advanced multimedia module

8/16/2019 Advanced Multimedia Module

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Multimedia Title Development Process FlowLesson1

Objectives

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

State the importance of the multimedia development process.

List resource requirements of the multimedia title development process.

Name the three phases of multimedia title development process.

Identify the processes undertaken in each of the phases of multimedia titledevelopment.

Overview

Multimedia is said to be a commonplace today. That is due to the advancementsin computer speeds and storage space. Consequently, the term doesn't produce the same

excitement it once did before. This also means it is not as overused as it was back in the

late '90s. But what is this multimedia? As the name implies, multimedia is the integration

of multiple forms of media. This includes text, graphics, audio, video, etc. For example, a presentation involving audio and video clips would be considered a "multimedia

presentation." Educational software that involves animations, sound, and text is called

"multimedia software." The "multimedia formats" are often considered to be in CDs andDVDs since they can store a lot of data and most forms of multimedia require a lot of

disk space.

Most often than not, multimedia design and development is a quite complex,arduous, and harder-than-you-think proposition. For instance, producing multimedia

projects with quality, at a reasonable price, and on time calls for thinking things outahead of time; establishing goals and milestones; and working with teams of brilliantly

creative people who work like dogs. It's not that much different than any other kind of

project where you build a one-of-a-kind product.

A harmonious and healthy multimedia production process is tailored to the typeand scale of the individual project, but certain concepts apply no matter what you're

developing. These concepts are of course: Always plan ahead, keep the client informed,

track the implementation against the plan, and test the results.

This lesson of the module gives you an idea of how to develop a multimedia title.How I wish that the ideas in this lesson make your title wonderful and interesting.

Let’s try to start our purpose now!

Essentials of Interactive Multimedia Authoring


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1.1 IMPORTANCE

Multimedia title development process tries to increase development productivity

and reliability. It guarantees that all the requirements on system development productivity

are accounted for during the development.

We've seen that multimedia title development has the capacity to combinecomputers, entertainment and publishing into one medium for exchange of information

that expands more of its three potentials. It can even deliver large amounts of materials inmultiple forms, and can deliver them in an integrated environment that allows users to

control the reading and viewing experience. Unlike if you’re just reading a book you’ll

need to turn its pages in a fixed sequence but not if you’re just a viewer of a multimediatitle. All you need to do is shift the information focus at a whim but the focus remains to

the information provided. Just imagine how graphics, audio, animation, and video help

you came in an environment that seems comparable to real life situation.

For instance, multimedia programs bring to education the extraordinary storage

and delivery capabilities of computerized material. This is especially important for

schools, libraries, and learning institutions where books are difficult to obtain and update.Multimedia is a powerful and efficient source for acquiring learning resources.

Multimedia can also provide educational institutions access to other kinds of inaccessiblematerials, such as hard to find historical films, rare sound recordings of famous speeches,

illustrations from difficult to obtain periodicals, and so on. Multimedia can put primary

and secondary source materials at the fingertips of users in even the remotest locations

from major research facilities.

Publishing professionals and authors know what they want from a book, andinstinctively know also how to achieve results after producing enough titles. Just like in a

book, multimedia title can achieve the same results but it requires more involved

development process. That process on the other hand, would involve many people or ateam (programmers, testers, writers, artists, musicians and sound engineers) which is far

more compelling that its printed form.



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1.2 RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS

1.2.1 Manpower Resources

Multimedia team includes the following personnel

as suggested below:

Art Director-responsible for thevisual appeal of the whole

multimedia project.

Developer- can also be called

chief technology officer orsoftware engineer. Specializes

and responsible for all the

executive, creative decisions andfinancial aspects that has

something to do with the physical

development of the multimedia

project.

Interface Designer-responsible fortaking into account various

perceptions and creating front end

that help satisfy the target

population or as many people as

possible.

Producer- can be a person or group

of persons responsible for thetotality of the development process

of the project. Take charged of the

job of gathering forces who willcreate the project, supervising them

with the hands-on work andresponsibilities to build the project

and do the conceptualization tocommission everything for the

project.

Project Manager-responsible for

daily or day-to-day supervision of

the production

Quality Assurance Engineer-responsible for compilation of the

reports after the field tests. Should be present during product planningto bring into the project insights

about field testing of the product for

assured quality.

Writer- a professional with

excellent communication skills and

experience in online writing.

Programmer- a professional(s)

with superior skills in coding or

creating set of instructions for a particular computer as solution to a

problem and at the same time withsense of creativeness & user-friendliness characteristics for the

multimedia project.

Graphics Editor-responsible for

the visual appeal of the text, stillimages and the like form of

graphics in the project.

Sound Specialist/Editor- a talented

professional on choosing good and

proper sound effects, background

music and recording skills and otherimportant matters pertaining to the

harmonious matching of the scenes

the audio effects of the multimedia

project.



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1.2.2 Multimedia Devices

Below are some of the multimedia devices:


CD-ROM Drive-the driveneeded to retrieve data from a

CD-ROM format disc.

Scanner- an optical devicefor reading hard copy (printed page) and translating it into a

digital data or graphics image

for the computer.

Digital Camera- a device

that records still images on a

PC card.

Video Camera- a

device that records

movin ima es.

CD-Writer-a device thatcan write the information on a

compact disc.

Sound Card and Speaker-

also called sound board and

audio adapter. A personalcomputer expansion board that

used to record and play back

sounds, providing outputsdirectly to speakers or any

external amplifier.

MIDI Instruments and

Interfaces- can be used torecord a musical session, but

instead of recording the analog

sound waves as in a tape

recorder, the computer stores

the music as keystroke andcontrol codes.


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5(See next topic for more detailed discussions on the 3 Phases of Multimedia Title Development)

1.3 TASKS SEQUENCING

Activities involved in multimedia title development are

divided into three task groups or phases namely:

1.3.1 Pre-Production. The purpose of this phase is to

determine what is to be built, by whom and how. Tasksmay include as follows:

Designing the Instruction

Writing the Proposal

Project Planning, Contracts, and Responsibilities

Gathering, Searching, and Researching Related Materials

1.3.2 Production. The actual development of the project. Tasks may include as

follows:

Storyboarding

Creating Graphic Elements

Creating Audio-Visual Elements

Authoring the Project

1.3.3 Post-Production. Basically involves the evaluation of the multimedia title

and the entire project. Tasks may include as follows:

Implementation

Assessing, Evaluating and Revising

Distribution and Delivery. This stage of the multimedia project includes allthe processes required to prepare and deliver the final product and close the

project. These activities follow on from the completion of the development

phase, which has ended with the successful acceptance testing of the product.

The processes involved in the close of the project include:

preparation for delivery (which includes archiving and debriefingthe team)

delivery of the product.


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Cut Here…


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o Form group of 3 members.

o List the PC devices you will need for the multimedia piece you

intend to develop.

o List the manpower resources that compose your team for thedevelopment of the multimedia title. Distribute the

responsibilities among each member of the development team.

Examples: Who will be the project manager? What are the

responsibilities on his shoulder?

Who will act as the graphics editor? What are his

obligations?

Etc.

o Start Tasks Sequencing by discussing among members the

activities you have to perform and accomplish on the following phases:

Pre-Production,

Production, and

Post-Production

o Submit this Activity Sheet together with Outcome Sheet (another

paper/bond paper) for your Group Output.


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1.4 THE THREE PHASES OF MULTIMEDIA TITLE

DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

1.4.1 Pre-Production

It is the process of intelligently mapping out a cohesive strategy for the entire

multimedia project, including content, technical execution and marketing. The Production

Manager undertakes the following activities:

Development of the budget control system

Hiring of all specialists involved in the multimedia application process

Contracting video and audio production crews and recording studios

Equipment rental, leasing and purchasing

Software acquisition and installation

Planning the research work of the content specialists

Development of the multimedia application outline, logic flow, scripts and videoand audio files production scripts and schedules

Coordination of legal aspects of production

Pre-Production phase of development on the other hand should also cover the

following processes:

Concept definition

Ti tle goals/ Selecting Product Category . Here, you will need to select

the product category. Successful multimedia development efforts begin by

defining the type of multimedia product you will able to be produced.

Multimedia titles fall into one of the following categories below:

Productivity Titles. Category that adds multimedia functionality

to standard productivity applications.

Examples: word processors, presentation packages, andspreadsheets.

Informational Titles. Category that give ideas or information to



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users of the multimedia piece.

Examples: multimedia encyclopedias and

medical references.

Entertainment Titles. Category that provide entertainment tothe public or target population or audience.

Examples: multimedia games or books that incorporate

animation sequences, images, text & graphics and sounds.

Creativity Titles. Category that deliver information with which

an artist can work, including audio, video clips and clipart.

Educational Titles. Category that includes elementary and

secondary courseware with interactivity.

Audience . It is also a very critical task towards the success of a

multimedia title is the identification of audience and understanding each

one of them.

Specif y the Content . Once the target audience is identified, you will be

better prepared to specify the content of your title. You may start the:

Design of multimedia project

o Story/content/services

o

Information architecture

o Visual and sound

o Technical

o Interaction

o Navigation

Production plan

o Storyboarding/content outline

Define the scope of the project--how many pages, sounds,animations, etc.

Define the flow of the project--organization and navigation

Out of this comes the information needed for the rest of the production plan



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Selecting the Project Team/Assembling Team . Since the task ofdevelopment is such a collaborative process, it is a necessity that the

project team include the right mix of skills sets and personalities whichmay compose as follows:

o Designer/Art Director

o Producer

o Technical designer

o Developer

o Audio producer

o Writers and editors

o

Graphic artists/editors

o Programmers/HTML coders

o Composers/sound designers/musicians/sound specialist &editors

o Content specialists (if possible)

o Technical assistants (if possible)

o Production assistants (if possible)

o

Rights and researchers (if possible)

o Lawyer (if possible)

1.4.2 Production

Once all the preproduction activities have been completed, the multimedia

application enters the production phase. Activities in this phase include:

Content Research

Interface Design

Graphics Development

Selection of musical background and sound recording

Development of computer animation



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Production of digital video

Authoring

1.4.3 Post-Production

In this phase, the multimedia application enters the alpha and beta testing process.Once the application is tested and revised, it enters the packaging stage. It could be

burned into a CD-ROM or published on the internet as a website.

Testing and Delivering Multimedia Application

TESTING MULTIMEDIA APPLICATION

o

The Evaluation Process

Testing of a multimedia title is essential so that the final application adheres to

international quality standards and is not infested with bugs, technical snags, inaccurateinformation or simple grammatical or typographical errors.

The process of evaluating (testing) and revising a multimedia application project

is dynamic and constant. It involves both internal and external evaluation.

o Internal Evaluation

The happens within the multimedia development group, through internal

discussions for evaluating the aspects of the application:

Application design : Is it logical and facilitates learning?

Project goals and objectives : Are the established goals and Objectives

being met ?

Content is the acquired content represented accurately

Text and narration : Are the text and narration grammatically Correct?

Application graphics : Are the application graphics adequate to fulfill

the goals and objectives ?

Sound : Is the background music, sound effects (SE) and other soundswell recorded ?

Application navigation : Are the navigational structures and aids

effective?

Programming code : Is it working as originally planned?



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Delivery : Can the application be delivered via the proposed medium ?

Time and budget : Is the project on-time and on-budget ?

Legal considerations: Have all licenses and other copyrights Been

procured?

The prime responsibility of this function lies with the production manager and can be most effective if the team members are open to positive criticism of their peers.

o External Evaluation

The following are the components of external evaluation:

Alpha Testing . Alpha testing takes place when the project isconsidered a working model i.e. it is not finished but it is functional.

The purpose of Alpha testing is to determine if the general direction

and structure are adequate and what changes are necessary. Membersof the Alpha-testing group should include a balance of friends and

critiques.

Focus Group Testing . After revising the application based on the

feedback of the Alpha test, another possible strategy is to present theapplication to a focus group. These groups are composed of

individuals who represent the expected audience of the project.

Standardized forms should be used for requesting comments and

suggestions from the Focus Group.

Beta Testing .Once the project is in a final draft form, copies should be made available to a group of potential users called a beta-testing

group. Here again, standardized questionnaires should be used for

collating feedback.

DELIVERING MULTIMEDIA APPLICATION

High-end multimedia applications that are text and graphic heavy are best

delivered on a CD-ROM. The other effective way of delivery is on an internet website.

Burning a CD-ROM

Before recording a CD-ROM, it must be ensured that the application and

supporting Files after they are recorded on the CD-ROM. Read and Write CD-ROMdrives will allow editing in the near future. The process of burning a CD-ROM is similar

to recording on any type of drive hard disc or floppy diskette.

The issue of which CD-ROM format should be used has to be considered before

burning a CD-ROM. Formats to choose from include-ISO 9660 Standard, Hierarchical



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Delivery through internet website

Multimedia content is being widely disseminated through internet. Although

currently bandwidth problems, requirement of a number of plug-ins to play real audio and

real video, long download time and other problems exists that hamper the delivery ofmultimedia applications through internet, the pace of technological improvement will

soon pave the way for easy and effective delivery.

One major advantage that internet will have over CD-ROMs is that are amenable

to continuous update activities and hence the content does not get outdated.

Integration of CD-ROM and Internet

A more effective way of delivering a multimedia application is an integration of

the two mediums of CD-ROM and Internet. Of course, a particular application if

developed on the CD-ROM, has an embedded link to a website where regular updates are

available. Vice-versa, if the application is developed as a website where informationkeeps accumulating, then as the archive becomes substantial it can be reproduced on a

CD-ROM for convenience viewing.

On the usage phase, the multimedia system is given to the client for disseminationto the users or target population. Whether in CD-ROM, Internet, or in their integration, amechanism for the audience feedback should be provided. Thus, multimedia system will

most likely require the improvement or update it should as the times moves on. Different

hardware and software discovered may change the technology that would produce better

effects and modifications in the system. More evaluation and reevaluation techniquesmay occur in the process before the final delivery.



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Outline Planning and DecidingLesson 2

Objectives


Plan an outline for a multimedia project.

Define a good user interface in relation to the target user.

Decide about storyboarding, Create a graphic elements and audio-visual elements.

Prepare a prototype for their intended users and production team.

Explain the primary concerns of the production phase of multimedia title

development.

Overview

Creating instructional multimedia is very much like building a house or producing

a movie. The first step isn't only like picking up a hammer or a video camera and the jobis already done. The first step is to carefully lay out the plans for what you hope to

accomplish and how you decide on each very step. In short, you need a plan to do it.

Granted, if you know a little bit about construction or movie producing it could prove beneficial, but chances are you'll rely on others for many aspects of either sort of project.

It is simple because you cannot finish the job alone. You will need help of a group or in

relation to a movie, a production team who is proficient in his own field of expertise and

goal-directed motivation. The same is true for creating instructional multimedia. Notice

that we use the term "instructional". This distinguishes the focus from the development ofmultimedia without specific instructional goals and objectives. With the advent of

simpler interfaces for authoring languages and with so many people now experiencedenough with computers to create basic forms of multimedia, it is increasingly difficult to

locate truly "instructional" multimedia -- software that has underlying objectives of

teaching a specific academic subject of focus. This information will prepare you to create

such instructional materials.

Since the focus of education changes from attempts at teaching students all thereis to know about a specific subject (a goal that is no longer achievable due to theincreasing amount of human knowledge in nearly every discipline) to more practical

approaches toward providing foundational skills of learning such as problem solving andworking collaboratively, multimedia as an instructional tool is finding a place in theforefront of education.

It is unfortunate that often the end product becomes the sole focus of multimedia

development. Although a great deal of learning might be inferred to have happened in

order to get the end product, inferences are not the best approach to ensuring that thelearning took place. From an instructional perspective there is a tremendous value



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attributed to the multimedia development process. Students must select their topics,

research these topics, structure the information that they want to portray in their

multimedia product and then organize and portray it in a way that makes sense tothemselves and to their audience.

A multimedia product to be complete must be made out of many ingredients. It

can be an existing printed products or a software product itself. But what can be sure of

only is that each product has its own set of requirements and considerations.

Let’s try doing job now!

2.1 MULTIMEDIA PROJECT PLANNING

The production of interactive multimedia applications is a complex one, involving

multiple steps in multimedia project planning procedures. This process can be divided

into nine planning phases about the following items:

Project Rationale

Objectives/Goals

Intended/Target Audience

Theme/Concept

Delivery Medium

Production Environment Operating Environment

Production Budget

Production Schedule

2.1.1 Project Rationale

At the onset of preparation you must consider important things. Here are some of

the few questions that you need to ask when preparing a multimedia presentation:

2.1.1.1 Why need to create a multimedia project? Is multimedia the bestoption for the project? How appropriate the cost-effectiveness of the

project is?

2.1.1.2 What do I want to say?

Pick your topic


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Define your main points

Do your research

Draft a "script"

2.1.1.3 How do I want to say it?

Find Media that illustrates the content of your scriptthis could be but not limited to: pictures from books, magazines, internet

music from CDs or downloaded on the internet

Movie clips

Words that illustrate a point

Create a sequential "movie" of images and text that supports yourscript

2.1.2 Objective/Goals

In a multimedia project, specific goals, objectives and activities matrix must belaid down. But before hand, let us first clear up the difference between goals and

objectives. In multimedia production, goals are general statements of anticipated project

outcomes, usually more global in scope while objectives are specific statements ofanticipated project outcomes.

It is important that a multimedia project or product needs to accomplishsomething. In this case, the accomplishment should be measurable and behavior-based

from the user’s standpoint. You will need activities to do these. Activities are actions,

things done in order to implement an objective. Specific people are responsible for theirexecution, a cost is related to their implementation and there is a time frame binding theirdevelopment.

Another point of view to sell concepts and ideas, you need to remember the so

called AIDA formula.

AIDA stands for:

Attention. Multimedia project must call the attention of the target audience. Always

consider the background of the users and their conditions to grab their

attention, within their field of expertise and common experience are conquered

in the presentation. Keeping your audience captured would mean thatsometimes detailed product specifications and photos aren't enough to close

that sale. Often your audiences want more than just a product, they want an

experience. They want a sense of interaction and involvement.


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Interest. Multimedia format combines the use of different form of information- text, picture, animation, sound, and video and not only one of those to catch the

interest of the intended audiences.

Desire. Multimedia developers should ensure human interface between user and themultimedia project being developed. It would be an advantage if you could

implement the better use of the multimedia project in the sense that the target

users are given control of the setup and best interactivity in order to elicit and build the desire to both the medium and subject matter in the product. By

allowing users to control the sequence and the pacing of the materials,

multimedia packages facilitate greater individualization in learning, allowingaudience to proceed at their own pace in a tailored learning environment.

Action. Multimedia project objectives should state exactly what visible activity the target

user can perform as a result of exposure to the multimedia presentation.

2.1.3 Intended/Target Audience

A very important element that needs to be defined at this stage is the potential

target audience of the proposed title since this will determine how the content needs to be presented. You need to ask to yourself the below question:

Who is my audience?

Know your audience. Each audience may require a different method of delivery

Prepare a presentation which will involve a live presentation of the script

2.1.4 Theme/Concept

The process of making multimedia starts with an "idea" or better described as "the

vision" - which is the conceptual starting point. The starting point is ironically the

visualization of the ending point - the multimedia experience that the targeted end-user

will have. Conceptualization involves identifying a relevant theme for the multimedia

title and other criteria like availability of content, how amenable is the content tomultimedia treatment and issues like copyright are also to be considered.

Identifying the theme of the project is like identifying also the project construct.The developer starts by survey of needs. Determining what kinds of title are sought by a particular kind of people is relevant to your theme analysis.


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Another consideration also has something to do with the visual theme, style andlayout, the content and the audience relationship. Always remember that the best theme

should be broad enough to incorporate various media without imposing limitations in

style and layout, but not narrow enough to ensure consistency across screen display.

2.1.5 Delivery Medium

The delivery phase of the multimedia project includes all the processes required to

prepare and deliver the final product and close the project. These activities follow onfrom the completion of the development phase, which has ended with the successful

acceptance testing of the product. The processes involved in the close of the project

include: (1) preparation for delivery (which includes archiving and debriefing the team)

and (2) delivery of the product. For a multimedia product to be fully experienced thereare three available pillars namely:

Hardware

Software

User participation.

This is through since you will need to know what software and hardware you canreasonably expect the target audience to have, as well as the setting in which it will be

used (laboratory, office, home, networked computers, modem, etc). All these three canrun on different platforms, depending on the project goals and objectives you identified

for your target audience. You can deliver the multimedia project on CD-ROM, the Web,

even touch-screen kiosks or PDAs. That's the beauty of multimedia — anything is

possible.

CD-ROM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory) .Storage disks of approximately650Mb capacity that are encoded with a laser and a magnetic head. They can be recorded

only once but can be read for as long as the disk lasts. It is inexpensive to duplicate but

easy to distribute and can be used in many platform of computers in today’s market.

on-line or World Wide Web On-line refers to being connected to a network. Most of the multimedia project

can be best be presented on-line or in the world wide web especially those that contain

information hat changes over time. Take note that World wide web is the portion of the

Internet that can display information graphically in digital manner better than throughcoaxial cable of the cable televisions.

Kiosk. A protective and often promotional installation that contains new media playbackequipment and content designed for wide public use. It is a self-contained stand with a

video screen, user-input device and also source of its delivery medium such as laserdisc

or like media. But the only difference of using this for delivery is that it needs simplertechnical specifications limited only single delivery system optimized for one particular

multimedia presentation.


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2.1.6 Production Environment

Production environment includes determination of what software and hardware

will be used during production and available to your development team. It may be

necessary to purchase more powerful machines (machines on which to develop complexanimations, for example). It will be necessary to survey existing software and to assess its

appropriateness as a development tool. It may be necessary to purchase additional

software to complete the development.

It would also be wise to review potential changes that may occur in hardware andsoftware during the development cycle. For instance, you might need to know the

following:

What basic hardware (CPU, monitor, RAM, CD-ROM speeds, modem) do thetarget users have and need?

What basic software (operating system, browser, plug-ins, and drivers) do theusers have and need?

What environment (e.g. campus library, computer lab, home) will the users be

using the package in?

What hardware is available to and required by the development team?

What software is available to and required by the development team?

What will be the storage requirements?

What will be the security requirements?

What students/user management systems will need to be in place?

What will be the minimum infrastructure support and maintenance requirements

(e.g. server downtime)?

For each production environment that the development team requires, there is a

good reference by citing one:

Sample Description of Production Environment

Operating System: Windows 7

Application Software: MS Office 2010(Word, Powerpoint, Excel)

Windows 7 Sound Recorder

3DMAX 2010

UNITY

Adobe PhotoShop CS5.5



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Any scanner software compatible to

your scanner (for graphics scanning)

Any Desktop Publishing Software of your compatibility

Any Video Editor compatible to your system

Any Sount Editor compatible

Hardware: Client/Server System

PC: CPU Pentium 4 2.26GHz, 224MB RAM, 40GB

Combo Drive (DVD_R/W & DVD ROM) or External

Sound Card

Video Camera

Digital Camera

Printer

Scanner & USB Drawing Pad

Head set with Microphone

Speaker & Sound Blaster.

2.1.7 Operating Environment

The operating environment defines the software and hardware conditions neededto run the finished multimedia project. It is important to consider the equipment platform

on which the finished product will run, since execution speeds or number of colors to be

displayed may vary during production and actual presentation to the target users orclientele.

Sample Description of Operati ng Environment:

Operating System: MS Windows 7(at least)

Application Software: MS Office 2010

Hardware: PC: CPU i3 10GHZ, 64MB RAM, 500 GB

DVD ROM

Sound Card & Speakers




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2.1.8 Production Budget

In multimedia production, the most valuable issue is about money or budget preparation. Every piece of work requires expenditure for everything. You should start

budgeting from production to marketing. It is also a must that you know the cost-effectiveness of your multimedia project. For instance, single change or modification on

screen style and layout has corresponding monetary cost. It is also the same withchanging project team member because for every expertise, compensate a correspondingvariation of talent or professional fee. Even software ad hardware requirements expenses

will vary from production or operation environment costs. In this extent, costs are

classified into two namely:

Hard Costs. The outgoing expenses that can be adequately quantified. Example

of which are: office equipment (rental or purchase), office expenses( rent,

utilities), salaries and fees, software purchases and packaging costs; and

Soft Costs. The expenses that are known but not always quantifiable. Example of

which are: legal expenses and telephone bills

2.1.9 Production Schedule

Scheduling is the preparation of project timelines which helps you balance items

in the production or stages of development. It is important that schedule is set from thestart of production to the final delivery of the project. Scheduling includes the followingconsiderations:

Rights acquisition & clearance

Content production

Content acquisition (video, text, images, etc.)

Software engineering

Testing

As the developer, there are two important questions you need to ask whencharting a multimedia project schedule.

Have we successfully developed similar projects like these before?

Is contingency planning possible?

In this extent, any of the two type of scheduling is possible to employ:

Forward Scheduling. The theory is: “ Start TODAY, fini sh WHEN ?”

Backward Scheduling. The theory is: “ This is the DEADL INE, when you wil lSTART? ”



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2.2 MAKING A MULTIMEDIA PROJECT OUTLINEThe multimedia project outline serves as a complete image of the title to be

created. It usually covers the following:

2.2.1 Develop the program script and outline

Scene listing were done by organizing and laying out the story structure.

Event Listing on the other hand were conducted by organizing in terms of

events but this only optionally done especially if the events are very

simple.

2.2.2 Develop the flowchart and storyboard

Storyboarding or content outline consists of accomplishing the tasks asfollows:

Define the scope of the project--how many pages, sounds, animations, etc.

Define the flow of the project--organization and navigation out of this

comes the information needed for the rest of the production plan

2.2.3 User interface planning.

User interface refers to the operability or ease of navigation within and

between different scenarios in the multimedia project. User interface can be goodif it considers the following :

Level of understanding of the target audience and their conditions.

Principle of consistency. The multimedia project should be consistent with

the use of buttons, sounds and visual effects .

TIPS ON USE OF BUTTONS

Buttons throughout the multimedia project must be smaller than

other buttons and fixed at the edge of the screen or in the

outermost frame.

Avoid putting buttons used within the multimedia project near

buttons that are only used within a screen.

If possible, make buttons into icons which would make it more

understandable at a glance.

When the button’s graphics are not clear to its function, includetool tips.



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Always add a cancel button when showing animation ormoving images especially in the opening screen.

Use checkbox when user needs to select many options at

one time.

Use a radio button when the user can only select one option

among several choices at one time.

Use of text selectively as well as Help feature if necessary.

TIPS ON THE USE OF TEXT & HELP OPTION

Limit the use of text font in the whole multimedia project.

Changing font size, formatting text (bold, italics andunderlining text) can only be done when emphasizing a

particular textual information.

Help option can be made available throughout the

multimedia project especially when the user don’t know

what, how and when to do things and when things didn’trun as expected.

2.2.4 Build prototype

Building a prototype is done to confirm whether the scenario conceivedmatches the contents of the written plan. The prototype is usually reviewed by every

member of the production team and others who has to do with the project especially

to the target clientele or users. Comments and opinions towards the prototype would be of great contribution to the final outcome of the multimedia project. Theevaluation will be significant towards its revisions and enhancements.

On the other hand, it is not necessary that the multimedia project control

structure is already completed or not, whether the graphics is precise or not and

whether the images are high quality or not but instead, whether the prototype couldenable the production staff and audience imagine how the completed multimedia will

look and run. Therefore, at this phase you need to do the following steps:

Test out design direction

Prove out new technology components

Get everyone on the same page about what the project is

See how team works together .


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Cut Here…


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Cut Here…



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Scenario Writing and Data PlanningLesson 3

Objectives


Build all documents describing the internal structure of a multimedia title.

Design screen layouts of their own.

Decide on the flow of execution of their multimedia title. Decide on dramatic effects.

Gather data for their multimedia presentation.

Prepare a still picture data list as well as rough sketch of each picture data.

Plan on video data for the multimedia title. Prepare the sound data list as well as the manuscript for speech and music.




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advanced multimedia module

Documents