Multimedia Authoring

Week 1: Getting started

Introduction to multimedia authoring and getting started with Flex/actionscript

• What is multimedia authoring?
• Course: planning, register team, lab assignments, grading
• Program: Why Flex?, resources, getting in shape (interactive logo)

Assignment I: interactive logo (example from MMA 2010)

Week 2: Working with data

How do you include data from external sources in your Flex/actionscript application?

• The Web as a global information space
• results of assignment I
• Program: programming patterns, local and external data sources, data manipulation

Assignment II: Amsterdam museum image viewer

Week 3: Advancing Flex/actionscript skills

Styling your application

• CSS stylesheets: separate style from presentation (example, src)
• Flex skins: separate behavior from presentation (example)
• states (example)

Structuring your program

• data binding and item renderers (example)
• components (example)

Video

• VideoDisplay (custom player)
• VideoPlayer

Advanced Interaction

• drag and drop (example, src)
• drawing on the screen (simple, fancy, artistic)
• camera (game with gesture control)

Animation (game crayon physics)

• effects (example, src)
• advanced effects (example)

Assignment III: presentation wizard

Week 4: Multimedia in Practice

• Multimedia for Museums
• results of assignment III

Final project

• Logistics
• Brainstorming
• Student pitches (1min)

Week 5

Flex games in practice

• Guest lecture, Dieuwertje Schuur (slides and videos are available)

Student concept presentations

• Each team presents the idea for the final project, max 3 minutes. Explain the target audience, the location, and the goal of the application. Also briefly outline your approach and discuss your current progress.
• Each student evaluates two other teams. Read the suggestions on how the evaluate.

Week 6

Reflecting on the use of multimedia: entertainment vs. information closure

• Amsterdam museum visit
• Rich information spaces in games
• Gamification

Progress report

• Each team reports their progress on the final project. We expect you in room U-342 according to the time schedule. When you can not make it at the scheduled time, please contact another team to switch slots and inform us.

Week 7

Demo session

• The demonstration session is on Tuesday in the Intertain Lab (W&N building).
• The teams demonstrate their application in parallel (please demonstrate the application using your own laptop).
• Each student evaluates two other projects.

Week 8

Hand in essay and final version of website