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Multimedia and Ecommerce . Professor Kleist April 21, 2003. Introduction to Multimedia. Simple multimedia applications Graphic design New media Visual Culture Programming environment: Maya Programming environments: Macromedia MX platform suite
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Multimedia and Ecommerce Professor Kleist April 21, 2003
Introduction to Multimedia • Simple multimedia applications • Graphic design • New media • Visual Culture • Programming environment: Maya • Programming environments: Macromedia MX platform suite • Programming environments: .net as a player • Flash, Dreamweaver
Simple Multimedia Apps (Deitel et al., 2001) • Sound and video on the desktop • DVD platform • Performance intensive • Large files • Streaming vs. full download • BGSOUND element, IMG element’s DYNSRC property, Windows Media Player ActiveX control as simplistic approaches to adding Multimedia to HTML pages
BGSOUND <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN”> <HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>The BGSOUND Element</TITLE> <BGSOUND ID = “audio” SRC = “jazzgos.mid” LOOP = “1”></BGSOUND> Calls an audio clip called jazzgos.mid, and specifies that it should loop exactly once, and because it does not include a BALANCE and VOLUME attribute, each defaults to 0, which indicates maximum volume.
Using Windows Media Player ActiveX control • Can use a prebuilt Microsoft ActiveX control called Media Player Active X into the web page. Can use either EMBED or OBJECT that calls either a video player or audio player to play a video • Use the EMBED element to play videos because the Windows media player is embedded into web pages • <BODY> • <H1>Displaying a Video via the EMBED Element</H1> • <H2>Earth Fly By</H2> • <TABLE><TR> • <TD><EMBED SRC = “approach_1_337.mpeg” LOOP = “false”></EMBED>
Graphic Design (Helfand 2001) • Screens are our primary source of info, they are ubiquitous • Important to designers • Apply classic principles of design • New media is dynamic, interactive and screen based • Can guide visual communication • Audiences are global, fractal, constantly on the move
Cyberspace over the Long Run • Avatars, or abstract electronic form for human perception • Cyberspace as merely “new wine in old bottles” (O’Donnell, 1998) • Life of the mind, intellectual life possible in cyberspace • Cyberspace may impact geographic communities, internet as substitute, especially as new media creates space, sense of place (Dodge and Kitchin, 2001) • Landscapes of information • Three dimensional spaces mimic NYSE
New Media (Krueger, 1977, Heller, ed, 2001, Maeda, 2000) • Responsive environment • Real time interaction between man and machines • Artificial realities simulate real world • Psychic space, videoplace, new technology • Nonlinear, not chronological, interleaved, formlessness
Maya Software • From Alias Wavefront • 3D software • “inspired by the film and video artists, computer game developers and design professionals who use it daily to create engaging digital imagery, animation and visual effects.” • Used in Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, Perfect Storm • Can download software version to explore with from Maya, http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/products/maya/ple/index.shtml
Macromedia MX from Computerworld, April 30, 2002 • Family of products that interact with each other • flagship Web animation and interactivity runtime application Flash MX • Includes Dreamweaver MX for web page development, Fireworks MX, Studio MX • ColdFusion is changing “from a proprietary application server to one that works with Java 2 Enterprise Edition application servers, and makes it easier to develop Web applications and services”
Macromedia MX, cont. • Macromedia products all related, http://www.macromedia.com/software/ • Divide product line into design side, server side, information content managers and players • Contribute is web site content management software for firms, do not need to know HTML • Authorware allows the development of training tutorials and elearning tools, including measurement and student interaction
Macromedia, cont. • Director MX is used to create fixed multimedia content, and works with Flash MX • Fireworks MX fits with the Flash and Dreamweaver platforms, and gives bitmap editing support, allows the design of special graphics like buttons, images and rollovers, plus other graphics applications • All can import and export with each other, and there is a product called MX Workspace to allow tight integration
ASP • Active Server Pages create interactive server pages that are processed in response to client browser request • Uses a scripting engine, and processes components just before sending a page to the client, often processing little pieces of code called ActiveX controls • ActiveX controls have prewritten types such as adrotator, clock, session tracking, cookies, etc. • ASP resides on the server, is server side scripting, more flexible for accessing databases. • ActiveX controls allow the server to figure out types of browser, counters, rotate content, etc., and set up branching
.net • Microsoft development architecture to integrate across development tools and platforms for end to end web page development • New platform for web development that is an attempt to unify and simplify web services • Uses .net platform, but includes ASP.net, ActiveX, Forms, xml based web services • Allows developers to inherit from their own components, from other developers, from .net framework • More interchangeable • Powerful, xml productivity without xml hassles, steep learning curve, hard to know when to migrate from ASP
.net, cont. • Some firms are migrating from ASP to .net, but these can coexist, even though they have totally different processing engines • ASP worked well with VB and Jscript, .net will run more languages • New features with .net that allow working with data better, including XML to integrate to any data source like Microsoft SQL or Oracle databases • ASP is more complex to mix with Ultradev, but .net is supposed to work with Ultradev, perhaps not right away • Ultradev writes in the ASP code for you, so it is easier than .net, but .net is supposed to support Ultradev long term
Dreamweaver • Web layout tool, does HTML development in an intuitive way • Integrates well with the other Macromedia tools like Flash, Fireworks • Does clean HTML • Has a button called quick tags to show HTML elements • Part of larger Macromedia suite called Ultradev (creates ASP), Coldfusion
Flash • Macromedia application for creating interactive, animated movies • Important advancement for Multimedia • Flash movies have small size files compared to other types of multimedia • Uses a function called tweening, which takes the first and last frames of an animation, and automatically generates everything in between • Animation files are called “movies”