topical media & game development
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A multimedia course can take a variety of forms,
dependent on the level of the students.
An outline of a possible course that might be given with the book
is presented below.
theoretical part
The theoretical part focuses around the themes of
theory
- digital convergence
- broadband communication
- multimedia information retrieval

These themes allow for paying attention to a variety of subjects,
popular trends in digital entertainment, but also standards
in development such as MPEG-4, compression and multimedia
information retrieval.
(For more background on why I developed this material,
look at the
book proposal.)
In addition to the material in the book, there
are additional lectures, that present material from
a variety of sources.
One exampleof such a lecture is a close reading of
the MPEG-4 standard proposal,
that has been modified for presentation using
the slides format.
An example schedule is presented below.
schedule
- introduction, practical assignment
- multimedia authoring -- flash/flex
- virtual environments
- digital convergence, information spaces
- codecs, MPEG-4, standards
- information retrieval
- questions
- examination

Additional material is referred to in the
various research directions
sections, as well as the
resources that are given
for each chapter.
presentation(s)
Powerpoint presentations are available for a selected number of
lectures.
In addition, each section may be presented as described in
the readme using dynamic HTML or
VRML slides.
practical assignment
As a practical assignment,
the students have to develop an
Annotated Tour of Amsterdam, as described
(in skeleton form) below.
Concluding the practical assignment
is there will be a so-called Roundup,
a public meeting where the most beautiful/funny/extreme
presentations are shown.
title
Annotated Tour in Amsterdam
duration
1-2 minutes
effort
1 or 2 week(s)
format
flash
description
Take a map of Amsterdam and select a particular route.
Make a presentation that offers information about a number
of locations on that route. The choice of locations is free.
The information given must be relevant from some chose perspective.
For example, looking at the buldings on the route you
may take an historic perspective (and skectch the development
in time) or an architectural perspective (and analyse
and compare various styles of building).
Alternatively, you may take a cultural perspective,
and show fragments of the ife and working of
living or dead artists.
The presentation must be entertaining, not to say compelling.
The user/viewer must be ableto enjoy the presentation
without being obliged to make any choice or giving directives.
phases
- determination of the concept -- that is route, perspective and (global) contents
- detailed scenario -- choice of images and other material, description of scenes and transitions
- technical realisation -- elaboration of scenes and (visual) effects
- finalproduction -- finishing touch and conversion to shockwave format
- justification -- a brief description of the presentation, and an explanation of what 'meta-information'is needed to make
you presentation accessible for search
deliverables
The groeps must maintain a web-site where
all the deliverables of the project are available for inspection:
- week 1: determination of concept -- 1 'page'
- week 3: detailed scenarion -- max 10 pages, with timeline, schetches, photo material, and a brief description per scene
- week 6: technical realisation -- keep a record of the work done
- week 8: final production -- movie in flash format
- week 8: justification -- one or two pages
procedure
The deliverables must be available in the web directory of your
account. Take care to make the site attractive and sufficiently informative.
deadlines
See your online information
guidance
For each phase there is a deliverable.
The deliverables must be approved before you may
continue with the next phase.
remarks
Learning flex and/or flash takes time.
In week 1, 2 and 3,
when you work on the concept and scenario,
you must get familiar with your tool of choice
and do experiments by realizing fragments of your
presentation and exploring the features of your tool.
SELECTED SECTIONS FROM TOPICAL MEDIA & GAME DEVELOPMENT
section(s)

A. Eliëns (10/9/07)
(C) Æliens
04/09/2009
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