Multimedia authoring with iShell Ian Hart CAUT Interactive Media Group

Mission: facilitating the improvement of teaching and learning through the use of media. Staff ä Ian Hart production, instructional design ä Meenaksh Chandimani, Kitty Lai Sik Ling graphic design ä Makin Fung Bing Fai video ä Jessia Wong webmaster & authoring

Multimedia components Digital video Quicktime VR Photographs Graphics Animation Text Sound Created separately using specialised software and standardised formats : eg. JPEG, PNG, MOV, AIFF, RTF, HTML

Multimedia authoring Digital video Quicktime VR Photographs Graphics Animation Text Sound Authoring Software Markup (HTML, SMIL) Time-based (Director, Quicktime, Flash) Object-based (iShell)

Multimedia outputs Digital video Quicktime VR Photographs Graphics Animation Text Sound Storage media  DVD  CD/DVR-ROM Hybrid media  Augmented CD-ROM  Internet player On-line media  WWW  Intranet Authoring

iShell ( Multi-platform  Editing and Runtime under Mac, Windows 95/98 and NT/2000  All files are text, compiled at runtime  The “engine” is QuickTime 4+ Open source  Members have the SDK and can write scripts and plugins

iShell ( Antecedents  Hypercard, Apple Media Tool, mTropolis Object-based  Each element has editable attributes  Elements are programmed independently  Elements can be nested and function together  Elements can send messages to one- another

iShell ( CD & DVD-ROM  Optimised for these media  Fast, multi-platform titles Hybrid media (Internet)  Program and basic elements on CD-ROM; updateable downloads cached Internet player  Small download with all media accessed on-line

iShell ( Free software  Tribeworks operates on a membership scheme Ordinary members  Free access to the latest GM release Gold, Silver, Educational members  Full support, access to SDK, feature requests, commercial/sales support on Web site

STRUCTURE: Elements Box Document Field Image Movie Panorama Scroller Sound Text Table Containers Contents referenced by URL can be Switched Attributes eg. position, size, colour, visible, transparent, font… can be Set

STRUCTURE: Events Mouse events Time Finished Loaded Hottext Movie event Hot panorama Error Message Interactivity Inputs from the user or from other elements that affect what happens next. Eg. On mouse down…

STRUCTURE: Commands Drag Enable Grow Focus Run Set Show Switch Tell …etc Results Commands are the result of events. These on the left affect the Element only, but Commands can also affect the Runtime

STRUCTURE: Special Set attribute/ property Get attribute/ property If / Else / Else if While Tell table Send message Variables Are one of the most powerful tools in iShell, enabling efficient and flexible authoring and the use of reusable templates Messages A special quality of object- oriented systems

STRUCTURE: Debugger New in iShell 2+ Watch the program run Check variables states Comment out routines Create logs Complexity iShell can be simple and fast or complex and difficult to understand. In large projects debugging tools are essential.

Let’s make something We need:  iShell Editor  Media (movies, text, images, sounds, etc)  Ideas…

Tools

New Learning Environments Web address of iShell Player is: Choose the appropriate player for your system