1. Interactive Multimedia Authoring

2. What is Multimedia Authoring?
Process of creating a multimedia production
Assembling or sequencing different media elements
Adding interactivity
Packaging the production for distribution to the end users.

3. Easy to miss…
In authoring and producing your Lego animation, it is easy to forget: You are authoring a multimedia production
While I want the final product to be good, It’s the process that matters most.

4. The process is valuable learning
EXAMPLE
Task: You want to place the Lego figure on a background image
Problem: The magic wand tool can’t crop the Lego figures in your photographs from the white background
Solutions:
Crop the figures manually
Re-photograph figures on a background with more color contrast.
Lesson Learned: Test the process before photographing 100+ images.

5. Mistakes are learning opportunities
The team that makes the most mistakes learns the most.
A team that’s very lucky can miss the big picture:
Example:
We are not just photographing figures
We are photographing figures that can be extracted from the background and then manipulated independently.

6. Process vs. Product: Another Example
Team decides to film video at full HD (1920 X 1080 X 60 fps)
13GB video file is too big to import into Flash, iMovie, etc. (exceeds the systems available memory)
From a production point of view, this is a failure
From a process point of view, you just learned how HD video creates challenges for editors and producers of multimedia.

7. Other kinds of Multimedia Production
Obviously, there is more than just Lego animation.
Business Presentations
Trade-show or Conference Demonstrations
Museum Exibits
Advertising Kiosks
Educational Products (tutorials, demos, etc.)
Games

8. Terminology: Media vs. Medium
If I asked you about your project:
What media are you using? How would you answer?
What medium are you using? How would you answer?
What color is your picture? Well, it has many colors. What medium are you using? Well, there are many media present.

9. Terminology: Media vs. Medium
Q: What media are you using?
A: Video, still-frame animation, audio, some text.
Q: What medium are you using?
A: Internet

10. Medium (the term) Medium: channel of general communication.
Could pertain to the means of communication TV
Internet
Radio, etc.
Could also pertain to the inherent content, but only if it is assumed to be one type of content
Video
Text
Audio, etc.

11. Media (the term) Media: The plural of medium
Because it’s plural, it’s a better term for talking about content, which often includes more than one medium.
“What media are included in your production”
Also used to personify the communication network, i.e., the television news media – refers to the collective network including the people

12. Distribution Medium
A production that includes multiple media (audio, images, text) can be tailor for one particular distribution medium
CD, DVD, BluRay
Internet (played in a web browser)
TV Broadcast
Radio Broadcast

13. Medium   Distribution Channel
Because a production (which could have multiple media) is commonly produced for one distribution medium,
The term medium is most often associated with distribution or communication network, i.e., Internet, TV, Radio, etc.

14. Media   Content Types
What media are used in the production? Images and text are the media used. Medium is rarely used to refer to content types unless it is assume that there is only one type

15. Media (collective singular)  Personification of a Distribution Network
The television media is obsessed with the Casey Anthony story
Here you are talking about only one communication network, i.e., TV.
The news media is a joke these days.
Here you are talking about more than one network (TV New, Radio New, Newpapers, etc.), but we still refer to it a collective singular.
Analogy, one herd, one flock

16. Interactive Multimedia Authoring
Typical Communication mediums (media would be grammatically correct, but less precise)
Internet (web browser)
CD, DVD, etc. (applications – games)
Media used:
Everything (text, images, audio, video).

17. Communication Medium is important
A multimedia production can be 4GB if it is produced for DVD.
4GB posses problems for multimedia productions mean to be delivered over the Internet.
Flash technology emerged because of this very problem.

18. Adobe’s Flash (what is it really?)
Authoring environment where you can put together objects: images, text, audio, and video.
But, you can also change (animate) the objects in a timeline.
But, you can also add code (ActionScript) to add interactivity to the objects

19. Three Object Classes Graphic Movie Clip Button
Could be composed of raster images and vector shapes
Just meant to be seen
No temporal (time-based) characteristics, i.e., no time line
Movie Clip
Same as graphic but has temporal characteristics, i.e., it has an independent timeline
Button
Same as graphic but has extra interactive features
Responds to keyboard and mouse events

20. Production Process Collect the media elements Assemble them
Add interactivity
Package movie for distribution to the end users

21. Production Process (limited by Flash)
Collect the media elements
Limited formats
Images (png, gif, jpeg)
Audio (wav, aiff)
Video (avi, mov, mpeg)
Assemble them
Limited by stage (set resolution)
Limited by timeline (set frames per second)
Add interactivity
Limited by what ActionScript can do
Package movie for distribution to the end users
SWF output (mean for Internet, but can be put on DVD).

22. Two Basic Animation Models

23. Limitations of Tweening
Vector objects (Flash shapes) can morph
Raster graphics (bitmaps) cannot morph
They can only
Change position
Change scaling (size)
“morph”
Circle to square
Change sub-parts
Move just the arm
Rotate just the head

24. Scripted Animation vs. …
Frame-by-frame animation requires editing individual frames
Tweened animation requires editing key frames (the in-between frames are generated automatically)
Script Animation uses the power of code
Translation functions
Change objects mathematically

25. Flash Concept: The Stage
(0,0)
(x,y)

26. Authoring: Script vs. Stage
Flash offers a stage where you can manually place and edit objects.
ActionScript also lets you place objects on the stage, but it gives you more automated control.
Place object at exact X, Y coordinate
X and Y can come from a function
Move (translate objects based on function, rather than manual editing).