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Tutorial 7: Working with Multimedia |
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Creating a Preview Movie QuickTime allows you to create a preview movie of your embedded video clips. The preview movie can be shortened version of the larger clip or even a single frame stored as a JPEG file. To create preview movie use a video editor such as QuickTime, saving the movie in the mov format. Once the preview movie is created, embed on the Web page with the following additional param elements: <param name="controller" value="false" /> <param name="href" value="large_movie.mov" /> <param name="target" value="myself" /> <param name="autohref" value="true" /> where large_movie.mov is the complete version of the embedded movie. When the page is loaded by the user it will play the preview movie but when the user clicks the embedded movie it will load the larger version of the clip. Creating a Movie Sequence QuickTime allows you to create a sequence of movies embedded within the same space on the Web page. To create a movie sequence add the following param element to the Web page code for the first embedded movie: <param name="qtnext1" value="movie2.mov" /> where movie2.mov is the filename of the next movie in the sequence. The second movie will play immediately after the initial movie is finished. To add more films to the sequence, insert additional param elements using the syntax: <param name="qtextnum" value="movienum.mov" /> where num is the number in the movie sequence and movienum.mov is the filename of the QuickTime movie. Using MIDI MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a standard adopted for synthesizers and sound cards. The MIDI format reduces sound to a series of values that describe the pitch, length, and volume of each note. Other characteristics of the note, such as attack and delay time, can be included in the MIDI file. Because MIDI is a supported standard, sounds created on one synthesizer can be played and manipulated on another synthesizer. Computers that have a sound card with a MIDI interface can access sounds created by these synthesizers and sound editing software can manipulate the MIDI files to create new sounds and sound effects. Other programs can translate MIDI files into a written score, which can then be printed out on your computer's printer. An additional advantage of MIDI files is that they are much smaller in size than WAV files. One could write a MIDI composition that lasts several minutes, which is less than 20 kilobytes in size. This makes MIDI a particular favorite with Web authors who wish to add background sounds to their Web pages. If you wish to sample some MIDI files, you can do so at the following Web sites: Using VRML VRML stands for Virtual Reality Modeling Language. VRML allows users to explore three-dimensional spaces (also called worlds). VRML introduces a new paradigm to Web users. Instead of clicking hyperlinks to jump from topic to topic, you move from one room to another in a three-dimensional space. To learn more about VRML, go to one of the sites listed below: |