Overview of Multimedia Software Tools

These tools are really only the beginning — a fully functional multimedia project can also call for stand alone programming as well as just the use of predefined tools to fully exercise the capabilities of machines and the Net.1 The categories of software tools we examine here are

1.      Music sequencing and notation

2.      Digital audio

3.      Graphics and image editing

4.      Video editing

5.      Animation

6.      Multimedia authoring

Music Sequencing and Notation

Cakewalk Cakewalk is a well known older name for what is now called Pro Audio. The firm producing this sequencing and editing software, Twelve Tone Systems, also sells an introductory version of their software, "Cakewalk Express", over the Internet for a low price.

The term sequencer comes from older devices that stored sequences of notes in the MIDI music language (events, in MIDI; see Section). It is also possible to insert WAV files and Windows MCI commands (for animation and video) into music tracks. (MCI is a ubiquitous component of the Windows API.)

Cubase Cubase is another sequencing / editing program, with capabilities similar to those of Cakewalk. It includes some digital audio editing tools.

Macromedia Sound edit Sound edit is a mature program for creating audio for multimedia projects and the web that integrates well with other Macromedia products such as Flash and Director.

Digital Audio

Digital Audio tools deal with accessing and editing the actual sampled sounds that make up audio.

Cool Edit Cool Edit is a powerful, popular digital audio toolkit with capabilities (for PC users, at least) that emulate a professional audio studio, including multitrack productions and sound file editing, along with digital signal processing effects.

Sound Forge Sound Forge is a sophisticated PC - based program for editing WAV files. Sound can be captured from a CD - ROM drive or from tape or microphone through the sound card, then mixed and edited. It also permits adding complex special effects.

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a high - end integrated audio production and editing environment that mns on Macintosh computers as well as Windows. Pro Tools offers easy MIDI creation and manipulation as well as powerful audio mixing, recording, and editing software.

Graphics and Image Editing

Adobe Illustrator Illustrator is a powerful publishing tool for creating and editing vector graphics, which can easily be exported to use on the web.

Adobe Photoshop Photoshop is the standard in a tool for graphics, image processing, and image manipulation. Layers of images, graphics, and text can be separately manipulated for maximum flexibility, and its "filter factory" permits creation of sophisticated lighting effects.

Macromedia Fireworks Fireworks is software for making graphics specifically for the web. It includes a bitmap editor, a vector graphics editor, and a JavaScript generator for buttons and rollovers.

Macromedia Freehand Freehand is a text and web graphics editing tool that supports many bitmap formats, such as GIF, PNG, and JPEG. These am pixel - based formats, in that each pixel is specified. It also supports vector - based formats, in which endpoints of lines are specified instead of the pixels themselves, such as SWF (Macromedia Flash) and FHC (Shockwave Freehand). It can also read Photoshop format.

Video Editing

Adobe Premiere Premiere is a simple, intuitive video editing tool for nonlinear editing — putting video clips into any order. Video and audio are arranged in tracks, like a musical score. It provides a large number of video and audio tracks, superimpositions, and virtual clips. A large library of built - in transitions, filters, and motions for clips allows easy creation of effective multimedia productions.

Adobe After Effects After Effects is a powerful video editing tool that enables users to add and change existing movies with effects such as lighting, shadows, and motion blurring. It also allows layers, as in Photoshop, to permit manipulating objects independently.

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro is a video editing tool offered by Apple for the Macintosh platform. It allows the capture of video and audio from numerous sources, such as film and DV. It provides a complete environment, from capturing the video to editing and color correction and finally output to a video file or broadcast from the computer.

Animation

Multimedia APIs

Java3D is an API used by Java to construct and render 3D graphics, similar to the way Java Media Framework handles media files. It provides a basic set of object primitives (cube, splines, etc.) upon which the developer can build scenes. It is an abstraction layer built on top of OpenGL or DirectX (the user can select which), so the graphics are accelerated.

DirectX, a Windows API that supports video, images, audio, and 3D animation, is the most common API used to develop modern multimedia Windows applications, such as computer games.

OpenGL was created in 1992 and has become the most popular 3D API in use today. OpenGL is highly portable and will run on all popular modern operating systems, such as UNIX, Linux, Windows, and Macintosh.

Rendering Tools

3D Studio Max includes a number of high - end professional tools for character animation, game development, and visual effects production. Models produced using this tool can be seen in several consumer games, such as for the Sony Playstation.

Softimage XSI (previously called Softimage 3D) is a powerful modeling, animation, and rendering package for animation and special effects in films and games.

Maya, a competing product to Softimage, is a complete modeling package. It features a wide variety of modeling and animation tools, such as to create realistic clothes and fur.

RenderMan is a rendering package created by Pixar. It excels in creating complex surface appearances and images and has been used in numerous movies, such as Monsters Inc. and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It is also capable of importing models from Maya.

GIF Animation Packages For a simpler approach to animation that also allows quick development of effective small animations for the web, many shareware and other programs permit creating animated GIF images. GIFs can contain several images, and looping through them creates a simple animation. Gifcon and GifBuilder are two of these. Linux also provides some simple animation tools, such as animate.

Multimedia Authoring

Tools that provide the capability for creating a complete multimedia presentation, including interactive user control, are called authoring programs.

Macromedia Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast. More recently, it has been positioned as a tool for "Rich Internet Applications" ("RIAs"). Flash manipulates vector and raster graphics to provide animation of text, drawings, and still images. It supports bidirectional streaming of audio and video, and it can capture user input via mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera. Flash contains an object - oriented language called ActionScript and supports automation via the JavaScript Flash language (JSFL).

Flash content may be displayed on various computer systems and devices, using Adobe Flash Player, which is available free of charge for common web browsers, some mobile phones, and a few other electronic devices (using Flash Lite).

Some users feel that Flash enriches their web experience, while others find the extensive use of Flash animation, particularly in advertising, intrusive and annoying. Flash has also been criticized for adversely affecting the usability of web pages.

Macromedia Director Adobe Director (formerly Macromedia Director) is a multimedia application authoring platform created by Macromedia — now part of Adobe Systems. It allows users to build applications built on a movie metaphor, with the user as the "director" of the movie. Originally designed for creating animation sequences, the addition of a scripting language called Lingo made it a popular choice for creating CD - ROMs and standalone kiosks and web content using Adobe Shockwave. Adobe Director supports both 2D and 3D multimedia projects.

Author ware was an interpreted, flowchart - based, graphical programming language. Authorware is used for creating interactive programs that can integrate a range of multimedia content, particularly e - learning applications. The flowchart model differentiates Authorware from other authoring tools, such as Adobe Flash and Adobe Director, which rely on a visual stage, time - line and script structure.

Quest Quest, which uses a type of flowcharting metaphor, is similar to Authorware in many ways. However, the flowchart nodes can encapsulate information in a more abstract way (called "frames") than simply subroutine levels. As a result, connections between icons are more conceptual and do not always represent flow of control in the program.