Tutorial 3: Types of Multimedia on the Web

With more one billion users of the Internet today, the Web has expanded a long way since the formation of it in 1969.  In addition to its size increase, the Internet has also changed in the way websites present their information.  Once limited to only text, the Internet has expanded to also include graphics, animation, audio, video and/or video reality. The use of two or more types of this media is referred to as multimedia.  Most Web pages today include the use of multimedia as often it enhances the information provided on the page.  In this blog, I will introduce the many types of multimedia including: graphics, animation, audio, video and virtual reality.

Graphics

This digital photo was taken by Albert Lopez.
Like most digital photos the graphic was saved in the file
form JPEG.

Graphical images are popular to use on websites as they display non-text information such as images, graphs, drawings and photos in a digital format.  Often accompanying text, the use of graphics is a way to provide additional messages not included in the text. If you chose to upload graphics to your Blog or Social Networking page, you would notice that you're images have some scrambled letters following the title of your image.  This is the code for the type of format the image was saved as.  The Web contains a wide array of graphics in many different formats, but most often, graphics will be in JPEG, GIF, or PNG format. Different formats allow for a graphic to vary in size and image quality but often there is a trade-off between the two.  JPEG is one of the most popular because although it compresses the image to reduce it's file size, the image quality is not compromised in the process. A JPEG format is often best used for digital photos. Other graphic formats found on the web includes; BMP and TIFF.  Specific graphics are easily searchable on the web through search engines such a Yahoo! and Google. Searches for images appear as 'thumbnails' or icons of the image, but when clicked on can be brought to it's original size.

Animation
Another way to make a Web page more appealing to the eye is through the addition of animation.  Animation is often a display of concurrent still images to create the illusion of motion.  Much like a flip-book the images move quickly to appear as if there is movement on the screen. Such movement can be used to draw attention to a region of the page such as an animated title or a ticker to show a countdown.    Animation is usually seen in Web-based games.

This animation was created by Albert Lopez using www.crazyprofile.com/text_animation/

Audio
The multimedia listed above can also be used in conjunction with audio. Web based audio includes but is not limited to music, voice-overs or any other type of sounds in digital format.  Audio files can be added to Web pages through simple download of individual files to the site.  After the media file is downloaded, a software player such as iTunes, RealPlayer or Windows Media Player is needed to play the file.  Audio files also come in different formats to adjust file size and/or sound quality and again a trade-off exists between the two. Some common audio web formats are AAC, WAV, WMA and MP3. Audio files have become very popular on Web sites and can help to create an ambiance for a website when playing in the background.  For example, if a hotel wanted to create a calm setting for it's website to reflect the peaceful feel of the hotel, it could play serene music in the background. Sites that just play audio tracks for listening entertainment have also become very popular recently such as Pandora and Grooveshark.  These websites use streaming audio or an audio file that can be played as it is being downloaded to it's distribute music in the form of online radio. Here's an example of online audio files.
Cymbals:

This audio file was created by Albert Lopez.  This is an example of a MP3 formatted file using a Public Domain audio file of cymbals playing.

Video
Another type of multimedia available is video in the form of video clips or live video.  Video uploading sites such as YouTube allow for video distribution, sharing and viewing of videos across the Internet.  Videos can be seen either through a link on a website, through a video distributing site such as YouTube or can be embedded directly on the website.  Video clips can enhance a site as it provides information in a much different way and somewhat interactively. Clips can vary from movies, TV shows, video diaries, tutorials, advertisements etc. As the internet has increased  the number of it's audience over the past few decades, more businesses have taken advantage of the Internet as an outlet for advertisements.  As more of these advertisements come in video format, video will be seen in more and more websites that originally only included text. Because these files are often very large and therefore like images and audio they need to be compressed for less download time. Here's an example of an online video.

This is a video created by Albert Lopez.  It is uploaded through blogger.com and recorded through my Macbook. 

Virtual Reality

Lastly, Virtual Reality or VR is a type of media that allows for virtual activity in a computer-simulated environment that seems like a 3-D space.  Users can use the space interactively in the VR world by moving through a display of 3-D images.  Applications of the VR world can be used for entertainment (games), education (models of molecules, organisms), or as a way to showcase any structure (as in architecture etc). The website, www.secondlife.com is a great example of a VR for entertainment.

This image was printscreened by Albert Lopez.
Second Life as shown above, is an example of a Virtual Reality.

The Web has come a long way from when text was its only type of media.  Today, websites include a multitude of media. In this blog, I have showed you five types of media; graphics, animation, audio, video and virtual reality.  I hope that you have learned a lot about the many types of media available on the Web today!


Works Cited

"Cymbals." Public domain: free downloading & streaming. Web. 25 Mar 2011. <http://www.archive.org/details/cymbals_360>.

Lopez, Albert, Dir. Video Example. Blogger: 2011, Film.

Lopez, Albert, Photographer. Beach graphic example. 2011. Digital Photo.


Shelly, Gary. Discovering Computers 2010. Boston, MA: Course Technology Cengage Learning, 2010. 92-96. Print.

"Text Animation." Myspace text animation, piczo text animation, html code. Web. 25 Mar 2011. <http://www.crazyprofile.com/text_animation/>.

"Virtual Reality Example." Second Life. Web. 26 Mar 2011. <http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US#Meet_People>. Printscreened by Albert Lopez