20th Entry

This week’s lecture was about using video. It also marked the last lecture we had to blog about, woohoo!

We started off once again by looking at the multimedia palette to show the different types of multimedia could be used along side video in multimedia applications. It was nice to note video was the only one left that we hadn’t done.

Video can often be the best way of conveying information, although the production costs can often be quite expensive since you often use sound within video as well. The cost however can be reduced if you opt to licence a video rather than go out and create it yourself.

We looked at ways video could be edited, which can be achieved using techniques similar to sound editing. This includes being able to, trim the video, add scenes, delete scenes, create a splash page and add effects to both the video and the transactions between scenes.

The tutorial this week was to create our own splash screens similar to the ones we need to create for our website for our coursework. While it was good to refresh ourselves with Flash again, I think the most beneficial part of the tutorial was the handout itself containing the requirements for the splash page allowing us to come up with ideas for our splash page that meet all those requirements. Its something I’ll definitely be looking over for the coursework.

So this entry marks the end of our blogs, I can’t really say I’m sad to see it go. It has been a lot of work for just one piece of coursework, considering the total number of words in my blog entries is 12,430, although admittedly I’ve always gone over 300 words. I would have much preferred to do an essay instead and get it all out of the way in one go. The ability to give feedback has been nice though. One good thing is that this blog has inspired me to learn how to touch type. It’s actually quite easy to learn, I’ve only been learning it for 4 or 5 days and I’m almost typing at the same speed as I would using the two fingered approach.

For my independent reading this week I’ve got a video regarding using video as a form of multimedia on the web and a tutorial on how to make a splash screen in Flash.

1. Video on the web

http://webstyleguide.com/multimedia/video.html

Last accessed: 18/03/08

2. Splash screen tutorial

http://www.unleash.com/davidk/flash/flash01.html

Last accessed: 18/03/08

19th Entry

This week’s lecture continued from last weeks lecture about audio.

We started by revising the multimedia palette, quite an important idea to see what we can do with multimedia and the options available to us.

We then looked at the shape and dynamics of a sound wave. The frequency relates to the wavelength. If the length of the wave is short, the frequency will be high and if it’s long it will be low. The amplitude is the height of the sound wave. This can often be related to the volume. The peak is the sound waves highest point and the trough is it’s lowest point.

We also looked at the transition from analogue to digital audio. Digital audio can provide many editing benefits such as trimming, cut and paste, format conversion and re-sampling.

This week’s tutorial focused on video editing in the program Adobe Premiere.

The task was to look at some of the tutorials already contained within the program itself. Editing video is contains much of the same concepts of editing sound. We were able to trim the video, add scenes, delete scenes, create a splash page and add effects to both the video and the transactions between scenes. Although we didn’t cover it in the tutorial, we also had the opportunity to edit the sound played alongside the video. You can also edit where the scenes and the audio happens by adjusting it on a timeline.

The lecture was reasonably interesting, even though it did just stick to audio. It would be nice to go into some of the more advanced topics of multimedia instead of learning the basics to death. I mean we really didn’t need all the lectures we had on text to understand what it does. The tutorial was good though since it was my first time using video editing software. You can really see the similarities between Premiere and Flash, I guess that’s because they both deal with animation. Not quite sure what animations I’m going to do for the coursework yet though.

For my independent reading this week I’ve got an article about video editing and a link to some Adobe Premiere tutorials.

1. Video editing article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_editing

Last accessed: 12/03/08

2. Adobe Premiere tutorials

http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Premiere/1

Last accessed: 12/03/08

18th Entry

This week’s lecture was audio and how it relates with multimedia.

We started out by looking at the multimedia palette which consists of different types of multimedia such as text, images, audio and animation. We can use these different types of multimedia both on their own or together. For example, audio can be used on it’s own but can also be supplemented by animation to provide a greater experience.

Some things can be expressed more effectively in audio as opposed to text or images. Audio can be used for message reinforcing, mood reinforcing, background sound, voiceovers and alerts.

Sound files can be acquired for free over the internet or may be bought with a licence. Alternatively you may create the audio yourself although the production costs may be quite high in comparison, but it will allow you to acquire exactly what you want.

Just like with images and animation, you may need to edit the audio to achieve the desired result. This can be done using a variety of programs such as the freeware open source program Audacity.

In this weeks tutorial we edited some sound files using the free open source program called Audacity.

First we cut out any unwanted sound, such as the silence at the beginning and end of the sound file that unnecessarily increases the file size.

Next we edited the sound wave to remove any unwanted scratches. These can be heard by just listening to the file but can also be seen as big spikes that appear when you zoom in to the sound wave. These can be softened by removing the spike by zooming in close to the sound wave and reducing its height.

We also split the audio in two by creating a separate track containing different audio and playing it alongside the existing audio. This new track can be played anywhere within the sound file to create the desired effect.

Finally we experimented with different effects such as echo or amplify. Some of the effects are quite complex but you can figure out how to use some of them in time!

It’s really nice to move on from text and go onto something different, I think we were all bored of text by now! Hopefully we won’t go so meticulously into the basics of audio like we did with text, although thankfully it doesn’t seem to be going that way (yet). I liked the idea of the multimedia pallet containing different things we can use to create the desired effect though multimedia. It’s nice to think that your multimedia pallet is being built upon each week allowing us to do more things with multimedia development. I used to use the sound editor Cool Edit while I was younger but haven’t used it since so it’s nice to have a refresher course with audacity.

For my independent reading this week I’ve got a Wikipedia article on sound editing and an article about audio in multimedia

1. Wikipedia article on sound editing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_editor

Last accessed: 03/03/08

2. Article on audio in multimedia

http://www.jimthatcher.com/webcourse6.htm

Last accessed: 03/03/0