Multimedia Production ===================== ITE 380. Multimedia - an adjective using or encompassing several media. Several media are being managed and presented. What are the implications of implementing those medias: Require different technology to store, load, and display multimedia on a computer Each media form requires different design methods and technologies. Each media is effective in some area of communication - but not necessarily in another. (some things might be difficult textorial stuff to a video, but might not be able to convert video to text) (how might a photograph portray an image as opposed to a book) - such as a view of the grand canyon? 3 types of multi-media: ======================== Offline - self contained - offline multimedia application. Online is where the information comes through the web, et cetera.... Hybrid - offline AND online. (high bandwidth from cd, low bandwidth from internet) 6/9/99 ====== Multimedia Project: A series of tasks which are media related which is combined to effectively communicate. 1. Scoping the project. In the past, we've talked about requirements gathering. Why might this be difficult? a. the client might not know exactly what he wants. b. the client can not clearly describe what he wants (in terms you can understand) c. the client usually wants one thing, but describes another. This information is usually gathered through one or more meetings. It's usually good to have team members present for brainstorming solutions to their problem so the client can start to understand what he / she wants as a solution. 2. The Proposal. This is usually a formal, written document which is written to the client which formalizes the details. It also communicates the initial design. a. Includes formalities - with details. b. Communicates - The initial design thinking c. Cost Anaylsis d. Time Line 3. The Contract Phase. In this phase, you try to draw up a document that outlines the deliverables and the cost of development. Generally uses a lawyer, and is legally binding. 4. Content and treatment phase. The treatment is the kind of look and feel ; the story ; that glues the various components of your project together. You must develop a treatment that matches the content. In depermining, in this phase, what the client wants, you must come up with some kind of treatment. Content includes: text, graphics, logos, video, sound, animnation, et cetera. (make sure these enhance the message). Be sure the elements will be approved by the client. 5. Media Production. BIG time consuming process from scratch. If it's not developed from scratch, you have legal issues because SOMEONE owns it. 6. Prototypes and Testing - Develop a user interface and test it. The media needs to be reviewed to see how it will work. 7. Final Production - stage where all the media production is collected together with the control software to produce the project. Quality control and completeness are big issues here. For most multimedia projects, you need to do most of the "stuff" that makes sure it works for your end vendor (putting animation, install scripts, et cetera on the cd-rom...) 8. Delivery - of the completed system to the client. Generally at this point, the contract is expected to be completed here, and there is an expectation of being paid. Generally the client is involved between final production and the delivery. :) (so you don't burn 20,000 copies that aren't really what you wanted as a final product) Every project should be ARCHIVED. The developer should undertake archiving of the project. Keep components for easy retrival. There are several reasons for this Archive: 1) error correction 2) extension / modification 'specially for version 2. Project ======= Goal: To produce a multimedia presentation that will be siutable for HS juniors and seniors to attract them to the CIS school at USA (ite emphasis) 1) Think about the client, who we want to say it to, and what we want to say. 2) Interviews? ;) 3) Show people facilities 4) Why is it a good place to come to school? 5) Why is it a good program? We need a list of important ideas or important information to classify. Messages: Student Oriented Where are we? (geographical) Facilities (CIS School and USA in general) USA Statistics Why is it a good place to come to school? Why is it a good program? Placement Stats (What are they going to do when they're here? What are they going to do after they're here?) Financial Costs / Aide Admission Requirements -requirements -how to? -(form you can print?) CIS Programs...(do a poll?) Courses - sample schedule, four year program faculty student descriptions 6/14/99 ======= MULTIMEDIA TEAMS: Why should we use a team? A team can develop multimedia more effectively than an individual person can. Individuals do not have all the necessary skills. It is unlikely that an individual woul have all the skills needed for a multimedia production. This is a highly specialized area. Specialists are more compotent and more efficent in the team process. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. (in a creative effort, with a creative team, this is probably true) Most individuals lack the time or interest to do all the parts. A team should have some requirements for building a good project: a. skills - 1. people skills - you must be able to communicate effectively 2. communication skills - person should be able to write well and speak well. 3. varied talents - you want to get people on your team with more than one kind of skill. NO STEREOTYPES. :) b. characteristics - (of a good team member) a good team member is flexible, and can complete tasks as required. and not just those tasks which were assigned. a team member has the ability to adopt to new technoloigies and new methodoligies. a good team member is creative. he / she is not just seeking a solution, rather, a better solution! a good team member can accept feedback (constructive criticism) c. committment commitment to project. typically this is exhibited by enthusiasm and motivation. ;-) also includes presererance availability to work on the project: you might have to trade in some things in order to make the project work. committed to the team concept: committed to the notion of working on the team, and does not exhibit the "lone wolf" mentality or the "i'll do it myself" mentality. Willingness to exceed required limits. (go that extra mile...) Willingness to give demonstrations and presentations. If you can get everyone to talk, it gives the team the impression of being solid. 6/15/99 ======= Communication Skills: 1) People and Communication Skills - managers should look for that type of behavior and eliminate misintrepritation and non-productive work. "We should respect each other and we are professional" - et cetera. 2) Regular Meetings - All members should attend, and that should include a set agenda. Should set time limits. Members should come prepared. Should come with a positive attitude, and the expectation that something will be accomplished. 3) You must develop team rules. Includes courteous and respectful treatment of all members. Also - do not inturrupt speakers. You activally listen and avoid the assumptions. You should provide constructive feedback. You should also discuss and solve problems. You should also be sure that subteams report to the whole team. Also keep team problems within the team. On the project: Find a way to record the team information - capture what is said in here. 6/16/99 ======= We must think about what has to be said to entice people to come to school here. Treatment: story, look, feel, which connects all the parts together. 6/18/99 ======= Team Members: A. Project Manager - person responsible for overall control and management of the project. This responsibility typically is an organizational responsibility - and they hire and fire people. They control tasks and timelines, and they control access to resources They are also responsible for budget information, and thus, are ultimately responsible for the quality of the project. Also responsible for contact or interfacing with the client. B. Graphics Artist / Designer - This person is responible for the graphical look and feel of a project. Responible for producing, locating, or improving the graphical elements of a project. Generally have to be creative, artistic, and generally they have to be a technical specialist (they have to understand our equipment). In lots of design teams, this person is a freelance artist -- someone that you hire. (even in companies that have graphics artist, you have one graphics artist who works with several teams) C. Programmer - Responsible for technical feasibility. Other members of the team might come up with ideas that can not be produced for various reasons (maybe the development platform). For multimedia systems, it's director / toolbook / et cetera, which are capable of producing the multimedia product. These are key issues for accessing feasibility. (expected to be able to work in all three of those areas). They also provide special purpose, code for I/O devices, et cetera. They are respoinsible for testing and debugging the system from a technical standpoint. Handle documentation of code and backups as well as archiving. 6/21/99 ======= D. Media Producer - Contains even more several people: Video ====== Producer - Details Director - Creative Vision Camera(s) - Sound - Lights - Grips - (people who handle the camera moving, et cetera...) E. Copy Writers / Editors - to present directly to multimedia. words that pop up on the screen. indirectly involved in any other types of media which might be out there. The person who does the writing - there are some other skills involved. Problem Interactive - therefore, the writer does not necessarily have path control. Editors come in after writers and be sure that it works well. F. Interface Designer - Any multimedia product probably should be interactive. Thus, the more successful the interface is, the more successful the project would have to be. He understands the audience, and generally understands characteristics, platform limitations, and limitations of the authoring systems. G. Subject Matter Experts - This is where you get help in developing and controlling the message. Provides content, ideas as to how to present the content, and reviews it after the content is written. H. Reviewer - if you review during the process development, you will provide corrections to flaws, et cetera - then, at the end of the project, there is a global summarative review at the end of the project. Formative Review - Applies to Design Summarative - Does the project ahere to the specifications? Quality Control. I. Assistants / Support Personnel - People who fill in all the gaps...if it ain't done yet, they'll help do it. :) J. Client - Always find out ; get approved. 6/22/99 ======= 3 types of management: 1. Directive - You are authoritative ; you have a great deal of power ; you make decisions based on your experience and the fact that you have the authority to make the decision. By virtue of granted authoirty and expertese, you make binding decision. Invites Challenges to Author. 2. Consultive - Requires that you consult with the team or some subset of the team in the decision that you ultimately will make. You consult experts to gather the information for decision making. 3. Collaborative - A group decision, after meeting and reaching consensus. Tends to work better for a creative team. Since everyone is involved in the decision, everyone must be bounded by the action. Delegation on Authority ======================= A single decision maker can be a problem, and that becomes a bottlebeck. Give authority to another trusted person. 1) What areas of decision making are covered? Only the teams who have been authorized can work. 2) What are the limits of the authority? If you only have 10,000 dollars to use, you basically don't go over 10,000 :) 3) Ensure Support - You have to make sure that they execute the authority you give them correctly, and along the same lines more or less you do. For any project, the project must come up with some way to manage change. Invariably, a project that starts will be subject to change. Ensure success of project when goals are constantly being re-defined. Perhaps a simple change to the message could re-define the contract. Change must be captured, then communicated to everyone to assess the impact. 1. Without adequate notification -all parts of team are not working in the same direction. 2. Some new parts are not compatable / will not work with old parts. 6/24/99 ======= Professional Multimedia - A. Overview 1. Communicating the message. We talk about effective communication. Here are three areas of concern: a. getting the user's attention. (they are tending to the stimulus of the message) b. setup the correct emotional atmosphere. every treatment has some level of emotion to insure it's setup in the right context. c. deliver the message. (do an intro, message, and a conclusion / summary) 2. Execution - there are several areas of concern. a. Design for clarity and flow. b. writing - write correctly for the message, the audience, and the media. c. graphic illustration - they should be high quality (and approphriate to the message in style, color, et cetera). d. performance - shouldn't take forever to load, flicker, click, et cetera - should look estetically pleasing. 3. Accountability and Measurability a. Call to action - (like qms, some type of incentive to call now) b. collect data - keep statistical information c. have a followup plan. 1st rule of a good presentation - the production must be delivered, or it is a waste of time and money. :) 2nd rule of a good presentation - entertainment is defined as any emotion or set of emotions which can be classified as positive in nature. 3rd rule - tools and skills required to create a good presentation are so plentiful that there is no excuse for settleing for less than the highest quality possible. 4th rule - the effectiveness of the presentation must be measured and alalyzed. 6/28/99 ======= Features / vs / benefits: Benefit - 4 year degree Feature - New Modern Labs Benefit - Feature - prepare yourself for a lifetime There are basically two types of audience groups - one audience and one message multiple audiences and multiple messages. define audience prioritize the messages. To convey a message, there are 5 ways to grab your audience: 1. You can write it. 2. You can illustrate it. [graphics that don't move] 3. You can wiggle it. [animation and video] 4. You can hear it. [audio] 5. You can Interact with it. Text: it is still an effective way to convey messages because people understand how to read and how to write. you can spend a lot of time working to refine the message. here are three rules to show you how: 1) correctly address the audience: (married woman / single woman?) 2) keep it simple: message should be simple and clear. 3) be sure that the technologies compliment each other. hearing: narration, music, sound effects. some forms of communication are better than other. there are some ways you just can not disable certain features. 6/30/99 ======= For midterm: Purpose , Scope, of multimedia what is it good for? what does it do? we talked about audicence analysis, what is it, how do you use it? Teams.....Tasks....Skills.... Message Content, Chapter 5, talks about different medias aobut how they might be used to present messages. 7/7/99 ====== do feinstein's message for him. :) (get ideas from other me t might aide your search. f) minimize reading g) use lists instead of paragraphs h) keep screen information consistant to minimize searching. use good writing style ====================== a) use active voice. say "the screen was red", instead of "the color of the screen turned out to be red". b) use a conversational tone - write like you talk. c) address the user personally. (use you instead of we) d) avoid biased language - sexist, stereotypical , and ethnic comments. follow basic writing rules ========================== a) poor spelling or grammer may affect the credibility of the message. b) avoid hyphonating words (words are harder to understand) c) define all acronyms before using them d) use upper and lower case. avoid using only one case. studies show all upper case is difficult to read. e) use only symbols that have meaning. spacing and justification ========================== a) do not crowd the screen with text - leave good margains b) use the 6 by 6 rule [6 lines with 6 words? ] c) be cautious, the text could look lost and not very important d) use consistant margains e) use left-justified text. avoid full justified text. word spacing invents lots of white space. fonts ===== a) insure your multimedia product has the ability to display the font that you design. if you pick a font that might not exist on the host machine, you might be in trouble. You might change the typeface shape, size, and stype; sometimes the spacing b) use a consistant type stype, don't use multiple fonts. use similar shapes and styles. c) use font families with consistant font stypes d) use variable or proportional spacing (non monotype) 22k stereo - cd (44k) 7/12/99 ======= AUDIO is an effective way to enhance a multimedia project. it provides an opportunity to gain a user's attention, and provide realism help with non-readers - [people who are trying to learn how to read, educate, et cetera] types of audio which can be used: __SPEECH__ - the spoken word - typically used for actions or facts used for communicating actions or facts. you don't necessarily only use a word for it's meaning, but : 1) emphasis - you can stress a word, make it more or less important 2) inflections - tone is higher or lower if it's a question. change the way you say it. 3) mood - that was fantastic, that was good, that was ok. (different "moods") Script writing must be carefully crafted - to make care of the message you wish to say, but it also must be crafted to reference those 3 items, also. MUSIC ====== You can set moods or change moods with music. Music is universal, and most people respond to it. high music quality requires tons of storage space and requires bandwidth. music is also copyrighted, and can not be used without paying those fees. origional music is very expensive to develop and record. SOUND EFFECTS ============== Has a powerful effect on re-enforcing the message. example effects: 1) added realism (door opening / closing) 2) emphasize or intensify action (screeching sounds, crashing sounds) 3) establish location (waves for beach, birds chirping..) 4) depict an identity (such as mr "jeeves") 5) provides transitions (from one screen to another) - whishing is not nice. :) DON'T OVERDO SOUND EFFECTS!! [too many of them are abnoxious and annoying] DIGITAL SOUND ============= to convert audio into digital sound, there are two factors: sampleing rate bit depth bit depth 0-256: it samples positive and negative numbers, the actually makes it all positive. this is called normalizing. this requires analog to digital converters , and digital to analog converters, which exist more or less on the soundcards. most sound cards have 2 of these... for stereo sound. http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~e9567075/CP2014/Digital.htm - more info on this. music: (bits per sec) 8 bit -> 11 khz mono -> 11,000 16 bit -> 22 khz mono -> 44,000 16 bit -> 44 khz stereo -> 176,000 24 bit -> 44 khz stereo -> 264,800 data rate formula: (number of sections of sound) * (bit depth/8) * (sample rate in khz) * (num of channels) downsampleing - if you take any music at a higher rate, change the 16 bits to 8 bits, and the file size should descrease. (most of the time, nothing happens!) ;-) 7/13/99 ======= more on downsampleing - http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/gallery/radio-idt/digaudio/noise4.html noise occurs in two forms: aliasing if you sample, depending on the sampleing rate - you might wind up with a sample that looks odd. we're missing some sound information between "levels" (the higher the frequency, the higher the sampleing rate must be) popping - non zero starting point causes this, as it starts and stops...you tell it to delete the non-zero parts. (maybe at first and end) wav files: wave form audio file format. i prioparity format, developed for windows 3.1 as part of the riff (resource interchange file format) by microsoft and IBM. File format: first 4 bytes - RIFF chunck (determines file format) format chuck - fmt chunk (mono / stereo , et cetera) data chunk - stored as RAW data. stored raw - no data compression, a way to compress it, might be the difference between samples. MIDI - musical Instrument Digital Interface. Designed to exchange informaiton between computers and digital synthasizers. home.earthlink.net/~mma/gminfo.htm A minimum of either 24 fully dynamically allocated voices are available simultaneously for both melodic and percussive sounds, or 16 dynamically allocated voices are available for melody plus 8 for percussion. All voices respond to velocity. 16 channels - each channel can play more a different instrument. a minimum of 128 pre-set instruments are in the midi standard. Instruments are indexed with a preset midi number. There are 47 percussion sounds and the rest are musical sounds. 16 out of the 24 sounds are for melody. 8 of them are for percussion. STREAMING ========== two approaches: downloading the file and waiting for it to come before playing says: start sending and buffering the sound. As soon as I have enough of this, start playing it while I continue to download. suffers from network conjestion or bandwidth restrictions. MP3 === Mpeg Layer 3 Audio - Highest Compression of audio compression which still sounds good. This uses perceptional audio coding, psychic acoustic compression. :) Removes irrelevent parts of the sound, and removes cosign stuff to make it 18% more efficent. Layer 3 shrinks the sound quality from cd quality by a factor of 12%. The bit rate in a CD is 1,411.2 k/bit. The bit rate of an MP3 is 112-128 k/bit / sec. MP3 files are "small" and "movable" over the net. ;) 7/15/99 ======= movies are 24 frames a second tv is 30 frames a second if you go below 17 frames a second, you really start to notice the jerkiness of motion. video and animation: what can we use video for, effectively? 1. We can demonstrate proceedures. Good Example: A video from the music department about how to play some music on the piano. Demonstrate complex proceedures. 2. demonstrate and teach attitudes and emotions. It's possible to give real-life demonstrations of emotions, et cetera. 3. explain abstract concepts: such as love, hate, et cetera... 4. Present material that is visually rich. (such as the panaramic view of the grand canyon?) 5. Present Complex Material - To show someone how to do a golf grip and do a golf swing. 6. Provide visual enhancement - you might be able to improve the presentation by using combinations of video and other forms, but the sum might be better than the parts. Animation (uses) ================= 1) shows relationships between objects. 2) simulate the results of actions. 3) show sequential steps of a proceedure. 4) explain abstract concepts. TV == ==(COMPOSITE VIDEO)== comes into your house, and is composed of 3 elemenets: video information sound information other information (they tried to call it control...but it's got other uses) sap (second audio program). Timing information is in here, too. common format for america: NTSC video (national telivision standards committee) specifies 525 lines per picture. for some unknown reason is there are only 487 slots used. (the rest is taken up by that other information, maybe?) they electrons used to run out before they'd get to the bottom, so they corrected with interlacing - they do parts of the screen at different times. 7/20/99 ======= 3 TV standards: (continued NTSC) 30 frames per second even and odd odd lines...go ....>>> even lines go <<<---- odd lines...go ....>>> even lines go <<<---- odd lines...go ....>>> even lines go <<<---- interlaced - goes with monitors, too. signal on computer is VERY fast. If you had a picture of a duck, rapidly moving horozontally taken with a tv camera, the picture of the duck would move a 60th of a second. What would happen when the picture of the duck was scanned into the computer? (30th of a second odd, 30th of a second even) If you're looking for high image quality, there are conversion problems from one form to another. two other standards: ===================== PAL - phase alternating line format. (European standard). 625 lines, more resolution, 25 frames per second, dual (even , odd). 25 frames by second SECAM - Sequential Color Avec Memory - The french. (not responsible) Time Codes: Before you produce video for editing, you need to know how to use the time codes. For editing, it is very important to be able to identity one 30 second frame of video. 2 Ways for time codes to happen. They can be put down during recording. Tape has a space for video, audio, and control information (where time codes could go). On the tape, a time code is put there before you start. The tape has these time marks on it, when the video tape starts, it lines up , and the video image starts ON the time codes. SMPTE codes - a tape recorded does that. Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Hour:Minute:Second:Frame. Making a video: (Chapter 14) Crew : Director: To have the vision of what is supposed to be recorded, and to make sure all the elements of "his vision" are there. he should oversee the production of those scenes. Camera Man(s): Responsible for pointing and moving and framing the image. Also responsible for making sure the camera is adjusting correctly for color balance. This is pointing , framing , and moving the camera. Also includes color balance, which is a technical detail for the camera. :) If you can afford them: Sound Person - responsible for recording and recording levels. There are two ways to record sound - directly on the tape as the tape is being made, and then it could also be done in a editing facility. Helpers: Lights or Grips - Helpers....also deal with cue cards, too. Actors: Professional: People who have had experience. You usually pay these people, and you get a release which gives you the right to show their face. Not Professional: People you can more or less get for free. :) Secure a release to get the rights to show your face. Shooting: You develop a script including the visual storyboards, you have to shoot in sequence, or you must use more than one camera. Editing and Production - Next. 7/21/99 ======= What you need - records during shooting: Tape Names Scene # Takes # (Take 12) To shoot 30 minuts of finished video, there were 8 hours (4 tapes) of SVHS tape. Post Production: first part is generally called off-line editing. Post Production Editing: 1. Off-Line Editing Produce an edit decision list. (something like: Tape 2, Scene 6 ; Take 3; SMPTE CODE - goes here too) Analog Version: produce the video you want through digital means 2. On-Line Editing - requires expensive equipment. Editing together professionally. 7/28/99 ======= Graphic Images and Compression: GIF - Graphics Interchange Format - Limpel-Zev Compression Format, horozontal compression algorithm. Does well with horozontal images, does poorly with vertical image. PNG - Portable Network Graphic - A replacement for GIF to get rid of the patented compression algorithm (use lz77 compression algorithm) http://webreference.com/dev/graphics/intro.html to shrink graphic, reduce resolution, bit depth, and keep the quality. compressions - lossy and lostless http://webreference.com/js/ <<-- look at. JPEG - Joint Photographers Experts Group - 24 bit format. Contains 16 million colors, and uses a lossy compression algorithm. (that is adjustable) The more you compress the JPG - the more suddle colors you miss. /tools.html -> Video: 800 * 600 = 480,000 pixels 24 bit color = 11,520,000 bites 30 frames / sec = 345,600,000 bits = 43,200,000 bytes / sec cs.sfu.ca/undergrad/coursematerials/notes/chapter4/chapter4.2/chapter4.2.html video and the internet: www.rad.com/networks/1996/video/video.htm mpeg is a lossy compression algorithm that uses a series of frames (called iframes, bframes, pframes). It records only information that changes.