lesson 24 Creating & Distributing New Media Content

This lesson includes the following sections: Creating New Media Content Technologies That Support New Media Distributing New Media Content

Creating New Media Content The creation of multimedia products (such as CD-ROM encyclopedias or online games) requires the skills of many people, working in a process that involves these phases: Defining the Audience Design and Storyboarding Choosing Tools, Creating Content, and Multimedia Authoring Testing

Creating New Media Content - Defining the Audience Before any code is written or graphics are drawn, the multimedia team must determine who will be the audience for its product. By identifying the audience, the developers can determine the users' needs and manner in which the product will be used. Developers typically define their product's audience by attempting to answer a series of questions about the users. The answers determine how the product will ultimately look and behave.

Creating New Media Content - Design and Storyboarding Multimedia design involves determining the exact content the product must include, the order in which it will flow, and the types of tools and options the user will want. Developers often map out the flow of a product's content by creating storyboards – sketches of scenes from the product.

Creating New Media Content - Choosing Tools, Creating Content and Authoring Multimedia developers can choose from a wide range of tools for creating their products. The tools used depend on the type of content, interactive capabilities, and navigational features desired in the product. Different team members create different kinds of content for the product. Writers create text content or narration scripts, for instance. The process of combining various elements into the finished product is called multimedia authoring, and requires special tools that recognize and control all types of content.

Creating New Media Content - Testing Before being released to its end users, a multimedia product goes through various types of testing. If the product fails any portion of a test, it may be sent back into the development process or even may be redesigned from scratch.

Technologies That Support New Media In order to present various types of content and allow user interaction, multimedia programs may use a wide range of technologies, such as: MPEG and JPEG QuickTime Video for Windows RealAudio and RealVideo Shockwave

Technologies That Support New Media - MPEG and JPEG High-quality images consume a great deal of bandwidth and can cause multimedia products to perform poorly if not handled in an efficient way. MPEG is a standard file format for full-motion video, which allows for efficient compression while maintaining high image quality. JPEG is a standard file format for still images, such as photographs, which also provides compression and high image quality.

24-7

Technologies That Support New Media - QuickTime QuickTime is a multimedia file format originally meant for use on Apple computers. QuickTime-format files are used on the Web and in stand-alone multimedia products. QuickTime allows for high-quality streaming audio and video. The QuickTime player supports a variety of file formats, including MPEG. QuickTime VR uses QuickTime technology to present immersive environments, with almost the same impact as true 3-D.

24-8

Technologies That Support New Media - Video for Windows Video for Windows is a very basic format that allows full-motion audio and video to be played on a PC. Though limited in its capabilities, Video for Windows does not require any special hardware or software, and files can be played on any Windows PC.

Technologies That Support New Media - RealAudio and RealVideo The RealPlayer is a multimedia utility that can play streaming audio and video files, distributed over the Internet or on CD. The RealPlayer plays audio files in RealAudio format, and video files in RealVideo format. Online media outlets, such as CNN and the Weather Channel, provide RealPlayer-format versions of their programming, which can be viewed from the Web.

Technologies That Support New Media - Shockwave Shockwave is a specialized file format that supports full-motion, interactive animation and sound. Using the Shockwave plug-in utility, you can view Shockwave-format animations directly in your browser window on the Web. Shockwave is unique because it allows developers to create fully interactive animations, such as games, which can be distributed online or on disk.

24-11

Distributing New Media Content Currently, multimedia content is typically delivered to users by one of three means: CD-ROM or DVD-ROM The Internet or a network connection Television

lesson 24 Review Describe the phases of the multimedia design process. List three technologies that support full-motion video in multimedia products. Identify one technology that supports streaming audio and video on the Web. Name three ways in which multimedia content is commonly distributed.