WEB GRAPHICS UNIT IV Notes

 

 

WEB GRAPHICS

 

UNIT-IV

 

MULTIMEDIA  (INTRODUCTION)

 

Multimedia (Lat. Multum + Medium) is media that uses multiple forms of information content and information processing (e.g. text, audio, graphics, animation, video, interactivity) to inform or entertain the (user) audience. Multimedia also refers to the use of (but not limited to) electronic media to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is similar to traditional mixed media in fine art, but with a broader scope. The term "rich media" is synonymous for interactive multimedia.

Multimedia means that computer info can be represented through audio, graphics, image, video and animation in addition to traditional media(text and graphics). Hypermedia can be considered one particular multimedia application.

 

CREATING CLIPPINGS(COLLECTING INFORMATION):

 

One of the ways to collect information is by using Clippings. You can cut out small excerpts from the e-mail messages, feeds, news posts, and web pages you visit in Omea and refer to them later on without having to wade through the full text of the original source. Creating Clippings is quite easy.

 

ANIMATIONS

 

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision.

 

ANIMATION TECHNIQUES

 

Animation techniques are incredibly varied and difficult to categorize. Techniques are often related or combined. The following is a brief on common types of animation. Again, this list is by no means comprehensive.

 

TRADITIONAL ANIMATION

 

An example of traditional animation, a horse animated by rotoscoping from Edward Muybridge's 19th century photos. Also called cel animation, the frames of a traditionally animated movie are hand-drawn. The drawings are traced or copied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels, which are then placed over a painted background and photographed one by one on a rostrum camera. Nowadays, the use of cels (and cameras) is mostly obsolete, since the drawings are scanned into computers, and digitally transferred directly to 35 mm film. The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animator's work has remained essentially the same over the past 70 years. Because of the digital influence over modern cel animation, it is also known as tradigital animation.

Examples: The Lion King, Spirited Away, Les Triplettes de Belleville

 

FULL ANIMATION

 

The most widely-known style in animation, known for its realistic and often very detailed art.

Examples: All Disney feature length animations, The Secret of NIMH, The Iron Giant

 

LIMITED ANIMATION

 

A cheaper process of making animated cartoons that does not follow a "realistic" approach.

Examples: The Flintstones, Yellow Submarine

 

RUBBER HOSE ANIMATION

The characters are usually very "cartoony", and the animators have a lot of artistic freedom as rubber hose doesn't have to follow the laws of physics and anatomy to the same degree as the other main styles of animation.

Examples: Early Mickey Mouse cartoons, Popeye, Ren and Stimpy

 

Rotoscoping

A technique, patented by Max Fleischer in 1917, where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame, either by directly copying an actors outlines into an animated drawing (e.g. Ralph Bakshi), or use rotoscoped material as a basis and inspiration for a more fluid and expressive animation (e.g. Disney). Examples: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gulliver's Travels, American Pop

 

Stop motion

Stop-motion animation is any type of animation which requires the animator to physically alter the scene, shoot a frame, again alter the scene and shoot a frame and so on, to create the animation. There are many different types of stop-motion animation.

 

Clay animation

A clay animation scene from a TV commercial.Often abbreviated to claymation, this is a type of stop-motion animation using figures made of clay or a similar malleable material. The figures may have an armature or wire frame inside of them, similar to puppet animation (below). Alternatively, the figures may be made entirely of clay, such as in the films of Bruce Bickford where clay creatures morph into a variety of different shapes.

Examples: Morph, Wallace and Gromit; Jan Švankmajer's Dimensions of Dialogue; The Amazing Mr. Bickford; The Trap Door

 

Cutout animation

A type of stop-motion animation formed by moving 2-dimensional pieces of material such as paper or cloth. Examples: Terry Gilliam's animated sequences of Monty Python's Flying Circus; Fantastic Planet; Tale of Tales; pilot episode of South Park

 

Silhouette animation

A monochrome variant of cutout animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouettes. Example: The Adventures of Prince Achmed; Princes et princesses

 

Graphic animation

Model animation

In this form of animation, model animated characters interact with, and are a part of, the live-action world.

Examples: The films of Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts) and Willis O'Brien (King Kong)

Go motion

Object animation

Pixilation

Examples: Neighbours

 

Puppet animation

Puppet animation typically involves puppet figures interacting with each other in a constructed environment, in contrast to the real-world interaction in model animation (above). The puppets generally have an armature inside of them to keep them still and steady as well as constraining them to move at particular joints.

Examples: The Tale of the Fox, the films of Jiří Trnka, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Robot Chicken, Brickfilm , Puppetoon .

 

Computer animation

Like stop motion, computer animation encompasses a variety of techniques, the unifying idea being that the animation is created digitally on a computer.

 

2D animation

Figures are created and/or edited on the computer using 2D bitmap graphics or created and edited using 2D vector graphics. This includes automated computerized versions of traditional animation techniques such as of tweening, morphing, onion skinning and interpolated rotoscoping.

Examples: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Jib Jab

Analog computer animation

Flash animation

PowerPoint animation

A completely synthetic, computer-generated scene.

 

3D animation

Figures are created in the computer using polygons. To allow these meshes to move they are given a digital armature (sculpture). This process is called rigging. Various other techniques can be applied, such as mathematical functions (gravity), simulated fur or hair, effects such as fire and water and the use of motion capture to name but a few.

Examples: The Incredibles, Shrek, Finding Nemo

Cel-shaded animation

Morph target animation

Skeletal animation

Motion capture

Crowd simulation

 

Less common techniques

 

Drawn on film animation

A technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock.

 

Paint-on-glass animation

A technique for making animated films by manipulating slow drying oil paints on sheets of glass.

 

Pinscreen animation

Makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique has been used to create animated films with a range of textural effects difficult to achieve with traditional cel animation.

 

Sand animation

Sand is moved around on a backlighted or frontlighted piece of glass to create each frame for an animated film.

 

Animations with sound effects:

Special effects are traditionally divided into two types. The first type is optical effects (also called visual or photographic effects), which rely on manipulation of a photographed image. Optical effects can be produced with either photographic (i.e. optical printer) or visual (i.e. CGI) technology.

A good example of an optical effect would be a scene in Star Trek depicting the USS Enterprise

flying through space.

The second type is mechanical effects (also called practical or physical effects), which are accomplished during the live-action shooting. These include mechanized props, scenery, and pyrotechnics. Examples include the ejector seat of James Bond's Aston Martin, R2D2 in the Star Wars films, or the zero-gravity effects employed in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

Special effects animation

            Also known as effects animation, special effects animation is a specialization of the traditional animation and computer animation processes. Anything that moves in an animated film and is not a character (handled by character animators) is considered a special effect, and is left up to the special effects animators to create. Effects animation tasks can include animating cars, trains, rain, snow, fire, magic, shadows, or other non-character entities, objects, and phenomena. A classic case of this would be the lightsabres and laser-bolts in the original Star Wars, or the Monster from the id from

Forbidden Planet, both of which were created by rotoscopy.

            Sometimes, special processes are used to produce effects animation instead of drawing or rendering. Rain, for example, has been created in Disney films since the late-1930s by filming slow-motion footage of water in front of a black background, with the resulting film superimposed over the animation.

            Among the most notable effects animators in history are A.C. Gamer from Warner Bros. Cartoons; and Joshua Meador, Cy Young, Mark Dindal, and Randy Fullmer from the Walt Disney Feature Animation animation studio.

            Special effects animation is also common in live-action films to create certain images

that cannot be traditionally filmed. In that respect, special effects animation is more commonplace than character animation, since special effects of many different types and varieties have been used in film for a century.

 

CGI and SFX

            Effects that are created via computers are known as CGI (Computer Generated Imagery)

effects and they fit into the category of optical effects - a subset of SFX - because they involve altering a photographic image. Some people claim that because CGI effects are not produced during filming on-set (as in bullet hits, fire, flame, and explosions, wind, rain, etc.) that they are not SFX at all. However, as discussed above, effects produced during filming on-set are a different subset of SFX known as mechanical or practical effects. Other categories of SFX do exist, and CGI effects are still SFX.

 

Audio effects

            The art of adding audio effects to a film is done through either Foley, or pre-recorded sound effects. Foley refers to acting out the scene in a recording studio with the necessary props, such as doors, umbrellas, shoes, or whatever the characters in the scene are doing. If a person was walking across concrete, the Foley artist would probably put the shoes on his hands and tap them on concrete, while watching a screen to make sure he is doing it in sync with the action. Often, Foley sounds become better-known to moviegoers than the real sounds; an example is the traditional use of coconut shells for horses' hoofs.

            Foley is required because so little actual production audio is used; there is often too much camera/crew noise and unwanted environmental noise for location audio to be useful as more than a reference. Shooting on a soundstage reduces the problem of unwanted sounds, but Foley recording is still necessary because the sounds produced on the stage may not be the same ones the director wants in the film, or may not be sufficiently clear due to the necessity of keeping microphones out of the scene.

            This situation has also given rise to ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement or Additional Dialogue Recording), also called dubbing or looping. In ADR, an actor re-speaks his or her lines in a recording studio in sync with the original on-set recording, and the new recording is used in place of the original audio. Looping can be a very time-consuming process, and requires that the actor listen to each line multiple times to learn how they originally said the line. If the actor was not happy with their original performance, however, it can be advantageous for the actor to be able to "re-act" a scene through ADR.

 

Live special effects

            Live special effects are effects that are used in front of a live audience. Mostly during sporting events, concerts and corporate shows. Types of effects that are commonly used include a laser lighting display, co2 effects, pyrotechnics, flames and confetti.

 

Adding audio

            So far in this article we have explored adding audio to slides and objects, but Macromedia  Captivate also enables you to add an audio track to your entire project. To add some background audio, follow these steps:

 

Choose Movie > Preferences.

Select the Background Audio tab.

Click one of the following buttons:

Record New to record a new audio file

Import to import an existing audio file

Audio Library to select a clip from the Audio Library

 

The Background Audio tab in the Movie Preferences dialog box also includes the following options:

Specify the number of seconds to fade in to full volume and fade out to silence

Lower the background audio volume on slides with additional audio

Loop the audio clip

Stop the audio at the end of the movie

 

Capturing Audio

            The most effective method of adding audio to a Macromedia Captivate project is to record the audio at the same time you capture your screen action. Recording narration can be used for many different types of Macromedia Captivate projects.

 

Recording Audio While Capturing Your Macromedia Captivate Project

            With a microphone connected to your PC, you can record your narration as you create your Macromedia Captivate project. Follow these steps:

• From the Start page, click the Record or Create a New Movie link. You can also choose File > Record or Create a New Movie.
• Select from one of the following three recording options and click OK:

      Application

      Custom size

      Full screen

• Specify the window, area, or monitor you want to capture during your narration.
• Select the Record Narration check box.
• Click OK.

By default Macromedia Captivate informs you that in order to create the best possible audio quality, the application must establish microphone- and recording-sensitive levels (see Figure 1).

               Click Yes.

Macromedia Captivate now responds by displaying the Calibrate Microphone dialog box (see Figure 2). This dialog box enables you to set the optimal microphone level and adjust the recording sensitivity.

Figure 2. Set the microphone recording level for use with Macromedia Captivate

Note: If you see the dialog box shown in Figure 3, you might need to check in the Record Control

panel (part of the Windows operating system) to see whether the microphone volume needs to be adjusted.

 

Figure 3. When you see this dialog box, you have to verify that your microphone is properly connected

Adjusting the Microphone

To adjust the microphone, follow these steps:

Select Start > Program > Settings > Control Panel.

Double-click the Sounds and Multimedia control panel applet (Windows 2000) or Sounds and Audio Devices (Windows XP).

Make sure Microphone is selected and that the volume slider is not at the bottom.

 

Tip: If you are still having problems try capturing an audio file using the application Sound Recorder that ships with your Windows operating system, consult the documentation that ships with your sound card.

Recording Narration at Capture Time

After the record levels have been calibrated, you can click the Record button shown in Figure 4.

 

Figure 4. You're ready to record

Macromedia Captivate now displays a countdown box which counts down from 5 to 1. After the box disappears, you can start recording your narration.

            To proceed, simply speak into the microphone or recording device. When you have finished recording, click the End key. Macromedia Captivate now generates the individual slides that comprise the Macromedia Captivate SWF file and displays them in Slide view.

            During recording the files are stored in WAV format. After you stop recording, the files are automatically converted to  MP3 format. The original WAV files are left intact so that if you need to make further changes, you always get to work with the original, full-quality, uncompressed files.

 

Note: The WAV format is the default audio file format for the Windows platform. It is neither a digital nor a compressed file format. By contrast, MP3 or MPEG-3 is a lossy audio file format. This means that during the compression of the audio data, some of the audio information is thrown away to reduce the compressed file size. The quality of the audio is not affected, however, because the discarded audio data is outside the range of human hearing.

 

Tips on Adding Audio to Your Macromedia Captivate Project

            Narration is a powerful vehicle of communication that can dramatically improve your Macromedia Captivate projects. In turn, it helps your audience remember your demonstration or presentation better. Like everything else, creating a good narration is a skill that takes some time to perfect. To assist you with this process, I have outlined a number of tips that should help you get up to speed:

Always script out what you want to say.

Rehearse the script.

Break the script into short segments (less than one minute is preferable).

Perform some audio tests and listen to the way the narration sounds.

Replace hard-to-pronounce words or phrases with easier alternatives.

Always check any technical terminology.

Relax when recording; you can always correct mistakes later.

Create your own style of narration. If you don't normally sound like a BBC news reader from the 1930s when you talk, then don't try to narrate like one!

Recording Audio after Capturing Your Macromedia Captivate Project

Although the best method of adding your narration is to do it at capture time, you also have the ability to insert audio after you have captured your screen action. This method of working gives you the ability to narrate using a script taken from either captions on the selected slide or slide notes. This feature is ideal for users who just don't feel comfortable with attempting to record audio as they capture their screen action.

To record a narration after capturing your movie, follow these steps:

Open an existing Macromedia Captivate project.

Select the slide to which you want to add audio. You have two options:

Insert a text caption.

Choose Edit > Properties. Next, click the Notes button, enter the text you want to narrate, and click  OK.

Click the Audio button on the Main toolbar.

Under View script select either of the following:

Captions (to view the contents of a Caption that is present on the current slide)

Slide notes (to view notes for this slide)

Click the Record button and speak the caption text or slide notes into the microphone.

When you have finished recording your narration for this slide, click Next.

Read the contents of the next slide note.

Repeat Steps 6 and 7 until you have read all the slide notes for the entire project.

Click the OK button.

 

Adjusting the Volume

            After importing an audio file, you may sometimes find that you need to adjust the overall sound quality. In most cases, if you directly record your audio using a microphone, you shouldn't need to worry about adjusting your audio. To adjust the volume control:

Choose Audio > Edit audio. If you only want to improve the quality of a certain portion of the audio track, click and drag to select the portion you want to adjust.

Click the Adjust Volume button to open the Adjust Volume dialog box (see Figure 8).

 

Figure 8. This dialog box enables you to modify the volume settings of your track

This dialog box enables you to adjust the volume, using the Volume slider. It also enables you to modify the audio processing, using the Normalize and Dynamics check boxes.

Select the Normalize check box if you want to even out the audio volume. This can be useful when the audio volume is low and you want to increase it. You can apply normalization on a selected block of audio, the audio on a certain slide, or the whole SWF file.

Select the Dynamics check box if your audio track has frequent and noticeable variations in

loudness (more often than not, a speaker's voice). Using the Dynamics feature, you can activate the

advanced options Ratio and Noise Threshold:

            Ratio controls the maximum amplification that will be used in the Dynamics option. The default value of 2.0 means that the quietest sections will be amplified by a factor of 2. Higher settings can be useful in movies that have differences between quiet and loud sections. However, background noise can also be amplified by configuring a higher setting.

            Noise Threshold helps to control the amplification of background noise. Anything quieter than the noise threshold will not be amplified. If a background noise is amplified too much, a higher setting may help solve this problem. However, it is important to note that the Dynamics option does not work well with high noise levels.

 

Adding Audio to Objects

            As well as being able to apply audio to your slides, Macromedia Captivate gives you the flexibility of importing and recording audio files to use with captions, buttons, click boxes, or text entry boxes. If that isn't enough, you can also use the Audio Library to add an audio file that is already in your current project.

The Audio Library also gives you the ability to rename an audio track.

To rename an audio track:

Choose Slide > Properties.

Click the Audio tab.

Click the Audio Library button.

Select the audio file you want to rename.

Press F2 and give the file a new title.

To add audio to a Macromedia Captivate object, such as an electronic beeping sound to a failure caption, do the following:

Select the slide that includes a failure caption.

Choose Edit > Properties (or right-click the slide and choose Properties).

Select the Audio tab. Using the Audio tab, you can do any of the following:

Record some new audio

Import an existing audio file

Select an audio file that is already in the current project

Press the Spacebar to test the audio

Click OK to save the changes

Adding Background Audio to a Macromedia Captivate Project

So far in this article we have explored adding audio to slides and objects, but Macromedia Captivate also enables you to add an audio track to your entire project.To add some background audio, follow these steps:

1. Choose Movie > Preferences.
2. Select the Background Audio tab.

3.      Click one of the following buttons:

• Record New to record a new audio file
• Import to import an existing audio file
• Audio Library to select a clip from the Audio Library
• The Background Audio tab in the Movie Preferences dialog box also includes the following options:

• Specify the number of seconds to fade in to full volume and fade out to silence
• Lower the background audio volume on slides with additional audio
• Loop the audio clip
• Stop the audio at the end of the movie

Using the Advanced Audio Dialog Box

Macromedia Captivate enables you to view detailed information about all the audio in your movie and perform certain audio tasks through the Advanced Audio Management dialog box. To access this dialog box, choose Audio > Advanced Audio. This dialog box consists of nine columns that display detailed information such as the duration of each of the audio tracks, duration of any fade-in or fade-out effects, audio file size, original filename (if applicable), and audio sample rate and bit rate (see Figure 9). When looking at this dialog box, note the following:

·         Audio sample rate (Hz) refers to the number of sound waves per second taken of a sound to represent the event digitally. A higher sample rate results in a more accurate digital representation of the sound. The current sample rate for CD-quality audio is 44,100 samples per second.

·         Bit rate (kbps) refers to the number of times each wave is sampled. For example, 16-bit sound samples each wave 66,000 times.

Figure 9. Advanced Audio Management dialog box

The Advanced Audio Management dialog box also includes the option to show audio files that may have been attached to objects, such as captions, click boxes, and so on.You can listen to each of the audio tracks by selecting one of the entries in the Object column and either clicking the Play button or pressing the Spacebar. You can also export an audio file using the following steps:

1.      Select the file you want to export.

2.      Click the Export button.

3.      Navigate to a location on your computer and save the audio file with any name.

Macromedia Captivate exports both the WAV and MP3 files, which you can then use in a third-party application or device.

Adding sound

You can choose from several different types of sound files and formats, and you can add sound to a Web page in various ways. Some factors to consider before deciding on a format and method for adding sound are its purpose, your audience, the file size, the quality of sound quality you want, and differences in browsers.

Note: Sound files are handled very differently and inconsistently by different browsers. To improve consistency, you may want to save sound files as SWFs.

About audio file formats
            The following list describes the more common audio file formats and some of the advantages and disadvantages of each for Web design. Some audio formats require that visitors to your site download and install a helper application or plug-in such as QuickTime, Windows Media Player, or RealPlayer.

The MIDI or MID (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) format is for instrumental music. MIDI files are supported by many browsers and don't require a plug-in. Although their sound quality can be very good, this can vary depending on a visitor's sound card. A small MIDI file can provide a long sound clip. MIDI files cannot be recorded and must be synthesized on a computer with special hardware and software. Use this format if you want background sounds to play when pages open up.

WAV (Waveform Extension) format files have good sound quality, are supported by many browsers, and don't require a plug-in. You can record your own WAV files from a CD, tape, microphone, and so on. However, the large file size severely limits the length of sound clips that you can use on your Web pages.

The AIF (Audio Interchange File Format, or AIFF) format like WAV files, also has good sound quality, can be played by most browsers, and doesn't require a plug-in; you can also record AIFF files from a CD, tape, microphone, and so on. However, the large file size limits the length of sound clips that you can use on your Web pages.

The MP3 (Motion Picture Experts Group Audio, or MPEG-Audio Layer-3) format is a compressed format that makes sound files substantially smaller. You can use MP3 to convert large stereo WAV/AIFF files to a more manageable format without compromising on the sound quality, which is very good: if an MP3 file is recorded and compressed properly, it can rival a CD. You can stream the file so that a visitor doesn't have to wait for the entire file to download before hearing it. However, the file size is larger than a Real Audio file, so a whole song could still take quite a while to download over a normal phone line connection. To play MP3 files, visitors must download and install a helper application or plug-in such as QuickTime, Windows Media Player, or RealPlayer.

The RA, RAM, RPM, or Real Audio format has a very high degree of compression with smaller file sizes than MP3. Whole song files can be downloaded in a reasonable amount of time. Because the files can be streamed from a normal Web server, visitors can begin listening to the sound before the file has completely downloaded. The sound quality is poorer than that of MP3 files, but new players and encoders have improved quality considerably. Visitors must download and install the RealPlayer helper application or plug-in in order to play these files.

The AU, SND, or Sun or Java format is similar to the WAV and AIFF formats, but the compression is more flexible. This format is used exclusively for Java applets and applications and therefore is compatible across platforms. It is also very popular on SUN/Unix machines.

Adding video

            You can add video to your Web page in different ways and using different formats. Video can be downloaded to the user or it can be streamed so that it plays while it is downloading. The most common streaming formats available on the Web for the transmission of video files are RealMedia, QuickTime, and Windows Media. You must download a helper application in order to view these formats. With these formats, you can stream audio and video simultaneously.

            If you'd like to include a short clip that can be downloaded rather than streamed, you can link to the clip or embed it in your page. These clips are often in the AVI or MPEG file format.

            You can use Director to create Shockwave movies or Flash to create interactive, low-bandwidth, multimedia presentations for the Web. With Flash, file size is surprisingly small, and the technology works across many platforms. (Of course, users must first download the free player plug-in before they can view these files.) In the following sections, we'll focus on adding Shockwave and Flash files to your documents using Dreamweaver 4.

EXAMPLE:Inserting Shockwave movies

            Shockwave, the Macromedia standard for interactive multimedia on the Web, is a compressed format that allows media files created in Macromedia Director to be downloaded quickly and played by most popular browsers.

            The software that plays Shockwave movies is available as both a Netscape Navigator plug-in and an ActiveX control. When you insert a Shockwave movie, Dreamweaver uses both the object tag (for the ActiveX control) and the embed tag (for the plug-in) to get the best results in all browsers. When you make changes in the Property inspector for the movie, Dreamweaver maps your entries to the appropriate parameters for both the object and the embed tags.

To insert a Shockwave movie:

1	In the Design view of the Document window, place the insertion point where you want to insert the Shockwave movie.
2	Do one of the following:
	Click the Shockwave button on the Objects panel.
	Choose Insert > Media > Shockwave.
	Drag the Shockwave button to your document.
3	In the dialog box that appears, select a movie file.
4	In the Property inspector, enter the width and height of the movie in the W and H text boxes.

 

Setting Shockwave movie properties

            To ensure the best results in both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, Dreamweaver inserts Shockwave movies using both the object and the embed tags (object is the tag defined by Microsoft for ActiveX controls; embed is the tag defined by Navigator for plug-ins).

            When you select a Shockwave movie, the following properties are displayed in the Property inspector. The Property inspector initially displays the most commonly used properties. Click the expander arrow in the lower right corner to see all properties.

            Name specifies a name to identify the movie for scripting. Enter a name in the unlabeled text box on the far left side of the Property inspector.

            W and H specify the width and height of the movie in pixels. You can also specify the following units: pc (picas), pt (points), in (inches), mm (millimeters), cm (centimeters), or % (percentage of the parent object's width or height). The abbreviation must follow the value without a space: for example, 3mm.

            File specifies the path to the Shockwave movie file. Click the folder icon to browse and locate the file, or type the path to the file.

            Align determines how the movie is aligned on the page. You can align the movie to text, images, or other elements within the same line or paragraph of the page.

            Bg specifies a background color for the movie area. This color also appears while the movie is not playing (both while loading and after playing).

            Play lets you see a preview of the movie in the Design view of the Document window. Click the Stop button to stop the movie and return to the Shockwave placeholder.

            Parameters opens a dialog box in which to enter additional parameters to pass to the Shockwave movie. Parameters set attributes specific to the type of object being inserted. The Shockwave movie must have been designed to receive these parameters. For more detailed information on parameters, see Chapter 13, "Inserting Media," of your Using Dreamweaver 4 manual, or consult Dreamweaver Help.

            ID defines the optional ActiveX ID parameter. This parameter is most often used to pass information between ActiveX controls.

            V Space and H Space specify the number of pixels of white space above, below, and on both sides of the movie.

Windows Media Player ActiveX Control

ActiveX controls

            ActiveX controls that support Windows Media files can be used in Director to achieve playback of 5.1 surround sound. One example is the Windows Media Player ActiveX control.

1. To insert media using the ActiveX control, choose Insert > Control > ActiveX.
2. From the Select ActiveX Control window, choose Windows Media Player as the control description.
3. Click OK.

ActiveX Control  Definition

            A software module based on Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) architecture. It enables a program to add functionality by calling ready-made components that blend in and appear as normal parts of the program. They are typically used to add user interface functions, such as 3D toolbars, a notepad, calculator or even a spreadsheet.

            On the Internet, ActiveX controls can be linked to a Web page and downloaded by a compliant Web browser. Such controls turn Web pages into software as if the program were launched from a server. Like any executable program running in the computer, ActiveX controls can perform any operation on your data. This is why the default configuration in most Web browsers is to prompt the user if an ActiveX control is being requested so the user can decide to download it or not (not always an easy decision).

 

Originally OLE Controls - ActiveX controls were originally called "OLE controls" and used an .OCX file extension. They were Microsoft's second-generation component architecture (Visual Basic Controls (VBXs) were the first). OLE controls were renamed ActiveX and continued to use the .OCX name.

Windows Media files imported in Macromedia Director MX 2004 using the Windows Media Xtra does not support 5.1 sound playback. Surround sound?or 5.1 sound?refers to audio playback that takes advantage of one center speaker, two front speakers, two rear speakers and one subwoofer to surround the audience with audio. This issue occurs even though the machine is capable of 5.1 sound output, and even if the Windows Media file plays back in 5.1 surround in Windows Media Player.

 

Reason

            Director relies on the DirectShow component of Microsoft DirectX for using the Windows Media feature. However, the default DirectShow filter that Director uses to render WMA is not a multi-channel sound renderer. Microsoft has not yet released the DirectShow filters required for rendering 5.1 sound in its DirectX runtime.

            Windows Media Player has the codec that supports full-resolution audio (24-bit 96 kHz sampling) in stereo or multi-channel surround sound (5.1 or 7.1 channel) built into the player. Therefore, Director can only make use of the codec and allow 5.1 surround sound playback after Microsoft releases this codec as a part of DirectX runtime.

Note: The product engineers are aware of this issue and this may be addressed in a future version. Please visit our web site regularly for any new announcements.

Workaround

As a workaround, Windows Media files can be inserted into Director via ActiveX control or using a 3rd party Xtra

VRML

VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language, usually pronounced vermal, originally known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language) is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional (3D) interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind.

 

How can VRML be used on a Web page?

·  Load directly into a Web browser, filling the page
·  Embed into a page, filling a page rectangle
·  Load into a page frame, filling the frame
·  Embed into a page frame, filling a frame rectangle
·  Embed multiple times into a page or frame