INTRODUCTION

TO GRAPHICS
AND MULTIMEDIA
Multimedia
Multimedia is a representation of information in an attractive and
interactive manner with the use of a combination of text, audio, video,
graphics and animation
In other words we can say that Multimedia is a computerized method of
presenting information combining textual data, audio, visuals (video),
graphics and animations
Multimedia contrasts with media that use only basic computer displays
such as text-only or traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material.
Examples of multimedia
E-Mail, Yahoo Messenger, Video Conferencing, and Multimedia Message
Service (MMS)
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• Multimedia means that computer information can be
represented through audio, graphics, image, video and
animation in addition to traditional media (text and graphics).
• It provides multiple ways to represent information to the user
in a powerful manner. It provides an interaction between
users and digital information.
• Simply multimedia is a medium of communication.
• Multimedia is the combination of Multi and Media that is many
types of media (hardware/software) used for communication
of information.
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• Multimedia is the integration of more than one type of
medium to convey a message. This includes the usage of
photo’s, text, audio, video etc.
• Sectors where multimedia is used extensively includes
education, training, reference material, business
presentations, advertising and documentaries
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Categories of Multimedia
• Linear
active content progresses without any navigation control for the
viewer such as a cinema presentation.
• Non-linear
content offers user interactivity to control progress as used with
a computer game or used in self-paced computer based
training. Non-linear content is also known as hypermedia
content.
• Multimedia presentations can be live or recorded.
• Recorded presentation may allow interactivity via a
navigation system.
• Live multimedia presentation may allow interactivity via
interaction with the presenter or performer.
Features of Multimedia
• Multimedia presentations
May be viewed in person on stage, projected, transmitted, or
played locally with a media player.
A broadcast may be a live or recorded multimedia presentation.
Broadcasts and recordings can be either analog or digital
electronic media technology.
Digital online multimedia may be downloaded or streamed.
Streaming multimedia may be live or on-demand.
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Multimedia games and simulations
May be used in a physical environment with special effects, with
multiple users in an online network, or locally with an offline
computer, game system, or simulator.
Enhanced levels of interactivity are made possible by combining
multiple forms of media content
Depending on what multimedia content you have it may vary
Online multimedia is increasingly becoming object-oriented and
data-driven, enabling applications with collaborative end-user
innovation and personalization on multiple forms of content over
time
Applications of Multimedia
• Multimedia finds its application in various areas including, but
not limited to, advertisements, art, education, entertainment,
engineering, medicine, mathematics, business, scientific
research and spatial temporal applications.
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• Creative industries
Creative industries use multimedia for a variety of purposes
ranging from fine arts, to entertainment, to commercial art, to
journalism, to media and software services.
An individual multimedia designer may cover the spectrum
throughout their career.
Request for their skills range from technical to analytical and to
creative
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• Commercial
Much of the electronic old and new media utilized by
commercial artists is multimedia.
Exciting presentations are used to grab and keep attention in
advertising.
Industrial, business to business, and interoffice communications
are often developed by creative services firms for advanced
multimedia presentations beyond simple slide shows to sell
ideas or liven-up training
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• Entertainment and Fine Arts
Multimedia is heavily used in the entertainment industry,
especially to develop special effects in movies and animations.
Multimedia games are a popular pastime and are software
programs available either as CD-ROMs or online
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• Education
In Education, multimedia is used to produce computer-based
training courses (popularly called CBTs) and reference books like
encyclopedia and almanacs.
A CBT lets the user go through a series of presentations, text
about a particular topic, and associated illustrations in various
information formats
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• Engineering
Software engineers may use multimedia in Computer
Simulations for anything from entertainment to training such as
military or industrial training.
Multimedia for software interfaces are often done as
collaboration between creative professionals and software
engineers.
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• Industry
In the Industrial sector, multimedia is used as a way to help
present information to shareholders, superiors and coworkers.
Multimedia is also helpful for providing employee training,
advertising and selling products all over the world via virtually
unlimited web-based technologies.
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• Mathematical and Scientific Research
In Mathematical and Scientific Research, multimedia is mainly
used for modeling and simulation.
For example, a scientist can look at a molecular model of a
particular substance and manipulate it to arrive at a new
substance
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• Medicine
In Medicine, doctors can get trained by looking at a virtual
surgery or they can simulate how the human body is affected by
diseases spread by viruses and bacteria and then develop
techniques to prevent it
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• Medicine
In Medicine, doctors can get trained by looking at a virtual
surgery or they can simulate how the human body is affected by
diseases spread by viruses and bacteria and then develop
techniques to prevent it
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• Multimedia in Public Places
In hotels, railway stations, shopping malls, museums, and grocery
stores, multimedia will become available at stand-alone terminals to
provide information and help.
Such installation reduce demand on traditional information personnel,
and they can work around the clock, even in the middle of the night,
when live help is off duty.
Hotel list nearby restaurant, maps of the city, airline schedules, and
provide guest services such as automated checkout.
Printers are often attached so users can walk away with a printed copy
of the information.
Advantages of multimedia
• It is very user-friendly
It doesn’t take much energy out of the user, in the sense that
you can sit and watch the presentation, you can read the text
and hear the audio
• It is multi sensorial (multi-sensory)
It uses a lot of the user’s senses while making use of
multimedia, for example hearing, seeing and talking.
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• It is integrated and interactive
All the different mediums are integrated through
the digitization process. Interactivity is heightened by the
possibility of easy feedback.
• It is flexible.
Being digital, this media can easily be changed to fit different
situations and audiences.
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• It can be used for a wide variety of audiences,
ranging from one person to a whole group. Example online
games where multiple user play different roles
• It can bring a number of advantages to the education.
It can help learners come to a deeper understanding through
supporting materials when new material is being presented
Disadvantages of multimedia
• Information overload
Because it is so easy to use, it can contain too much
information at once.
• It takes time to compile
Even though it is flexible, it takes time to put the original draft
together
It can be expensive.
Multimedia makes use of a wide range of resources, which can
cost you a large amount of money.
Disadvantages of multimedia
• Too much makes it unpractical
Large files like video and audio has an effect of the time it takes
for your presentation to load. Adding too much can mean that
you have to use a larger computer to store the files
In case you want to upload it onto the Internet, there are a few
factors to keep in mind, for example bandwidth and the
user’s abilities.
Hardware required for Multimedia
• Most of the computers equipped with the hardware
components required to develop/view multimedia applications

• Following are the various categories of hardware required for

multimedia applications
 Processor
The heart of any multimedia computer is its processor.
CPU performs all types of data processing operations. It stores
data, intermediate result and instructions (program).
Today Core i5 or higher processor is recommended for a
multimedia computer.
For example computers to play heavy resource games.
 Memory and Storage Devices
Memory is required for storing various files used during
production, original audio and video clips, edited pieces and
final mined pieces.
Memory is required for backup of project files.
Primary Memory- Primary memory holds only those data and
instructions on which computer is currently working. It has
limited capacity and data gets lost when power is switched off.
 It is divided into two subcategories RAM and ROM.
• Flash Memory: Cache memory is a very high speed memory,
which can speed up CPU. It acts as a buffer between the CPU
and main memory. It is used to hold those parts of data and
program which are most frequently used by CPU.

• Secondary Memory: This type of memory is also known as

external memory or non-volatile. It is slower than main
memory. These are used for storing Data/Information
permanently
 Input Devices 
Following are the various types of input devices which are used
in multimedia systems.
Mouse:  Mouse is most popular pointing device. It is a very
famous cursor-control device. It is a small palm size box with a
round ball at its base which senses the movement of mouse and
sends corresponding signals to CPU on pressing the buttons. 
Mouse can be used to control the position of cursor on screen,
but it cannot be used to enter text into the computer.
• Keyboard: Most common and very popular input device is
keyboard. The keyboard helps in inputting the data to the
computer.
• Light Pen: Light pen is a pointing device, which is similar to a
pen. It is used to select a displayed menu item or draw
pictures on the monitor screen. It consists of a photocell and
an optical system placed in a small tube
• Scanner: Scanner is an input device, which works more like a
photocopy machine. It is used when some information is
available on a paper and it is to be transferred to the hard
disc of the computer for further manipulation
• Digitizer: Digitizer is an input device, which converts analog
information into a digital form.
Digitizer is also known as Tablet or Graphics Tablet.
It converts graphics and pictorial data into binary inputs.
A graphic tablet as digitizer is used for doing fine works of
drawing and images manipulation applications.
• Bar Code Readers: Bar Code Reader is a device used for
reading bar coded data (data in form of light and dark lines).
Bar coded data is generally used in labelling goods,
numbering the books, etc.
• Microphone: Microphone is an input device to input sound
that is then stored in digital form
• Digital Camera: Digital camera is an input device to input
images that is then stored in digital form.
The digital camera is used for various applications like adding
images to a multimedia presentation or for personal purposes.
 Output Devices
Following are few of the important output devices, which are
used in Computer Systems
Monitors: Monitor commonly called as Visual Display Unit
(VDU) is the main output device of a computer. It forms images
from tiny dots, called pixels, that are arranged in a rectangular
form.
Printers: Printer is the most important output device, which is
used to print information on paper.
• Screen Image Projector: Screen image projector or simply
projector is an output device used to project information from
a computer on a large screen so that a group of people can
see it simultaneously.
• Speakers and Sound Card: Computers need both a sound
card and speakers to hear audio, such as music, speech and
sound effects. Most motherboards provide an on-board sound
card
Multimedia Software

• Multimedia software tells the hardware what to do. For

example, multimedia software tells the hardware to display
the color blue, play the sound of cymbals crashing etc.
• To produce these media elements( movies, sound, text,
animation, graphics etc.) there are various software available
such as Paint Brush, Photo Finish, Animator, Photo Shop, 3D
Studio, Corel Draw, Sound Blaster, IMAGINET, Photo Magic,
Picture Publisher.
• Multimedia Software Categories
• Following are the various categories of Multimedia software
• Device Driver Software- These softwares are used to install and
configure the multimedia peripherals.
• Media Players- Media players are applications that can play one or
more kind of multimedia file format.
• Media Conversion Tools- These tools are used for encoding /
decoding multimedia contexts and for converting one file format to
another.
• Multimedia Editing Tools- These tools are used for creating and
editing digital multimedia data.
• Multimedia Authoring Tools- These tools are used for combing
different kinds of media formats and deliver them as multimedia
contents.
Multimedia Application
• Multimedia applications are created with the help of different
tools and packages.
• The sound, text, graphics, animation and video are the
integral part of multimedia software. To produce and edit
these media elements, there are various software tools
available in the market. The categories of basic software tools
are:
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 Text Editing Tools

These tools are used to create letters, resumes, invoices, purchase
orders, user manual for a project and other documents. MS-Word is a
good example of text tool. It has following features:
• Creating new file, opening existing file, saving file and printing it.

• Insert symbol, formula and equation in the file.

• Align text within margins.

• Insert page numbers on the top or bottom of the page.

• Mail-merge the document and making letters and envolpes.

• Making tables with variable number of columns and rows.

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 Painting and Drawing Tools

• These tools generally come with a graphical user interface with pull
down menus for quick selection. You can create almost all kinds of
possible shapes and resize them using these tools.
• Drawing file can be imported or exported in many image formats
like .gif, .tif, .jpg, .bmp, etc. Some examples of drawing software are
Corel Draw, Freehand, Designer, Photoshop, Fireworks, Point etc.
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• These software have following features:

• Tools to draw a straight line, rectangular area, circle etc.

• Different colour selection option.

• Pencil tool to draw a shape freehand.

• Eraser tool to erase part of the image.

• Zooming for magnified pixel editing.

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 Image Editing Tools

Image editing tools are used to edit or reshape the existing images and
pictures.

These tools can be used to create an image from scratch as well as images
from scanners, digital cameras, clipart files or original artwork files created
with painting and drawing tools.

Examples of Image editing or processing software are Adobe Photoshop and

Paint Shop Pro.
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 Sound Editing Tools

These tools are used to integrate sound into multimedia project very easily.

You can cut, copy, paste and edit segments of a sound file by using these
tools.

The presence of sound greatly enhances the effect of a mostly graphic

presentation, especially in a video.

Examples of sound editing software tools are: Cool Edit Pro, Sound Forge and
Pro Tools. These software have following features
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• Record your own music, voice or any other audio.

• Record sound from CD, DVD, Radio or any other sound player.

• You can edit, mix the sound with any other audio.

• Apply special effects such as fade, equalizer, echo, reverse and more.
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 Video Editing Tools

These tools are used to edit, cut, copy, and paste your video and audio files.

Video editing used to require expensive, specialized equipment and a great

deal of knowledge.

The artistic process of video editing consists of deciding what elements to

retain, delete or combine from various sources so that they come together in
an organized, logical and visually planning manner.

Today computers are powerful enough to handle this job, disk space is cheap
and storing and distributing your finished work on DVD is very easy.

Examples of video editing software are Adobe Premiere and Adobe After
Effects.
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 Animation and Modeling Tools

An animation is to show the still images at a certain rate to give it visual

effect with the help of Animation and modeling tools.

These tools have features like multiple windows that allow you to view your
model in each dimension, ability to drag and drop primitive shapes into a
scene, color and texture mapping, ability to add realistic effects such as
transparency, shadowing and fog etc.

Examples of Animations and modeling tools are 3D studio max and Maya.