BMM 3114 Tutorial 6

Project 3 pg 328

Discuss the relationship between a program's content, its interface and its usability. What is the best way to make the content accessible to users without unnecessary complexity? Where are modal interfaces useful? What are their drawbacks? Where are navigation or site maps useful? How might you use "themes" to identify different areas of a program or different approaches to the content's structure?

The manner in which the project material is organized has just as great an impact on the viewer as the content itself. Besides, mapping the structure of a project should be done early in the planning phase. Navigation maps are also known as site maps. It helps to organize the content and the message. Navigation maps will provide a hierarchical table of content and a chart of the logical flow of the interactive interface. Navigation maps are essentially nonlinear.

The user interface of a project is a blend of its graphic elements and its navigation system. The simplest solution for handling varied levels of user expertise is to provide a modal interface. Modal interfaces are not suitable for multimedia projects. The solution is to build a project that can contain plenty of navigation power, which provides access to content and tasks for users at all levels. The interface should be simple and user-friendly.

  

BMM 3114 Tutorial 5

Project 9.2 pg 292

Based on the project specified in 9.1, create a team of at least three people for the project. Specify their titles, internal and external rates, and abilities. Write a one-paragraph bio explaining each team member’s relevant experience and capabilities.

The project that I choose is to promote the marketing website for computer application. Our team members consist of three personnel which are their titles, responsibilities, and capabilities. There are project manager, customer client and sponsor, project designer.

PROJECT MANAGER

The first is Project Manager. Basically, the project manager should have excellent in interpersonal and communication skills enabling him or her to assemble and manage a diverse team of development.
The project manager is responsible for overall project development, manages the cost & budgets, schedules of the project,  personnel, keeps the team focused to the project and their roles.

There are some important characteristic as a Project Manager should have:
Planner
Team Builder
Organizer
Negotiator
Flexible and Assertive coach
Work Flow Manager
Sales Person
Problem Solver
Committed to quality
Goal setter
Creative and analytical mind
Positive attitude
Listener
Multi-tasked

On the other hand, someone with people & resource management skills is responsible for overseeing project timeline & priorities communication, delegation and documentation. 

CUSTOMER / CLIENT/SPONSOR
Second is customer or client are very important to a project, if no money the whole project just an idea. Therefore, customer equal to income of a project.

The sponsor of a multimedia product must be able to:
- Understand of the business needs of the product- why and who will get the benefit.
- Provide approval and acceptance of product.
- Have knowledge of the end users.

The sponsor of a multimedia project could be
- Corporate organizations that have internal “multimedia team” build marketing and technical presentation.
- Venture capitalists who invest in a product for the market.
- The training departments who develop classroom or virtual class concept.

There are certain key issues that concern the clients:
- their ability to fund a project
- ensure that the project is delivered on time,
- the cost is within budget
-  acceptable quality of the product

 To do so means that a development team must be assembled with appropriate management and technical skills to complete the project.

PROJECT DESIGNER
The third is project designer which is design the spirit of a project. This position is grow into management roles 
-matures into the role by combining skills as programmer or graphic artist
-responsible for developing storyboarding
-Capturing the product from the subject matter expert
-Define the project content
-plays most critical and pivotal role for not only designing the operation but also determining the -content of a multimedia product

BMM 3114 Tutorial 4

Chapter 6 

Question 3 : Discuss several considerations in shooting and editing video for multimedia. What techniques would you use to produce the best possible video, at a reasonable cost? Which of these techniques apply to all video, and which apply specially to multimedia ?


Before we shooting a video for multimedia, there are many considerations  when setting up your production environment such as fast processor, enough RAM, big hark disk, dual display to allow you easily editing and external software.Before shooting a video, you need to do some planning. Develop a script or storyboard, gather equipment, and set up the shots.The equipment most often used for local production is a video camcorder unit that incorporates a color video camera integrated with a built-in microphone and videocassette recorder or digital video recorder. Additional equipment might include a tripod for supporting the camcorder, a wired microphone, and an auxiliary lighting kit. For many, the basic camcorder unit is all that is available. The addition of a camera tripod is the easiest way to improve the quality of any video production. By stabilizing the image, your video becomes more crisp and sharp.Today, you don't need expensive equipment. The FLIPvideo is an inexpensive way to do video recording. The built-in USB connector making downloading the computer easy. In addition, many still cameras have enough space to record 1-3 minute clips or longer.Besides that u must use good lighting techniques. Even if you use a tripod and a high-end video camera you can still produce a low-quality image if there is not enough light at your environment. Low light will create video noise on the image. You must make sure the subject is well lit.Although the higher end video editing software like Apple Final Cut Pro can adjust for brightness and contrast, the process takes time and it can never fully compensate for a bad picture. Once you done your shooting, then you need to use good multimedia software to editing your software. PlanningIn creating a video or any multimedia presentation for that matter, a solid plan will save time, minimize frustration, and produce a better final product. Students need to spend the necessary time to research their subject, write the script and layout a production plan before a second of video is recorded.

• Begin at the end: what do you plan to do with this video when all the work is done? Are you going to show it on TV from a tape? Will it be “burned” to a CD or DVD? Will you want to post it to your school’s web site? Each of these formats require different considerations when shooting and editing your production.

• Create a storyboard before you shoot your video so that you have a good idea of the kinds of shots you need. The only exception might be a social event where you want some spontaneity but even in that case you’ll need a plan.

• Clean off your hard drive. Video take up huge amounts of space. Depending on several factors, 1 minute of video could require 100 mb or more on your hard drive. The more room you have the more flexibility you will have in the editing process. For large projects or multiple projects, consider getting an external FireWire hard drive.

Recording the VideoWith a good plan in hand, the “shoot” should go smoothly and result in plenty of good raw materials for the editing process.

• The better the quality of your original material, the better your final product. Use a digital camcorder if you can but no matter the camera, use a fresh tape.

• Use a real video camera. That may sound like a stupid suggestion but many digital still cameras, and even some cell phones, claim that they will take movies and people believe it. These devices take short, very small videos which will not be of high enough quality to show anywhere but in a postage-stamp sized window on your computer screen. Hopefully, you want something better.

• Turn off the date/time display on your camera. Those features and other messages that appear in the viewfinder could become part of your video.

• Plan a variety of wide, medium and closeup shots. Include some establishing shots which tell the viewer where they are.

• Always take more video than you’ll need. It can often be difficult to go back and take additional shots later.

• Keep a written log of your shots so you have some guide when looking for the scene you want during the editing process. It also helps when you are planning titles or captions for a scene. (This is a good job to give to an assistant cameraman.)

• Hold a shot longer for subjects that may be unfamiliar to your audience and shorter for subjects which are easily understood.

• Avoid zooming around. Using the zoom on your camera frequently or suddenly can distract from the message of the program itself. In addition, if your video is destined for the web, your sudden movements will look terrible due to the slow frame rate and small size.

• Use a tripod to get a steady shot. While the “jiggly” look works for Cops or “The Blair Witch Project”, it probably won’t work for you. And even the best digital stabilization software in your camera won’t compensate for an unsteady hand.

• Make sure the subject is well lit. Although the higher end video editing software (Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid DV Express or Adobe Premiere) can adjust for brightness and contrast, the process takes time. And it can never fully compensate for a bad picture.

Editing The VideoIf you’ve done a good job of planning your project and recording the video, the editing part will be both easy and fun. Having a good computer with lots of hard drive space and great software (iMovie is the best of the inexpensive programs) will also help.

• Most editing programs will allow you to name each individual clip, either as it’s brought in or after it’s in the clip library. Do it! If you don’t you will have dozens of “Untitled” shots making it difficult to sort things out later.

• Unless you have a small hard drive or don’t have much space left, be generous as to what you import to the computer. Remember, you can throw clips away much easier than importing them in the first place.

• Bring in a little “padding” at the start and end of each shot to allow for transitions and effects.

• Follow the “30-3 rule” of video editing: keep your shots under 30 seconds and your scenes under 3 minutes. This helps to set a fast pace and keep your audience interested.

• Make sure your clips are in the right order in the Timeline. If you need to rearrange, you can just click and drag them to the correct place in most editing software.

• Adjust the amount of footage showing at the start and end of each clip to create a smooth transition between scenes. Try inserting some black space between sections and use a fade transition.

BMM 3114 Tutorial 3

Question 6(a) (pg.138)

You have been assigned to design and produce the audio portions of a multimedia project. The program will be delivered on a CD-ROM, and video clips will take up most of the CD. You have only 50MB of storage space to store 20 one-minute clips of speech, 10 songs averaging three minutes long, and a background sound loop. What sampling rates and depths should you use for the speech, for the music, and for the background sound? Why? Roughly calculate the file size totals for these specifications, and be sure that you end up with less than the 50MB of storage space allotted. Discuss your reasoning.

I would like to use mp3 file format for audio file in the video clip because mp3 format already compressed and reduced the file size.  For my 20 one-minutes speech, I will choose to use 96 kbps bit rate. Then, I would like to use 128kbps bit rate for the songs. Lastly, I choose 128kbps bit rate for my background sound as the quality is better and nice.

Speech

60 seconds * 96 kbps = 5760 kilobits

5760/8 = 720 kilobytes (0.72 megabytes)

0.72 * 20 = 14.4mb

Music

200 seconds * 128kbps = 25600 kilobits

25600/8 = 3200 kilobytes (3.20 megabytes)

3.20 * 10 = 32mb

Background Song

200 seconds * 128kps = 25600 kilobits

25600/8 = 3200 kilobytes (3.2mb)

Total: 14.4+32+3.2 = 49.60mb

BMM 3114 Tutorial 2

QUESTION 4 

Discuss the differences among multimedia, interactive multimedia, hypertext, and hypermedia.

Multimedia

Use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way.

On the Internet you can often find multimedia elements embedded in web pages, and modern web browsers have support for a number of multimedia formats. When someone turns on a computer, puts a CD (compact disc) in its CD drive, and listens to music, she is experiencing multimedia.

Interactive Multimedia
Interactive multimedia is the uses of content forms that includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms sometimes called "rich media" or interactive multimedia that describes as electronic media devices used to store and experience multimedia content. It allows learners to provide input to an online course and receive feedback as a result of the input.

Hypertext

Hypertext is text which is not constrained to be linear. Hypertext is text which contains links to other texts.

You can move from one object to another even though they might have very different forms. For example, while reading a document about Mozart, you might click on the phrase Violin Concerto in A Major.

Hypertext system are particularly useful for organizing and browsing through large databases that consist of disparate types of information. Today, nearly every page includes links to other pages and both text and images can be used as a link to more content.

Hypermedia

Hypermedia, a term derived from hypertext, extends the notion of the hypertext link to include links among any set of multimedia objects, including sound, motion video, and virtual reality. It can also connote a higher level of user/network interactivity than the interactivity already implicit in hypertext. Hypermedia simply combines hypertext and multimedia. Hypermedia should not be confused with hyper graphics or super-writing which is not a related subject.

QUESTION 5

Your boss wants you to create a hypermedia system for Web visitors to find technical support information about your company. What are some of the implications in creating this system? Should you hand-build the links or use an automatic indexing system? Why?

Hypermedia is used as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyper links intertwine to create a generally non-linear medium of information. This contrasts with the broader term multimedia, which may be used to describe non-interactive linear presentations as well as hypermedia. Hypermedia includes use of sound, video, image and text. This helps the user to know about the product of the company. The user can view and test the product so for as view of the product is concerned. However the hypermedia restricts the speed of web and it also enhances the time taken for opening of the site.So for as the use of hand build indexing system and automatic indexing is concerned, it is the glue that holds the content together. It is the layer of order which makes data base product, robust, and responsive, thus best ever to serve the needs of organization. However without automatic indexing, one may find the precise bit of data that will ignite a new market.