Module 8. Key concepts in Authoring and Programming Multimedia

The software programs you do use to create digital media materials are called authoring software. Each type of authoring software can create specific types of multimedia materials. For example, if you were designing multimedia educational materials, you can't make an interactive quiz using a word-processing program because the program wouldn't have all the right tools you have for making an interactive quiz. However, other tools do, such as eXeLearning, a software program that allows teachers to create interactive instructional materials with media content embedded in it. So one way of getting around the problem of not being able to create the kind of multimedia content that you want would be to use another software program for authoring your content.

Advanced multimedia production: Multimedia programming

However, it is possible that as you become more experienced with producing multimedia, you'll find that no authoring software exactly suits your needs, in which case you might consider adding, removing, or editing functionality in an existing authoring software or digital media software program. These modifications are also known as plugins or macros.

But even then, you might eventually find that even if you use plugins and macros, no available software meets your needs and that you need to do some software or hardware programming using languages such as Python, JavaScript, C++, C#, Java, or the Arduino language, to name a few. This is particularly true when you create unusual or bespoke multimedia products and interfaces, which you might do in MMS 194 (New Media Art) or MMS 150 (UI/UX Design). Some of the most interesting examples of multimedia content are created using programming languages such as PureData, OpenFrameworks, and Processing that are built on top of more basic but more powerful programming languages. These tools allow you the most amount of flexibility in deciding what content to present and how how users can interact with your content, but they also take more time to learn. PureData and Processing are free and open source programs, and tutorials for both are available on the Web. Videos

Videos 8.1-8.3: Three examples of what you can make using PureData

Video 8.4-8.6. Three examples of what you can make using Processing

In the meantime, you will probably find that the wide variety of software available for authoring content is sufficient to meet your needs. You will be introduced to various authoring and production tools throughout the duration of your tenure at BAMS, especially when you take your MMS 14x and 17x courses.

Authoring paradigms

Authoring software can be classified in different ways. Some authoring software need to be installed in your computer's operating system; word-processing programs like Open Office Writer and Microsoft Word are examples of such software. These programs are called thick client (or fat client) applications. Other software programs are run from within a web browser. For example, this course was created using Google Sites, a Web-based tool provided by Google.com. These programs are examples of thin client applications. Thick client applications require your computer to do most of the work, whereas thin client applications rely on some other computer to do the work. With thin client applications, your computer is mostly a "window" into the application which is really being run by another (and usually much more powerful) computer.

Another way to classify authoring software is by the authoring paradigm (also known as an authoring metaphor) they use in order for the user to understand how to manipulate information to achieve a desired result. Have you ever edited an audio file before? If you have, have you noticed how similar it is to editing a video? This is because the software you use to edit these use similar authoring paradigms. In contrast, editing audio or video different from editing a slideshow presentation, or a text document, or an image because the editing software use different authoring paradigms.

Why is it important to learn about authoring paradigms? A great number of different authoring tools exist, but many share the same authoring paradigm. So if you know how to use Final Cut Pro, you'll be able to quickly learn how to use Adobe Premiere and all other video editing tools because they use the same timeline-based authoring metaphor. If you know how to use Audacity, you'll know how to use Pro Tools. If you know how to use PureData, you will find it easy to understand how to work with MaxMSP. Knowing about authoring paradigms means you can easily transfer your knowledge about one authoring tool to another authoring tool.

Summary

In this module, we discussed the difference between multimedia authoring and multimedia programming, and briefly touched on when you might use simple authoring tools over more advanced programming tools. We saw what kinds of output are possible with advanced multimedia programming tools. Finally, we looked at what a multimedia authoring paradigm is and why it's important to know about it.