Making Multimedia & Multimedia Skills Introduction to Making Multimedia Guidance and suggestions for getting started Multimedia Skills What skills required

Introduction to Making Multimedia The stages of a project: Planning and costing Idea/objectives Multimedia expertise required Structure & navigation system Time & cost estimation Designing & producing Testing Delivering

Introduction to Making Multimedia What we need? Hardware Software Good ideas Talent Skill Good organization of works

Introduction to Making Multimedia Hardware 2 most significance platforms: Macintosh OS Intel-based IBM PC or PC Clone (MS Windows) Development environment Powerful workstation (Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, or mainframe) Apple (Macintosh OS) more suitable for multimedia editing Cross platform format (both Mac & Windows)

Introduction to Making Multimedia Software: Multimedia software tells the hardware what to do Text, images, sounds, and video. Capturing images, translating between file formats, and editing your resources Photoshop, soundForge, Premiere, GIF Animator, etc. Multimedia authoring Macromedia Director or flash Everybody can make multimedia project!!

Introduction to Making Multimedia Creativity: Develop a sense of its scope and content Difficult to learn creativity “but like classical artists who work in paint, marble, or bronze, the better you know your medium, the better able you are to express your creativity” Know your hardware & software first!!

Introduction to Making Multimedia Organization Develop an organized outline a a plan that rationally details the skills, time, budget, tools, and resources we will need for a project

Multimedia Skills Multimedia developers come from all corners of the computer, art, literacy, film, and audio worlds To produce good multimedia, need detailed knowledge of computers, text, graphics arts, sound, and video Normally multimedia project – team effort.

Multimedia Skills – The Team Multimedia Team (Prof. Wes Baker – Cedarville University, Ohio): Executive Producer Producer/Project Manager Creative Director/Multimedia Designer Art Director/Visual Designer Artist Interface Designer Game Designer Subject Matter Expert Instructional Designer/Training Specialist Script Writer Animator (2D/3D) Sound Producer Music Composer Video Producer Multimedia Programmer HTML Coder Lawyer/Media Acquisition Marketing Director

Multimedia Skills – The Team Project Manager Center of action Responsible for overall development and implementation of a project as well as day-to-day operations Budgets Schedules Creative sessions Time sheets Illness Invoices Team dynamics Technical & operational expert

Multimedia Skills – The Team Multimedia Designer Designing the look & feel of a multimedia project Screen color, visual consistency, meaningful icons, simple screen elements, content layout, content structure Graphics Designer, illustrators, animators, and image processing specialist – visual Instructional Designer – navigation pathways and content maps Information Designer – structure content, determine user pathways and feedback, and select presentation media

Multimedia Skills – The Team Interface Designer Interface provides control to the people who use it Backgrounds, icons, control panels – result of am interface designer

Multimedia Skills – The Team Writer Create character, action, and point of view – create creativity Write proposals, script voice-over and actors’ narrations, write text screens to deliver messages, and develop characters designed for an interactive environment Glean information from content experts, synthesize it, and then communicate it in a clear and concise manner

Multimedia Skills – The Team Video Specialist Videographers, sound technician, lighting designers, set designers, script supervisors, grips, production assistants, and actors. Skilled in managing all phases of production, from concept to final edit

Multimedia Skills – The Team Audio Specialist Wizards who make a multimedia program come alive, designing and producing music, voice-over narrations, and sound effects. Selecting suitable music and talent, scheduling recording sessions, and digitizing and editing recorded material into computer files

Multimedia Skills – The Team Multimedia Programmer Software engineer Integrates all the multimedia elements of a project into a seamless whole using authoring system or programming language JavaScript, OpenScript, Lingo, Authorware, Java, C++, etc.

Multimedia Skills – The Team Producer, Multimedia for the Web Network Engineer Putting together a coordinated set of pages for the World Wide Web Creative process, skillsets Website never finished, remain dynamics Most of the time maintaining the multimedia program for easily access by user

Planning & Costing Project Planning Costing The process of Making Multimedia Idea Analysis Pretesting Prototype Development Alpha Development Beta Development Delivery Hardware Available Skills and Software Idea Management Software Building a Team Pilot Projects and Prototyping Task Planning Scheduling Costing Billing rates Example Cost Sheets

Project Planning: The Process of Making Multimedia

Project Planning: The Process of Making Multimedia Idea Analysis Ideas = purpose or goal against the feasibility and cost of production and delivery Use note paper What is the essence of what you want to do? What is your purpose and message How can you organize your project? What multimedia element will best deliver your message? Content material? Creating something new or improvise old version? Hardware? Enough? Storage needed? How much? Hardware available for your end user? Multimedia software available? Capabilities & skills – hardware & software Team or individual? Time? Money? How to distribute the final project? Who, what, why, where, when & how? Audience analysis: Who is it for? Needs analysis: Why develop it? Content analysis: What will it cover? Resource analysis: How and how much? Estimate: When will it get done? Think about marketing and distribution.

Project Planning: The Process of Making Multimedia Pretesting Define project goals in greater detail Skills required Content Costing (money & time) How to sell it Prototype on paper with an explanation of how it will work

Project Planning: The Process of Making Multimedia Prototype Development Develop working prototype Building screen mock-ups, human interface menu & button Select a small portion of a large project & get that part working as it would in the final product Test your prototype along several fronts: Cost Market Human Interface Purpose: test the initial implementation of your idea and improve on it based upon test results.

Project Planning: The Process of Making Multimedia Alpha Development Detail the storyboard – bring in end user for gathered information Graphic art Sound and video production Test on working prototype

Project Planning: The Process of Making Multimedia Beta Development Too late to bail out Committed serious money, time and energy Wider tester Concern should be simply successfully steering the project to its well-defined goal.

Project Planning: The Process of Making Multimedia Delivery Worries toward the marketplace How will your project be received by its intended audience? Issues: Hotline, after sales maintenance, server co-location,

Project Planning: Hardware Most common limiting factor for realizing a multimedia idea: no sound board; no sound effects; no synthesizer; no MIDI composer by you on-site; no high-resolution color display; no modem or network; no network Listing the hardware capabilities of the end users’ computer platform If the capabilities are not enough, discuss with end user (examine the cost)

Project Planning: Available Skills and Software Make a list of skills & software capabilities available Budget for new and more powerful software and for the learning curve required

Project Planning: Idea Management Software SiteSpring, Microsoft Project, Designer’s Edge, Screenplay System’s Screenwriter and Story View ~ useful for arranging ideas and tasks, work items, employee resources, and cost required for multimedia project To help you stay within tight schedule and budget Project Management Software provides Critical Path Method (CPM) scheduling functions to calculate the total duration of a project based upon each identified task, earmarking task that are critical and that, if lengthened, will result a delay in project completion Used of Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT), Gantt Chart

Project Planning: Building a Team Multimedia requires a set of skills so broad Need a team, know what expertise required for a project Building a matrix chart of required skills is helpful

Project Planning: Pilot Projects and Prototyping Pilot project phase Test ideas, mock up interfaces, exercise the hardware platform Determine the actual cost of the project

Project Planning: Task Planning Brief checklist of action item for which we should plan ahead: Design Instructional Framework Hold Creative Idea Session Determine Delivery Platform Assay Available Content Draw navigation Map Create Storyboard Design Interface Design Information Containers Research/Gather Content Assemble Team Build Prototype Conduct User Test Revise Design Create Graphics Create Animations Produce Audio Produce Video Digitize Audio and Video Take Still Photographs Program and Author Test Functionality Fix Bugs Conduct Beta Test Create Golden Master Replicate Prepare Package Deliver or Install at Web Site Award Bonuses Throw Party

Project Planning: Scheduling Timeline Estimate total time required for each task and then allocate this time among the number of persons will be asynchronously working on the project Scheduling difficult for multimedia: Making multimedia is artistic trial and error Technological upgrade during development Client feedback

Costing Production and manufacturing industries – simple matter to estimate cost and effort Multimedia is not a repetitive manufacturing process Multimedia development is a continuous research and development effort characterized by creative trial and error Production cost (30-second commercial spot storyboard costs about RM50K) Storyboard production Postproduction editing Actor (per hour) Composer (audio production) Animator (graphical production) Administration and management cost Three elements in project estimates: Time Money People

Costing: Billing Rates Set according cost of doing business plus a reasonable profit margin Contractor and consultant can bring specialized skills such as graphic art. Programming, database expertise, music composition. Make sure your billing rate is higher than theirs

Costing: Example Cost Sheets

Proposal Executive summary, briefly describing the project;s goal, how the goal will be achieved and the cost Creative issues, technical issues, project estimation and project plan, cost estimation for each phase, contract terms.

Assignment 1: Proposal Dateline: Week 4 (4th August 2006) The cover page Table of contents Need Analysis and Description Target audience Creative strategy A description of the look and feel of the project Project implementation Gantt Chart/PERT, task scheduling Budget Relate directly to the scope of work in Project implementation Limitations of the proposal (if any)