Multimedia Authoring Tools THETOPPERSWAY.COM
Introduction to Authoring tools Multimedia authoring tools provide the important framework for organizing and editing the elements of your multimedia project Authoring tools are used for designing interactivity and the user interface for presenting your project on screen for assembling diverse multimedia elements into a single cohesive product
Multimedia Authoring Software lets you make Video productions Animations Games Interactive Web sites Demo disks and guided tours Presentations Kiosk applications Interactive training Simulations,prototypes and technical visualizations
Objects Multimedia events and elements are treated as objects Objects live in a hierarchical order of parent and child relationships Messages passed to these objects order them to do things according to the properties or modifiers assigned to them Objects do their thing without external procedures and programming Particularly useful for games and for simulating real-life situations and events
Features offered by Authoring Systems Editing features Organizing features Programming features Interactivity features Performance tuning features Playback features Delivery features Cross-Platform features Internet Playability features
Editing Features The elements of Multimedia need to be created,edited and converted into standard file formats and specialized applications are required to do this Editing tools are often included in your Authoring systems But the features offered by the editors in the Authoring tools are only a subset of those found in dedicated Editing tools
Organizing Features The organization,design and production for multimedia involves Storyboarding Flowcharting Designing the interactivity and navigation flow require a lot of planning and programming effort Hence the storyboard should describe not just the graphics but also the interactive elements as well
Programming Features Multimedia Authoring systems offer one or more of the following approaches Visual programming with cues,icons and objects Programming with a Scripting language Programming with a traditional language, such as Basic or C Document development tools
Types of Authoring tools The various Authoring tools can be classified into 3 groups based on the metaphor used for sequencing or organizing multimedia elements and events Card- or page-based tools Icon-based,event driven tools Time-based tools
Card- or Page-based tools In these systems Elements are organized as pages of a book or a stack of cards Thousands of pages or cards may be available in a book or stack Best used when bulk of the content consists of elements that can be viewed individually Authoring system lets you link these pages or cards into organized sequences and navigate them as you wish
Page-based authoring systems contain media objects The characteristics of objects are defined by properties Each object may contain programming script,that is activated when an event related to that object occurs Events cause messages to pass along the hierarchy of objects in your project As the message travels it looks for handlers in the script of each object If a matching handler is found,it executes the task specified by that handler
Page-based systems Page-based authoring systems provide a facility for linking objects to pages or cards Most page-based authoring systems require a special intermediate file that also receives scripted message handlers and acts as a repository for special routines and resources Card- and Page-based systems provide 2 separate layers on each card A background layer that is shared among several cards A foreground layer that is specific to a single card
Icon- or Object-based,event driven tools Provide a visual programming approach to organizing and presenting multimedia Multimedia elements and interaction cues(events) are organized as objects in a structural framework They simplify the organization of your project Display flow diagrams of activities along branching paths.the flowchart represents the project s logic Are particularly useful in complicated navigational structures
Icon- or Object-based tools... Using these nontechnical authors can build sophisticated applications without scripting Example is Authorware from Macromedia and Allen Communication s Quest Useful for storyboarding as easy to change sequences,add options and restructure interactions You can print out your navigation map or flowchart,an annotated project index with or without associated icons,design and presentation windows and a cross-reference table of variables
Time-based tools Elements and events are organized along a timeline Resolution as high as 1/30 second Are best used to display messages with a beginning and an end Sequentially organized graphic frames are played back at a speed set by you Other events are triggered at a time and location set by you More powerful tools add navigation and interactive control Example is Macromedia s Director
Macromedia Director Powerful and complex multimedia authoring tool with a broad set of features Create multimedia presentations,animations and interactive applications Good for cross-platform delivery You assemble and sequence the elements of your project using a CAST and a SCORE
CAST It is a multimedia database containing still images,sound files,text.palettes,quickdraw shapes,programming scripts,flash movies and other Director files Can import a wide range of data types and multimedia element formats directly into this Cast Create elements from scratch using Director s own tools and editors
SCORE Score is a sequencer for displaying, animating and playing cast members 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 specified in the tempo channel Provides elaborate and complex visual effects and transitions,adjustments of color palettes and tempo control Ties cast members together
Lingo Director utilizes LINGO, a full-featured, object-oriented scripting language to enable interactivity and programmed control Lingo also uses Xtras, which are special code segments used to control external sound and video devices Using Lingo,you can chain together several Director documents and call other files as subroutines Import elements into your Cast using pointers to a file.this allows you to share the same elements among many casts
Cross-Platform Authoring notes 2 major hurdles when multimedia projects are moved across platforms These are the different schemes Windows and Macintosh computers use to manage text and colors The Windows and Macintosh environments each use different fonts Each platform also uses it s own character set;some special characters may appear as different characters on the other platform THETOPPERSWAY.COM