Interacted media

Interactive Media

Authoring 

Authoring is using different type of communication channels such as texts, graphics, computers and videos to get across information to the audience. As many students use media, people use multi-media as a easy and effective way of getting information across to students. Multimedia authoring tool provide the framework for organizing and editing of a multimedia project. Its always good to be organized showing different storyboards and flowcharts. This allows the developer to combine text, graphics, audio, video and animation. Some of the software tools they use are:

Planning:

When you are wanting to create a database, document or a program you need to make sure that you plan. Especially when you are using Authoring tools, you have to plan beforehand. The planning includes the basic layout, graphics and videos for the service you are creating that will be used on. Planning would also include who you would hire in your production. Also including your budget for the softwares as well as the people you are going to hire. Planning helps when you trying to get other people to understand what you are wanting to create and whether it would be achievable. In this process you would also show what you may have created yourself on fireworks or photoshop for the logo for example. Its illegal to use other people images and audio so copyright would have to come in to mind when creating your service.

Design:

The design is something you created for the web using the authoring tool which is very important. The main reason we use Dreamweaver and many other Adobe softwares is because it makes it look more professional, which also attracts the audience. This process would also be including in your planning process. It would show the designs you may have drawn out or roughly done on the computer to show you what it would look like. It would include annotations on the side of the design to tell people what colours would be used in the designs. Any links to images or hyperlinks that you have found on the internet which aren't copyright would be added to the annotations of designs.

Development:

In the development stage, you will need to gather the materials you would use. The development will need people with a extensive knowledge with programming languages such as JavaScript as well as ActionScript. Choosing which one to use will all comes down to which software's would be used to create the service.

Production:

Usually during the production of the service, both the designers and programmers would work closely together in order to create a service that would be simple for user to use and easily navigate around. They would work together to fix any problems they may encounter during in these processes. They are able to change little bits before it fully goes into production.

Applications 

Marketing:
Companies will use authoring tools so that they can promote themselves easier and cheaper. They would do this by creating a website for their company outlining what they do as well as services they may sell or through promotional packages which include CD's and DVD's outlining what the company provides for the users. An example would be Xbox 360. it has many advertisements on a dashboard. Sky, Skype, YouTube, FaceBook, Netflix etc all have space on their dashboards to advertise which includes a link to use or apply to. Another example is Facebook, they created a mobile app so that Facebook could be used where ever you go.

Dreamweaver - Adobe Dreamweaver is an application usually used by web designers or developers to create websites and applications to use across the internet. They use this software so it can be used on different platforms like tablets, browsers and other devices.

Adobe Authorware - Authorware is the leading software for visual authoring tool for creating applications for the web. This then helps you develop accessible applications. This software supports hyperlinks, drag and drop and integrated animation.  

Adobe Flash - This software is used for playing videos on. If you do not have Flash downloaded onto a device it will not let you play the video.

Presentations:
Prezi and Powerpoint are an example of presentation applications. On these applications you are able to go through the sides with a transition which make it a lot easier. Another way of showing a presentation is via skype. This would be used if they are based further away from where you are or aboard.








Education:
This is another purpose of an interactive media product could be to educate the user of a certain topic. An example of this would be a driving test program that could be used to educate people who are wanting to pass their driving test. This would include different mock tests for the user and assess how well they have done.

Entertainment/games:
For entertainment purposes such as video games and simulation software, there are many examples of this with video games such as Grand theft auto and Call of duty. Both of these games have available app downloads either on Apple devices or google play for android products. On these apps you are able to access different thing such as ammo and guns that are available on the games. Also shows who you have fought against in the past and how many times you have killed them. There's now simulation apps available around the world such as train simulator and flight simulator.

Computer based training:
Computer based training usually includes people watching YouTube videos and can then train themselves using this method. They have now advanced in software. If your are training to be a crime investigator, they have now got a piece of software they makes it feel real. They have created Vitual reality software for them to use and experience what it would be like, making it feel almost real. They would be given different scenarios to deal with and what ever decision they make could be a good or bad decision, so they have to choose wisely.

Format    

Different services created using different authoring tools varies depending on how the company wants to get its information across to the audience. These formats can be applications in websites, CD/DVD's to presentation and interactive TV.

CD/DVD ROM:
A CD/DVD ROM is a machine usually in a computer that can read what is on the CD or DVD when it is placed into the machine. This can carry information from one place to another using

Information Kiosks:
This is an interactive kiosk for people to use to make situations easier and quicker. You are able to click on the products you are wanting For example McDonalds have screens for you to pick your meal instead of going up to the counter. This makes it quicker and easier for the process. At this kiosk you are able to pay with a card only. This also lets you see what the products they have to offer without being rushed or pressured.

Interactive TV:
Interactive TV is used to interact with what they are showing on the TV. This can either cast a vote or make a decision so you can choose what happens. An example of this is Final Destination DVD's. You have an extra chose on the DVD to make their decisions for them. So when they are on the rollercoaster you get to decide what happens, your decision could be good or bad. On the TV the Lotto results have a play along game show that your able to play along with the people on the show. The different colours on the remotes will decide what you have picked to make your decision.

Handheld devices:
Mobile devices are a good way to present programs to a wider audience as most people have smartphone that is app compatible. People are able to download different app in their phone to usually interact with their phones, whether is it a game or a social media app.

Assets

Sound:

Sound comes out of a speaker whether its a speaker on its own or in a device. The sound tender to be music or when you interact with the screen when you type and it makes a noise when you type each letter. The sounds can be higher or lowered depending how loud or quiet the sound is. Video games have settings to change if you want the game chat on or off or if the voice over sounds are too loud or not loud enough.    

Text:

Text is an important asset for anything. You see it all around ever day and every where you go. On app and on different devices. Its tends to be different fonts, formats, colour and size. Text is used for hyperlinks, emails, website links, phone texting, labels, subtitles and titles. These are all things that this asset would be used in multi media products.

Videos:

Videos are a major assets these days with people becoming successful with creating YouTube videos. From vlogging, advertising and documentaries. These are all creations that people have made either by themselves or with a big production company. These would either be seen through TV or the internet. They would be small clips that would be used for advertisements, web banners and pop ups. All types of videos are essential in the production of a multi media product. They are available on all handheld devices with the applications you are able to download.  

 

Vector graphics:

Vector graphics are designed to be placed on the web. Vector graphics are made from shapes which are not pixelated so when the image is constructed and zoomed I on, it will not break apart into different pixels showing the different tones of colours. The images you would find that are vector graphics would be logos, symbols and backgrounds. These images would most likely be added to your multi media product.   

Animation:

There is different forms of animation which are pixilation, stop motion and computer generated. They would use advanced software for Wallace and Gromit for example as this is part of stop motion animation. They have advanced with software to create up to date films and programs using 3D animation to make it look more realistic and which creates illusion of movement. Most companies use green screen to film there animation as its easier and more effective to use for modern day uses.

 

Images:

Images can promote films, adverts and other media products. They will use a still image from a film or any other media product to show you a suspense moment or the main part of a film to show you what's about to happen that's interesting. Advertisements will use a still image from the adverts they have created to place around and people will know from the image what they are advertising without reading the title. The images will be placed around town, cities, buildings, buses and other places people would see the poster.   

  

    

Interactive and control

Buttons:

Buttons are used to help users interact with the product. Gaming consoles include controllers for you to interact with the game that's being played on the TV screen. This is the same with television remotes, they include different buttons for you to press to interact with the TV to select a TV channel of to turn the sound up or down. Computer and laptops come with a keyboard for you to type or click for different commands.   

Events:

A different event can occur when a specific point of the games comes up. It will then be triggered for the game to change its environment throughout the game. The sound that's triggered when you reach a certain part of the game that will be included in the game to add effect and make it more realistic. Another triggered event would be when a notification pops up on your phone to tell you whether you phone is out of battery or if you get a message come through on your phone.   

Hotspots:

A hotspot is an area or link is reached on a webpage. When you move your mouse on the webpage, at certain points the mouse would change to a click-finger. They are invisible so you cant see where your mouse would change on the screen. Hotspots are used on ever webpage as the audience are able to access the other pages the website has to offer. Its usually text or images that contain hotspots for the audience can click on which are relevant.

  

Scripting:

This is included in games that would interact with the user to tell you what is happening while the game is being played. The characters will interact with each other on the game and they tend to be able to follow the person that is talking where ever they move to on the game. The scripts maybe coded, this is why when they reach a certain point the event will be triggered. For example, Lara croft Anniversary would be an example. When Lara gets to a certain point of the map a animal would leap out to try and kill her. When this point is triggered Lara is enable to use her guns to kill the animal.

 

Timelines:

Timelines can be accessible through different devices with the app downloads. The app they would use is alarm clocks, timers and countdowns. Timelines are essential when editing videos and audio. Adobe Audition and premiere so that the editor knows exactly what points and part of the video timelines where they have to synchronize the edited audio. The main reason its used on these software's is to measure the lengths of the video they are editing for situations when clients have asked for it to be a certain length.

   

Slideshows:

Microsoft Powerpoint is used for interaction. The slideshows would show a series of images through different types of transitions. You interact with them by clicking the screen and the transition move the image. This helps you get involved with the presentation and makes it more interesting.

Effects:

Effects can be placed on top of videos, audio and presentations. In videos they would add transitions, effects, colour, saturation and opacity. When editing audio you can edit it to have echo effect, volume effects, reverse effects and slow or fast effects which all have a different aspect to the sound depending on how its edited. Presentation which is used on Powerpoint can contain effects for transitions, text and images. All of these effects are useful in the media industry.

 

Limitations

Size:

In most multi media products, they all come with their limitations. This is usually file size. The bigger the file size the longer it would take to transfer over to an editing application. The transferring process might take longer depending what file size which could be Megabytes, Gigabytes or Terabytes. Large files can be more difficult to load or email over as the file size would contain a lot more complex data. So it would require more time and complex applications to export it over to someone else. The best way to transfer large files is to use a USB stick which can handle larger file types. There are different file formats which are; SVG, GIF, PNG, JPEG and TIFF. Depending what you have saved the images on or from it will act differently. If you save GIF images as JPEG the image won't move.      

Download time:

The download time depends on the file size. When you upload a video to YouTube for example, if the video you have created lasts 10 minutes it would roughly take 5 - 7 minutes. This depends what the quality format you have chosen to upload it as. If you download something with 720p on YouTube it would take a little longer than a lower definition like 320p, it wouldn't take as long. Also when uploading multiple files at a time it would take an enormous amount of time.

 

Type of content:

Content such as videos, audio and JPEG images can be imported onto Adobe Premiere but not onto image editing software like Adobe photoshop. Premiere can only contain specific types of content. Images can be used but photoshop is image only editing application that has no need for audio and videos. Files with the right content can be exported onto applications but only if those applications are designed for specific content. Files contain video, audio, documents and images which can be saved in different file formats and all files are different in their own way.  

Requirements for plug ins:

Plug ins are physically plugging ins that you would plug into something for something to happen. A USB stick into the computer USB port can let you copy files from one thing to another whether its from the USB to the computer or the computer to the USB. When you have filmed something you would use a SD card in the camera which you can then eject out of the camera. Most computers have SD card ports which you can put into your computer. This would allow you to transfer files from the SD card on the computer so you are able to edit. You can also delete the files you don't want on the SD card and they would be discarded forever. Most computers have battery plug ins. They plug would go into the socket and the other side would plug into the computer to allow it to charge up. This is used in every device. If you needed to use an extra keyboard of mouse you are about to plug one into the side of the computer where the USB stick would be plugged into. This would then connect to the computer and then you are ready to use the plug in. Modern day laptops now have an extra plug in so that you are able to connect the screen to the TV screen. So what ever you see on the laptop screen you can now share it onto the TV screen.