What does Multi Media really mean?

  • Video
  • Web
  • Animation
  • Audio
  • Mobile technology

When you are planning a campaign it is beneficial to understand the limitations of different media so that that you can plan your styling so it works across the range of media you want to exploit.

Certain fine fonts will not work for video and vibrant colours you really love on the screen will not reproduce in print.

Working with this knowledge and having a plan that can minimise frustration and wastage in the future is clearly the way to go if possible.

Video content
Video is a great way to communicate with you audience when done well. Here are some tips in creating video content:

  • Know your audience and the format your end product will be seen in
  • Plan and script your video as much as possible
  • Shoot in a studio environment if you can
  • Use HD if you are going to use chrome-key
  • If using Audio mic it separately from the camera.
  • Non moving back grounds create smaller files to download.

Web Content
The restrictions in html are considerable but are out weighed by the by the advantage of accessibility and versatility. They are restrictive in the use of generic font families in the main. This means that a browser will have a way of interpreting a font family to best recreate what the designer had in mind. This normally works of but often requires specific design corrections to work well.

The generic font families defined in HTML and CSS are:
Family Example (browser dependent)
serif
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789
sans-serif
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789
cursive
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789
fantasy The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789
monospace
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789

In conjuction with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) you can get some really hot looking pages that download fast and are easy to see by all.

Coming HTML5 will make this even easier to work with but this standard will not be fully available until 2025.

Flash
Flash is vector based graphics and allows you to load into the page what ever font you want. The disadvantage is that it appears as a graphic and can not be read by the search engines. There are ways to work around this as with everything but you need have a very good reason for making your life more complicated then absolutely necessary.

One other consideration is that Flash can only be altered by the designer, so unless you have the original files and permissions you can not change any part of the content your self or by the third party.

Audio
The audio component of media is often under utilised. Or it can be over used and become annoying. Not having a turn off button on a background track to a website is impolite and will lose your user if they don’t share your taste in music.

Make sure you have the rights for any sound bite you are using, This can also be said when you down load templates for websites. Unless you have the rights for images or tracks assume you don’t. There are many stories of companies that had become successful only to find them selves in litigation over an image or audio they thought they owned.

Animation
That lovable little character in the add was created by an artist and will cost you, if you want one of your own. Simple animation of words and shapes is a more affordable process. There is still always a place for an animated gif. That is a number of fames shown in sequence to give an impression of movement.