PDF

multimedia course(s)

material(s)


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


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

  1. introduction, practical assignment
  2. multimedia authoring -- flash/flex
  3. virtual environments
  4. digital convergence, information spaces
  5. codecs, MPEG-4, standards
  6. information retrieval
  7. questions
  8. 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.

roundup

Concluding the practical assignment is there will be a so-called Roundup, a public meeting where the most beautiful/funny/extreme presentations are shown.

assignment

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

  1. determination of the concept -- that is route, perspective and (global) contents
  2. detailed scenario -- choice of images and other material, description of scenes and transitions
  3. technical realisation -- elaboration of scenes and (visual) effects
  4. finalproduction -- finishing touch and conversion to shockwave format
  5. 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:

  1. week 1: determination of concept -- 1 'page'
  2. week 3: detailed scenarion -- max 10 pages, with timeline, schetches, photo material, and a brief description per scene
  3. week 6: technical realisation -- keep a record of the work done
  4. week 8: final production -- movie in flash format
  5. 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)