Identifying Components of Multimedia
Multimedia Products
Choose on multimedia product; describe its purpose; show its features; analyse its strengths and weaknesses. Describe the levels of interactivity in the multimedia product.
I have chosen to do my review on the Boost Juice Bar website. Its purpose is to inform, educate and entertain and entertain it does, there is a ”link” that says ‘Don’t press here’ when its pressed, fruit falls from the top of the screen and splatter the the bottom of the screen, there is a game of connect 3, where the junk food verses you, as the fruit. This website has a competition on the home page as well as a koala (which tells you its an Australian owned company) drinking boost juice, a link to the ‘food fight’ game, on the right hand side of the home page there are updates, and the bottom right there is a VIP club link. At the bottom of the page there are tabs (links) to other pages. On the up side, the boost juice bar website has information about the Juice Bar, it has history of the bar and the people, info on franchising, their products, locations and heath, they even have a game and ‘random stuff’ for the younger audience, and the whole website is in uniform. On the downside, the side is a little plain for my liking. The site could also have what could go into a boost juice drink (meaning the fruit etc that could go into it).
The whole site is interactive, each page is set up like a fridge door, and the photos and links are ‘pinned’ onto the fridge door with magnets and when you scroll over the link/photo, it moves/swings.
Multimedia Interactivity
Genre: one of the categories that artistic works of all kinds can be divided into on the basis of form, style, or subject matter. Movies have different genres, these could be; comedy, drama, action, horror etc.
Format: the way in which something is presented, organised or arranged. Files can be formated and saved into different file names; .mp3, .m4a, .wma, .avi, .psd, .fla, .swf, .jpg, .gif, .tiff etc.
Viewing/Listening: an act or the practise of watching, seeing or inspecting something/to concentrate on hearing somebody or something. If there is audio in video, you can listen and visualize at the same time; TV, DVD. Music on the other hand, is just something you listen to; radio, mp3′s.
Portability: designed to be light or compact enough to carry or move easily from place to place.
Video games have been made in the past years, and they can be taken anywhere. Laptops are portable, and there are wireless internet connects, so that the net can be everywhere your laptop is.
Immediacy: happening or done at first, at once or without delay.
Currency:: a system of money, or the bills and coins themselves, used in a particular country.
Engagement: an act or condition of being activated or becoming operational.
Intimacy:: a detailed knowledge resulting from a close or long association or study.
Linearity: relating to a straight line or capable of being represented by a straight line.
Scope::
freedom, space or capacity to act.
Interactivity: involving the communication or collaboration of people or things.
Select a media text (print, film, video, audio) and describe how best to convert this into a multimedia form utilizing the features of multimedia.
Operating Systems and Storage Devices What impact do the various operating systems have on multimedia products?
Choose 2 alternate means of external storage and compare strengths and weaknesses.
Software Management
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Most applications for Mac OS X use a “package” design. |
Nearly all Windows applications are installed using some type of install wizard. |
Graphic user interface – Window Management
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The top left corner of every Mac OS X window contains close, minimize, and zoom controls. The red close button will close the window (obviously), while the yellow minimize button will scale the window down into a small dock icon (complete with a gratuitous “genie” animation), overlaid with the icon of the parent application. |
Window Controls in Windows Vista are found in the top-right corner of each window, and are, from left to right, minimize, maximize, and close. |
Internet – Web browsing
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Users can access their bookmarks in Safari through Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks from the menu bar or clicking the open book shaped icon located on the far left of the toolbar. Safari’s bookmark window uses a layout similar to other library-centric applications on Mac OS X such as Address Book or Font Book. |
Bookmarks in Internet Explorer are called favourites and can be accessed from the Favourites Centre by clicking the star icon in the toolbar. |
Digital Media – Media Playback
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Both Quicktime Player and iTunes support the playback of the following media file types: Audio: MP3, AAC, AIFF, AIFC, SND, WAV, MIDI, AU, MP2, WMA (iTunes) Video: MPEG-1, MPEG-4, h.264, QT, DV, FLC, Flash (subset of version 5 only), 3GPP, AVI (container), MOV (container), VIDEO_TS (DVD Player) Playlist: M3U (iTunes) Streaming: SDP, SMI |
Windows Media Player supports playback of the following media file types: Audio: MP3, MP2, WMA, WAV, MIDI, RMI, AU, SND, AIFF, AIFC, CDA (CD audio) Video: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV, DVR-MS, AVI (container), ASF (container), IVF, QT (only version 2.0), MOV (only version 2.0) Playlist: M3U, WPL Streaming: ASX, WAX, WVX |
Choose 2 alternate means of external storage and compare strengths and weaknesses.
USB External Storage
Sizes
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512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB 8GB 16GB 32GB |
80GB, 120GB, 160GB, 250GB, 320GB, 400GB, 500GB, 750GB, 1 terabyte + |
Brands
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SanDickk Cruzer, Apacer, USB Pens, Diamond, BusLink, Omomory, Lexar, Samsung |
Hitachi, Qmemory, Vantec |
The up side
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Memory sticks (USBs) are more portable than the external storage unit. They can be put in your pocket and put on a key ring. |
The external storage unit holds just as much, or more than the average computer. |
The down side
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Memory sticks don’t hold as much as the external storage units and can be lost easily. |
The external storage units aren’t as portable as the memory sticks |
Media Elements, Digitization, Compression and Delivery
DIGITIZATION…
Text: Can be scanned onto the computer as a document file or typed directly into any program that allows text.
Graphics: Can be created using programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash
Photographs: Can be scanned directly onto the computer, or uploaded from a camera.
Audio: Able to be recorded and uploaded to the computer, or recorded directly onto the computer.
Video:: Can be filmed with a video camera and uploaded to the computer, or filmed directly on the computer.
Animation: Can be created directly onto the computer using animation programs, such as Flash
COMPRESSION…
Text: Data compression or source coding is the process of encoding information using fewer bits (or other information-bearing units) than an uuencoded representation would use through use of specific encoding schemes.
Graphics/Photographs (Images): Image compression is the application of data compression on digital images. Doing this you can keep the quality of the original image, but the size of the file would be much smaller and much easier to use on the web.
Audio: Audio compression is a form of data compression designed to reduce the size of audio files.
Video: Video compression refers to reducing the quantity of data used to represent video images and is a straightforward combination of image compression and motion compensation.
Animation: Animation should be compressed so that it loads quickly onto the internet.
DELIVERY…
Text: There are different ways in which text can be delivered. SMS (Short Message Service) is one example of delivery or text. Email is another. It could also be on a website or magazine and newspaper.
Graphics: website, able to load quickly etc
Photographs: same as ^^, compressed, optimised etc
Audio: load quickly, compressed, appropriate format
Video: if on website needs to load quickly, compressed etc, and can be put onto a DVD.
Animation: ^^^ appropriate format etc
Multimedia Authoring
Select 2 Multimedia authoring tools used for the same purpose and compare strengths and weaknesses.
