3.01 Key Terms and Definitions

Key Terms Definitions

Persistence of Vision The way our eyes retain images for a split second longer than they actually appear, making a series of quick flashes appear as one continuous picture.

Frame-by-Frame Animation A series of many frames that appears to be in continuous motion.

Vector Animation The movement of animations defined by formulas.

Effects of computer animations

3d Graphics The field of computer graphics concerned with generating and displaying three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional space (e.g., the display screen). Whereas pixels in a 2-dimensional graphic have the properties of position, color, and brightness, a 3-D pixel adds a depth property that indicates where the point lies on an imaginary Z-axis. When many 3-D pixels are combined, each with its own depth value, the result is a three-dimensional surface, called a texture.

Rollovers The look or action of a control with relation to mouse actions. The four common rollover states are Up, Over, Down, and Hit.

Morphing A technique in which one image is gradually turned into another, which is short for metamorphosing.

Multimedia program parts for title development and movement

Stage The part of the animation program window where the animator’s content is composed and manipulated.

Frame A single still image in a video animation.

Keyframe An intermediate frame in an animation sequence that blends so one frame appears to change into the next.

Timeline The part of the animation program window that organizes and controls an animation’s content over time using layers and frames.

Library Store frequently used graphics, movie clips, and buttons.

Playhead The vertical red marker in the timeline that shows which frame is the current frame.

Scrub Dragging the playhead across the timeline.

Tween(ing) An animation process that uses keyframes between two images

Compression The process of reducing the space required to store data be efficiently encoding the content.

Sound and video distribution formats

MP3 A standard format for music files sent over the Internet that compresses music.

WAV The standard format for sound files on Windows PCs.

Executable A program file that can run on your computer.

Plug-in A hardware or software application that adds a specific feature to a computer.

QuickTime A cross-platform multimedia format that works on both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh systems.

Stand Alone Player A separate program that can play an animation.

Factors that influence distribution of multimedia

Bandwidth The amount of data that can be transmitted over a network in a given amount of time.

Streaming A procedure for transmitting media files so they can start playing as soon as a PC begins receiving them, rather than waiting for the complete files to download first.

Streaming Rate The rate in frames per second at which the movie can be downloaded.

Playback rate The rate in frames per second at which the movie plays.

3.02 Multimedia Terms and Definitions

Multimedia — a computer based, interactive experience that incorporates text, graphics, sound, video, and virtual reality.

Multimedia titles — specific products, including CD-ROM/DVD-based games like “Flight Simulator” and educational titles like such as “Grandma and Me.”

Copyright — is legal protection that grants rights to its owners.

Fair Use — is material that can be used without infringing on a copyright.

Multimedia elements

Animated pictures — “hot spots” or “jumps” to locate another file or page; represented by a graphic or colored and underlined text.

Hyperlinks— allow the end user to navigate between slides, additional elements (i.e. Word and Excel documents), audio, video clips, and other interactive parts of the presentation.

Navigation buttons or controls — how the user interfaces with a multimedia presentation on an electronic presentation or a web site.

Designs

Asymmetrical balance — distribution achieved by arranging non-identical elements on both sides of a centerline on the screen.

Balance —is the distribution of optical weight in the layout of an image.

Build Effect — an effect applied to text that makes it appear on a slide in increments of one letter, word or section at a time; keeps the audience’s attention and does not allow the audience to read or see past what the speaker is explaining.

Interactivity —is the ability of the user to interact with an application.

Inter-screen unity —is the design that users encounter as they navigate from one screen to another; provides consistency throughout a title.

Intra-screen unity — is how the various screens elements relate on the same screen.

Linear presentations — author of the presentation controls the flow of information in the application.

No balance — a design that has elements arranged on the screen without regard to the weight on both sides of the centerline.

Non-linear presentation — allows the user to interact with a presentation and control how the information will be viewed; allows the user to be active rather than passive during the delivery of the information.

Optical center — a point somewhat above the physical center of the screen.

Optical weight — the ability of an element such as a graphic, text, headline, or subheading to attract the user’s eye.

Rollover — function performed as the mouse pointer rolls over and points to an object.

Sequential navigational scheme — takes the user through a controlled, linear process.

Symmetrical balance - distribution achieved by arranging elements as horizontal or vertical mirrored images on both sides of the center line of a screen.

Treatment — how a presentation will be offered to the user; that is, the look and feel of the presentation.

Software

Authoring programs — programs used to create full, multimedia productions, such as simulations and tutorials; most have some point-and-click features, but require some knowledge of programming language concepts; i.e., Microsoft Visual Basic, Macromedia Director.

Director Shockwave Studio — is a compressive authoring package that allows developers to create multimedia applications.

HyperCard — one of the first multimedia authoring programs to use the card metaphor

Icon-based program — a multimedia authoring program that uses a flowchart scheme to represent content or a particular event.

Macromedia Director — time-based authoring program that uses a movie metaphor.

Macromedia Flash — an animation program for developing 2-D animations delivered on the Web.

OpenScript — is a scripting language for Toolbook.

Players — are programs that allow users to run multimedia applications on their computers

Programming languages — languages used to create applications and, in multimedia, to produce sophisticated features such as creating animations and searching databases

Script — is program code for a specific task such as a rollover.

Scripting Languages — programming languages used to create scripts.

Shockwave — program that allows an Internet user to play applications created with Macromedia Director.

SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) — a program created to enable developers to specify what should be presented, when it should be presented, and to control the use of transitions within a presentation.

Toolbook — an authoring program based on a book metaphor.