multimedia-capable. Either you jump into the future, or you climb down and fight your way into the past.
Really, the only question is
how
you are goi
ng to jump. We're going to make your landing softer by describing the top multimedia-development tools, from simple to super, and some of the financial pitfalls you should watch out for.
From Presentation to Authoring
There are different tools for the different types of multimedia development (see the table
"The Right Tool for the Job"
). Simple, easy-to-learn tools include presentation-graphics programs, such as Adobe's Persuasion, Lotus's Freelance, Microsoft's PowerPoint, Gold Disk's Astound, and Asymetrix's Compel.
Such programs let you incorporate audio tracks and video clips into each frame of a presentation. When a frame displaying the company's logo appears, for example, the appropriate music plays simultaneously in the background.
The nice thing about these programs is that they are fairly easy to use. Typically, they include built-in audio and video players. And they include animation features so you can control when and where on the sc
reen text or images appear.
The downside is that these types of programs are limited when it comes to the type of multimedia presentations they help you assemble. Basically, you can embed an object, such as an audio or video clip, within a single presentation frame, or you can give the appearance of animation by looping frames one after another. You can have an item in a frame--such as a bar in a graph that represents sales data--grow or shrink by playing successive frames with different-size bars.
Slightly more sophisticated are tools such as Stirling Technologies' DemoShield and HSC Software's InterActive. Like a presentation tool, they don't use a scripting language. Instead, they enable you to achieve much the same effect using menus, buttons, and dialog boxes. The advantage is that you don't have to learn a scripting language. The disadvantage is that the interface to achieve some effects can be obtuse, with references buried under several layers of menus or dialog boxes.
To develop
truer animation and interactive presentations, you have to work with more powerful multimedia development tools. The most common higher-end programs include Macromedia's two products, Authorware and Director, and Allen Communication's Quest.
The general
approach to constructing multimedia programs
using these tools involves dragging content icons from a palette onto a
flowline
(see
"Minimal Assembly Required"
). The flowline is basically a timeline of events in your presentation. It determines the sequence in which different events will happen and includes such things as branching and loopbacks. The icons are objects for text, graphics, sound, and video.
You run the sequence to see if the presentation is working as you planned. You can put empty icons in place when developing the application, which enables you to develop a presentation before all the elements are available. For instance, you may be creating an interactive training program but ha
ve not yet filmed all the scenarios. Once you've finished developing the presentation, you generate a run-time version that is a stand-alone program for end-users.
That's the general method. Each of these higher-level tools takes its own approach to actually creating an application.
Macromedia's Authorware is probably the best-known of these tools. Macromedia originally designed it for creating interactive training and educational programs. The software uses an icon-based design approach that reduces the amount of manual scripting you need to do. The icons link to Authorware flowlines that show how the information moves and how different elements relate to one another.
By dragging different kinds of icons on to the flowline, you can arrange the various pieces of the presentation. You then customize what the icons do by clicking on them and changing their properties. For example, an icon that represents a picture will need the name of the picture file to display. One that plays music needs
to know the name of the sound file, along with characteristics such as the speed at which you want the music to play and whether it should run once or continuously. The latest version, Authorware Professional 3.0, has a new framework icon that serves as a template, so you can specify that particular elements appear on every frame.
Asymetrix Multimedia Toolbook's approach is slightly different, relying instead on a book metaphor, where each page represents a slide in the finished product. On to each page you can drop the various objects that make up your presentation. Like Authorware, Multimedia Toolbook provides ways for you to include synchronized music, sound effects, and video. But unlike Authorware, Multimedia Toolbook has a simple programming language. To program in Authorware, you use specialized programming icons that you add to the timeline. Both packages offer a series of adjunct tools for modifying and otherwise refining the various source elements that go into your multimedia presentation.
Allen Communication's Quest Multimedia Authoring System has a slightly different user interface. Like Authorware, it uses a timeline with content icons, but it also provides wizards that prompt you through the design process. An add-on product, Designer's Edge, helps developers who are new to multimedia authoring. Designer's Edge includes a set of wizards and built-in expert advice. Users we spoke with said they've found the Allen software particularly good for developing instructional programs.
Let's stop to consider some authoring tools of a different type. Visual Basic and V-Graph's O-Zone are examples of development environments that enable you to design content with OLE or OpenDoc and multimedia extensions. In other words, component-based multimedia development. With this kind of environment, you'll typically have a separate module for each multimedia function (i.e., video playback and audio playback will be separate modules, like OCXes) and you set the properties of these modules for each
multimedia object (e.g., video or audio clip). The advantage to this kind of development, especially with a general-purpose tool, is versatility: You aren't limited to developing just multimedia applications.
The capability to program--no matter how you do it--is an essential element of multimedia tools and differentiates them from simpler business presentation packages such as Microsoft PowerPoint. Programmability is also the key to computer-based training (CBT) applications, which often must deliver not only course material but testing material, too. Powerful LAN-based CBT applications can present and grade tests right away, giving the user immediate feedback. They can also package the results and send them to a test administrator straightaway. What's more, administrators can monitor how far a student has progressed through the course material.
The Future of Multimedia
Most people in the multimedia business agree with World Tutor Group's Robert Blalock (see the sidebar
"CBT Experience"
) that the multimedia industry still has a big future. With increasing acceptance and demand, and better and faster computers, the tools for delivering high-quality multimedia presentations will improve, too.
One area that will change is the way multimedia is distributed. The Internet will be an explosive distribution tool for multimedia presentations, agrees Kevin Ellis, product marketing associate for Macromedia Director. With Director and an add-on tool called Shockwave for Director, Ellis explains, developers can create multimedia objects that you can view on a World Wide Web page. Unlike the traditional multimedia distribution medium, CD-ROM, Web pages are far easier to customize and update.
Some progressive companies have already adopted multimedia strategies for advertising and attracting new customers. Multimedia catalogs of clothing and cars, for example, are already available. On-line and CD-ROM-based magazines are out there, too.
Blalock says he expects th
e typical CBT program of the future will be smarter, evolving into an electronic performance support system (EPSS). An EPSS carries the utility of training software to new heights by tightly integrating with the application it is teaching you to use. With a well-designed EPSS, just about anyone should be able to sit down at an airline reservation terminal, for example, and step through the process of booking a flight. As your expertise grows, the system grows with you, watching how you work and suggesting ways to do things more efficiently. When the learning load is light, the user can start training on new materials or reviewing his job skills.
With the continued growth in the multimedia market, it's a good time to learn what it will take for you to add multimedia to what you do. Look into the software, know the costs, think about a strategic partner for your first big venture, and then get ready to make a big virtual splash.
PRODUCT INFORMATIO
N
Adobe Persuasion for Windows............$495 per user
.......................................$3160 10-user
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Mountain View, CA
Phone: (800) 833-6687 or (415) 961-4400
Fax: (415) 961-3769
Circle 1151 on Inquiry Card.
Astound! for Windows....................$250
Gold Disk, Inc.
Santa Clara, CA
Phone: (800) 982-9888 or (408) 982-0200
Fax: (408) 982-0298
Circle 1154 on Inquiry Card.
Authorware Professional for Windows....$4995
Macromedia, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
Phone: (800) 945-4061 or (415) 252-2000
Fax: (415) 626-0554
Internet:
http://www.macromedia.com
Circle 1149 on Inquiry Card.
Learn the Lingo
