MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS
Chapter Two:
Multimedia Authoring
and Tools
Department of IT
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Unit objectives
• At the end of the chapter students will be able to:
• Define what is multimedia authoring
• Understand Some useful editing and authoring tools
• Describe the significance of an authoring system
• Explain the term authoring paradigm
• List the main criteria's to select authoring tools
• Understand perspectives in multimedia authoring tools
• Understand some Multimedia editing software tools
• Explain characteristics of good authoring tools 2
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Introduction
• Now a days, multimedia software tools available for carrying out tasks in
multimedia. For example, multimedia software tells the hardware to
display the color blue, play the sound etc.
Multimedia Software Categories
• Device Driver Software- These software's are used to install and
configure the multimedia peripherals.
• Media Players- Media players are applications that can play one or
more kind of multimedia file format.
• Media Conversion Tools- These tools are used for encoding / decoding
multimedia contexts and for converting one file format to another.
• Multimedia Editing Tools- These tools are used for creating and
editing digital multimedia data.
• Multimedia Authoring Tools- These tools are used for combing
different kinds of media formats and deliver them as multimedia3
contents. Mm systems chapter 2
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The driving force behind all authoring is the human
need to communicate.
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What is Multimedia Authoring
• Multimedia authoring is the process of designing and
developing a multimedia product.
• Multimedia authoring involves collecting,
structuring and presenting information in the
form of a digital multimedia, which can incorporate
text, audio, and still and moving images.
Authoring software provides an integrated
environment for combining the content and functions
of a project.
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con….
• Tools that provide the capability for creating a
complete multimedia presentation, including
interactive user control, are called authoring tool/
programs.
• An authoring system is a program which has pre-
programmed elements for the development of
interactive multimedia presentations.
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Con…
• Authoring tools provide an integrated environment for
binding together the different elements of a multimedia
production.
• Multimedia Authoring Tools provide tools for making a
complete multimedia presentation where users usually
have a lot of interactive controls.
• Multimedia presentations can be created using:
• Simple presentation packages such as PowerPoint,
Entertainment and advertisement, Computer based
training, Simulations, virtual environment,
educational applications etc.
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con…
• Multimedia authoring tools provide the framework for
organizing and editing the elements of a multimedia
project.
• It enables the developer to create, edit, and import
data.
• Most authoring systems also support a scripting
language for more sophisticated applications.
• Authoring tools require less technical knowledge to
master and are used exclusively for applications that
present a mixture of textual, graphical, and audio data.
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con….
• The author brings all of the different media
components together in to one program and provide
structure, navigation and interactivity for the user.
Examples are: Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Director,
Author war, photoshop
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Authoring tools
• Examples
• web page editor(Netscape Composer, Dreamweaver, and
FrontPage ): allow you to combine text, pictures, sounds, and
videos all on one page that can then be displayed on the
WWW for others to view.
• Flash Multimedia Authoring Tools :allow the user to add
interactivity and animation to web pages.
• These flash authoring tools are now even letting the user to
create rich internet applications (Smart Computing). Flash is
written in a language called action script which is an object
oriented programming language. e,g Adobe Flash
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con…
• Adobe Flash: allows users to create interactive movies by using
the score metaphor—a timeline arranged in parallel event
sequences, much like a musical score consisting of musical notes.
• One of the advantages of flash over the competition plugins is the
fact that flash is a small file, it installs fast and it initializes fast.
• Adobe Director: Director uses a movie metaphor to create
interactive presentations.
• Dreamweaver: Dreamweaver is a webpage authoring tool that
allows users to produce multimedia presentations without learning
any HTML.
• Author ware: Professional multimedia authoring tool Supports
interactive applications with hyperlinks, drag-and-drop controls,
and integrated animation
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Multimedia editing software tools
• Text editing software's.
• Graphics and image editing
• Video editing
• Audio and Sound Editing and Digital audio Software:
Cakewalk Pro Audio, professional audio studio, sound
Forge, etc.
• Animation
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Text editing soft wares
• Common features of text editor
• Cut, copy, paste
• Text formatting
• Undo and redo
• Shadowing
• Spell check , table formatting
• Data transformation etc.
• Examples
• Notepad
• WordPad
• MS Word
• Word perfect Mm systems chapter 2
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Graphics and Image Editing Tools
• Adobe Illustrator: is a powerful publishing tool for creating and
editing vector graphics, which can easily be exported to use on the Web.
• Adobe Photoshop: Photoshop is the standard in a tool for
graphics, image processing, and image manipulation.
• Adobe Fireworks: Fireworks is software for making graphics
specifically for the Web. It includes a bitmap editor, a vector graphics
editor.
• Adobe Freehand: Freehand is a text and web graphics editing tool
that supports many bitmap formats, such as GIF, PNG, and JPEG Others
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Con…
The following list indicates what image editing tools such as
Photoshop can do: Merge images, Alter image size, Crop image,
Adjust colors, Remove unwanted elements, Orientate image (change
direction), Sharpen and soften image, Contrast change and brighten
image, Add text onto image, selection , change color depth, layering
etc.
Drawing programs : allow users to compose and edit vector
graphics like graphic design, page layout, logos and geometric
patterns e.g. freeware, CorelDraw, Adobe illustrator, AutoCAD etc.
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Video Editing Tools
• Adobe Premiere: is a very simple yet powerful video editing
program that allows you to quickly create a simple digital
video by assembling and merging multimedia Components.
• Premiere is a simple, intuitive video editing tool for nonlinear
editing putting video clips into any order.
• Cyber Link Power Director: Power Director produced by
Cyber Link Corp is by far the most popular nonlinear video
editing software. It provides a rich selection of audio and video
features and special effects and is easy to use.
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Video Editing Tools con…
• Adobe After Effects: After Effects is a powerful video editing tool
that enables users to add and change existing movies with effects
such as lighting, shadows, and motion blurring.
• Others like Pinnacle, wondershare filmora , Ulead, Videoshop etc.
• Creating a video is always a complex, expensive and time-
consuming task.
• Common effects on video editing
• Splitting
• Add background sound
• Crop
• Add title
• Transition
• Add special effect
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Audio and Sound Editing Software
Today, the most popular audio editing programs are
Sound Forge is a digital audio editing software for the professional as well as amateur user.
Audacity and Adobe Audition.
Adobe audition
Creative wave studio
Gold wave etc.
Allow the user to do the following
Record audio and store digital audio
Mix multiple sound sources/ tracks
Apply simple and advanced effects or filters
Conversion between different audio file formats and sound quality levels 18
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Animation Authoring software
• Adobe Flash to create simple animation, advertisements, or even online
banners for our personal homepage or web log (blog). We can even embed or
integrate flash video into our web pages.
• Autodesk 3ds Max: includes a number of high-end
professional tools for character animation, game development,
and visual effects production.
• Autodesk Softimage : is a powerful modeling, animation,
and rendering package for animation and special effects in
films and games.
• XARA 3D
• Ulead GIF animator etc.
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Authoring tools capability
Authoring tools should possess the following capabilities:
1. Interactivity
2. Playback
3. Creating and Editing
4. Programming / Scripting
5. Cross Platform
6. Internet Playability
7. Delivery/Distribution/presentation
8. Project organization feature
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Characteristics of Authoring Tools
• Integrate text, graphics, video, and audio to create
a single multimedia presentation
• Control interactivity by the use of menus, buttons,
hotspots, hot objects etc.
• Publish as a presentation or a self-running
executable; on CD/DVD, Intranet, WWW
• Be extended through the use of pre-built or
externally supplied components, plug-ins etc.
• let you create highly efficient, integrated workflow
• Have a large user base
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Authoring Paradigms
• The authoring paradigm, or authoring metaphor, is the
methodology by which the authoring system accomplishes its
task such as
• Tools that provide the capability for creating a complete
multimedia presentation, including interactive user control, are
called authoring programs.
• The paradigms provide different approaches to authoring. It
specifying the interaction between the reader and the
presentation.
• The majority of multimedia authoring systems can be classified
according to a number of different underlying paradigms:22
structure, timeline, flowchart and script.
Authoring Paradigms con…
• Structure based: The structure groups media items included in
the presentation into “sub-presentations” which can be
manipulated as one entity, and thus can in turn be grouped.
• Timeline-based
• Timelines show the constituent media items placed along a time
axis, possibly on different tracks.
• allow the specification of the beginning and end times of display
of a media item in relation to a time axis.
• Good for creating animations.
e.g. Macromedia Director, Macromedia Flash
•
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Authoring Paradigms con…
Card-based
In these authoring systems, elements are organized as pages of a
book or a stack of cards.
The authoring system lets you link these pages or cards into
organized sequences. You can jump, on command, to any page you
wish to in a structured navigation pattern.
Card- and page-based systems allow you to play audio, video and
animations.
Some examples of card- and page-based systems include:
HyperCard (Macintosh)
SuperCard (Macintosh)
ToolBook (Windows)
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Authoring Paradigms con…
• Flowchart: A flowchart gives the author a visual representation of the commands describing a
presentation.
• Scripting Language based e.g. Lingo scripting language for Macromedia Director,
ActionScript for Macromedia Flash
import [Link];
stop()
[Link]([Link],rect);
function rect (event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop(50)
• Icon Based/flow Control Authoring Tool: tools simplify the organization of a project and
typically display flow diagrams of activities along branching paths. Examples: Author ware
• Tagging Tools Tags in text files to: link to pages, provide interactivity, and Integrate multimedia
elements.
• Mostly displayed in web browsers
• This metaphor is the basis of WWW e.g. HTML 25
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Selecting Authoring Tools
Some features that needs to be considered are
• Editing and organizing feature
• Programming feature
• Interactivity feature: interactivity offers to the end user of
the project to control the content and flow of information.
• Performance-tuning features like speed and efficiency
expected for games and other applications
• Playback feature.
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Selecting Authoring Tools con….
• Delivery feature: delivering your project needs building run-
time version of the project using authoring tools.
• Why run time version (executable format):
• It does not require the full authoring software to play
• It does not allow users to access or change the content, structure,
and programming of the project.
• Cross platform : should be compatible with different
platform like Macintosh, Windows,
• Internet playability: web is significant delivery medium for
multimedia. Authoring tools typically provide facility so that
output can be delivered in HTML or DHTML format
• Ease of learning like screen layouts, data presentation, UI etc.
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Selecting Authoring Tools con….
• Function : a complete understanding how the product will
work
• Content : nature, volume format, type of data that will
incorporate in to the product
• Hard wares: platforms expected to run the product
• Software operating system and other software applications
• Reliability of the product
• Personal skill, cost , schedule etc.
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Perspectives of authoring tool
• Four main perspectives in multimedia authoring tools :
• Tool(any software package that could authors multimedia
product)
• Product(the result of combining all multimedia
components)
• Developer(designers, programmers, and
multimedia authors)
• End user(customer or viewer)
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Review questions for the chapter
• Choose the best answer
1. Lingo for macro media director ------------- for macromedia flash
A. timeline B. action script C. layer D. color model
2. The soft wares that convert printed document into electronically recognizable ASCII
character
A. OCR software B. Word processing C. video Shop D. sound forge
3. Which author ware tool used for image editing
A. Adobe premier B. adobe flash C. Adobe photoshop D. Adobe reader
Write short answer
1. Define multimedia authoring and list two authoring tools
2. List some criteria's for selection of authoring tools
3. What are the hardware requirements for multimedia list at least four?
4. What are the software requirements?
5. Name three multimedia display devices?
6. List down authoring paradigms Mm systems chapter 2 30