a Help Wanted ad
minded and lexible about the
in one of the job-hunting/help wanted sites on the Internet. Or you can try one
talent and skills required of
of the following web sites:
multimedia developers.
www.careerbuilder.com
www.monster.com
www.hotjobs.com
Heinz Bartesch,
Director of Sales and Marketing,
he Search Firm (San Francisco)
268
Multimedia: Making It Work
www.jobbankusa.com
www.dice.com
http://usajobs.opm.gov
www.odesk.com
www.elance.com
Figure 9-4 A matrix of available skills can assist you in planning for your project.
Prototype Development
Once you have decided that a project is worth doing, you should develop
a working prototype. his is the point at which you begin serious work at
the computer, building screen mock-ups and a human interface of menus
and button clicks. Your messages and story lines will take shape as you
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
explore ways of presenting them. For the prototype, sometimes called a
proof-of-concept or feasibility study, you might select only a small
portion of a large project and get that part working as it would in the inal
product. Indeed, after trying many diferent approaches in the course of
prototyping, you may end up with more than one viable candidate for the
inal product.
During this phase you can test ideas, mock up interfaces, exercise the
hardware platform, and develop a sense about where the alligators live.
hese alligators are typically found in the swampy edges of your own
expertise; in the dark recesses of software platforms that almost-butnot-quite perform as advertised and in your misjudgment of the efort
required for various tasks. he alligators will appear unexpectedly behind
you and nip at your knees, unless you explore the terrain a little before you
start out.
Test your prototype along several fronts: technology (will it work
on your proposed delivery platform or platforms?), cost (can you do this
project within budget constraints?), market (can you sell it, or will it be
properly used if it is an in-house project?), and human interface (is it
intuitive and easy to use?). At this point you may wish to arrange a focus
group, where you can watch potential end users experiment with your
prototype and analyze their reactions. he purpose of any prototype is
to test the initial implementation of your idea and improve on it based
upon test results. So you should never feel committed or bound to any one
option, and you should be ready and willing to change things!
Persuade the client to spend a small amount of money and efort up
front to let you build a skeletal version of the project, including some artwork, interactive navigation, and performance checks. Indeed, there may
be some very speciic technology issues that need thorough examination
and proof before you can provide a realistic estimate of the work and cost
required. he focused experience of this proof will allow both you and the
client to assess the project’s goals and the means to achieve them.
Include your experimental pilot as the irst phase of your project. At
the pilot’s conclusion, prepare a milestone report and a functional demo.
You will be paid for the work so far, and the client will get real demonstration material that can be shown to bosses and managers. If your demo
is good, it will be a persuasive argument within the client’s management
hierarchy for completing the full-scale project. Figure 9-5 is excerpted
from trial calculations that were the result of a prototype ive-language
CD-ROM project. In the prototyping, oice staf read the voice-over
script as a “scratch track,” like using a stand-in for the real thing; later,
professional talent was used in the recording studio. As a result of building a prototype, accurate estimates of required storage space on the disc
were possible.
269
270
Multimedia: Making It Work
Calculation Sheet
CD-ROM Project
Allocation of Disc Space
Note 1: The following trial calculations are based upon the ile sizes yielded by an early voice
rendering of the project’s English script.
Note 2: File sizes for low-resolution images (72dpi) of 640×480 and 768×512 pixel dimensions
are estimated at 768KB each.
Note 3: File sizes for high-resolution images (300dpi) may range from 3.7MB to 4.5MB,
depending upon image complexity and compression rates. The conservative igure of 4.5MB
per high-resolution image is used in these estimates.
Note 4: More accurate real estate estimates will be available following inalization of the script
and recording of the English version narration.
Note 5: Firm count of low-resolution images and their pixel dimensions will be calculated
upon script freeze.
SUMMARY: There is adequate room on the disc for both sound and images if each language
recording is limited to no more than 9 minutes.
Scratch Track File
(English)
Duration
(English)
Duration
SNDE01A
18.369
SNDE10A
5.658
SNDE01B
9.180
SNDE11A
23.856
SNDE01C
9.295
SNDE12A
14.314
SNDE02A
17.609
SNDE13A
14.193
SNDE03A
17.932
SNDE14A
7.487
SNDE04A
11.156
SNDE15A
16.172
SNDE05A
18.035
SNDE16A
19.450
SNDE06A
8.050
SNDE17A
5.830
SNDE07A
12.790
SNDE18A
21.443
SNDE08A
16.218
SNDE19A
12.295
SNDE09A
27.468
Total
306.800 Seconds
5.113 Minutes
plus Intro Fanfare
(Shared by all languages)
Figure 9-5 Trial calculations are possible after prototyping.
30.0 Seconds
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
As part of your delivery at the end of the pilot phase, reassess your
estimates of the tasks required as well as the cost. Prepare a written report
and analysis of budgets and anticipated additional costs. his is also the
proper time to develop a revised and detailed project plan for the client. It
allows the client some lexibility and provides a reality check for you. At
this point you can also inalize your budget and payment schedule for the
continuation of the project, as well as ink a contract and determine overrun
procedures.
Diiculties may arise if your client is disappointed in the quantity of
material delivered or is otherwise not satisied with your work. If you have
kept good records of the time and efort spent during prototyping, you
may be able to smooth the rough waters. Remember that developing multimedia is a “trying” experience—try this, try that, then try this again a
bit diferently—and the creative process soaks up a lot of hours and cost.
Listen carefully to the client’s reaction to your prototype, because many
problems can be quickly ixed, and all constructive comments can certainly
be woven into the next phase of development.
Alpha Development
As you go forward, you should continually deine the tasks ahead, because
just as if you were navigating a supertanker, you should be aware of the
reefs and passages that will appear along your course and prepare for them.
With an alpha stage prototype in hand and a commitment to proceed,
the investment of efort will increase and, at the same time, become more
focused. More people may become involved as you begin to lesh out the
project as a whole.
Beta Development
By the time your idea reaches the beta stage of development, you will have
committed serious time, energy, and money, and it is likely too late to bail
out. You have gone past the point of no return and should see it through.
But by now you have a project that is looking great! Most of the features
are working, and you are distributing it to a wider arena of testers. In fact,
you are on the downhill slope now, and your concern should be simply
successfully steering the project to its well-deined goal.
Delivery
By the time you reach the delivery stage, you are going gold—producing
the inal product. Your worries slide toward the marketplace: how will your
project be received by its intended audience? You must also deal with a
great many practical details, such as who will answer the support hotline
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and run the live chat desk, or whether to co-locate a server or trust the
current ISP to handle the predicted increased volume of hits. he alpha,
beta, and inal gold stages of project delivery for CD-ROM, DVD, and the
Web are discussed in Chapter 14.
First Person
Not every prototype segues naturally into a full-blown project. Sometimes a project is shut down at this
milestone due to reality shock: the
client chokes on cost-to-completion
estimates. Sometimes it’s the Reorg
Alligator: new managers with new
agendas axe the project. Sometimes
the client just plain doesn’t like your
work. Then sometimes a project simply disappears like a dream forgotten by mid-morning.
We were invited to prepare the
prototype for a large and intricate
intranet site behind a corporate
irewall—potentially a two-year
involvement. We proposed a irst
phase, an analysis and deinition
of the company’s structure and
information-gathering and dissemination needs so that we could
lock down major content areas and
the navigation design. We wanted
to know how many buttons to put
on the main menu and what they
would say, before we spent long
hours creating the bitmaps and
animated GIFs of a neat interface.
“No, no,” they said, “our guys have
put that together already.”
So we negotiated for creation of
artwork and HTML page styles that
would provide a consistent look
and feel throughout the site. We set
a ixed price and provided a list of
deliverables: (1) graphic style and
GIF/JPEG elements for main home
and subpages; (2) a complete site
structure and map with navigationally functional “under construction”
pages based on the organizational
charts they would provide; and (3)
working demo pages for two of the
company’s departments.
Then we had our irst team meeting, and it soon became clear they
needed hand-holding while their
own Management Information
System people transitioned from
other tasks and got up to speed in
their new jobs as in-house intranet
team and webmasters. None had
coded a page of HTML, although
some had used editors and builders
to get pages working. The database guy was stopped dead by an
undeined Java error when accessing
his massive SQL database. The server
guy was still getting set up. The
HTML guy was learning his authoring tools. There was neither a graphic
artist nor a handy pool of company
graphic art from which our own
contribution might spring. Okay, we
thought, so they’re on the learning
curve. We can start from scratch.
We took the group leader aside and
quietly suggested that she consider
bringing on a full-time graphics
person to support her team.
During the next weeks, we developed a classy look and feel and
theme. After a couple of feedback/
change loops, they loved it. We
worked up the more detailed bits
and pieces of our deliverable and
tightened up the organization of
their proposed navigation map. By
prototype deadline, we had spent all
the hours we had estimated for the
job, and they had the site up and
working in test mode. We had gotten their motor running.
The last time we saw the SQL
database programmer was on
the afternoon we picked up our
milestone check—he was removing shrink-wrap from a new copy of
Photoshop, and the HTML guy was
deep into Cold Fusion. We never
heard from them again.
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
Scheduling
Once you have worked up a plan that encompasses the phases, tasks,
and work items you feel will be required to complete your project, you
need to lay out these elements along a timeline. his will usually include
milestones at which certain deliverables are to be done. If you are
working for a client, these are work products that are delivered to the
client for approval. To create this schedule, you must estimate the total
time required for each task and then allocate this time among the number
of persons who will be asynchronously working on the project (see, for
example, Figure 9-6). Again, the notion of balance is important: if you can
distribute the required hours to perform a task among several workers,
completion should take proportionally less time.
Figure 9-6 Portion of a spreadsheet used to schedule manpower and project costs
WARNING
Assigning twice as many people to work on a task may not cut
the time for its completion precisely in half. Consider the administrative and management overhead of communication, networking, and necessary staf meetings
required when additional staf is added.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Scheduling can be diicult for multimedia projects because so much
of the making of multimedia is artistic trial and error. A recorded sound
will need to be edited and perhaps altered many times. Animations need
to be run again and again and adjusted so that they are smooth and
properly placed. A QuickTime or MPEG movie may require many
hours of editing and tweaking before it works in sync with other screen
activities.
Scheduling multimedia projects is also diicult because the technology of computer hardware and software is in constant lux, and upgrades
while your project is under way may drive you to new installations and
concomitant learning curves. he general rule of thumb when working
with computers and new technology under a deadline is that everything
will take longer to do than you think it will.
In scheduling for a project that is to be rendered for a client, remember that the client will need to approve or sign of on your work at various
stages. his approval process can wreak havoc with your schedule since it
takes time and depends upon factors beyond your control. Perhaps more
important, the client feedback may also require revision of your work. In
order to protect yourself from a capricious client, you need to have points
during the project for client sign-of on the work, meaning that he or
she has approved the work to that point. If the client changes his or her
mind later in the process, then any revisions of the previously approved
materials would require a change order, meaning that the client agrees
to pay the additional costs for making the changes, rather than your having to eat that unbudgeted cost out of your proit margin.
TIP When you negotiate with your client, limit the number of revisions allowed
(each revision costs time and money) before you rename the revisions as change
orders and bill extra.
Estimating
In production and manufacturing industries, it is a relatively simple
matter to estimate costs and efort. To make chocolate chip cookies,
for example, you need ingredients, such as lour and sugar, and equipment, such as mixers, ovens, and packaging machines. Once the process
is running smoothly, you can turn out hundreds of cookies, each tasting
the same and each made of the same stuf. You then control your costs
by ine-tuning known expenses, like negotiating deals on lour and sugar
in quantity, installing more eicient ovens, and hiring personnel at a
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
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First Person
Many times we have heard about
the Feedback Alligator. Its mottled
skin boasts an Escher-like pattern
of lines and marks, showing apparently clear definition along the
head and neck, but converging to
a brown muddled wash at the tail.
When the tail wags this alligator,
all hell breaks loose, and multimedia contracts can be severely
strained or lost altogether.
Feedback Alligators can appear
when you throw a client into the
mix of creative people... when
necessary-for-client-satisfaction
approval cycles can turn your
project into an anorexic nightmare
of continuing rework, change, and
consequently diminished profit.
These alligators typically slink out
from the damps after you have
locked down a contract and scope
of work, when the creative guys
are already being well paid to ply
their craft.
For client protection, multimedia
creative artists should be hired
with a cap on budget and time.
They should be highly skilled,
efficient, and have a clear understanding of what a project’s goals
are, and they should be allowed
to accomplish these goals with
as much freedom as possible. But
good multimedia artists should
come close to the mark the
first time.
They don’t always. For example,
you agree to compose background
theme music to play whenever
your client’s logo shows on the
screen. You master a sample
file and pass it to the client. She
doesn’t quite like the sound but is
not sure why. You go back to the
MIDI sequencer and try again. The
client still isn’t sure that’s it. Again,
you make up a file and e-mail it to
her for review. No, maybe it needs
a little more Sgt. Pepper... this is
our logo, remember?
The process of client feedback can
go on and on forever in a resonance of desire-to-please and creative uncertainty unless you have
developed rules for limiting these
cycles. While your client might
always be right, you will still go
broke working unlimited changes
on a fixed budget.
Projects can also suffer from
“scope creep.” If you don’t clearly
delineate the features and specifications of the project expected
by your client, you will be tempted
to add features, enhancements,
and improvements. Before long,
the project’s scope will exceed the
original specifications, the budget,
and your timeline.
So do two things to ward off the
Feedback Alligator. First, make it
clear up front (in your contract)
that there will only be a certain
number of review cycles before
the client must pay for changes.
Second, invite the client to the
workstation or studio where the
creative work is done. For sound,
tickle the keyboard until the client
says, “That’s it!” Make ’em sign off
on it. For artwork and animations,
let the client spend an afternoon
riding shotgun over the artist’s
shoulder, participating in color
and design choices. Get the client
involved.
If your client contact isn’t empowered to make decisions but simply
carries your work up to the bosses
for “management approval,” you
are facing the unpleasant Son of
Feedback Alligator. Demand a client contact who has budget and
design authority.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
more competitive wage. In contrast, making multimedia is not a repetitive manufacturing process. Rather, it is by nature a continuous research
and development efort characterized by creative trial and error—a
“trying” experience, as described previously. Each new project is somewhat diferent from the last, and each may require application of many
diferent tools and solutions. Philosophers will counsel you that experience is something you get only after you need it!
TIP To recoup learning-curve costs when you irst perform a task, you must
factor extra time into your budget; later you can increase your billing rate to
relect your improved skill level.
In the area of professional services, let’s consider some typical costs
in the advertising community. Production of a storyboard for a 30-second
commercial spot costs about $50,000. Postproduction editing time in a
professional video studio runs upwards of $500 per hour. An hour of professional acting talent costs $350 or more at union scale. he emerging
multimedia industry, on the other hand, does not have a track record long
enough to have produced “going rates” for its services. A self-guided tour
distributed with a software product, for example, may cost $15,000 for one
client and $150,000 for another, depending upon the tour’s length and
polish. A short original musical clip may cost $50 or $500, based on the
talent used and the nature of the music. A graphical menu screen might
take 2 or 20 hours to develop, depending on its complexity and the graphic
art talent applied. Without available going rates for segments of work or
entire projects, you must estimate the costs of your multimedia project by
analyzing the tasks that it comprises and the people who build it.
Be sure you include the hidden costs of administration and management. It takes time to speak with clients on the telephone, to write progress reports, and to mail invoices. In addition, there may be many people
in your workforce who represent specialized skills, for example, a graphic
artist, musician, instructional designer, and writer. In this case, you’ll need
to include a little extra bufer of time and expense in your estimate to pay
for these artists’ participation in project meetings and creative sessions.
Also, remember to include a line item in your budget for contingencies,
as a little extra padding to cover the inevitable unexpected costs. Adding
10 percent to 15 percent of the total cost is a typical rule-of-thumb contingency amount.
As a general rule, there are three elements that can vary in project estimates: time, money, and people. As illustrated next, if you decrease any one
of these elements, you’ll generally need to increase one or both of the others. For example, if you have very little time to do a project (an aggressive
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
schedule), it will cost more money in overtime and premium sweat, and it
may take more people. If you have a good number of people, the project
should take less time. By increasing the money spent, you can actually
decrease the number of people required by purchasing eicient (but costly)
experts; this may also reduce the time required.
Do your best to estimate the amount of time it will take to perform
each task in your plan. Multiply this estimate by your
hourly billing rate. Sum the
total costs for each task,
and you now have an estimate of the project’s total
time and cost. hough this
simple formula is easy, what
is not so easy is diligently
remaining within the budgeted time and money for
each task. For this, you need
good tracking and management oversight.
If you are working for an outside client, you will also need to determine a payment schedule. Payments are often divided into thirds: onethird up front upon the signing of a contract, one-third as work products
are delivered and approved during the alpha and beta development phases,
and one-third upon inal approval of the completed production.
Billing Rates
Your billing rate should be set according to your cost of doing business plus
a reasonable proit margin. Typical billing rates for multimedia production
companies and web designers range from $60 to $150 an hour, depending
upon the work being done and the person doing it. If consultants or specialists are employed on a project, the billing rate can go much higher. You can
establish a rate that is the same for all tasks, or you can specify diferent
rates according to the person assigned to a task. he Graphic Artists Guild
(www.gag.org) provides its members a Pricing & Ethical Guidelines manual
with pricing information based on real industry surveys. Pricing guides are
also available at www.brennerbooks.com.
Everyone who contributes to a project should have two rates associated with their work: the employee’s cost to the employer (including salary
and beneits), and the employee’s rate billed to the customer. he employee’s cost, of course, is not included in your estimate, but you need to know
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this as part of your estimate—because your proit margin is the diference between the rate you charge the client and the cost to your company,
less a proportion of overhead expenses (rental or leasing of space, utilities,
phones, shared secretarial and administrative services, and so on). If your
proit margin is negative, you should reconsider both your project plan and
your long-term business plan.
Multimedia production companies and web site builders with high
billing rates claim their skill-sets and experience allow them to accomplish
more work in a given amount of time, expertly, thus saving money, time,
and enhancing the inished quality and reliability of a project. his is particularly the case with larger-scale, complex projects. Smaller and leaner
companies that ofer lower billing rates may claim to be more streamlined,
hungry, and willing to perform extra services. Lower rates do not necessarily mean lower-quality work, but rather imply that the company either
supports fewer overheads or is satisied with a reduced proit margin. he
business of making multimedia is a “low entry barrier” enterprise because all
you need to get started is some (relatively) inexpensive computer hardware
First Person
Back when loppy disks were
common, we were asked by a large
institution to complete a project
that had fallen on the loor. It was
really worse than that—the project had actually slipped through
the cracks in that loor. The single
known copy of work—representing
about $30,000 in paid billings—had
been copied to 19 high-density
diskettes and stored in a ile cabinet.
Here, they had been discovered by
the secretarial pool and formatted,
to be used for WordPerfect documents. The secretaries remembered
the whole thing because the stored
backups contained protected iles,
so the disks were unusually diicult
to erase! Luckily, bits and pieces of
the project were unearthed on the
hard disk of a computer that had
been disconnected and stored in the
basement. We were able to reconstruct much of the artwork, but not
the interactive links.
As we studied the leavings of the
embarrassed progenitors, we discovered a trail of missteps and errors.
It became clear that the institution
made a bad decision in hiring a wellqualiied engineering irm at great
expense (standard billing rates) to
construct a diicult multimedia
presentation. CAD/CAM drawings
and inite element analysis were
the forte of these engineers—not
animated icons and colorful bitmaps
with sound tracks. Furthermore, the
engineering irm erred in selecting
software that performed on the
target hardware platform at about
the speed of snails chasing a dog.
Money had been spent, the product
didn’t work, and everyone involved
was in gray limbo, slinking around,
looking for a solution.
We determinedly pulled together
the bits and pieces we could ind,
designed a snappy navigational
structure we were proud of, and
quickly ixed the big problem for a
small fee (based upon our own standard billing rate). The institution, of
course, was delighted and became a
client of long standing.
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
and software, not a 70,000-square-foot factory or expensive tooling. You
can make multimedia in a living room, basement, or garage. As more and
more multimedia producers and web developers enter this marketplace,
the competition is increasing and the free hand of supply and demand is
driving prices (down).
Purchasers of multimedia services must, however, thoroughly examine
the qualiications of a prospective contracting person or company to ensure
that the work required can be accomplished on time and within budget.
here is no more diicult business situation than a half-completed job and
an exhausted budget.
Contractors and consultants can bring specialized skills such as graphic
art, C and Java programming, database expertise, music composition, and
video to your project. If you use these experts, be sure your billing rate
is higher than theirs. Or, if you have a task the client has capped with a
not-to-exceed cost, be sure your arrangement with the contractor is also
capped. Contractors place no burden on your overhead and administration
other than a few cups of cofee, and they should generate a generous proit
margin for you during the course of your project. Be sure that contractors perform the majority of their work of-site, using their own equipment; otherwise, federal tax regulators may reclassify these freelancers as
employees and require you to pay employee beneits. In 1998, in Vizcaino
v. Microsoft, the U.S. Supreme Court required Microsoft Corporation to
pay employee beneits to hundreds of workers that the court determined
were regular employees rather than independent contractors. here are
about 20 factors, according to the IRS, in determining whether a worker
is an employee or an independent contractor for tax purposes, and companies may be liable for all employment beneits, including (as Microsoft
discovered) stock option and stock sharing plans, if the work arrangement
is not carefully constructed. However, when these outside workers are not
classiied as employees, then you run another risk—that they could retain
ownership of the work they have created for you, limiting your right to use
the material or restrict its use elsewhere. he best way to avoid this is to be
sure that your contract with any outside workers clearly speciies the terms
of ownership and rights of use of the product for which you are contracting. his “work for hire” issue is discussed in more detail in Chapter 11.
Example Cost Sheets
Figure 9-7 contains groups of expense categories for producing multimedia. If you use these in your own work, be sure to temper your guesses
with experience; if you are new to multimedia production, get some qualiied advice during this planning stage.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT COSTS
Salaries
Client meetings
Acquisition of content
Communications
Travel
Research
Proposal & contract prep
Overhead
PRODUCTION COSTS
Management
Salaries
Communications
Travel
Consumables
Content Acquisition
Salaries
Research services
Fees for licensing content
Content Creation
All content categories
Salaries
Hardware/software
Consumables
Graphics Production
Fees for licensing images or animation clips
Audio Production
Studio fees
Talent fees
Fees for licensing music rights
Data storage
Video Production
Studio fees
Talent fees
Fees for licensing stock footage
Location fees
Equipment rental
Digital capture & editing
Authoring
Salaries
Hardware/software
Consumables
TESTING COSTS
Salaries
Focus groups
Facility rental
Printing costs
Food and incentives
Coop fees (payment for participation)
Editing
Beta program
DISTRIBUTION COSTS
Salaries
Documentation
Packaging
Manufacturing
Marketing
Advertising
Shipping
Figure 9-7 There are many costs associated with producing multimedia.
RFPs and Bid Proposals
Often, potential clients don’t have a clue about how to make multimedia,
but they do have a vision or a mandate. You ield a telephone call, a voice
describes a need or a want, and you explain how you (and your company)
can satisfy that need. Much of the talk may be instructional as you teach
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
281
First Person
I was downbound from Puget
Sound to San Francisco, and the
weather was up, with seas running heavy and winds gusting to
60 knots in our face. The Master and
the First Mate were on the bridge,
the old man sitting curled up in
his upholstered high chair on the
darkened starboard wing, the First
pacing on the rubber mat behind
the helmsman. The Third Mate was
on watch, leaning over the radar
screen and making luorescent
notes with a grease pencil. As I was
a guest with no duties, I mostly
hung out in the chart room while
white water broke over the bows
and the shuddering propeller came
out of the sea; wind screamed in
the vents on the roof of the bridge.
There wasn’t much conversation
that night, but the Master slowed
us to ive knots, concerned about
the containers lashed to the forward deck. When the young Third
Mate came into the chart room, I
asked, “Where are we?” and he took
a sharp pencil, made a ine point
on the chart, and drew a tiny circle
around the point. Then he smiled,
proud to have good radar bearings.
The First Mate came in about a half
hour later, and when I asked the
same question, he circled an area
about the size of a walnut.
the client about the beneits and pitfalls of multimedia in all its forms.
You seldom will glean enough information during this initial discussion to accurately estimate time or cost, so be prepared to answer these
queries in vague terms while you present your available skill-sets and
capabilities in the most favorable light. If the client is serious and your
instruction well received, in short time you may be able to guide this
client into good choices and reasonable decisions, working together to
conceive and design an excellent product. Discussions will soon turn into
design meetings. Somewhere along the way, you will sign a contract.
Occasionally you may encounter a more formal Request for
Proposal (RFP). hese are typically detailed documents from large corporations that are “outsourcing” their multimedia development work.
Figure 9-8 is an example of such a document that provides background
information, scope of work, and information about the bidding process.
Still, you should note that there is little “hard” information in this document; most bid proposals require contact with the client to ill in details
prior to bidding.
As the Master left the bridge for
his cabin, I asked him, too, where
we were. He took his thumb and
rubbed it on the chart in a rough
oval about the diameter of his ist,
saying, “Somewhere in here,” and
grinned at me as the ship heaved
suddenly and we grabbed for the
handholds.
The more experience these professionals had, the larger the circle
they drew, and the less they relied
upon pinpoint navigation. You
should be prudent when costing a
multimedia production; precision
estimating can wreck your project.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Smythe Industries
Request for Proposal
Summary: The objective is to produce a family of materials which will develop a unique personality and visual
image for the Smythe Campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, home of multiple Smythe subsidiaries and
divisions.
As background, Smythe Industries was launched in 1995 following the acquisition of Wilson Aluminum Foundries,
Ltd. (Canada) and Fenwick Rolling Mills, Inc. (U.S.A.) and is based in Vancouver. The site is also the headquarters for
Global Aluminum Research, a research and development subsidiary. In addition, there are discussions concerning
the establishment of a special alloy research institute at the Vancouver campus.
Each of the entities has unique personality traits, management structures, and business cultures which will need
to be recognized and incorporated into the design process.
Audience & Message
Potential Employees – “employer of choice”
Business Development – “partner of choice”
Metals Companies
Academic Institutions
Government/Community oicials – “good neighbor/citizen”
Smythe Employees – “credible/proud”
Scientiic/Engineering Organizations – “credible research/scientiically advanced”
Tone & Manner
Innovative, scientiically advanced, sophisticated, credible
Colorful: jewel colors/crisp/high contrast
Energetic, modern, innovative, cutting edge
Geometric lines & shapes (vs. free form)
A human element: photography, illustration, etc.
Personable, warm, intellectually inviting
Electronic Communications RFP
Multimedia Presentation Capabilities
Summary: The objective is to create a set of tools which will deliver key messages while positioning Smythe
Vancouver as an innovative user of technology for communication. There will be two components to this project:
a presentation format and a library of images. We would like to develop a library, including still imagery, audio,
and QuickTime movies, that can be contained on a set of CDs. Note: all images should be created with the goal of
repurposing across diferent mediums and projects.
The key purpose is to make core messages and the corporate personality come alive by utilizing sound and
motion. These multimedia assets will be used for recruiting purposes at career centers, job fairs, and in-house for
visiting recruits. They will also serve as presentation support material at scientiic and engineering forums.
Smythe will work with the multimedia design irm to create and identify existing television clips, video, and other
material which can serve to reinforce key messages.
External Web Site
Summary: As the most visible element of Smythe’s Vancouver identity, the web site will set the stage for positioning the company in the research community as an employer of choice and a key player in esoteric alloy and
metallurgical research. The web site will provide easy navigation for users to reach the areas of greatest interest to
them, e.g. a particular business division, academic papers, employment opportunities, etc.
Figure 9-8 Some RFPs provide great detail.
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
283
The multimedia design irm will also be expected to create a library of images which can be utilized to update
the site periodically. The design irm should also be prepared to provide input on ways to easily update and costefectively maintain the site. In addition, the web site should be created so that audio and live imagery can be
incorporated and downloaded easily by users who have the appropriate equipment.
Internal Web Site
Summary: The internal web site is the primary medium for employee communication. It will be a useable, interesting tool for internal users and serve to reinforce corporate messages and the campus culture. Since the web site
represents and includes diferent business entities on campus, this internal site will also introduce employees to
activities in which other business units and groups are involved.The site will need to be designed with a template
format so that it can be easily updated.
Production Elements for all Electronic Communications
Icons: Develop an illustrative style for a family of icons shared across the CD-ROM, internal web site, and external
web site.
Interface Design: Develop an interface design that provides design parameters and a personality for the internal
web site and external web site. (Note: Internal and external web sites should carry a similar look and feel; however,
it must be easy to distinguish between the two.)
Visual Image: Produce a library of visual images. This will require the additional production of video clips and
sound clips.
Photography: A photo shoot schedule and plan will be developed with Smythe to most efectively maximize time
and resources in shooting photos which can be used in print, in the web sites, and in multimedia materials.
RFP Process
Quotations: Itemize quotes, e.g. project management, copy writing, editing, design, photography, illustrations,
etc. Also provide 3 references.
Note: Smythe will write the HTML directives in-house and will also be posting to a server which is maintained
in-house.
All quotes should be submitted to:
Suzanne Petruski
Project Manager
Smythe Industries
65 Silver Foil
Vancouver, BC, CANADA
Figure 9-8 Some RFPs provide great detail. (Continued)
A multimedia bid proposal will be passed through several levels of a
company so that managers and directors can evaluate the project’s quality
and its price. he higher a bid proposal goes in the management hierarchy,
the less chance it has of being read in detail. For this reason, you always
want to provide an executive summary or overview as the irst page of
your proposal, briely describing the project’s goals, how the goals will be
achieved, and the cost.
In the body of the proposal, include a section dealing with creative
issues, and describe your method for conveying the client’s message or
284
Multimedia: Making It Work
meeting the graphic and interactive goals of the project. Also incorporate
a discussion of technical issues, in which you clearly deine the target hardware platform. If necessary, identify the members of your staf who will
work on the project, and list their roles and qualiications.
he backbone of the proposal is the estimate and project plan that
you have created up to this point. It describes the scope of the work. If the
project is complicated, prepare a brief synopsis of both the plan and the
timetable; include this in the overview. If there are many phases, you can
present each phase as a separate section of the proposal.
Cost estimates for each phase or deliverable milestone, as well as payment schedules, should follow the description of the work. If this section
is lengthy, it should also include a summary.
TIP
Make the proposal look good—it should be attractive and easy to read.
You might also wish to provide an unbound copy so that it can be easily photocopied. Include separate, relevant literature about your company and qualiications. A list of clients and brief descriptions of projects you have successfully
completed are also useful for demonstrating your capabilities.
Finally, include a list of your terms. Contract terms may become a
legally binding document, so have your terms reviewed by legal counsel.
An example is shown in Figure 9-9. Terms should include the following:
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
A description of your billing rates and invoicing policy (for example,
what percentage is to be paid up front, how much at certain milestones, and how much upon delivery).
Your policy on client sign-ofs and change order costs.
Your policy for billing out-of-pocket expenses for travel, telephone,
courier services, and so forth.
Your policy regarding third-party licensing fees for run-time modules
and special drivers (the client pays).
Speciic statements of who owns what upon completion of the project.
You may wish to retain the rights to show parts of the work for your
own promotional purposes and to reuse in other projects segments of
code and algorithms that you develop.
An assurance to the client that you will not disclose proprietary
information.
Your right to display your credits appropriately within the work.
Your unlimited right to work for other clients.
A disclaimer for liability and damages arising out of the work.
It is a signiicant task to write a project proposal that creatively sells
a multimedia concept, accurately estimates the scope of work, and provides realistic budget costs. he proposal often becomes a melting pot,
in that you develop the elements of your idea during early conversations
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
285
with a potential client and add the results of discussions on technique and
approach with graphic artists and instructional designers. You blend what
the client wants done with what you can actually do, given the client’s
budgetary constraints, and when the cauldron of compromise cools, your
proposal is the result.
Sample Terms:
We will undertake this assignment on a time-and-expenses basis at our current hourly rate of $___ per hour for
job title , $____ per hour for job title , $____ per hour for job title , plus applicable taxes and reimbursement of authorized out-of-pocket expenses. Reasonable travel, express, freight, courier and telecommunication
expenses incurred in relation to the project, will be considered pre-authorized. [Client] will be responsible for all
licensing fees of third-party products incorporated (with [Client]’s knowledge and approval) into the inal product.
We will invoice [Client] either upon [Client]’s acceptance of the speciied deliverables for each work phase speciied
above, or monthly, whichever is more often. [Client]’s authorization, either written or verbal, to commence a work
phase will constitute acceptance of the previous phase’s deliverables. Invoices are due and payable upon presentation. To commence work, we require a retainer in the amount of $_______, which will be deducted from the inal
invoice for the project.
Upon our receipt of inal payment, [Client] shall own all rights, except those noted below, to the completed work
delivered under this agreement, including graphics, written text, and program code. [Client] may at [Client]’s sole
discretion copyright the work in [Client]’s name or assign rights to a third party. Ownership of material provided
by third parties and incorporated in our work with [Client]’s knowledge and approval shall be as provided in any
license or sale agreement governing said materials. We reserve the right to use in any of our future work for ourselves or any client all techniques, structures, designs and individual modules of program code we develop that
are applicable to requirements outside those speciied above. Further, our performance of this work for [Client]
shall in no way limit us regarding assignments we may accept from any other clients now or at any time in the
future.
We shall be allowed to show [Client]’s inished work, or any elements of it, to existing and prospective clients for
demonstration purposes. If such demonstration showings would reveal information [Client] has identiied to us
as proprietary or conidential, we shall be allowed to create a special version for demonstrations which omits or
disguises such information and/or [Client]’s identity as the client. We shall also be allowed to include a production
credit display, e.g. “Produced by [Our Name]” or equivalent copy, on the closing screen or other mutually agreeable position in the inished work. Following [Client]’s acceptance of this proposal we shall also be allowed to
identify [Client] as a client in our marketing communications materials.
In the event it is necessary in the course of this assignment for us to view or work with information of [Client]’s that
[Client] identiies to us as proprietary and conidential (possibly including customer lists, supplier data, inancial
igures and the like), we agree not to disclose it except to our principals, associates and contractors having conidentiality agreements with us.
We make no warranty regarding this work, or its itness for a particular purpose, once [Client] accepts it following any testing procedures of [Client]’s choice. In any event, our liability for any damages arising out of this work,
expressly including consequential damages, shall not exceed the total amount of fees paid for this work.
Figure 9-9 Sample contract terms adapted from language developed by the HyperMedia Group, Inc. (do not use without
appropriate legal counsel)
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Multimedia: Making It Work
The Cover and Package
You have many options for designing the look and feel of your proposal.
And though we are often warned to avoid judging a book by its cover, the
reality is that it takes about two seconds for executives to assess the quality
of the document they are holding. Sometimes, they decide before even
touching it. Size up the people who will read your proposal and ferret out
their expectations; tailor your proposal to these expectations.
If your client judges from the cover of your proposal that the document inside is amateurish rather than professional, you are already ighting
an uphill battle. here are two strategies for avoiding this negative irst
impression:
1. Develop your own special style for a proposal cover and package,
including custom fonts, cover art and graphics, illustrations and
igures, unique section and paragraph styles, and a clean binding. Do
your proposal irst class.
2. Make the entire package plain and simple, yet businesslike. he plain
part of the approach means not fussing with too many fonts and
type styles. his austerity may be particularly successful for proposals
to government agencies, where 12-point Times New Roman or
12-point Courier may be not just a de facto standard, but a required
document format. If you must submit hardcopy documents in addition to PDF or DOC iles, a stapled sheaf of papers is adequate.
Don’t try to dress up your plain presentation with Pee-Chee folders
or cheap plastic covers; keep it lean and mean.
Table of Contents
Busy executives want to anticipate a document and grasp its content in
short order. A table of contents or index is a straightforward way to present
the elements of your proposal in condensed overview. In some situations, you may also wish to include an executive summary—a prelude
containing no more than a few paragraphs of pithy description and budget
totals. he summary should be on the cover page or immediately following.
In an electronic submission, you can hotlink to the Table of Contents and
to important sections.
Needs Analysis and Description
In many proposals, it is useful to describe in some detail the reason the
project is being put forward. his needs analysis and description is
particularly common in proposals that must move through a company’s
executive hierarchy in search of approval and funding.
Chapter 9 Planning and Costing
Target Audience
All multimedia proposals should include a section that describes the target
audience and target platform. When the end user’s multimedia capabilities
have a broad and uncertain range, it is crucial to describe the hardware and
software delivery platform you intend to provide. For instance, if your project
requires a special browser plug-in, you will need to adjust your multimedia
strategy by revising the design or by requiring the end user to download
the plug-in. Some clients will clearly control the delivery platform, so you
may not need to provide detail regarding system components.
TIP In your analysis, be sure to include a mention of platform assumptions
and technical speciications. For example, “This program will function properly
in Internet Explorer 6-9 and Firefox 3 in Windows, and in Safari 4 and Firefox 3 on
the Macintosh. No guarantees are provided for functionality on other browsers or
operating systems.”
Creative Strategy
A creative strategy section—a description of the look and feel of the
project itself—can be important to your proposal, especially if the executives reviewing your proposal were not present for creative sessions or did
not participate in preliminary discussions. If you have a library of completed
projects that are similar to your proposed efort, it is helpful to include
them with your proposal, pointing the client to techniques and presentation
methods that may be relevant. If you have designed a prototype, describe it
here, or create a separate heading and include graphics and diagrams.
Project Implementation
A proposal must describe the way a project will be organized and scheduled. Your estimate of costs and expenses will be based upon this description. he Project Implementation section of your proposal may contain
a detailed calendar, PERT and Gantt project planning charts, and lists
of speciic tasks with associated completion dates, deliverables, and work
hours. his information may be general or detailed, depending upon the
demands of the client. he project implementation section is not just about
how much work there is, but how the work will be managed and performed.
You may not need to specify time estimates in work hours, but rather in the
amount of calendar time required to complete each phase.
Budget
he budget relates directly to the scope of work you have laid out in the
project implementation section. Distill your itemized costs from the project
implementation description and consolidate the minute tasks of each
project phase into categories of activity meaningful to the client.
287
Chapter 9 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
due to artistic trial and error and because the
technology of computer hardware and software
is in constant lux. Include client approval time.
Negotiate the number of review cycles to avoid
endless reviews.
Determine the scope of a multimedia project
■
■
Before beginning a project, develop a sense of its
scope and content. hen develop an organized
outline and a plan that considers the skills, time,
budget, tools, and resources at hand.
Plan for the entire process, beginning with your
irst ideas and ending with completion and
delivery of a inished product.
■
Maintain balance between purpose and feasibility
by dynamically adding and subtracting multimedia
elements as you stretch and shape your idea.
■
Tasks are the building blocks of project
management. Allocate an estimated amount of
time to each task, and place each one along a
calendar-based timeline. he end of each phase is
a natural place to set a milestone.
■
■
■
Project management software can be useful
for arranging ideas and tasks; additionally, the
software may include built-in analysis to help stay
within schedule and budget.
Build a matrix chart of required skills to help
describe the makeup of your team.
Because there are few concrete standards for
multimedia and developers are constantly
“pushing the envelope,” consider building a
prototype to demonstrate that the idea is
feasible and marketable.
Schedule the phases, tasks, and work items
required to complete a project
■
Lay out the phases, tasks, and work items along
a timeline. Scheduling can be diicult to predict
288
■
Avoid the problem of cost run-ups by requiring
clients to sign of at key stages in development and
requiring change orders if a client changes speciications on you after signing of on them.
Estimate the cost, timeline, and tasks required
to complete a project
■
As a general rule, there are three elements that can
vary in project estimates: time, money, and people.
■
he budget is the total of estimated hours for
each task times your hourly billing rate. here is
no more diicult business situation than a halfcompleted job and an exhausted budget.
■
Contractors and consultants can bring specialized
skills to your project. Be sure they work of-site,
using their own equipment, to avoid having them
classiied as employees.
Write and structure the elements of a multimedia
project proposal
■
Many projects come about from a phone call or
less formal contact.
■
Occasionally you may receive a more formal
detailed document called a Request for Proposal
(RFP), generally from large corporations that are
“outsourcing” their multimedia development work.
■
A multimedia bid proposal should include an
executive summary or overview, a section dealing
with creative issues, a description of how the
project’s goals will be met, and a discussion of
technical issues.
■
he backbone of the proposal is the estimate and
project plan, followed by cost estimates for each
phase or deliverable milestone, as well as payment
schedules. Finally, include a list of your terms
reviewed by legal counsel. Make sure the proposal
looks professional.
■
All multimedia proposals should include a section
that describes the target audience and target
platform.
■
Your estimate of costs and expenses will be based
upon the detailed description of your project.
■ Key Terms
alpha (271)
beta (271)
change order (274)
client sign-of (274)
contingencies (276)
creative strategy (287)
Critical Path Method (CPM) (264)
deliverable (273)
executive summary (286)
feasibility study (269)
Gantt chart (265)
going gold (271)
milestone (273)
needs analysis (286)
payment schedule (277)
prerequisites (265)
Program Evaluation Review
Technique (PERT) charts (264)
proof-of-concept (269)
Request for Proposal (RFP) (281)
scope (260)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. A prototype is sometimes called a proof-of-concept or _______________.
2. When a project reaches the delivery stage, it is said to be _______________.
3. In constructing a project timeline it is important to identify _______________, important tasks that must
be completed before others begin.
4. A marker that delineates a signiicant point in a project’s timeline—time to deliver work-in-progress, to
invoice based upon real work done, to assess or test progress, and/or to solicit and receive constructive
feedback—is called a(n) _______________.
5. A prototype in which most of the features are working, and you are distributing it to a wide arena of
testers, is called a(n) _______________.
6. A project management strategy that calculates the total duration of a project based upon each identiied
task, earmarking tasks that are critical, is called the _______________.
7. _______________ provide graphic representations of task relationships, showing what tasks must be
completed before others can commence.
8. _______________ depict all the tasks along a timeline.
289
9. A(n) _______________ is a detailed document, generally from large corporations who are outsourcing
their multimedia development work, asking for companies to suggest projects in response to a
deined need.
10. A proposal should begin with the _______________, a prelude containing no more than a few paragraphs
of pithy description and budget totals.
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. he building blocks of project management are:
a. budgets
b. tasks
c. proposals
d. milestones
e. prerequisites
2. he best point to do focus group testing is
with the:
a. concept
b. prototype
c. beta
d. gold master
e. inal version
3. Which of the following is not an area that would
need to be tested in a prototype?
a. technology (Will it work on your proposed
delivery platform[s]?)
b. cost (Can you do this project within budget
constraints?)
c. design (Will the colors and overall interface
be attractive to potential users?)
d. market (Can you sell it, or will it be properly
used if it is an in-house project?)
e. human interface (Is it intuitive and easy
to use?)
4. In determining the feasibility of a project, the
most common limiting technological factor is:
a. the hardware on which the project is
developed
b. the network delivering the project
290
c. the medium (CD-ROM, DVD, Internet)
delivering the project
d. the end user’s hardware
e. the telecommunications infrastructure
5. A proof-of-concept or pilot project should
probably include all of these except:
a. some artwork
b. interface design
c. packaging mock-ups
d. interactive navigation
e. performance checks
6. In the referenced report on producing educational
software, the task requiring the greatest
percentage of efort was authoring, at 28 percent.
he second most demanding task was:
a. analyze and outline content
b. lay out course map
c. select learner activities
d. evaluate the course
e. produce media
7. Which of the following is not a method typically
used by project management software?
a. Critical Path Method
b. Feasibility Assessment Review Technique
c. Program Evaluation Review Technique
d. Gantt charts
e. All of these are common methods.
8. Which of the following is not a reason why
scheduling a multimedia project can be diicult?
a. Much of the making of multimedia is
artistic trial and error.
b. Market forces may change the demand for
the inal product.
c. he technology of computer hardware and
software is in constant lux.
d. Upgrades while your project is under way
may add time to learn new hardware and
software.
e. Client feedback loops depend upon factors
beyond your control.
9. When calculating the budget for a project, you
should use two rates for each employee working
on the project: the employee’s rate billed to the
customer, and:
a. the employee’s cost for tax purposes
b. the employee’s rate for discounted/special
clients
c. the employee’s rate for rush/quickturnaround projects
d. the employee’s cost to the employer
e. the employee’s rate for projects done on spec
10. Typical billing rates for multimedia production
companies and web designers range from:
a. $15 to $30 an hour
b. $30 to $50 an hour
c. $60 to $150 an hour
d. $150 to $200 an hour
11. he business of making multimedia is a “low
entry barrier” enterprise because:
a. those with disabilities can create multimedia
b. all you need to get started is some
(relatively) inexpensive computer hardware
and software
c. there are free or low-cost web hosting
solutions available
d. lots of people can access web sites and
DVDs
e. authoring systems make creating
sophisticated projects fast and easy
12. Contractors and consultants should work of-site
primarily because if they work on-site:
a. they may compromise the company’s
conidential information
b. they increase the wear on company
equipment
c. providing space for them adds to overhead
d. they are generally less productive doing so
e. they may be legally considered employees
13. he irst part of a proposal should be the:
a. executive summary
b. budget
c. timeline
d. project plan
e. terms and conditions
14. When the end user’s multimedia capabilities have
a broad and uncertain range, it is very important
to describe:
a. the number of subcontractors working on
the project
b. the authoring system that will be used on
the project
c. the hardware and software platform
intended for delivery
d. the creative strategy that will be used to
create the media
e. the colors and fonts to be used in the
interface
15. If the executives reviewing your proposal were not
present for creative sessions or did not participate
in preliminary discussions, it may be important to
include a description of the look and feel of the
project itself, called a(n):
a. creative strategy
b. executive summary
c. terms and conditions
d. needs analysis
e. table of contents
291
■ Essay Quiz
1. You have been given the task of inding a new project for a ictional multimedia development company to
produce on spec. he project is an instructional game designed to teach learners how to program in Java
Script. Justify the project, discussing:
a.
b.
c.
d.
the market for the product,
the objectives of the project,
technical limitations, if any, and
a brief timeline.
2. List and briely discuss the stages of a multimedia project. Be sure to deine the milestones that mark the
completion of the phase.
3. List at least ten primary tasks that go into producing a multimedia project. Place these steps in logical
order. Comment on these steps with regard to whether they are critical to the timeline (which steps are
dependent on the completion of an earlier step).
4. Discuss the factors that afect what a multimedia company might be able to charge for its work. Consider
factors that afect overhead, factors related to experience and abilities, and factors related to the project
itself.
5. Describe the various technical, management, and creative obstacles to accurately predict the time and
resources needed to complete a multimedia project. How might the technical and creative problems be
interrelated?
Lab Projects
■Project 9.1
Select a project—perhaps a promotional DVD, a marketing web site, or a corporate intranet. Be creative, and
specify the kind of organization you will be creating the project for. List the tasks required in developing the
project. Specify how long each task will take.
■Project 9.2
Based on the project speciied in 9.1, create a team of at least three people for the project. Specify their titles,
internal and external rates, and abilities. Write a one-paragraph bio explaining each team member’s relevant
experience and capabilities.
■Project 9.3
Based on the project developed so far, assign the tasks to the team. Create a chart that clearly identiies the major
tasks, which team member will be responsible for them, and when they will be done.
292
■Project 9.4
Create a budget based on the task durations and rates for the project you have developed. Calculate both the
internal cost (costs × hours) and the billing (rates × hours). Is the project proitable? Don’t forget to include a
reasonable amount for contingencies and overhead.
■Project 9.5
Go online and locate an RFP for either a web site or multimedia DVD. Suitable RFPs should be fairly large in
scope, at least $25,000. Examine the RFP. How would you respond to it? Write an executive summary for an
imaginary proposal you might write in response to the RFP.
293
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CHAPTER 10
Designing and
Producing
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Design the structure and
user interface for a multimedia project
■ How to produce a success-
ful multimedia project and
work with clients
D
esigning and building multimedia projects go hand in hand.
For CD-ROM and DVD projects, design input is never over until the
product is actually frozen and shipped. he best products are often the
result of continuing feedback and modiications implemented throughout
the production process; projects that freeze a design too early become brittle
in the production workplace, losing the chances for incremental improvement. But there is a danger: too much feedback and too many changes
can kill a project, draining it of time and money. Always balance proposed
changes against their cost to avoid the “creeping features” syndrome.
For a project bound for a web site, the design may be completed and
implemented, yet the site’s content may be regularly updated and changed,
so the project may (by its very design) never be completely frozen. In such
cases, it is especially important to set clear deadlines and milestones.
Just as the architect of a high-rise oice tower must understand how
to utilize the materials with which he or she works (lest the construction
collapse on trusting clients), designers of multimedia projects must also
understand the strengths and limitations of the elements that will go into
their project. It makes no sense, for example, to design the audio elements
of a multimedia project in memory-consuming 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo
sound when the delivery medium will not have suicient room for it; or
to produce lengthy, full-screen, video clips to play at 30 frames per second
over the Internet when targeted end users connect by dial-up modems; or
to design lovely 1024 × 768 pixel graphics for elementary school laptops
when that environment supports only 800 × 600 pixel screens. Architects
don’t design inner city parking garages with 14-foot ceilings and wide
turning radii for 18-wheel big rigs, and they don’t build them using wood
or mud laid on a swampy foundation.
Designers must work closely with producers to ensure that their ideas
can be properly realized, and producers need to conirm the results of
their work with the designers. “hese colors seem to work better—what
do you think?” “It plays smoother now, but I had to change the animation
sequence . . .” “Doing the index with highlighted lines slows it down—
can we eliminate this feature?” Feedback loops and good communication
between the design and production efort are critical to the success of a
project.
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
he idea processing (described in Chapter 9) of your multimedia
project will have resulted in a detailed and balanced plan of action, a production schedule, and a timetable. Now it’s time for implementation!
Designing
he design part of your project is where your knowledge and skill with
computers; your talent in graphic arts, video, and music; and your ability
to conceptualize logical pathways through information are all focused to
create the real thing. Design is thinking, choosing, making, and doing. It is
shaping, smoothing, reworking, polishing, testing, and editing. When you
design your project, your ideas and concepts are moved one step closer to
reality. Competence in the design phase is what separates amateurs from
professionals in the making of multimedia.
TIP
Never begin a multimedia project without irst outlining its structure and
content.
Depending on the scope of your project and the size and style of your
team, you can take two approaches to creating an original interactive multimedia design. You can spend great efort on the storyboards, or graphic
outlines, describing the project in exact detail—using words and sketches
for each and every screen image, sound, and navigational choice, right
down to speciic colors and shades, text content, attributes and fonts, button shapes, styles, responses, and voice inlections. (his approach is particularly well suited for teams that can build prototypes quickly and then
rapidly convert them into inished goods.) Or you can use less-detailed
storyboards as a rough schematic guide, allowing you to exert less design
sweat up front and expend more efort actually rendering the product at a
workstation.
he method you choose depends on whether the same people will
do the whole thing (both the designing and the implementing) or
whether implementation will be tasked or outsourced to a new team
who will then need a detailed speciication (that is, a detailed storyboard
and sketches). Both approaches require the same thorough knowledge
of the tools and capabilities of multimedia, and both demand a storyboard or a project outline. he irst approach is often favored by clients
who wish to tightly control the production process and labor costs. he
second approach gets you more quickly into the nitty-gritty, hands-on
tasks, but you may ultimately have to give back that time because more
iterations and editing will be required to smooth the work in progress. In
either case, the more planning on paper, the better and easier it will be to
construct the project.
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296
Multimedia: Making It Work
Designing the Structure
A multimedia project is no more than an arrangement of text, graphic,
sound, and video elements (or objects). he way you compose these elements
into interactive experiences is shaped by your purpose and messages.
How you organize your material for a project will have just as great an
impact on the viewer as the content itself. Since the explosive growth of
the World Wide Web and proliferation of millions and millions of multimedia-capable HTML documents that can be linked to millions of other
similar documents in the cyberspace of the Web, your designs and inventions may actually contribute to the new media revolution: other creators
may discover your work and build upon your ideas and methods.
On some projects, you may be both the designer and the programmer.
his can work well because you will understand how the design features
you choose will actually be implemented. Indeed, your design will be tempered, if not deined, by your programming and coding skills, and you will
be less likely to specify features impossible or overly diicult to realize.
Navigation
Mapping the structure of your project is a task that should be started early
in the planning phase, because navigation maps outline the connections
or links among various areas of your content and help you organize your
content and messages. A navigation map (or site map) provides you
with a table of contents as well as a chart of the logical low of the interactive interface. While with web sites a site map is typically a simple hierarchical table of contents with each heading linked to a page, as a more
detailed design document your map may prove very useful to your project,
listing your multimedia objects and describing what happens when the
user interacts.
Just as eight story plots might account for 99 percent of all literature
ever written (boy meets girl, protagonist versus antagonist, etc.), a few basic
structures for multimedia projects will cover most cases: linear navigation, hierarchical navigation, nonlinear navigation, and composite
navigation. Figure 10-1 illustrates the four fundamental organizing structures used in multimedia projects, often in combination:
Linear Users navigate sequentially, from one frame or bite of information to another.
■ Hierarchical Also called “linear with branching,” since users navigate along the branches of a tree structure that is shaped by the natural
logic of the content.
■ Nonlinear Users navigate freely through the content of the project,
unbound by predetermined routes.
■
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
■
Composite Users may navigate freely
(nonlinearly) but are occasionally constrained to linear presentations of movies or critical information and/or to
data that is most logically organized in
a hierarchy.
he method you provide to your viewers
for navigating from one place to another in
your project is part of the user interface. he
success of the user interface depends not
only upon its general design and graphic
art implementations but also upon myriad
engineering details—such as the position
of interactive buttons or hot spots relative to the user’s current activity, whether
these buttons “light up,” and whether you
use standard Macintosh or Windows pulldown menus. A good user interface is critical to the overall success of your project.
he nature of your interface will vary
depending on its purpose: browsing, database access, entertainment, information,
instruction, reference, marketing, and gaming projects require diferent approaches
and diferent navigation strategies.
297
Linear
Hierarchical
Nonlinear
Composite
Figure 10-1 The four primary navigational structures used in multimedia
Structural Depth
Professor Judith Junger from the Open University of the Netherlands
in Amsterdam suggests that when you design your multimedia product,
you should work with two types of structure: depth structure and surface
structure. Depth structure represents the complete navigation map and
describes all the links between all the components of your project (see
Figure 10-1). Surface structure, on the other hand, represents the structures actually realized by a user while navigating the depth structure. hus
the following depth structure
might be realized as the following surface structure:
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Some surface structures generated by users might look like this:
he following depth structure for a quiz thus consists of three possible
surface structures:
When you design your navigation map, it helps to think about surface
structure—to view the product from a user’s perspective. Surface structures are of particular interest to marketing irms in tracking users’ routes
through a web site to determine the efectiveness of the site’s design and to
proile a user’s preferences. When a user’s preferences are known, a custom
web site experience can be dynamically tailored and delivered to that user.
Acquisition and management of such proiling data is a hot topic, with privacy advocates claiming the personal information revealed in these surface
structures is akin to a person’s medical and health records.
Many navigation maps are essentially nonlinear. In these navigational
systems, viewers are always free to jump to an index, a glossary, various
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
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First Person
Dear Tay,
With regard to the creation of interactive iction, what kinds of software
engineering strategies would you
recommend for creating stories that
maintain a strong sense of cumulative action (otherwise known as
plot) while still ofering the audience
a high frequency of interaction? In
other words, how do you constrain
the combinatoric explosion of the
narrative pathways, while still maintaining the Aristotelian sense of a
unity of plot?
—Patrick Dillon, Atlanta, GA
One and one-half T-shirts to Patrick
Dillon! Would have been two for
your invocation of a famous Greek
philosopher, but then I couldn’t ind
“combinatoric” in Webster’s. Aristotle
himself would have been pleased
by the harmonious balance of your
reward: you have asked a really
good question.
As multimedia and the power of
computers begin to change our
approach to literature and storytelling, new engineering strategies
do need to be implemented.
When iction becomes nonlinear,
and users can choose among
alternative plot lines, the permutations can become staggering. To an
author, this means each new plot
pathway chosen by user interaction
requires its own development, and
one story may actually become several hundred or more. To constrain
this fearsome explosion of narrative
pathways, yet retain a high frequency of interaction, try designing
your iction around a single core
plot that provides the cumulative
action, and use arrays of returning
branches for detail and illustration.
In this way you can entirely avoid
the permutations of alternative universes and still ofer the adventure
of interactive exploration.
Dear Tay,
I just read your answer to Patrick
Dillon’s question about interactive
iction in your column. My response
is diicult to contain: “Aaarrrrggghhhh!!!! You Ignorant Slut!” OK, perhaps I am overreacting, but you are
refusing to let go of linearity. Why
ever do you want to “constrain the
combinatoric explosion of narrative
pathways”? Good Lord, that’s what
makes the gametree bushy. This is
exactly the kind of work that’s well
suited for a computer to perform—
grinding out three billion story
variations!
—Chris Crawford, San Jose, CA
Chris, I’ve been called a lot of things
over the years (like Fay and Ray), and
it’s with a smile that I add your gift
to my collection. Playing Jane Curtin
to your Dan Aykroyd, I’ll be happy to
counter your counterpoint.
Your challenge represents a serious
subject for multimedia designers
today. I agree that interactive stories
with too few branches are disappointingly lat and shallow. When a
plot is broadly nonlinear, however,
the permutations of events and possible outcomes become staggering,
and the story as a whole becomes
diicult to visualize and manage.
Producing such work is also an
intellectual challenge and costly in
time and efort.
A truly open-ended “hypermedia”
navigation system for consumer
consumption risks death by shock
caused by open arterial branches
and loss of story pressure, where plot
lines become too difuse and users
founder in trivia. Most users may,
indeed, prefer a structured, organized,
and well-deined story environment.
The argument for simplicity is
voiced by Steven Levy, the author of
Hackers and Artiicial Life, who says,
“There’s really something to be said
for documents with a beginning,
middle, and end.”
The shape of this new literature
made possible by multimedia computers and wide-bandwidth cable
and telephone delivery systems is
being born in the working designs
of developers. The inal test for
successful multimedia design is the
marketplace, where consumers will
decide. Your interesting “algorithms
for interpersonal behavior, personality models, artiicial personality,
languages of expression, and facial
displays” represent, perhaps, a successful marriage of this computer
power with literature containing
malleable plots and seemingly
endless variations. Indeed, your
forthcoming epic game, Le Morte
D’Arthur, will surely break new
ground and quite possibly prove
your point. Can’t wait to get a copy!
From correspondence in “Ask the
Captain,” a monthly column by Tay
Vaughan in NewMedia magazine.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Because all forms of
information—including
text, numbers, photos, video,
and sound—can exist in a
common digital format, they
can be used simultaneously
as people browse through
an information stream, just
as people use their various
senses simultaneously to
perceive the real world.
Bill Gates, Chairman,
Microsoft Corporation
Figure 10-2 A simple navigation map
menus, Help or About . . . sections, or even to a rendering of the map itself.
It is often important to give viewers the sense that free choice is available;
this empowers them within the context of the subject matter. Nonetheless,
you should still provide consistent clues regarding importance, emphasis,
and direction by varying typeface size and look, colorizing, indenting, or
using special icons.
he architectural drawings for your multimedia project are the storyboards and navigation maps. he storyboards are married to the navigation maps during the design process, and help to visualize the information
architecture.
A simple navigation map is illustrated in Figure 10-2, where the subject matter of a small project to teach the basics of animation was organized
schematically. he items in boxes are not only descriptions of content but
also active buttons that can take users directly to that content. At any place
in the project, users can call up this screen and then navigate directly to
their chosen subject.
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
A storyboard for this same project, originally built for a small blackand-white low-resolution display, is organized sequentially, screen by
screen, and each screen is sketched out with design notes and speciications
before rendering. On the left, in Figure 10-3, are parts of the storyboard
for this project; on the right are corresponding inished screens.
Title (use a gradient)
sans serif, clean type
Menu, ive buttons
Navigation bar,
Quit, About
Card 1
Visual Efects
Sample image for
visual efects
Timing and speed
controls
Card 2
Multiple efects test
Section title
Menu
Card 3
Blowup of icon in
Fat Bits
Animated icon
Individual icon
Card 4
Figure 10-3 Storyboards on the left, with inished screens on the right
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Really good software products should be simple, hot,
and deep. People need to get
into your software in about
20 seconds and get immediate positive feedback and
reward; then they are smiling
and having a good time and
they want to go further.
“Hot” means that you’ve
got to be fully cooking
the machine, with all its
graphics and sound capabilities, conveying something
dynamic and exciting that
competes with what people
are used to seeing in a movie
or on TV. In terms of “deep,”
it’s kind of like the ocean
where there are people of
all ages: some kids will just
wade out in a foot of surf,
other guys with scuba gear
go way out and way deep.
Make it possible for me to go
as deep as I want, but don’t
force it on me. Just let the
depth of your product unfold
to me in a very natural way.
Multimedia provides great power for jumping about within your
project’s content. And though it is important to give users a sense of free
choice, too much freedom can be disconcerting, and viewers may get lost.
Try to keep your messages and content organized along a steady stream of
the major subjects, letting users branch outward to explore details. Always
provide a secure anchor, with buttons that lead to expected places, and
build a familiar landscape to which users may return at any time.
Your content may not always be an assembly of discrete subjects as
illustrated in Figure 10-2. If your material deals with a chronology of
events occurring over time, for example, you may wish to design the structure as a linear sequence of events and then send users along that sequence,
allowing them to jump directly to speciic dates or time frames if desired
(see Figure 10-4). A timeline will graphically show the positioning of your
multimedia elements and can be helpful during the design phase: where
there are overlapping events, you may wish to create cross-sectional paths
or views for a “slice in time.”
Trip Hawkins, Founder,
Electronic Arts
Figure 10-4 A chronological navigation map with active buttons
Even within a linear, time-based structure, you may still wish to sort
events into categories regardless of when they occur. here is no reason you
can’t do this and ofer more than one method of navigating through your
content. Figure 10-5, for instance, illustrates a navigation map that accesses
the same events from the timeline form of Figure 10-4, but arranged here
instead into meaningful groups of events.
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
Figure 10-5 A navigation map based on events that are active buttons
Hot Spots, Hyperlinks, and Buttons
Most multimedia authoring systems allow you to make any part of the
screen, or any object, into a hot spot. When users hover over or click a
hot spot at that location, something happens, which makes multimedia
not just interactive, but also exciting. Hot spots can be given more speciic
names based upon either their function or form. For example, if clicking
the hot spot connects the user to another part of the document or program
or to a diferent program or web site, it is referred to as a link or hyperlink.
If the hot spot is a graphic image designed to look like a push button or
toggle switch, it is called a button, more formally deined as a meaningful
graphic image that you click or “touch” to make something happen.
Hot spots can be text or graphic images. Most authoring systems provide a tool for creating text buttons of various styles (radio buttons, check
boxes, or labeled push buttons, for example), as well as graphic buttons.
TIP
Designing a good navigation system and creating original buttons appropriate for your project are not trivial artistic tasks. Be sure you budget suicient
time in your design process for many trials, so you’ll be able to get your buttons
looking and acting just right.
Text buttons and their fonts and styles are described in Chapter 2.
Graphic buttons can contain graphic images or even parts of images—for
example, a map of the world with each country color coded, and a mouse
click on a country yields further information. Icons are graphic objects
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Multimedia: Making It Work
designed speciically to be meaningful as buttons and are usually small
(although size is, in theory, not a determining factor). Icons are fundamental graphic objects symbolic of an activity or concept:
Once a style has been selected, you need to determine how your user will
know that the button is active or is being selected. Highlighting a button
or object, or changing its state, when the cursor rolls over it or the button is
clicked, is the most common method of distinguishing it as the object of interest. Highlighting is usually accomplished by altering the object’s colors and
optionally moving the object a pixel or two or, if text,
changing its size. Depending upon how you highlight, you can make a button appear of (not pressed)
or on (pressed) as illustrated on the left.
Or you can use an animated GIF image that animates when the mouse
hovers over it. he dove in the illustration begins lying when the mouse
passes over the word “Habitat.”
Your navigation design must provide buttons that make sense, so their
actions will be intuitively understood by means of their icon or graphic representation, or via text cues. Do not force your viewers to learn many new
or special icons; keep the learning curve to a minimum. It’s also important
to include buttons that perform basic housekeeping tasks, such as quitting
the project at any given point, or canceling an activity.
Hot Spots in Web Pages HTML documents do not directly support
interactive graphic buttons that follow the rules of good interface design—
by highlighting or otherwise conirming a hover or mouse-down action.
In most web browsers, you know you have clicked on a linked graphic (a
button) only when the cursor changes while the browser seeks another
document and loads it. But you can make plain and animated buttons
for your HTML documents on the Web using plug-ins such as Flash or
JavaScripts. A simple JavaScript or CSS a:hover in an HTML document
can replace one image with another on mouseOver or hover. Other ways to
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
make interesting buttons and interactive graphical interfaces on the World
Wide Web are described more fully in Chapter 13.
he simplest hot spots on the Web are the text anchors that link a
document to other documents. his is because a browser usually indicates
that some speciic text is a hot link or anchor by coloring or underlining
the text so it stands out from the body. Default colors for anchor text
are a user-deined preference, though you can override the default in the
<BODY> tag.
Using CSS in web site design, text can be easily colored and highlighted on hover and hyperlinked or anchored to other document URLs
on clicking. Drop-down text menus (see Figure 10-6) allow for a dense
hierarchy of menu choices to be displayed.
Figure 10-6 Drop-down menus at web sites are built using a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Other common buttons found on the Web consist of small JPEG or
GIF graphic images that are themselves anchor links. Browsers indicate
that an image is hot by drawing a border around it (you can remove this
border by placing BORDER=“0” into the <IMG> tag). Larger images
may be sectioned into hot areas with associated links; these are called
image maps.
Figure 10-7 shows a graphic image of a village that has been programmed in HTML to have 32 hot spots with links (the document to
open when clicked) and a JavaScript routine called “set” that will place an
image into the frame at the left when the mouse rolls over that area. he
code looks like this:
<AREA shape="rect" coords="180,85,230,135" href=" ../vendors/v25/index.html"
onmouseover="set('../vendors/v25/images/logomenu.gif');">
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Figure 10-7 Using a large image map and JavaScript embedded in a normal HTML web page, when the mouse rolls over a house
or barn, the content of that building is displayed as a separate graphic at the left. Users can actively explore this seaside village to
discover what’s hidden behind its doors.
Icons
Designers will build screens
where there are tiny little
things going on all over it at
diferent places, and everything has momentous significance. And then the user is
supposed to be able to ind
these momentous things. So
people just glaze over. If you
want them to hit a button,
put a big button right in the
middle of the screen.
Trip Hawkins, Chairman &
CEO, 3DO Company
In Macintosh and Windows operating systems, icons have a special
meaning, in that they constitute a suite of image resources that are linked
to and identify an application, ile, volume, or service.
On the Macintosh, icon image iles (.icns) can contain one or more
images of 16 × 16, 32 × 32, 48 × 48, 128 × 128, 256 × 256, and 512 × 512
pixels as well as alpha channels for transparency masking. he Mac operating system automatically scales the image(s) to display at other sizes. To
use your own icon for a ile or folder, open the Get Info . . . dialog (command-i), click once on the icon shown at the top left of the Get Info panel
to highlight it, and paste any 512 × 512–pixel bitmap from the clipboard.
he old icon is replaced with the new. You can also highlight an icon in the
Get Info panel and copy it to the clipboard (command-c) for pasting into
your image editor or directly into a project.
Windows 7 icons are 256 × 256 pixels and are scaled to Extra Large,
Large, Medium, or Small sizes in the Views menu. To replace a folder
or alias icon with your own, simply create a 256 × 256 pixel .png ile and
save it. hen go to a folder or shortcut and right-click it; select Properties.
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
Choose the Customize tab and select Change Icon. Browse to ind your
saved icon and click OK.
Building and saving icon iles is simpler using an icon editor such as
IcoFX (http://icofx.ro/) or the ICOformat plugin for Photoshop (www.
telegraphics.com.au/sw/#icoformat). If you want to use a system icon
within your project, it is often quickest to capture or grab it of the screen
and place it directly into your project as a bitmap. Use caution, however,
because the design of some icons (particularly those using corporate logos)
may be protected by copyright or trademark.
Browsers automatically look for a tiny 16 × 16 pixel icon ile named
favicon.ico in the root of a web site, which they will display in one or more
places in their “chrome” (the toolbars, status bars, sidebars, menus, and
navigation elements surrounding the web page itself ). In the following
illustration, the Facebook icon is shown by the Firefox browser both in the
URL address ield and in the tab:
If you wish to identify your own web site with an icon, simply include
a Windows-style .ico ile (named favicon.ico) in the root folder of your
site. It will be discovered by the browser and used for all pages at the site.
Preferred, however, you can add a link tag in the <HEAD> element of your
web page that identiies your icon image to the browser:
<link rel="icon" type="image/gif" href="http://www.yourwebsite.com/yourIcon.gif">
And with this method, you can use a .gif, .jpg, or .png image. Remember
you can use transparency in a .gif or .png image when you don’t want your
icon to ill the 16 × 16 pixel box in the corners or edges. Use simple shapes,
keep your lines sharp, and experiment in your image editor: it is very hard
to make a decent image with only 16 × 16 pixels to work with.
Apple’s handheld touch devices such as iPod(touch),
iPhone, and iPad use a custom Safari browser to display web
clips on a Home screen; they will display a custom icon for
your web site if you include in the <HEAD> tag of your page
a <LINK> tag to an appropriate image. Apple recommends a
lat (not shiny) and simple 57 × 57 pixel image in .png format
with sharp 90º corners. he display software will then render
your icon with rounded corners, a drop shadow, and a relective shine, as shown here.
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Put the following code into your HTML <HEAD> tag:
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/somepath/image.png" />
or to force your icon not to be rendered,
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png" href="/somepath/image.png" />
Designing the User Interface
Two readers didn’t notice
the screen had changed in
diferent circumstances. his
happened when the button
they clicked on took them
to a visually similar screen,
and there was no visual efect
as the screens changed. One
reader was looking at the
details of a hostel and clicked
the left-hand Next arrow.
He arrived at a screen with
details about another hostel,
but he did not notice he was
looking at a diferent screen.
He tried the right-hand
Next arrow as well, and the
screen changed back to the
one he had been viewing
initially, but again he did
not notice the change and
concluded the Next buttons
did nothing. A visual efect
or animation here would
have provided a cue to make
the screen changes more
noticeable.
Lynda Hardman of the Scottish
HCI Centre, after focus group
testing the “Glasgow Online”
hypertext system
he user interface of your multimedia product is a blend of its graphic
elements and its navigation system. If your messages and content are
disorganized and diicult to ind, or if users become disoriented or bored,
your project may fail. Poor graphics can cause boredom. Poor navigational
aids can make viewers feel lost and unconnected to the content; or, worse,
viewers may sail right of the edge and just give up and quit the program.
Novice/Expert Modes
Be aware that there are two types of end users: those who are computer
literate and those who are not. Creating a user interface that will satisfy
both types has been a design dilemma since the invention of computers.
he simplest solution for handling varied levels of user expertise is to
provide a modal interface, where the viewer can simply click a Novice/
Expert button and change the approach of the whole interface—to be
either more or less detailed or complex. Modal interfaces are common
on bulletin boards, for example, allowing novices to read menus and
select desired activities, while experts can altogether eliminate the timeconsuming download and display of menus and simply type an activity
code directly into an executable command line. Both novices and experts
alike may quickly learn to click the mouse and skip the annoying ragtime
piece you chose for background music.
Unfortunately, in multimedia projects, modal interfaces are not a good
answer. It’s best to avoid designing modal interfaces because they tend to
confuse the user. Typically, only a minority of users are expert, and so the
majority are caught in between and frustrated. he solution is to build
your multimedia project to contain plenty of navigational power, providing access to content and tasks for users at all levels, as well as a help system to provide some hand-holding and reassurance. Present all this power
in easy-to-understand structures and concepts, and use clear textual cues.
Above all, keep the interface simple! Even experts will balk at a complex
screen full of tiny buttons and arcane switches, and will appreciate having
neat and clean doorways into your project’s content.
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
309
GUIs
he Macintosh and Windows graphical user interfaces (GUI, pronounced
“gooey”) are successful partly because their basic point-and-click style is
simple, consistent, and quickly mastered. Both these GUIs ofer built-in
help systems, and both provide standard patterns of activity that produce
standard expected results. he following actions, for example, are consistently performed by similar keystrokes when running most programs on
the Macintosh or in Windows:
Action
Macintosh Keystroke
Windows Keystroke
New ile
#-N
ALT-F-N
or CTRL-N
Open ile
#-O
ALT-F-O
or CTRL-O
Save ile
#-S
ALT-F-S
or CTRL-S
Quit
#-Q
ALT-F-X
or CTRL-Q
Undo
#-Z
ALT-E -U
or CTRL-Z
Cut
#-X
ALT-E -T
or CTRL-X
Copy
#-C
ALT-E -C
or CTRL-C
Paste
#-V
ALT-E -R
or CTRL-V
TIP
Since Cut, Copy, and Paste are used so often, this mnemonic device may
help you to remember their keyboard shortcuts: X looks like scissors and is to Cut.
C is straightforward; C is for Copy. Think of V as an upside-down insertion caret
(used to insert text when copy editing) and you will remember that it is for Paste.
For your multimedia interface to be successful, you, too, must be consistent in designing both the look and the behavior of your human interface. Multimedia authoring systems provide you with the tools to design
and implement your own graphical user interface from scratch. Be prudent
with all that lexibility, however. Unless your content and messages are
bizarre or require special treatment, it’s best to stick with accepted conventions for button design and grouping, visual and audio feedback, and
navigation structure.
Stick with real-world metaVaughan’s General Rule for Interface Design
phors that will be understood by
the widest selection of potenhe best user interface demands the least learning efort.
tial users. For example, consider
using the well-known trash can
for deleting iles, a hand cursor for dragging objects, and a clock or an
hourglass for pauses. If your material is time-oriented, develop metaphors
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Multimedia: Making It Work
hrow out your tried and
true training or software
development methodologies, and pretend that you’re
Spielberg or Lucas: think
of what the viewer sees and
hears and how the viewer
interacts with the system you
deliver. Create an “experience” for the viewer.
David A. Ludwig, Interactive
Learning Designs
Computer graphics is more
left- and right-brained—and
not so spontaneous as doing
it by hand. he ramp time is
tedious; I am used to instant
gratiication with my ine
artwork.
Cornelia Atchley, a ine artist
creating multimedia art with
computers, Washington, D.C.
for past, present, and future. If it is topic-oriented, choose metaphors
related to the topics themselves. If it is polar (the pros and cons of an issue,
for example), choose relevant contrasting images.
TIP Most multimedia authoring systems include tutorials and instructions
for creating and using buttons and navigation aids. Typically, they also supply
templates or examples of attractive backgrounds and distinctive buttons that
serve as an excellent starting place. In a large project, you might want to use a
diferent metaphor as the backbone of each major section, to provide a helpful
cue for users to orient themselves within your content. For the Travel section, for
example, you could use icons that are sailing ships with various riggings; for the
Finance section, buttons that are coins of diferent denominations; and for the
buttons of the International Business section, you could use colorful lags from
various countries.
Users like to be in control, so avoid hidden commands and unusual
keystroke/mouse click combinations. Design your interface with the goal
that no instruction manual or special training will be required to move
through your project. Users do not like to have to remember keywords or
special codes, so always make the full range of options easily available as
interactive buttons or menu items. And inally, users do make mistakes,
so allow them a chance to escape from inadvertent or dangerous predicaments (“Do you really want to delete? Delete/Escape”). Keep your interface simple and friendly.
Graphical Approaches
Designing excellent computer screens requires a special set of ine art
skills, and not every programmer or graduate in ine arts may be suited to
creating computer graphics. Like programmers who must keep up with
current operating systems and languages, computer graphic artists must
also stay informed about the rapidly changing canvas of new features,
techniques, applications, and creative tools.
he artist must make broad design choices: cartoon stick igures for a
children’s game, rendered illustrations for a medical reference, scanned bitmaps for a travel tour of Europe. he graphic artwork must be appropriate
not only for the subject matter, but for the user as well. Once the approach
is decided, the artist has to put real pixels onto a computer screen and do
the work. A multimedia graphic artist must always play the role of the end
user during the design and rendering process, choosing colors that look
good, specifying text fonts that “speak,” and designing buttons that are
clearly marked for what they do.
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
311
Things That Work Here are some graphical approaches that get good results:
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Neatly executed contrasts: big/small,
heavy/light, bright/dark, thin/thick,
cheap/dear (see Figure 10-8)
Simple and clean screens with lots of
white space (see Figure 10-9)
Eye-grabbers such as drop caps, or a
single brightly colored object alone on a
gray-scale screen
Shadows and drop shadows in various
shades
Gradients
Reversed graphics to emphasize important text or images
Shaded objects and text in 2-D and 3-D
Figure 10-8 Contrasts attract the eye—Bud Knight, PGA Junior Champion
at the turn of the century, was made thick by stretching him in an imageediting program.
Figure 10-9 Use plenty of
white space (“noninformation
areas”) in your screens
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Things to Avoid Here are some mistakes you will want to avoid in
creating computer graphics:
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Clashes of color
Busy screens (too much stuf )
Using a picture with a lot of contrast in color or brightness as a
background
Trite humor in oft-repeated animations
Clanging bells or squeaks when a button is clicked
Frilly pattern borders
Cute one-liners from famous movies
Requiring more than two button clicks to quit
Too many numbers (limit charts to about 25 numbers; if you can, just
show totals)
Too many words (don’t crowd them; split your information into bitesized chunks)
Too many substantive elements presented too quickly
Most graphic artists will tell you that design is an “intuitive thing,”
and they will be hard-pressed to describe the rules they follow in their
everyday work. hey know when colors are not “working” and will change
them again and again until they’re right, but they usually won’t be able to
explain why the colors work or don’t work. A project with a good navigation design, though it may have been developed with good planning and
storyboarding, is indeed more often the result of many hours of crafty
inagling with buttons and editors. Visit http://templatemonster.com to
see a huge number of web site templates, some of them Flash-based, and
many with multimedia features such as animations, dynamic interfaces,
and sound.
Audio Interfaces
A multimedia user interface may include important sound elements that
relect the rhythm of a project and may afect the attitude of your audience. Sounds can be background music, special efects for button clicks,
voice-overs, efects synced to animation, or they may be buried in the audio
track of a video clip. he tempo and style of background music can set the
“tone” of a project. Vivaldi or Bach might be appropriate for a banking or
investment annual report delivered on DVD. Comic laughs and screeching
efects might be appropriate for a clothing web site aimed at preteens.
Choose music that its the content and the atmosphere you wish to create.
In all cases, use special efects sparingly. Always provide a toggle switch to
disable sound. (Many AOL users prefer to disable the “You’ve Got Mail!”
voice, for example.) And always test a project that contains sound with
potential users.
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
For more about design, visit:
www.tsworldofdesign.com/tutorial/interface.htm
Developing web site navigation interfaces around usability
www.digital-web.com/features/feature_2002-12b.shtml
Digital Web magazine, “he Psychology of Navigation,” Jan 2003
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms993291.aspx
Fitts’s UI Law applied to the Web
www.stcsig.org/usability/topics/articles/he-checklist.html
Heuristic evaluation: a system checklist (Xerox Corp.)
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/UserExperience/
Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGIntro/XHIGIntro.html
Apple human interface guidelines
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwui/
html/iuiguidelines.asp
Microsoft inductive user interface guidelines
www.useit.com/
Jakob Nielsen’s guidelines for usability and Web design
www-01.ibm.com/software/ucd/ucd.html
User-centered design
www.useit.com/alertbox/20000514.html
Eye-tracking study of Web readers
www.useit.com/alertbox/20020707.html
User empowerment and the fun factor
www.useit.com/alertbox/20020609.html
Reduce redundancy: decrease duplicated design decisions
www.useit.com/alertbox/20011209.html
DVD menu design: the failures of Web design re-created yet again
www.useit.com/alertbox/20010121.html
Usability metrics
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/index.htm
Color symbolism
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/howcolorworks/index.htm
Color basics and theory
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Multimedia: Making It Work
A Multimedia Design Case History
his section presents an example of the design process for a simple multimedia project about the construction and launch of a 31-foot ocean-going
sailboat. his project was initially crafted in SuperCard (a Macintosh-only,
page-based, authoring tool), but it was later ported to Adobe’s Director
(a time-based tool) so that it could be played on both Mac and Windows
platforms (see Chapter 7 for details about authoring systems).
Storyboarding a Project
he source material (all that was available) practically sorted itself into
logical groups: a pile of old photographs, a magazine article and newspaper clippings, engineering drawings, oicial documents, and some
recorded sounds. he irst storyboard was a simple hierarchical structure
with branches to each subject area, as shown in Figure 10-10.
Figure 10-10 The irst storyboard
Putting It Together
he most eye-catching photograph was chosen as a background for the
main menu, and, as shown in Figure 10-11, the main menu was planned to
contain clearly labeled buttons navigating to linear presentations of each
topic area. From every screen in the project, users would be able to return
to the main menu. Where sound bites were appropriate, clicking buttons
on screens would play sounds. Adding a Quit button was necessary, also on
the main menu, so that users would never be more than two button clicks
from exiting the project (back to the main menu, and then quit).
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
he 50 or so 4 × 5 photographs
were old color prints that ofered
poor contrast and faded colors (due
to a saltwater dunking in a storm
of the Central American coastline). Digitized on a latbed scanner in gray-scale, however, they
worked ine, and Photoshop was
available to improve contrast. All
the prints were scanned, cropped
to the same dimension, optimized,
and stored as bitmapped objects
within Director. While at the scanner, merchant marine licenses and
documents were also digitized, and
the magazine article was scanned
using OCR software to bring it
into ASCII format. he story text
was imported into the project.
Figure 10-11 Main menu screen with relevant artwork as background
After all the content was in
Director’s Cast (see Chapter 11),
and work on the navigation system was under way, several issues emerged.
First, it is terriically boring to read a 3,000-word story by scrolling a long
text ield. Second, the photos were too small to be placed alone on a single
screen. So it made sense to combine the story line with the images, even
though they were not directly related; the story about launching the boat
would progress from beginning to end as the boat was slowly built in the
pictures. he storyboard changed to that shown in Figure 10-12.
Figure 10-12 The second storyboard
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Multimedia: Making It Work
he photo-essay-and-story
combination worked out to 28
screens. he photos were placed
into the score, and the text was
cut and pasted into ields (see
Figure 10-13). It became clear
that users might want to scan
rapidly through the photographs to watch the boat being
built, ignoring the text of the
story. So a special button was
programmed to scan through
the images until the mouse was
clicked.
Images that did not it into
the photo essay about building the boat—for instance,
the launching party with its
roast pig, the long haul to the
beach by trailer, and setting
Figure 10-13 Snapshots are combined with text to form a 28-screen story line.
the mooring—were withdrawn
from the pile of construction
photographs; but because they were interesting, they were attached as
separate branches accessible by button from the main menu. his was the
third time the navigation changed, proving that you can continue to hang
elements on a menu until the menu screen is too busy (and then you use
submenus), or until you run out of material, as shown in Figure 10-14.
Figure 10-14 The third storyboard
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
Next, the sound bites were recorded,
digitized, and added to the project.
Figure10-15, the screen where the sounds
were to play, shows the special button
installed to play sound bites. It’s simply a
picture of a loudspeaker.
he documents for the project
included engineering drawings, highway
permits, and licenses. he highway permit,
for example, was 8.5 by 11 inches (portrait); but after some experimentation,
once it was scaled to 480 pixels in height,
it was (barely) readable and acceptable
for this project. he licenses and drawings were in landscape orientation and it
more easily on a 640 × 480-pixel screen
(see Figure 10-16).
Figure 10-15 Sound is played when the loudspeaker icon is clicked.
Figure 10-16 Larger fonts of some scanned documents can be read at 72 dpi resolution, and engineering drawings in
landscape orientation can be resized to it.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Developing multimedia can
be like taking a joy ride in a
washer/dryer. When it’s all
over you feel like you’ve been
washed, rinsed, spun, and
tumble-dried.
Kevin McCarthy,
Director of Business
Development, Medius IV
he buttons on the main menu were the wrong color, so they were
changed a few times until the color worked. Helvetica title text wasn’t
fancy enough, so it was reworked and a drop shadow was laid in. A special slider button was built and programmed to allow the construction
sequence to go immediately to any of the pictures in the sequence. he
backgrounds were tweaked a little, and the order of images changed
somewhat. A small red car was animated to drive along the edge of the
lagoon.
he project described here was simple and straightforward. With the
exception of designing a few custom buttons for auto-scanning through
some of the images and designing the animations, the entire project was
a progression of screens of information, with links activated by clicking
buttons.
Producing
By the time you reach the development phases of your multimedia project
and you start building, you should already have taken care to prepare
your plan and to get organized. he project plan (see Chapter 9) now
becomes your step-by-step instruction manual for building the product.
For many multimedia developers, following this plan and actually doing
the construction work—being down in the trenches of hands-on creation
and production—is the fun part of any project.
Production is the phase when your multimedia project is actually rendered. During this phase you will contend with important and
continuous organizing tasks. here will be times in a complex project
when graphics iles seem to disappear from the server, when you forget
to send or cannot produce milestone progress reports, when your voice
talent gets lost on the way to the recording studio, or when your hard
disk crashes. So it’s important to start out on the right foot, with good
organization, and to maintain detailed management oversight during the
entire construction process. his rule applies to projects large and small,
projects for you or for a client, and projects with 1 or 20 people on staf.
Above all, provide a good time-accounting system for everyone working
on the project. At the end of the week, it’s hard to remember how much
time you spent on the tasks you did on Monday.
TIP
If your project is to be built by more than one person, establish a management structure in advance that includes speciic milestones and the production
expectations for each contributor.
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
319
Starting Up
Before you begin your multimedia project, it’s important to check your
development hardware and software and review your organizational
and administrative setup, even if you are working alone. his is a serious
last-minute task. It prevents you from inding yourself halfway through
the project with nowhere to put your graphics iles and digitized movie
segments when you’re out of disk space, or stuck with an incompatible
version of a critical software tool, or with a network that bogs down and
quits every two days. Such incidents can take many days or weeks to resolve,
so try to head of as many potential problems as you can before you begin.
Here are some examples of things to think about.
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Desk and mind clear of obstructions?
Best computers you can aford?
Time-accounting and management system in place?
Biggest (or most) monitors you can aford?
Suicient disk storage space for all work iles?
System for regular backup of critical iles?
Conventions or protocols for naming your working iles and managing
source documents?
Latest version of your primary authoring software?
Latest versions of software tools and accessories?
Communication pathways open with client?
Breathing room for administrative tasks?
Financial arrangements secure (retainer in the bank)?
Expertise lined up for all stages of the project?
Kick-of meeting completed?
First Person
At 18, I used to hang around
with people who drove fast cars,
and once volunteered to help an
acquaintance prepare his Ferrari
Berlinetta for a race at Watkins Glen.
My job was to set the valves while
my friend went over the suspension, brakes, and later, the carburetor. The car boasted 12 cylinders
and 24 valves, and adjusting the
clearance between tappet and
rocker arm seemed to me akin to
a jeweler’s ine work. It required
special wrenches and feeler gauges
and an uncommon touch to rotate
the high-compression engine so
the cam was precisely at its highest
point for each valve. I was blown
away by the sheer quantity of
moving parts under the Ferrari’s
long and shiny valve covers—my
own fast car had only four cylinders
and eight simple valves. It took
me about seven exhausting hours
(including double-checking) to get
it right. As the sun came up, though,
the engine sounded great! Tuning
up and preparing, I learned, is as
important to the race as the race
itself. My friend, however, learned a
much tougher lesson: he spun out
and rolled his Ferrari at the hairpin
turn in the seventh lap. He crawled
unhurt from the twisted wreckage,
but all he was able to salvage from
the car was the engine.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Working with Clients
Making multimedia for clients is a special case. Be sure that the organization of your project incorporates a system for good communication
between you and the client as well as among the people actually building
the project. Many projects have turned out unhappily because of communication breakdowns.
Client Approval Cycles
Provide good management oversight to avoid endless feedback loops—in
this situation the client is somehow never quite happy, and you are forced
to tweak and edit many times. Manage production so that your client is
continually informed and formally approves by signing of on artwork
and other elements as you build them. Occasionally, the technology will
improve during development and you may be able to ofer new features
that will improve your project. Develop a scheme that speciies the number
and duration of client approval cycles, and then provide a mechanism
for change orders when changes are requested after sign-of. For change
orders, remember that the client should pay extra and the changes should
be costly.
First Person
We made up two sample musical
tracks to play in the background
and sent them of by overnight
courier to the client. Four days later,
the client phoned to say that both
were good, but they were wondering if we couldn’t make it sound a
little more like Windham Hill. So we
redid the music and sent two more
samples. Five days later, the client
said the samples were great, but the
boss wanted something with a Sergeant Pepper feel. So we sent a ifth
creation, this time with a note that
they would have to either settle on
one of the ive styles submitted, supply the music themselves, or pay us
more money to keep up the creative
composition work. They chose the
music the boss liked, but we wound
up more than two weeks behind
schedule and had spent signiicantly
more money and efort on this task
than originally budgeted.
Several months later, in the next job
requiring original music composition, we speciied a maximum of
two review/feedback cycles and
added a clause for cost overrun
beyond that. The irst sound we
submitted to this new client was
approved, and we stayed ahead of
schedule and budget.
Data Storage Media and Transportation
It’s important that the client be able to easily review your work. Remember
that either you and the distant site need to have matching data transfer
systems and media, or you need to provide a web or FTP site for your
project. Organize your system before you begin work, as it may take some
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
time for both you and the client to agree on an appropriate system and on
the method of transportation.
Because multimedia iles are large, your means of transporting the project to distant clients is particularly important. Typically, both you and the
client will have access to the Internet at high bandwidth. If not, the most
cost- and time-efective method for transporting your iles is on DVDROM by an overnight courier service (FedEx, DHL, or Postal Service
Express Mail). Material completed in time for an afternoon pickup will
usually be at the client’s site by the next morning.
If you use the Internet to deliver your multimedia to the client, be
sure that you set up rules and conventions for naming iles placed at an
FTP site, and use codes in the subject headers of your e-mail to describe
the content of the message. After a project has been under way for a while,
there will be many iles and many communications, so these keywords
and clues will make life easier. his is another place where planning ahead
pays of!
Tracking
Organize a method for tracking the receipt of material that you will incorporate into your multimedia project. Even in small projects, you will be
dealing with many digital bits and pieces.
Develop a ile-naming convention speciic to your project’s structure. Store the iles in directories or folders with logical names. Version
control of your iles (tracking editing changes) is critically important, too,
especially in large projects. If more than one person is working on a group
of iles, be sure that you always know what version is the latest and who
has the current version. If storage space allows, archive all ile iterations,
in case you change your mind about something and need to go back to a
prior rendering.
Copyrights
Commonly used authoring platforms may allow access to the software
programming code or script that drives a particular project. he source
code of HTML pages on the Web may also be easily viewed.
In such an open-code environment, are you prepared to let others see
your programming work? Is your code neat and commented? Perhaps your
mother cautioned you to wear clean underclothing in case you were suddenly on a table among strangers in a hospital emergency room—well,
apply this rule to your code. You can insert a copyright statement in your
project that clearly (and legally) designates the code as your intellectual
property (see Figure 10-17), but the code, tricks, and programming techniques remain accessible for study, learning, and tweaking by others.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Figure 10-17 Typical copyright and ownership statements embedded in <meta> tags at the top of an HTML page
Hazards and Annoyances
Even experienced producers and developers commonly run into at least
some light chop and turbulence during the course of a project’s development. he experts, however, never crash when their vehicle shudders or
loses some altitude. You can expect the going to get rough at any number
of stages—from trying to design the perfect interface, to endless testing,
to problems with client sign-of or payment. Expect problems beyond your
control, and be prepared to accept them and solve them.
Chapter 10 Designing and Producing
323
Small annoyances, too, can become serious distractions that are counterproductive. he production stage is a time of great creativity, dynamic
intercourse among all contributors, and, above all, hard work. Be prepared
to deal with some common irritants, for example:
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Creative coworkers who don’t take (or give) criticism well
Clients who cannot or are not authorized to make decisions
More than two all-nighters in a row
Too many custom-coded routines
Instant cofee and microwaved corn dogs
Too many meetings; of-site meetings
Missed deadlines
Software and hardware upgrades that interrupt your normal
operations
If your project is a team efort, then it is critical that everyone works
well together—or can at least tolerate one another’s diferences—especially
when the going gets tough. Pay attention to the mental health of all personnel involved in your project, and be aware of the dynamics of the group
and whether people are being adversely afected by individual personalities.
If problems arise, deal with them before they become hazardous; the mix
of special creative talents required for multimedia can be volatile. If you
stay organized and lexible throughout, you will complete your project successfully. See Chapter 14 for how to deliver it!
First Person
In 1975, I was hired to deliver a
41-foot cruising sailboat from Fort
Lauderdale to the British Virgin
Islands for the charter trade. In
three days I assembled a crew of
strangers, provisioned the boat, and
checked all the equipment. Then we
took of across the Gulf Stream and
into the Bermuda Triangle.
After two days it was clear that the
cook was a bad apple. It wasn’t
just that she couldn’t cook—she
whined about everything: the stove
wouldn’t light, the boat heeled too
much, her socks were wet, her sleeping bag tore on a cleat, her hair was
tangled, she couldn’t get her favorite radio station (now a few hundred
miles astern). It was unending.
The whining began to envelop her
in a smog-colored, onion-like layering, each new complaint accreting
to the last one, like growing coral.
By the ifth day, her unpleasant
aura saturated the entire main
cabin, and the rest of us had to
seek sanctuary in the cockpit or the
small aft cabin. Eforts were made
to solve this bizarre situation, but
by then, nobody could get near her
(or wanted to). When we pulled into
tiny Caicos Island for water and fresh
stores, I paid her of and arranged
for a room at the quaint waterfront
hotel, where she could wait three
days for the weekly airplane back
to Florida. Everyone felt bad about
her disappointment and how it all
turned out—for about an hour. The
rest of the voyage was jubilant.
Chapter 10 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
Design the structure and user interface for a
multimedia project
■
he best products are often the result of
continuing feedback and modiications implemented throughout the production process.
However, too much feedback and too many
changes can kill a project; always balance proposed
changes against their cost.
■
You can either describe the project in great detail
before the production, or you can use rough storyboards and reine the design as you produce it.
■
How you organize your material for a project will
have just as great an impact on the viewer as the
content itself.
■
Start mapping the structure of your project early
in the planning phase.
■
Project designs are typically linear, hierarchical,
nonlinear, or composite.
■
he method you provide to your viewers for
navigating from one place to another in your
project is part of the user interface.
■
Depth structure represents the complete
navigation map and describes all the links between
all the components of your project.
■
Surface structure represents the structures actually
realized by a user while navigating the depth
structure.
■
Hot spots can be text, graphic, and icon.
324
■
Stick with accepted conventions for button design
and grouping, visual and audio feedback, and
navigation structure.
How to produce a successful multimedia project
and work with clients
■
Production is the phase when your multimedia
project is actually rendered.
■
Provide a time-accounting system for everyone
working on the project.
■
Check your development hardware and software
and review your organizational and administrative
setup.
■
Have a system for communication between you,
the client, and the people actually building the
project in place.
■
Provide management oversight and control the
client review process to avoid endless feedback
loops.
■
Establish a process in which your client is continually informed and formally approves the project
as you develop it.
■
Organize a method for tracking the receipt of
material that you will incorporate into your multimedia project.
■
Develop a ile-naming convention speciic to your
project’s structure.
■
Version control of your iles (tracking editing
changes) is critically important, especially in large
projects.
■ Key Terms
busy screen (312)
button (303)
composite navigation (296)
depth structure (297)
ile-naming convention (321)
hierarchical navigation (296)
hot spot (303)
hyperlink (303)
icon (303)
image map (305)
linear navigation (296)
modal interface (308)
navigation map (296)
nonlinear navigation (296)
production (318)
site map (296)
storyboard (295)
surface structure (297)
user interface (308)
version control (321)
white space (311)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. he graphic outlines that describe each page of a project in exact detail are called _______________.
2. A multimedia structure in which users navigate sequentially, from one frame or bite of information to
another, could be called _______________.
3. A multimedia structure in which users navigate along the branches of a tree structure that is shaped by the
natural logic of the content could be called _______________.
4. A multimedia structure in which users navigate freely through the content of the project, unbound by
predetermined routes, could be called _______________.
5. A multimedia structure in which users may navigate freely, but are occasionally constrained to linear
presentations, could be called _______________.
6. he complete navigation map that describes all the links between all the components of your project is
known as _______________.
7. he structures actually realized by a user while navigating the project’s content is known as ____________.
8. Fundamental graphic objects that represent an activity or concept are called _______________.
9. he standard that ensures that project iles are given logical names and stored in folders with logical names
is the _______________.
10. Making sure that old iles are archived and new versions are properly tracked is called _______________.
325
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. Which of these is not an advantage of
creating detailed storyboards before beginning
production?
a. It will be better and easier to construct the
project.
b. Less time is required in polishing the inal
product.
c. Getting to the production stage is faster.
d. It is better suited to separate design and
production teams.
e. Clients who like to tightly control the
production process prefer it.
2. Which of these is not one of the listed types of
organizational structures?
a. linear
b. hierarchical
c. nonlinear
d. composite
e. recursive
3. he visual representation of a project that
includes a table of contents as well as a chart
of the logical low of the interactive interface is
often called:
a. a storyboard
b. a worklow diagram
c. a prototype
d. a navigation map
e. a master layout
4. he method you provide to your viewers for
navigating from one place to another in your
project is part of the:
a. script
b. user interface
c. storyboards
d. depth structure
e. surface structure
5. he generic term for any area of an image that
can be clicked on is:
a. a hot spot
b. a storyboard
c. an image map
326
d. a rollover
e. an icon
6. An interface in which a user can click a button
and change the approach of the whole interface is
called:
a. a prototype
b. a navigation map
c. a modal interface
d. a site map
e. a transitional GUI
7. Having separate novice and expert interfaces for a
multimedia program is generally not a good idea
because:
a. it tends to take up too much disk space or
bandwidth
b. novice users tend to get caught in the expert
mode
c. only a minority of users are expert; most
users are caught in between and are
frustrated
d. most authoring systems are not capable of
handling parallel structures
e. it makes developing documentation
awkward and unwieldy
8. GUI stands for:
a. General/Universal/Individual
b. General Utilization Instructions
c. Global Usage Image
d. Guidelines for Usability and Interaction
e. Graphical User Interface
9. he Macintosh and Windows GUIs are
successful partly because:
a. they enable cross-platform ile structures
b. their basic point-and-click style is simple,
consistent, and quickly mastered
c. they are highly customizable, allowing
programmers to use program-speciic
keyboard shortcuts
d. they tend to make the computer run more
eiciently
e. slick marketing eforts tricked gullible
consumers
10. Noninformation areas left intentionally free from
visual clutter are often referred to as:
a. negative space
b. screen real estate
c. advanced organizers
d. white space
e. depth structure
13. Default colors for anchor text are found in which
HTML tag?
a. <HEAD>
b. <FRAME>
c. <LINK>
d. <COLOR>
e. <BODY>
11. he standards that ensure that project iles are
given logical names and stored in folders with
logical names are the:
a. usability guidelines
b. pattern-recognition algorithms
c. ile-naming conventions
d. review-cycle management
e. project tracking protocols
14. Which of these is probably not a good step to
take before starting the production process for a
multimedia project?
a. Lock in the design so there are no further
changes to delay production.
b. Establish limits on client review cycles to
reduce cost overruns.
c. Set up an FTP site for sending and
receiving production iles.
d. Establish clear ile-naming and version
control standards.
e. Check the state of your hardware and
software to ensure reliability and capability,
and integrate any upgrades.
12. Perhaps the most signiicant problem with
creating a multimedia program that gives users
complete free reign is that:
a. such freedom is diicult to program
b. computers cannot yet process so many
variables concurrently
c. too much freedom can be disconcerting
to users
d. it is diicult to organize data into
meaningful structures
e. such interfaces tend to be cluttered and
unwieldy
15. An image on a web page can be sectioned in
HTML into areas that are clickable links. his
is called:
a. a sweet spot
b. a site map
c. a rollover
d. a frameset
e. an image map
■ Essay Quiz
1. You are given the task of managing a design and production team to complete a multimedia web site
for your own company. he site is to use the latest plug-ins for interactive 3-D presentation. he design
team consists of a writer and a designer, and the production team includes two programmers. Would
you make sure the design and storyboards were “nailed down” before beginning production, or would
you start and allow the design to be changed during the production process? How would factors such
as the client, the technology, and the relationship between the design and production teams afect your
approach?
327
2. List the four diferent types of multimedia structures. Next, describe four hypothetical projects, one that
might be appropriate for each of the four types. For each of these four projects, comment on why the
project is best suited to that structure and why each of the three structures is less appropriate for that
project.
3. Discuss the relationship between a program’s content, its interface, and its usability. What is the
best way to make the content accessible to users without unnecessary complexity? Where are modal
interfaces useful? What are their drawbacks? Where are navigation or site maps useful? How might
you use “themes” to identify diferent areas of a program or diferent approaches to the content’s
structure?
4. What are the steps you would take in “gearing up” for the production phase of a multimedia project?
Organize your thoughts according to the infrastructure (hardware, software, networks, web/FTP site),
team management, and client interaction.
5. Describe the tracking process you might use to control the project development process. Be sure to include
a discussion of version control, ile-naming convention, client review cycles, and team management.
Lab Projects
■Project 10.1
Locate three diferent web sites: a news site, a shopping site, and a hobby or special interest site. Print out
the home page for each site (the home page should include the primary navigation; it should not be a “splash
page” that includes little navigation). Circle all the buttons on the interface. Note any buttons that are
common to each site. Compare the layout and structure of the sites, ignoring aesthetic considerations. List
the buttons that are diferent. Comment on why the buttons are laid out and grouped as they are. Is the site
accessible? How are icons used? How are menus used? Write a report documenting your observations, and
include the printouts.
■Project 10.2
Locate three diferent web sites that have similar content and that include site maps. Print out each site’s map.
How are the structures similar? How are they diferent? How are the diferences related to their content? How
are the diferences related to a diferent way of structuring the information? Write a report documenting your
observations, and include the printouts.
■Project 10.3
Create a site map for a hypothetical multimedia DVD project on the history of computers. Use the composite
structure, and provide two means of navigating the content, one being a timeline. Be sure to include various
options such as help, glossary, and so on. Trace the “surface” structures that three hypothetical users might take
through the program: a novice user, an expert user, and someone looking for a particular fact about computer
history. Explain why each user would take that particular path through the project.
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■Project 10.4
Using simple text blocks and icons, create a user interface for the project you developed in Project 10.3. Discuss
what buttons are included, how they are logically grouped together, and why. What non-text interface elements
might you include to provide navigational cues?
■Project 10.5
Create ive storyboards for the history of computers project. Storyboard a “splash screen,” the main menu, a
submenu, and two diferent content screens.
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CHAPTER 11
Content and Talent
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Acquire content for a
project and identify the
beneits and drawbacks
of various sources of
content such as clip art,
stock libraries, and public
domain sources
■ Discuss the concepts of
copyright, public domain,
licensing, and derivative
works, and determine who
owns the copyright for a
work, depending on who
contracted the work and for
what purpose
■ Discuss the process of
identifying appropriate
talent for a production,
and issues in using talent,
including union rules,
contracts, and releases
E
very multimedia project includes content. It is the “stuf ” from
which you fashion your messages. It is also the information and material
that forms the heart of your project, and it is that which deines what your
project is about.
Practically, content can be any and all of the elements of multimedia.
You might use your collection of wedding photographs and videotapes
to create a special multimedia newsletter for family and relatives. Or you
might edit portions of the audio track from these videotapes and capture
still images to build a multimedia database of aunts, uncles, and cousins.
his material is your project’s content.
Content can have low and high production value. If you hire a team
of professionals to shoot your wedding video, and then they digitize images
and audio clips at broadcast quality, your content will have high production
value. If you persuade Hillary Rodham Clinton to record the voice-over
and Garry Trudeau, the “Doonesbury” artist, to retouch the images, it will
have yet higher production value.
You must always balance the production value of your project against
your budget and the desired result. For aerial photographs of the wedding
reception, you would not likely commission the private launch of a spy
satellite from Kennedy Space Center to achieve highest production value.
Instead, you could rent a helicopter with paparazzi and still achieve good
production value. Or you could photograph the wedding yourself from a
neighboring rooftop and be satisied with the lower production value. he
production value of your project is a question of balance (see Vaughan’s
Law of Multimedia Minimums in Chapter 4).
Content has to come from somewhere—either you make it or you
acquire it. Whether you make it, borrow it, or buy it depends upon your
project’s needs, your time constraints, and your pocketbook. Content that
is destined for sale to the public is also wrapped up in numerous legal
issues. Who owns the content? Do you have the proper rights to use it?
Copyright laws, for example, establish rights for the creators or owners
of literary works; musical works; dramatic works; pictorial, graphic, and
sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; and sound
recordings. Do you have licenses for protected works and signed releases
from anyone who appears in your project?
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
When the Vatican recently made a collection of artwork available on
the World Wide Web, they made certain there was a digital “watermark”
for each image; they would then know if the artwork was ripped of, without recourse to even higher laws. he Vatican is aware (as you should be)
of the nature of the electronic revolution:
In accordance with international regulations on Intellectual Property
and Author’s Rights, we inform our readers that the news items contained in the Vatican Information Service may be used in part or in their
entirety, but only if the source (V.I.S., Vatican Information Service) is
quoted. In the case of electronic retransmission (Internet, telematic networks, via PC-modem, fax, etc.), prior authorization from the Vatican
Information Service is always required.
www.vatican.va
www.christusrex.org
Collections of hundreds of classical images
his chapter discusses some of the legal issues surrounding content and
the use of talent in multimedia projects. It provides examples of contract
terms and introduces you to sources and providers of content and talent.
Needless to say, always consult an attorney versed in intellectual property
law when you negotiate the rights and ownership of content.
Acquiring Content
Content acquisition can be one of the most expensive and time-consuming
tasks in organizing a multimedia project. You must plan ahead, allocating
suicient time (and money) for this task.
If your project describes the use of a new piece of robotics machinery,
for example, will you need to send a photographer to the factory for
the pictures? Or can you digitize existing photographs?
■ Suppose you are working with 100 graphs and charts about the future
of petroleum exploration. Will you begin by collecting the raw data
from reports and memos, or start with an existing spreadsheet or database? Perhaps you have charts that have already been generated from
the data and stored as TIFF or JPEG iles?
■ You are developing an interactive guide to the trails in a national park,
complete with video clips of the wildlife that hikers might encounter
on the trails. Will you need to shoot original video footage, or are there
existing tapes for you to edit?
■
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Multimedia: Making It Work
TIP
his is how you do things on
a shoestring. Years ago, we
created a basketball product
starring Dr. J and Larry Bird.
he irst thing we knew we
had to do was sign a contract
with Dr. J. So we found a guy
that knew his agent and we
made a side deal with him to
pay him to convince Julius
to do it. And then we went
to Julius and we made a deal
where we gave him some
stock in the company, rather
than writing a huge check.
And we convinced him of
the educational value of what
we were doing, instead of
just trying to get it to be an
arms-length inancial deal.
So we were able to sign him
up with an advance of only
$20,000. And he was quite
easily the biggest name in
basketball and one of the top
two or three regarded professional athletes at the time.
We got him for a royalty rate
of 2 ½ percent (not what you
hear today in a lot of cases),
so you don’t have to do
things that have really high
royalty rates and advances.
By the way, he made a killing
on the stock!
Trip Hawkins, Founder,
Electronic Arts
Be sure to specify in your project plan the format and quality of content
and data to be supplied to you by third parties. Format conversion and editing
takes real time. Worse, if you have speciied that images for a client’s web site are
to be 800 × 600 pixels, but the photo iles you receive from your client’s cousin
are 320 × 240 pixels at 72 dpi, there will simply not be enough information in the
image to enlarge it to the required resolution.
Using Content Created by Others
When a work is created, certain rights, such as for the work’s public display
or performance, its use in a broadcast, or its reproduction, are granted to
its creator. Among the rights most relevant to a multimedia producer are
electronic rights—the rights to publish a work in a computer-based
storage and delivery medium such as a CD-ROM or on the Web. Since
the late 1980s, investors in the multimedia marketplace have been quietly
purchasing electronic rights (the right to reproduce works in electronic
form) to the basic building blocks of content—including ilms, videos,
photographic collections, and textual information bases—knowing that in
the future these elements can and perhaps will be converted from their
traditional form to computer-based storage and delivery. his is smart, but
not easy; the many union-supported contract restrictions and performer
and producer rights are not only complicated and diicult to trace but also
very expensive to acquire.
WARNING
If you negotiate ownership or rights to someone else’s content,
be sure to get the advice of a skilled copyright and contracts attorney.
Obtaining the rights to content is not, however, a hopeless undertaking. For example, Amaze, Inc., acquired rights from several sources to
produce a series of computer-based daily planners with a cartoon-a-day
from Gary Larson’s “he Far Side” or Cathy Guisewite’s “Cathy,” a worda-day from Random House, or a question-a-day from the Trivial Pursuit
game. Random House and Brøderbund’s Living Books Division negotiated the rights to the Dr. Seuss books for multimedia use. Multimedia
rights to Elvis Presley historical material, to the movie Jurassic Park, and
to a myriad of other content have been acquired by multimedia developers
and publishers.
Depending on the type and source of your content, the negotiations
for usage rights can be simple and straightforward, or they may require
complicated contracts and a stack of release forms. Each potential content
provider you approach will likely have his or her own set of terms that you
need to look at carefully, so that the terms are broad enough not to constrain the scope of your multimedia project.
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
Locating Preexisting Content
Preexisting content can come from a variety of sources, ranging from a
trunk of old photographs in your neighbor’s attic to a stock house or image
bank ofering hundreds of thousands of hours of ilm and video or still
images, available for licensing for a fee.
If your needs are simple and fairly lexible, you may be able to use
material from collections of clip art. Such collections of photographs,
graphics, sounds, music, animation, and video are becoming widely available from many sources, for anywhere from ifty to several hundred dollars. Part of the value of many of these packages is that you are granted
unlimited use, and you can be comfortable creating derivative versions
tailored to your speciic application. Carefully read the license agreement
that comes with the collection before assuming you can use the material in
any manner. In the six-point italicized type on the back of the agreement,
you may discover that the licensor ofers no guarantee that the contents of
the collection are original works. hus, the licensor bears no responsibility to indemnify you for inadvertently infringing on the copyrights of a
third party. Even if the collection is described as allowing “free use,” you
may discover that the collection comes with severe restrictions on the way
material can be used, or that a royalty is required for any use beyond wallpaper on your computer.
If your content needs are more speciic or complex, a good place to
start your search for material might be at a still photo library, a sound
library, or a stock footage house. hese “stock” resources may be public
or private and may contain copyrighted works as well as materials that
are in the public domain. Public domain means either that the work was
never copyrighted in the irst place or its copyright protection has expired
over time and not been renewed; you can use public domain material without a license.
In addition to stock photos and videos clips, there are whole collections of lash animations and components, web site templates, sound efect
libraries, and even 3-D models available for downloading and integration
into multimedia projects. Many are not free, but stock material may save
you many hours of efort.
www.flashcomponents.net
www.templatemonster.com
www.sounddogs.com
http://turbosquid.com
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Mickey Mouse Goes to Washington
Unless you earn your living as an
intellectual property lawyer, you
probably don’t know that the
Supreme Court has granted certiorari
in Eldred v. Ashcroft, a case that will
test the limits of Congress’s power to
extend the term of copyrights. But
while copyright may not seem inherently compelling to nonspecialists,
the issues at stake in Eldred are vitally
important to anyone who watches
movies, listens to music, or reads
books. If that includes you, read on.
Back in 1998, representatives of
the Walt Disney Company came to
Washington looking for help. Disney’s
copyright on Mickey Mouse, who
made his screen debut in the 1928
cartoon short “Steamboat Willie,” was
due to expire in 2003, and Disney’s
rights to Pluto, Goofy, and Donald
Duck were to expire a few years later.
Rather than allow Mickey and
friends to enter the public domain,
Disney and its friends—a group of
Hollywood studios, music labels, and
PACs representing content owners—
told Congress that they wanted an
extension bill passed.
Prompted perhaps by the Disney
group’s lavish donations of campaign
cash—more than $6.3 million in
1997–98, according to the nonproit
Center for Responsive Politics—
Congress passed, and President
Clinton signed, the Sonny Bono
Copyright Term Extension Act.
The CTEA extended the term of
protection by 20 years for works
copyrighted after January 1, 1923.
Works copyrighted by individuals
since 1978 got “life plus 70” rather
than the existing “life plus 50.” Works
made by or for corporations (referred
to as “works made for hire”) got 95
years. Works copyrighted before 1978
were shielded for 95 years, regardless
of how they were produced.
In all, tens of thousands of works that
had been poised to enter the public
domain were maintained under private ownership until at least 2019.
So far so good—as far as Disney and
its friends were concerned, at least.
In 1999, a group of plaintifs led by
Eric Eldred, whose Eldritch Press
ofers free online access to public
domain works, iled a challenge to
the statute. Eldred argues that the
CTEA is unconstitutional on two
grounds: irst, because the statute
exceeds Congress’s power under
the Copyright Clause; and, second,
because the statute runs afoul of the
First Amendment by substantially
burdening speech without advancing
any important governmental interest.
Eldred lost before the district court
and the D.C. Circuit. However, there is
good reason to believe that he may
yet prevail in the Supreme Court.
Chris Sprigman, Counsel to the
Antitrust Group in the Washington,
D.C. oice of King & Spalding.
(Contrary to many predictions, on
January 15, 2003, the United States
Supreme Court upheld the Act in a
7–2 decision.)
Google claims that the full text of more than seven million books can
now be searched and read online at Google Books (http://books.google
.com) as part of an ongoing efort to scan and digitize entire libraries of
books, magazines, journals, and articles from around the world. Certainly
a noble idea, to make all known literature searchable and available on the
Internet, but many are concerned that Google will, by the very nature of
its vast collection, own a monopoly on much of the world’s literature, particularly out-of-print “orphan” books, where copyrights are unknown or
unclaimed. Lawsuits and haggling are underway involving copyright law,
unfair competitive advantages, monetizing, and licensing rights of all kinds.
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
Google categorizes its holdings into three groups: in-copyright and
in-print books, in-copyright but out-of-print books, and out-of-copyright
books. For copyrighted and in-print material, users can search for the
book, preview portions of it, and then purchase it through a bookseller like
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Borders. In-copyright but out-of-print books
can be previewed and purchased, opening an otherwise dry revenue stream
to publishers and authors. Out-of-copyright books can be freely read, downloaded, and printed by the public. he mechanics of this system are being
worked out in the courts; it’s all about money and control.
he National Archives in Washington, D.C., is a rich source of content,
both copyrighted and in the public domain. Other public sources include the
Library of Congress, NASA, U.S. Information Agency, and the Smithsonian
Institution, all in Washington, D.C. You cannot, however, safely assume that
all material acquired from a public source is in the public domain. You remain
responsible for ensuring that you do not infringe on a copyright.
In addition to public sources, there are many other repositories of content material. Commercial stock houses ofer millions of images, video and
ilm clips, and sound clips, and they often own the works outright—so,
when they grant you a license for use of their work, you don’t have to worry
about possible copyright infringement of the rights of third parties. Some
stock sources also specialize in certain subjects. For example, if you want a
video clip of a shark, you might contact a stock footage house that specializes in underwater videos.
Copyrights
Copyright protection applies to “original works of authorship ixed in any
tangible medium of expression.” he Copyright Act of 1976, as amended
(17 U.S.C.A. §101 et. seq.) protects the legal rights of the creator of an
original work. Consequently, before you can use someone else’s work in
your multimedia project, you must irst obtain permission from the owner
of the copyright. If you do not do this, you may ind yourself being sued for
copyright infringement (unauthorized use of copyrighted material).
Several changes in the law have created confusion over copyright protections. One change is that works now come under copyright protection
as soon as they are created and presented in a ixed form. Prior to 1976,
protection was only granted upon registration, but now works do not have
to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Oice to be protected. Because
of this there is another crucial change: works no longer need a properly
formatted statement of copyright ownership (for example, “Copyright
© 2010 by Tay Vaughan”) to be protected. Many people assume, because
of the pre-1976 rules, that if there is not a copyright statement, the work
is available to be used. While that may be true for older works, you should
start with the assumption that a work is protected, unless there is a speciic
statement that it is in the public domain. here are fair use exceptions in
335
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally
accessible and useful. Today,
together with the authors,
publishers, and libraries, we
have been able to make a
great leap in this endeavor.
While this agreement is a
real win-win for all of us, the
real victors are all the readers.
he tremendous wealth of
knowledge that lies within
the books of the world will
now be at their ingertips.
Sergey Brin,
co-founder & president
of technology at Google,
October 28, 2008
336
Multimedia: Making It Work
which copyrighted material can be used without permission, but they are
very limited and speciic—primarily for educational and journalistic use
and rarely for commercial use—so you should consult an attorney before
assuming this exception applies to work you wish to use in a project.
Owning a copy of a work does not entitle you to reproduce the work,
and you still need to obtain permission from the copyright owner to use it.
If you buy a painting from an artist, the artist retains the copyright unless
it is assigned to you. You do not have the right to reproduce the painting in
any form, such as in postcards or a calendar, without permission.
For additional discussion about copyrights as they apply to original
works created for a project, see “Ownership of Content Created for a
Project” later in this chapter, and visit the U.S. Copyright Oice at www
.copyright.gov/.
Digital Rights Management (DRM) As rights and ownership are
redeined for the information age, various rights management technologies are emerging and competing to become industry standard. Apple’s
iTunes Store has sold more than six billion songs since going online in
2003. Songs downloaded from iTunes were protected with a DRM scheme
called FairPlay, which works within Apple’s QuickTime container structure and limits the number of devices upon which the tune can be played
(in 2009, Apple removed the DRM restriction for music tracks, but continues to protect movies and television shows). Microsoft Windows Media
Rights Manager (Windows only) and the Windows Media Player 12 format incorporate extensive DRM capabilities. he Association of American
Publishers is promoting DRM methodologies for protecting unauthorized copying of e-books. he Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA)
ofers a content protection speciication designed to provide a single,
end-to-end encryption scheme for streaming media and ile downloading
that can be integrated with diferent key and rights management software and licensed content protection devices. A Digital Object Identiier
(DOI), which has been proposed for identifying and exchanging intellectual property, provides a framework for managing intellectual content,
linking customers with content suppliers, facilitating electronic commerce,
and enabling automated copyright management for all types of media. he
Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 has set the rules. For an overview of this emerging battle, check out these URLs:
www.copyright.gov/laws/
www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DMCA.html
www.isma.tv/
www.doi.org/
www.current.tv/make/
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
337
First Person
Rights Management at Work
It is well known that professors and
teachers who write textbooks do
not get rich from the publisher’s
royalties. For all their hard work,
they become famous perhaps, and
they gain some bragging rights and
add an important credit to their curriculum vitae as they strive toward
tenure, but rich? Never.
So it was with some surprise
that I received an e-mail from
the Authors Registry in New York
(www.authorsregistry.org), letting me know that I, as author of
Multimedia: Making It Work, was
owed some royalty monies collected by The Authors’ Licensing
and Collecting Society (ALCS) in the
United Kingdom. For a ive-percent
fee, the Registry would take care of
the paperwork and conversion from
Pounds Sterling to U.S. Dollars and
mail me a check. Having in the past
received more than one letter from
Mr. Obutu in Nigeria ofering me
millions, I was skeptical.
It turns out that the ALCS (www.alcs
.co.uk) is quite legitimate and collects a small fee on behalf of authors
when their book (such as the one
you are holding in your hands) is
photocopied or scanned in schools,
universities, businesses, public sector
bodies or libraries or, according to
Public Lending Right laws (www.plr
.uk.com), each time their book is
borrowed from a public library. In fact,
the ALCS administers payments due
to writers from the Austrian, Dutch,
Belgian, French, Spanish, German,
and Irish PLR schemes as well.
When the twice-yearly royalty check
from the Authors Registry did inally
arrive, less various commissions and
Obtaining Rights
You should license the rights to use copyrighted material before you
develop a project around it. You may be able to negotiate outright ownership of copyrighted material. If the owner does not wish to give up or sell
ownership rights, however, you may still be able to license the rights to
use that material. Keep in mind, however, that diferent rights for the same
copyrighted work (for example, rights for public performance, broadcast
use, or publication) may be assigned to diferent parties. When you are
negotiating a license make sure that the party you are dealing with has
ownership of the appropriate rights.
here are few guidelines for negotiating content rights for use in
multimedia products. If you are dealing with content providers who are
fees, it was suicient to purchase
a 25 kg bag of dry dog food for
my Sophie. We both wish to thank
those of you borrowing and copying
readers from Britain and Europe
who, most likely without knowing it,
participated in a small but generous
way in the formal management of
writers’ rights.
338
Multimedia: Making It Work
professionals familiar with electronic media, you may be given a standard
rate card listing licensing fees for diferent uses, formats, and markets.
Other content providers or owners may be less familiar with multimedia
and electronic uses, and you will need to educate them.
Some licensing agreements may be as simple as a signed permission letter or release form describing how you may use the material.
Other agreements will specify in minute detail how, where, when, and
for what purpose the content may be used. Ideally, you would seek rights
for unlimited use, which allows you to use the content anytime, anywhere, and in any way you choose; more likely, however, the inal license
would contain restrictions about how the material may be used. Try to
retain the option to renegotiate terms in case you want to broaden the
scope of use at a later date.
he following items are but a few of the issues you need to consider
when negotiating for rights to use preexisting content:
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
How will the content be delivered? If you limit yourself to
CD-ROMs or DVDs, for example, you may not be able to distribute
your product over the Internet without renegotiation.
Is the license for a set period of time?
Is the license exclusive or nonexclusive? (In an exclusive use arrangement, no one else would be able to use the material in the manner
stipulated.)
Where will your product be distributed? here may be diferent rates
for domestic and international distribution.
Do you intend to use the material in its entirety, or just a portion
of it?
What rights do you need? You need to be sure you have the right to
reproduce and distribute the material. In addition, you may wish to
use the material in promotions for your product.
What kind of credit line or end-credits might the content owner
require you to display?
Does the content owner have the authority to assign rights to you?
It is important to ensure you will not be held liable if a third party
later sues for copyright infringement.
Do you need to obtain any additional rights to use the content? For
example, if you use a clip from a movie, do you need to get separate
releases from actors appearing in the clip or from the director or
producer of the movie?
Will the copyright owner receive remuneration for the license? If so,
what form will it take? A one-time fee? Royalty? Or a simple credit
attribution?
In what format do you wish to receive the content? Specifying formats is particularly important with video dubbed from a master.
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
Derivative Works Any text taken verbatim, or any image or music perfectly copied, clearly requires permission from its owner to incorporate it
into your work. But there are some other, less clear-cut issues. For example,
as a starter for your work, you may wish to incorporate but a tiny portion of
an image owned by someone else, altering the image until the original is no
longer recognizable. Is this legal? Indeed, how much of the original must
you change before the product becomes yours or remains a derivative
work? here are no simple answers to these tough questions.
Figure 11-1 shows an original photograph taken by Mark Newman,
along with some artwork derived from it. Newman sold certain rights to
21st Century Media, which packages and sells assortments of stock photographs to computer graphics and multimedia developers on the Web and
as CD-ROMs. he CD-ROM product contains these instructions:
You may make copies of the digitized images contained on the Product
for use in advertisements, public or private presentations, business
communications, multimedia presentations, and other uses as long as
the images are not used to create a product for sale. For example, you
may not use the images to create calendars, posters, greeting cards, or
books of image collections for sale. You may not use, in whole or in
part, or alter a digitized image in any manner for pornographic use.
Figure 11-1 The original photograph by
Mark Newman was clipped and manipulated
for use in a multimedia project. Who owns
the resulting image?
Suppose, however, that the image in Figure 11-1 were scanned from
the pages of National Geographic or Time—what then? If you change
51 percent of the pixels, is the image yours? hese questions of ownership
will undoubtedly be resolved eventually in the courts.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
here is a serious issue facing
multimedia developers.
Now that they have tools
to creatively modify things,
how much of someone else’s
image, music, or video clip
needs to be modiied before
ownership changes? his is
up for grabs. here is a law
called “fair use,” which comes
into play in a very limited
way here. But I think there
needs to be a law called
“fair modiication.”
Trip Hawkins, Founder,
Electronic Arts
Use of images, sounds, and other resources from stock houses such as
PhotoDisc or Index Stock Photography is perhaps the safest way to go,
because ownership and your rights to use the material are clearly stated.
WARNING Beware of clip media claiming to be public domain (where no
copyrights apply) that include sounds from popular television shows or motion
pictures.
Permissions Permission must also be obtained to use copyrighted text.
Sample language follows for requesting permission to reprint copyrighted
text material and sample terms that you might expect from the copyright
owner. Such a request might look like:
Dear Sirs:
I am currently producing a computer-based multimedia presentation with a working title of (Title). My publisher is (Publisher,
Publisher’s Address). he anticipated completion date of the work
is (Month/Year).
It will be used for (Use).
his letter is to request your permission to incorporate into this work
a brief passage from: (Title, Author, Edition, ISBN, Page).
he text I wish to reproduce is: (Text).
Please process this request at your earliest convenience and use this
letter or your own form to return your approval by mail or fax to:
(Your Name/Address).
he undersigned, having full authority, hereby grants permission to
(Your Name) to copy and reproduce the referenced text for use in the
work cited above.
Signed:_______________________________
Here are some typical terms you might expect to receive from a large
publishing company:
1. To give full credit in every copy printed, on the copyright page or as a
footnote on the page on which the quotation begins, or if in a magazine or
a newspaper, on the irst page of each quotation covered by the permission,
exactly as “Reprinted with the permission of (Publisher) from (Title) by
(Author). Copyright (Year) by (Publisher).”
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
2. To pay on publication of the work, or within 24 months of the date of
granting the permission, whichever is earlier, a fee of: $___________.
3. To forward one copy of the work and payment on publication to the
Permissions Department of (Publisher).
4. To make no deletions from, additions to, or changes in the text, without
the written approval of (Publisher).
5. hat the permission hereby granted applies only to the edition of the
work speciied in this agreement.
6. hat permission granted herein is nonexclusive and not transferable.
7. hat this permission applies, unless otherwise stated, solely to publication of the above-cited work in the English language in the United States,
its territories and dependencies and throughout the world. For translation
rights, apply to the International Rights Department of (Publisher).
8. hat unless the work is published within two years from the date of
the applicant’s signature (unless extended by written permission of
( Publisher)) or, if published, it remains out of print for a period of six
months, this permission shall automatically terminate.
9. his permission does not extend to any copyrighted material from other
sources which may be incorporated in the books in question, nor to any
illustrations or charts, nor to poetry, unless otherwise speciied.
10. hat the work containing our selection may be reproduced in Braille,
large type, and sound recordings provided no charge is made to the visually
handicapped.
11. hat unless the agreement is signed and returned within six months
from the date of issue, the permission shall automatically terminate.
Copyleft Antipodal to copyright is copyleft. While perhaps a cute play
on words, copyleft represents a serious and growing worldwide efort to
(as claimed in the preamble to the Free Art License) “grant the right
to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without infringing the author’s rights.” Efectively, copyleft uses the copyright laws themselves to remove traditional copyright protections from a work and ofer
that work with legal and unlimited permission clearly granted to freely
copy, modify, transform, or distribute the work.
In the software world, the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL)
is “intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of
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Multimedia: Making It Work
a program—to make sure it remains free software for all its users… “ From
the preamble to the GNU GPL:
he licenses for most software and other practical works are
designed to take away your freedom to share and change
the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is
intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program—to make sure it remains free software for
all its users. We, the Free Software Foundation, use the GNU
General Public License for most of our software; it applies also
to any other work released this way by its authors. You can apply
it to your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom,
not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make
sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source
code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know
you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying
you these rights or asking you to surrender the rights. herefore,
you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the
software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others.
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 3, 29 June 2007
Copyright © 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. <http://fsf.org/>
Responsibilities and provisos typically embedded in the copyleft
material that you might want to use in a multimedia project include your
obligation for “proper attribution of the work to its authors and access to
previous versions of the work when possible.” he philosophical notion is
of a “common work,” so if you change, improve, or modify someone else’s
creative product, you should politely allow others to change, improve, or
modify yours. Details of these copyleft licenses are available at:
http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en
www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
Ownership of Content
Created for a Project
In the process of developing your multimedia project, interfaces will be
designed, text written, lines of code programmed, and original artwork
illustrated with photographs, animations, musical scores, sound efects,
and video footage. Each of these elements is an original work. If you are
creating a project single-handedly for yourself, you own the copyright
outright. If other persons who are not your employees also contribute to
the inal product, they may own copyright of the element created by them
or may share joint ownership of the product unless they assign or license
their ownership rights to you. Never rely on an oral agreement for assignment of rights. You should make it your practice in every project to get
all assignments of rights or licensing terms in writing to protect everyone
involved. You and your best friend may collaborate on a project today
based on a handshake, but if there is a falling out that results in a dispute
over ownership, having the terms in writing will save both of you from an
expensive legal battle over who owns what.
he ownership of a project created by employees in the course of
their employment belongs solely to the employer if the work its the
requirements of a “work made for hire.” To meet the deinition of a work
made for hire, several factors must be weighed to determine whether the
individual is legally an employee or an independent contractor. Among
these factors are where the work is done, the relationship between the
parties, and who provides the tools and equipment.
If the individual contributing to a project is not an employee, the
commissioned work must fall within one of the following “work made
for hire” categories: a contribution to a collective work, a work that
is part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, a translation, a
supplementary work, a compilation, an instructional text, a test, answer
material for a test, or an atlas (1976 Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 201(b)).
Even if the work falls within one of these categories, be sure to get an
agreement in writing from every individual contributing to the work
that it is being created as a work for hire. Figures 11-2 and 11-3 ofer
sample contracts with employees and contractors to precisely specify
ownership issues.
343
344
Multimedia: Making It Work
PROPRIETARY INFORMATION AND INVENTIONS AGREEMENT
NOTICE:
This agreement does not apply to an invention which qualifies fully under the provisions of Section 2870 of the Labor Code
of California as an invention for which no equipment, supplies, facility, or trade secret information of (Company) was used and
which was developed entirely on the employee’s own time, and (a) which does not relate (1) to the business of (Company) or
(2) to (Company’s) actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development, or (b) which does not result from any work
performed by the employee for (Company).
Employee’s Name _____________________________________________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________________________________________________
Date of Hire ______________
In consideration of my employment by (Company) or any of its subsidiary or affiliated companies (all called “the Company”)
and the compensation paid me by the Company, I agree as follows:
1. I understand that my employment results in a confidential relationship between myself and the Company. It is expected
that I will receive, during and for purposes of my employment, information about the Company’s products, processes, business, plans, research programs, and like Company information (all called “the Company business”), which information is the
property of the Company. I may also conceive of or develop ideas and inventions related to the Company business during or
for purposes of my employment. The information received from the Company and information which I conceive or develop
pertaining to the Company business are the sole property of the Company and are valuable trade secrets of the Company.
I agree to preserve their value as Company property, by complying with the following requirements.
2. Except as required in the course of my employment, I shall not disclose to anyone or use at any time, either during or after
my employment, any information about the Company business which is either received from the Company or conceived or
developed by me, unless I have the prior written consent of the Company.
3. I agree to disclose promptly to the Company all inventions, ideas or conceptions, developments, and improvements (whether
or not patentable or subject to copyright) which are made or conceived by me, either alone or together with others, during
or as a result of my employment, provided that they pertain to the Company business. I will keep complete records of such
matter and will and hereby do assign such matter to the Company, whether or not it has been tested or reduced to practice.
Included are all data processing communications, computer software systems, programs, and procedures, which pertain to the
Company business. All such records are and shall be the property of the Company alone.
4. Upon request of the Company, either during or after my employment, I will assist in applying for Letters Patent, or for copyright or Inventors Certificate or other appropriate legal form, on all such Inventions and Ideas, in this and in foreign countries,
and will execute all papers necessary thereto, including assignments as may be requested by the Company, without further
compensation to me. Such applications shall be filed at the expense of and under the control of the Company.
5. All unpublished data and information relating to the Company business, whether reduced to writing or not, are understood
and agreed to be confidential and the sole property of the Company.This extends to all confidential information or data I may
receive from or about any of the Company’s licensees, customers, or others with whom the Company has a business relationship. I will maintain all such information in confidence and not use it other than as expressly requested by the Company, either
during or after my employment with the Company, unless and until such information is published without fault on my part.
6. Upon termination of my employment, I will surrender all records and material relating to the Company business.
Figure 11-2
Sample employer/
employee agreement covering
intellectual property and inventions;
consult an attorney
when preparing
your own legal
document.
7. I am aware of no prior obligations which would prevent my compliance with the terms and spirit of this agreement.
8. This agreement shall be binding upon me and my heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns. The Company shall have the
right to assign this agreement to any successor to the business in which I am employed.
Signed at ____________________________________________________________ , on ___________________, 20_______
Employee (Signature)
Witness (Signature)
(Address of Witness)
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
345
Confidential
(Date) (Name and Address of Consultant)
Dear (Consultant): This document, when accepted and agreed to by you, will confirm our mutual understanding and agreement concerning your engagement as an independent contractor to render consulting services to (Employer Name).
You will be engaged as an independent contractor to provide such advice, consultation, and other assistance as may, from time
to time, be requested by (Employer Name) in furtherance of (Employer Name)’s business in general and particularly for:
(General Statement of Scope of Work)
During the term of this Consulting Agreement, you agree to provide consulting services to (Employer Name), on the terms
and conditions contained in Attachment A, “Description of Services and Reimbursement.” Twice monthly you will submit
a statement, in a form satisfactory to (Employer Name), setting forth the milestone reached and any authorized expenses
incurred to be reimbursed by (Employer Name). Payment will be made according to the schedule in Attachment A.
The consulting services that you will provide are to be rendered at such times and at such places as are mutually agreed
upon by (Employer Name) and you.You agree that (Employer Name) shall own all intellectual property rights, including but
not limited to copyrights, patents, trade secrets, and trademarks in any and all products of your work within the scope of
this Agreement. Said products will be copyrighted by (Employer Name) or in such other name as (Employer Name) may
designate.You further agree that any work provided hereunder shall be considered “work made for hire” within the meaning of 17 U.S.C. 2201(b). However, (Employer Name) will give proper credit to you in a manner to be mutually agreed upon
as appropriate to the creative direction of the work.
In the performance of the consulting services herein contemplated, you are, and shall be deemed to be for all purposes,
an independent contractor (and not an employee or agent of (Employer Name)) under any and all laws, whether existing
or future, including without limitation, Social Security laws, state unemployment insurance laws, withholding tax laws, and
the payments and reports of any taxes and/or contributions under such laws. You will not be entitled to participate in any
employee benefits accruing to employees of (Employer Name).You will not be authorized to make any material representation, contract, or commitment on behalf of (Employer Name).
You agree to comply with applicable laws, rules, and regulations in respect to self-employment, including without limitation, the
payment of all taxes required, and you agree to furnish (Employer Name) evidence of the payment of such taxes if requested.
In addition, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold (Employer Name) harmless against all losses, liabilities, claims, demands,
actions and/or proceedings, and all costs and expenses in connection therewith, including attorney’s fees, arising out of your
failure to comply with this paragraph. The term of this Consulting Agreement shall be for the period of time described in
Attachment A, subject to the following limitations: Upon five (5) days written notice, either you or (Employer Name) may
terminate this Consulting Agreement. Such termination shall be effective at the conclusion of said five-day period.
This Consulting Agreement shall terminate on your death.
Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, (Employer Name) may, without liability, terminate this Consulting Agreement for cause at any time, and without notice, and thereafter (Employer Name)’s obligations hereunder shall cease and
terminate. The term “cause” shall mean, by way of example, but not by way of limitation:
Misappropriating funds or property of (Employer Name);
Attempting to obtain any personal profit from any transaction related to THIS consulting work which is adverse to the
interest of (Employer Name);
Unreasonable neglect or refusal to perform the consulting services agreed to be performed by you under this Consulting
Agreement;
Being convicted of a felony;
Being adjudicated a bankrupt; or
A breach of any of the other provisions of this Consulting Agreement.
Upon termination of this Consulting Agreement, for any reason, you will be paid your consulting fee on a pro rata basis, and
you will be reimbursed for authorized expenses, to and including the effective date of such termination.
Figure 11-3
Sample employer/
consultant agreement in the form
of a letter; hire an
attorney when
preparing your own
legal documents.
346
Multimedia: Making It Work
You agree to hold all Confidential Information in trust and confidence for (Employer Name), and except as may be authorized by (Employer Name) in writing, you shall not disclose to any person, and you shall take such reasonable precautions
as may be necessary to prevent the disclosure of, any Confidential Information at all times during and after the term of
this Consulting Agreement. For the purposes of this Consulting Agreement, “Confidential Information” shall mean all
information obtained by you, or disclosed to you by (Employer Name), at any time before or during the term hereof, which
relates to (Employer Name)’s or (Employer Name)’s clients’ past, present, and future research, development, and business
activities, and any other trade secrets, records, engineering notebooks, data, formulae, computer code, specifications, inventions, customer lists, and other proprietary information and data concerning (Employer Name) or any client, provided that
Confidential Information shall not include information that becomes part of the public knowledge or literature (not as a
result of any action or inaction on your part) either prior or subsequent to your receipt of such information.
Upon termination or expiration of this Consulting Agreement, you agree to return to (Employer Name) all written or
descriptive matter, including but not limited to drawings, blueprints, descriptions, drafts, computer code, computer files,
hardware, software, or other papers or documents that contain any Confidential Information.
(Employer Name) does not desire to receive information in confidence from you under this Consulting Agreement.
You represent and warrant that you are under no obligation or restriction nor will you assume any obligation or restriction which would in any way interfere or be inconsistent with the services to be furnished by you under this Consulting
Agreement. In that regard, this Consulting Agreement will in no way restrict you from freely entering into other similar
consulting agreements with other firms in the field as long as the provisions herein are honored.
(Employer Name) shall have sole discretion to make other consulting arrangements with other persons concerning any or
all of the consulting services to be rendered by you under this Consulting Agreement.
(Employer Name) acknowledges and understands that he is the author of the work you are hired to consult on and that
he is therefore responsible for its contents. In the event of a third party action against (Employer Name), (Employer Name)
agrees to indemnify and hold you harmless if you are made a party to such action; provided however that (Employer Name)
shall have no such responsibility to you if such suit arises due to your misconduct or gross negligence. You promise to
provide (Employer Name) with all reasonable cooperation and assistance in any such action or proceedings.
If any action at law is necessary to enforce or interpret the terms of this Consulting Agreement, the prevailing party shall
be entitled to reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs, and necessary disbursements, in addition to any other relief to which such
party shall be entitled.
This letter shall constitute the entire agreement between the parties hereto with respect to the subject matter hereof.
In the event of any unresolved dispute in respect thereof, the matter shall be submitted to arbitration in accordance with
the rules and regulations of the American Arbitration Association, and the decision of the arbitrator(s) shall be final and
binding on both parties hereto.
The validity of this Consulting Agreement and any of its terms and conditions, as well as the rights and duties of the parties
hereunder, shall be interpreted and construed pursuant to and in accordance with the laws of the State of California.
(Employer Name)
(Employer Signature)
Accepted and agreed to this ____ day of ________, 20__.
Figure 11-3
Sample employer/
consultant agreement in the form
of a letter; hire an
attorney when
preparing your own
legal documents.
(Continued)
Consultant’s Signature: ________________________
Consultant’s Social Security Number or EIN: ___________
------------Attachment A to the Consulting Agreement of (Date) between (Employer Name) and (Consultant)
Description of Services and Reimbursement
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
he copyright ownership of works created in whole or in part by
persons who fall under the deinition of independent contractor may
belong to that contractor unless the work is specially ordered or commissioned for use and qualiies as a work made for hire, in which case the
copyright belongs to the entity commissioning the work.
In late April 1997, Bruce Lehman, Commissioner of Patents and
Trademarks, publicly stated that the Proposed Guidelines negotiated
by CONFU participants had failed to achieve consensus support. In
May 1997, at its third “inal” meeting in Washington, D.C., CONFU
participants concurred. None of the Proposed Guidelines would
survive the comment and endorsement process that ended in May.
[Ninety-three] organizations representing for proit and nonproit
publishers, the software industry, government agencies, scholars and
scholarly societies, authors, artists, photographers and musicians,
the movie industry, public television, licensing collectives, libraries,
museums, universities and colleges spent untold amounts of money
and more than two and a half years of their time and their energy to
ind agreement on the scope of fair use in various electronic contexts.
Now it seems that not enough of their constituents and in some cases,
not even the participants themselves, agreed with the result to qualify
the Proposed Guidelines as consensus documents. Forgive the overgeneralization, but users thought the Guidelines were over-restrictive,
and copyright owners thought they were giving away too much.
From the web site of the Conference on Fair Use,
an excellent resource and discussion area for gnarly copyright law issues:
www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/confu.htm
A copyright can belong to a single individual or entity, or it may be
shared jointly by several entities. Make sure that copyright ownership issues
have been resolved, in writing, before people contribute to your project.
Acquiring Talent
After you have tested everybody you know and you still have vacant seats
in your project, you may need to turn to professional talent. Getting the
perfect actor, model, or narrator’s voice is critical. You don’t want to settle
for a voice or an actor who is not quite polished or is ill suited to the part,
or your whole project may have an amateurish feel.
347
Partnerships often inish in
quarrels; but I was happy
in this, that mine were
all carried on and ended
amicably, owing, I think, a
good deal to the precaution of having very explicitly settled, in our articles,
everything to be done by or
expected from each partner,
so that there was nothing to
dispute, which precaution I
would therefore recommend
to all who enter into partnerships; for whatever esteem
partners may have for, and
conidence in each other at
the time of the contract, little
jealousies and disgusts may
arise, with ideas of inequality
in the care and burden of
the business, etc., which are
attended often with breach
of friendship and of the
connection, perhaps with
lawsuits and other disagreeable consequences.
From the Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin (circa 1784)
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Professional voice-over talents and actors in the United States usually belong to a union or guild, either AFTRA (American Federation of
Television and Radio Artists) or SAG (Screen Actors Guild). hey are
usually represented by a talent agent or agency that you can ind in the
yellow pages.
First Person
We put out a call for a multimedia
acting job (male, mid-30s, credible
voice, earnest smile), and 18 men
showed up for tryouts at a local
studio—17 were nonunion and
1 belonged to AFTRA. We videotaped each applicant as he read a
prepared script, chatted with all
of them, and asked them to walk
around and jump up and down.
The best choice by far, we thought
at the end of a long day, was Dave
Kazanjian, the union member.
“Oooh,” we said to ourselves, “real
union talent! This is going to cost
us.” So we got together with the client and ran tapes of half a dozen of
the better actors trying out, without
saying which one was our favorite.
The client’s choice was the same as
ours, because Dave was very polished and professional and simply
perfect for the part. Paying unionscale wages to the actor would
double what we had estimated in
our original budget, and we had
naively assumed we could quickly
and easily ind the right talent from
the nonunion pool. We ran the new
numbers past the client, implying
that the second-choice actor was
more afordable, even if he wasn’t
quite perfect. Then we showed
Dave’s clip next to the other guy,
and repeated it a few times, until
the diference was really apparent.
The comparison was persuasive,
and in the end, the client supported
the extra cost.
We all learned again that you get
what you pay for: Dave did a terriic
job. In future proposals, we used
union scale in estimating cost,
whether we hired a union actor
or not.
Locating the Professionals You Need
Before you can safely put a professional in front of a camera or a microphone, you have to ind the talent irst and then deal with hiring and union
contracts.
Begin by calling a talent agency and explain what you need. he
agency will probably suggest several clients who might it your needs and
send you to their web site for video or audio samples of the actors’ work.
After reviewing the samples, you can arrange auditions of the best candidates, at your oice or at a studio. You can also get in touch with several
agencies and put out a casting call for screen or audio auditions. Furthermore, you are not limited to using union talent, and if your call is posted
on bulletin boards in public places (in the theater department of a local
university, for example), you may ind yourself with many applicants, both
union and nonunion, who are eager for the work.
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
TIP
If you run your own audition, be sure you are organized for it. You will need
sign-up sheets for names and phone numbers, a sample script for applicants to
read, a video camera or audio recorder, tracking sheets so that you can coordinate
actors’ names with their video or audio clips, and hospitable cofee and donuts.
Working with Union Contracts
he two unions, AFTRA and SAG, have similar contracts and terms for
minimum pay and beneits. AFTRA has approved an Interactive Media
Agreement to cover on- and of-camera performers on all interactive
media platforms. Figure 11-4 shows some AFTRA deinitions related to
interactive media.
DEFINITIONS
“Material”: includes all products (audio or visual) derived from the recordation of the live-action
performances of performers, whether or not such performances are incorporated into the final
version of the fully-edited Interactive Program produced hereunder by Producer.
“Interactive”: Interactive describes the attribute of products which enables the viewer to manipulate, affect or alter the presentation of the creative content of such product simultaneous with its
use by the viewer.
“Interactive Media” means: any media on which interactive product operates and through which
the user may interact with such product including but not limited to personal computers, games,
machines, arcade games, all CD-interactive machines and any and all analogous, similar or dissimilar
microprocessor-based units and the digitized, electronic or any other formats now known or hereinafter invented which may be utilized in connection therewith;
“Performers”: Persons whose performances are used as on or off-camera, including those who
speak, act, sing, or in any other manner perform as talent in material for Interactive Media.
he AFTRA and SAG contracts are lengthy and detailed. Both share
language and job descriptions (such as principal, voice-over performer,
extra, singer, and dancer). Also, both unions have approximately the same
wage scales for these jobs. Table 11-1 shows the Screen Actors Guild categories for interactive media work and rates. Of course, an actor can always
negotiate more than minimum wage.
NOTE
With the advent of “new media,” some interesting words have entered
the lexicon. “Webisodes” are short pieces of multimedia content distributed on
the Internet. “Mobisodes” are short pieces (often TV shows) delivered to mobile
phones. “Placeshifting” is watching or listening to multimedia at a place not originally intended. “Time-shifting” is watching or listening to content when the user
wants, not when the broadcaster distributes it. “Snack-size media” involves a brief
few minutes of content, not hours.
Figure 11-4 From the
AFTRA Interactive Media
Agreement (reprinted courtesy of AFTRA, 260 Madison
Avenue, New York, NY 10016)
349
350
Multimedia: Making It Work
On-Camera Performers:
Day Performers (including solo/duo singers)
$759.00
3-Day Performers (including solo/duo singers)
$1,920.00
Weekly Performers (including solo/duo singers)
$2,634.00
6-Day Overnight Location
$2,897.00
Group Singers 3–8 (4-hour day)
$720.00
Group Singers 9+ (4-hour day)
$628.00
Dancers:
Rehearsal Days Only
$446.00
Work Days (no rehearsal): Solo/Duo
$759.00
Work Days (no rehearsal): Group 3–8
$665.00
Work Days (no rehearsal): Group 9+
$581.00
Weekly Option (includes rehearsals): Solo/Duo
$2,440.00
Weekly Option (includes rehearsals): Group 3–8
$2,236.00
Weekly Option (includes rehearsals): Group 9 +
$2,034.00
Of-Camera Performers:
Day Performers (up to 3 voices/4-hour day)
$759.00
Additional Voices (one-third of Day Performer rate for each voice)
$253.00
Day Performer (1 voice/1 hour)
$379.50
Engaged for 6 to 10 Voices for a 6-hour day
$1,518.00
Singers (4-hour day): Solo/Duo
$759.00
Singers (4-hour day): Hourly Rate
$379.50
Singers (4-hour day): Group Singers 3–8
$402.00
Singers (4-hour day): Group Singers 9+
$349.00
Singers (4-hour day): Group Hourly Rate
$225.00
Background Actor Rates:
General Background Actor
$130.00
Special Ability Actors and Stand-ins
$163.00
Table 11-1 From the Screen Actors Guild, Interactive Media Rates 2008
Chapter 11 Content and Talent
If your talent needs are simple, you can usually get good contract
advice directly from the union representative in your area or from the
actors themselves. If your needs are elaborate or undeined, you may wish
to consult an attorney or agent who specializes in this area and who can
oversee the many required clauses and details of the contract.
Talent contracts are illed with quirky details and complicated formulas. Consider, for example, Article I.17.A.4(c)(i) of the AFTRA Interactive
Media Agreement, which reads:
If a solo or duo is called upon to step out of a group to sing up to ifteen (15) cumulative bars during a session, the solo/duo shall be paid
an adjustment of ifty percent (50%) of the solo/duo rate in addition
to the appropriate group rate for that day.
Although the concept of “stepping out” may be more in keeping with
an MTV video project than with your own multimedia work, you need to
keep an eye out for buried clauses that do apply to your project.
WARNING
If you create a multimedia product that incorporates union
talent under contract, you will be restricted to using the material only for its initial
primary use. Later, if you wish to spin of bits and pieces for other purposes (such
as a commercial or as part of a product for sale to the public), you must then
renegotiate with the talent and the union and pay for this expanded and supplemental use.
Acquiring Releases
A union talent contract explicitly states what rights you have to the
still and motion images and voices you make and use. If, however, your
talent is nonunion (a co-worker, perhaps, or a neighbor’s child, student
actor, waitress, or tugboat captain), be sure to require the person to sign
a release form. his form grants to you certain permissions and speciies the terms under which you can use the material you make during a
recording session.
Figure 11-5 is a sample release form that covers most situations in
a multimedia project and provides nearly perfect rights to the producer.
Because such forms are legal documents, always consult an attorney to be
sure that the speciic language of your own release document meets your
351
Sometimes it is very diicult to do certain things
because of previous rights
that have been given out. For
example, not too long ago
I asked an executive from a
media company if it would
be possible to take some of
his ilm footage and put it
into a copyright library, to
have something available for
multimedia software developers to freely use in their
interactive products? He
said, “Well, we couldn’t use a
single frame of any ilm that
was ever shot by a director
who was a member of the
Directors Guild of America.”
he bottom line is that there
are so many rights attached
to so many of these things,
with so many diferent
people involved, that it is
very complicated even to
igure out if you have the
right to use it in any way, and
again that’s too bad because
again, that is just going to
slow us down.
Trip Hawkins,
Founder, Electronic Arts
352
Multimedia: Making It Work
requirements. For more about video and music releases and sample forms,
check out www.current.tv/make/resources.
WARNING Do not include any images or voices of people in your multimedia project—even if you yourself recorded and edited the material—unless you
have their written consent to use it; it is in the public domain; you are reporting it
as news, commentary, or parody (fair use); or it is work unarguably made for hire.
Release Form
This is a release and authorization to use the name, voice, sounds, image and likeness, and writings
of the undersigned (“Model”), as obtained in the photography / filming / video / audio session /
creative session taking place
____________________, at ____________________ (“the Session”), for commercial purposes by
____________________ and his respective successors and assigns (collectively, “Producer”).
For valuable consideration, Model hereby authorizes the unlimited use in perpetuity by Producer of
all recorded images, likenesses, voice and recorded sounds, and writings of Model obtained during
the Session, and of Model’s name in connection with such use. Model grants producer the rights
to use such sounds, images, and likenesses in any and all media and forms now known or hereafter
devised throughout the universe without limitation as to territory or term, including but not limited
to advertising, literature, computer demonstrations, and packaging, whether in the form of photography, magnetic or electronic data storage, or any other form, both as obtained and as modified at
Producer’s sole discretion to suit business purposes of Producer. The compensation stated above
shall be the sole compensation for all such use, and no further compensation, including but not
limited to royalties, residuals, or use fees, shall be payable at any time.
Model further transfers and assigns all copyrights and all other rights in the recordings, sounds,
images and likeness, and writings obtained at the Session to Producer. Producer shall have the
right to register the copyright to these in the name of its choice and shall have the exclusive right
to dispose of these in any manner whatsoever. This agreement constitutes the sole, complete, and
exclusive agreement between Model and Producer.
Name:
Figure 11-5
Sample release form; consult
an attorney when preparing
your own legal document.
__________________________
SIGNATURE: _______________________________
Address: __________________________
SOCIAL SECURITY NO.: _____________________
__________________________
DATE: _____________________________________
Phone: __________________________
Chapter 11 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
■
Always make sure you have permission to use
copyrighted material, or you may ind yourself
being sued for copyright infringement. Works
come under copyright protection as soon as they
are created and presented in a ixed form. Owning
a copy of a work does not automatically entitle you
to reproduce the work. If the owner does not wish
to give up or sell ownership rights, however, you
may still be able to license the rights to use that
material.
■
Negotiating rights to use preexisting content
involves many factors. In some cases you can use
materials “derived” from another work, but this is
a gray area of copyright law.
■
In general, you own the copyright of works you
create for yourself. You also own the copyright of
works created by those whom you employ for the
purpose of creating the work. If the contributor is
not an employee, the work is not “work made for
hire,” and he or she has not assigned ownership to
you, then that contributor holds the copyright for
the work.
Acquire content for a project and identify the
beneits and drawbacks of various sources of
content such as clip art, stock libraries, and public
domain sources
■
■
■
Content is the information and material that
forms the heart of your project—or what your
project is about. Content can have both low and
high production value. You must always balance
the production value of your project against your
budget and the desired result.
Content acquisition can be one of the most
expensive and time-consuming tasks in organizing
a multimedia project. Be sure to specify in your
project plan the format and quality of content
and data to be supplied to you by third parties.
If you negotiate ownership or rights to someone
else’s content, be sure to get the advice of a skilled
copyright and contracts attorney.
Preexisting content can come from a variety
of sources. Clip art collections of photographs,
graphics, sounds, music, animation, and video
are relatively inexpensive, and you are generally
granted unlimited use. If your content needs are
more speciic or complex, a still photo library,
a sound library, or a stock footage house is a
good choice.
Discuss the process of identifying appropriate
talent for a production, and issues in using talent,
including union rules, contracts, and releases
■
Getting the perfect actor, model, or narrator’s
voice is critical. Professional talents and actors
in the United States often belong to AFTRA
or SAG and are represented by a talent agent
or agency. he agency will probably suggest
several clients who might it your needs. Arrange
auditions of the best candidates.
■
Check out talent contracts carefully, and think
about any limitations on future use. If your talent
is nonunion, be sure to have the person sign a
release form.
Discuss the concepts of copyright, public domain,
licensing, and derivative works, and determine
who owns the copyright for a work, depending on
who contracted the work and for what purpose
■
Some materials are in the public domain, meaning
you can use the material without a license. But
never assume a work is in the public domain, even
if it bears no copyright notice.
353
■ Key Terms
AFTRA (American Federation
of Television and Radio
Artists)(348)
audition (348)
casting call (348)
clip art (333)
content (330)
content acquisition (331)
copyleft (341)
copyright infringement (335)
copyright ownership (335)
copyright protection (335)
derivative work (339)
electronic rights (332)
fair use (335)
independent contractor (347)
license (337)
licensing agreement (338)
production value (330)
public domain (333)
rate card (338)
release form (351)
royalty (333)
SAG (Screen Actors Guild) (348)
sound library (333)
still photo library (333)
stock footage (333)
talent agency (348)
unlimited use (338)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. he information and material that forms the heart of your project—what your project is about—is
_______________.
2. Collections of media generally granted unlimited use are called _______________.
3. If a work’s copyright protection has expired and not been renewed, it is _______________.
4. he term for unauthorized use of copyrighted material is _____________.
5. Works come under _______________ as soon as they are created and presented in a ixed form.
6. Even if the owner of a work does not wish to give up or sell ownership rights, you may still be able to
_______________ the rights to use that material.
7. A standard document that lists licensing fees for diferent uses, formats, and markets is called a(n)
_______________.
8. If an artist takes another person’s work and creates a new work based on the original, such a work is said to
be _______________.
9. Professional talents and actors in the United States are usually represented by a(n) _______________.
10. If your talent is nonunion, be sure to require the person to sign a(n) _______________.
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. Which of the following is not content?
a. photographs
b. animations
c. video clips
d. the graphical user interface
e. the program’s programming code
354
2. he responsibility for ensuring that content
included in a product does not infringe on a
copyright belongs to:
a. the developer
b. the original creator
c. the product’s purchaser
d. the U.S. Copyright Oice
e. he Library of Congress
3. A source for free content in the public domain is:
a. a clip art collection
b. a stock photo/video library
c. a government agency
d. a publishing company
e. a television network
4. he legal privilege to publish a work in a
computer-based storage and delivery medium is
often called:
a. digital watermarks
b. electronic rights
c. computer publishing licenses
d. new media contracts
e. multimedia/Internet ownership
5. A disadvantage to using a clip art image from a
stock library might be:
a. it is available in high-resolution
b. you are usually granted unlimited use
c. you can alter the image for derivative works
d. it is easily downloadable
e. you do not have exclusive rights
6. If a work is in the public domain:
a. you can secure a free license through the
Public Domain Institute (PDI)
b. you can license it with a $25 processing fee
through the Library of Congress
c. you can use the material without a license or
permission
d. you can use the material through the public
domain contract, where some percentage
of the proit is disbursed to nonproit arts
organizations
e. it is publicly owned and thus cannot be
reproduced for any purpose
7. Which of the following issues might you consider
when negotiating for rights to use preexisting
content?
a. how the content will be delivered
b. the license’s period of time
c. how the owner or artist will be credited
d. whether the copyright owner will receive
remuneration for the license
e. all of the above
8. Works come under copyright protection:
a. as soon as they have been submitted to the
U.S. Copyright Oice
b. as soon as a notice is published in the legal
notices of a local newspaper
c. as soon as they are notarized by a notary
public
d. as soon as they are created and presented in
a ixed form
e. as soon as the original idea, concept,
drawing, draft, or intent is communicated to
someone else
9. Owning a work entitles you to reproduce that
work if:
a. you have purchased the work and possess a
legal bill of sale
b. you have the permission of the copyright
owner
c. the work is an original, unreproduced work
that has not been previously copied
d. the work’s value is less than $100
e. you have a really good lawyer
10. Which of the following are included in the
guidelines for creating a work derived in part
from another person’s work?
a. here are no clear-cut guidelines.
b. Less than 10 percent of the original work
was used.
c. Using the work does not impact the sales or
value of the original work.
d. he derivative work is not clearly
recognizable as the original work.
e. he derivative work is in a diferent medium
from the original.
11. In general, you may legally use a work in a
project if:
a. it has a digital approval code
b. you paid someone to create it for you
c. the work contains no copyright information
d. it came from the school library
e. you got it of the Internet
355
12. Which of the following unions deals with acting
and talent?
a. AFTRA
b. IBEW
c. AFL-CIO
d. AFSCME
e. CIA
13. In general, if you create a multimedia product that
incorporates union talent under contract, you:
a. will have unlimited rights across all media
b. can use the material only in related media
(such as Web/CD, newspaper/magazine,
television/radio)
c. will be required to pay royalties
d. will have rights to the talent’s irstborn
children
e. will be able to use the material only for its
initial primary use
14. If you use nonunion talent, you:
a. probably don’t need to worry about getting
a release
b. should require the person to sign a
release form
c. need to notify the local union representative
d. must state so plainly in the project’s credits
e. must pay a surcharge to the local union
15. You do not need to worry about having someone’s
written consent to use his or her image or voice
in your production if:
a. it was already used in the National Enquirer
b. the subject is at least a irst cousin
c. it is work product made for hire
d. the subject is younger than 18 years old
e. you are recording a public event
■ Essay Quiz
1. List ten diferent kinds of content. Try to think of as many diferent variations as you can. List a high
production value and low production value example of each.
2. You are assigned to create a CD-ROM on white-water rafting for a company in West Virginia. he
product is going to be sent to subscribers of Outside magazine. his magazine’s readership has a high level
of disposable income. Discuss the creative process you might go through to determine the content you will
use in this project. Where will you get it? Will you use clip art? Public domain content? Will you produce
new materials? What will the production values be? How will you justify the expense? What talent will
you need for the project? Discuss how you will select the talent (on-screen versus voice-over, age, sex,
ethnicity, etc.).
3. You are assigned to create a web site for a town’s nonproit historical society. Discuss the creative process
you might go through to determine the content you will use in this project. Where will you get it? Will
you use clip art? Public domain content? Will you produce new materials? What will the production values
be? How will you justify the expense?
4. List ive issues related to the rights to license and use someone else’s work. Discuss how these issues afect
the scope of your project. Will they afect the number of units you may distribute or where, when, and
how you may distribute your project? Discuss the advantages and problems associated with hiring union,
nonunion, and nonprofessional talent for a production. What factors would afect this decision?
356
Lab Projects
■Project 11.1
Go online and locate three stock photo and video sources. Download comps of a photograph and a video clip
from each of the sources. (Comps are small, low-resolution copies of the work that can be used for placement and
testing.) Compare the cost, quality, and range of the oferings.
■Project 11.2
Go online and locate three royalty-free music sources. Download two samples from each of the sources. Compare
the cost, quality, and range of the oferings.
■Project 11.3
Based on the research you did on the stock photo/video and royalty-free sources, estimate the total cost for
content to develop a promotional presentation for a client. Assume you will use three 30-second video clips at
about 320 × 240-pixel size, ten stock photographs at about 800 × 600 at 72 dpi resolution, and one approximately
three-minute audio clip to loop as background music. What are the high and low ranges for these projects?
■Project 11.4
Contact a creative services agency or talent agency and ask to see the sourcebook. Most large markets have at
least one creative sourcebook. hese sourcebooks, among other things, often include a number of head shots, or
pages with the face and vital statistics for agency talent in the area. Such sourcebooks also include illustrators,
photographers, and other creative artists. Select a person to act as a spokesperson, as well as an illustrator, for a
learning project. Photocopy the pages you select from the sourcebook. Justify your decision.
■Project 11.5
Look at the credits of three DVDs. Copy the wording used in crediting various contributors. Look at several
diferent web sites. Do they list credits? Why or why not?
357
358
CHAPTER 12
The Internet and
Multimedia
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Discuss the origins of the
Internet
■ Deine what a computer
network is and how Internet
domains, addresses, and
interconnections work
■ Discuss the current state of
multimedia on the Internet
and tools for the World
Wide Web
T
he material covered in this chapter is designed to give you an
overview of the Internet while describing particular features that may be
useful to you as a developer of multimedia for the World Wide Web. URLs
and other pointers are also included here to lead you to information for
obtaining, installing, and using these applications and utilities.
his chapter does not provide details about technology for connecting
and using the Internet, about setting up servers and hosts, about installing
and using applications, or what to do when you discover that you pressed
the wrong key and have broadcast the intimate details of last night’s hot
date to 532 friends.
Embarrassing yourself on the stage of the civilized world can be
avoided by education. Visit your local bookstore, where, along with the
work you are now reading, you may discover as many as a hundred helpful
volumes about all the simple and arcane aspects of the Internet. Buy one
or two of these and dig in. Or, if you are already connected to the Internet,
much of the documentation you may require can be found by suring the
Net itself. Use a search engine such as those listed here. Look particularly
for documents called FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), because they
contain answers.
AllheWeb.com
AltaVista
AOL Search
Ask
Ask Jeeves
Bing
Dogpile
Gigablast
Google
HotBot
www.alltheweb.com
www.altavista.com
http://search.aol.com
www.ask.com
www.askjeeves.com
www.bing.com
www.dogpile.com
www.gigablast.com
www.google.com
www.hotbot.com
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
Lycos
Open Directory
Yahoo
www.lycos.com
http://dmoz.org
www.yahoo.com
Search engines on the World Wide Web
Internet History
he Internet began as a research network funded by the Advanced
Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Defense Department,
when the irst node of the ARPANET was installed at the University of
California at Los Angeles in September 1969. By the mid-1970s, the
ARPANET “inter-network” embraced more than 30 universities, military
sites, and government contractors, and its user base expanded to include
the larger computer science research community. By 1983, the network
still consisted of merely several hundred computers on only a few local
area networks.
In 1985, the National Science Foundation (NSF) aligned with ARPA
to support a collaboration of supercomputing centers and computer science researchers across the ARPANET. he NSF also funded a program
for improving the backbone of the ARPANET, by increasing its bandwidth from 56 Kbps to T1 and then T3 (see “Connections” a little later
in the chapter for more information) and branching out with links to
international sites in Europe and the Far East.
In 1989, responsibility and management for the ARPANET was oicially passed from military interests to the academically oriented NSF,
and research organizations and universities (professors and students alike)
became increasingly heavy users of this ever-growing “ Internet.” Much of
the Internet’s etiquette and rules for behavior (such as for sending e-mail
and posting to newsgroups) was established during this time.
More and more private companies and organizations linked up to
the Internet, and by the mid-1990s, the Internet included connections
to more than 60 countries and more than 2 million host computers with
more than 15 million users worldwide. Commercial and business use
of the Internet was not permitted until 1992, but businesses have since
become its driving force. By 2001 there were 109,574,429 domain hosts
and 407.1 million users of the Internet, representing 6.71 percent of the
world’s population. By the beginning of 2010 (see Table 12-1), about one
out of every four people around the world (26.6 percent) had access to the
Internet, and more than 51 million domain names had been registered as
“dot coms.”
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Multimedia: Making It Work
World Regions
Africa
Population
(2009 Est.)
Internet Users
Dec. 31, 2000
Internet Users
Dec 31, 2009
Penetration
(% Population)
Growth
2000–2009
Users%
of Table
991,002,342
4,514,400
86,217,900
8.7%
1,809.8%
4.8%
3,808,070,503
114,304,000
764,435,900
20.1%
568.8%
42.4%
Europe
803,850,858
105,096,093
425,773,571
53.0%
305.1%
23.6%
Middle East
202,687,005
3,284,800
58,309,546
28.8%
1,675.1%
3.2%
North America
340,831,831
108,096,800
259,561,000
76.2%
140.1%
14.4%
Latin America/
Caribbean
586,662,468
18,068,919
186,922,050
31.9%
934.5%
10.4%
34,700,201
7,620,480
21,110,490
60.8%
177.0%
1.2%
6,767,805,208
360,985,492
1,802,330,457
26.6%
399.3%
100.0%
Asia
Oceania/
Australia
WORLD TOTAL
Table 12-1
World Internet Users and Population Stats (from www.internetworldstats.com)
First Person
When I was a kid, I took it for
granted that you could see a million stars in the summer sky, and
it wasn’t until much later that I
discovered the truth: only a paltry
few thousand stars are actually
visible to the naked eye from Earth.
While “millions” is a perfect number
for a ten-year-old’s perception of
an ininite universe, the term needs
deinition. For example, what does
“133 million users on the Internet”
really mean? The following exercise
might help: Start counting to a
million, incrementing by one every
second: (One) (Two) (Three) . . . . In
a minute, you will have counted
to 60; in an hour, to 3,600. In
277.77 hours, you will reach a
million—that’s 11.57 24-hour days
of nonstop counting, no pizza, no
beer. You could try for the Guinness
Book of Records, but you won’t stay
awake long enough!
Internetworking
In its simplest form, a network is a cluster of computers, with one
computer acting as a server to provide network services such as ile
transfer, e-mail, and document printing to the client computers or users
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).
hese LANs and WANs can also be connected to the Internet through a
server that provides both the necessary software for the Internet and the
physical data connection (usually a high-bandwidth telephone line, coaxial
cable TV line, or wireless). Individual computers not permanently part of
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
a network (such as a home computer or a laptop) can connect to one of
these Internet servers and, with proper identiication and onboard client
software, obtain an IP address on the Internet (see “IP Addresses and Data
Packets” later in the chapter).
Internet Addresses
Let’s say you get into a taxi at the train station in Trento, Italy, explain
in English or Spanish or German or French that you wish to go to the
Mozzi Hotel, and half an hour later you are let out of the car in a suburban
wood—you have an address problem. You will quickly discover, as you
return to the city in the back of a bricklayer’s lorry to report your missing
luggage and the cab driver, Mauro, who sped away in the rain, that you also
have a serious language problem.
If you know how addresses work and understand the syntax or language of the Internet, you will likely not get lost and will save much time
and expense during your adventures. You will also be able to employ shortcuts and workarounds.
Top-Level Domains
When the original ARPANET protocols for communicating among
computers were remade into the current scheme of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) in 1983, the Domain Name
System (DNS) was developed to rationally assign names and addresses to
computers linked to the Internet. Top-level domains (TLDs) were established as categories to accommodate all users of the Internet:
com
Commercial entities
edu
Degree-granting colleges and universities (other schools register in the country domain)
gov
U.S. federal government agencies (state and local agencies register in the country domain)
int
Organizations established by international treaties and international databases
mil
U.S. military
net
Computers belonging to network providers
org
Miscellaneous and non-government organizations
Two-letter
country codes
More than 240 countries and territories
In late 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) was set up to oversee the technical coordination of
the Domain Name System, which allows Internet addresses to be found
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Multimedia: Making It Work
by easy-to-remember names instead of one of 4.3 billion individual IP
numbers. In late 2000, ICANN approved seven additional TLDs:
Concerns about “rights” and
“ownership” of domains are
inappropriate. It is appropriate to be concerned about
“responsibilities” and “service”
to the community.
J. Postel, from the Network
Working Group RFC 1591,
March 1994
aero
Air-transport industry
biz
Businesses
coop
Cooperatives
info
Unrestricted use
museum
Museums
name
For registration by individuals
pro
Accountants, lawyers, and physicians
As a particular domain name is built up from the top-level domain,
it consists of diferent levels separated by a period (spoken as “dot”).
Since we read left to right, we tend to think irst.second.third, left to
right, but domain name levels are numbered right to left. Companies
such as Microsoft, Apple, and IBM have second-level domain addresses
that read microsoft.com, apple.com, and ibm.com—they are commercial (.com) operations with their second-level domain to the left of the
top-level “com” domain. Government (.gov) agencies such as the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service (a branch of the
U.S. Treasury Department), and the White House have addresses that
read fbi.gov, irs.ustreas.gov (note that the irs constitutes a third-level
address), and whitehouse.gov.
Second-Level Domains
Many second-level domains contain huge numbers of computers and
user accounts representing local, regional, and even international branches
as well as various internal business and management functions. So the
Internet addressing scheme provides for subdomains
that can contain even more subdomains. Like a inely
carved Russian matryoshka doll, individual workstations live at the epicenter of a cluster of domains.
Within the education (.edu) domain containing
hundreds of universities and colleges, for example, is
a second-level domain for Yale University called yale.
At that university are many schools and departments
(medicine, engineering, law, business, computer science, and so on), and each of these entities in turn
has departments and possibly subdepartments and many users. hese
departments operate one or even several servers for managing traic to
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
and from the many computers in their group and to the outside world. At
Yale, the server for the Computing and Information Systems Department
is named cis. It manages about 11,000 departmental accounts—so many
accounts that a cluster of three subsidiary servers was installed to deal
eiciently with the demand. hese subsidiary servers are named minerva,
morpheus, and mercury. hus, minerva lives in the cis domain, which lives
in the yale domain, which lives in the edu domain. Real people’s computers are networked to minerva. Other real people are connected to the
morpheus and mercury servers. To make things easy (exactly what computers are for), the mail system database at Yale maintains a master list of
all of its people. So, as far as the outside world is concerned, a professor’s
e-mail address can be simply irstname.lastname@yale.edu; the database
knows he or she is really connected to minerva so the mail is forwarded
to that correct inal address. In detailed e-mail headers, you may see the
complete destination address listed as well as names of the computers
through which your mail message may have been routed.
E-mail accounts are said to be “at” a domain (written with the @ sign).
here are never any blank spaces in an Internet e-mail address, and while
addresses on the Internet are normally case insensitive, conventional use
dictates using all lowercase: the Internet will ind tay@timestream.com,
TAY@TIMESTREAM.COM, and Tay@Timestream.Com to be the
same address.
The US Domain and Country Codes
he two-letter top-level US domain is based on political boundaries and
is used by federal, state, and local government agencies, high schools, technical/vocational schools, private schools, elementary schools, libraries, ire
and police departments, and regular citizens. Any computer in the United
States can be in the US domain. Some ictitious examples are as follows:
fs.fed.us
Federal
senate.state.pa.us
State
assembly.state.ny.us
State
mwra.state.ma.us
State
ci.wayland.mi.us
City
co.alameda.ca.us
County
ccsf.cc.ca.us
Public community college
appleton.lib.me.us
Public library
pps.k12.or.us
Public school
perkins.pvt.k12.ma.us
Private school
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Multimedia: Making It Work
NOTE
The Internet RFC 1480, http://rfc.net/rfc1480.html, describes the hierarchical rules for addresses in the US domain.
Two-letter country codes, based on the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) document ISO-3166, are used in the addresses of all
computers located outside the United States. Each country has an administrator who is responsible for organizing the naming hierarchy within that
country’s domain. Some countries use categories similar to com, edu, and
org. Others base their naming hierarchies on political boundaries, as in the
US country code.
schmidt@cage.rug.ac.be
Professor at University of Gent, Belgium
smythe@iqus.unl.edu.ar
Student at L.C.S.A, Argentina
smith@iskratel.si
Commercial account, Slovenia
smith@laughs.co.uk
Commercial account, United Kingdom
smithe@idsc.gov.eg
Student at Cairo University, Egypt
smithy@udcf.gla.ac.uk
Researcher at University of Glasgow, Scotland
tsmith@library.usyd.edu.au
Scholar at University of Sydney, Australia
TIP
For a list of all the two-letter country codes, see: www.iana.org/cctld/
cctld-whois.htm.
IP Addresses and Data Packets
When a stream of data is sent over the Internet by your computer, it is
irst broken down into packets by the Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP). Each packet includes the address of the receiving computer, a
sequence number (“this is packet #5”), error correction information, and
a small piece of your data. After a packet is created by TCP, the Internet
Protocol (IP) then takes over and actually sends the packet to its destination along a route that may include many other computers acting
as forwarders. TCP/IP is two important Internet protocols working in
concert.
he 32-bit address included in a data packet, the IP address, is the
“real” Internet address. It is made up of four numbers separated by periods, for example, 140.174.162.10. Some of these numbers are assigned by
Internet authorities, and some may be dynamically assigned by anInternet
service provider (ISP) when a computer logs on using a subscriber’s
account. here are domain name servers throughout the Internet whose
sole job is to quickly look up text-based domain name addresses in large
distributed databases, convert them into real IP addresses, and then return
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
365
them to you for insertion into your data packets. Every time you connect
to http://www.google.com or send mail to president@whitehouse.gov, the
domain name server is consulted and the destination address is converted
to numbers.
TIP
IP addresses and domain names can be used interchangeably. Thus, kona
.midcoast.com is the same Internet address as 69.39.100.10. There are occasional
problems with the Internet’s DNS servers, and by using the IP address, you may get
connected immediately. With a Ping utility, or using the “whois” function in Unix,
you can discover a domain’s IP address.
Connections
If your computer is connected to an existing network at an oice or
school, it is likely you are already connected to the Internet. If you are
an individual working from home, you will need a telephone dial-up
account or broadband cable, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wireless equipment to connect to the backbone (the ultra-high-bandwidth
underlying network operated by MCI, AT&T, Sprint, and other telecommunications companies) of the Internet through an Internet service
provider (ISP).
The Bandwidth Bottleneck
Bandwidth is how much data, expressed in bits per second (bps), you can
send from one computer to another in a given amount of time. he faster
your transmissions (or the greater the bandwidth of your connection), the
less time you will spend waiting for text, images, sounds, and animated
illustrations to upload or download from computer to computer, and the
more satisfaction you will have with your Internet experience. To think in
bytes per second, divide the rate by eight. Table 12-2 lists the bandwidth
of some common data transfer methods.
Type of Connection
Bandwidth
(in bits per second)
Without Compression
56K modem
56,000
Maximum analog modem speed for copper wires, (Dial-Up) data
compressed using V91 standard. Actual is about 48 Kbps.
ISDN
56,000 to 128,000
Integrated Services Digital Network basic services (128,000 bps if no
voice mixed in).
Frame relay
56,000 to 45,000,000
Dedicated service ofered by long-distance phone companies.
Table 12-2
Comment
Bandwidth of Typical Internet and Computer Connections (For more information visit www.cis.eku.edu/loy/cis300/
bandwidth.html.)
366
Multimedia: Making It Work
Type of Connection
Bandwidth
(in bits per second)
Without Compression
Ethernet-10
10,000,000
Networking hardware and protocol, commonly uses two twisted pairs
of copper wire.
T-1 (DS-1 in North
America)
1,544,000
Equal to 24 leased lines at 56 Kbps.
E-1 (DS-1 in Europe)
2,000,000
European equivalent of a T-1 connection.
DSL
1,500,000 to 9,000,000
Digital Subscriber Line service available in various technologies (HDSL,
SDSL, ADSL, VDSL, and RDSL) with difering data rates, operating distances, and ratios between downstream and upstream speeds.
Cable Modem
3,000,000 upload;
7,000,000 download
Even though copper coaxial TV cable can be used in a bidirectional
fashion, it was originally designed to carry limited signals in one
direction.
Wireless (802.11)
3,000,000 to
54,000,000
Radio connection in the radio frequency (RF) bands of 2.4 GHz (WiFi) or
5.8 GHz.
T-3 (D-3 in North
America)
45,000,000
Typical backbone speed of major ISPs in the United States (1996).
Fast Ethernet-100
100,000,000
Networking hardware and protocol, commonly uses two twisted pairs
of copper wire.
OC-3
155,000,000
Upgrade for ISPs in the United States (1997).
Gigabit Ethernet
1,000,000,000
Used for local network backbones; standard in many computers.
OC-48
2,400,000,000 (2.4
gigabits per second)
Typical speed for intercity iber-optic lines (called SONET or
Synchronous Optical Network).
10 Gigabit Ethernet
10,000,000,000 (10
gigabits per second)
Used for local network backbones.
OC-255
13,210,000,000 (13.21
gigabits per second)
Really fast iber-optic lines using SONET.
Comment
Table 12-2
Bandwidth of Typical Internet and Computer Connections (For more information visit www.cis.eku.edu/loy/cis300/
bandwidth.html.) (Continued)
he bottleneck at a typical user’s low-bandwidth modem connection
is the most serious impediment to sending multimedia across the Internet. At low bandwidth, a page of text (3,000 bytes) can take less than a
second to send, but an uncompressed 640 × 480, 8-bit/256-color image
(about 300,000 bytes) can take a few minutes; an uncompressed 640 × 480,
24-bit/16 million-color image (about 900,000 bytes) can take many minutes to send. Occasionally also, even though you may have a high-speed
connection, the server delivering your requested ile or content may be
“throttled down” while it manages many requests at once, and yours must
wait its turn.
To work within the constraints of bandwidth bottlenecks, multimedia
developers on the Internet have but a few options:
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
■
■
■
■
■
Compress data as tightly as possible (into ZIP or SIT or TAR iles)
before transmitting.
Require users to download data only once; then store the data in a local
hard disk cache (this is automatically managed by most browsers).
Design each multimedia element to be eiciently compact—don’t use
a greater color depth than is absolutely necessary or leave extra space
around the edges.
Design alternate low-bandwidth and high-bandwidth navigation
paths to accommodate all users.
Implement streaming methods that allow data to be transferred and
displayed incrementally as it comes in (without waiting for the entire
data ile to arrive).
Internet Services
To many users, the Internet means the World Wide Web. But the Web is
only the latest and most popular of services available today on the Internet.
E-mail; ile transfer; discussion groups and newsgroups; real-time chatting
by text, voice, and video; and the ability to log into remote computers are
common as well. Internet services are shown here.
Service
Purpose
ftp
For transferring iles between computers; can be anonymous or
password protected (from File Transfer Protocol)
gopher
For menus of material available on the Internet (seldom used)
http
For posting and reading documents (from the Hypertext Transfer
Protocol used by the World Wide Web)
https
For posting and reading encrypted (secure) documents
imap
For receiving electronic mail (from Internet Message Access Protocol)
irc
For real-time text messaging (from Internet Relay Chat)
mud
For real-time game playing (from MultiUser Dimension)
pop
For receiving electronic mail (from Post Oice Protocol)
rtsp
For streaming media control (from Real Time Streaming Protocol)
telnet
For logging on and working from remote computers
smtp
For sending mail (Simple Mail Transport Protocol)
usenet
For participating in discussion groups (from USErs NETwork)
Each Internet service is implemented on an Internet server by dedicated software known as a daemon. (Actually, daemons only exist on
Unix/Linux systems—on other systems, such as Windows, the services
may run as regular applications or background processes.) Daemons are
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Multimedia: Making It Work
agent programs that run in the background, waiting to act on requests from
the outside. In the case of the Internet, daemons support protocols such
as the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for the World Wide Web,
the Post Oice Protocol (POP) for e-mail, or the File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) for exchanging iles. You have probably noticed that the irst few
letters of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)—for example, http://www
.timestream.com/index.html—notify a server as to which daemon to bring
into play to satisfy a request. In many cases, the daemons for the Web, mail,
news, and FTP may run on completely diferent servers, each isolated by a
security irewall from other servers on a network.
FTP.ARL.MIL (Army Research Laboratory)
Bandwidth Information
ARL has multiple high-speed connections to several signiicant networks, providing excellent performance for most document transfers:
■ DREN
This site is a primary node in the Defense Research and Engineering Network
(DREN), which sports a variety of OC-12, OC-3, T-3, and T-1 communications links to other
U.S. Government facilities.
■ The Internet Backbone This site is connected to the Internet “backbone” at strategic
locations via a “cloud” of OC-12 ATM paths provisioned over AT&T’s nationwide DISC ATM
network: MAE-East in Washington, DC; FIX-West and MAE-West in San Francisco. The
Sprint NAP in Pensauken, NJ. The NAP in Chicago, IL. The “Giga-pop” in Washington state.
NIPRNET (nee MILNET) This site is gatewayed to a NIPRNET military Packet Switching
Node that has multiple T-1 trunks.
Moving 1 MByte of data over an OC-3 link takes about 0.1 seconds, if your end is up to it.
Moving 1 MByte of data over a T-3 link takes about 1 second, if your end is up to it.
Moving 1 MByte of data over a T-1 link takes about 8 seconds.
Moving 1 MByte of data over a 56 Kbps link takes about 3 minutes.
Moving 1 MByte of data over a 28.8 Kbps modem takes about 5 minutes.
Naturally, no single ile transfer ever gets the full bandwidth of these communications
lines, as they are a shared resource. These igures should help you make a lower-bound
estimate on how much time large ile transfers might take.
You are free to transfer large iles from this site at any time. Information seekers from all
domains are welcome to view this data. It is important that our guests understand that
this is an oicial U.S. Government System for unclassiied use only. Use of this system
constitutes consent to security testing and monitoring.
webmaster@arl.army.mil
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
MIME-Types
To work with multimedia on the Internet, you must work within the
requirements of the appropriate protocol, using recognizable documents
and formats. A voice attachment to an e-mail message, for example, must
be identiied by the Post Oice daemon for what it is, and then be transmitted with the correct coding to the receiving computer. he receiver
must have the proper software (and hardware) for decoding the information and playing it back. To identify the nature of the data transmitted
and, by inference, the purpose of that data, the Internet uses a standard
list of ilename extensions called Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME-types). Most browsers allow you to deine MIME-types
and map “helper apps” to the type for decoding and playing. For example,
with Netscape Navigator you can deine Adobe’s Acrobat iles (PDF iles)
as a MIME-type and select the Acrobat Reader as the player application.
hese are not just used by the e-mail daemon but, by convention, by
other Internet daemons, including the Web’s HTTP daemon. Perhaps
the most widely installed HTTP software for managing web pages is
the open-source application called Apache (www.apache.org). Table 12-3
shows a list of common MIME-types and their uses. (Note that many
come from the Unix world, where the Internet was born.) You can also
visit www.ile-ext.com for more information.
Extension
Type
Use
ai
application/postscript
PostScript program
aif
audio/x-aif
Audio
aifc
audio/x-aif
Audio
AIFF
audio/x-aif
Audio
aif
audio/x-aif
Audio
au
audio/basic
ULAW audio data
avi
video/x-msvideo
Microsoft video
bin
application/octet-stream
Binary executable
cpio
application/x-cpio
Unix CPIO archive
csh
application/x-csh
C shell program
dcr
application/director
Shockwave animation
dvi
application/x-dvi
TeX DVI data
eps
application/postscript
PostScript program
exe
application/octet-stream
Binary executable
Table 12-3
the Internet
Some Common MIME-Types Illustrate the Variety of Data Types and Formats Used on
369
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Extension
Type
Use
if
application/fractals
Fractal image format
lv
video/x-lv
Flash video
gif
image/gif
CompuServe image format
gtar
application/x-gtar
GNU tape archive
gz
encoding/x-gzip
GNU zip compressed data
hqx
application/mac-binhex40
Macintosh BinHex archive
htm
text/html
Hypertext Markup Language
html
text/html
Hypertext Markup Language
ief
image/ief
Image
jpe
image/jpeg
JPEG image
jpeg
image/jpeg
JPEG image
jpg
image/jpeg
JPEG image
latex
application/x-latex
LaTeX document
kmz
application/vnd.google-earth.kmz
Google Earth document
man
application/x-trof-man
Unix manual page
me
application/x-trof-me
TROFF document
mov
video/quicktime
QuickTime video
movie
video/x-sgi-movie
SGI video
mpe
video/mpeg
MPEG video
mpeg
video/mpeg
MPEG video
mpg
video/mpeg
MPEG video
ms
application/x-trof-ms
TROFF document
pbm
image/x-portable-bitmap
PBM image
pgm
image/x-portable-graymap
PGM image
pnm
image/x-portable-anymap
PBM image
ppm
image/x-portable-pixmap
PPM image
ps
application/postscript
PostScript program
qt
video/quicktime
QuickTime video
ra
audio/x-pn-realaudio
RealAudio sound
ram
audio/x-pn-realaudio
RealAudio sound
ras
image/x-cmu-raster
CMU raster image
rgb
image/x-rgb
RGB image
rof
application/x-trof
TROFF document
rtf
application/rtf
Rich Text Format
Table 12-3
Some Common MIME-Types Illustrate the Variety of Data Types and Formats Used on
the Internet (Continued)
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
Extension
Type
Use
sh
application/x-sh
Bourne shell program
shar
application/x-shar
Unix shell archive
sit
application/x-stuit
Macintosh archive
snd
audio/basic
ULAW audio data
swf
application/ x-shockwave-lash
Flash document
t
application/x-trof
TROFF document
tar
application/x-tar
Unix tape archive
tcl
application/x-tcl
TCL program
tex
application/x-tex
TeX document
texi
application/x-texinfo
GNU TeXinfo document
texinfo
application/x-texinfo
GNU TeXinfo document
text
text/plain
Plain text
tif
image/tif
TIFF image
tif
image/tif
TIFF image
tr
application/x-trof
TROFF document
txt
text/plain
Plain text
vox
audio
VoxWare
wav
audio/x-wav
WAV audio
xbm
image/x-xbitmap
X bitmap
xpm
image/x-xpixmap
X pixmap
xwd
image/x-xwindowdump
X Window dump image
z
encoding/x-compress
Compressed data
zip
application/x-zip-compressed
Zip compressed data
Table 12-3
Some Common MIME-Types Illustrate the Variety of Data Types and Formats Used on
the Internet (Continued)
Multimedia elements are typically saved and transmitted on the
Internet in the appropriate MIME-type format and are named with the
proper extension for that type. For example, Shockwave Flash animation
iles end in .swf; image iles end in .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .png; sound iles end
in .au, .wav, .aif, .mp3, or another conforming format; QuickTime and
other video clips end in .qt, .mov, mp4, or avi.
WARNING Because some MIME-types for multimedia data are new or
experimental, not all servers may recognize them. If you have problems with a
multimedia ile, check with your Internet service provider to be sure your server
can serve “experimental” MIME-types. Some ISPs will not install the requisite, and
often costly, server software for high-bandwidth streaming MIME-types.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
The World Wide Web and HTML
he Semantic Web is an
extension of the current
Web in which information is given well-deined
meaning, enabling computers
and people to work in better
cooperation. he W3C
Semantic Web Activity, in
collaboration with a large
number of researchers and
industrial partners, is tasked
with deining standards and
technologies that allow data
on the Web to be deined
and linked in a way that it
can be used for more efective discovery, automation,
integration, and reuse across
applications. he Web will
reach its full potential when
it becomes an environment
where data can be shared and
processed by automated tools
as well as by people.
Tim Berners-Lee
and Eric Miller
from he Semantic Web Lifts Off
he World Wide Web (www.w3.org/) started in 1989 at the European
Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) as a “distributed collaborative hypermedia information system.” It was designed by Tim Berners-Lee as a
protocol for linking a multiplicity of documents located on computers
anywhere within the Internet. his new Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP) provided rules for a simple transaction between two computers
on the Internet consisting of (1) establishing a connection, (2) requesting
that a document be sent, (3) sending the document, and (4) closing the
connection. It also required a simple document format called Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) for presenting structured text mixed with
inline images.
An HTML document could contain hyperlinks or anchors that
referred to other similar documents. With browser software, users could
then click on designated areas of hot text in one document and jump to
another, which itself might have more hot text pointing to yet other documents. Users could surf from document to document across the Web, with
HTML as the underlying buoyant framework. Berners-Lee is currently
developing the next evolution, the Semantic Web, which “provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries.” Visit www.w3.org/2001/sw/
for more.
Dynamic Web Pages and XML
HTML is ine for building and delivering uncomplicated static web pages.
But you will need other tools and programming know-how to deliver
dynamic pages that are built on the ly from text, graphics, animations, and
information contained in databases or documents. JavaScript and programs
written in Java may be inserted into HTML pages to perform special functions and tasks that go beyond the vanilla abilities of HTML—for mouse
rollovers, window control, and custom animations.
Cold Fusion and PHP are applications running side by side with
a web server like Apache; they scan an outgoing web page for special
commands and directives, usually embedded in special tags. If they ind a
special tag in the page, the software will do what the tag tells it to do, like
“get today’s date and put it into that table cell” or “search this database for
all customers with balances greater than $100 and, after alphabetizing,
put that list into a table on the web page being served.” Working handin-hand with these application servers, Oracle, Sybase, and mySQL ofer
software to manage Structured Query Language (SQL) databases that
may contain not only text but also graphics and multimedia resources
like sounds and video clips. In concert with HTML, these tools provide
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
the power to do real work and perform real tasks within the
context of the World Wide Web.
Flash animations, Director applications, and RunRev
stacks can also be called from within HTML pages. hese
multimedia mini-applications, often programmed by Web
developers, use a browser plug-in to display the action and
perform tasks such as playing a sound, showing a video, or
calculating a date. As with Cold Fusion and PHP, both use
underlying programming languages. With the introduction
of HTML5, browsers can play multimedia elements such as
sound, animations, and video without requiring special plugins or software.
XML (Extensible Markup Language) goes beyond
HTML—it is the next evolutionary step in the development
of the Internet for formatting and delivering web pages using
styles. Unlike HTML, you can create your own tags in XML
to describe exactly what the data means, and you can get that
data from anywhere on the Web. In XML, you can build a
set of tags like
<fruit>
<type>Tomato</type>
<source>California</source>
373
Flash was created during the PC era—for
PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand
why they want to push it beyond PCs. But
the mobile era is about low power devices,
touch interfaces and open web standards—
all areas where Flash falls short.
he avalanche of media outlets ofering
their content for Apple’s mobile devices
demonstrates that Flash is no longer
necessary to watch video or consume any
kind of web content. And the 200,000
apps on Apple’s App Store proves that
Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands
of developers to create graphically rich
applications, including games.
New open standards created in the
mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on
mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps
Adobe should focus more on creating
great HTML5 tools for the future, and
less on criticizing Apple for leaving
the past behind.
<price>$.64</price>
</fruit>
and your XML document, according to your instructions, will
ind the information to put into the proper place on the web
page in the formatting style you assign. For example, with
XML styles, you can declare that all items within the <price>
tag will be displayed in boldface Helvetica type.
TIP For more information about XML see:
www.xml.org
www.xml.com
In development as a technique to deliver more pleasing
web experiences, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
uses a combination of XML, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
for marking up and styling information), and JavaScript to
generate dynamic displays and allow user interaction within
a web browser.
Steve Jobs,
CEO Apple Computer, Inc.,
April, 2010
he Web is becoming much more than
a static library. Increasingly, users are
accessing the Web for “web pages” that
aren’t actually on the shelves. Instead, the
pages are generated dynamically from
information available to the web server.
hat information can come from databases on the web server, from the site
owner’s enterprise databases, or even
from other web sites.
Charles Goldfarb,
who invented SGML
(the parent language of HTML and XML)
and coined the term “markup language”
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Multimedia on the Web
During the coming years, most multimedia experiences on the Internet
will occur on the World Wide Web, programmed within the constraints
of HTML, then stretched by the enhanced capabilities provided by XML,
Java, JavaScript, AJAX, and special plug-ins like Flash and QuickTime
to enable browsers to exceed their limits. hese tools are used to build
“Web 2.0” sites where there is collaboration and information sharing such
as seen in blogs, on wikis, and at social networking sites such as Facebook
and Twitter.
To design and make efective multimedia for this environment, developers need to understand not only how to create and edit the elements of
multimedia, but also how to deliver it for HTML browsers and plug-in/
player vehicles. Well-crafted, professionally rendered sites on the Web
include text, images, audio, and animation presented in a user-friendly
interface that balances the bandwidth deicit against user patience.
Inside the event horizon of the amazing World Wide Web explosion
are many uncertainties and unsolved challenges. he bandwidth deicit
will certainly be met with technology solutions that will reach the last
mile into homes and businesses. here is a terriic need for high-quality,
compelling content; multimedia developers and entrepreneurs will ill this
creative void.
Tools for the World Wide Web
In the late 1990s, multimedia plug-ins and commercial tools aimed at the
Web entered the marketplace at a furious pace, each competing for visibility and developer/user mind share in an increasingly noisy venue. In the
few years since the birth of the irst line-driven HTTP daemon in Switzerland, millions of web surfers had become hungry for “cool” enhancements to entertaining sites. Web site and page developers needed creative
tools to feed the surfers, while surfers needed browsers and the plug-ins
and players to make these cool multimedia enhancements work.
A combination of the explosion of these tools and user demand for
performance stresses the orderly development of the core HTML standard. Unable to evolve fast enough to satisfy the demand for features
(there are committees, international meetings, rational debates, comment
periods, and votes in the standards process), the HTML language is constantly being extended de facto by commercial interests. hese companies
regularly release new versions of web browsers containing tags (HTML
formatting elements) and features not yet formally approved. By the time
(measured in weeks!) millions of users have become dependent upon the
features of the new browser versions, the more carefully considered oicial speciication has no choice but to incorporate them. By the time features are “oicial,” of course—after more meetings, votes, and understated
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
demonstrations of power—still newer browser versions have been released
with yet newer, unoicial features.
What keeps this cycle from being chaotic are the natural selection
forces of the marketplace: developers strive toward a successful product
that works better and satisies more users without mutating so far from the
core standard that there are no sales and the company collapses. Developers also complain about the contention among browser vendors because
they must program workarounds that compensate for the performance differences among them, and they must test the performance of their site on
all or as many as possible.
Browsers provide a method for third-party developers to “plug in” special tools that take over certain computational and display activities. hey
also support the Java and JavaScript languages by which programmers
can create bits of programming script and Java applets to extend and customize a browser’s basic HTML capabilities, especially into the multimedia
realm. Java and JavaScript are only related by name. Java is a programming
language much like C++ that must be compiled into machine code to be
executed by a computer’s operating system. JavaScript is a “scripting language” whose commands are executed at runtime by the browser itself.
JavaScript code can be placed directly into HTML using <script> tags or
referenced from a ile with the “.js” extension.
hus, while browsers provide the orchestrated foundation of HTML,
third-party players and even nonprogrammers can create their own cadenzas to enhance browser performance or perform special tasks. It is often
through these plug-ins and applets that multimedia reaches end users.
Many of these tools are available as freeware and shareware while others,
particularly server software packages, are expensive, though most any tool
can be downloaded from the Internet in a trial version. Try it. If you like
it or use it, buy it.
he stunning growth of the Internet as well as expansion of wireless
mobile phone connectivity to the Internet has caused many multimedia
developers to redirect their creative eforts toward providing software solutions for these arenas. his remains a new and lucrative frontier, and no
developer wishes to be left behind.
Web Servers
he workings of the Web involve communication between two computers:
a server and a client. he server delivers a ile when a client asks for it.
Because the playback or display performance of your multimedia content—
particularly when it is a streaming MIME-type such as RealAudio or
Shockwave/Flash or a QuickTime video—depends upon the speed and
capabilities of the computer and software serving it (as well as the bandwidth and load factors of the Internet), you should know some basics.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
A growing number of software vendors provide web servers of varying
strength and capacity and for a variety of platforms, all of which meet the
requirements of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. A server is technically
not the hardware, but the software—you should invest in server software
that will stand up to your intended use and be supported by the vendor.
Most vendors will also recommend hardware conigurations. his combination of software and hardware is critical to your success and happiness if
you wish to optimize response time (less than a second), your connections
per second (as many as possible), and your throughput (plenty of room
before your Internet connection is overwhelmed by traveling packets).
WARNING
If you do not develop growth predictions based upon sound
business practices and install adequate server performance and load balancing,
you may discover that those 6,000 hits you received in the hour after you and your
brother held up the bedsheet boasting your company’s URL during the Super Bowl
are being served at 87 bytes per second or refused altogether. At least be sure your
choice of server and its connection to the Internet backbone provide a sensible
migration path for growth; people don’t usually come back to an unsatisfying
experience.
Web Browsers
Your computer’s performance is as important as the bandwidth of your
connection to the Web. Web browsers are applications that run on a
user’s personal computer (on the client side on the Internet) to provide
the interactive graphical interface for searching, inding, and viewing text
documents, sounds, animations, and other multimedia resources on the
Web. In 1996, as many as 50 browsers competed for market share, each
boasting special or unique features, performance, and cost. Rich Santalesa,
editor of NetGuide magazine, predicted even then that “the browser wars
are over—it’s a battle between Microsoft and Netscape, and everyone else
is going to dry up and blow away.” Indeed, by mid-2001, only two serious
competitors remained: Netscape and Microsoft, and Netscape, despite
more than 40 million registered users, was beginning a chameleon act.
Purchased by AOL, then alloyed by a merger with Time Warner, Netscape
was repositioned as a “media hub,” not a software company, giving the
new Netscape a chance to sell advertising across its many media properties
and experiment with subscriptions rather than just free services within
the AOL-Time Warner media empire (which includes properties such as
Fortune and Time magazines and the 24-hour cable news network CNN).
By 2006, Netscape was dead. From Netscape’s ashes arose Mozilla Firefox
as an open-source competitor to Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
Despite the legal and inancial seriousness of this competition, manifesting in very real congressional hearings and complicated multimilliondollar antimonopoly lawsuits, some of those involved kept their sense of
humor. Back in October 1997, late in the night after the gala announcement and rollout of Microsoft’s new Explorer 4.0 in San Francisco, a group
of Microsoft engineers drove 30 miles south to Netscape’s headquarters
and placed a truck-sized Explorer logo (the world-circling “e”) on the
front lawn of the competitor’s headquarters, accented with a helium balloon saying “We Love You” and a greeting card with the message, “It’s just
not fair. Good people shouldn’t have to feel bad. Best wishes, the IE team.”
By midmorning, Netscape’s own engineers had crowned the Explorer logo
with a giant dinosaur (their company mascot, named Mozilla), and nailed
up a cardboard sign declaring, “Netscape 72, Microsoft 18” (the companies’
market share at that time). Mozilla later spun out of Netscape in a free,
open-source efort to standardize the browser’s HTML engine.
Today, the majority of visitors to your web site will be using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, winner of the “browser wars” (see Table 12-4). In
designing a web site, then, you should be certain that your documents and
plug-ins work and look good using Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Chrome
Safari
Opera
Unknown
47%
31%
7%
5%
1%
9%
Table 12-4 Browser Market Penetration in 2010 (From www.w3counter.com)
Search Engines
You should become familiar with the operation of one or more search
engines. hey will ferret out information for you in seconds, information
that would take months to ind searching in a traditional library. Individualized personal search engines are available that can search the entire
public Web, while enterprise search engines can search intranets, and
mobile search engines can search PDAs and even cell phones.
Web Page Makers and Site Builders
To deliver multimedia on the Web today, you should know some HTML,
meaning that you must place the proper tags and references into your
documents to launch and control your multimedia. Many HTML editors
and web page–making applications ofer to shortcut your HTML learning
curve and working efort. If you use one of these editors, enjoy its easing
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Multimedia: Making It Work
your work efort, but do not shy away from learning the syntax and tags
of the language. Often these “helpers” generate extremely complicated
HTML code (described by some programmers as “garbage”) with the idea
that if this code is hidden “under the hood,” who cares? As you yourself
become more informed and better at HTML coding, you might discover
that you are the person who cares!
HTML documents are simple ASCII text iles saved to disk without
any formatting at all—no bolding, underlining, special fonts, margins, or
tabs. Professional web page developers often use only a word processor like
BBEdit for the Mac (see Figure 12-1) or WordPad in Windows rather
than a souped-up, drag-and-drop, HTML page builder, and they insert
text and tags into their documents manually or with personalized shortcut
keys and helper scripts. HTML currently includes about 50 tags, and once
you understand their properties and uses, coding, or marking up, a document and saving it to your web site can be a straightforward process. Plain
HTML may not be enough to create dynamic sites on the ly, sites based
upon user preferences or that display “live” information pulled from databases or spreadsheets. To build these kinds of pages, you should be familiar
with programming environments such as Microsoft’s Active Server Pages
(.asp); Adobe’s ColdFusion (.cfm), which uses ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML); or the open-source and readily available PHP. For other
powerful options beyond plain HTML, knowledge of Dynamic HTML
(DHTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), and Cascading Style
Sheets (CSS) will enhance your skill set.
Most web browsers allow you to read the HTML code behind the
page you are viewing. In Firefox, click View:Page Source. he SeaMonkey
browser, based on the Mozilla engine, includes a basic visual page editor,
with several diferent modes, including a “Tag” mode, which visually shows
the tags related to various elements on the page.
TIP
For tools that add power to HTML pages see:
www.asp.net/
www.activeserverpage.org/
www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/
www.php.net/
HTML translators are built into many word processing programs, so
you can export a word-processed document with its text styles and layout
converted to HTML tags for headers, bolding, underlining, indenting,
and so on. Some are more powerful than others. hese work well for
simple text documents but tend to choke on powerful HTML features
such as tables, forms, frames, and other extensions. Dedicated editors are
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
Figure 12-1 BBEdit is a professional programmer’s text editor with dedicated features for web page development.
usually WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processors,
and they provide more power and more features speciically geared to
exploiting HTML. Microsoft Word, for example, automatically opens
web pages in a WYSIWYG view. On the downside, these “helpful” features may cause a page with many embedded graphics to load into the
word processor very slowly while it interprets and lays out the page as a
browser would, instead of just loading the text of the page’s HTML code
and letting you change a few tags or lines.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
First Person
When I was 16, my grandmother
loaned me $500 so I could buy my
irst car. It was a lovely, previously
owned, British racing green 1950
MG-TD, happiest doing about 45
miles per hour on tree-lined summer roads in New England. When
you hinged up the hood sideways,
everything inside was simple and
well deined; there was plenty of
room to tweak the twin SU carburetors, adjust the distributor, and
replace simple parts like the electric
fuel pump. I even took the tiny
four-cylinder engine entirely out
and replaced the shell bearings on
the crankshaft. A decade later, with
my previously owned 1960 Ford
pickup, it was the same—replacing
the radiator or changing the starter
motor was a piece of cake, and
there was plenty of room to work on
the engine. But then automobiles
got complicated. It started with
elaborate emission control systems,
then electronic ignitions, then air
conditioning, and inally, computers.
Opening the hood of a car today,
most of us can only stare dumbly
at the myriad hoses and wires and
color-coded containers for special
luids; and it’s so compact a it, you
can’t slip a screwdriver between the
engine and the ire wall. When the
“check engine” light comes on, an
expert needs to “pull” the computer
codes with a special, expensive
reader to see what’s wrong.
Writing HTML for the Web today is
still simple. But unless you are an
expert, you might be staring dumbly
at the complex source code created
by a new generation of highpowered, special web tools that will
deliver mind-boggling multimedia
pages built—no muss, no fuss—
with simple drag and drop. But like
my car today, which is happiest at
70 miles per hour and could cruise
at twice that, these HTML engines
won’t let you do much under the
hood without special tools and
knowledge.
Among the many tools in this emerging marketplace, SharePoint
Designer from Microsoft links to Microsoft Oice and provides not only
WYSIWYG support for many of the latest HTML formatting extensions,
but also extensive web site management support through its extensions.
InDesign from Adobe saves pages as HTML documents and as Adobe
Acrobat PDF iles. Corel’s XMetal imports and converts iles created in
Word, WordPerfect, Ami PRO, and other word processors. It has a pointand-click interface for inserting valid HTML tags and elements and provides an enhanced URL editor to manage references and calls to other
documents and iles. Adobe Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG editor that
lets you create and edit text pages, import images, and link to other documents, and ofers enhanced integration with Acrobat PDF iles. Dreamweaver has become the most popular WYSIWYG HTML editor today.
Managing and maintaining a web site is a serious undertaking when
the site contains many thousands of text documents, images, and other
resources. Software and expert system tools for automated web page development, document management, and site activity analysis are becoming
widely available. Combined with page builders and multimedia editors,
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
these applications will evolve into the ubiquitous “word processors” of the
new information age, essential to every home and oice with outreach to the
Web, and able to integrate and present all the elements of multimedia.
Content Management Systems (CMSs) combine the power and lexibility of a database with the dynamic capabilities of a programming language. Most CMSs are built on a combination of mySQL, an open-source
database, and PHP, a programming language designed to be included
directly in web pages. Here’s how it works: when a server receives a request
for a web page, it looks through that page’s code to see if there are any
PHP directives to retrieve data from a database. If it inds such a request, it
opens the proper database, grabs the data, and inserts it into the web page
as programmed.
CMSs ofer prepackaged templates of pages with PHP code built in.
Open-source Joomla, one of the most popular CMSs, is used in thousands
of web sites, large and small. Drupal is another popular, powerful CMS.
Concrete5 combines powerful AJAX technology to allow a more interactive experience. CMSs let non-technical computer users add and edit the
content of the pages and manage the presentation and ordering of pages
at a web site.
Plug-ins and Delivery Vehicles
Plug-ins add the power of multimedia to web browsers by allowing users
to view and interact with new types of documents and images. Helper
applications, or players, also provide multimedia power by displaying or
running iles downloaded from the Internet by your browser, but helpers
are not seamlessly integrated into the operation of the browser itself. When
an unrecognized embedded MIME-type that can’t be displayed within
your browser is called from an HTML document (sounds, movies, unusual
text or image iles), most browsers will automatically launch a helper application (if it is speciied in the browser’s preferences) to view or run it.
However, this helper starts up and runs separately from the browser.
Many plug-ins are designed to perform special tasks not available without the plug-in installed. If you land on a web page containing embedded,
compressed images, for example, and the proper plug-in to decompress
those images is not installed, you will not be able to view the images.
Designers work around this problem by including hyperlinks in their
pages, which direct the user to the site where the missing plug-in may be
found. Users must then download and install the required plug-in, and
then restart their browser. his is all a bit cumbersome. Until the marketplace determines which plug-ins will become de facto standards for
the Web, however, developers have no alternative. Because downloading
and installing plug-ins is perceived as a hassle for the end user, many tool
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Multimedia: Making It Work
developers use the Java and JavaScript capabilities already built into today’s
web browsers. To ofer a plug-in’s functionality to visitors at your own web
site, you may need the addition of MIME-type information to a special
setup ile on your server that many plug-ins require. If you do not control or operate your own server, you should let your service provider know
the MIME-types that you need to have supported. Setting up servers for
some of the multimedia plug-ins is not a trivial task, and many Internet service providers will not support high-bandwidth data streams for
fear of overwhelming their Internet connection by serving your streaming
voice or video to the world. Indeed, while a plug-in or a player may be
free and readily available to anyone who wishes it, the software to actually build, compress, manipulate, and serve the special data (such as for
compressed images, compressed audio, streaming video, animations, and
VRML worlds) may be diicult and expensive, since the company makes
money from the development tool, not the client software.
Text
Text and document plug-ins such as the popular Adobe Acrobat Reader
get you past the display limitations of HTML and web browsers, where
fonts are dependent on end users’ preferences and page layout is primitive. In ile formats provided by Adobe Acrobat, for example, special fonts
and graphic images are embedded as data into the ile and travel with it,
so what you see when you view that ile is precisely what the document’s
maker intended.
Images
Browsers enabled for HTML5 will read and display bitmapped JPEG,
GIF, and PNG image iles as well as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
iles. Vector iles are a mathematical description of the lines, curves, ills,
and patterns needed to draw a picture, and while they typically do not
provide the rich detail found in bitmaps, they are smaller and can be
scaled without image degradation. Plug-ins to enable viewing of vector
formats (such as Flash) are useful, particularly when some provide highoctane compression schemes to dramatically shrink ile size and shorten
the time spent downloading and displaying them. File size and compression sound a recurring theme on the Internet, where data-rich images,
movies, and sounds may take many seconds, minutes, or even longer to
reach the end user.
Vector graphics are also device-independent, in that the image is
always displayed at the correct size and with the maximum number of colors supported by the computer. Unlike bitmapped iles, a single vector ile
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
can be downloaded, cached, and then displayed multiple times at diferent
scaled sizes on the same or a diferent web page.
Sound
Sound over the Web is managed in a few diferent ways. Digitized sound
iles in various common formats such as MP3, WAV, AIF, or AU may be
sent to your computer and then played, either as they are being received
(streaming playback) or once they are fully downloaded (using a player).
MIDI iles may also be received and played; as discussed in Chapter 4, these
iles are more compact, but they depend upon your computer’s MIDI setup
for quality. Speech iles can be specially encoded into a token language (a
“shorthand” description of the speech components) and sent at great speed
to another computer to be un-tokenized and played back in a variety of
voices. Sounds may be embedded into QuickTime, Windows Media, and
MPEG movie iles. Some sounds can be multicast (using the multicast
IP protocols for the Internet speciied in RFC 1112), so multiple users can
simultaneously listen to the same data streams without duplication of data
across the Internet. Web-based (VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol)
telephones also transmit data packets containing sound information.
Animation, Video, and Presentation
he most data-intense multimedia elements to travel the Internet are video
streams containing both images and synchronized sound, and commonly
packaged as Apple’s QuickTime, Microsoft’s Video for Windows (AVI),
and MPEG iles. Also data rich are the iles for proprietary formats such
as Keynote, Microsoft PowerPoint, and other presentation applications.
In all cases, the trade-ofs between bandwidth and quality are constantly
in your face when designing, developing, and delivering animations or
motion video for the Web.
Beyond HTML
When an ingot of pure silicon is “pulled” from a furnace, the process begins
with a “seed crystal,” around which the ingot forms. HTML is the seed
crystal that is shaping and forming the nature of multimedia on the World
Wide Web as it extrudes itself onto the Internet’s data highway. Within
the latticework of HTML servers and browsers, tags such as <OBJECT>
(browser-speciic for Internet Explorer) or <EMBED> (browser-speciic
for Firefox) enable text, sound, images, animations, and motion video
across the Web. Hooks for powerful platform-independent Java applets
and JavaScripts are built into most browsers, so you can design local interaction and activities without a lot of communication between client- and
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Multimedia: Making It Work
server-based Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programming. CGI is
a standard for interfacing external applications with information servers,
such as HTTP or web servers, and CGI programs can be written in C/
C++, Fortran, PERL, TCL, a Unix shell, Visual Basic, or even AppleScript,
as long as the language is supported by the server platform.
he following is an example of the combined <OBJECT> and
<EMBED> tags used to display a Flash movie in both the Internet
Explorer and Firefox browsers. A browser will only act on a tag it understands, ignoring tags it does not recognize. (See www.adobe.com/cfusion/
knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_4150.)
<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"
WIDTH=”550” HEIGHT=”400” id=”myMovieName”>
<PARAM NAME=movie VALUE=”myFlashMovie.swf”>
<PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high>
<PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF>
<EMBED href=”/support/flash/ts/documents/myFlashMovie.swf” quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF
WIDTH=”550” HEIGHT=”400”
NAME=”myMovieName” ALIGN=”” TYPE=”application/x-shockwave-flash”
PLUGINSPAGE=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”>
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>
3-D Worlds
hree-dimensional environments and experiences on the Web are now
possible with Intel’s Internet 3-D Graphics Software using software
such as Second Life, Papervision within Flash, Flash CS4, and Adobe
Director for development and the Shockwave player for delivery. hese
have supplanted VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) as an independent environment speciically designed to handle high-performance
3-D worlds containing 3-D text and images, textures, animations, morphs,
multiple viewpoints, collision detection, gravity, sounds, and all the arcade
elements associated with full-bore game action. With claims that wellexecuted interactive 3-D content can make nearly any web site more
compelling and efective and can better attract, engage, and inform, Intel’s
algorithms and Adobe’s delivery system allow 3-D content to be automatically scaled and tailored to each user’s system and available bandwidth.
Spinning of from a foundation of vector graphics and animation, 3-D
renderings and creative whole worlds present only the latest of multimedia
challenges and learning curves for web developers. As this 3-D technology
becomes reined and end-user bandwidth increases during the coming
years, the very shape of web pages will be altered forever.
Chapter 12 The Internet and Multimedia
385
TIP
See the following sites for more information about 3-D tools and technology:
www.adobe.com/products/director/3d/3dservices
www.discreet.com
www.havok.com
www.maxon.net
www.newtek.com
www.nvidia.com
www.righthemisphere.com
www.softimage.com
First Person
When I received a press release from
Alternate Realities Corporation, a
small startup company spun out
of a large research efort in North
Carolina, I was intrigued. ARC’s president, David Bennett, claimed, “We
are redeining Virtual Reality!” He
went on to describe “a new generation virtual environment that is a
3-D, immersive, full-color, interactive system enclosed in a 16-foot
dome or sphere that can be either
portable (inlatable or interlocking)
or permanent. The system includes a
360-degree projection system with
a 180-degree ield of view. Imagine
a 16-foot helmet that its over 15
people at the same time and is
nonrestrictive! Larger units (in the
24-foot and up range) are in the early
development stage.”
I knew I had to have one for my
experiments with VRML! The 5-meter
model, which its in a 20 × 20–foot
trade-show booth space, was available for $280,000, and the 7-meter
model, perfect for my backyard, was
only slightly more, at $340,000.
Chapter 12 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here is a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
■
he IP (Internet Protocol) address is made up of
four numbers between 0 and 255 separated by
periods.
■
Bandwidth is how much data, expressed in bits per
second (bps), you can send from one computer to
another in a given amount of time. he bottleneck
at a typical user’s low-bandwidth modem
connection is the most serious impediment to
sending multimedia across the Internet.
■
When a server receives a request, it is handled by a
speciic application called a daemon that responds
to the request based on the protocol.
■
he irst part of the URL (Uniform Resource
Locator) identiies the protocol to use to handle
the request.
■
Multimedia elements are typically saved and
transmitted on the Internet in the appropriate
MIME-type (for Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions) format and are named with the proper
extension for that type.
■
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) provides
rules for contacting, requesting, and sending
documents encoded with the Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML).
■
HTML documents are simple ASCII text iles.
HTML currently includes about 50 tags.
■
XML (Extensible Markup Language) allows you
to create your own tags and import data from
anywhere on the Web.
Discuss the origins of the Internet
■
he Internet began as a research network funded
by the U.S. Defense Department in 1969.
■
In 1989, the National Science Foundation took
over its management, and research organizations
and universities (professors and students alike)
became increasingly heavy users of this evergrowing “Internet.”
■
Commercial and business use of the Internet was
not permitted until 1992, but businesses have
since become its driving force.
Deine what a computer network is and how
Internet domains, addresses, and interconnections work
■
A network is a cluster of computers, with one
computer acting as a server to provide services
such as ile transfer, e-mail, and document printing
to the client computers.
■
Using gateways and routers, a local area network
(LAN) can be connected to other LANs to form
a wide area network (WAN). hese LANs and
WANs can also be connected to the Internet
through a server that provides both the necessary
software for the Internet and the physical data
connection.
■
■
■
he Domain Name System (DNS) manages the
names and addresses of computers linked to the
Internet.
Computers on the Internet manage names in
subdomains that are encapsulated so that visitors
from outside the local network need not worry
about the subdomain names.
When a stream of data is sent over the Internet by
your computer, it is irst broken down into packets
by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
386
Discuss the current state of multimedia on the
Internet and tools for the World Wide Web
■
he explosion of tools and user demand for
performance is stressing the orderly development
of the core HTML standard. he marketplace
keeps this cycle from being too chaotic.
■
Interactions on the Web involve communication
between two computers: a server and a client. he
server delivers a ile when a client asks for it.
■
Browsers are the apps that run on a user’s personal
computer to provide the interface for downloading
and viewing documents and multimedia.
■
Professional web page developers often use only a
word processor to edit their pages. Many HTML
editors and web page–making applications ofer to
shortcut your HTML learning curve and working
efort. Even if you use one of these editors, you
should still understand the syntax and tags of the
HTML language.
■
Plug-ins allow users to view and interact with new
types of documents and images. Requiring visitors
to download plug-ins can be cumbersome, and
servers must be set up to correctly handle requests
for special data types.
■
Web-enabled 3-D environments promise
compelling and interactive multimedia
experiences.
■ Key Terms
Adobe Acrobat PDF (380)
Adobe Acrobat Reader (382)
Adobe Director (384)
Adobe Dreamweaver (380)
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) (359)
applet (375)
ARPANET (359)
backbone (365)
bandwidth (365)
browser (376)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) (373)
client (360)
Common Gateway Interface (CGI) (384)
daemon (367)
data packet (364)
device-independent (382)
Domain Name System (DNS) (361)
Extensible Markup Language (XML) (373)
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) (358)
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) (368)
helper application (381)
HTML editor (377)
HTML translator (378)
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (368)
Internet (359)
Internet service provider (ISP) (364)
IP address (364)
Java (375)
JavaScript (375)
local area network (LAN) (360)
marking up (378)
Microsoft Internet Explorer (376)
Microsoft PowerPoint (383)
Mozilla Firefox (376)
multicast (383)
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
(MIME-types) (369)
network (360)
player (381)
plug-in (381)
Post Oice Protocol (POP) (368)
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) (382)
Semantic Web (372)
server (360)
streaming (383)
Structured Query Language (SQL) (372)
tag (374)
TCP/IP (364)
token language (383)
top-level domain (TLD) (361)
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (368)
video stream (383)
Web 2.0 (374)
wide area network (WAN) (360)
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) (379)
XML (Extensible Markup Language) (373)
387
■ Key Term Quiz
1. Many web sites include pages that have answers to common inquiries. hese pages are known as
_______________.
2. A cluster of computers tied together to share iles and communications is a(n) _______________.
3. he set of four numbers separated by periods that points to a domain is a(n) _______________.
4. How much data, expressed in bits per second (bps), you can send from one computer to another in a given
amount of time is called _______________.
5. Each Internet service is implemented on an Internet server by dedicated software known as a(n)
_______________.
6. HTML formatting elements in HTML-encoded pages are called _______________.
7. Bits of Java programming code used to extend and customize a browser’s basic HTML capabilities are
called _______________.
8. he applications that run on a user’s personal computer and provide the interactive graphical interface for
viewing web pages are called _______________.
9. Web page editors that visually show how a page looks as you are editing are often called _______________
editors.
10. Media that is played as it is being received is said to be _______________.
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. DNS stands for:
a. Distributed Numbering System
b. Device Nomenclature System
c. Data Networking System
d. Domain Name System
e. Digital Neighborhood System
4. Which of the following is a valid IP address?
a. 192.168.1.1
b. www.apple.com
c. activa@midcoast.com
d. http://www.pages.net/index.html
e. 12 Dreamcatcher Way, Hope, ME 04847
2. he levels of a domain name are separated by:
a. a period
b. the @ symbol
c. forward slashes
d. hyphens
e. spaces
5. When a stream of data is sent over the Internet
by your computer, it is irst broken down into
packets by the:
a. Transmission Control Protocol
b. Internet Protocol
c. Post Oice Protocol
d. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
e. File Transfer Protocol
3. Which of these is not a top-level domain?
a. com
b. edu
c. gov
d. mil
e. cis
f. home.html
388
6. Perhaps the most widely installed HTTP
software for managing web pages is the opensource application called:
a. Apache
b. Daemon
c. ISP
d. Acrobat
e. Unix
7. Web pages are written in:
a. MPEG
b. HTML
c. QuickTime
d. TCP/IP
e. MIME
8. One of the greatest beneits of XML is that:
a. it allows you to create animated rollovers
b. it compresses audio and video iles, allowing
larger iles to be sent
c. it connects local area networks with wide
area networks
d. it allows you to create your own tags for data
e. it encapsulates data into packets for more
reliable transmission
9. An IP address can be exchanged with a(n):
a. MIME-type
b. Point-to-Point Protocol
c. domain name
d. e-mail address
e. usenet group
10. HTTP stands for:
a. High-Technology Transmission Protocol
b. Help Text Translation Protocol
c. Hypertext Transfer Protocol
d. Hardware Testing Tool Protocol
e. How To Talk Protocol
11. he two most popular browsers in terms of
number of users are Firefox and:
a. Acrobat
b. JavaScript
c. Shockwave
d. Internet Explorer
e. Yahoo!
12. Helper applications run:
a. on the client computer outside the browser
b. on the client computer within the browser
c. on the host computer outside the server
d. on the host computer within the server
e. on external devices such as an MP3 player
or PDA
13. One criticism of visual page editors is that they:
a. encrypt the code, making later editing
impossible
b. do not support features such as underlining
and bold text
c. use nonstandard HTML tags
d. generate extremely complicated
HTML code
e. require the use of plug-ins
14. Which of these tags would most likely be used
in HTML to view a multimedia element on
the Web?
a. <BLOCKQUOTE>
b. <OBJECT>
c. <OPEN>
d. <MM>
e. <FLASH>
15. Which audio ile type’s sound quality is
dependent on the client’s computer setup?
a. AIF
b. AU
c. MIDI
d. Shockwave
e. WAV
■ Essay Quiz
1. List the most common web protocols and their uses.
2. Describe what the diferent parts of the URL http://www.secondLevel.topLevel/ilename.iletype
represent.
3. Briely describe how a browser requests a URL, how the URL is handled, and how the server responds, in
terms of the DNS system, encoding schemes, and data protocols.
389
4. Briely describe the data rates of a 56K dial-up, ISDN, DSL, Cable Modem, and T1 connection. Roughly
calculate how long it would take to download a web page consisting of a 5-kilobyte HTML page and
45 kilobytes of image iles for each connection.
5. List the most common top-level domains, and describe what categories they are associated with.
6. You have been given the task of creating a new web site for your company. What tools will you use to
create the pages? When might you use a word processor? When might you use a WYSIWYG tool?
When might you use an HTML text editor? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?
Lab Projects
■Project 12.1
You are given the task of developing a new web site for a cooking magazine. hink about the capabilities of XML
to allow you to deine your own data tags. What data types would you include? How might you format them?
What would be the beneits in this case of being able to deine your own tags? Create an outline of how you
might structure the data included in a recipe.
■Project 12.2
Open a web browser. Locate the “helper applications” preferences panel in the browser. (Note: this option varies
among browsers and operating systems, and may not be available for some.)
Find the following MIME-types: audio/x-aif; application/postscript; application/x-gtar; text/html; image/
jpeg; video/mpeg; image/tif; video/quicktime; audio/x-pn-realaudio. List an application commonly used to read
or edit each type.
■Project 12.3
Open a word processor that exports to HTML. Create a page of formatted text. Be sure to use diferent text styles,
numerous colors, indenting, tables, and other options. Print the page out from the word processing program.
Export the page to HTML, and then open the HTML page in a web browser. Print out the page from the
browser. How does the browser-rendered page difer from the page in the word processor?
■Project 12.4
View the source of the page you created in Project 12.4 in the browser. (Most browsers have a function that allows
you to view the source HTML code of a web page.) Print out the source, either from the browser, or by copying
the HTML code when you view the source, or by cutting and pasting. (Some browsers respond to the View
Source command by automatically opening the HTML source in NotePad on the PC.)
Note how HTML treats various word processing features with its tags.
390
■Project 12.5
Go online and compare web hosting packages from three diferent web hosts. Most hosting companies ofer
several options and prices. Select a basic, moderate, and advanced package from each host and describe that package’s features and options. Do any of the host providers ofer unique or unusual options?
Host: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Package
Basic
Moderate
Advanced
Storage
space:
Bandwidth:
Streaming
capabilities:
Cost
Comments: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Host: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Package
Basic
Moderate
Advanced
Storage
space:
Bandwidth:
Streaming
capabilities:
Cost
Comments: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Host: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Package
Basic
Moderate
Advanced
Storage
space:
Bandwidth:
Streaming
capabilities:
Cost
Comments: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
391
392
CHAPTER 13
Designing for the
World Wide Web
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ Employ the basic methods
for displaying elements of
multimedia on a web page,
including using HTML, CSS,
and nibbling
■ Manipulate the appearance
of text on the Web
■ Determine which graphics
formats are best suited for
diferent types of images
and how they can be
manipulated
■ Play audio on a web page
by embedding the sound
within the site
■ Include animation on a web
L
aunched in 1989, the World Wide Web was not originally
designed with multimedia in mind, but rather as a simple method for
delivering text documents formatted in HTML, with occasional inline
graphic illustrations and igures. By 1995, because it was operational,
essentially free, and good enough to support traic (see “Vaughan’s Law
of Multimedia Minimums” in Chapter 4), the Web had become a fullbore information highway of words and pictures with tens of millions
of users cruising along it. he Doppler back-draft of passing travelers
has exposed the gristle of an overwhelming number of disappointing
audio and visual experiences on the Web: “his is my home page; here
is a list of my favorite places; this is me with my dog . . .” To ill this
vacuum of content and presentation, inventive multimedia solutions and
enhancements now compete for mind share, stretching the capabilities of
HTML, web browsers, PCs, and the very fabric of the Internet in order
to bring multimedia power to this environment. Plain text and pictures
are no longer enough for this highway!
WARNING
Powerful multimedia tools can be used to create totally vacuous
web pages.
page
■ Include video on a web
page with and without the
use of plug-ins
Developing for the Web
his chapter investigates and illustrates some methods for developing
and presenting the basic elements of multimedia within the constraints
of HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and the World Wide Web.
his chapter is not intended to substitute for a more complete library of
HTML, CSS, web design, and Internet how-to texts, but to present basic
examples that will get you started. In 2001, there were more than 2,000
published books with the word “Internet” in their title. In 2003 there
were more than 6,000. In 2006, there were more than 10,000. In 2010,
a search at Amazon.com showed 43,196 books with the word “Internet”
in their title!
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
his chapter introduces you to basic ways you can put the elements
of multimedia onto a web page. Learn how to use HTML tags with CSS
styles rather than rely entirely on web page builders and WYSIWYG editors that never expect you to look under the hood.
All modern browsers allow you to examine the HTML code. Look for
a menu item such as “View Source.” Use this feature to dig around in the
source HTML code of web sites to see how the page is laid out. As you
explore, you will discover that some code is neat and clear, some has plenty
of embedded descriptive comments, and some is a mess of what programmers call “spaghetti” code.
HTML Is a Markup Language
You should have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS before you
begin developing multimedia for the Web. HTML-coded documents,
which are the fundamental vehicles for all types of information delivered
on the World Wide Web, are explained in Chapter 12, but for this chapter
you need to understand the basics of how HTML works.
HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. he “Markup Language” part of the name means that tags are used to do such things as
format text and embed media. he tags are enclosed by angled brackets:
<>. Some tags are bounding tags, requiring both an opening tag and a
closing tag. he closing tag is indicated by a leading forward slash inside
the angled brackets. his example for bolded text illustrates the use of the
two tags:
<strong>his text is emphasized</strong>
Other tags, such as the tag for inserting an inline image, stand by
themselves:
<IMG src="grey_ball.gif ">
Note that the tags may be written in either upper- or lowercase; some
HTML text-editing programs have a switch allowing you to select the
case in which you want the tags written in your document.
Tags listed in Table 13-1 are used by HTML5. hese simple tags along
with CSS elements are used to build web pages. Deprecated tags such as
<FONT> and <CENTER> are no longer supported in the HTML standard, yet their use continues to be supported by most browsers.
393
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Multimedia: Making It Work
HTML Tag
Description
HTML Tag
Description
<!-- -->
Deines a comment
<footer>*
Deines a footer for a section or page
<!DOCTYPE>
Deines the document type
<form>
Deines a form
<a>
Deines a hyperlink
<h1> to <h6>
Deines header 1 to header 6
<abbr>
Deines an abbreviation
<head>
Deines information about the document
<address>
Deines an address element
<header>*
Deines a header for a section or page
<area>
Deines an area inside an image map
<hgroup>*
Deines information about a section in a document
<article>*
Deines an article
<hr>
Deines a horizontal rule
<aside>*
Deines content aside from the page content
<html>
Deines an HTML document
<audio>*
Deines sound content
<i>
Deines italic text
<b>
Deines bold text
<iframe>
Deines an inline subwindow (frame)
<base>
Deines a base URL for all the links in a page
<img>
Deines an image
<bdo>
Deines the direction of text display
<input>
Deines an input ield
<blockquote>
Deines a long quotation
<ins>
Deines inserted text
<body>
Deines the body element
<keygen>*
Deines a generated key in a form
<br>
Inserts a single line break
<kbd>
Deines keyboard text
<button>
Deines a push button
<label>
Deines a label for a form control
<canvas>*
Deines graphics
<legend>
Deines a title in a ieldset
<caption>
Deines a table caption
<li>
Deines a list item
<cite>
Deines a citation
<link>
Deines a resource reference
<code>
Deines computer code text
<map>
Deines an image map
<col>
Deines attributes for table columns
<mark>*
Deines marked text
<colgroup>
Deines groups of table columns
<menu>
Deines a menu list
<command>*
Deines a command button
<meta>
Deines meta information
<datalist>*
Deines a drop-down list
<meter>*
Deines measurement within a predeined range
<dd>
Deines a deinition description
<nav>*
Deines navigation links
<del>
Deines deleted text
<noscript>
Deines a noscript section
<details>*
Deines details of an element
<object>
Deines an embedded object
<dfn>
Deines a deinition term
<ol>
Deines an ordered list
<div>
Deines a section in a document
<optgroup>
Deines an option group
<dl>
Deines a deinition list
<option>
Deines an option in a drop-down list
<dt>
Deines a deinition term
<output>*
Deines some types of output
<em>
Deines emphasized text
<p>
Deines a paragraph
<embed>*
Deines external interactive content or plug-in
<param>
Deines a parameter for an object
<ieldset>
Deines a ieldset
<pre>
Deines preformatted text
<igcaption>*
Deines the caption of a igure element
<progress>*
Deines progress of a task of any kind
<igure>*
Deines a group of media content, and their caption
<q>
Deines a short quotation
Table 13-1
Showing All HTML Tags Used for Building Web Pages. An Asterisk Marks Tags That Are New for HTML5 (see www
.w3schools.com/html5/html5_reference.asp)
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
HTML Tag
Description
HTML Tag
Description
<rp>*
Used in ruby annotations to deine what to show
browsers that do not support the ruby element
<sup>
Deines superscripted text
<table>
Deines a table
<rt>*
Deines explanation to ruby annotations
<tbody>
Deines a table body
<ruby>*
Deines ruby annotations
<td>
Deines a table cell
<samp>
Deines sample computer code
<textarea>
Deines a text area
<script>
Deines a script
<tfoot>
Deines a table footer
<section>*
Deines a section
<th>
Deines a table header
<select>
Deines a selectable list
<thead>
Deines a table header
<small>
Deines small text
<time>*
Deines a date/time
<source>*
Deines media resources
<title>
Deines the document title
<span>
Deines a section in a document
<tr>
Deines a table row
<strong>
Deines strong text
<ul>
Deines an unordered list
<style>
Deines a style deinition
<var>
Deines a variable
<sub>
Deines subscripted text
<video>*
Deines a video
<summary>*
Deines the header of a “detail” element
395
Table 13-1
Showing All HTML Tags Used for Building Web Pages. An Asterisk Marks Tags That Are New for HTML5 (see www
.w3schools.com/html5/html5_reference.asp) (Continued)
HTML and Multimedia
HTML provides tags for inserting media into HTML documents: the
<IMG> tag for inline images; the <AUDIO> and <VIDEO> tags for multimedia; and the <EMBED> and <OBJECT> tags for compound document
embedding used to insert a “nonstandard” item such as a Java applet or
Flash animation into an HTML document.
But it is not as simple as it seems. here is a diference between the
way various versions of browsers handle multimedia elements and the
plug-ins that play them. Some browsers that understand the <OBJECT>
tag ignore the <EMBED> tag, and some browsers that cannot read the
<OBJECT> tag need the <EMBED> tag. he Object/Embed method
places an <EMBED> tag within the <OBJECT> tag to ensure that multimedia elements will play in all browsers. hus the HTML code to play a
lash animation might look something like this:
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="320" height="240" id="player1" name="player1">
<param name="flashvars" value="file=playlist1.xml">
<param name="movie" value="player.swf">
<param name="allowfullscreen" value="true">
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always">
<embed id="player1"
flashvars="file=playlist1.xml"
name="player1"
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Multimedia: Making It Work
src="player.swf"
width="320"
height="240"
allowscriptaccess="always"
allowfullscreen="true"
/>
</object>
TIP
If you develop multimedia for the Internet, budget time and efort for
keeping current in this rapidly changing environment—staying at the leading
edge takes efort. It will be some years before multimedia delivery tools and
techniques for the Web stabilize.
The Desktop Workspace
Make your web pages look good on a 1024 × 768 display in true color
(millions). Working at this resolution, you will satisfy more than 95 percent
of all desktop viewers. Depending upon the browser and preferences set by
the user, however, the area of the screen available for your web page, called
the viewport, will always be less than the full display, and it is not controllable by the designer. Browser “chrome” (toolbars and other shiny stuf
around the edges of your page’s viewport) can be either hidden or shown
by the user. If you want to maximize the browser active window size, in
Internet Explorer press f11 (function key 11) and go back to regular mode
by clicking the mouse; other browsers ofer Full Screen toggle switches
in the “View” options. So design your web page for a 1,024-pixel-wide
display by using tables and images that do not exceed about 1,000 pixels
across the page, and you will have room for browser scroll bars. Many
designers choose a viewport workspace 960 pixels wide; a number divisible
by 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 16. his makes many logical “grid systems”
of columns possible.
The Small-Device Workspace
Under the hood of many browsers is a layout engine for rendering pages.
Versions of those browser engines have been customized to run on small
devices such as tablets, e-readers, netbooks, PDAs, and smartphones, and
they follow known rules when laying out web pages for smaller viewports. Microsoft Internet Explorer uses the Trident engine; Firefox uses
the Gecko engine; Opera uses the Presto engine; and Apple’s Safari and
Google’s Chrome use the WebKit engine.
Smartphones use various operating systems: Android, iPhone OS,
Linux, Maemo, Palm WebOS, RIM’s BlackBerry, Symbian OS, and
Windows CE, with the most widely used being Symbian OS on handsets
and devices manufactured by BenQ , Fujitsu, LG, Mitsubishi, Motorola,
Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson.
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
To deal with the multiplicity of viewport sizes in the small-device
world (320 × 480, 240 × 320, 240 × 400, 854 × 480, etc.), the Android OS
allows programmers to write one application that lexibly covers all display
sizes by using virtual density-independent pixels (dips):
he density-independent pixel is equivalent to one physical pixel on
a 160 dpi screen, the baseline density assumed by the platform....
At run time, the platform transparently handles any scaling of the
dip units needed, based on the actual density of the screen in use.
he conversion of dip units to screen pixels is simple: pixels =
dips * (density / 160). For example, on a 240 dpi screen,
1 dip would equal 1.5 physical pixels. Using dip units to deine your
application’s UI is highly recommended, as a way of ensuring proper
display of your UI on diferent screens.
From the Android Developers Guide,
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html
While HTML and CSS do not provide for device-independence, if
you expect that your project will be widely viewed on small devices, consider designing at 960 pixels to allow the device’s browser the most lexibility. More, you should keep in mind that input events on small devices are
diferent from the clicks and drags of a computer with mouse or touchpad:
a Double Tap makes the browser zoom in and center on a document; a
Touch and Hold will display an information bubble; a Drag will move
the viewport or pan; a Flick will scroll up or down; and a Pinch Open or
Pinch Closed will zoom in or out. here are no mouseOver events without
a mouse.
Nibbling
A principle you must always keep in mind when designing and making
multimedia elements for the Web and particularly for handheld devices
should be called “nibbling.” At a serious metal-working supply store you can
buy a power tool called a nibbler—it devours the edges of sheet metal in an
ear-damaging staccato of rapid tiny bites. You must apply this concept, for
example, to the elegant bitmapped logo you created in Photoshop when
you trim it from 24- to 8- to 4-bit color depth and resize it from 96 pixels
square to 64 pixels square and create a transparent .png ile. Nibble the
audio clip of your client’s theme song from 44.1 kHz to 11 kHz, and see if
it’s acceptable at an 8-bit sample size. Text as HTML is cheap: nibble your
page design and throw away the pretty shadowed GIF graphic headers
and image maps—re-create your text in HTML headers or emphasized
text, and try coloring it. Put on your protective headgear—this compromising work is painful for you as the creator—and start nibbling, while
397
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Multimedia: Making It Work
constantly seeking a balance between quality and the patience of a user
who is downloading your material at 56 Kbps from home. Every choice
you make should be tempered by bandwidth worry.
WARNING For every image ile referenced in an HTML document, a separate Internet HTTP connection must be made between your computer and that
image’s server before the image itself is downloaded; so using many diferent tiny
images (such as various graphic images for bullets) may not be eicient. After a
user has downloaded a ile once, however, it should load more quickly from the
user’s local hard disk, where the browser stores them in a cache.
Text for the Web
In addition to variations in the size of the viewport, viewers of your web
site may not be displaying the same “preferred” font that you used to design
your page because user preferences in the browser may alter the way text in
your document looks and lows. To make the best of this uncertainty, many
developers design their documents in Times Roman for the proportional
serifed font, Verdana for proportional sans serif, and Courier as the monospaced font. hese fonts readily move across platforms and are the default
fonts users typically see if they do not set their own preferences. Although
you can specify a font, and even alternate fonts, using CSS, browsers can
only use a speciied font if that font is installed on the end user’s computer.
Figure 2-3 in Chapter 2 shows a list of the most commonly installed fonts
on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers.
NOTE As with projects built for CD-ROM or DVD distribution using a multimedia authoring tool, if you wish to absolutely control the look of text on your web
page, you must use a graphic bitmap rather than text in your HTML document.
Adding images in place of text, however, increases the amount of time necessary
to download your page. Embedding graphics into HTML documents is explained
later in the chapter.
You can tag text so that it is displayed as a header, strong, emphasized,
or sub- or superscripted. Using CSS, you can specify your “preference” for
font face and many text attributes (see Chapter 2), but the viewer’s browser
ultimately determines if and how these styles are displayed.
Making Columns of Text
he most powerful feature of HTML may be found in the <TABLE> tag.
Study this tag and its attributes! To the right, you’ll see how to organize
your text into two columns, so it displays more like a newspaper or a magazine, using a table (see Figure 13-1).
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
Figure 13-1 Using the <TABLE> tag, you can organize your text into columns.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>The Explosion</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV ALIGN="center">
<H2>The Explosion</H2>
</DIV>
<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="20">
<TR VALIGN="TOP">
<TD WIDTH="40%">
... text for Column 1 goes here ...
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="40%">
... text for Column 2 goes here ...
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<HR>
</BODY>
</HTML>
399
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Flowing Text Around Images
As you can see in Figure 13-2, it is possible (and easy) to “low” text around
an image using the ALIGN attribute of the <IMG> tag. his is a quick
and simple method for mixing text and images in a pleasing layout. Add a
<BR CLEAR="left"> tag at the end of your text paragraph, so that if there
is not enough text to ill the entire vertical height of the image, your next
paragraph will begin on a new line, left-justiied, and below the image. To
add space around your image so it doesn’t butt right up against the text, use
the Horizontal Space (HSPACE) and Vertical Space (VSPACE) attributes
of the <IMG> tag.
Figure 13-2 You can low text around an image by using the ALIGN attribute of the
<IMG> tag.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Sailing</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<IMG SRC="gbsky.gif" ALIGN="left" HSPACE="15" VSPACE="5">
<H2>Departure</H2>
... text goes here ...
<BR CLEAR="left">
<hr>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
401
he following HTML and
CSS code sets up a more complicated screen with lowing text (see
Figure 13-3). It also includes a
background image, a portrait image,
and an image map that is used for
navigation. (Background images
and image maps are described later
in this chapter.) his document also
contains the foreign language special character ä, which is called out
in the document using HTML’s
escape sequence for special characters, in this case, “ä”. An
escape sequence begins with
an ampersand and ends with a
semicolon. Also, note the link to a
separate style sheet ile holding the
CSS code. A MIDI ile is embedded in this page to provide background music.
Figure 13-3 Images, text, and sound can be mixed in an HTML document. Note
<html>
the use of escape sequences for special characters and an image map for navigation.
<head>
<title>Annan Lapsuus</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="anna.css">
</head>
<body>
<table><tr>
<td width="20"></td> <!-- blank spacer column for indent -->
<td width="180" align="center" valign="top"> <!-- Column to hold image -->
<img src="anna.jpg" align="left">
</td>
<td width="400" align="left" valign="top"> <!-- Column to hold text and nav button -->
<h1>Annan Lapsuus</h1>
<p class="annaText">
Minä sain oman huoneen. Sen seinät on maalattu vihreiksi. Ja yhdelle seinälle on
maalattu maisema. Mutta joelle ei maalattu joutsenia, koska minä en halunnut. Niihin voi
kyllästyäniin helposti.
<br><br>
Isi on tehnyt minulle kirjahyllyn. Minä järjestän siihen kaikki tavarat.
Kiiltokuva-albumit ja kirjan. Sen nimi on "Tiina saa suukon". Vaikka on minulla muitakin
kirjoja, mutta en minä enää sellaisia lastenkirjoja lue.
<br><br>
"Tästä lähtien minun huoneeni on aina hyvässä järjestyksessä",
sanoin isille.
<br><br>
<img src="navButton.gif" border="0" usemap="#thispagemap">
Isi hymyili.
</td></tr></table>
402
Multimedia: Making It Work
<!-- Use image map for click navigation -->
<map name="thispagemap">
<area shape="circle" coords="48,48,12" href="fhelp.htm">
<area shape="polygon" coords="50,50,0,0,100,0" href="fnavmap.htm">
<area shape="polygon" coords="50,50,0,100,100,100" href="f03.htm">
</map>
<!-- play MIDI file on this page -->
<EMBED SRC="03/pianobg.mid" width="0" height="2" autostart="true">
</body>
</html>
And the accompanying CSS code:
body {
background-image: url(earth.jpg);
}
H1 {
font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Trebuchet MS",
color: #FFFFFF;
font-size : 24px;
font-weight: bold;
}
p.annaText {
font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Trebuchet MS",
color: #FFFFFF;
font-size : 14px;
font-weight : bold;
line-height : 18px;
text-align: left;
padding-right: 20px;
}
Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
Images for the Web
heoretically, the Web can support any graphics format the client and
server have in common. Practically, even though web standards do not
specify a graphics format you must use, browsers recognize four image
formats—GIF, PNG, JPEG, and SVG—without resorting to special
plug-ins. hese formats use built-in compression algorithms to reduce
ile size. (Graphic image formats are described in detail in Chapter 3.)
For other graphics formats, such as CGM, CMX, DXF, and fractal- and
wavelet-compressed images, special proprietary creation software and
browser plug-ins may be required.
GIF and PNG Images
GIF images (Graphic Interchange File, also discussed in Chapter 3) are
limited to 8 bits of color depth (256 colors). his is a commercial image
format developed by CompuServe Information Services, an online
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
403
company once owned by Unisys and currently folded into America Online.
In late 1994, Unisys announced a patent fee charge to all software developers who use the GIF format. In an angry, industry-wide response, PNG
(for Portable Network Graphics Speciication) was developed as a new
“open” format (not requiring fees) to replace GIF. By allowing transparency by single pixel or by alpha channel mask and a 24-bit indexed palette,
the PNG format is an improvement on the GIF format it was intended to
replace. But it does not support animation. And because it only uses the
RGB color model (not CMYK), PNG images may not print well.
First Person
A few years ago somebody told me
about an interesting web survey:
how does the world pronounce
GIF? The results turned out about
50/50 on the hard/soft question, my colleague claimed. Then
I spent considerable time using
that word (softly) in Europe before
realizing everybody was being
smirkingly polite about my outlandish pronunciation. In the San
Francisco Bay Area, a world center
for multimedia development, GIF
has the soft “g” of “ginger,” “gin,” and
JPEG Images
JPEG ( Joint Photographic Experts Group) images may contain 24 bits of
color depth (millions of colors). JPEG uses a powerful but lossy compression method that produces iles as much as ten times more compressed
than GIF. Lossy means that information in the original image is lost in
the compression process and cannot be retrieved. A lossless compression
method does not irretrievably discard the original data.
WARNING Do not edit and reedit iles that are in JPEG format. Every time
you open a JPEG image and edit it, then recompress and save it as a compressed
JPEG, the image degrades. After a few editing/saving cycles, you will be very disappointed. Edit and archive your images in a 24-bit lossless graphic format (such
as TIFF, BMP, or PSD), then convert to JPEG (if you need to).
he JPEG compression scheme compresses about 20:1 before visible
image degradation occurs. Test the amount of compression acceptable for
your JPEG image; stay inside the “threshold of visible error.” To compress
an image with JPEG, the image is divided into 8 × 8–pixel blocks, and the
resulting 64 pixels (called a “search range”) are mathematically described
“gybe.” In New York, where little is
soft, and in Europe, GIF has a more
cutting, hard pronunciation, as
in “giggling,” “ gingham,” “girdled,”
“guilty,” or “girls.” The real question is whether the written word
requires a preixed dot.
404
Multimedia: Making It Work
relative to the characteristic of the pixel in the upper-left corner.
he binary description of this relationship requires far less than
64 pixels, so more information can be squeezed into less space.
JPEG compresses slowly, about one to three seconds for a 1MB
image, depending upon computer speed, but JPEG can compress images as much as 75:1, with loss.
GIF or JPEG?
Figure 13-4 Both images at the top were saved in
the JPEG format, which compresses image data and
trades image quality for small ile size. The resulting
compressed images at the bottom show the “lossy”
and “blocky” nature of compressed JPEGs. The photo
at top left is 71K in size when saved as a GIF (not
shown) and only 27K saved as a JPEG (bottom left).
The drawing at top right is 17K when saved as a GIF
(not shown) and 46K as a JPEG (bottom right).
Use JPEG for photo-realistic images containing many colors,
and avoid using it for images already forced into a 256-color
palette or for line drawings or 1-bit black-and-white images.
GIF compresses drawings and cartoons that have only a few
colors in them much better than JPEG, which may introduce
visible defects—sharp edges and lines that blur—especially with
small-size text. Figures 13-4 and 13-5 show the “blocky” and
“lossy” nature of the compressed JPEG images. For the Web, use
the JPEG format for photo-realistic images that are busy with
color; use the GIF format for line art and drawings where there
are large areas of the same color.
Figure 13-5 Lossy compression schemes save disk space but can also
degrade an image. For the Web, line art is often better saved in GIF, PNG, or
SVG format than in JPEG.
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
Using Photoshop
Adobe’s Photoshop is the “tool of choice” for most graphic artists, so it is
worth taking some time to provide a few suggestions for creating images for
use on the World Wide Web. If you use a diferent image-editing application, follow the same logic and use the commands appropriate for that application. Always work in native Photoshop format using PSD iles—these
images are typically in RGB mode and use the maximum color depth. hey
are larger, but they contain more information that can be usefully processed
when resizing and dithering, and you will get better inal results. PSD iles
also contain layers, a very useful application feature. When creating images
for display on a web page, use 72 pixels per inch resolution, which is the resolution of most monitors. When you convert a 24-bit RGB image to an 8-bit
indexed image (change its mode), you lose huge amounts of color information that cannot be retrieved, meaning that the ine data is gone forever. So
you should follow two practices in order to protect your original image. One
is to save the original image in a 24-bit lossless image format (such as PSD,
TIFF, or BMP). he other is to do all of your image manipulation (such as
resizing, sharpening, and hue adjustments) in RGB mode. Next, save this
source image in RGB mode as a PSD ile, before reducing the color palette
by saving it as a GIF or using a lossy compression like JPEG. By saving the
high-quality original and saving the manipulated image in the program’s
native format, you can return to them if you need to make changes later.
TIP
When you scan an image, the scanner will often default to print resolution of 300 dpi. When displayed on a 72 dpi resolution monitor, the picture will be
displayed more than three times bigger than the original. Never ix this problem
by changing the height and width attributes of the IMG tag. Even though this will
display the image at the size you want, you still have a huge image ile that will
slow down the downloading and display of your page. Instead, use Photoshop or
another image-editing program to resample the image at a 72 dpi resolution, and
use that new image on your page.
When you are satisied with your image and ready to save it as a GIF,
PNG, or JPEG ile, archive it as described earlier. If you make any mistakes
while converting modes or saving, you will still have the original, complete
with any layers you might have used. To be very safe, duplicate the original
ile and open the copy before saving to other formats.
Saving as JPEG Files
To save your image as a JPEG ile, you do not need to change Photoshop’s
mode from RGB, but if you are using layers, you will need to “latten” the
image, merging all layers into a single bitmap. Once an image is lattened
and you have edited or saved it, its layers cannot be remade without a great
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Multimedia: Making It Work
deal of diicult cutting and pasting—so again, archive your original ile!
You must name your ile with the extension .jpg or .jpeg if you will use it
on the Web. hen click Save, and choose Maximum, High, Medium, or
Low-quality compression in the dialog box that appears. Your ile is ready
for the Web.
Saving as GIF Files
To save a GIF ile using Photoshop, you must irst set the mode of your
image to Indexed Color, converting it to the best 8-bit palette (256 colors)
that will represent the image and be displayed well by web browsers. Note
that the option of saving a Photoshop 24-bit RGB ile in GIF format will
not be available in Windows, and it will be grayed out on the Macintosh
menu until you have converted your image to 8-bit mode: GIF is only for
8-bit images.
TIP Use GIF iles for line art and images that contain large areas of the same
color (that can be easily compressed). Use JPEG for photo-realistic images.
Palettes When you change the mode to Indexed Color, you must specify the color depth of the converted image, the color palette to be used, and
whether the colors of your image should be dithered (Difusion or Pattern)
or not (None). Figure 13-6 shows the mode changing dialog box from
Photoshop, where the custom Netscape Navigator palette for Windows
has been selected.
Figure 13-6
In Photoshop, changing
the mode of your image
from RGB Color to Indexed
Color changes the color
depth of your image.
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
Interlaced and Progressive Scans Both GIF and JPEG images can
be saved so that when your browser displays the image as it is being downloaded, you can immediately see a chunky approximation of the inal
image, with resolution improving as more and more data comes in. While
in baseline, or normal coniguration, image data is stored as a single topto-bottom scan; in interlaced GIF and progressive JPEG iles, the data
is organized in a diferent sequence within the ile. An interlaced GIF ile,
for example, is arranged into a series of four passes:
Pass 1 : Every 8th row, starting with row 0
Pass 2 : Every 8th row, starting with row 4
Pass 3 : Every 4th row, starting with row 2
Pass 4 : Every 2nd row, starting with row 1
Figure 13-7 shows Photoshop’s Save for Web & Devices dialog for
saving an image as interlaced, and four increasingly resolved images.
Figure 13-7 Interlacing settings when exporting a GIF89a ile from Photoshop. With interlacing, the image incrementally
improves its resolution as it downloads.
Transparency he GIF89a and PNG speciications allow for transparency: you can save your ile with instructions to a browser to
use a speciic color or palette of colors (with PNG) as your selected
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Multimedia: Making It Work
transparency color. In many cases, such as for company logos and inline
illustrations, it is attractive to let an image loat on top of the browser’s
background.
Images on web pages are displayed as rectangles. he area outside of
the circle in Figure 13-8 is illed with a wash of color and would (without transparency) be displayed as a rectangle showing those colors to its
edges. To make the part surrounding the circle transparent so that the
circle loats on your web page, ill the area outside the circle with a single
color, and then save the ile, selecting that ill color to be transparent.
While white is often used as the transparency color, in this example it
would not work because there are white pixels inside of the circle that
would also become transparent. Use a ill color not in the area you wish
to show; in this case red works. Most image-editing tools provide a palette from which you can select the transparency index color. You cannot
make a JPEG ile transparent.
Figure 13-8 Use a transparent GIF or PNG to loat a circle or other image on a web
page: select the area outside of the circle (upper left), ill it with a single indexed color
(red, lower left), choose that color to be transparent (lower right), and save the image
as a GIF ile. The circle will loat on your page (upper right).
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
Backgrounds
Most browsers allow you to specify an image or color to place in the background of your page or into table cells. Text and images will loat on top
of this layer.
Background Coloring
You can choose colors for backgrounds, text, and anchors to URL links.
Color controls for the entire page are attributes of the <BODY> tag and
are set using CSS:
body {background-color: #0000FF;}
where “#0000FF” is a hexadecimal red-green-blue triplet used to specify
the background color, in this case, blue. See Chapter 3 for an explanation
of red-green-blue triplets.
Once you have chosen a background color, you will then want to set
the color of your text and establish proper contrasts. Red on green shimmers, black on black is invisible. By setting styles in the <BODY> tag, you
set default styles for the entire document. For white text on a blue background, the CSS code would be:
body {color: #FFFFFF;}
Background Images
Background images are by default
tiled, or repeated, across and down
the page until the page or page element is illed, so a randomly distributed “sandy” background image
(see Figure 13-9) can easily be made
from a very small source image.
Load a background image into
a document by specifying its URL
(if it is available somewhere on the Web) or its relative ile path (if it is on
the same server as the page) in the CSS attributes for the <BODY> tag,
for example:
body {background-image: url('paper.gif');}
TIP It is a good idea to specify a background color similar to the prevailing
color of the image being used for a background. If the user viewing your page has
Image Loading turned of, or if your background image cannot be found for some
reason, the page may still look close to the way you designed it. If the image you
specify as a background has transparent areas, the background color will show
through.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Figure 13-9 A simpliied navigation map not only provides an overview of a multimedia project but also
contains active links to documents using “hot” areas of the graphic. This is the navmap page from Navigare
Necesse Est, a student-built love story.
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
Sidebars
In the navigation map shown in Figure 13-9, a commonly seen graphic
layout was used: a vertical bar containing the word “navmap” is displayed at
the left of the screen and in the background. When users scroll up or down,
this bar remains stationary. Make the graphic bar at the left as wide as you
wish (say 75 pixels); then set the full width of your image to 1,000 pixels. Fill
the space to the right of your bar with plain color or a texture. When this
background image repeats itself (tiles), it will repeat to the right only if the
user widens the viewing window to more than 1,000 pixels; but the image
will tile vertically in increments of its height until it reaches the bottom of
the window. With CSS you can force the browser to repeat only vertically,
only horizontally, or not at all. In this example, adding background-repeat:
repeat-y; to your CSS code will allow repeats only vertically, even when the
window is made wider than 1,000 pixels.
Clickable Buttons
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:
<a href="documentToGoTo.html">
<img src="greenButton.gif" border="0">
</a>
You can also use the <A> tag to provide a link
to a larger graphic or even to a video clip from a
small, thumbnail-sized image:
<a href="bigPicture.jpg"><img src="thumbnail.gif" border="0"></a>
Be sure to include the BORDER attribute (border="0") in the <IMG>
tag if you wish to avoid showing a border around the button image (sometimes an ugly two blue pixels wide).
Client-Side Image Maps
Image maps are pictures with deined hot spots that link to other documents when a user clicks on them. Browsers support client-side image
maps so that mouse coordinates and their associated document URLs can
be included in an HTML document. his is managed by the <MAP> tag
and the USEMAP attribute of the <IMG> tag.
To make a client-side image map with USEMAP, you need three
things: an image, a list of coordinates designating hot spots on the image,
and the document URL associated with each hot spot. To program the
image map into your HTML document, you use the USEMAP attribute
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Multimedia: Making It Work
of the <IMG> tag. Here is the HTML code for the navigation button in
Figure 13-3 and detailed in Figure 13-10:
<img src="compas.gif" hspace="5" vspace="50" border="0" usemap="#compass">
<MAP name="compass">
<area shape="circle" coords="60,60,10" href="help.htm">
<area shape="polygon" coords="60,60,0,0,120,0" href="back.htm">
<area shape="polygon" coords="60,60,0,120,120,120" href="forward.htm">
<area shape="polygon" coords="60,60,0,0,0,120" href="navmap.htm">
</map>
Compas.gif is the transparent image, the hspace="5" and vspace="50"
attributes provide space between the image and the text around it, and the
border="0" attribute makes the image borderless. he usemap="#compass"
attribute points to the <map> extension tag that contains the coordinates and URLs. (he pound sign means the <MAP> tag is located in
this same document.) A <MAP> segment may be placed anywhere in the
body of the HTML document and is related to the correct image by the
name="xxxxxxx" attribute of the <MAP> tag. You can have more than one
image map in an HTML document, but they must have diferent names.
Within the <MAP> tag, the <AREA> tag deines the shape of the
hot spot (as a circle, polygon, or rectangle) and anchors or links it to a
URL. Areas are deined by x,y coordinates of the pixels in your bitmap: a
circle by the x,y coordinates of its center location and radius (60,60,10),
a polygon by a sequence of sets of x,y locations that close automatically
(60,60,0,0,120,0 deines a triangle), or a rectangle (two x,y locations deining top left and bottom right).
Figure 13-10 This enlarged image illustrates the coordinates used to deine hot
spots for image maps (the ruler is marked in pixels).
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
413
Sound for the Web
In the beginning, when the Internet was primarily a collection of Unix
machines, sound iles were sent from machine to machine in AU format
and, when downloaded, were played back using a sound application. As the
Web has developed, sound has become more important, and most browsers
allow embedding of sounds into documents using the <AUDIO> tag.
Inside this tag, the autoplay attribute, if present, starts the audio playing
as soon as it is ready. If controls is 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. Text can be included in the tag that will be
ignored unless the user’s browser cannot understand the <AUDIO> tag:
<audio src="LizLaugh.aiff" preload autoplay controls loop>
Sorry, your browser does not support the HTML audio element.
</audio>
he <A> anchor tag and <EMBED> tag can also be used to play sound
iles:
Click <a href="LizLaugh.aiff">here</a> to play sound file.
<embed src="Mozart.mid" autostart="true" loop="false" width="120" height="50" hidden></embed>
Chapter 4 describes designing and making MIDI and digitized sound iles
in detail.
TIP Making sound for the Web requires the basic tools and techniques
described in Chapter 4. Always nibble at your sound elements and reduce them
to the lowest ile sizes that will play acceptably. Remember, they will move across
the Internet and may be downloaded or played on machines with low-bandwidth
connections.
Animation for the Web
HTML makes no provision for animation, by itself delivering only a static
page of text and graphics. Boring, many people said, and programmers went
to work devising methods to liven up the view. JavaScript can dynamically
change a web page without needing to reload it. JavaScript with XML
features, combined into Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), is
used for powerful interactive applications such as Google’s “Oice.” he
Flash plug-in for browsers ofers animation and interaction.
GIF89a
Browsers implement a little-known animation feature in the inal 1989
revision “a” of the GIF ile format speciication. It is possible to make
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Multimedia: Making It Work
simple animations by putting multiple images, or frames, into a single
GIF89a ile and display them with programmable delays (in 100ths of a
second) between them.
When you use the <IMG> tag to embed a GIF89a multiframe
image, the browser downloads the ile and stores it in the cache folder
of your local hard disk. Once fully downloaded, the browser plays each
frame of the image quickly and smoothly. Limit animated GIFs to small
images, and use a more capable plug-in like Flash for animations over
larger areas.
Read Chapter 5 to learn the basics of animation. Pick a tool or method
and start creating. Lokki, the Shockwaved seagull, was created by a beginner and was lying in just a few hours:
Animation software includes Swish (www.swishzone.com), Flash,
Director, After Efects, DHTML, and animated GIF iles built using
shareware and freeware. Designers must be careful how they use animation
though: too much motion and too many lashy colors can cheapen a web
site. Subtle animation, however, enhances a site’s content and messages.
http://webstyleguide.com/wsg2/multimedia/animation.html
http://website.needbeyond.com/templates2.html?flash_intro
www.animationtipsandtricks.com
www.compuphase.com/animtips.htm
For animation styles and tips
Video for the Web
In the past (and still today), playing video on a web page requires special
plug-ins like Flash, QuickTime, RealVideo, Windows Media Player, or
other proprietary software. hese plug-ins use many diferent codecs (compressor/decompressors) and many diferent
streaming and storage container ile formats, each with its
own interface and custom options, as shown here.
To reduce reliance on these plug-ins and ofer a standard
method for preparing and delivering video to the Web, the
HTML5 speciication provides a <VIDEO> tag, meaning
that HTML5-capable browsers such as Internet Explorer
Chapter 13 Designing for the World Wide Web
415
9, Firefox 3.5, Safari 4, Chrome, and Opera must contain within themselves the programming code required to recognize a video ile, read and
decompress both its audio and video components, and play that video on a
screen—where and how you, as the designer, specify.
<video src="myVideo.mpg" preload autoplay controls width="320" height="240">
Sorry, your browser does not support the HTML video element.
</video>
here are more than 250 ile formats that contain video elements (see
www.ileinfo.com/iletypes/video), and there are more than 25 codecs from
which to choose. And there are many methods and options to capture,
compress, edit, store, and distribute video. Introduction of the HTML5
<VIDEO> tag is a push in the direction of a standardized few technologies and methodologies that will work for most everyone on the Internet.
he most commonly used codecs are H.264, heora, and VP8 within
MP4, Ogg, and WebM containers. Unfortunately, no one of these will
necessarily play in every HTML5-compliant browser. To guarantee playability by all browsers, you may need to encode four separate versions of
your video ile, including a Flash .lv format as a fallback, and program
your HTML <VIDEO> tag with all four. he browser will play the irst
ile in the list that it can:
<video width="160" height="120" controls autoplay>
<source src="myVideo.mp4" type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"'>
<source src="myVideo.webm" type='video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"'>
<source src="myVideo.ogv" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"'>
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="160" height="120" wmode="transparent"
data="flvplayer.swf?file=myVideo.flv">
<param name="movie" value="flvplayer.swf?file=myVideo.flv" />
<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
</object>
</video>
For more about making and editing video iles, codecs, and distribution methods, see Chapter 6.
Plug-ins and Players
Prior to Adobe’s acquisition, when Macromedia introduced Shockwave
to allow the animation and interactivity of its lagship tool Director to
be embedded into pages viewed, real animation and programmable power
became available to web page developers. Later, they added Flash to their
animation armory, which also uses Shockwave to create an .swf (Shockwave Flash) version of the native .la ile in order to make it displayable
on a web page. Players and plug-ins became available for other multimedia tools with animation capabilities (for example, RunRev), and the
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Multimedia: Making It Work
view came alive as long as the person viewing your page had installed the
necessary plug-in on his or her machine. he QuickTime movie format
includes the ability to create Virtual Reality (VR) iles, also displayed on a
web page via a player. Flash and proprietary viewers can be used to present
panoramas. Figure 13-11 shows a real estate sales panorama—when you
drag the mouse across this player’s window, the scene tracks and rotates in
a 360-degree panorama. You can see adjacent rooms, too, by panning the
image in a circle.
Figure 13-11 Useful multimedia tools can enhance commercial web sites.
Chapter 13 Review
■Chapter Summary
■
Employ the basic methods for displaying elements
of multimedia on a web page, including using
HTML, CSS, and nibbling
Use GIF iles for line art and images that contain
large areas of the same color. Use JPEG for photorealistic images.
■
he World Wide Web was designed as a simple
method for delivering text and graphics.
he GIF89a speciication allows for a selected
transparency color. You cannot make a JPEG ile
transparent.
■
JPEG and PNG use a powerful but lossy
compression method that produces iles as much
as ten times more compressed than GIF.
■
Most browsers allow you to specify an image or
color to place in the background of your page in
the <BODY> tag. Text and images will loat on
top of this layer.
■
CSS is used to control the color of text in a
document.
■
Background images are automatically tiled, or
repeated, across and down the page unless told not
to using CSS.
■
Placing an image inside an HTML anchor tag
makes the graphic image clickable.
■
Image maps are pictures with deined hot spots
that link to other documents when a user clicks
on them.
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
■
■
HTML provides tags for inserting media into
HTML documents.
■
Use the <IMG> tag for inline images, the
<AUDIO>, <VIDEO>, <OBJECT>, and
<EMBED> tags for multimedia objects.
■
Specify a font, and even alternates for it, using
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), but remember:
browsers can only use fonts already on their
computer.
■
Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to set text
styles across the pages of your web site.
■
Use a graphic bitmap if you wish to absolutely
control the look of text in your HTML document.
■
A viewport 960 pixels wide may be the most
lexible choice.
■
he overriding principle in designing web pages is
to “nibble” away at the content in order to keep the
size of the data as small as possible.
Manipulate the appearance of text on the Web
■
Choose your fonts carefully: viewers may not have
your special fonts installed on their computers.
■
Use HTML tables to create columns of text.
■
Flow text around images using the ALIGN
attribute.
Determine which graphics formats are best suited
for diferent types of images and how they can be
manipulated
■
Image formats, GIF, PNG, and JPEG, use built-in
compression algorithms to reduce ile size.
■
GIF images are limited to 8 bits of color depth,
or a palette of 256 colors while JPEG and PNG
images may contain 24 bits of color depth.
Play audio on a web page by embedding the
sound within the site
■
Audio play is provided by the <AUDIO> tag.
■
Always nibble at your sound elements and
reduce them to the lowest ile sizes that will play
acceptably.
Include animation on a web page
■
Limit animated GIFs to small images, and
use a more capable plug-in for animations over
larger areas.
■
Flash provides animation on the Web.
Include video on a web page with and without the
use of plug-ins
■
Play video using the <VIDEO> tag.
417
■ Key Terms
<A> tag (411)
Ajax (413)
ALIGN attribute (400)
<AUDIO> tag (395)
AU format (413)
autoplay (413)
<BODY> tag (409)
BORDER attribute (411)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) (392)
chrome (396)
codec (414)
compression algorithm (402)
controls (413)
density-independent pixels (DIPs) (397)
deprecated (393)
Double Tap (397)
Drag (397)
<EMBED> tag (395)
escape sequence (401)
Flick (397)
GIF (402)
HSPACE attribute (400)
HTML5 (393)
<IMG> tag (395)
interlaced (407)
JPEG (403)
lossless (403)
lossy (403)
<MAP> tag (411)
multiframe image (414)
Object/Embed method (395)
<OBJECT> tag (395)
Pinch Open/Pinch Closed (397)
player (415)
plug-in (415)
PNG (403)
preload (413)
progressive (407)
<TABLE> tag (398)
Touch and Hold (397)
transparency (407)
USEMAP attribute (411)
<VIDEO> tag (395)
viewport (396)
VSPACE attribute (400)
■ Key Term Quiz
1. he tag used for inline images is the _______________.
2. he attribute used to start a video playing when the page loads is _______________.
3. An image that loads with increasing detail is _______________.
4. Special characters on a web page may be shown using a(n) _______________.
5. Tags no longer included in the most current version of the HTML standard but still recognized by
browsers have been _______________.
6. Perhaps the most powerful feature of HTML may be found in the _______________ tag.
7. A(n) _______________ is used to compress and decompress video iles.
8. A new “open” format that was developed to replace GIF without requiring licensing fees is the
_______________ format.
9. he tag that deines hot spots on an image and the links associated with the hot spots is the
______________ tag.
10. A graphic ile format that allows for both transparency and animation is _______________.
418
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. he World Wide Web was originally designed to
deliver:
a. high-quality multimedia
b. text documents with embedded graphics
c. data in many formats, including ile
transfers, chat, and e-mail
d. streaming media formats
e. top-secret military information
2. he VGA standard of a 640 × 480–pixel monitor
showing 256 colors is:
a. the highest resolution and color depth
currently available
b. the standard used by most browsers
c. still used by a small number of users
d. not used by a signiicant number of users
e. no longer considered a viable standard
3. Which of these is the only way to ensure that text
appears exactly the same across platforms?
a. Create a bitmap image of the text.
b. Link to the font at a web site.
c. Include the font as a download on the
server.
d. Specify the font using Cascading Style
Sheets.
e. Embed the font into the HTML code itself.
4. One of the most important tags, useful for
creating columns of information, is:
a. <BODY>
b. <BACKGROUND>
c. <EMBED>
d. <HEAD>
e. <TABLE>
5. Which of these statements about the GIF image
speciication is false?
a. It can be used to embed animations.
b. It can only include 256 colors.
c. It is best used for drawings and cartoons
that have only a few colors in them.
d. It can be saved in an interlaced mode.
e. It was developed by Microsoft in 1982.
6. he tag that sets text attributes for an entire web
page is:
a. <BODY>
b. <BACKGROUND>
c. <EMBED>
d. <HEAD>
e. <TABLE>
7. Which of these is not an attribute of the
<VIDEO> tag?
a. Controls
b. Autoplay
c. Height
d. Preload
e. Background Color
8. You link a graphic image to another document or
image by including the image tag inside which tag?
a. <A>
b. <URL>
c. <LINK>
d. <CLICK>
e. <GOTO>
9. What can the PNG image format not do?
a. Provide interlacing
b. Be transparent in some places
c. Show millions of colors
d. Be displayed by browsers
e. Include advertising animations
10. Which of these is not an image format supported
by most browsers?
a. GIF
b. JPEG
c. PNG
d. DXF
e. All are supported by most browsers.
11. When you change an image’s mode to Indexed
Color, which of these is not a speciication to be
selected?
a. the color depth of the converted image
b. the compression level to be used
c. the color palette to be used
d. whether the colors of your image should be
dithered or not
e. All of the above must be selected.
419
12. What is the most colors that can it into a GIF
palette?
a. 16
b. 40
c. 216
d. 254
e. 256
f. 512
13. When a background image is smaller than the
viewport, by default the browser will:
a. simply ignore the background
b. display the background in the upper-left
corner with the background color illing the
rest of the window
c. tile the background image to ill the window
d. stretch the background image to ill the
window
e. crash
14. he <AREA> tag within a <MAP> tag deines
the shape of a hot spot as a:
a. circle
b. polygon
c. rectangle
d. All of the above
e. None of the above
15. When a browser downloads a ile it cannot
process itself, it can forward the ile to an
external application for processing. his external
application is sometimes called a:
a. plug-in
b. helper application
c. CGI script
d. JavaScript
e. Java applet
■ Essay Quiz
1. How is the World Wide Web used today? How do you use it? What types of sites do you visit? How has it
changed in your personal experience?
2. Bandwidth limitations impose serious limitations on presenting multimedia over the Web. What tools and
strategies does a multimedia developer have to deal with the limitations of bandwidth?
3. HTML was never designed to include multimedia. What are the original design limitations of HTML?
How has it been stretched to accommodate other media? How has the browser architecture been adapted
to allow other media? What tools and strategies does a multimedia developer have to deal with these
limitations?
4. List and describe the most important tags for multimedia in HTML.
5. What are the most common graphics ile formats in use on the Web today? Discuss what each is best
suited for, its limitations, and its capabilities.
Lab Projects
■Project 13.1
Select three diferent web pages, each from a diferent site and with difering layouts. Print out the web pages.
Examine them carefully.
Draw lines on the printout where you think the various cells of the tables were used to construct the pages.
420
■Project 13.2
Again select three diferent web pages, each from a diferent site and with difering layouts. All browsers include
the ability to view the source code of the web page. View the HTML source, and then print it out. Identify head,
image, anchor, body, and table tags in the page by circling them.
(If you have access to a visual web page editor, import the source from the three pages in Lab Project 13.1
and note how the tables are laid out.)
■Project 13.3
Select three diferent sites that present audio and three sites that present video, virtual reality, or animation. What
data formats are used for the multimedia? Are diferent data rates ofered? What plug-ins are required? Make a
note of the URLs, media formats, data rates, and required plug-ins or helper applications.
■Project 13.4
Again select three diferent web pages, each from a diferent site and with difering layouts. Reduce the size of the
browser window. Does the layout contract past a certain point? Now widen the browser window. Does the layout
expand beyond a certain point? Make notes of your indings, including the site’s URL.
■Project 13.5
Locate a site that uses Cascading Style Sheets. his may be visible in the HTML code itself within <style> tags,
or else they may be referenced externally in a <LINK> tag. As in Project 13.4, print out the style sheet if it is
linked. Circle any fonts, colors, sizes, and other style information.
■Project 13.6
Take a digital photograph of yourself. Determine the coordinates for a circle around your right eye and a polygon
around your nose. Create a <MAP> tag with shape attributes and using HTML code place the image onto a web
page so that when you click on your right eye the browser sends you to www.facebook.com; when you click on
your nose, you are sent to www.recipes.com.
421
422
CHAPTER 14
Delivering
In this chapter, you
will learn how to:
■ List the steps a project
should go through as part
of the testing process, and
describe their signiicance
■ Determine what steps you
need to take for preparing
your project for delivery in
the marketplace
■ Discuss CD-ROM technol-
ogy and standards as they
apply to multimedia
■ Discuss DVD standards and
capacities as they apply to
multimedia
■ Determine the type of pack-
aging needed for diferent
multimedia projects
■ Assess the technical consid-
erations of project delivery
on the World Wide Web
T
est it—and then test it again; that’s the unavoidable rule. You
must test and review your project or web site to ensure that it is bug free,
accurate, operationally and visually on target, and ready to meet the client’s
requirements, even if that client is you.
Do this before the work is inalized and released for public or client
consumption. A bad reputation earned by premature product release can
destroy an otherwise excellent piece of work representing thousands of
hours of efort. If you need to, delay the release of the work to be sure that
it is as good as possible. It’s critical that you take the time to thoroughly
exercise your project and ix both big and little problems; in the end, you
will save yourself a great deal of agony!
One of the major diiculties you face in testing the operation of your
multimedia project is that its performance may depend on speciic hardware and system conigurations and, in the case of the Internet, on end
users’ connection speeds. If you cannot control the end user’s platform, or
if the project is designed to be shown in many diferent environments, you
must fully test your project on as many platforms as possible, including
heavily loaded, complicated systems.
TIP
Remember to budget for obtaining the hardware test platforms, as well as
for the many hours of efort that testing will require. If you are working for a client,
clearly specify the intended delivery platform as well as its hardware and software
coniguration, and provide a clause in your agreement or contract that you will
test only to that platform.
Few computer conigurations are identical. Even identical hardware
conigurations may be running dissimilar software that can interact with
your program in unexpected ways. Because any element of a computer’s
coniguration may be the cause of a problem or a bug, you will spend a
good portion of testing time coniguring platforms, and additional time
reproducing reported problems and curing them. It is not possible for even
a well-equipped developer to test every possible coniguration of computer,
software, and third-party add-ons. Services are available to test your project for a fee. Such companies, for example uTest (www.utest.com), will run
your project through its paces and try to identify all the bugs and problems
they can wring out of it.
Chapter 14 Delivering
423
WARNING Not everyone can test software. It takes a special personality to
slog through this process. Every feature and function must be exercised, every
button clicked. Then the same tests must be repeated again and again with
diferent hardware and under various conditions.
Testing
he terms alpha and beta are used by software developers to describe levels
of product development when testing is done and feedback is sought.
Alpha releases are typically for internal circulation only and are passed
among a select group of mock users—often just the team working on the
project. hese versions of a product are often the irst working drafts of
your project, and you can expect them to have problems or to be incomplete. Beta releases, on the other hand, are sent to a wider but still select
audience with the same caveat: this software may contain errors, bugs, and
unknown alligators that slither out of the swamp at day’s end to bite startled designers from behind. Because your product is now being shown and
used outside the privacy of its birth nest, its reputation will begin to take
form during beta phase. hankfully though, beta-level bugs are typically
less virulent than alpha bugs.
TIP
If your project is a web site, there are a number of online tools that will
validate your code, and indicate where you need to make tweaks or repairs. Do a
search for “HTML validation” or “CSS validation” tools.
Alpha Testing
You should remain lexible and amenable to changes in both the design
and the behavior of your project as you review the comments of your
alpha testers. Beware of alpha testing groups made up of kindly friends
who can provide positive criticism. Rather, you need to include aggressive
people who will attack all aspects of your work. he meaner and nastier
they are, the more likely they will sweat out errors or uncertainties in
your product’s design or navigation system. In the testing arena, learn to
skillfully utilize friend and enemy alike. You will undoubtedly discover
aspects of your work that, despite even the most insightful planning, you
have overlooked.
Beta Testing
he beta testing group should be representative of real users and should
not include persons who have been involved in the project’s production.
Beta testers must have no preconceived ideas. You want them to provide
From a letter with enclosed
software, delivered by overnight courier to 240 testers
around the world:
We had a bit of a scare
on this Beta. Here is the
replacement copy for the
infected B5 program. For
your info, the virus that got
past me was a strain of nVir.
It was dormant and fooled
Virus Detective, Virex, and
Interferon. Virex 1.1 listed
it as a harmless “Stub” that
was left over from a previous
cleanup. It wasn’t until late
yesterday that we discovered
that it was real. I must apologize for letting this slip past
me and thank the people
in our tech support department for their help in calling
all the members of the
Beta test team and alerting
them to this problem. If
they didn’t get hold of you,
it was certainly not for lack
of trying.
Ben Calica, letter author and a
product manager who claims
this product shortened his life
span by two years
424
Multimedia: Making It Work
commentary and reports in exchange for getting to play with the latest
software and for recognition as part of this “inside” process.
Managing beta test feedback is critical. If you ignore or overlook testers’ comments, the testing efort is a waste. Ask your beta testers to include
a detailed description of the hardware and software coniguration at the
time the problem occurred, and a step-by-step recounting of the problem, so that you can recreate it, analyze it, and repair it. You should also
solicit general comments and suggestions. Figure 14-1 presents the search
page from a web-based bug reporting system that is database driven and
capable of managing thousands of reports about a complicated application
in a meaningful way. (Apache is the most widely used HTTP daemon for
serving web pages.)
Figure 14-1
This page from a webbased bug reporting
system seeks precise and
reproducible descriptions
of problems. In testing
complex applications,
thousands of bug reports
may be received, and a
dedicated quality control
team may be tasked to
deal with them.
TIP Look for testers from a broad range of users, novice to expert. You’ve
been through the program hundreds of times, and you know what’s supposed to
happen. A new or novice user may get stuck in a place where you thought all is
clearly obvious.
Chapter 14 Delivering
Polishing to Gold
As you move through alpha and beta testing, and then through the debugging process toward a inal release, you may want to use terms that indicate the current version status of your project. For example, bronze when
you are close to being inished, gold when you have determined there is
nothing left to change or correct and are ready to reproduce copies from
your golden master. Some software developers also use the term release
candidate (with a version number) as they continue to reine the product
and approach a golden master. Going gold, or announcing that the job is
inished, and then shipping, can be a scary thing. Indeed, if you examine the
ile creation time and date for many software programs, you will discover
that many went gold at two o’clock in the morning.
Preparing for Delivery
If your completed multimedia project will be delivered to consumers or to
a client who will install the project on many computers, you will need to
prepare your iles so they can be easily transferred from your media to the
user’s platform. Simply copying a project’s iles to the user’s hard disk is
often not enough for proper installation; frequently, you will also need to
install special system and run-time iles.
So that end users can easily and automatically set up your project or
application on their own computers, you may need to provide a single program that acts as an installer.
WARNING
The task of writing a proper installation routine is not a trivial
one. Be sure you set aside adequate time in your schedule and money in your
programming budget for writing and testing the installation program for your
project platforms.
It is important to provide well-written documentation about the installation process so that users have a clear step-by-step procedure to follow.
hat documentation must include a discussion of potential problems and
constraints related to the full range of your target platforms. Because you
likely will not have control over the speciication and coniguration of the
user’s platform, it is critical that you include appropriate warnings in your
installation document, like these examples:
■
■
■
■
■
Must have at least 1GB of RAM
Will not run unless QuickTime is installed
3MB available disk drive space
Disable all screen savers before running
Back up older versions before installing this update
425
426
Multimedia: Making It Work
First Person
We beat on the bronze version of
the program right up to the last
day, when we had to send a golden
master to the duplicator by overnight courier. They were prepared
to make 40,000 discs in a matter of
hours and then hand-carry them
directly to a trade show.
Like kids with sticks at a piñata
birthday party, we did everything
we could to make all the bugs
tumble out of the program. Every
time a bug appeared, we killed it.
As we pounded and tested, fewer
and fewer bugs fell out, until none
appeared for about six hours
straight, under every condition we
could dream up. As the deadline for
the courier’s airport facility neared,
we were ready to apply the inishing
touches to the product and stamp it
gold. One of the guys waited in his
car with engine running, ready for
the sprint through commuter traic
to the airport.
the waiting car. An hour later, our
postpartum celebration was interrupted by a painful cry from down
the hall—someone had discovered
the law. By then the courier light
had departed.
We were saving the program every
three minutes and nervously backing it up on diferent media about
every ten minutes. We had built
in a hidden software routine for
debugging this project, and when
the product manager clicked Save
for the last time, he forgot to reset
the program for normal use—we
didn’t know the master was lawed.
Handling the disc like a uranium
fuel rod traveling through heavy
water, we packed it up and got it to
We ixed it. Faced with the appalling
possibility of 40,000 bad discs being
invoiced to us instead of the client,
we sent the exhausted product
manager out on the midnight
light, without a chance even to
go home and clean up. He had a
golden master disc in his briefcase,
one in his shirt pocket, one in his
pants pocket, and one in a manila
envelope that would never see an
airport X-ray machine.
Often a ile named README.TXT or Read.Me is a useful thing to
include on the distribution disc of your project. his ile can be a simple
ASCII text ile accessible by any text editor or word processing application. It should contain a description of changes or bugs reported since the
documentation was printed and may also contain a detailed description of
the installation process.
If your project will be deployed on the Web, provide special directions
in a FAQ or Help page, where you can describe required plug-ins and
browser compatibility and other issues. You can often do much dynamically using JavaScript “snifer” routines to alert users when their browser is
not compatible, and you can even serve a diferent version of your project
tailored to that user’s system or browser.
he clearer and more detailed your installation instructions are, the
fewer frustrated queries you will receive from your project’s users. If your
project is designed for wide distribution, installation problems can cause
you many headaches and a great deal of time and expense in providing
answers and service over the telephone. Set up a product-related web site
with pages for software registration, bug reporting, technical support, and
program upgrades.
Chapter 14 Delivering
427
From: Christopher Yavelow <Christopher@yav.com>
Subject: The case of the keyboardless kiosk
About ten days ago I posted an announcement to the list
about our interactive kiosk installation at the new
Netherlands Museum of Science and Technology.
Now I’ve discovered that science museums at this level are
the target of bands of teenage hackers that try to crash
all the exhibits. Our exhibit fell prey to such a band last
Friday.
Although the software is running inside of a kiosk built
into a larger “The Music is the Message” exhibit housing
AND the museum visitor has only a trackball and single push
button to operate the exhibit AND there is *no* way to quit
the software without issuing a command-Q from a keyboard
which is double-locked inside the guts of the exhibit
housing, some kids were able to get back to the desktop and
delete the 60 MB of files associated with the exhibit...
and they did so in such a way that Norton Utils (3.5) could
not find them for un-erasing (I had to bring over a CD-ROM
version and re-install the entire exhibit).
How did they do it? Is there a way to get back to the
desktop in such a scenario: a (for all practical purposes)
keyboardless kiosk with only a trackball and single button
interface and no on-screen option to quit the application?
There are no menus, the menubar is hidden, there are no quit
buttons, AllowInterrupts is set to false, etc., etc.
Christopher Yavelow
YAV Interactive Media
Brederodestraat 47
2042 BB Zandvoort
The Netherlands
eMail: Christopher@yav.com
wSite: http://www.yav.com
Scary message found at an Internet newsgroup for multimedia programmers
File Archives
One or more of the iles in your project can be compressed or “packed” into
a single ile, called an archive. When that archive is then decompressed,
or the iles are expanded or extracted, each ile in the archive is “reconstituted.” Figure 14-2 shows the menu of a zipped archive. Archives are
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Multimedia: Making It Work
usually identiied by ilename extensions representing the compression
software that was used, as shown in Table 14-1.
Compression Software
Extension
Platform
7-Zip, WinZip
.zip
Windows
ARC
.arc
Windows
RAR
.rar
Windows
Windows Install
.cab
Windows
Macintosh Install
.dmg
Macintosh
StufIt
.sit
Macintosh
Self-extracting
.exe
Windows
BinHex
.hqx
Internet
Tar
.tar
Internet, Unix
Gzip
.gz
Internet, Unix
Table 14-1
Common Filename Extensions for Compressed File Archives
Figure 14-2
A ile archive can
contain many
compressed iles.
Self-extracting archives are useful for delivering projects in compressed form. On the Mac, these iles typically carry the ilename extension .sea. On Windows platforms, these archives are executable iles with
an .exe ilename extender. With self-extracting archives, the user simply
runs the executable archive, and the compressed iles are automatically
decompressed and placed into a folder on the hard disk.
Chapter 14 Delivering
TIP
429
Keep a copy of your project archive of-site in case of ire or lood.
First Person
I recently discovered a group of
computer scientists and programmers fully dedicated to exploring
and improving the techniques
and algorithms used for compression of digital data. These folks are
from around the world and hang
out on bulletin boards, where they
have lengthy and arcane electronic
conversations. Programmers and
mathematicians such as Hufman,
Lempel, and Ziv have been made
famous on these services.
The greatest contribution this group
has made to computer technology
may not be in the area of information condensation, but in the
creative spin-of of peculiar new
words such as freshen, pack, crunch,
squash, shrink, crush, implode,
distill, squeeze, stuf, and garble.
Delivering on CD-ROM
Many multimedia projects are delivered on CD-ROM or DVD. While
the very irst users of CD-ROMs were owners of large databases like
library catalogs, reference systems, and parts lists, today most computers
are shipped with a CD/DVD drive, and software that is not downloaded
from the Internet is typically packaged on a disc.
Compact Disc Technology
A compact disc, or CD, is a thin wafer of clear polycarbonate plastic and
metal measuring 4.75 inches (120 mm) in diameter, with a small hole, or
hub, in its center. he metal layer is usually pure aluminum, sputtered onto
the polycarbonate surface in a thickness measurable in molecules. As the
disc spins in the CD player, the metal relects light from a tiny infrared
laser into a light-sensitive receiver diode. hese relections are transformed
into an electrical signal and then further converted to meaningful bits and
bytes for use in digital equipment.
Pits on the CD, where the information is stored, are 1 to 3 microns
long, about 1/2 micron wide, and 1/10 micron deep. (By comparison,
a human hair is about 18 microns in diameter.) A CD can contain as
many as three miles of these tiny pits wound in a spiral pattern from the
hub to the edge. A layer of lacquer is applied to protect the surface, and
When you throw a few atoms and
best guesses into this potpourri
of words, the language of data
compression joins that of modern
physics, with its own quarks, gluons,
and happy and sad particles. It’s
a creative and inventive place in
the day-to-day forward motion
of human endeavor, this place of
strange and beautiful compression
algorithms.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
artwork from the disc’s author or publisher is usually silk-screened on
the back side.
Compact discs are made in what is generally referred to as a family
process. he glass master is made using the well-developed, photolithographic techniques created by the microchip industry: First an optically ground glass disc is coated with a layer of photo-resistant material
1/10 micron thick. A laser then exposes (writes) a pattern of pits onto
the surface of the chemical layer of material. he disc is developed (the
exposed areas are washed away) and is silvered, resulting in the actual pit
structure of the inished master disc. he master is then electroplated with
layers of nickel one molecule thick, one layer at a time, until the desired
thickness is reached. he nickel layer is separated from the glass disc and
forms a metal negative, or father.
In cases where low runs of just a few discs are required, the father
is used to make the actual discs. Most projects, though, require several
mothers, or positives, to be made by plating the surface of the father.
In a third plating stage, sons, or stampers, are made from the mother,
and these are the parts that are used in the injection molding machines.
Plastic pellets are heated and injected into the mold or stamper, forming
the disc with the pits in it. he plastic disc is coated with a thin aluminum
layer for relectance and lacquer for protection, given a silk-screened label
for marketing, and packaged for delivery. Most of these activities occur
in a particle-free clean room, because one speck of dust larger than a pit
can ruin many hours of work. he mastering process alone takes around
12 hours.
CD-R
CD-R (compact disc-recordable) is an excellent method for distributing
multimedia projects. CD-R writers and blank CD-R discs are inexpensive, and for short runs of a product, it is more cost efective to burn your
work onto CD-Rs and custom-label them with your own printer than to
have the discs mastered and pressed using the expensive father and son
method described previously. Many services with auto-loading equipment
and 24-hour turnarounds can make short runs.
CD-R blanks that can hold as much as 84 minutes of Red Book sound
(see the next section) or more than 700MB of data are made of a polycarbonate core coated with layers of relective metals and special photosensitive organic dyes (see Figure 14-3). During the burning process, laser
light hits the layer of dye, bakes it, and forms a pit. A 74-minute CD-R disc
contains 333,000 sectors * 2048 bytes / sector for a capacity of 650.4MB.
An 80-minute disc contains 360,000 sectors * 2048 bytes / sector for a data
capacity of 703.1MB.
Chapter 14 Delivering
431
Coating
Organic photoconductive dye
Relective layer
Guide groove
Base
Laser light
Compact Disc Standards
In 1979, Philips and Sony together launched CD technology as a digital
method of delivering sound and music (audio) to consumers. his collaboration resulted in the Red Book standard (named for the color of the
document’s jacket), oicially called the Compact Disc Digital Audio
Standard. he Red Book standard deines the audio format for CDs available in music stores today; later, the Yellow Book covered CD-ROM; the
Green Book covered CD-I (Interactive); the Orange Book covered writeonce, read-only (WORM) CD-ROMs; and the White Book covered
Video CD (Karaoke CD).
The Red Book
Red Book remains the basis for standards that deine more elaborate
digital data formats for computers and other digital devices. Audio CDs
can provide up to 80 minutes of playing time, which is enough for a slowtempo rendition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. his was reported to
be Philips and Sony’s actual criterion during research and development
for determining the size of sectors and ultimately the physical size of the
CD itself.
A CD may contain one or more tracks. hese are areas normally
allocated for storing a single song in the Red Book format. CDs also
Figure 14-3
As a CD or DVD disc spins, laser
light is beamed along a groove or
track of lands (high points) and
pits (low points). The diference in
relected light as the beam passes
over these tiny spots is interpreted
as binary data.
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Multimedia: Making It Work
contain lead-in information and a table of contents. Each track on the
CD may use a diferent format; this allows you to create a mixed-mode
disc that combines, for example, high-quality CD-Audio with Macintosh
Hierarchical File System (HFS) CD-ROM or ISO 9660 data formats.
Figure 14-4 illustrates the track layouts for Red Book, Yellow Book,
Green Book, mixed mode, and for Kodak’s PhotoCD Orange Book layout. Both Macintosh and Windows support commands to access both
Red Book Audio and the data tracks on a CD, but you cannot access
both at the same time.
Red Book Track Layout
Lead In & Table of Contents
Music Tracks
Lead Out
Empty...
Lead Out
Empty...
sectors of 1/75th second
Mixed Mode Track Layout
Lead In & Table of Contents
Mode 1 Data
CD-XA
Music Tracks
Track 1
Track 2
Track 2+
Yellow Book
Yellow Book
Red Book
Orange Book Track Layout
Write Once
Multi-session Hybrid Disc Layout—Can write sectors in Red, Yellow, and Green Book
Lead In & TOC
Data Tracks
Lead Out
Lead In & TOC
Data Tracks
Lead Out
Figure 14-4
CD track layouts
Session 1
Session 2
hough a CD contains tracks, the primary logical unit for data storage on a CD is a sector, which is 1/75 second in length. Each sector of a
CD contains 2,352 bytes of data. After every sector are another 882 bytes
consisting of two layers of error-detecting and error-correcting information (EDC and ECC) and timing control data. A CD actually requires,
then, 3,234 bytes to store 2,352 bytes of data. EDC and ECC allow a
scratched or dirty data sector to be reconstructed by software fast enough
to avoid dropout of music. Timing codes are used to display song-playing
time on an audio CD player.
TIP
Because there is built-in error correction on CDs, small scratches may not
afect playback, particularly when the scratch runs in a straight line from center
to edge. To really wreck a CD, scratch it in an easy arc from the center to the rim;
error correction won’t keep up.
Chapter 14 Delivering
he disc spins at a constant linear velocity (CLV), so data can be read
at a constant density and spacing. his means the rotational speed of the
disc may vary from about 200 rpm when the read head is at the outer
edge, to 530 rpm when it is reading near the hub. his translates to about
1.3 meters (51 inches) of travel along the data track each second. CD players use very sensitive motors so that no matter where the read head is on
the disc, approximately the same amount of data is read in each second.
he CD’s rotational speed and the density of the pits and lands on the
CD allow data to be read at a sustained rate of 150 Kbps in a single-speed
reader. his is suicient for good audio, but it is very slow for large image
iles, motion video, and other multimedia resources, especially when compared to the high data-transfer rates of hard disk drives. New drives that
spin many times faster when reading computer data, and slower for Red
Book Audio, have been designed speciically for computers. In any case,
CD access speed and transfer rate from CD-ROM is much slower than
from a hard disk.
The Yellow, Green, Orange, and White Books
Philips and Sony developed the Yellow Book to provide an established
standard for data storage and retrieval. he Yellow Book adds yet another
layer of error checking to accommodate the greater reliability required of
computer data, and it provides two modes: one for computer data and the
other for compressed audio and video/picture data.
he most common standard currently used for CD-ROM production evolved from the Yellow Book, with Microsoft joining the collaboration, and it was approved by the International Standards Organization
as ISO 9660.
WARNING
It is possible to damage your speakers if you play the digital track
of a CD-ROM on your audio CD player. The digital data is decoded as full-volume
noise by players that do not check for a data lag in the control ield of the
Q subchannel.
Later, other standards were developed to deal with speciic user requirements, such as synchronized interleaving of compressed audio and visual
data in interactive digital movies (Green Book), and with formats for
write-once, read-only (WORM) and magneto-optical CD technologies
(Orange Book). A CD-R can have several separate images or sessions
on it, each recorded at diferent times.
he Red, Yellow, Green, and Orange books describe the types of compact discs listed in Table 14-2.
433
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Multimedia: Making It Work
Name
Description
Comment
CD-Audio or CD-DA
Digital audio
Consumer audio discs
CD-ROM High Sierra
Read-only memory
Vestigial standard, seldom used
CD-ROM ISO 9660
Read-only memory
MS-DOS and Macintosh iles
CD-ROM HFS
Read-only memory
Macintosh HFS iles
CD-ROM/XA
Read-only memory
Extended Architecture
CD-I or CD-RTOS
Interactive
Philips Interactive motion video
CD-I Ready
Interactive/Ready
Audio CD with features for CD-I player
CD-Bridge
Bridge
Allows XA track to play on CD-I player
CD-MO
Magneto-optical
Premastered area readable on any CD player
CD-WO or CD-R
Write-once recordable
May use multiple sessions to ill disc
CD+G
Mixed mode
CD+Graphics—MTV on disc
CDTV
ISO 9660 variant
Commodore proprietary system
PhotoCD
Compressed images
Kodak multisession XA system
Video CD or Karaoke CD
Bridge
Karaoke full-motion MPEG video
Table 14-2 Compact Disc Formats
Many multimedia developers place both Macintosh iles and PC iles
on the same CD in a hybrid format, letting the user launch the proper
applications for the appropriate platform. You can selectively hide the iles
of either platform when you create a hybrid so that Windows users will
not be confused by odd-looking Macintosh iles in their directories, and
vice versa. Graphics, text, and data iles written in common formats such
as DOC, TIF, PIC, DBF, and WKS can be read from an ISO 9660 CD
and imported into your application, whether the ile was generated on a
Macintosh or a PC.
Delivering on DVD
Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) employ a diferent (multilayer, highdensity) manufacturing process than audio and data CDs, and this technology provides as much as 15.9GB of storage on a single disc in the
Double Sided, Dual-Layered format (DVD-18). More common and
readily available are Single-Sided, Single-Layered discs ofering 4.37GB
of storage (DVD-5), often called “4.7GB Media.”
In December 1995, nine major electronics companies (Toshiba,
Matsushita, Sony, Philips, Time Warner, Pioneer, JVC, Hitachi, and
Mitsubishi Electric) agreed to promote a new optical disc technology for
distribution of multimedia and feature-length movies called DVD.
Chapter 14 Delivering
With this medium capable not only of gigabyte storage capacity but
also full-motion video (MPEG2) and high-quality audio in surround
sound, the bar was raised for multimedia developers: commercial multimedia projects become more expensive to produce as consumers’ performance expectations rise.
Is DVD+R/+RW a real DVD format?
DVD+R/+RW recorders are the only DVD recorders that use just
one operating mode, which always creates DVD-Video compatible
discs. Whereas other formats have diferent physical disc types or
diferent logical formats (methods used to record video on a disc) to
ofer the user a lexible recording experience, DVD+R/+RW ofers
the user lexibility and a rich feature set, without sacriicing compatibility. With DVD+R/+RW, there is no need to buy expensive
dedicated players to allow playback of recorded discs, as the recordings can be played on the majority of the 100s of millions of DVDVideo players and DVD-ROM drives available today. Furthermore,
also on a physical level DVD+RW and DVD+R are closer to the
DVD format than competing formats, as they do not need special
“pre-pits” on the disc that could afect compatibility. All in all,
DVD+R/+RW is the most real recordable DVD format around.
From a DVD+RW Alliance FAQ
Is +RW a DVD Format?
+RW is not the DVD Format created and authorized by the DVD
Forum. Likewise, although strikingly similar in appearance to the
DVD-RW, there is no DVD Format called DVD+RW or +RW
among the Formats created and authorized by the DVD Forum.
here is No Veriication Process for +RW or DVD+RW products
authorized by the DVD Forum. here is No Veriication Laboratory authorized by the DVD Forum to test +RW or DVD+RW
products. here are No Test Speciications for +RW or DVD+RW
products authorized by the DVD Forum and available at DVD
FLLC. Also, there is no guarantee for compatibility between the
products employing the DVD Forum–approved Formats and the
products employing the +RW or DVD+RW technology.
From a DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation FAQ
435
436
Multimedia: Making It Work
DVD Standards
Diferent formats are used to write DVD-video discs and DVD data
storage discs. DVD-video discs use a variant of MPEG2 and were designed
for set-top boxes connected to televisions. DVD-video is authored by
mastering software that allows rudimentary scripting and branching for
menu structures, chapter markers, and slide shows, but the format only
allows for basic logic (and relies on a simple handheld remote control input
device).
Using a DVD disc as a storage medium, you can create a complex multimedia title using any authoring or programming system, and distribute
it on a DVD-ROM disc. Most computers can read or play both DVDROM and DVD-video discs. Set-top DVD players are limited to playing
DVD-video.
here are three competing sets of standards for data recording on DVD:
DVD-R/DVD-RW, DVD+R/DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM. he “R” and
“RW” stand for recordable and rewritable respectively. DVD standards are
supported by the DVD Forum (www.dvdforum.com). DVD+ standards
are supported by the DVD+RW Alliance (www.dvdrw.com). DVD-RAM
has better recording features but requires more specialized playback hardware. DVD-R/DVD-RW and DVD+R/DVD+RW are similar and can be
played back on most DVD players and drives.
With Dolby AC-3 Digital Surround Sound as part of the DVD
speciications, six discrete audio channels can be programmed for digital surround sound, and with a separate subwoofer channel, developers
can program the low-frequency doom and gloom music popular with
Hollywood. DVD also supports Dolby Pro-Logic Surround Sound,
standard stereo, and mono audio. Users can randomly access any section
of the disc and use the slow-motion and freeze-frame features during
movies. Audio tracks can be programmed for as many as 8 diferent languages, with graphic subtitles in 32 languages. Some manufacturers such
as Toshiba are providing parental control features in their players.
True to marketing principles, DVD manufacturers express DVD capacities in billion byte quantities where “billion” or “Giga” means the vernacular
1000 × 1000 × 1000, not the more precise binary deinition of 1024 × 1024
× 1024 bytes used by your computer. his makes the advertised capacity of
a DVD disc sound about seven percent bigger than it really is; you will not
be able to record more than 4.37GB onto a blank disc!
Wrapping It Up
Packaging is an important area where sales and marketing issues extend
the process of making multimedia into the real world of end users. Like
the cover of a book, people will judge your work based upon the impression it makes.
Chapter 14 Delivering
If your project is for your own use, you may not need the pretty cover,
cardboard box, and shrink-wrap that is required for over-the-counter software sold to consumers. If your project is for a client or for the Web, you
may simply need to deliver it on any suicient storage media or upload it to
a server. But if your project is headed for wider distribution within a large
company or organization or into retail channels, you will need to think
about packaging.
If your project is destined to be sold into the consumer retail channel, then you have made a title. Software titles are most often distributed
on CD-ROM or DVD. he software itself may, indeed, be only one item
(the most important one) in a package that includes a user’s manual, a
registration card, quick reference guides, hardware adapters, and collateral marketing material from you or other parties with whom you have
arrangements.
Retailers claim that consumers typically relate the inish of a package
to quality and price of the product inside. he fancier, bigger, and heavier
the package is, the higher its perceived value. Software manufacturers juggle the elements of this equation when they determine the cost of goods
and shipping/freight add-ons and set the product’s price point. Many big
software boxes are shipped with plenty of sailboat fuel inside, and with
cardboard or open-cell foam to hold the thin disc and manuals in place.
In fact, the manuals may not be printed, but included on the distribution
disc as .PDF iles.
he art for your cover should relect the content and function of the
enclosed product; it should also follow normal rules for good design layout.
Your company’s logo should be prominent, and if this is one of a series of
titles, the artwork should conform to the coordinated look or style you are
using throughout that series or product line.
When your product reaches the retail channel, it may be displayed on
shelves or racks, in kiosks, or it may be hung on brackets. You should be
sure to put the name of your title on the front face and on the spine of the
package. Use photo-quality images and high-caliber artwork for the front,
because this is the most visible face of your package. Many packages are
shrink-wrapped with thin plastic to protect them from ingerprints and
pilferage at the retail outlet. Even after the shrink-wrap is on your package, there is room for additional artwork: bright stickers can be efective
eye-catchers. And some vendors apply specially made holographic stickers
to identify their product and to prevent unauthorized bootleg copies from
reaching the marketplace.
Some vendors have developed unique or special solutions to make
their product stand out. Authorware, for example, was once shipped in a
custom-designed briefcase with carry handle. An expensive software package, this briefcase was easily absorbed in the purchase price. Fractal Design
437
438
Multimedia: Making It Work
Painter was at one time shipped in a metal paint
can with a colorful paper wrapper, and Eye
Candy special efects for After Efects came in
a metal movie reel case (see Figure 14-5). But
package size and shape options are, more often
than not, limited by the common constraints of
the loor and shelf space found in retailing outlets and by the expense of fabricating a nonstandard container.
Most industrial cities boast more than one
packaging specialist with whom you can consult. hese outits can supply cardboard and
plastic boxes, printing, cutting, folding, and
Figure 14-5 Some software comes in interesting packages.
wrapping services. Environmentally responsible packaging, especially for compact discs,
is popular, and special sleeves and cardboard containers are
available. Be sure to consider the weight and bulk of your
package—an ounce of extra weight that pushes you over a
A few years ago I taught a student of
zone or destination boundary might increase your shipping
mine about HTML, just before she went
costs signiicantly. he outside wrap for shipping should be
of to a summer internship working on a
plain because pilferage, especially for international destinatraditional book publisher’s web site. She
tions and customs zones, can be a problem. Look for volume
returned to school three months later and
discounts and price breaks.
demonstrated to me how one might use the
he current trend in software packaging is toward simpliiWeb to generate proits—at a time when
cation. Indeed, as the information revolution takes hold, more
many doubted it was easy to do. Working
software and documentation will be available for purchase and
for the publisher, she was assigned the job
downloading directly from the Web, and today’s boxes and
of marketing a book for college students.
bright packages will become quaint collector’s items.
She did her research and discovered how
advertising in the search engines works:
by “buying” the word “college” on a few of
them, she was able to place an ad on search
Delivering multimedia projects built for the World Wide
results that were related to colleges; visiWeb can be as simple as renaming a directory or transferring a
tors who clicked on her ad were linked to
group of iles to a web server. Servers and networked systems
the publisher’s web site, where they could
are discussed in Chapter 7. On the face of it, the mechanics of
purchase the book online. While explaining
actually putting a project on the Web are trivial, particularly
the process, she checked the online sales of
because you have likely been designing, building, and testing
her book: over 5,000 copies had been sold
within “web space” throughout the development of your
online within a month of publication—
project, anyway. But delivery of your project and activation
eight of them during the last hour!
of your pages by making them available to your intended
audience on the Web, whether to the general public or to an
Panagiotis Takis Metaxas,
intranet of select users behind a irewall, should be approached
Associate Professor of Computer Science,
Wellesley College
with caution. Here there are many technical considerations
Delivering on the World Wide Web
Chapter 14 Delivering
that, while outside the topic of multimedia per se, should be understood if
you want your project to be a success.
If you own or host the delivery web server yourself, you will have better
security control, better integration of your project into your internal LAN
or intranet, and you can ine-tune the server’s coniguration parameters
and specify and install any special software you need. On the other hand,
you will likely need a full-time webmaster, and you will pay for a highbandwidth connection directly to the Internet. When you have control of
the server, you can provide secure commerce services for credit card transactions, encryption and passwords, special databases, and custom CGI
programming. For multimedia projects requiring streaming technologies
such as RealAudio or video conferencing, you can purchase and install the
necessary software on the server.
If your project will reside at a site hosted by an Internet service provider (ISP) or on a company’s own internal intranet, you must discover
during the planning phase of your project what the host’s limitations
might be and design your project within those limitations. It does no good
to include PhotoCD image pacs, ToolVox meta voice iles, or complex Java
scripts in your web pages, only to ind that your ISP does not or will not
support the MIME-type or purchase and install the necessary server software for you.
Internet directories like Yahoo, and search engines like Google, are
important components of the Web’s “how-to-ind-it” functionality and
power: using meta tags, be sure your project will register with the search
engines and can be easily found.
TIP The following are informative URLs for web site promotion and search
engine submission:
www.allaboutyourownwebsite.com/web_site_promotion.php3
www.insideoutmarketing.com/index.php?p=pages&pid=4
439
Chapter 14 Review
■Chapter Summary
For your review, here’s a summary of the important
concepts discussed in this chapter.
List the steps a project should go through as
part of the testing process, and describe their
signiicance
■
Alpha releases are typically circulated among a
select group of mock internal users for testing.
■
Beta releases are sent to a wider but still select
audience with the understanding that the software
may contain errors or bugs.
■
Beta testers should include a detailed description
of the hardware and software coniguration and
a step-by-step recounting of the problem so that
you can re-create it.
■
■
■
Fully test your project on as many platforms
as possible, including heavily loaded, highly
expanded systems. Any element of a computer’s
coniguration may be the cause of a problem or a
bug, so plan to spend lots of time coniguring and
testing various platforms and reproducing and
ixing bugs.
Budget for obtaining the hardware test platforms,
as well as for the many hours of efort that testing
will require.
Your contract should clearly specify the intended
delivery platform and its hardware and software
coniguration, and provide a clause that you will
test only to that platform.
■
he clearer and more detailed your installation
instructions are, the fewer frustrated users’ queries
you will receive.
■
Use a shareware or commercial compression utility
for creating program archives that can then be
decompressed and “reconstituted” into the original
ile structure.
■
Self-extracting iles allow the user to run
the executable archive; compressed iles are
automatically decompressed and placed on the
hard disk.
Discuss CD-ROM technology and standards as
they apply to multimedia
■
he majority of multimedia products sold into
retail and business channels are delivered on
CD-ROM or DVD.
■
CD-R writers and blank CD-R discs are an
inexpensive way to distribute multimedia projects.
■
For short runs of a product, it is cheaper to burn
your work onto CD-Rs and custom-label them
with your own printer.
■
he Red Book standard deines the CD
audio format; Yellow Book is for CD-ROM;
Green Book is for CD-I (Interactive); Orange
Book is for write-once, read-only (WORM)
CD-ROMs; and White Book is for Video CD
(Karaoke CD).
■
A single-speed reader allows data to be read at
a sustained rate of 150 Kbps, much slower than
from a hard disk.
■
Although you can access all iles on the CD from
either platform, a PC executable program will not
run on a Macintosh, and vice versa.
■
A hybrid format places both Macintosh iles and
PC iles on the same CD, with both PC and
Macintosh executable programs.
Determine what steps you need to take for
preparing your project for delivery in the
marketplace
■
You may need to provide a single program that
acts as an installation routine, which is not a
trivial task.
■
Provide well-written documentation about the
installation process so that users have a clear
step-by-step procedure to follow.
440
■
he ISO 9660 standard is the most widely used
digital data ile format for CDs.
Determine the type of packaging needed for
diferent multimedia projects
■
ISO 9660 follows the MS-DOS ile-naming
conventions—directory names are limited to eight
characters, and directories may not be nested more
than eight deep.
■
Discuss DVD standards and capacities as they
apply to multimedia
■
■
Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) are made with a
multilayer, high-density manufacturing process
that provides 4.7 gigabytes of storage.
Set-top DVD players for movie viewing at home
do not play data-formatted DVDs.
Packaging is an important consideration in
marketing your project. Although users often
equate quality with large boxes, high-caliber
artwork, and fancy packaging, the current trend in
software packaging is toward simpliication.
Assess the technical considerations of project
delivery on the World Wide Web
■
Delivering multimedia projects built for the
World Wide Web can be as simple as renaming a
directory or transferring a group of iles to a web
server. On the other hand, hosting your own server
for delivering your project means tackling a variety
of issues, including security, server-side coniguration, and access.
■ Key Terms
activation (438)
alpha release (423)
archive (427)
beta release (423)
bronze (425)
burn (430)
CD-I (Interactive) (431)
CD-ROM/XA (Extended
Architecture)(434)
Compact Disc Digital Audio
Standard (431)
Digital Versatile Disc
(DVD) (434)
extension (428)
family process (430)
father (430)
golden master (425)
Green Book (433)
Hierarchical File System
(HFS) (432)
hybrid format (434)
installer (425)
ISO 9660 (433)
Karaoke CD (431)
mother (430)
Orange Book (433)
PhotoCD (432)
pressed (430)
README.TXT, Read.Me (426)
Red Book standard (431)
release candidate (425)
sector (432)
self-extracting archive (428)
session (433)
son, stamper (430)
title (437)
track (431)
Video CD (431)
White Book (431)
write-once, read-only
(WORM) (433)
Yellow Book (433)
441
■ Key Term Quiz
1. he test release of a product that is typically for internal circulation only and is passed among a select
group of mock users is the _______________.
2. he test release of a product that is sent to a select group of external users with the understanding that the
software may contain errors and bugs is the _______________.
3. he inal release of a product when there is nothing left to change or correct and it is ready to be
reproduced is the _______________.
4. he test release of a product with a version number as the developers continue to reine the product and
approach a inal version is called a(n) _______________.
5. A program that saves all necessary run-time iles to the user’s hard drive is called a(n) _______________.
6. Many projects include a plain-text ile containing a description of changes or bugs reported since the
documentation was printed and a detailed description of the installation process. his ile is often named
_______________.
7. When several iles are compressed into a single ile, it is usually called a(n) _______________.
8. Compressed iles can be saved with the ability to automatically decompress themselves and place the iles
on the built-in hard disk. Such iles are called _______________.
9. A CD-ROM that contains both Macintosh iles and PC iles on the same CD is a(n) _______________.
10. A CD-R can have several separate images on it, each recorded at diferent times. Each of these is called
a(n) _______________.
■ Multiple-Choice Quiz
1. When delivering a project, you should:
a. not bother testing; it’ll probably work
b. test once on your development computer
c. test on a couple of other computers
d. test on several other computers at
least once
e. test on as many diferent computers as
many times as you can
2. he pre–OS X Macintosh environment is
well known for its sensitivity to certain drivers
and other parts of system software that conlict
with some software applications. hese are
known as:
a. DLLs
b. plug-ins
c. sectors
442
d. extensions
e. headers
3. he iles used by Windows to store coniguration
information and settings is called the:
a. settings ile
b. parameters list
c. registry database
d. proile typesheet
e. system coniguration ile
4. he beta testing group is best composed of:
a. the internal development team
b. users typical of the target group for the software
c. a cross-section of the computer-using public
d. computer neophytes
e. other programmers who are familiar with
the authoring system used
5. Which of the following is an extension for a
Macintosh ile compressed as a self-extracting
archive?
a. .exe
b. .hqx
c. .zip
d. .sea
e. .sit
6. Which of the following is not an option for
delivering a project?
a. Burn CD-Rs of the project.
b. Use a father disc to press CDs.
c. Use a mother disc to press CDs.
d. Use a son disc to press CDs.
e. Deliver the project via the Web.
7. Compact discs are manufactured by etching a
negative master, then pressing a positive imprint
of that master, and then using a third-generation
negative imprint from the positive to stamp out
production discs. his process is called the:
a. etching process
b. stamper process
c. milling process
d. positive-negative process
e. family process
8. Each sector of a CD contains 2,352 bytes of data.
After every sector are another 882 bytes used for:
a. copyright information
b. encryption key storage
c. ile directory indexing and linking
d. writing additional information
e. error detection and correction
9. What is the maximum amount of data that a
CD-R (compact disc-recordable) can hold?
a. 44MB
b. 128MB
c. 256MB
d. 700MB
e. 4.7GB
10. he Compact Disc Digital Audio Standard used
for consumer audio CDs available in music stores
today is also known as the:
a. ISO 9660 standard
b. Red Book standard
c. Orange Book standard
d. High Sierra standard
e. CD-ROM/XA standard
11. he most widely used format for storing digital
data in iles on CDs is the:
a. ISO 9660 standard
b. Yellow Book standard
c. White Book standard
d. CD-ROM/XA standard
e. DVD-ROM standard
12. he compact disc standard that allows both
computer data and compressed audio data and
video/image information to be read and played
back, apparently simultaneously, is called the:
a. Red Book standard
b. Yellow Book standard
c. Green Book standard
d. DVD-ROM standard
e. CD-ROM/XA standard
13. he CD-I (Interactive) standard is proprietary to:
a. Apple
b. High Sierra
c. JVC
d. Kodak
e. Philips
14. CD-ROM packages are shrink-wrapped with
thin plastic:
a. to prevent outgassing of harmful chemicals
used in the manufacturing process
b. to inhibit oxidation of the CD-ROM
surface
c. to protect them from ingerprints and
pilferage at the retail outlet
d. to reduce unauthorized bootleg copies
e. for a more professional look
15. Which of the following is not a beneit of hosting
your own web server for product delivery site on
the Web?
a. ability to specify and install any special
software you need
b. better security control
c. ability to ine-tune the server’s coniguration
parameters
d. easy access to technical support
e. ability to provide secure commerce services
443
■ Essay Quiz
1. List the testing stages involved in preparing a project for delivery. What type of testers should be part of
each stage’s testing team?
2. List the beneits and capabilities of ile compression and archiving software.
3. Describe the two methods of copying CD-ROMs, and discuss the beneits and drawbacks of each method.
4. Cite the two primary methods for delivering a project, and discuss the beneits and drawbacks of each
method.
5. List the various DVD formats and summarize their purposes and capabilities.
Lab Projects
■Project 14.1
Visit the web sites of three CD duplication companies. Do they all ofer both duplication (mastering) and replication (burning CD-Rs)? What quantities are available? What options for labeling are available? What options for
packaging are included? Document your indings by creating a table that briely compares prices and options.
■Project 14.2
Create a form that beta testers can return after testing, and be sure to include information regarding the conditions surrounding bugs.
■Project 14.3
Use a shareware or freeware compression utility to compress ive iles—for example, a text ile, a JPEG image,
an executable ile (an application). What percentage compression can you achieve? Repeat the compression,
saving the iles as self-extracting archives. Document your indings by creating a table that compares original size,
compressed, and size compressed as self-extracting ile.
■Project 14.4
Locate ive computer systems and compare their conigurations. Document your indings by creating a table with
the following information:
■
What operating system and version is installed?
■
What is the processor and what is its speed?
■
How much RAM is installed?
■
How much hard-drive space is available?
444
■
Is QuickTime installed?
■
What is the CD-ROM drive’s speed?
■
What is the video card/monitor’s resolution and color depth?
■
What are the system’s sound capabilities?
■Project 14.5
Locate ive CD-ROMs, DVDs, or downloaded programs that include “readme” iles. Read each of the iles, and
observe what each one includes. Document your indings by summarizing the contents of each one.
445
446
APPENDIX A
About the CD-ROM
T
he CD-ROM included with this book comes complete with
MasterExam, trial versions of six diferent software tools, a digital sampler of seven multimedia-related McGraw-Hill titles, and the electronic
version of the book. he MasterExam software is easy to install on any
Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 computer and must be installed to access the
MasterExam features. he software trial versions must each be installed
individually. You may, however, browse the digital sampler and electronic
book directly from the CD without installation.
System Requirements
he digital sampler and electronic book require Adobe Reader. he
MasterExam software requires Windows 2000 or higher and Internet
Explorer 6.0 or above and 20 MB of hard disk space for full installation.
NOTE
All of the questions included in MasterExam are also included in PDF
format as part of the electronic book.
Each software trial version has diferent system requirements and
many of these trials are available in diferent versions compatible with different operating systems. he CD includes many, but not all, of the available versions.
To download the versions not included on the CD, please visit the
software vendors’ respective web sites:
For the Macintosh-compatible version of Exposure 3, please visit
www.alienskin.com/downloads.
■ For the Macintosh or Linux-compatible versions of LiveCode 4.5,
please visit www.runrev.com/downloads.
■ For the Macintosh-compatible version of Vectorworks Architect,
please visit www.nemetschek.net/architect/index.php.
■
Appendix A About the CD-ROM
BBEdit 9.5 System Requirements
■
■
Macintosh OS X 10.5 or later
■
■
Universal application
■
Easy Gif Animator 5.1 System
Requirements
■
■
■
Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 7
Exposure 3 Host and System
Requirements
Host Requirements
Adobe Photoshop CS3 or later
Adobe Lightroom 2 or later
■ Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or later
■ Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X3
447
2GB free hard disk space or higher
recommended
Display Resolution: 1024 × 768 or higher
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series or
higher / ATI HD 3000 Series or higher
Video Memory: 512MB RAM or higher
recommended
Video card compatible with Pixel Shader 3.0
recommended for optimized visual performance
Operating System Requirements
Windows XP (with Service Pack 2 or later),
Vista, 7
■ Support for 32-bit and 64-bit operating system
■
■
■
System Requirements
1024 × 768 or greater monitor resolution
■ Intel Pentium 4 processor (or compatible)
■ Windows XP SP3 or later
■
iClone4 EX System and Additional
Requirements
Additional Requirements
■
■
■
■
■
■
LiveCode 4.5 Supports
■
System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Pentium4 2GHz
1GB RAM
2GB free hard disk space
Display Resolution: 1024 × 768
Color Depth: True Color (32-bit)
Graphics Card: Support for DirectX 9.0c and
Shader Model 3.0
Video Memory: 256MB RAM
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
Dual core CPU or higher
2GB RAM or higher recommended
Windows 2000 SP4
Windows XP SP2 and above
Windows Server 2003
Windows Vista SP1 and above (both 32-bit and
64-bit)
Windows 7 (both 32-bit and 64-bit)
Windows Server 2008
Vectorworks Architect System
Requirements
Minimum of 2GB RAM
■ Pentium 2 GHz or better processor
■ Typically 4GB Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2,
Windows 7
■
Recommended System Requirements
Sound card
Keyboard
Speaker
3-button mouse
DirectX 9 and WMEncoder 9 are required for
WMV exporting
Internet connection required for online
activation
448
Multimedia: Making It Work
Installing and Running
CD Software and Features
If your computer is running Windows and your CDROM drive is conigured to autorun, the CD-ROM
will automatically start up upon inserting the disk. If
not, browse to the CD and click the LaunchTraining
.exe icon. Macintosh users can browse the electronic
book iles, digital sampler iles, and software trial versions from CD’s root folder.
MasterExam
From the opening screen, Windows users may
install MasterExam by clicking the MasterExam
link. his will begin the installation process and
create a program group named LearnKey. To run
MasterExam, use Start | All Programs | LearnKey
| MasterExam.
MasterExam provides you with additional chapter review questions in an electronic exam environment. You have the option to take an open book exam
including references and answers, a closed book exam,
or the timed MasterExam.
When you launch MasterExam, a digital clock
display will appear in the bottom right-hand corner
of your screen. he clock will continue to count down
to zero unless you choose to end the exam before the
time expires.
Trial Software
From the opening screen, Windows users can access
the software trial versions by clicking the Trial
Software link.
BBEdit 9.5
To install BBEdit 9.5, click the Download
EBBEdit 9.5 link. his will open a folder that contains the BBEdit_9.5.1_Demo.dmg ile. Save this
ile to your computer. Open the ile and follow the
instructions to install the demo.
Easy Gif Animator 5.1
To install Easy Gif Animator 5.1, click the Download
Easy Gif Animator 5.1 link. his will open a folder
that contains the egifan5.exe ile. Save this ile to your
computer. Open the ile and follow the instructions to
install the demo.
Exposure 3
To install Exposure 3, click the Download Exposure 3 link. his will open a folder that contains the
exposure-3.0.0.1049.exe ile. Save this ile to your
computer. Open the ile and follow the instructions
to install the demo.
To watch a video on the features of Exposure 3,
click the Launch “Exposure 3: Getting Started”
Video link. You must have an internet connection to
watch this video, as this link will open an Internet
Explorer browser. his video and other video tutorials on Exposure 3 features can be found on the Alien
Skin Software, LLC website, www.alienskin.com.
iClone4 EX
To install iClone4 EX, click the Download iClone4 EX
link. his will open a folder that contains the iclone.exe
ile. Save this ile to your computer. Open the ile and
follow the instructions to install the demo.
To watch a video on the features of iClone4 EX,
click the Launch “iClone4 Product Quick Tour”
Video link. You must have Adobe Media Player
installed to watch this video. If you do not have
Adobe Media Player, you can watch the video on the
Reallusion Inc. web site, www.reallusion.com/iclone.
LiveCode 4.5
To install LiveCode 4.5, click the Download
LiveCode 4.5 link. his will open a folder that contains the LiveCodeInstaller-4_5_0-Windows.zip
ile. his zip ile contains LiveCode 4.5 release notes
and the LiveCode 4.5 demo. Save the zip ile to
your computer and extract the contents. Open the
LiveCodeInstaller-4_5_0-Windows.exe ile and follow the instructions to install the demo.
To read the LiveCode 4.5 release notes, open the
LiveCodeNotes-4_5_0.pdf ile.
Appendix A About the CD-ROM
Vectorworks Architect
To install Vectorworks Architect, click the Download
Vectorworks Architect link. his will open a folder
that contains the Vectorworks-Architect-Overview
.exe ile. Save this ile to your computer. Open the ile
and follow the instructions to install the demo.
To watch a video on the features of Vectorworks Architect, click the Launch “Vectorworks
Architect” Video link. You must have Adobe Media
Player installed to watch this video. If you do not
have Adobe Media Player, you can watch the video
on the Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. web site, www
.nemetschek.net/architect/explore.php.
Digital Sampler
Seven diferent chapters from seven diferent multimedia-related McGraw-Hill titles are provided in
PDF format. Adobe Reader has been included on the
CD-ROM.
Electronic Book
he entire contents of the textbook, as well as the
questions included in MasterExam, are provided in
PDF format.
McGraw-Hill Technical
Support
For questions regarding the content of the electronic book or the MasterExam, please visit www
.mhprofessional.com/techsupport/. For customers
outside the 50 United States, e-mail international_cs
@mcgraw-hill.com.
LearnKey Technical
Support
For technical problems with the MasterExam software (installation, operation, removing installations),
please visit www.learnkey.com, e-mail techsupport@
learnkey.com, or call toll free at 1-800-482-8244.
Trial Software Technical
Support
For questions or technical problems with the trial software please visit the website of the software vendor.
■
■
■
Help
A help ile is provided through the help button on the
main page in the lower left hand corner. An individual
help feature is also available through MasterExam.
Removing MasterExam
MasterExam is installed to your hard drive. For best
results removing MasterExam, use the Start | All
Programs | LearnKey | Uninstall option.
449
■
■
■
BBEdit 9.5 www.barebones.com
Easy GIF Animator 5.1 www.blumentals.net
Exposure 3 www.alienskin.com
iClone4 EX www.reallusion.com
LiveCode 4.5 www.runrev.com
Vectorworks Architect www.vectorworks.net
Index
A
<A> tag, HTML
creating clickable buttons, 411
creating sound for Web, 413
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) format, 123
acoustics, 104–106
acting talent, costs of professional, 276
ActionScript, Flash, 230
activation of web pages, 438–440
active-learner model, for multimedia, 4
Active Server Pages (ASP), building dynamic
web pages, 378
adaptive systems, development of, 244
additive color method, 91
addresses
Internet, 361–365
URL, 24, 212
adjacency, word search method in hypermedia
systems, 58
administration, budgeting for hidden costs
of, 276
Adobe
Acrobat PDF iles. See PDFs (Portable
Document Files)
Acrobat Reader, 382
Captivate, 180
Cold Fusion, 372–373, 378
Director. See Director
Dreamweaver, 232, 380
Flash. See Flash
Illustrator. See Illustrator
InDesign, 76, 380
Photoshop. See Photoshop
PostScript page description, 40–41
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, 123
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA), 359
Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA)
connections, 204
Advanced Television (ATV), 169
Advanced Television Systems Committee
(ATSC)
for analog broadcast video, 167
digital video formats in, 170
After Efects animation software, 414
AFTRA (American Federation of Television
and Radio Artists), 348–351
AI ile format, 97
AIF ile format, 120
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format),
121–122
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML),
373, 413
Alchemy’s GIF Construction Set Pro, 145
ALCS (Author’s Licensing and Collecting
Society), 336
alert sound, changing on Macintosh, 120
Alien Skin Exposure, 79
ALIGN attribute of <IMG> tag, lowing text
around images, 400–402
450
alpha releases, 423
alpha testing, 271, 423
alphabets
computers and, 42–44
unique in all languages, 46–47
alternates, word search method in hypermedia
systems, 58
America Online, font foundries, 41
American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists (AFTRA), 348–351
American National Standards Institute (ANSI),
42–43
American Standard Code for Information
Interchange (ASCII), 42–43, 48
analog video
deined, 165–166
digitizing, 166
overview of, 166–168
anamorphic widescreen, 182
anchor, HTML, 58
Andersen, Kurt (multimedia designer), 244–245
Android OS, 396
animated GIFs, 152–155
animation
cel, 143–144
computer, 142–143, 145–149
creating bouncing ball, 152–155
creating rolling ball, 151–152
creating scene, 155–157
deined, 140
ile formats, 149
overuse of, 140
PNG images not supporting, 403
power of motion, 140–141
principles of, 141–142
review, 158–163
text, 31–32, 221
tools for, 150, 221–222
with vector-drawn objects for 3-D, 80
for Web, 413–414
AnimatorPro, .li and .lc formats, 149
annoyances, production stage, 322–324
ANSI (American National Standards Institute),
42–43
anti-aliasing
avoiding interlacing licker on CRTs
with, 171–172
avoiding jaggies with, 53
deined, 27
AOL-Time Warner empire, 376
Apple. See also Macintosh operating
system (OS)
displaying icon for web site on handheld
devices, 307–308
font wars, 40–41
history of aspect ratios for pixels, 40
iTunes. See iTunes Store
QuickTime. See QuickTime (.mov)
format
applets, Java, 375
approval cycles, client, 320–321
Arabic numbers, of most alphabets, 48
archives
creating in delivery stage, 427–429
digital audio recording, 112
ARL (Army Research Library), 368
Army Research Library (ARL), 368
ARPA (Advanced Research Projects
Agency), 359
ARPANET, 359
artwork, scanning to create bitmaps, 79
“As We May hink” (Bush), 54–55
ASCII (American Standard Code for
Information Interchange), 42–43, 48
Ashcroft v. Eldred, 334
ASP (Active Server Pages), building dynamic
web pages, 378
aspect ratio
common digital television resolutions,
172–173
converting in video production, 181–182
screen resolutions for computer
monitors, 172
shooting video, 181–182
assets, monitoring throughout project
execution, 198
Association of American Publishers,
incorporating DRM, 336
association, word search method in hypermedia
systems, 58
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX),
373, 413
ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment)
connections, 204
ATSC (Advanced Television Systems
Committee)
for analog broadcast video, 167
digital video formats in, 170
attack of sound, MIDI iles, 118
attributes, font style, 22
ATV (Advanced Television), 169
AU format, history of web sound, 413
Audacity, sound digitization with, 108–109
audio. See also sound CDs. See CD (compact
disc) technology
designing project to use shorter-duration
iles, 211
ile size vs. quality and resolution, 111–113
interface design, 312–313
specialists, 250–251
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF), 121–122
Audio Video Interleaved (.avi) format, 3-D
animation for Web, 149
audio-visual stimulation, retention rate of, 2
audiophiles, 113
<AUDIO>tag, HTML, 395, 413
auditions, locating professionals, 348–349
authoring tools
adding sound to multimedia project, 125
animation, 140–141, 150–151
with bitmap editing features, 76
Index
choosing, 231–234
deined, 2
getting started, 223–224
graphics, 69
implementing GUI with, 309–310
making instant multimedia, 224–227
objects, 230–231
overview of, 222–223
types of, 227–230
Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society
(ALCS), 336
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (circa
1784), 347
AutoDesk
DXF ile format, 97
Maya, 83, 143
autoplay attribute of <AUDIO> tag, 413
autotracing, 82–83
.avi (Windows Audio Video Interleaved)
format, 3-D animation for Web, 149
Avid’s SoftImage 3-D modeling software, 218
B
B-rolls, video clips from, 180
backbone, connecting to Internet, 365
background layer, 229
backgrounds
avoiding excessive backlighting when
shooting video, 186
choosing text font, 27
creating animated scene, 156–157
lowing text around images in, 401
rendering into image with shadows and
lighting efects, 86–87
for Web, 405–408
bandwidth
Internet and, 365–367
multimedia requirements, 9–10
barcode readers, 210
barcoding, 210
Beatles, and Apple Computer, Inc., 124
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, audio CDs
playing length of, 121, 431
Berners-Lee, Tim, 372
beta releases, 423
beta testing, 271, 423–424
Bézier curves
PostScript characters and, 40
vector drawing tools using, 80
bid proposals
budget, 287
cover and package for, 286
creative strategy for, 287
needs analysis in, 286
overview of, 281–285
project implementation, 287
sample terms for, 285
table of contents in, 286
target audience for, 287
billing rates, 277–280
binary compatible iles, 200
binary, deined, 71
BIOS program, and ROM, 206
bitmap editors, 76
bitmaps
capturing and editing images, 77
controlling look of text on Web with
graphic, 398
converting between drawn objects and,
82–83
ile formats, 97
image-editing applications for, 220–221
making own buttons from, 36
mapping text across platforms, 46
overview of, 70–73
painting and drawing tools, 216–217
resizing, 82
software for, 76–79
sources of, 74–75
vs. vectors, 81–83
bits
of common color palettes, 94
deined, 71
Black Belt, morphing tool, 147
Blender, 3-D modeling software, 83, 218
Blu-ray video, 178, 208
blue, as favorite color in world, 90
blue screen, 184–185
BMP, 97
<BODY> tag, HTML, background color for
Web, 409
Bohr, Niels, 88
Boolean searches, with hypertext systems, 54
BORDER attribute of <IMG> tag, clickable
buttons, 411
borders
creating hot spots on Web, 305
what to avoid in UI design, 312
bouncing ball animation, 152–155
breadcrumbs, menus for navigation, 35
broadband Internet, 10
bronze, delivery stage of project, 425
browsers
deined, 2
development of, 376–377
HTML and multimedia issues, 395
identifying icon image to, 307–308
indicating image is hot, 305
reading HTML code, 378
recognizing HMTL5 video codecs and
containers, 176–177
smaller viewports and, 395–396
sound for Internet and, 130
support for third-party plug-ins, 375
budget
balancing production value of project
against, 330
in bid proposals, 287
for hardware test platforms, 422
451
bufer, Internet sound, 130
burners, CD-ROM and DVD, 10
burning, CD-R discs, 430
business, multimedia applications for, 2–3
busy screens, avoiding, 312
buttons
clickable, for Web, 304–306, 411
creating hot spots with, 303–304
GUI design and, 310
interactive multimedia using, 35–36
positioning in UI design, 297
using 2-D to change state on mouse
rollover, 142
what to avoid in UI design, 312
C
CAD (computer-aided design) programs
IGS/IGES ile format, 97
using vector-drawn objects, 80
camera, stable shooting platforms, 181–182
<CANVAS> tag, HTML, 38
Captivate, Adobe, 180
capture tools, for video clips, 179–180
capturing images, 77
card-based authoring tools, 228–229
Cartesian coordinates
in 2-D animation, 142
in vector drawing, 80
Cascading Style Sheets. See CSS (Cascading
Style Sheets)
case history, in multimedia design, 314–318
case insensitivity
deined, 24
of HTML markup tags, 393
case sensitivity
deined, 24
e-mail addresses, 363
fonts, 24
URL addresses, 24
Cast, Director authoring tool, 230
casting calls, 348
categories, word search method in hypermedia
systems, 57
cathode ray tubes. See CRTs (cathode ray
tubes)
CCDs (charge-coupled devices)
in analog video, 166
in digital video, 168–169
how video works, 165
in video cameras, 210
CD (compact disc) technology, 429–430,
431–433
CD-I (Interactive), Green Book standard
for, 431
CD-R (compact disc-recordable) disks, 207,
430–431
CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory)
discs
CD-R technology, 430–431
CD standards, 431–434
452
Multimedia: Making it Work
CD technology, 429–430
delivering multimedia on, 10, 429
in multimedia workspace, 207
Orange Book standard for WORM, 431
Yellow Book standard for, 431, 433–434
CD-ROM/XA (extended architecture) format,
121, 434
CD-RW (CD-read and write) disks, 207
CDD (Compact Disc Database), 129
CDR ile format, Corel, 97
cel animation
techniques, 143–144, 158
using 2-D, 142
cell phones. See mobile phones
CGI (Common Gateway Interface), 384
change order, scheduling project, 274
character entities, HTML, 48
character metrics, 23
character sets
computers and, 42–44
languages in world of computers, 46–50
mapping across platforms, 46
special characters in HTML, 48–49
substituting characters of own design,
51–53
charge-coupled devices. See CCDs (chargecoupled devices)
chroma keys, shooting video, 184–185
chrome, browser, 395
CIE color model, 94
clickable buttons, for Web, 411
client computers, 360
client/server software, 202
client-side image maps, 411–412
client sign-of, 274–275
clients
approval cycles, 320–321
communication with, 200
data storage media and transportation,
320–321
in production stage, 320–321
project estimates for, 274–277
clip art
as source of bitmaps, 74
using material from collections of, 335
clipboards, 77
clone, assembling own computer, 202
clusters of workstations (COWs), 87
CLV (constant linear velocity), of CDs, 433
CMFML (Cold Fusion Markup
Language), 378
CMSs (Content Management Systems), 381
CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color
model, 91–93
codecs
compressing sound, 123–124
compressing video, 165
compressing video for Web, 415
shooting video, 186
video format converters, 178
Cold Fusion
building dynamic web pages, 378
extending HTML on Web, 372–373
Cold Fusion Markup Language
(CMFML), 378
color
for 3-D objects, 85
choosing web background, 409
for color-impaired, 73
computerized, 91–94
creating hot spots with text anchors, 305
designing for multimedia, 174
natural light and, 88–90
palettes, 94–96, 406
perception of, 88–89
for still images, 77
for text, 27–28
user interface design, 311, 312
vision loss and, 90
color-cycling logo, 2-D animation, 142
color depth
bitmaps, 72–73
GIF images, 402
JPEG images, 403
PSD iles, 405
color organ, Scriabin, 8
color pickers, 89
commercial applications of VR, 9
commercial hypertext systems, 57
Common Gateway Interface (CGI), 384
communication
in multimedia projects, 200
working with clients, 320–321
compact disc (CD) technology, 429–430,
431–433
Compact Disc Database (CDD), 129
Compact Disc Digital Audio Standard, 431
compact disc read-only memory disks. See
CD-ROM (compact disc read-only
memory) discs
compact disc-recordable (CD-R) disks, 207,
430–431
component, analog video signal output, 166
composite navigation, 296–297
composite signals, analog video, 166
composition, video, 185–186
compression
JPEG lossy, 403–404
preparing animation iles for Web, 149
video. See also codecs, 174–175
CompuServe Information Services, and GIF
images, 402–403
computer-aided design (CAD) programs
IGS/IGES ile format, 97
using vector-drawn objects, 80
computer animation
kinematics, 146–147
morphing, 147–149
techniques, 145–146, 158
understanding, 142–143
computerized color
additive method, 91
models, 92–94
overview of, 91
subtractive method, 91–92
computers
coniguring workspace for images, 69–70
displaying image using underscan, 173
HDTV standard for, 170
screen resolutions, 172
using progressive-scan technology,
171–172
working with farms of, 87
computers, and text
character sets and alphabets, 42–44
font wars, 40–42
languages, 46–50
mapping text across platforms, 45–46
overview of, 40
Concrete5, 381
condensed characters, 23
conditional branching, for interactivity, 233
connections
analog video connectors, 167
FireWire and i.Link, 205
IDE (or ATA), 204
Internet, 365
overview of, 203–204
SCSI, 204
USB, 204–205
constant linear velocity (CLV), of CDs, 433
consultants, billing rates and, 279
containers, digital video
codec wars, 175–177
codecs, 174–175
MPEG, 175
overview of, 173–174
video format converters, 178
content
deined, 330
navigation of, 2
overview of, 330–331
content acquisition
copyrights, 335–337
created by others, 332
locating preexisting, 333–335
obtaining rights to, 337–342
overview of, 331–332
ownership of created content, 344–347
review, 353–357
Content Management Systems (CMSs), 381
contingencies, budgeting for, 276
contractors
billing rates and, 279
ownership of works and independent, 347
contracts, union, 349–351
contrasts, in user interface design, 311–312
controls attribute of <AUDIO> tag, 413
convergence, computer-based multimedia with
entertainment media, 5
Index
conversion
of audio ile formats, 110
between bitmaps and vector-drawn
objects, 82–83
of video ile formats, 178
copyleft, 342–343
copyright
Digital Rights Management, 336
Eldred v. Ashcroft, 334
images, 74
infringement, 335
inserting into your project, 321–322
obtaining rights. See rights
ownership, 335
ownership of works, 343–347
for preexisting content, 333–335
protection, 335
public domain material and, 333–334
sound, 131–132
Copyright Act of 1976, 335
Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), 334
Corel, CDR ile format, 97
CorelDRAW, 76
cost sheets, 279–280
costing stage
billing rates, 277–280
estimating, 274–277
overview of, 196–197
country codes, in Internet addresses, 363–364
Courier font, for Web, 398
cover, developing proposal, 286
COWs (clusters of workstations), 87
CPM (Critical Path Method), project
management software, 264
creative strategy, bid proposals, 287
creativity, in multimedia projects, 197–198
Credit Alligator, 199
crediting creative talent, 199
Critical Path Method (CPM), project
management software, 264
criticism, learning to accept, 28
cross platform
choosing authoring tools, 234
designing text for Web, 398
encoding extended characters, 43
failures in compatibility, 200–201
mapping text, 45–46
saturation in images, 78
visualizing low of text, 28–29
CRTs (cathode ray tubes)
overview of, 170–171
preventing licker with interlacing,
171–172
projectors, 211–212
some professionals preferring, 171
using additive color method, 91
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
with AJAX, 373
deined, 62
dynamic web pages using, 378
lowing text around images using,
401–402
with HTML, 38
online tools for validation of, 423
text for Web using, 398
with text properties, 30–31
understanding before developing
multimedia for Web, 393
CTEA (Copyright Term Extension Act), 334
cultural responses to color, 90
cyan, magenta, yellow, black (CMYK) color
model, 91–93
D
da Vinci, Leonardo, 240
daemons
deined, 367–368
using MIME-types, 369–371
DAT (digital audio tape) systems, 128
data packets, IP addresses and, 364–365
database
embedding with image and sound,
224, 226
keeping track of your sounds with, 128
Daz3D tool, 3-D, 83
dB (decibels)
measuring sound pressure levels, 104–105
normalizing sound levels, 109–110
perception of loudness and, 104–106
.dcr format, animation, 149
de-interlacing ilters, 171–172
debugging, choosing authoring tool, 232
decay of sound, MIDI iles, 118
deep software products, 302
Defense Research and Engineering Network
(DREN), 368
degaussing, and CRT screens, 171
deliverables, 273
delivery
on CD-ROM, 429–434
choosing authoring tool for, 232, 234
on DVD, 434–436
ile archives for, 427–429
overview of, 9–12, 197, 422–423
preparing for, 425–427
process of making project, 271–272
review, 440–445
testing, 423–425
on Web, 438–439
wrapping it up, 436–438
delivery vehicles, Internet, 377–381
density-independent pixels (dips), Android
OS, 396
depth structures, 297–298, 302
derivative works, negotiating content rights,
339–340
designing
buttons, 303–306
hot spots, 303–306
hyperlinks, 303–306
453
icons, 306–308
multimedia design case history, 314–318
navigation, 296–297
overview of, 296–297
review, 325–329
structural depth, 297–303
user interface, 308–313
for World Wide Web. See World Wide
Web design
designing and producing stage
designing. See designing
overview of, 197, 294–295
producing. See production phase
desktop workspace, Web design, 396
device dependency, MIDI iles, 116, 118–119
device-independent bitmap (DIB) iles, 97
device-independent, vector graphics as,
382–383
DHTML (Dynamic Hypertext Markup
Language)
animation with, 414
building dynamic web pages, 378
creating multimedia on Web, 1
dialog, and MIDI audio, 119–120
DIB (device-independent bitmap) iles, 97
digital audio
adding to project, 124
editing recordings, 108–111
ile size vs. quality, 111–113
managing over Web, 383
MIDI audio vs., 118–120
overview of, 106–107
playing from web page, 130
proper recording levels, 108
review, 134–135
sound-editing tools, 221
digital audio tape (DAT) systems, 128
digital cameras, 210
digital EQ (equalization), digital audio
recordings, 110
Digital Light Processing (DLP) projectors, 211
Digital Millennium Copyright Act of
1998, 336
Digital Object Identiier (DOI), 336
Digital Rights Management. See DRM
(Digital Rights Management)
digital signal processing (DSP), digital
audio, 111
Digital Television (DTV), 169
Digital Versatile Discs. See DVDs (Digital
Versatile Discs)
digital video
containers, 173–178
deined, 165–166
displays, 170–173
overview of, 168–173
television resolutions, 172–173
Digital Video Interface (DVI), analog
video, 167
digitally manipulated elements, 1
454
Multimedia: Making it Work
dips (density-independent pixels), Android
OS, 396
.dir format, animation, 149
Director
animation ile formats (.dir and .dcr), 149
animation software, 414
as authoring tool, 230
image editor, 76
distortion, of still images, 77–78
distributed resources, delivering through, 10
distribution costs, 280
dithering, 27, 95–96
DLP (Digital Light Processing) projectors, 211
DNS (Domain Name System), 361–362
documentation, project installation instructions,
425–427
DOI (Digital Object Identiier), 336
Dolby AC-d Digital Surround Sound, and
DVDs, 436
Dolby Pro-Logic Surround Sound, and
DVDs, 436
dolly, for stable shooting platform, 181
Domain Name System (DNS), 361–362
domain names, interchangeable with IP
addresses, 365
dot pitch, 91
dots per inch (dpi), 23
Double Tap, on small devices, 396
downsampling, digital audio recordings, 110
Drag, on small devices, 396
Dragon’s Naturally Speaking, 210
drawing software, 216–217
drawn objects, making own buttons from, 36
Dreamweaver, 232, 380
DREN (Defense Research and Engineering
Network), 368
DRM (Digital Rights Management)
converting to MP3 format, 110
MP4 iles encrypted for, 122
overview of, 336
drop caps, 27, 311
drop shadows, 28, 311
Drupal, 381
DSP (digital signal processing), digital
audio, 111
DTV (Digital Television), 169
dubbing, 168
DVD-Audio formats, 113
DVD Forum, 436
DVD-R/DVD-RW, 436
DVD-RAM, 436
DVD-ROM disks, 208, 321
DVD-RW (read and write) disks, 208
DVD-Video disks, 208
DVD+R/DVD+RW, 436
DVD+R/+RW recorders, 435
DVD+RW, 435
DVD+RW Alliance, 436
DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs)
Blu-ray vs., 208
delivering on, 10, 434–436
designing project for, 165
using anamorphic widescreen, 182
using MPEG-2 compression, 178
in workspace, 207–208
DVI (Digital Video Interface), analog
video, 167
DXF ile format, 97
Dynamic HTML, using CSS, 62
Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language. See
DHTML (Dynamic Hypertext Markup
Language)
dynamic web pages
building, 378
and XML, 372–373
E
e-Ink electronic display, 38
easing, with animation software tools, 153
Easy Morph, 147
eBooks, 37
ECMAScript standard, ActionScript, 230
editing
choosing authoring tool for, 231
digital audio, 108–111, 135
digital video, 184–188
fonts, 50–53
images, 77, 403
MIDI audio, 116
MIDI audio vs. digital audio iles, 119
postproduction cost of, 276
role of multimedia video specialist, 249
sound, 125
text, 214–215
editors, HTML, 377–378
EDLs (edit decision lists), NLE software, 190
Edwards, Kevin (web site producer), 253–254
Eldred v. Ashcroft, 334
electronic image stabilization, for handheld
cameras, 181
electronic rights, 332
<EMBED> tag, HTML, 384–385, 395, 413
employees
cost to employer, 277–278
independent contractors vs., 279
ownership of works and, 343–347
rate billed to customer, 277–278
English
alphabet, 46
power and irregularity of, 21–22
ENIAC computer, 206
envelope of sound, MIDI iles, 118
environment, multimedia, 2
EPROMs (programmable ROMs), 206
equalization, of digital audio recordings, 110
eRate, 4
eReaders, 37
error correction, on CDs, 432
escape sequence, HTML, 401
estimating costs, 274–277
Ethernet, LANs using, 202
event-driven authoring tools, 229
.exe extension, Windows, 428
executive summary, in bid proposal, 286
expanded characters, 23
experiential learning, with multimedia, 4
extended character sets, 43, 48
eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
building dynamic web pages, 372–
373, 378
creating multimedia web projects, 1
extrusion, modeling 3-D objects, 85
eyes
movement reduced when reading on
computer, 36
perception of color by, 90
F
fade-ins, digital audio recordings, 110
fade-outs, digital audio recordings, 110
fair use law
copyrighted material and, 335–336
derivative works and, 340
FairPlay, 336
family process, making CDs, 430
FAQs (frequently asked questions)
for new software and features, 212
preparing for delivery, 426
search engines on Web, 358–359
fathers, making CDs, 430
favicon.ico ile, 307
feasibility study, 269
Feedback Alligators, 275
feedback, beta test, 424
iber-optic lines, delivering through leased, 11
ields for reading, 36–38
ile archives, delivery stage, 427–429
ile formats
animation, 149–150
audio, converting, 110
audio, determining when adding to
project, 124
audio, types of, 121–123, 135
compact disc, 434
for compressed ile archives, 427–428
converting, 200
digital video containers, 173–174
image, 71, 97, 401
video converters, 178
ile-naming conventions, 321
ile size
MIDI advantages over digital audio iles,
114, 118–119
preparing animation iles for Web, 149
quality of digital audio recordings and,
111–113
vector-drawn object vs. bitmaps, 81–82
Index
File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and
daemons, 368
FileMaker Pro database, 226
ilters
for bitmapped images, 79
in image-editing applications, 221
FireWire
in digital video, 169
lash memory devices integrated
with, 207
overview of, 205
.la format, animation, 149
lare, modeling 3-D scenes, 85
Flash
animation formats (.li and .lc), 149
creating hot spots with, 304–306
external libraries extending, 150
as most widely used animation tool,
150–151
overview of, 414
replacing in mobile era, 373
sound for Internet using, 130–131
time-based authoring with, 230
Trace Bitmap option, 82–83
using SWF format, 123
Flash CS4, for 3-D, 384
lash memory devices, in workspace, 207
Flash Video (.lv iles) format, 123, 173, 176
lat-screen displays, LCD or plasma, 171
.lc format, AnimatorPro, 149
.li format, AnimatorPro, 149
Flick, on small devices, 396
licker efect, preventing, 142, 171–172
light simulators, using VR, 9
lowcharting, choosing authoring tool, 231–232
luorescent tubes, for white light, 90
font foundries, 41
font mapping, 45
font substitution, 45
font wars, 40–42
Fontlab, Ltd., 51–52
Fontographer, 23, 51–52
fonts
case sensitivity and, 24
choosing, 27–31
deined, 22
designing buttons, 35–36, 303
designing proposal cover and
package, 286
designing web text, 398
for ease of reading, 36–37
editing and design tools, 50–53
and faces, 22–24
how to use, 1
installed, 29–31
making text pretty, 52–53
mapping text across platforms, 45–46
PostScript, 41
serif vs. sans serif, 24–25, 398
sources of free, 31, 41–42
wars are over, 40–42
footage, obtaining video, 179
form•Z tool, 3-D, 83
format converters, 222
formats. See ile formats
foundry, font, 41
4:3 aspect ratio
computer screen resolution, 172
converting to 16:9 in video production,
181–182
digital television resolution, 173
HDTV vs. VGA, 170
“404-not found” error message, inding URLs
after receiving, 212
frames, animation and digital video movies, 221
Freehand, autotracing feature, 82
frequency
color and, 88
determining perception of loudness, 105
word search method in hypermedia
systems, 58
frequently asked questions. See FAQs
(frequently asked questions)
FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and
daemons, 368
Fust, Johann, 19
G
Gantt charts, 265
GanttProject software, 263–264
Gates, Bill, 201
Gecko engine, 395
genealogy software, 5
General MIDI numbering system, 116–
117, 119
General Public License (GNU GPL), 341–342
generation loss, NLE software, 190
Georgia font, for web pages, 31
Get Info panel, icons in Mac OS, 306
GIF Animator, ULead, 145, 155
GIF Construction Set Pro, 145
.gif format, 149
GIF (Graphic Interchange File) images
browsers enabled for HTML5 reading/
displaying, 382
for button animation, 304
for buttons on Web, 305
color palettes for, 95
image ile format, 71
interlaced, 407
JPEGs vs., 404
saving image for Web in Photoshop
as, 406
for Web, 402–403
GIF89a animation format
creating bouncing ball animation,
152–155
deined, 149, 152
455
overview of, 413–414
for transparency, 407–408
GIFfun, Stone Design, 155
gigabytes, DVDs, 436
Glik, Simon, 133
GLV (Grating-Light-Valve) technologies, 211
GNU GPL (General Public License), 341–342
gold, delivery stage, 271–272, 425
golden master, delivery stage, 425
Goldfarb, Charles, 373
Google Books, 333–335
Google’s SketchUp, 3-D, 83
gradients, user interface design, 311
grammar checker, for production, 223
Graphic Artists Guild, 277
graphical user interfaces (GUIs), 2, 309–310
graphics
anti-aliasing, 53
applications with clip art and useful, 74
creating hot spots, 303–306
improving retention rate with, 2
for proposal cover and package, 286
and user interface design, 310–311
graphics designers (artists), 255
Grating-Light-Valve (GLV) technologies, 211
Green Book standard, 431, 433–434
green screen, in digital video editing, 184
GreenSock’s TweenMax, 150
GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communications) mobile phones, 3gp
iles, 123
GUIs (graphical user interfaces), 2, 309–310
Gutenberg, Johann Gensleisch zum, 19
H
H.264 codec, 174, 176
Han characters, Unicode standard, 44
handwriting, OCR software recognizing, 210
hard disks, 206
hardware
budgeting for test platforms, 422
connections, 203–205
input devices, 209–210
managing beta test feedback, 424
memory and storage devices, 205–208
networking Windows and Macintosh
computers, 202–203
output devices, 210–212
overview of, 200–201
project manager understanding strengths/
limitations of, 242
web server conigurations, 376
Windows vs. Macintosh, 201–202
hardwiring links vs. hypertext systems, 57
Harris, Chip (multimedia audio specialist),
250–251
Harry Fox Agency, 132
hazards, production stage, 322–324
456
Multimedia: Making it Work
HD (high-deinition), shooting footage in,
182–183
HDMI (High-Deinition Multimedia
Interface) connector, analog video, 167
HDTV (High Deinition Television), 169–
170, 208
<HEAD> element, HTML, 307–308
headlines, 27
Heckbert’s median cut algorithm, 95
helical scan recording, analog video, 166–167
Help page, for delivery, 426
helper applications, 381
helpful accessories, software, 222
hexadecimal numbers, RGB, 93
HFS (Hierarchical File System), 432
Hierarchical File System (HFS), 432
hierarchical navigation, 296–297
High-Deinition (HD), shooting footage in,
182–183
High-Deinition Multimedia Interface
(HDMI) connector, analog video, 167
High Deinition Television (HDTV), 169–
170, 208
highlighting buttons or objects, 304
hints, Type 1 PostScript fonts, 41
history, of Internet, 359–360
home, multimedia at, 5–6
Hoo Technologies, 122
hot software products, 302
hot spots
creating client-side image maps, 411–412
designing, 303–306
positioning in user interface, 297
hot-swapping, 205
HSB (hue, saturation, brightness) color
model, 93
HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) color
model, 93
HSPACE attribute, <IMG> tag, 400–402
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
beyond, 383–385
creating hot spots, 304–306
delivering multimedia on Web with,
372–373, 377–378, 395–396
extended de facto by commercial
interests, 374–375
going beyond vanilla abilities of, 372–373
as markup language for Web, 393–396
as native language of Web, 19–20
SharePoint Designer supporting, 380
special characters, 48–49
as standard document format used for
web pages, 39–40, 62
tools for validation of, 423
translators, 378–379
HTML5
features of, 38
Flash in mobile era vs., 373
tags used in, 130, 176–177, 393–395
for web video, 414–415
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), 368, 372
hue, saturation, brightness (HSB) color
model, 93
hue, saturation, lightness (HSL) color
model, 93
hues, human eye diferentiating many, 90
human hearing, 104–106
human response to color, 90
Human Software’s Squizz (morphing tool), 147
humor, in user interface design, 312
hybrid format, Mac and PC iles on same
CD, 434
hyperlinks
designing, 303–306
downloading/installing plug-ins
using, 381
hypermedia
deined, 1
and hypertext, 53–55
as powerful learning resource, 56
structures, 58–59
word search, 57–58
hypertext
hardwiring links vs., 57
hypermedia structures, 58–60
links and nodes in, 58
overview of, 54–55
power of, 55–56
searching for words, 57–58
tools, 60
using, 56–57
Hypertext Markup Language. See HTML
(Hypertext Markup Language)
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), 368, 372
I
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers), and DNS, 361
.ico ile, 307
icons
authoring tools, 229
creating hot spots, 303–304
designing, 306–308
editors for, 307
in multimedia, 32–33
IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics), 204
idea analysis
with idea management software, 263–265
paper napkin example of, 265–266
process of making project, 262–263
idea management software, 263–264
IGS/IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange
Standard) format, CAD drawings, 97
i.Link, 169, 205
Illustrator
AI ile format, 97
autotracing, 82
saving vector graphics in SVG format, 80
vector-based drawing program, 76
image capture software, 3
image maps, client-side, 411–412
images
altering and distorting text with, 28
coloring. See color
coniguring computer workspace for,
69–70
creating hot spots with button, 303
editing tools, 220–221
multimedia ile formats, 97
organizing tools for, 69
overview of, 68
planning, 69
reading and displaying with plug-ins,
382–383
review, 98–103
scanning, 78–79
Web design with. See World Wide Web
design, images for
images, still
3-D drawing and rendering, 83–88
bitmaps. See bitmaps
overview of, 70–71
vector-drawn objects, 80–81
vector-drawn objects vs. bitmaps, 81–83
<IMG> tag, HTML, 395, 414
iMovie for Macs, Apple, 188, 190
independent contractors
billing rates and, 279
ownership of works and, 347
InDesign, Adobe, 76, 380
Indexed Color, 406
indexes, hypertext, 57
information, density of text for users seeking, 26
information designers, 243–244
infrared light, 88, 90
initial caps, 27–28
Initial Graphics Exchange Standard (IGS/
IGES) format, CAD drawings, 97
inks, computer animation, 146
input devices, 209–210
input events, on small devices, 396
installed fonts, 29
installers, preparing for delivery, 425
instant messaging jargon words, 22
instant multimedia, making, 224–227
instructional designers, 243
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), 204
integrated multimedia, 2
intellectual property law, 331
intelligent tutors, 244
interactive multimedia
becoming hypermedia, 53
choosing authoring tool, 233
deined, 1
evolution of, 11
multimedia designer creating, 244
Interactive TV (ITV), in schools, 4–5
intercaps, 24
interface designers, 243, 245–246
Index
interlacing
GIFs on Web, 407
in HDTV standard, 170
preventing licker on CRTs, 171–172
in video frames, 166
on Web, 172
intermediate words, search method in
hypermedia systems, 58
International Organization for Standardization.
See ISO (International Organization for
Standardization)
Internet addresses
IP addresses and data packets, 364–365
overview of, 361
second-level domains, 362–363
top-level domains, 361–362
US domain and country codes, 363–364
Internet and multimedia
bandwidth bottleneck, 365–367
beyond HMTL, 383–385
choosing authoring tool for, 234
connections, 365
delivering multimedia to client, 321
history of, 359–360
Internetworking, 360–361
MIME-types, 369–371
overview of, 358–359
plug-ins and delivery vehicles, 381–383
review, 386–391
search engines, 377
services, 367–368
sound for, 129
tools for World Wide Web, 374–375
web browsers, 376
web page makers and site builders,
377–381
web servers, 375–376
World Wide Web and HTML, 372–373
Internet backbone site, ARL, 368
Internet Explorer browser, 376–377
Internet service providers. See ISPs (Internet
service providers)
Internet Streaming Media Alliance
(ISMA), 336
inverse kinematics, 147
IP addresses, 364–365
iPhone using M4r iles, Apple, 122–123
iris setting, shooting video using, 186
ISMA (Internet Streaming Media
Alliance), 336
ISO (International Organization for
Standardization)
10149, audio CDs, 128–129
9660, for CD-ROMs, 433–434
deined, 175
ISO/IEC 10646, 43–44
ISPs (Internet service providers)
assigning IP address numbers, 364
connecting to backbone of Internet
through, 365
ofering plug-ins to web site visitors and,
382
serving experimental MIME-types for
multimedia, 371
WAN connected to Internet by, 202–203
iTunes Store
Digital Rights Management and, 336
link to Compact Disc Database on, 129
using AAC format, 123
ITV (Interactive TV), in schools, 4–5
J
jaggies, avoiding, 53
Japanese, kanji alphabet, 46, 48
Java, browser support for, 375
JavaScript
animation for Web and, 413
browser support for, 375
creating hot spots, 304–306
in HTML pages for special
functions, 372
Joomla, as CMS, 381
JPEG ( Joint Photographic Experts Group)
images
browsers enabled for HTML5 reading/
displaying, 382
creating web buttons with, 305
GIFs vs., 404
as image ile format, 71
lossy compression used by, 403
progressive-scan, 407
saving image for Web in Photoshop as,
405–406
for Web, 403–404
K
Karaoke CD (Video CD), 232
kerning, 23, 27
keyboard shortcuts, 70
keyboarding skills, word processors, 214
keyboards, MIDI, 114–116
keyframes, in cel animation, 144
keyframes, in computer-based animation, 145
kinematics, 146–147
kiosks, in public places, 7
L
labels, 33
landscape vs. portrait orientation, for text, 37
language
importance of word choice, 20–21
multilanguage web pages, 49–50
the power and irregularity of English,
21–22
special characters in HTML, 48–49
in world of computers, 46–48
LANs (local area networks), internetworking
with, 202, 360–361
457
lasso type tools, bitmap editors, 77
lathing, 3-D objects, 85
Law of Minimums
Liebig’s, 123
Vaughan’s. See Vaughan’s Law of
Multimedia Minimums
layers
in computer-based animation, 145
PSD iles containing, 405
Lazzaro, Nicole, (multimedia interface
designer), 245–246
LCD (liquid crystal display)
lat-screen displays, 171
panels for project, 211
using additive color method, 91
LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) projectors, 211
leading
adjusting in most programs, 23
adjusting in text blocks, 27
computer fonts providing, 22
learning-curve costs, 276
legal issues. See content acquisition; copyright
Letterbox (hard matte) method, 182
licenses
clip art usage, 335
copyleft, 341–342
digitized clip sounds with unlimiteduse, 132
music, 132
negotiating content rights, 337–338
obtaining video footage, 179
licensing agreements, 338
Liebig’s Law of the Minimum, 123
light, common sources of, 90
lighting
avoiding excessive backlighting in
video, 186
modeling 3-D scenes with, 85
for quality video results, 183–184
Lightwave, NewTek, 83
linear navigation, 296–297, 302–303
linear project, 2
Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM), for
music CDs, 121
Lingo, Director utilizing, 230
link anchor, 58
link end, 58
links
designing hyperlinks, 303–306
downloading/installing plug-ins using
hyperlinks, 381
in hypertext systems, 58
liquid crystal display. See LCD (liquid crystal
display)
liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) projectors, 211
live Internet pay-for-play gaming, 6
LiveStage Pro, Totally Hip, 174
local area networks (LANs), internetworking
with, 202, 360–361
localization, 48
458
Multimedia: Making it Work
logarithmic scales, 104–105
“look and feel,” multimedia planning stage, 196
lossless codecs, 123
lossless compression, 403–404
lossy codecs, 123
lossy compression
lossless compression vs., 403–404
of MP3 format, 122
Lotus SmartSuite Millennium, 266–267
loudness, perception of, 105
low entry barrier enterprise, making multimedia
as, 278–279
lowercase, 24
LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation), for
music CDs, 121
Lunch Box DV, 144
M
M4r iles, 122
Macintosh operating system (OS)
GUI design, 309
history of sound in, 124
icon image iles, 306–307
iMovie for, 188–189
for multimedia projects, 200–201
networking, 202–203
screen-grabbers and format
converters, 222
self-extracting archives in, 428
Windows OS vs., 201–202
Worldwide OS Market Share of, 201
management
budgeting for hidden costs of, 276
project manager responsibility, 242
<MAP> tag of <IMG> tag, 411–412
mapping text across platforms, 45–46
maps, navigation, 35
marking up HTML, 378
.max format, animation, 149
Maya, Autodesk, 83, 143, 218
meaning, power of, 20–21
measurement, of type, 22–23
medicine, teaching through multimedia, 4
memory
considerations when adding sound,
125–126
multimedia projects and, 205–206
vector-drawn objects vs. bitmaps and,
81–82
menus, navigation, 34–35
messaging, 3
metadata, in digital video containers, 173–174
metaphors, GUI design using well-known,
309–310
Mickey Mouse
Copyright Clause and, 334
signiicance of white gloves, 144
microphones
audio quality afected by, 210
shooting video with external, 181
Microsoft
ASP, 378
font wars, 41
Internet Explorer browser, 376–377
Internet Gaming Zone, 6–7
PowerPoint, 226, 383
SharePoint Designer, 380
Windows Live Movie Maker, 188–189
Windows Media Rights Manager, with
DRM, 336
Windows OS. See Windows operating
system (OS)
Word, 215
Microsoft v. Vizcaino, 279
MIDI keyboards, 114
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
audio
adding sound, 124
digital audio vs., 118–120
managing over Web, 383
overview of, 113–118
playing from web page, 130
review, 134–135
sound-editing tools for, 221
testing and evaluating, 131
milestones
multimedia projects and, 273
reporting for prototypes, 269
MILNET, 368
MIME-types (Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions)
helper applications to view, 381
ofering plug-ins to web site visitors, 382
overview of, 369–371
mirroring, SCSI, 204
mixed mode track layout, 432
MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), 3, 22
mobile phones
e-Ink not required to read, 38
multimedia piped to, 7
police ighting recordings on, 133
sound for, 129
Mobisodes, 349
modal interfaces, 307
modeling 3-D objects, 84–85
modiiers, object-based authoring programs,
230–231
money, project estimates, 276–277
monitors
additive color used on, 91–92
coniguring computer workspace with
multiple, 69–70
designing multimedia project, 211
mono vs. stereo recordings, 111
morphing
in computer-based animation, 147–149
manipulating still images, 77–78
Most Unwanted songs, 127
Most Wanted songs, 127
mothers, making CDs, 430
motion capture, cel animation, 144
.mov iles. See QuickTime (.mov) format
Moving Picture Experts Group. See MPEG
(Moving Picture Experts Group)
Mozilla Firefox, 376
MP3 iles
AIFF converter converting formats
to, 122
converting digital audio recordings
to, 110
development of, 122
most mobile phones playing, 129
overview of, 122
sampled for quality of music, 126
MPC (multimedia PC) speciication, 202
MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group)
deined, 175
developing MP3 format, 122
for digital video, 175
MPEG-1, 175
MPEG-2, deined, 175
MPEG-2, DVD video using, 178, 435
MPEG-2, DVDs storing full-motion
video, 208
MPEG-4, 175, 178
preparing 3-D animation iles for
Web, 149
multicasting sounds, Web, 383
multiformat VCRs, 168
multiframe images, GIF89a, 414
multimedia
in business, 2–3
deinitions, 1–2
delivery methods, 9–12
at home, 5–7
overview of, 0–1
in public places, 7–9
review, 13–17
in schools, 3–5
virtual reality and, 9
multimedia designers, 243–245
multimedia developers, 1
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), 3, 22
Multimedia PC Marketing Council, 202
multimedia PC (MPC) speciication, 202
multimedia programmers, 251–252
multimedia projects
authoring systems, 222–234
deined, 1
need for communication, 200
need for creativity, 197–198
need for organization, 198–199
review, 235–239
stages of, 196–197
multimedia projects, hardware
connections, 203–205
input devices, 209–210
Index
memory and storage devices, 205–208
networking Windows and Macintosh
computers, 202–203
output devices, 210–212
overview of, 200–201
Windows vs. Macintosh, 201–202
multimedia projects, software
3-D modeling and animation tools,
218–219
animation, video, and digital movie tools,
221–222
helpful accessories, 222
image-editing tools, 220–221
OCR software, 215–216
overview of, 212–214
painting and drawing tools, 216–217
sound-editing tools, 221
text editing and word processing tools,
214–215
multimedia skill set, 240
multimedia skills
overview of, 240–241
review, 256–259
team building, 254–255
multimedia skills, of team members
audio specialist, 250–251
interface designer, 245–246
multimedia designer, 243–245
multimedia programmer, 251–252
overview of, 241
producer of multimedia for Web,
253–254
project manager, 241–243
video specialist, 248–249
writer, 246–248
multimedia title, 1
multiple tracks, digital audio recordings, 111
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. See
MIME-types (Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions)
Musical Instrument Digital Interface. See
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital
Interface) audio
musical notation, MIDI vs. digital audio
iles, 119
mySQL, CMSs built on PHP and, 381
Mysterium, 8
N
naming conventions, 321
National Archives, Washington, D.C., 335
National Grid for Learning (NGfL), 4
National Television Standards Committee
(NTSC), 167–168
natural light, 88–90
navigation
designing, 296–297
hypermedia structures, 58–60
menus, 34–35
navigation (site) maps
as architectural drawings for project,
300–301
buttons that make sense, 304
designing, 296
as nonlinear, 298
sidebars for, 411
surface structure when designing, 298
Web background images, 409–410
needs analysis, bid proposals, 286
negation, word search method in hypermedia
systems, 58
negotiations, for content usage rights, 332
NetLingo, 22
Netscape, 376–377
networking, 202–203, 360–361
Neumann, John von, 206
NGfL (National Grid for Learning), 4
nibbling
at sound elements, 413
in Web design, 397–398
NIPRNET (nee MILNET), 368
NLE (nonlinear editing), digital video, 188–190
nodes, in hypertext systems, 58
nonlinear editing (NLE), digital video, 188–190
nonlinear navigation
deined, 296–297
of navigation maps, 298, 300
nonlinear projects, 2
normalizing, digital audio sound level, 109–110
notation software, for MIDI scores, 114–115
Novice/Expert modes, user interface
design, 308
NSF (National Science Foundation), 359
NTSC (National Television Standards
Committee), 167–168
O
Object/Embed method, HTML, 395
<OBJECT> tag, HTML, 384–385, 395
objects
3-D scenes consisting of, 84
authoring programs based on, 230–231
icon-and object-based authoring
tools, 229
OCR (optical character recognition) software
in barcode readers, 210
for multimedia projects, 215–216
for scanners, 209
oice suite, 214
Ogg (.ogg iles) format, 173, 176
“on the ly,” creating vector-drawn objects, 82
online references
3-D tools, 385
America Online font foundries, 41–42
animation overuse, 140
animation styles and tips, 414
Audacity sound digitization, 108
commonly installed fonts, 29
459
copyleft licenses, 342
country codes, 364
design, 313
developing multimedia for Internet, 358
Digital Rights Management, 336
DVD standards, 436
inding multimedia talent, 267–268
Fontlab, Ltd., 51
Fontographer, 23
Google Books, 334
hierarchical rules for addresses in US
domain, 364
Hoo Technologies, 122
HTML and CSS, 38
HTML character entity references, 49
HTML tools, 378
icon editors, 307
instant messaging jargon words, 22
kinematics, 147
Lunch Box DV for frame editing and
timing, 144
MIME-types, 369
morphing, 147
Most Wanted and Most Unwanted
songs, 127
nonunion talent release forms, 352
OpenOice, 215
page-based authoring tools, 228
panoramas, 88
police ight cellphone recording, 133
SemanticWeb development, 372
stock footage, 333
Totally Hip’s LiveStage Pro, 174
Vatican artwork collection, 331
video titles created with templates, 187
Washington On Line, 4–5
web site promotion and search engine
submission, 439
XML, 373
OpenOice, 215
OpenType, 41, 52–53
operating systems, smartphone, 395
optical character recognition. See OCR (optical
character recognition) software
Orange Book standard, 431–434
organization
choosing authoring tool for, 231–232
in multimedia projects, 198–199
outline font language, 40
output devices, 210–212
overscan, 170, 173
ownership
of content created for project, 343–347
of someone else’s content, 332
P
packages, for delivery, 436–438
packages, proposal, 286
page-based authoring tools, 228–229
460
Multimedia: Making it Work
paint
in cel animation, 144
in computer-based animation, 146
Painter, 76
painting software, 216–217
PAL (Phase Alternate Line) system, 167–168
palettes
color, 94–96
creating images for Web in
Photoshop, 406
Pan and Scan method, 182
Panorama Factory, 88
panoramas
avoiding when shooting video, 185
working with, 88
Papervision3D, 150, 384
paragraphs, displaying whole, 36–37
parent and child relationships, object-based
authoring programs, 230–231
passwords, and case sensitivity, 24
patents, typeface designs and, 50
path animation, in 2-D space, 142
payment schedule, for outside client, 277–280
PCM (Pulse Code Modulation), music
CDs, 121
PCX ile format, 97
PDAs
e-Ink not required to read, 38
multimedia piped to, 7
PDFs (Portable Document Files), 97, 380
pels, 71
pencil test, in cel animation, 144
people, in project estimates, 276–277
performance, authoring tools for tuning, 233
permissions, negotiating content rights,
340–341
persistence of vision, in animation, 141
PERT (Program Evaluation Review
Technique) charts, 264–265
Phase Alternate Line (PAL) system, 168
phi phenomenon, in animation, 141
PhotoCD Orange Book layout, 432
photography efects, for bitmaps, 79
Photoshop
creating animated rolling ball, 151
creating images for Web, 405–408
as most widely used image-editing
tool, 76
PSD ile format, 97
PHP, 372–373, 381
PICT ile format, 97
Picture ile, Mac, 77
pillars, converting aspect ratios in video, 182
Pinch Open/Pinch Closed, on small
devices, 396
Ping utility, discovering IP addresses, 365
pixels
in bitmaps, 71
deined, 23
history of aspect ratios, 40
pixilation, in bitmaps, 82
Placeshifting, 349
Planck, Max, 88
planning and costing stage
alpha development, 271
beta development, 271
billing rates, 277–280
delivery, 271–272
estimating, 274–277
idea analysis, 262–266
overview of, 196–197
pretesting, 266
process of making multimedia, 260–262
prototype development, 268–271
review, 288–293
RFPs and bid proposals, 280–287
scheduling, 273–274
task planning, 266–268
plasma displays
deined, 171
using additive color method, 91
platform-independent delivery, failures,
200–201
platforms, multimedia
deined, 2
mentioning in bid proposal, 287
visualizing low of text on all, 28–29
playback, authoring tool for, 233
players
deined, 381
video for web page, 415–416
plug-and-play devices, USB devices as, 205
plug-ins
bitmap, 79
browser support for third-party, 375
image, 382
Internet, 381–383
sound, 124, 383
text and document, 382
Web video, 414–416
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) images
browsers enabled for HTML5 reading/
displaying of, 382
color palettes, 95
developed to replace GIF, 403
image ile format, 71
using for transparency, 407–408
points, type sizes in, 22
police, ighting cellphone recordings, 133
POP (Post Oice Protocol), daemons
supporting, 368
Portable Document Files (PDFs), 97, 380
Portable Network Graphics. See PNG
(Portable Network Graphics) images
portrait vs. landscape orientation, for text, 37
Poser, 3-D modeling program, 146–147
Post Oice Protocol (POP), daemons
supporting, 368
post-production, incorporating sound in, 131
post-session, incorporating sound in, 131
PostScript, for pretty text, 52–53
PowerPoint
managing presentations with, 383
multimedia linking and embedding
features, 226
preexisting content, locating, 333–335
preload attribute of <AUDIO> tag, 413
prerequisites, PERT charts showing, 265
presentation slides, text, 26
presentations, PowerPoint, 383
pressed CD-Rs, 430
Presto engine, 395
pretesting project, 266
Pricing & Ethical Guidelines (Graphic Artists
Guild), 277
primitives, importing shapes for 3-D objects
from, 85
printing
CMYK used in, 91–92, 93
in multimedia development
environment, 212
PNG images, 143
text documents, 26–27
use of ROM in, 206
vector-drawn objects used in, 80
WYSIWYG, 25
printing press, invention of, 19
privacy rights, 133
production phase
copyrights, 321–322
costs, 280
hazards and annoyances, 322–324
of multimedia for Web, 253–254
overview of, 318–319
project manager responsibility in, 242
review, 325–329
starting up, 319
tracking, 321
working with clients, 320–321
production value, of content, 330
professionals. See talent
proiling data, 298
Program Evaluation Review Technique
(PERT) charts, 264–265
program manager role in team, 242–243
programmable ROMs (EPROMs), 206
programmer role, 251–252
programming features, choosing authoring tool,
232–233
progressive-scan system
HDTV for computers as, 170
for JPEGs on Web, 407
overview of, 171–172
project development costs, 280
project implementation, bid proposals, 287
project managers, multimedia, 241–243,
264–265
Prometheus (Fifth Symphony by Scriabin), 8
proof-of-concept, 196–197, 269
Index
properties
of 3-D objects and elements, 84
adjusting bitmap, 75
in object-based authoring programs,
230–231
prototype development
alpha stage, 271
beta stage, 271
planning stage, 196
pretesting phase, 266
in process of making multimedia project,
268–271
PSD ile format, 97, 405
public domain material, 74, 333–335
public places, multimedia in, 7–8
Pulse Code Modulation (PCM), music CDs, 121
Q
quality
and ile size of digital audio recordings,
111–113
MIDI vs. digital audio iles, 119
reducing storage by sacriicing sound, 126
quantum theory, 88
QuickTime (.mov) format
creating Virtual Reality iles, 416
digital video container, 173–174
MP4 format based on, 122
R
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks),
for high-speed data transfer rates, 165
RAM (random access memory), 205–206
random access memory (RAM), 205–206
rasterizing, 23
rate cards, 338
read-only memory (ROM), 206
Read.Me ile, project distribution disc, 426
README.TXT ile, project distribution
disc, 426
real estate, screen, 69
Real Media (.rm iles) format, digital video, 173
real-time teleconferencing, 3
recording
audio, 126–128
digital audio, 108–111, 135
police ighting cellphone, 133
Red Book audio standard
for audio CDs, 129
CD-R blanks holding 84 minutes of, 430
deined, 431
track layout, 432
red-green color blindness, 73
Redundant Array of Independent Disks
(RAID), for high-speed data transfer
rates, 165
release candidate, project delivery stage, 425
release forms, for nonunion talent, 351
rendering
3-D animations, 146
3-D images, 86–87
RenderZone Plus, form•Z, 83
resampling, digital audio recordings, 110
resolution
HDTV high, 170
sampling rates and, 111–113
web images in Photoshop, 405
web page design and, 395
Reunion genealogy software, 5
reversed graphics, user interface design, 311
reversing sound, digital audio recordings, 111
RFC 1480, 363–364
RFPs (Request for Proposals), 280–285
RGB (red, green, blue) color model
in additive color method, 91
for monitor color, 92
overview of, 92–93
PNG images only using, 143
for web images in Photoshop, 405–406
rights
to content created by others, 332
copyright issues. See copyright
Digital Rights Management, 336
ownership of works, 343–347
for preexisting content, 333–335
rights-managed images, 74
rights, negotiating content
copyleft, 342–343
derivative works, 339–340
overview of, 336–337
permissions, 340–341
ringtones, mobile phone, 129
.rm iles (Real Media) format, digital video, 173
rolling ball animation, 151–152
rollovers, for clickable buttons, 36
ROM (read-only memory), 206
Roman numerals, 48
rotating, modeling 3-D objects by lathing, 85
rotational speed, of CDs, 433
ROY G. BIV, 88
royalties, clip art, 335
royalty-free images, 74–75
Runtime Revolution, page-based authoring
system, 228–229
Russian alphabet, 46
+RW, and DVD formats, 435
S
S-Video (Separate Video), 166–167
SACD (Super Audio CD) formats, 113
safe title area, 170, 173
SAG (Screen Actors Guild)
acquiring talent from, 348
working with union contracts, 349–351
461
sampling
digital audio recordings, 110
ile size vs. quality and, 111–113
speech and music, 126
sans serif, vs. serif, 24–25, 398
saturation, of images across platforms, 78
scalability, of vector-drawn objects, 82
scanners
image, 78–79
OCR, 215–216
scenes
creating 3-D, 84–86
creating animated, 155–157
scheduling
with idea management software, 264
multimedia projects, 273–274
scope creep, 275
scope, determining project, 260
Score facility, Director, 230
Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
acquiring talent from, 348
working with union contracts, 349–351
screen-grabbers, 222
screen savers, and CRT screens, 171
Scriabin, 19th-century multimedia work of, 8
scripting
adding sound with, 125
choosing authoring tool for, 232
determining navigation with, 2
Unicode standard and, 44
scriptwriters, multimedia, 246–248
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface),
204–205
.sea extension, Macintosh, 428
SeaMonkey browser, 378
search engines, 358–359, 377
overview of, 377
URLs for, 439
SECAM (Sequential Color and Memory),
167–168
second-level domains, 362–363
Second Life, 3-D, 384
sectors, CD data storage, 432
self-extracting archives, 428
SemanticWeb, 372
Separate Video (S-Video), 166–167
sequencer software, for MIDI scores, 114–116
Sequential Color and Memory (SECAM),
167–168
serif, vs. sans serif, 24–25, 398
servers, web, 360, 375–376
services, Internet, 367–368
shading
applying to 3-D objects, 86
rendering background and object into
image with, 86–87
in user interface design, 311
shapes, 3-D modeling with, 85
SharePoint Designer, 380
462
Multimedia: Making it Work
Shockwave player
delivering 3-D, 384
video for web page, 415–416
shooting video. See video, shooting and editing
Short Message Service (SMS) text messages,
21–22
shotgun microphones, shooting video, 181
SHOUTING, online messaging, 24
sidebars, web background, 411
simple branching, for interactivity, 233
16:9 aspect ratio
computer monitor resolution, 172
converting to 4:3 in video production,
181–182
digital television resolution, 173
HDTV vs. VGA, 170
sizing, vector-drawn object vs. bitmaps, 82
SMALL CAPS, accenting words with, 27
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI),
204–205
small-device workspace, web design, 396–397
smartphones, web page layout for, 395
Smith Micro’s Poser 3-D modeling program,
146–147
SMS (Short Message Service) text messages,
21–22
snack-size media, 349
sodium vapor lamps, for street lighting, 90
SoftImage 3-D modeling software, Avid, 218
software
3-D modeling and animation, 218–219
animation, video, and digital movie,
221–222
beta test feedback, 424
bitmap, 76–77
digital audio iles vs. MIDI, 120
dithering, 96
helpful accessories, 222
hot, simple and deep, 302
idea management, 263–264
image-editing, 220–221
for MIDI scores, 114–116
networking computers with client/
server, 202
OCR, 215–216
overview of, 212–214
painting and drawing, 216–217
project manager understanding, 242
sound-editing, 221
text editing and word processing,
214–215
web server conigurations, 376
software engineer, role in multimedia, 251
software robots, 56
Soldier, Dave, 127
Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension
Act, 334
sons (or stampers), for CDs, 430
Sony’s Station web site, 6–7
sound
audio ile formats, 121–123
audio interface design, 312–313
digital audio, 106–113
editing tools, 221
locating preexisting content from
libraries of, 335
managing over Web, 383
MIDI audio, 113–118
MIDI audio vs. digital, 118–120
multimedia audio specialists role,
250–251
multimedia systems and, 120–121
police ight against cellphone
recordings, 133
power of, 104–106
review, 134–138
Vaughan’s Law of Multimedia
Minimums and, 123–124
for Web, 413
sound, adding to your multimedia project
audio CDs, 128–129
audio recording, 126–128
copyright issues, 131–132
for Internet, 130–131
keeping track of your sounds, 128
overview of, 124–125
space considerations, 125–126
testing and evaluation, 131
for your mobile, 129
Sound Control Panel, 120–121
sound synthesizer, 114–117
sound waves, 104
source material, adding sound to project, 124
space, adding sound to project, 125–126
speakers, designing multimedia project, 211
special characters in HTML, 401
speech iles, Web, 383
spell checker, 223
spelling, irregularity of English, 21–22
splicing and assembly, editing digital
recordings, 109
spreadsheets
enhancing content of, 224–225
scheduling multimedia projects, 273–274
sprites, animation, 221
SQL (Structured Query Language), 372–373
Squizz (morphing tool), 147
stage, Director authoring tool, 230
stampers (or sons), for CDs, 430
standalone project version, authoring tool for
delivery of, 234
Standard Television (STV), 169
standards
analog broadcast video, 167–168
compact disc, 431–434
DVD, 436–438
Stansberry, Domenic (multimedia scriptwriter),
247–248
startup stage, production, 319
Station web site, Sony, 6–7
steady-cam balancing attachment, shooting
platforms, 181
stereo vs. mono recordings, 111
still images
3-D drawings and renderings for, 83–88
animated scenes with, 155–158
bitmaps for. See bitmaps
coloring. See color
computer animation from multiple,
150–155, 158–159
overview of, 70–71
vector-drawn objects for, 80–81
vector-drawn objects vs. bitmaps, 81–83
still photo libraries, 335
stock footage, 333, 335
Stone Design’s GIFfun, 155
storage media, 320–321
storage space
adding sound to project, 125–126
evaluating sound iles in multimedia
projects, 131
multimedia, 206–208
storyboard
adding sound using, 124
as architectural drawing, 300–301
choosing authoring tool for, 231–232
costs of, 276
creating animated scene with, 155–157
designing projects with, 295, 314–315
determining navigation with, 2
preplanning video project with, 183
video titles, 186
Strata 3D modeling software, 218
streaming iles, sound over Web, 130
streaming latency, 130
streaming playback, sound over Web, 383
Streuli, Oliver (multimedia video
specialist), 249
structural depth design, 297–303
structural design
hot spots, 303–306
hyperlinks, 303–306
icons, 306–308
navigation, 296–297
structural depth, 297–303
structural design, buttons, 303–306
Structured Query Language (SQL), 372–373
STV (Standard Television), 169
styles
font, 22
HTML document markup with tags, 38
production design, 223
text button design, 303
text design for Web, 398
using AJAX, 373
subject matter expert, 242
subtractive color method, 91–92
Index
sunlight, white light from, 90
Super Audio CD (SACD) formats, 113
surface structures, 297–298
Surmacz, Jon, 133
sustain of sound, MIDI iles, 118
.svg ile format. See SVG (Scalable Vector
Graphics) iles
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) iles
for animation, 149–150
browsers enabled for HTML5 reading/
displaying, 382
ile size advantage of, 82
overview of, 80
SWF format (.swf )
animation, 149
deined, 123
video for web page, 415–416
Swish, animation software, 414
symbols, 32–33
system sounds, 120–121
T
table of contents
bid proposals, 286
for production work, 223
<TABLE> tag, HTML, 398–399
tables, for production work, 223
tablet computers, 37
Tagged Interchange File Format (TIFF), 97
tags, HTML
companies releasing not yet approved,
374–375
developing multimedia for Web, 378,
393, 395–396
in HTML5, 393–395
marking up HTML documents, 38
talent
acquiring releases, 351–352
agencies, 348
locating professionals, 348–349
overview of, 347–348
review, 353–357
working with union contracts, 349–351
target audience, bid proposals, 287
task planning
process of making project, 266–268
project estimates, 274–277
scheduling project, 273–274
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/
Internet Protocol), 364
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), and IP
addresses, 364
team
building, 254–255
building matrix chart of required skills,
267–268
hazards and annoyances of working
with, 323
skills of. See multimedia skills, of team
members
web sites for inding talent, 267–268
technical speciications, in bid proposals, 287
templates
creating video titles, 186–187
for production work, 223
terabytes, 206–207
testing project
alpha stage, 271
beta stage, 271
costs of, 280
overview of, 197
prototype, 269
sound iles, 125, 131
by team members, 242
before work is inalized and released,
423–425
text
animating, 31–32
anti-aliasing, 53
authoring tools for, 232
buttons, 35–36
character sets and alphabets, 42–44
designing with, 26–27
editing tools for, 214–215
embedding multimedia materials into
documents, 224–225, 227
ields for reading, 36–38
font wars, 40–42
fonts. See fonts
hot spots, 303
HTML documents and, 39–40
hypertext, 53–60
languages in world of computers, 46–50
mapping text across platforms, 45–46
navigation menus using, 34–35
overview of, 18–20
permission to use copyrighted, 340
plug-ins for, 382
power and irregularity of English, 21–22
power of meaning, 20–21
review, 61–67
symbols and icons, 32–33
user interface design using 2-D and
3-D, 311
video titles with, 186–188
for Web, 398–402
word processing tools, 214–215
text anchors, 305
textures, 3-D objects, 85
heora video codec, 173–174, 176
thesaurus, importance of word choice, 21
third-party players, and browser
performance, 375
3-D animation
computer-based, 146
kinematics in, 146–147
overview of, 143
463
preparing iles for Web, 149
realism of, 142
of text in user interface design, 311
3-D images
creating panoramas, 88
creating virtual reality with, 9
drawing and rendering, 83–87
vector-drawn objects, 80
3-D modeling software, 218–219
3-D technologies, on Web, 384–385
3D Invigorator, 143
3D Studio Max, 149
3gp iles, GSM mobile phones, 123
thumb drives, 207
TIFF (Tagged Interchange File Format), 97
tilde (~), Spanish, localization and, 49
time-based authoring tools, 229–230
time-based structure, chronological navigation
maps, 302–303
time, estimating project, 276–277
time-shifting, 349
time stretching, digital audio recordings, 111
Times Roman font, for web text, 398
timing, in cel animation, 144
titles
choosing font, 27
creating video, 186–188
packaging project for delivery, 437
TiVo technology, 5
TLDs (top-level domains), 361–362
token language, encoding speech iles for Web
into, 383
ToolBook, page-based authoring system,
228–229
top-level domains (TLDs), 361–362
Totally Hip’s LiveStage Pro, 174
Touch and Hold, on small devices, 396
tracking
adjusting analog video tape during
playback, 166–167
deined, 23
receipt of materials for project, 321
tracks, audio CD, 431–432
training programs, using multimedia, 3
transfer rates, for connections, 203
translate, animation, 142
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP), 364
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and IP
addresses, 364
transparency, creating web image, 407–408
transportation, of project to remote clients, 321
Trident engine, 395
trimming, digital recordings, 109
tripods, stable shooting platform, 181
TrueType, 41, 52–53
truncation, word search method in hypermedia
systems, 58
tungsten lamp ilaments, 90
464
Multimedia: Making it Work
tweening
in cel animation, 144
in computer-based animation, 145
TweenMax, 150
24-bit color systems, 95
2 1/2-D animation, 142–143, 145
2-D animation
cel-based, 145
computer-based, 145–146
deined, 142
examples of, 142
for text in user interface design, 311
translating into 3-D, 218–219
Type 1 and 3 PostScript fonts, 41
typeface
avoiding interlacing licker on CRTs,
171–172
choosing text fonts, 27
deined, 22
designs, 50–53
serif vs. sans serif, 25
U
ULead COOL 360, 88
ULead’s GIF Animator, 145, 155
Ultimatte, 184
ultraviolet light, damaging to humans, 90
umlaut (¨), German, 49–50
underscan, and computer monitor, 173
Unicode standard, 43–44
Uniform Resource Locator. See URL (Uniform
Resource Locator) addresses
unions
acquiring talent from, 348
working with contracts, 349–351
Unisys, and GIF images, 402–403
Universal Product Code (UPC), barcode
readers, 210
Universal Serial Bus (USB), 204–205, 207
unlimited use, of rights, 338
UPC (Universal Product Code), barcode
readers, 210
uppercase, 24
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) addresses
case sensitivity of, 24
handling “404-not found” errors, 212
notifying server as to which daemon to
bring into play, 368
US domain, Internet addresses in, 363–364
USB (Universal Serial Bus), 204–205, 207
USEMAP attribute of <IMG> tag, 411–412
user interface design
deined, 308
engineering details for, 297
graphical approaches, 310–312
GUIs, 309–310
Novice/Expert modes, 308
online references for, 313
V
validation, online tools for code, 423
Vatican artwork collection on Internet, 331
Vaughan, Victor C., 6
Vaughan’s General Rule for Interface
Design, 309
Vaughan’s Law of Multimedia Minimums
balancing production value of project, 330
choosing authoring tool for editing, 231
overview of, 123–124
for video equipment and services,
180–181
Vaughan’s Rule for Keeping Up, new software
and features, 212
VCA connectors, for analog video display, 167
VCRs (video cassette recorders), 167–168
vector-based drawing program, 76
vector-drawn objects
converting between bitmaps and, 82–83
how it works, 80–81
overview of, 70, 80
vs. bitmaps, 81–83
vectors
deined, 80
plug-ins enabling viewing of, 382–383
VectorWorks 3-D modeling software, 218–219
Verdana font, designing text for Web, 31, 398
version control, for project iles, 321
very high level language (VHLL), and
authoring tools, 232
VGA video standard
aspect ratio, 40
comparing HDTV to, 170
screen resolutions for computer
monitors, 172
VHLL (very high level language), and
authoring tools, 232
video
analog, 166–168
digital, 168–173
digital video containers, 173–178
how it works and is displayed, 165–166
making movies from, 221–222
multimedia in schools, 4
obtaining clips, 179–180
overview of, 164
using, 164–165
for Web, 414–416
video cassette recorders (VCRs), 167–168
Video CD (Karaoke CD), 431
video, shooting and editing
chroma keys, 184–185
composition, 185–186
lighting, 183–184
nonlinear editing, 188–190
overview of, 180–181
review, 190–195
shooting platform, 181–183
storyboarding, 183
titles and text, 186–188
video specialist role in, 248–249
video specialists, 248–249
video streams, 383
<VIDEO>tag, HTML5, 395, 414–415
viewport, 395–396
visual programming, choosing authoring
tool, 232
Vizcaino v. Microsoft, 279
voice recognition systems, 210
volume, adjusting in digital recordings, 109
Vorbis audio codec, 173, 176
VR (virtual reality) iles, 9, 416
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language),
9, 384
VSPACE attribute, <IMG> tag, 400–402
W
W3C Semantic Web Activity, 372
Walt Disney Company, 334
WANs (wide area networks), 202–203,
360–361
Washington On Line, 4–5
WAV (wave format) iles, 120–121
Web
2.0 sites, 374
importance of text on, 19–20
standards for transmitting VR scenes, 9
web browsers. See browsers
web page makers, 377–381
web pages
coding initial caps for, 28
fonts for, 31
hot spots in, 304–306
MIDI vs. digital audio iles, 119
multilanguage, 49–50
optimal length of, 26–27
putting vital text elements and menus at
top of, 28
sound for, 130
XML and dynamic, 372–373
Web-safe color palette, 94
web servers, 360, 375–376
web site
builders, 377–381
downloading image bitmap from, 74
online tools for code validation, 423
producers, 253–254
skills needed, 1
URLs for, 439
Webisodes, 349
WebKit engine, 395
white balance, shooting video using, 186
White Book standard, for Video CD (Karaoke
CD), 431
white space, 28, 311
white, using, 90
wide area networks (WANs), 202–203,
360–361
Index
WiFi, LANs using, 202
Williams, Mark (multimedia program
manager), 242–243
Winamp, AOL, 129
Windows Audio Video Interleaved (.avi)
format, 3-D animation for Web, 149
Windows Live Movie Maker, 188–189
Windows Media Audio (WMA), 122
Windows Media Format (.wmv iles), 173
Windows Media Player 12, incorporating
DRM, 336
Windows Media Rights Manager, with
DRM, 336
Windows operating system (OS)
GUI design, 309
icon image iles, 306–307
Macintosh capable of running, 202
Macintosh vs., 201–202
for multimedia projects, 200–201
networking, 202–203
screen-grabbers and format
converters, 222
self-extracting archives in, 428
Worldwide OS Market Share of, 201
Wine, Hal (multimedia programmer), 251–252
WinImages, 147
wizards, for production work, 223
WMA (Windows Media Audio), 122
WMV containers, codec wars, 176
.wmv iles (Windows Media Format), 173
word choice
importance of meaning, 20–21
instant messaging jargon, 21–22
word processing programs
embedding multimedia materials into,
224–225, 227
overview of, 214–215
word processors, 214–215
word relationships, searching in hypermedia
systems, 57
word searching, in hypermedia systems, 57–58
WordPerfect, word processor, 215
workgroups, communication among members
of, 200
World Wide Web
delivering on, 438–440
HTML and, 372–373
hypertext and. See hypertext
search engines on, 358–359
tools for, 374–375
World Wide Web design
animation for, 413–414
desktop workspace, 396
developing for, 392–393
HTML as markup language, 393–396
nibbling, 397–398
overview of, 392
review, 417–421
small-device workspace, 396–397
sound for, 413
text for, 398–402
video for, 414–416
World Wide Web design, images for
background, 409–410
backgrounds, 405–408
clickable buttons, 411
client-side image maps, 411–412
lowing text around, 400–402
GIF and PNG images, 402–403
465
JPEG images, 403–404
overview of, 402
separate Internet HTTP connection
required for every, 396
using GIF vs. JPEG, 404
using Photoshop, 405–408
WORM (write-once, read only) CD-ROMs,
431, 433–434
worship, multimedia in places of, 8–9
writers, multimedia, 246–248
.wrl extension, VRML, 9
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
support
printouts from computer monitor, 25
of web page makers and site builders,
379–380
X
x-height, fonts, 22
XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
building dynamic web pages,
372–373, 378
creating multimedia projects on Web, 1
Y
YCC color model, 94
YELLING, in online messaging, 24
Yellow Book standard, 431, 433–434
YIQ color model, 94
YUV color model, 94
Z
z axis. See 3-D images
Zaxwerks, 143
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