T Multimedia Programming Programming Lifecycle Heikkinen, Pitkänen, Setälä, Stenroos

Programming lifecycle Multimedia authoring process Stages of the process Authoring tools Authoring paradigms

Stages of the process Concept Planning Script User interface Implementation Evaluation

Stage: Concept Starts with an idea What? To whom? Why? Own idea vs. given idea Motivation – Artistic – Commercial

Stage: Planning Synopsis Structural plan Technical requirements and limitations Resource allocation and scheduling Funding and costs Distribution Contracts and rights to the product

Stage: Script Elements of the story Storyline The form and structure of the story – Linear/tree/web Degree of interaction Definition of events or scenes

Stage: User interface Interaction design Usability – Usage environment – Consistency within the story – Logic of use Part of the content – UI supports the atmosphere

Stage: Implementation Stepwise production plan Producing the framework – Programming – Authoring tools Producing media content Integrating content to the framework Testing

Producing media content Using existing material – Finding what is needed – Copyrights – Editing the material for this production Creating own material – Own production – Subcontractor

Stage: Evaluation Feedback - how the audience reacts? Customer support Bugfixes and patches Potential for a sequel? Commercial exploitation

Authoring tools (1/2) Graphics – Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, GIMP Video – Final Cut Pro, Edius, Vegas Video, Premiere Pro Audio – Cubase, Protools, Audition

Authoring tools (2/2) Compositing – After Effects,.werkkzeug1 Presentation authoring – Director, Flash, Encore Programming – Flash, GoLive, LimSee2

Authoring Paradigms Structure-Based Paradigm Time-Based Paradigm Graph-Based Paradigm Script-Based Paradigm

Structure-Based Paradigm (1/3) A structured hierarchy (tree) of elements Combining elements as intermediate nodes Content items as leaf nodes Example combining nodes: parallel, sequence, choice Mostly used in experimental software

Structure-Based Paradigm (2/3)

Structure-Based Paradigm (3/3) Can be viewed at different levels Allows interactive products and different timing models Different layout models can be supported Spearate structure must be created even for straightforward products Not straightforward to learn

Time-Based Paradigm (1/3) Based on a single timeline Multiple tracks Generally one element per track Possibly special tracks for effects Most commonly used in video and animation software

Time-Based Paradigm (2/3)

Time-Based Paradigm (3/3) Easy to learn for simple linear work Allows precise timing Links can be created with scripting, but not shown on the timeline No intuitive way to present user interaction and non-linear events

Graph-Based Paradigm (1/3) Based on a flowchart or directed graph Contains objects and transitions Can contain flow control objects such as selection points Used in some presentation authoring software

Graph-Based Paradigm (2/3)

Graph-Based Paradigm (3/3) Powerful for editing non-temporal events and user interaction such as multiple choices No way to show a temporal (timeline) view during editing Hard to incorporate screen layout intuitively

Script-Based Paradigm (1/3) Direct editing via a scripting language Can also be a general purpose programming language Several languages can be edited directly in this way

Script-Based Paradigm (2/3)

Script-Based Paradigm (3/3) Provides complete control Hard to learn Easy to make mistakes No intuitive editing view

Conclusion Multimedia production is a process ”No silver bullet” Different authoring paradigms for different productions

References Bulterman, D. C. and Hardman, L Structured multimedia authoring. ACM Trans. Multimedia Comput. Commun. Appl. 1, 1 (Feb. 2005), Hardman, L Modelling and authoring hypermedia documents. Ph.D. dissertation. Univ. Amsterdam. ISBN: (Available at Keränen, V. et al. Digitaalinen media. Docendo, ISBN: Vazirgiannis, M. Interactive multimedia documents : modeling, authoring, and implementation experiences Lecture notes in computer science Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin, ISBN: