CSE/ISE 334 SYLLABUS

Week 1
Lecture: What is Multimedia?
Conduits of information: print, broadcast, internet
Vehicles of expression: text, graphics, animation, audio, video, 3D
Multimedia systems approach
Brief history of visual communications
Research and application areas, employment outlook

Recitation: Examples of student multimedia projects.

Homework: Review course web site. Develop term project proposal.
Lab work: Mac OS X tutorials

Week 2
Lecture: The Creative Process
Models of creativity
Creativity strategies and exercises

Homework: Submit project proposal. Begin image library.
Lab work: iPhoto tutorials

Week 3
Lecture: The Design of Information
Aspect ratio and figure-ground relationships
Iconography
Design of statistical and schematic data
Cartography

Recitation: Hall of fame, and hall of shame.

Homework: Establish project web page, including image library.
Lab work: iWeb tutorials

Week 4
Lecture: The Nature of Information
Analog Events, Digital Recordings
Waveforms
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Color models
Frequency and Amplitude, Pitch and Volume, Color and Brightness
Transducers
Sampling rate, quantization

Homework: Create project storyboard using Comic Life.
Lab work: Comic Life tutorials

Week 5
Lecture: Pictures
Traditional and digital photography, scanning
Graphics formats
Digital color and palettes
Graphics compression
Image processing

Recitation: Image capture; masking and alpha channel.

Homework: Begin raster graphics assignment.
Lab work: Photoshop tutorials

Week 6
Lecture: Text and Graphics
Vectors
Paths
Text formats, character sets, and fonts
Typography

Recitation: Text on a path; vector-to-raster conversion; 2D extrusion to 3D.

Homework: Submit raster graphic assignment.
Lab work: Illustrator tutorials

Week 7
Lecture: Animation
Animation principles
Frame rate
Rotoscopy
Interpolation
Animation formats

Recitation: Frame-by-frame and interpolated animation; rotoscopy; morphing and spline-based animation.

Homework: Begin vector image assignment.
Lab work: Flash tutorials

Week 8
Lecture: 3D
3D modeling
Texture mapping
3D formats
Dimensional data capture

Recitation: Spline and polygon mesh modeling; morphing; particle systems; kinematics.

Homework: Begin vector animation assignment.
Lab work: Carrara tutorials.

Week 9
Lecture: 3D animation
Motion capture
Shape morphs
Forward and inverse kinematics

Homework: Submit vector image/animation assignment.

Week 10
Lecture: Video
Video capture
Analog video vs. digital video
Video formats and standards
Video compression

Recitation: Chroma and alpha channel video compositing; live video streaming; video morphing.

Homework: Begin 3D modeling assignment.
Lab work: QuickTime tutorials.

Week 11
Lecture: Audio
Audio capture
Digital audio vs. MIDI
Audio formats
Audio compression

Recitation: Digital multitrack recording of live audio; transcription of audio to MIDI; speech synthesis.

Homework: Texture mapping and lighting.
Lab work: GarageBand tutorials; begin audio exercise (practice sampling).

Week 12
Lecture: The Biology and Psychology of Human Perception
Visible spectrum
Auditory range
Sensory bandwidth
Psychology of color
Pattern recognition

Recitation: Persistence of vision; afterimage; simultaneous contrast; auditory & visual memory; recognition and response benchmarks.

Homework: 3D animation and camera work. Begin rendering.
Lab work: iMovie tutorials

Week 13
Lecture: Intellectual Property
Copyright
Visual Artist's Rights Act
Trade Secret
Trademark
Patent
Work for Hire

Homework: Begin audio assignment.

Week 14
Lecture: The Future of "New Media"
Immersive technology
Media convergence
Ubiquitous computing
Computer-supported collaborative work

Recitation: Multimodal interfaces; VR; stereography; synthetic actors.

Homework: Submit audio assignment.

Week 15

Homework: Submit final project on CD or DVD, include all other assignments and source files, including project web site and documentation. Label with your name.