week 7- kalai, dinesh, kokila

Authoring tools used different metaphors for sequencing and organising multimedia elements and events. On this basis they can be classified into five categories:

· card- and page-based tools

· Icon-based tools

· Time-based tools

· object-oriented tools

Card- and page-based tools

In these authoring systems, elements are organised as pages of a book or a stack of cards. The authoring system lets you link these pages or cards into organised sequences. You can jump, on command, to any page you wish to in a structured navigation pattern. Card- and page-based systems allow you to play audio, video and animations.

Some examples of card- and page-based systems include:

· HyperCard (Macintosh)

· SuperCard (Macintosh)

· ToolBook (Windows)

· Visual BASIC (Windows)

Card- and page-based systems are best suited to applications where the bulk of the content consists of elements that can be viewed individually.

Icon-based authoring tools

In these authoring systems, multimedia elements and interaction cues or events are organised as objects in a structural framework. CO32004 Multimedia Development Methods Unit 8: Multimedia Authoring Version c Page 2 ©2001 Napier University Icon based, event driven tools simplify the organisation of a project and typically display flow diagrams of activities along branching paths.

Some examples of icon-based systems include:

· Authorware Professional (Windows)

· IconAuthor (Windows)

Icon-based, event-driven systems are suited to a wide range of applications and offer a

high level of support when developing packages with complex navigation structures.

Time-based authoring tools

In these authoring systems, elements are organised along a time line with resolutions as high as 1/30th second. Sequential organised graphic frames are played back at a speed you can set. Other elements, such as audio events, are triggered at a given time or location in the sequence of events.

Some examples of time-based systems include:

· Macromedia Director (Macintosh and Windows)

· Macromedia Flash (Macintosh and Windows)

Time Based systems are best suited to applications which have a message with a beginning and an end. Some of the more powerful time based systems allow the program to jump or branch to a specific location, thereby offering interactivity and navigational control.

Object-0riented tools

In these authoring systems, multimedia elements and events become objects that live in a hierarchical order of parent and child relationships. Messages passed among these objects order them to do things according to the properties or modifiers assigned to them. Object-oriented tools are particularly useful for games that contain many components with many ‘personalities’ and for simulating real-life situations, events, and their constituent objects.

Some examples of object-oriented systems include:

· mTropolis (Macintosh/Windows)

· QuarkImmedia (Macintosh/Windows)

JAVA is also an object-oriented programming environment.

Increasingly Lingo, the scripting language used in Director is taking an object-oriented

approach.