Authoring

Authoring in Interactive Media is the creation of a piece that a user can interact with. The programs that are used to do this are called Authoring tools. Before the interactive product is made, it goes under a process of planning. A schedule may be devised to dictate what part of a project is completed when. The project then goes on to the design process. The final idea may start off as several smaller ideas. These ideas are debated and expanded on. Rough sketches and graphics may be made at this stage to give an idea of what the final product may look like. The next part of the process is the development stage. This is when designers take the ideas, graphics and sketches from the design stage and use authoring tools (e.g. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, Autodesk 3D Studio Max etc.) to make them interactive, to make them work as intended. In this stage bugs are discovered and are fixed. This is also the stage that all the final graphics and sounds are made. Sounds, vector graphics, text, video, images and animations are called assets.  Different types of media may have to be created with different authoring tools. For example, you couldn’t record a sound in Microsoft Word, so you’d have to get the correct program for sound recording such as Audacity or Reaper. After the development has been finished, the final stage is then started. Production. Production is the bringing together of all the different assets to form the final finished product. Many things control interactivity. The designer can put buttons in the piece that can add a way to provide user feedback. The design may also write scripts that control and change almost any asset in the product.  An example of this is bringing all sound, graphics and scripts into Adobe Director, making the product and publishing it onto a DVD.

There is a wide range of uses of Authoring in Interactive Media. It is used for entertainment purposes in games and some films. It is used for educational purposes for training programs and assessments. Commercial uses of Authoring are common. It is used for marketing, presentations and product catalogues.

Interactive Media is found in a wide array of formats. It is so common that it is often missed and taken for granted. Authoring is used for websites, DVD’s and handheld devices such as phones and tablets. It is also found in information kiosks such as interactive electronic maps that are commonly found around town centres.

Limitations are extremely important when making an Interactive piece. The users system specifications must be taken into consideration before publishing the final product. The user must be informed of any plugins needed to run the product properly.