3.6 Multimedia/digital media
Introduction
Multimedia/digital media involves the use and integration of media (for example, text, images and graphic elements, animation, sound and music, and video) to create digital products that are available online or offline.
This topic introduces ITGS students to the technologies that make information accessible through different media and online services. It is important that the ITGS student is aware of the actual uses of multimedia/digital media and, bearing in mind the emphasis on practical work in this topic, has practised using the tools in order to be able to evaluate their effectiveness in various scenarios.
Multimedia/digital media raises questions about a range of impacts, issues and solutions that the ITGS student must investigate, including copyright, intellectual property, and current practices and policies used to grant permission for use.
Possible scenario
A school would like to create a print yearbook with an online version. The print version would contain only text and photos. The online version would also include audio, video and multimedia files. The yearbook team is also considering burning the website version on to a DVD and including it in the back of the printed version of the yearbook. A number of factors need to be considered in producing the print yearbook, the website and the DVD. These are:
- whether to develop the IT products in school or to use a commercial provider
- whether the necessary IT systems are available to produce a high-quality print yearbook and to create an online yearbook and DVD with audio and video files
- whether the content to be included in all three versions of the yearbook is accessible
- what professional guidelines must be followed in the design of the three products
- what copyright, intellectual property and licensing are required for three versions of the yearbook
- what can be learned from yearbooks produced by other schools in these three formats.
IT concepts to address in this topic
Theoretical concepts
- Design guidelines for creating multimedia/digital media
- Design methods: for example, site map, storyboard
Data collection
- Primary and secondary data
- Multimedia file formats: for example, text formats, audio formats, video formats, presentation formats, image/graphics formats
- Policies, copyright, citing sources, Creative Commons, licensing and watermarking
- Digital rights management (DRM)
Product development
- Folder and file management: importance of file and folder naming, appropriate folder structures
- Tutorials: for example, help pages, online manuals
- Templates and wizards, online and provided with software
- Importing and exporting data
- Integrating software applications and online tools: for example, embedded videos, web-based database
Components
Text
- Text-processing software
- Formatting: for example, page layout, fonts, headers and footers
- File formats: for example, PDF, RTF, TXT
- Typography
Graphics, images and animations
- Software types: for example, albums, animated, 3D, bitmapped, vector, photo editing, photo casting, simulation
- Bit depth, colour depth (grayscale, shades of gray, millions of colours)
- Layers, grouping, divisions, alignment
- Resolution, pixels, dots per inch (dpi)
- File formats: for example, JPG, GIF, TIF
- Computer-generated imagery (CGI)
Audio
- Audio-editing software, podcasts
- Digital audio: for example, MIDI (musical instrument digital interface), MP3 (MPEG-1 audio layer 3), MP4 (MPEG-4 part 14), WAV (waveform audio format)
- File formats: for example, MP3, MP4, WAV
Video
- Video-editing software, vidcasts and special effects (for example, morphing, transitions)
- Digital video: for example, AVI (audio video interleave), MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), video CODECs (coder-decoders)
- File formats: for example, AVI, MOV
Integrating the components
-
Software types to house and display the multimedia components: for example, word processing, desktop publishing, presentations, web pages
Generic techniques
- Differences in files (for example, graphics, images, audio, video) for print and online versions
- Inserting and manipulating objects (graphics, sound or video files)
- Tables: cell merge, borders, cell padding, cell spacing, nested tables
- Layers
- Links: relative and absolute, internal and external, for example, anchors, pop-ups
Word processing and desktop publishing (DTP)
- Referencing and reviewing: for example, spellchecker, thesaurus, outliners, word count
- Inline and floating graphics
Interactive multimedia, slideshows and websites
- Applications and online tools used for creating and making available interactive multimedia, games, presentations, slideshows and websites
- Use of scripting in creating web pages (for example, HTML, JavaScript, URL links to online media)
- Integration of online tools