INSTRUCTOR : Charles Palmer

Media Design Center
Office: 268-8775
eMail: charlesp@andrew.cmu.edu

Teaching Assistants :

Section A: Howard Simkevitz, hfs1+@pitt.edu
Section B: Susan Devaney, devaneys@clpgh.org

COURSE

The goal of this course is to teach the fundamentals of multimedia authoring from concept to creation. We will examine the fundamental concepts of interface development and project management, in an effort to understand how multimedia technology can enhance the communicative process. Students will explore how motion, sound, interaction, and static layout work to help users understand information.

Throughout the course students will be offered an overview of the following applications:

Adobe Illustrator 8.0

Adobe Photoshop 5.8

Adobe Image Ready

Sound Edit 16 2.x

MacroMedia 6.5

And various shareware applications for web authoring

The PC equivalent of these applications are available in Heinz A001.
You can also use Computing Services's Software Distribution List

(http://www.cmu.edu/computing/software/mac_sw_tbl.html)

to identify which clusters have these applications installed.

While the class offers a jump-start to the applications above, students are expected to explore the higher level features on their own. Manuals and tutorials to all the software can be obtained in the clusters.

Another resource is the Internet -- which offers a wealth of tips and techniques for these applications.

COURSE MATERIALS

For this semester the MultiMedia class will use the following text:

Creative HTML Design - a hands-on html 4.0 web design tutorial
Lynda Weinman & William Weinman
New Riders Publishing, ISBN: 1-56205-704-9

Additional material (xerox copies) will be provided during the semester.

You will also need a PC formatted ZIP disk to store your work.

Some Web Resources

Adobe Software http://www.adobe.com
Macromedia http://www.macromedia.com
HTML Coding
http://home.netscape.com/assist/net_sites
http://tips-tricks.com
http://www.builder.com/Authoring/Basics
JavaScript http://www.cnet.com/Content/Builder/Programming

GRADING

Grading for the class will be determined by completion of 12 projects and two quizzes. Each student will have access to a web based grading sheet, maintained for this class. Access to this webpage will be given during the third week of class.

Below is a listing of this semesters projects. The point value for each project can be found in the Project Descriptions section of the course website.

Poster/Business Card

Illustrator Poster

Banking Kiosk
Photo Montage

CD Cover Art

Kinetic Text

Jukebox

Basic HTML

Table Data

Zodiac Site

Banking Site

Final Project

Quiz 1

Late assignments will only be accepted for one week after a projects original due date for any assignment and will incur a 10% (rounded up to the near whole point) score reduction for lateness. Assignments submitted more than one week after the due date will not receive any credit.

CHEATING
Cheating and/or plagiarism will not be tolerated.

Please see the CMU Student Handbook, p7-8, for definitions of cheating
and plagiarism, and the severe consequences of such behavior.

Should cheating or plagiarism occur, I am obligated to inform via official letter