Video Editing Software Report

Video Editing Software is a software application used for the altering of a video clip. It can be used to cut and paste imported portions of any video to make a new tidier sequence of a video clip or even a new montage of different clips which is then exported using the same software. Some of these packages also allow you to encode the video so it can be prepared for use on a DVD, mobile phone or uploaded to the internet. Special Effects can easily be added to your new sequence using transitions or monochrome for example. Monochrome is basically a pure black and white or two colour effect as shown below. If any other colours or shades are added to the black and white then the effect is known as greyscale as shown below.

Monochrome effect

To enable precise editing of a sequence the video is displayed on a timeline. This allows the user to finely edit, arrange, rearrange or find a specific suitable editing location within the video clip. The audio can also be manipulated or synced with the video in the same way on different timelines as shown below.

Linear editing is the original method of video editing where tapes are edited by using tape to tape editing to make a new sequence onto a master video tape. Although Non-linear editing was initially frowned upon as a new technology it is highly favoured nowadays as it is way simpler to use, less expensive and no physical cutting etc is required.
Linear is almost obsolete now but is sometimes still favoured if the job is simple, for instance joining two pieces of video together. It is still quicker and easier using linear in this instance.

Operating Systems Report

An operating system or OS is basically a program giving a means of interfacing, managing applications and allocating memory on your computer, they allow the user to control their computer in a much simpler way than DOS (disk operating system) alone by using windows and control or text panels called a GUI (Graphical User Interface). The programs that are accessed are called applications and they use the operating system via a defined APS (application program interface) to make requests.
The OS also lets you command the computer by typing and using the mouse. Another term to describe it is WIMP (window, icon, menu, pointing device) but this term is rarely used these days.

An example of MAC OS X operating system

The OS does many different tasks including controlling your printer and hard disk, keeps files and their directories on order, controls inputs and output devices such as the monitor, keyboard, scanner and mouse.
The most common example of an Operating System is Microsoft Windows but many others are available such as DOS, MAC OS X, Linux, Solaris and OS/2.

Operating systems aren’t only found on home computers, they are also used to control games consoles, laptops and super computers. They all require a means of controlling and interfacing with them otherwise they would be useless.

Database Report

A relational database is a collection of data, each piece of data is known as a field. This fields are separated into tables made up of columns and rows. The columns in databases are called attributes and the rows are called tuples as shown below. An example of this could be a business order entry database which would have a table for customers containing columns with Name, Address, Contact Number etc. A further table would be used for orders including Product, Customer, Order Date, Price etc. With this information in place an employee can search or do a ‘query’ for particular information. For instance they could look up accounts to be paid using certain search criteria and the results would be returned filtered to contain only this data.

The language used to interface with relational databases is known as SQL (structured query language). Using this language the user can accumulate data for reports and use interactive queries for data from a relational database.

A database needs to be organised so that there is no repetitious or redundant data being stored in more than one table. This process is called normalization and consists of five stages called normal form (1NF), second normal form (2NF), third normal form (3NF) and so on. Fourth normal form is used occasionally and fifth normal form is very rarely used. Third normal form is the most common normalization used for practical applications. The end result eliminates any duplication of data and thus avoids any problems with the database. Normalization is only a guideline but is almost always followed.

The managing of databases is done by using software known as a database management systems (DBMS). After the process of normalization the tables and fields can be entered into a database using the software to create forms on which anyone can then enter data into the individual fields. The data can then be stored and retrieved using query forms as described in paragraph one. Reports can also be produced in the same way using certain search criteria. Another feature in the software is the use of Forms which is basically a simpler or user friendly entry form for entering data.

Animation Software

Animation is a film made up from individual pictures or frames which are then run in sequence to give the illusion that the objects or characters in it are moving. This could be done with pencil, pen, cut-outs, computer images or puppets using stop motion where the puppet or model is moved a little and photographed with each movement. The most basic animation is flip book where something is drawn in a position then on the next page it is drawn slightly moved from the original position. This continues through each page, moving the item gradually until it is complete. The pages are then flipped through giving the animation of the drawing.

An example of animation

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As mentioned above another popular type of animation is stop motion or frame by frame where the animation is made up from photo stills of an object or model. A picture is taken then the model is moved very slightly then another picture is taken and so on. This is still used today in films such as Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit.

Morph, a character from the 80's was animated using stop motion by the now hugely famous Aardman Animations.

When a beginning and end picture is to be animated the work or process is called Tweening. The term tweening simply means the sequence that is needed 'in between' the two pictures to make them appear to move smoothly from beginning to end.

Animation has now become a huge business in TV and film through it's development on computers. Almost all animation we see nowadays is developed on a computer using animation software of some sort. Stop animation obviously still has to be done by hand but the end result will still be compiled using software on a pc. The biggest breakthrough has been in the film industry where 3D animation has and is always getting more advanced making the end result more realistic. Many different textures can be imitated using 3D software including water or fur on an animal, which has become the most popular type of film choice.

There are plenty of different types of software that will give an impressive result to the home or business user. These work by sketching or drawing on screen then allowing you to animate the picture by using frames and key frames. Some packages can allow the user to animate from one drawing alone by manipulating the image. Impressive 3D animation is even achievable by using software such as Blender, a graphics animation and video production program. Blender allows you to construct characters or anything of a solid appearance by constructing mesh models then wrapping them with textures so they appear realistic.

Another software package Pencil, works by the traditional method of hand drawn animation using vector and bitmap on the computer monitor kind of like tracing paper. This is a much simpler form of animation, suitable for beginners or anyone who may be interested in animation.

Assessment 2 & 3 - Sound Software

There are a number of Sound Software packages available to suit the user’s needs or experience. For the more experienced user, packages can be purchased. These have a lot more features than the free download packages that can be found on the Internet. Some of the most popular retail software packages are Sound Forge, Sony AcidPro and Reason. AcidPro and Reason are aimed more at the music production business and are more complicated using files, loops, percussion and instruments. Some CD burning programs also come with sound manipulation software. Nero has Wave Editor included and is quite easy to use. Most of the free sound software, which can be downloaded like Audacity work in a similar fashion and are relatively easy to operate.


Sound software can be used to manipulate most sounds, for instance recording someone’s voice with a microphone and changing the pitch or tempo of it to give a special effect. This could be used for a voiceover, radio show or podcast. You can also take a long clip of someone speaking and cut a small clip from it or even cut and paste it in a different order so they appear to say something completely different. Cutting small clips from larger speeches or music is useful for using on web sites or even ring tones on mobile phones.


Another reasonably new feature of sound software is transferring music files from audio tape or record. This can be done by using a special adaptor or pre amplifier then connecting a record/cassette player to record directly onto the computer. The software can even be used to eliminate any cracks or background noise by adjusting the sound and compensating the levels. When the sound file is recorded it will be one large mp3 or WAV file, this can then be split up and made into single tracks for a CD or mp3 player. Track titles can be added and will display on many of today’s CD and mp3 players.


Analogue-to-digital converters or ADC can convert analogue sounds to digital so they can be manipulated or made into computer sound formats i.e. mp3. This process can be reversed using a Digital-to-analogue converter or DAC. The quality of the transferred sound file depends on the converter, the more expensive it is the better result will be achieved.


More numbers of channels are used now with sound files, firstly there was Mono which was only one channel and lacked in any atmospheric quality. Mono was followed by Stereo which is still used today for music using two channels. Others include Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro-Logic, DTS and 3.1 which use various channels or speakers and a lone bass speaker ( the .1) or sub woofer. These are becoming more common today on computers to give a realistic or surrounding sound using the individual channels.

Assessment 2 & 3 - Graphics Software

Bitmap images basically work by placing many different colours in small squares called pixels in a large grid. When these squares or boxes are viewed from further away or zoomed out from the colours start to merge and the further out the grid is viewed from the smoother the image will appear and if it is a picture or photograph will be more apparent or recognisable. The clarity of the full picture also depends on the resolution (amount of pixels) of the user’s own monitor or screen. The more pixels the better the picture will be displayed.

Vector images work by joining points on the screen with a line by using maths or algebra eg. graphing equations using x and y coordinates. The line used to join two points is known as the path and can take any shape or form such as curved or wavy. These points can then be joint with other points and paths to make a shape which can then be filled with solid or gradient colours.

Bitmap software would be used by Photographers, artists or anyone that works with images which are very detailed as they can recreate or manipulate intricate images and photographs. Very detailed pictures such as photo realistic illustrations and collage can be retouched if there are any marks or defects by filling in or grading in pixels. Hand drawn sketches can also be retouched by using a pen tool.

Images may also be resized to a smaller scale and file size without a noticeable reduction or loss in quality. The images can then be used in an appropriate size on a web site or magazine layout.

Vector based software uses a mathematical layout and is therefore better suited to and used in environments such as graphic design or desk top publishing to create page layouts, design logos, typography and technical illustrations. It can also used to create sharp edged or crisp drawings such as clip art, complicated patterns or cartoons.

Table of possible uses

Layers work similar tracing paper, you can draw over the top of previous layers, move or delete any layers you are not happy with. This saves having to draw an image all in one session and maybe ruining the whole image by one simple mistake. The layers can also be moved up or down to sit above or below other parts of your design. This is very handy for designing logos when you may want to move around one part of the design on top of another to achieve the best result. A layer can also be locked once you are happy with it.

There are numerous effects to be found on Fireworks and other Vector software. The most regularly used ones are the fill effects for filling in solid objects. These can be changed to preset textures and patterns from a drop down menu. Any effect can be used with the patterns selection by uploading a fill in picture of your own, for instance you could use a brick wall as a surface and then change the colour. The transparency of the fill can also be reduced to make it more see through to show objects behind your filled section or change the colour of your selected fill.
More can be done with the colour and edges of your shapes with the filter effects. These include amongst others ‘Sharpen’, ‘Shadow and Glow’ and ‘Bevel and Emboss’. All of these selections are really self-explanatory. When sharpen is selected the option of ‘sharpen’ and ‘sharpen more’ appear, they will make the edges of your shape/s look sharper. If the image is as sharp as possible already then it will have the opposite effect as below, the edges are fuzzy and uneven.

If Shadow and Glow is selected many drop down options appear, Glow being one of the most effective as shown below. The writing appears to be glowing on the screen/page.

Bevel and Emboss gives the illusion of the writing or shape being raised from or pushed into a surface.
Any of the images fill and outline colour can be altered easily using the fill and outline icons, these appear in a few different locations for easy accessibility. Different effects can be added using the colours also like gradients etc. or by using the textures as mentioned above.

The Slice tool makes it possible to select more manageable rectangular or Polygon shaped areas on your image and export them to an HTML authoring software such as Dreamweaver which deciphers the HTML code and displays it. The sections you select are made up of ‘slices’ which are measured by the number of rows and columns they cover.

A number of preset shapes can be used with the shape tool in the main tool bar on the left. These shapes can be made any size by clicking and dragging then manipulated in any way by moving or dragging points set out around them.

More precise, smooth and straight lines can be drawn with the Pen Tool than with other tools. You can draw straight lines using dot to dot clicking or curved lines by dragging the pointer to your next point. The lines can then be joint together to give irregular shapes. Again these lines can be manipulated if you need to adjust them, this is done the same way as above with the shape tool.

In order to export images to a web site it is good practice to optimise the graphics. This basically means preparing them by bringing the size of image file down to an acceptable minimum. Acceptable meaning that the image does not lose too much quality and still looks good.
If the image has a lot of background or surrounding area with no interest it can firstly be cropped around the area of most interest.
The next step is to resize the image without reducing colour depth and resolution. Images will always lose quality when made larger.
Finally, compress the image by trying different file types i.e. TIFF/PNG. To compare the quality of each use the 2-Up or 4-Up buttons at the top of the image screen, this splits the screen in 2 or 4 so you can adjust each one individually and choose the best quality and file type using the smallest possible file size.
The Export Wizard can be used to guide the user through which file format to use, minimising the size and maximising the quality of the image.

Transparency is very important as it allows the user to place items and text above other designs or pages without borders or backgrounds. Images can be laid on top of others and blend in with or collage with the images behind.

Images can be created from shapes and text using Vector software or images can be edited using bitmap software.

Photographs can be edited using bitmap packages. For instance, by cutting and pasting a person from one picture then blending it into another by using anti-alias and other tools to soften the joins till they are almost unnoticeable. Pictures can also be changed in appearance by repairing, adding effects or changing to Black and White.

Multimedia Technology - Part 1 - Software

Authoring and Web Development Software

HTML (Hyper Text Mark up Language) text editors are software packages designed to enable the user to develop a web site using HTML and several technologies or mark up languages as a opposed to usually using one on a program such as Notepad for instance. An HTML text editor gives the user the option of using not only the HTML mark up language but also offers HTML related technologies such as Java, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or XML (eXstensible Mark up Language) to further enhance their web page, make it more attractive or more user friendly.
HTML text editors such as Notepad++, NoteTab Pro or Textmate are much easier to use than Notepad with many features such as Syntax highlighting (and brace and indent highlighting), split screen editing and page zooming. None of these are included in the basic Notepad program and therefore only a basic and maybe unappealing website could be constructed.

Web authoring software such as KompoZer Nvu, Dreamweaver and Frontpage are known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) packages. These allow the user to design a webpage by a means of ‘building’ it on screen, the screen displays how your website should look as you are constructing it. The problem being with authoring software is that often is the case that the final web page does not actually look exactly like the one you have constructed and different web browsers may display it in different ways and not how you intended. For instance, characters may be displayed differently or may evenbe unrecognizable.

HTML text Editors would be used by someone starting out in HTML or with little or no basic knowledge of web development in order to learn mark up languages. If they were to use web authoring software initially without learning primer HTML etc. they would probably be able to build a basic and unattractive web site but would be unable to identify any problems that may arise through lack of knowledge of the languages. Therefore more experienced people with a good knowledge of HTML and mark up languages would use authoring software to it’s full potential and would be far more likely to solve any problems or hard to locate glitches that may occur in the end result web pages.
Web Authoring software is as mentioned above a lot more powerful than normal text editors and it could be used by teachers, schools or any organisation that wants to create a online quiz, test or requires an e-learning website.