XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter 15 1 Creating Desktop Video and Animation

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter 15 2 Creating Desktop Video and Animation In this Chapter, you will learn: –How to equip your PC to play video –How to create your own desktop video –How to edit a digital video –What compression affects desktop video quality –How to create and play animation –How to change display settings –About PC display devices

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter 15 3 Equipping your PC to play video You can play a DVD in a DVD drive. You can watch TV, cable TV or a video tape using a TV tuner card which converts the signal. Desktop videos need a software player that works with the video file format. Formats include.mpg,.avi and.mov. Streaming video technology allow watching videos while they are downloading.

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter 15 4 Equipping your PC to play video Windows Media Player

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter 15 5 Creating desktop videos You can use desktop video techniques to create a video scrapbook, a desktop sales video or a video greeting card. You can create video footage from nondigital sources using a video capture device. Video capture devices digitize video tape by converting periodic images into bitmap graphics. You may need to add a video capture card to your computer to be able to do this conversion.

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter 15 6 Creating desktop videos Video capture software which comes with the device allows you to control how the video is digitized. You can select display size, capture rate, length and file format. Digital camera files can be transferred directly to your PC with a 1394 communications link. You will want to use small segments that you can edit before combining into larger videos.

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter 15 7 Creating desktop videos A digital camera transferring data to the PC

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter 15 8 Editing digital video Video editing software allows: –Cutting out frames –Adding titles –Adding special effects –Resequencing segments –Overlaying soundtracks –Adding transitions between segments

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter 15 9 Editing digital video To edit a video: –Import the files containing the audio and video clips –Drag the clips onto a timeline in the sequence you wish them to appear –Decide on and insert transition effects so that the clips blend into each other –Add titles and special effects –Preview it, select a file format and compression and save the finished video

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Editing digital video Using video editing software

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter The affect of compression on desktop video quality Every frame of a digitized video is a full-screen true color graphic and would require about 900 KB of storage. At 30 frames/ second that amounts to 27MB for each second of video. Since these sizes cannot currently be managed properly with today’s technology, compression is needed.

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter The affect of compression on desktop video quality Video data can be managed by: –Shrinking the video to 1/4 or 1/8 screen size –Reducing the number of frames per second –Using a compression technique Compression techniques store only the data that changes from one frame to the next. You will have to balance quality and file size when you create your video.

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Creating and playing an animation Computer animation works like a “flip book” with a series of frames showing a scene in motion. Animation file formats such as FLC save this series of frames in one file which can be played to show the animation. Web page animation uses an animated GIF format. These GIF formatted animation files are small and transfer relatively easily.

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Creating and playing an animation Creating an animated GIF file Each frame of an animation is created and stored individually The software allows you to specify order and timing of each individual image to form the animation

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Hardware – PC Display devices A PC display device is used to: –Display what you typed –Show you your Windows desktop and the icons you selected to display –View windows, dialog boxes and messages –View graphics and videos What you see is created by a series of picture elements or pixels

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Hardware – PC Display devices The most common PC display device is called a CRT monitor. Factors affecting the quality and price of your monitor are: –Screen size, usually from 14 to 17 inches –Viewable image size (vis measurement) –Dot pitch – the distance between the pixels - usually between.28 and.24 dot pitch –Resolution – the size of the pixel grid

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Hardware – PC Display devices Most notebook computers use an LCD panel, which manipulates light as it passes through liquid crystal cells and color filters. LCD monitors or flat panel display devices are now available for PCs. LCD monitors use less power than CRT devices.

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Hardware – PC Display devices A new flat panel display

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Hardware – PC Display devices Monitors connect to the PC through a video port into a graphics card that converts data between the processor and the display device. Graphics cards are also called video cards or display adapters. Better quality graphics cards are available that give you better animation or viewing (for games or video editing).

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Hardware – PC Display devices Graphics cards contain memory chips where an image is assembled before sending to the display device. The resolution and color depth on your PC is controlled by the amount of memory available in the graphics card memory chip. Some graphics cards also include graphics accelerator technology to speed up higher graphic operations.

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Hardware – PC Display devices Comparison of graphics memory cards

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Changing display settings Changing the display properties of your monitor Setting tab holds main controls To quickly access display settings, right-click the desktop, click Properties. Resolutions and color quality can be adjusted Other tabs to adjust appearance or monitor’s energy setting, etc.

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter What do you think? Idoru 1.Have you seen deceased celebrities featured in any new TV ads or films? 2.Do you think that multimedia developers should have the right to create a digital character by digitizing a celebrity look-alike? 3.Should laws prohibit the creation of digital characters based on the composite traits of several deceased celebrities?

XP Practical PC, 3e Chapter Chapter Summary You should now be able to: –Equip your PC to play video –Know how to create your own desktop video –Edit a digital video –Balance compression and size when creating a desktop video using compression –Create and play an animation –Change your display settings –About the basic types of PC display devices