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Multimedia

To some it means simply video games; to others it means interactive computer games; and to still others it encompasses complete, real-time, interactive virtual reality worlds. None of these definitions is wrong. Multimedia works combine text, images (still and moving), sound (in the form of music and speech), computer software, and associated computer hardware to create something new. Examples of multimedia are: video recording, children’s books, & motion pictures. Each of these forms of multimedia requires one to use more than one sense or to use one sense a multitude of times. As the centuries have progressed other forms of multimedia have developed, music, photography, and design to name a few. Today multimedia is used for advertising, entertainment, public information, training and education.

Multimedia is the use of technology to better communicate information. This includes the use of digital video, interactive programs, Internet content, graphics, audio, 3-D animation, 2-D illustration and any other computer-delivered media.

Different Component of Multimedia:

Textual Information:- All multimedia productions contain some amount of text, and even some might contain a large amount of textual matter. The text can have various types’ fonts and type sizes to suit the professional presentation of the multimedia software. The standard software interface which is now a day provided on multimedia is the windows interface. This interface allow large amount of fonts to be stored in multimedia.

Images:- Another important and interesting component of multimedia is graphics. One of the basic facets multimedia productions is that people do not like reading large amount of textual matter on the screen. Also, it is a myth about human nature that a subject is better explained to them when represented in pictorial or graphical form, instead of textual matter i.e , graphics are used more often than text to explain a concept present background information etc.

Bitmap Images: - A bitmap images assumes an image to consist of two-dimensional squares, which are called the pixel or dots on the screen. The size and the quality of such a image depend on the pixel density and number of colors it user.

Vector Image: - Other formats for storing images vector or object oriented format. In this format, an image is formed as a set of straight or curved lines instead of dots. A line can be represented by a mathematical equation, whose number can be stored as a set of binary codes. This form of coding is potentially more economical for disk storage space. The drawback is that it requires software to produce the image that is time consuming. CAD package use this type of images.

Animation:- Animation also plays vital part in the multimedia program. An animation is just a continuous series of still images that are displayed in a sequence. There are mainly two types of animation used in multimedia, namely 2D and 3D animation. 2D Animation, also known as cel (pixel based) animation, is the most common kind of animation, where flat images are draw one frame at a time. The animation packages also involves some special effects. Morphing takes two images and seamlessly change one image to another. Warping is variation of the morphine where one images is used to show various changes that take place. It uses the key points of one image to create different effects, instead of mixing up two images.

In 3-D animation has become a common media element in film, video and multimedia packages. 3-D animations follow mainly three steps; modeling, animation and rendering. In a 2-D animation an object can move up (called Y axis) and sideways (called X axis). But in the case of a 3-D model, a third axis is used; depth or the Z-axis. Once an object is created along these three axes, colour, shading and light source can be added to the image to make it more realistic.

Digital Audio: - The most common reason for using digital audio in computer is to be able to use multimedia in its full potential. The most common requirement is to be able to input sound such as a spoken commentary on image or a document. The sound is a repeated pattern of pressure in the air and a microphone converts a sound wave into an electrical wave. The shape and frequency of the electrical wave is identical to the shape and frequency of the sound wave and the clarity of what we hear is entirely to the dependent on the shape and frequency of the sound wave.

Digital Video:- Digitized video is one of the many technologies used in the development of interactive multimedia. It is one of the ways to play back and record video in multimedia program. IT offers a wide range of flexibility as compared to standard video signal.