Interactive media authoring tools: There are a different variety of tools used to create interactive media that can produce media in a wide variety of different formats, this can include mediator, dreamweaver and flash. These can all create a variety of different products. Mediator can create an interactive series of pages that can be linked through a number of methods such as a CD-rom, a website or a flash document. Dreamweaver creates a website that can be accessed on any computer with a web browser installed and flash can create an animation which can be watched on any computer with the drives installed.
Planning: Planning will help with the interactive media product, this is where you must plan what the purpose of the product is and what features you want it to have. This is important because the decision here can affect the whole purpose of the final product. There are number of ways you can do this for example you can create a mood board to get an idea of the sort of images and media that you would want to use.Creating programme,database, document etc. With the authoring tool will require planning beforehand. The plan would create
Design: There are many ways you could use to design the product you are making, for example you can draw the design out on paper or use digital methods for example a mybalsamiq which means that you can save your own designs online and access them from anywhere you want, but there are also advantages to drawing your design on paper because this means that you can draw shapes accurately and freely and not be limited by the features of the software which people are using.
Development and production: The development of a service of using a web authoring tools will require people with extensive knowledge with programming languages such as javascript, C, C++ as well as actionscript, all depending on the software being used to create the service. During production of the service, both of the designers and programmers will work closely in order to create a service that would be simple for a user to use and navigate around. They will work with each other to fix any problems they may encounter during these processes.
Applications: A multimedia product uses a combination of images, words and sounds to present information. Multimedia is increasingly being used in education, advertising and entertainment.
Computer games, websites and DVDs combine text, sound, images and video to present information.
Text, sound, image and video are known as multimedia components.The combination of these components is multimedia. Multimedia can be used to convey information to people effectively. It has brought fundamental changes to the way people learn, play and find information.
Education: Traditionally, computer-based education programs used separate multimedia components such as texts, images, audio clips and video clips, and presented them in a sequence decided by the author. Nowadays, multimedia in education allows the programs to be user-driven, and not restricted by time. It has been shown that the use of multimedia teaching resources has helped many students to understand their studies better, and to remember things better, too. E-learning involves following a learning or education programme through electronic means. Interest in e-learning is growing fast, because students can study at a time that suits them and can study from home if they want.
Entertainment: A multimedia product should entertain and engross the user. Entertainment sources can be viewed in a variety of multimedia contexts, including games, videos and DVDs. Traditional ways of viewing media are increasingly being replaced by new methods, such as downloading content to mobile phones or streaming over the internet.
Marketing:
When marketing and advertising a product, it is important to identify and satisfy the end-user's requirements. Multimedia has altered the way products are advertised and marketed, and offered a new marketplace for this activity. The internet has opened a new area for advertising and marketing. Products are advertised in banners, pop-up windows, links, embedded video, flash movies and more. Whether you're using a website to research a project or just checking your email, adverts are hard to escape. Most companies that have a website will produce monthly newsletters or regular emails that consumers can sign up to receive. Often customers can choose what products they are most interested in and will then receive news and offers about those particular items. Many software companies allow customers to download free trials directly from their websites so they can try before they buy. Consumers can read chapters of books online if they want to buy them.
Presentations :Presentation packages are used to create presentations, quizzes, information points and many more multimedia products. Most presentation packages allow you to add text, images, video, animation and sound to each slide to create a sophisticated product. The mostly widely presentation software includes Microsoft powerpoint and Impress. The PowerPoint training website has lists of all the free online courses available, from creating your first presentation to customising your software. A selection of tutorials for IMPRESS, from beginner to advanced level.
Games: Game is product that is providing entertainment to people. Games can be played on electronic devices such as consoles like the xbox one and PS4, computers, mobiles. Games are usually targeting particular target audience for example fifa football is targeting football fans.
Product catalogues: The product catalog is a set of information about individual models. Models are specific versions or various configurations of an asset. Models published to the product catalog are automatically published to the service catalog. The service catalog includes information about goods and services.
Computer based training: The process of bringing a person etc. To an agreed standard proficiency e.g. by practicing and reading the instructions carefully. Training is an organized activity to give instructions to the audience and prepare them for work. Trainings are usually organized for new comers in the company to help them understand the purpose of the work that they are going to do and the aim of the company.
Assessment: Assessment in other words means testing other people on their skills. For example in the company when a manager is assessing people, he will want to test their skills. Schools assessments are basically tests which are testing the knowledge of the students.
Format: The most common format to be used for distribution of the programs and packages are CD/ DVD ROM- like cover disks in magazines. Internet- a place where a package can be published to a wider audience. Mobile devices are a good way to present programs to a wider audience as most people have smart phones that is an app compatible.
Websites: Websites are an easy way to distribute information and interactive media to the public. Websites can be accessed from any computer or mobile device with internet connection. Websites are very useful for businesses because it allows them to set up an online store which can increase their revenue.
CD/ROM: This is when a product is distributed through a physical disk that is inserted into the disk drive of a computer or other device. These are most commonly used to distribute games for game consoles. This is good because it means that the user does not have to store the program on their hard drive.
Information kiosk: To use this method on the computer is placed in a public place for the public to use this on the computer and may not have access to the internet but will have a programme installed that will show an interactive map to help people find the shop or location they are looking for.
Interactive TV: this method is used rarely, the simplest form is changing the channel another product that uses this is teletext. This allows the user to see the latest news stories on their TV without having to look on the internet or changing news channel. There are also more modern forms of this with smart TVs which allow the user to browse the internet and have other applications on their TV.
Handheld devices: This more common form of interactive media. This is when someone creates a mobile app and the user can download it and look at it on their phone. This can be used to distribute products that have very different purposes from games and news applications. Most people have a phone that is capable on to doing this. There are two main phone operating systems that are capable which are android and IOS. IOS is only used by apple whereas android is used by most other mobile manufactures.
Assets: Assets are anything that is used in order an application what it actually is. An asset is something that is put into an application. Assets are everything from images, sprites, and backgrounds, the code (if needed), and sound effects,Music,text and anything else that’s created for use with the applications.The created assets belong to the developer or developers of whoever created the application in the first place. For example, the assets used for my iPhone/Android game, the assets for my game include backgrounds, sprites, and music. My character for my game is one of my main assets. The assets that compose my game make my game what it is. Otherwise it would look like a black screen with nothing happening in it.
Sound: Sound is another component that can be used in an interactive media product this is used because it can help the user be immersed in some products such as games this can help the product feel more professional if the music used is appropriate.
Text: Text is important part of an interactive media product because it shows the user all of the information which they are looking for this can also be used to give the user instructions as to how to use the product.
Video: this is when a moving image with audio is added to an interactive media product this can be effective in many situations because it can help the user pay more attention to the product and remember more of it.
Animations: This is used in many interactive media products animations is when an image is made to move and it can be used for many different purposes such as drawings the users attention to a certain piece of information or making a character move in a game.
Images: Images are used in interactive media products because they can help seperate the text to give the user a break from reading and they also help make the products more professional as long as they are appropriate for the topic the topic is about.
Interactivity and control: This is when the user specific controls to govern exactly what the product does, this is usually used in video games and other products where you need very precise control.
Buttons: Basically, a button is an image of any shape, size or colour which is then placed onto the stage or workspace. It is then converted into a symbol which Flash uses for animations. The button can then be given what’s known as an Instance name, which is what the object gets referred to as in the Action Script code. Then layers are created with pages, a layer for buttons and one for pages. On the layer with nothing on it, the user can then input code which will give the button commands such as moving to different frames or ‘pages. Any button can
be given any command as long as you know its input code.
Events: These are the controls that are govern in what the product does, for example when an image appears or when an animation begins to play.
Scripting& Hotspots: The scripting and the hotspots will allow users to interact with certain areas of page. For example a button created through scripting will allow the user to press it and go to another page, activate something on the screen and possibly move and object using certain keys.
Timelines: A timeline is a long series of frames which an animation will be made up of. Each frame contains a still picture or a motion tween (a feature which allows for smooth animation of movement) and when it played the computer will play each one in a sequence making up the animation. A timeline can be used for other things as well. A timeline can be used to contain information such as separate animations, script code or even features of webpages. There is a timeline in both Adobe Flash and Adobe after Effects. There are timelines in many animation. programs also.
Slideshows: A slide show is a series of pages with text, images and video clips that move consecutively one after another. Each page or slide can have images and texts thrown together and then played either automatically over a period of time, or manually by clicking when finished with each slide.
Effects: There are many effects that can be used to make a presentation look a lot more interesting. There are two main types, transitions and normal animations. The stage animations or slide transitions are used for slide transitions. The slide animates away so that a new slide will be animated onto the screen. The normal animation effects can be applied to virtually everything that’s within the slide.The effects consist of many animations of three type’s animations, intro, exit and emphasis. All three types of animation have different animations within them, including different motion paths that can be used so that every animation is customisable.
Limitations: Although interactive media authoring is a great thing to use, it will have certain limitations which some people may dislike. The cost of a package of tools that we use for media authoring may be very expensive and so is inappropriate for beginner users as it will not be worth it.
Download time: Download time is the time takes to download large packages will take too long for certain users to consider downloading it through the internet, and may want to buy the software on a disk instead.
Requirement for plug-ins: Most software will require plug-ins of programs to be separately downloaded and installed in order for it to work correctly.
Download time: Download time is the time takes to download large packages will take too long for certain users to consider downloading it through the internet, and may want to buy the software on a disk instead.
Requirement for plug-ins: Most software will require plug-ins of programs to be separately downloaded and installed in order for it to work correctly.
