Multimedia and Animation
Multimedia and Animation
UNIT 1
PIXEL –
A pixel is the smallest unit of a digital image or graphic that can be displayed and
represented on a digital display device.
A pixel is represented by a dot or square on a computer monitor display screen. Pixels are
the basic building blocks of a digital image or display and are created using geometric
coordinates. Depending on the graphics card and display monitor, the quantity, size and color
combination of pixel varies and is measured in terms of the display resolution.
For eg. A computer with a display resolution of 1280 X 768 will produce a maximum of
9,83,040 pixels on a display screen. Each pixel has a unique logical addresses, a size of eight bits
or more and, in most high-end display devices, the ability to project millions of different colors.
The pixel resolution spread also determines the quality of display; more pixels per inch of
monitor screen yields better image results.
Display Unit –
Typically, the primary output devices in a graphic system is a video monitor. Monitors
are measured in inches, diagonally from side to side. However, there can be a big difference
between that measurement and the actual viewable area. A 14- inch monitor only has a 13.2 inch
viewable area, a 15-inch sees only 13.8 inches, and a 20-inch will give 18.8 inches viewing.
Monitor resolution is measured in pixels, width by height. 640 X 480 resolution means
that the screen is 640 pixels wide by 480 tall, an aspect ratio of 4:3.
Originally monitors were fixed at a particular resolution, but most monitors today are
capable of changing their displayed resolution under software control. This allows for higher or
lower resolution depending on the needs of the application. A higher resolution display shows
more on the screen at one time, and the maximum resolution that a monitor can display is limited
by the size of the monitor and the characteristics of the CRT. In addition, the monitor must have
sufficient input bandwidth to allow for refresh of the screen, which becomes more difficult at
higher resolutions because there is so much more information being sent to the monitor.
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Here are some recommended resolutions for the different screen sizes.
14” 15” 17” 19” 21”
640*480 BEST GOOD TOO BIG HUGE TERRIBLE
800*600 GOOD BEST GOOD TOO BIG HUGE
1024*768 TOO SMALL GOOD BEST GOOD STILL GOOD
1280*1024 TINY TOO SMALL GOOD BEST GOOD
1600*1200 TERRIBLE TINY TOO SMALL GOOD BEST
MULTIMEDIA
Definition –
The word multimedia is composed from two words : multi and media. The prefix multi
comes from the Latin word “multus”, which means many or numerous. The word media is the
plural form of the Latin word “medium”, which means middle or transmission channel. So, we
can define Multimedia as the integration of text, graphics, drawings, still and moving images
(video), animation, and audio delivered to us by an electronic media.
What is medium –
The meaning of the word medium is a means to distribute and represent information.
Media can be text, graphics, pictures, voice, sound and music. Media can thus be classified as –
1. Perception (sensory) medium –
a) Visual media – text, graphics, images.
b) Auditory media – music, sound, voice.
2. Representation medium –
Various formats such as -
Text – ASCII code
Image – JPEG,BMP
Sound – Wav, MP3
Video – MP4, GIF
3. Presentation medium –
Physical system or devices to I/O
Input – keyboards, mouse, cameras etc.
Output – Paper, monitor, speaker etc.
4. Storage medium –
Physical means for storing. Magnetic tapes, magnetic disks or optical
disks and even paper.
5. Transmission medium –
Physical means that allows transmission. Coaxial cable, fiber optics or
radio waves etc.
6. Information exchange medium –
Media used to transport information. Electronic mailing system, transport
facility.
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Properties of Multimedia system –
A computer capable of handling text, graphics, audio, animation and video is called
multimedia system. Properties are –
1. Multiple media
2. Non – linearity
3. Interactive
4. Digital representation
5. Integrity
Delivering Multimedia –
Multimedia lessons can be delivered in multiple ways, including through stand – alone
CD-ROM. With the fast development of internet and its bandwidth, it is also possible to place
multimedia lessons on the world wide web as a part of an e-learning program. Another option
still available and used most effectively is as supplement or complement to the printed lessons.
Thus we have two basic approaches to deliver multimedia lessons – Independent approach and
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Blended approach. Independent approach has two different modes – web delivery and CD
delivery. The Blended approach has two strategies – supplementary and complementary.
Independent approach –
CD based delivery of content - The CD ROM drive has become a standard component
of computers these days, and therefore it is one of the best options available. A compact disc, or
CD, is a thin wafer of clear polycarbonate plastic and metal measuring 4.75 inches (120 mm) in
diameter, with a small hole, or hub in its center. The metal layer is usually pure aluminum,
sputtered onto the polycarbonate surface in a thickness measurable in molecules. As the disc
spins in the CD player, the metal reflects light from a tiny infrared laser into a light – sensitive
receiver diode. These reflections are transformed into an electrical signal and then further
converted to meaningful bits and bytes for use in digital equipment.
Though a CD contains tracks, the primary logical unit for data storage on a CD is a
sector, which is 1/75 second in length. Each sector of a CD contains 2,352 bytes of data. After
every sector are another 882 bytes consisting of two layers of error - detecting and error –
correcting information and timing control data. A CD actually requires, then 3,234 bytes to store
2,352 bytes the data.
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DVD (Digital Versatile Discs) – DVDs employ a different (multilayer, high density)
manufacturing process than audio and data CDs, and this technology provides as much as 15.9
GB of storage on a single disc in the Double sided, Dual layered format (DVD – 18)
In December 1995, nine major electronics companies (Toshiba, Matsushita, Sony,
Philips, Time Warner, Pioneer, JVC, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi Electric) agreed to promote a new
optical disc technology for distribution of multimedia and feature – length movies called DVD.
There are three competing sets of standards for recording DVD: DVD/R, DVD – RW,
DVD +R/DVD+RW and DVD RAM. The “R” and “RW” stand for recordable and rewritable
respectively.
True to marketing principles, DVD manufacturers express DVD capacities in billion byte
quantities where “billion” or “Giga” means the vernacular 1000*1000*1000, not the more
precise binary definition of 1024*1024*1024 bytes used by our computer.
Web based delivery of content – Since multimedia files are normally very big in size,
they are not recommended for web – based delivery because of the poor bandwidth at the user’s
end. However, with the emergence of Shockwave, the delivery of multimedia on the web has
become easier. Shockwave is a standard format for displaying media element. It is also an
extension or plug – in for the browser. Essentially, it is a compression technique that allows us to
play Director, Flash or Authorware files over the net. However, if you plan to deliver multimedia
over the net, you need to do the following:
Minimize the number of cast members.
Use low – resolution images and sound.
Use images that can be compressed.
Do not use loops continuously.
Blended approach –
A blended strategy means that you can mix different media in to a package. For eg. A self
learning program can be delivered in a package of content in print, multimedia CD and the web
versions.
In a supplementary strategy, the multimedia CD or web version becomes supplement to
the print version of learning materials. This strategy is useful if there is a need to strengthen the
learning process by providing multiple points of view.
On the other hand, a complementary strategy defines the limits of print medium to some
areas of the content and the others for multimedia delivery. In this way both the media
approaches become complementary to each other, forming an integrated approach.
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TEXT : Fonts and Faces :
Text is nothing but representation of information in the form of strings of characters. For
digital representation, each character is represented by a unique combination of a fixed number
of bits known as codeword. And hence the complete text is a string of such codewords. There
are three types of text : Unformatted text, formatted text, Hypertext.
Unformatted text –
Unformatted text also known as plaintext, comprises of fixed sized characters from a
limited character set. The character set is called ASCII (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange) table. ASCII is the most commonly used character sets and the table includes the
binary codewords for representing each character. Each character is represented by a 7 – bit
binary code. This means there are 27 = 128 codewords which can be used to identify the
characters. The row and column are expressed in hexadecimal number format. Therefore
character in row = 4 and column = 1, represents character “A”. So the codeword used to
represent A is (1000001)2 = (41)16 = (65)10.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 NUL SOH STX ETX EOT ENQ ACK BEL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
1 DLE DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 NAK SYN ETB CAN EM SUB ESC FS GS RS US
2 ` ! “ # $ % & ▪ ( ) * + , - . /
3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
4 @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
5 P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
6 ’ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
7 p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ DEL
ASCII Table
The ASCII character set in addition to all alphanumeric (both A-Z and a-z), numeric (0-
9) and punctuation characters (parenthesis, ampersand, single and double quotes, mathematical
operators) collectively known as printable characters, also includes a number of control
characters. These are shown in the table.
Formatted Text –
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Formatted text are those which contains not only alphanumeric characters but also some
control characters that are used to change the appearance of the characters like bold, italics,
underline, different sizes and colors etc. In addition, a variety of document formatting options are
supported to enable an author to structure a document into chapters, sections, paragraphs,
heading, tables etc. MS Word or any text processing software provides such formatting options
An example of formatted text string is shown as –
Computer , Computer
In order to print a document, the printer should also be capable of interpreting
these controls code so that the appropriate appearance may be printed.
Hypertext –
The prefix hyper signifies the overcoming of the old linear constraints of written text.
Hypertext is a type of formatted text that enables a related set of documents called pages to be
created which contains links to other pages referred to as hyperlinks.
Hypertext is mostly used on the world wide web (www) for linking different web pages
together and allowing the user to navigate from one page to another. The languages that are used
to create such documents are HTML, SGML, Postscript, Tex, and Latex.
Cases –
In centuries when type was set by hand, the type for a single font was always stored in
two trays, or cases; the upper tray held capital letters, and the lower tray held the small letters.
Today, a capital letter is called uppercase, and a small letter is called lowercase.
Type faces –
Type has been characterized as feminine, masculine, delicate, formal, capricious, witty,
comic, happy, technical, newsy etc. But one approach for categorizing typefaces is universally
understood and it has less to do with the reader’s response to the type than it does with the type’s
mechanical and historical properties. This approach uses the terms Serif and Sans Serif.
Serif versus Sans serif is the simplest way to categorize a typeface; the type either has a
Serif or it doesn’t (Sans is French for “without”). The Serif is the little decoration at the end of a
letter stroke. Times, New Century Schoolbook, Bookman and Palatino are examples of Serif
fonts. Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, Optima and Avant Garde are Sans Serif. Notice the Difference
between Serif and Sans Serif below
T T T T
On the printed page, Serif fonts are traditionally used for body text because the Serifs are said to
help guide the reader’s eye along the line of text. Sans Serif fonts, on the other hand, are used for
headlines and bold elements. But the computer world of standard, 72 dpi monitor resolution is
not the same as the print world, and it can be argued that Sans Serif fonts are far more eligible
and attractive when used in the small size of a text field on a screen.
IMAGES :
Graphic images are another important and interesting components of multimedia. Images are
photographs and pictures composed of a collection of pixels. In attractive communication,
graphic images are used more often than text to explain a concept, present background
information etc. Text is represented in universal ASCII format while graphics does not have any
single agreed format. There are two different ways in which graphics or images can be described.
There are – Bitmap images and Vector images
Bitmap Images –
“Bitmap images are photographs and pictures composed of a collection of pixels or dots” .
A bit is the simplest element in the digital world, an electronic digit that is either on or
off, black or white, or true (1) or false (0). This is referred to as binary, since only two –
dimensional matrix of these bits. A bitmap, then, is a simple matrix of the tiny dots that
form an image and are displayed on a computer screen or printed.
A one – dimensional matrix (1 – bit depth) is used to display monochrome images
– a bitmap where each bit is most commonly set to black or white. Picture elements
(known as pels or pixels) can be either on or off, as in the 1- bit bitmap, or by using more
bits to describe them, can represent varying shades of color (4 bits for 16 colors; 8 bits for
256 colors; 15 bits for 32,768 colors; 16 bits for 65,536 colors; 24 bits for 16,777,216
colors)
Each pixel in a bitmap image is assigned a specific location and color value. The
size and quality of bitmap image depends on the pixel density and number of colors it
uses. For ex. A standard VGA (Video Graphics Array) monitor use 640 pixels across and
480 pixels down (that is total of 3,07,200 (640*480) dots or pixels) to display a bitmap
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image. If a bitmap image is black and white color, than only one digital bits is required to
store this information about the image for each pixels (0 for black color and 1 for white
color) and the position of the pixels can be taken as the order in which they are produced.
Bit depth No of possible colors Available binary combinations
1 bit 2 0, 1
2 bit 4 00, 01, 10, 11
4 bit 16 0000,0001,0011,0111,
1111,0010,0100,1000,
0110,1100,1010,0101,
1110,1101,1001,1011
Vector Drawing –
A vector is a line that is described by the location of its two end points (lines).
Vector graphics are a collection of graphic elements like lines, squares, rectangles or
circles. Each element in a vector graphic has its own coordinates and can be manipulated
and resized individually without distortion. Since the computer just increases the
coordinate values proportionately, resizing manipulations don’t affect the quality of a
vector graphics. In other words, vector graphics are scalable and hence they are
resolution independent. We can increase and decrease the size of vector images to any
degree without affecting the image quality.
A simple rectangle, for ex. might be defined as follows –
RECT 0, 0, 200, 200
Using Cartesian coordinates our software will draw a rectangle (RECT) starting at
the upper – left corner of our screen (0, 0) and going 200 pixels horizontally to the right
and 200 pixels downward (200, 200) to the mark the opposite corner. This rectangle
would be a square, as all sides are identical lengths. For this description
RECT 0, 0, 200, 200, RED, BLUE our software will draw the same square with a
red boundary line and fill the square with the color blue. We can, of course, add other
parameters to describe a fill pattern or the width of the boundary line.
Cartesian Coordinates are a pair of numbers that describe a point in two-
dimensional space as the intersection of horizontal and vertical lines (the x and y axis).
They are always listed in the order x, y. In three – dimensional space, a third dimension
depth is described by the z axis (x, y, z). This coordinate system is named for the French
philosopher and mathematician, Rene Descartes.
3 – D Drawing –
3 D graphics were first created in the 1960s, when vector images were introduced.
The vector approach allowed for the 3 D graphics to be created, using the same
techniques mathematical formulas calculating the position of each pixel in the 3 D image.
Creating objects in 3 D on a computer screen can be difficult for designers
comfortable with squares, circles, and other x (width) and y (height) geometrics on a 2 D
screen.
Also, a great deal of information is needed to display a 3 D scene. Scenes consist
of objects that in turn contain many small elements such as blocks, cylinders, spheres or
cones (described using mathematical constructs or formulas. The more elements
contained in an object, the more complicated its structure will be and, usually, the finer
its resolution and smoothness.
Objects and elements in 3D space carry with them properties such as shape, color,
texture, shading and location. A scene contains many different objects.
To model an object that we want to place into our scene, we must start with a
shape .We can create a shape from scratch, or we can import a previously made shape
from a library of geometric shapes called primitives typically blocks, cylinders, spheres
and cones. In most 3 D applications, we can create any 2 D shape with a drawing tool or
place the outline of a letter, then extrude or lathe it into the 3D along the z axis. When
you Lathe a shape, a profile of the shape is rotated around a defined axis (we can set the
direction) to create the 3D object. Other methods for creating 3D objects differ among the
various software packages.
File formats for Images –
As we know an image is stored as a 2D array. Each value in the array represents
the information associated with a pixel in the image. In case of a bitmap image, the value
is a binary digit whereas for a color image the value gives information about the
intensities of the red, green and blue components of the color of that pixel.
The size of the stored image format is large because the value of each RGB
combination at each pixel must be stored. Apart from color information, additional
information such as width, height, depth, name of the creator etc. is also stored.
Macintosh Formats Windows Formats Cross – Pledged Formats
1. PICT – developed 1. DIB – Device For handling drawn objects
by Apple it can store Independent Bitmap across many platforms,
both bitmaps and 2. RIFF – Resource there are two common
vector drawn Interchange File formats; DXF and IGS
objects. Format
3. BMP – a Bitmap file DXF was developed by
4. TIFF – Tagged AutoDesk as an ASCII
Interchange File based drawing interchange
Format file for AutoCAD, IGS (or
5. PCX – PCX files IGES for Initial Graphics
were originally Exchange Standard) was
developed for use in developed by an industry
Z-soft MSDOS paint committee as a broader
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packages. standard for transferring
Often applications use a CAD drawings.
proprietary file format to
store their images. Adobe JPEG and GIF images are
creates a PSD file for the most common bitmap
Photoshop and an AIX for formats used on the web
illustrator; Corel creates a and are cross platformed.
CDR file; Micrographic
Designer and Picture
Publisher applications use
DSF and PPF files.
SOUND :
Sound is a physical phenomenon produced by the vibration of matter and
transmitted as waves. Sound waves exist as variations of pressure in a medium such as
air. An audible sound is created by the vibration of an object at audible frequency, which
causes the air surrounding it to vibrate. The vibrating air then causes the human eardrum
to vibrate, which the brain interprets as sound. For ex. The sound waves produced by
clapping of two hands causes a disturbance of the air around the hands: the hands are the
source of the sound. The simplest sound we can hear is a sine wave also called a tone.
Sound waves can be characterized by the following attributes : period, frequency,
amplitude and speed.
Period – It is the time required by the waveform to complete one full cycle. It can
also be called as the time interval at which a periodic signal or waveform repeats the
cycle.
Amplitude – It is the intensity of energy or strength of the wave. It corresponds to
the loudness of the wave. The unit used for measuring loudness is decibel denoted by dB.
Higher the energy of the sound wave more is the amplitude, so louder will be sound.
Frequency – It is the number of vibrations of a particle in a sound wave in one
second. It corresponds to pitch of sound. Frequency is measured in Hertz denoted by Hz.
The faster the sound source vibrates, the higher is the frequency. It is the reciprocal value
of period (T). f = 1/T
Speed – The speed of sound is the distance travelled during a unit of time by a
sound wave propagating through a medium. It is expressed in meters/second (m/s) and
expressed as Speed = distance / Time
The speed of sound depends on the medium through which the sound travels. The
speed of sound in air is approximately 340 m/s and 1500 m/s in water.
Sound can be encoded into two ways – Digital and analog.
Digital lends itself to computers and other electronic equipment by recording information
into 1’s and 0’s. Analog on the other hand is included of continuous and variable
electrical waves that represent an infinite number of values.
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Digital Audio –
Digital audio is created when we represent a sound wave using numbers – a
process referred to as digitizing. We can digitize sound from a microphone, a synthesizer,
existing tape recordings, live radio and television broadcasts, and popular CDs. In fact we
can digitize sounds from any source natural or prerecorded.
Digitized sound is sampled sound. Every nth fraction of a second, a sample of
sound is taken and stored as digital information in bits and bytes. The quality of this
digital recording depends upon how often the samples are taken and how many numbers
are used to represent the value of each sample (bit depth, sample size, resolution or
dynamic range). The more often we take a sample and the more data we store about that
sample, the finer the resolution and quality of the captured sound when it is played back.
Since the quality of our audio is based on the quality of our recording and not the device
on which our end user will play the audio. Thus, digital audio is said to be device
independent.
CD – Quality Audio –
A compact Disc (CD) is an optical device used for storing digital data. It was
basically developed for storing digital audio by Philips and Sony. The standard used for
storing digital audio and in general multimedia information streams in CD is called
CD – Digital Audio or CD – DA. Data in the CD digital audio format is encoded by
starting with a source file, and sampling it to convert into digital format. CD – DA audio
uses a sample rate of 44,100 samples per seconds. Each sample is 16 bits in size, and the
sampling is done in stereo i.e. for recording stereophonic music it uses two separate
channels. Therefore, each second of sound takes (44,100 * 2 * 2) bytes of data, which is
176,400 bytes.
Audio data is stored on the CD in blocks, which are also sometimes called sectors.
Each block holds 2,352 bytes of data, with an additional number of bytes used for errors
detection and correction, as well as control structures. Therefore, 75 blocks are required
for each second of sound. On a standard 60 minute CD, the total amount of storage is
(2,352 * 75 * 60 * 60) which is 635,040,000 bytes or about 635 MB.
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FOR EXTENSION
AIFF Audio .aiff .aif .aife .aifc
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MIDI .kar .mid .midi .smf
MP3 Audio .mp3
MPEG Audio stream .mpeg .mpg .mpm .mpv
AU Audio .snd .ulw
Beatnik .rmf
Ulaw Sound .au .al
Amiga Sound .8sux .sux .med .8med
669 MOD Music .669
MPEG – 1 Audio movie .mp2 .mpa .m15 .mla
MPEG -1 Layer 3 .mp3
Ogg Vorbis .ogg
QCP Audio .qcp
Real Time Streaming Protocol .rtsp
Real Audio .ra .ram .rm
Sound designer 2 File .sd2
Sound Edit Sound .hcom
Voc Sound .voc
Wav Audio .wav
Windows Media .wma
VIDEOS :
Video is a combination of image and audio. It consists of a set of still images called
frames displayed one after another at a specific rate known as the frame rate. Video plays an
important role in many multimedia applications ex. Video conferencing, broadcast television,
movies. There is a difference in the quality of video used for different applications. For ex. For
video conferencing, a small window on the computer screen will do while for a movie, a large
screen is preferable.
Analog – An analog signal is a continuously changeable voltage that comes into sight as
a waveform when plotted over time. Each vertical line in next figure for ex. could represent
1/10,000 of a second. If the minimum voltage in the waveform is 0 and the maximum is 1, point
A would be about 25 volts.
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Aspect Ratio – It is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two
numbers separated by a colon. The screen aspect ratio of a traditional television screen is 4:3.
HDTV uses an aspect ratio of 16:9.
Color model – It describes the video color representation. NTSC and PAL television
uses YUV scheme and the YDbDr scheme is used by SECAM television.
Pixel depth – It indicates the number of bits per pixel.
Bit rate – It is a measure of the rate of information content in a video stream. It is
quantified using the bit per second (bit/s or bps) unit. A higher bit rate allows better video quality
then DVD, with a bit rate of about 5 Mbit/s. HDTV has a still higher quality, with a bit rate of
about 20 Mbit/s.
Working of Video –
When light reflected from an object passes through a video camera lens, that light is
converted into an electronic signal by a special sensor called a charge – coupled device (CCD).
Top quality broadcast cameras and even camcorders may have as many as three CCDs (one for
each color of red, green and blue) to enhance the resolution of the camera. The output of the
CCD is processed by the camera into a signal containing three channels of color information and
synchronization pulses (sync.). There are several video standards for managing CCD output,
each dealing with the amount of separation between the components of the signal. The more
separation of the color information found in the signal, the higher the quality of the image. If
each channel of color information is transmitted as a separate signal on its own conductor, the
signal output is called RGB (red, green and blue) which is the preferred method for higher –
quality and professional video work. Output can also be split into two separate chroma (color)
channels, Cb/Cr (blue and red chroma components) and a luma component channel (Y), which
makes the dark and light part of the video picture. These components are often confused with the
YUV color space in which time = Y, x-axis = U and y-axis = V.
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In analog systems, the video signal from the camera is delivered to the Video In
connector(s) of a VCR, where it is recorded on magnetic videotape. A camcorder combines both
camera and tape recorder in a single device. One or two channels of sound may also be recorded
on the videotape. The video signal is written to tape by a spinning recording head that changes
the local magnetic properties of the tape’s surface in a series of long diagonal stripes. Because
the head is canted or tilted at a slight angle compared with the path of the tape, it follows a
helical (spiral) path, which is called helical scan recording. In the below figure each stripe
represents information for one field of a video frame. A single video frame is made up of two
fields that are interlaced. Audio is recorded on a separate straight line track at the top of the
videotape, although with some recording systems sound is recorded helically between the video
tracks. At the bottom of the tape is a control track containing the pulses used to regulate speed.
Tracking is fine adjustment of the tape so that the tracks are properly aligned as the tape moves
across the playback head. This is how our VCR works when we rent it for the weekend. DVDs
do this quite differently.
In digital systems, the video signal from the camera is first digitized as s single frame,
and the data is compressed before it is written to the tape in one of several proprietary and
competing formats : DV, DVCPRO, or DVCAM. There are other configurations of video tapes
that only would be used with high – end video production in conjunction with high – end video
equipment in a professional situation.
Analog Display Standards –
Three analog broadcast video standards are commonly in use around the world -
1. NTSC – (National Television Systems Committee) NTSC standard uses 525 scan lines
(horizontal lines) per frame, 30 frames per second, 2 interlaced fields per frame, 262.5
lines per files, 60 fields per second (refresh rate) and an aspect ratio of 4:3. Out of 525
horizontal lines, only 480 lines are actively used for displaying the picture.
2. PAL – (Phase Alternation Line) PAL standard uses 625 scan lines per frame, 25 frames
per second, 2:1 interlacing with two fields per frame, 50 fields per second (refresh rate)
and an aspect ratio of 4:3. Out of 625 horizontal lines, only 576 lines are actively used.
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3. SECAM – (Sequential Color and Memory) SECAM is a 625 line, 50 Hz system. It
differed greatly from both the NTSC and the PAL color systems in its basic technology
and broadcast method. Often, however, TV sets sold in Europe utilized dual components
and could handle both PAL and SECAM systems.
Digital Display Standards –
1. ATSC – (Advanced Television System Committee) is the digital television standard for
the US, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and South Korea. It is being considered in other
countries. It supports wide screen aspect ratio of 16:9 with images up to 1920 * 1080
pixels in size and a number of other image sizes, allowing up to six, standard definition
“virtual channels” to be broadcast on a single TV station using the existing 6 MHz
channel. It boasts of “theatre quality” because it uses Dolly Digital AC – 3 format to
provide 5.1 channel surround sound.
2. DVB – (Digital Video Broadcasting) is used where the standards define the physical
layer and data link layer of a distribution system.
3. ISDB – (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) is used to allow radio and television
stations to convert to digital format.
Video File Formats –
A video file format is a type of file format for storing digital video data on a computer
system. Video is almost, always stored in compressed form to reduce the filesize.
A video file normally consists of a container format containing video data in a video
coding format alongside audio data in an audio coding format. The container format can also
contain synchronization information, subtitles and metadata such as title. A standardized video
file type such as .webm is a profile specified by a restriction on which container format and
which video and audio compression formats are allowed.
The coded video and audio inside a video file container is called the essence. A program
which can decode video or audio is called codec.
Name Extension Container Video Coding Audio Coding
webM .webm Matroska VP8, VP9 Vorbis, Opus
Matroska .mkv Matroska Any Any
Flash Video .flv FLV VP6, H.264 MP3, AAC
F4V .flv MPEG-4, Part 12 H.264 MP3, AAC
Vob .vob VOB H.262, MPEG -2 PCm, DTS,
MPEG -1 Audio Layer
11(MP2)
Ogg Video .ogg, .ogv Ogg Theora, Diarc Vorbis, FlAC
GIF .gif N/A N/A None
AVI .avi AVI Any Any
Windows Media .wmv ASF Windows Media Windows Media
Video Video Audio
MPEG – 4 .mp4, .m4p MPEG-4 Part 12 H.264, MPEG-4 Advanced Audio
MPEG-2,MPEG-1 Coding MP3
MPEG-1 .mpg, .mp2 MPEG-1 Part 1 MPEG-1, Part 2 MPEG-1 Audio
Layer -1
MPEG-2 Video .mpg, .mpeg ?? H.262 AAL, MP3
Multimedia Applications :
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Multimedia applications and systems have become a very common part of our everyday
lives. We are all using mobile devices, which can display pictures and video data; DVD players
in the home, downloadable games, satellite television, and radio stations.
Multimedia Application Classes - There are large number of applications that use
multiple media types. In general, all the applications can be categorized into three applications
classes namely:
Interpersonal Communication
Interactive applications over the Internet
Entertainment applications
Interpersonal Communication – The applications that fall under this class may involve the use
of speech, image, text or video. In some applications just a single type of medium is involved
while in others two or more media types are integrated together. Examples telephony (involving
speech only), Voicemail, Teleconferencing, electronic mail, facsimile (fax machine), video
telephony.
Interactive applications over the Internet – The internet is a global system of interconnected
computer networks that use the standardized internet protocol suite TCP/IP. Internet is a network
of networks that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business and government
networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless
connections and other technologies. For ex. Video conferencing, video on demand, educational
applications (text book Instructor, Macromedia Authorware, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia
Director), industrial applications (CBT,WBT), digital library and multimedia archives.
Entertainment Applications – The entertainment application can be divided into two types :-
a) Movie / video on demand.
b) Interactive television.
Telephone Communication
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VoD connections
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UNIT 2
Concept of lossy and lossless compression, concept of translating, scaling and rotating an object
in 2D and 3D; color models : RGB, CMYK, HSV; overview of concepts : Clipping, orthographic
and parallel projection, lighting, transparency, texturing, rendering.
Compression is the reduction in size of data in order to save space or transmission time.
In order to achieve compression, different compression algorithms are developed which are
based on some compression principles.
Compression algorithm can be classified into two types – lossless and lossy compression.
Lossless Compression – In lossless compression the source information is compressed or
reduced in such a way that when decompression is done, then the exact copy of source
information is retrieved i.e. there is no loss of information. Hence, lossless compression
is said to be reversible. An example can be a text file which is to be transmitted.
Lossy Compression – In lossy compression, the (source) information is compressed by
removing unwanted/ negligible information from the source information. The algorithm
aims to minimize the amount of data that needs to be held, handled, and /or transmitted
by a computer. Thus in this compression algorithms, some amount of information is lost.
Hence, it is said to be irreversible. It can be applied for compressing images, audio and
video.
Compression Techniques –
1. General Purpose lossless compression –
a. Run length Encoding
b. Relative Encoding
c. Huffman Coding
d. Arithmetic Coding
e. Lempel – Ziv Coding
A) Run – length Encoding – It is a compression technique that replaces repeated
occurrences of a symbol with the symbol followed by the number of times it is repeated.
For ex. the string 111110000003355 could be represented by 15063252. Without a doubt
this compression technique is most useful where symbols appear in long runs, and thus
can sometimes be useful for images that have areas where the pixels all have the same
value, cartoons for example.
B) Relative Encoding – Relative encoding is a transmission technique that tries to get better
efficiency by transmitting the difference between each value and its predecessor in place
of the value itself. Thus the values 15106433003 would be transmitted as
1+4-4-1+6-2-1+0-3+0+3. In effect the transmitter is predicting that each value is
the same as its predecessor and the data transmitted is the difference between the
predicted and actual values. Differential Pulse Code Modulation (DPCM) is an example
of relative encoding.
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C) Huffman Encoding – It is a well liked compression technique that assigns variable
length codes to symbols, so that the most frequently occurring symbols have the shortest
codes. On decompression the symbols are reassigned their original fixed length codes.
When used to compress text, for ex. variable length codes are used in place of ASCII
codes, and the most common characters, usually space, e and t are assigned the shortest
codes. In this way the total number of bits required to transmit the data can be
considerably less than the number required if the fixed length representation is used.
Huffman coding is particularly effective where the data are dominated by a small number
of symbols. Using the text ABCBAACD as example and applying Huffman coding we
have the following tree :-
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E) Lempel – Ziv Coding – Lempel – Ziv compression use a dictionary of symbol
sequences. When an occurrence of the sequence is repeated it is replaced by a reference
to its position in the dictionary. There are several variations of this coding technique and
they differ primarily in the manner in which they manage the dictionary. The most well
known of these techniques is the Lempel – Ziv – Welch variation.
2. Intraframe Compression Techniques –
Intraframe compression is compression applied to still images, such as
photographs and diagrams, and exploits the redundancy within the image,
known as spatial redundancy. Intraframe compression techniques can be
applied to individual frames of a video sequence.
a) Sub – sampling – It is the most fundamental of all image compression
techniques and it reduces the amount of data by throwing some of it away.
Sub sampling reduces the number of bits required to describe an image,
but the quality of the sub- sampled image is lower than the quality of the
original. Sub – sampling of images usually takes place in one of two ways.
In the first the original image is copied by only a fraction of the pixels
from the original are used. On the other hand sub – sampling can be
implemented by calculating the average pixel value for each group of
several pixels, and then substituting this average in the appropriate place
in the approximated image. The latter technique is more complex, but
generally produces better quality images.
b) Coarse Quantization – Coarse quantization is similar to sub – sampling
in that information is discarded, but the compression is accomplished by
reducing the numbers of bits used to describe each pixel, rather than
reducing the number of pixels. Each pixel is reassigned an alternative
value and the number of alternate values is less than that in the original
image. In a monochrome image, the number of shades of grey that pixels
can have is reduced. Quantization where the number of ranges is small is
known as Coarse Quantization.
c) Transform Coding – Transform coding is an image conversion process
that transforms an image from the spatial domain to the frequency domain.
The most popular transform used in image coding is the Discrete Cosine
Transform (DCT). Because transformation of large images can be
prohibitively complex it is usual to decompose a large image into smaller
square blocks and code each block separately.
Instead of representing the data as an array of 64 values arranged
in an 8*8 grid, the DCT represents it as a varying signal that can be
approximated by a collection of 64 cosine function with
approximate amplitudes. The DCT represents a block as a matrix
of coefficients.
3. Interframe Compression Technique –
Interframe compression is compression applied to sequence of video
frames, rather than a single image. In general, relatively little changes from one
video frame to the next. Interframe compression exploits the similarities between
successive frames, known as temporal redundancy, to reduce the volume of data
required to describe the sequence.
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a) Sub – sampling – Sub-sampling can also be applied to video as an
interframe compression technique, by transmitting only some of the
frames. Sub – sampled digital video might, for ex. contain only every
second frame. Either the viewer’s brain or the decoder would be
required to interpolate the missing frames at the receiving end.
b) Difference Coding – Difference coding, or conditional replenishment,
is a very simple interframe compression process during which each
frame of a sequence is compared with its predecessor and only pixels
that have changed are updated. In this way only a fraction of the
number of pixel values is transmitted.
If the coding is required to be lossless then every changed pixel
must be updated, and if the number of pixels to be updated is large
then this overhead can adversely affect compression.
Basic Transformations –
Changes in orientatation, size, and shape are accomplished with geometric
transformations that alter the coordinate descriptions of objects. The basic geometric
transformations are translation, rotation and scaling. Other transformations that often
applied to objects include reflection and shear.
Similar methods are used to translate curved objects. To change the position of a circle or
ellipse, we translate the centre coordinates and redraw the figure in the new location. We
translate other curves ( for ex. splines) by displacing the coordinate positions defining the
objects, then we reconstruct the curve paths using the translated coordinate points.
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It is important to note that positive values for the rotation angle define
counterclockwise rotations about the rotation point and negative values rotate objects in
the clockwise sense.
For negative values of θ i.e. for clockwise rotation, matrix becomes
cos(−𝜃) sin(−𝜃) 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃
R=[ ]=[ ]
−sin(−𝜃) cos(−𝜃) −𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃
Because cos(−𝜃) = cosθ and −sin(−𝜃) = −sinθ
Example – A point (4,3) is rotated counterclockwise by an angle of 45° . Find the rotation
matrix and the resultant point.
1⁄ 1⁄
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝑐𝑜𝑠45° 𝑠𝑖𝑛45° √2 √2]
=[ ] =[ ] =[
−𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 −𝑠𝑖𝑛45° 𝑐𝑜𝑠45° −1 ⁄ 1 ⁄
√2 √2
1⁄ 1⁄
∴ P` = [4 3] * [ √2 √2]
−1⁄ 1⁄
√2 √2
4 3 4 3 1 7
= [√2 − √2
√2 + √2] = [√2 √2
]
Scaling – A scaling transformations changes the size of an object. This operation can be
carried out for polygons by multiplying the coordinate values (x,y) of each vertex by
scaling factors Sx and Sy to produce the transformed coordinates (x`, y`)
x` = x.Sx and y` = y.Sy -------------------- 1
Scaling factor Sx scales object in the x direction and scaling factor Sy scales object in the
y direction. The equations (above) can be written in the matrix form as given below :
𝑆𝑥 0
[𝑥` 𝑦`] = [𝑥 𝑦] * [ ]
0 𝑆𝑦
= [𝑥. 𝑆𝑥 𝑦. 𝑆𝑦] = P . S
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Any positive numeric values are valid for scaling factors Sx and Sy. Values less than 1
reduce the size of the objects and values greater than 1 produce an enlarged object. For
both Sx and Sy values equal to 1, the size of the object does not change. To get uniform
scaling it is necessary to assign same value for Sx and Sy. Unequal value for Sx and Sy
result in a differential scaling.
Example – Scale the polygon with coordinates A(2,5), B(7,10), C(10,2) by 2 units in x
direction and 2 units in y direction.
2 0
S=[ ]
0 2
2 5
The object matrix is [ 7 10]
10 2
𝑥₁` 𝑦₁` 2 5 4 10
𝑥₂` 𝑦₂` 2 0
Therefore [ ] = [ 7 10] * [ ] = [14 20]
0 2
𝑥₃` 𝑦₃` 10 2 20 4
3 D Transformations
Manipulation viewing and construction of three dimensional graphic image requires the
use of three dimensional geometric and coordinate transformations. 3 D geometric
transformations are extended from 2 D methods by including considerations for the ‘Z’
coordinate. Like two dimensional transformations, these transformations are formed by
composing the basic transformations of translation, scaling and rotation. Each of these
transformations can be represented as a matrix transformation with homogeneous coordinates.
Therefore, any sequence of transformations can be represented as single matrix, formed by
combining the matrices for the individual transformation in the sequence.
Translation in 3 D –
3 D transformation matrix for translation with homogeneous coordinates is as given
below. It specifies three coordinates with their own translation factor.
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1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
T=[0 0 ] ∴ P` = P . T
1 0
𝑡𝑥 𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑧 1
1 0 0 0
𝑦 0 1 0 0
= [𝑥` 𝑦` 𝑧` 1] = [𝑥 𝑧 1] . [0 0 ]
1 0
𝑡𝑥 𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑧 1
∴ = [𝑥 + 𝑡𝑥 𝑦 + 𝑡𝑦 𝑧 + 𝑡𝑧 1]
Parameters tx, ty, and tz specifying translation distances for the coordinates directions x,
y, z are assigned any real values. The matrix representation in above figure is equivalent to the
three equations.
x` = x + tx
y` = y + ty
z` = z + tz
An object is translated in 3D by transforming each of the defining points of the object.
For an object represented as a set of polygon surfaces, we translate each vertex of each surface
and redraw the polygon facets in the new position. We obtain the inverse of the translation
distances tx, ty, and tz. This produces a translation in the opposite direction, and the product of a
translation matrix and its inverse produces the identity matrix.
Three dimensional transformation matrix for translation with homogeneous coordinates is
as given below. It specifies three coordinates with their own translation factor.
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
T=[0 0 ] ∴ P` = P . T
1 0
𝑡𝑥 𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑧 1
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
= [𝑥` 𝑦` 𝑧` 1] = [𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 1] . [ 0 0 ]
1 0
𝑡𝑥 𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑧 1
∴ = [𝑥 + 𝑡𝑥 𝑦 + 𝑡𝑦 𝑧 + 𝑡𝑧 1]
Like two dimensional transformations, an object is translated in three dimensions by
transforming each vertex of the object.
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Scaling in 3 D –
Scaling an object with transformation changes the size of the object and repositions the
object relative to the coordinate origin.
The matrix expression for the scaling transformation of a position P = (x,y,z) relative to
the coordinate origin can be written as
𝑆𝑥 0 0 0
0 𝑆𝑦 0 0]
= [𝑥` 𝑦` 𝑧` 1] = [𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 1] . [ --------- 1
0 0 𝑆𝑧 0
0 0 0 1
∴ = [𝑥. 𝑡𝑥 𝑦. 𝑡𝑦 𝑧. 𝑡𝑧 1]
∴ 𝑃` = 𝑃.𝑆
A scaling of an object with respect to a selected fixed position can be represented with
the following transformation sequence.
1. Translate the fixed point to the origin.
2. Scale the object.
3. Translate the fixed point back to its original position.
This sequence of transformations is demonstrated in figures. The matrix representation
for an arbitrary fixed point scaling can then be expressed as the concatenation of these
translate-scale-translate transformations as -
T (xf, yf, zf ) . S (Sx, Sy, Sz) . T (-xf, -yf, -zf)
𝑆𝑥 0 0 (1 − 𝑆𝑥)𝑥𝑓
0 𝑆𝑦 0 (1 − 𝑆𝑦)𝑦𝑓
=[ ] --------------- 2
0 0 𝑆𝑧 (1 − 𝑆𝑧)𝑧𝑓
0 0 0 1
We form the inverse scaling matrix for either equation 1 or 2 by replacing the scaling
parameters Sx, Sy, and Sz with their reciprocals. The inverse matrix generates an
opposite scaling transformation, so the concatenation of any scaling matrix and its
inverse produces the identity matrix.
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Rotation in 3D –
Unlike two dimensional rotation, where all transformations are carried out in the xy
planes, a 3 D rotation can be specified around any line in space. Therefore, for 3D rotation we
have t specify an axis of rotation about which the object is to be rotated along with the angle of
rotation. The easiest rotation axes to handle are those that are parallel to the coordinate axes. It is
possible to combine the coordinate axis rotations to specify and general rotation.
Coordinate Axes Rotations – Three dimensional transformation matrix for each coordinate axes
rotations with homogeneous coordinate are as given below.
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 0 0
Rz = [ −𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 0 0]
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1
1 0 0 0
Rx = [ 0 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 0 ]
0 −𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 0
0 0 0 1
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 0 −𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 0
Ry = [ 0 1 0 0]
𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 0 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 0
0 0 0 1
In the special case where an object is to be rotated about an axis that is parallel to one of
the coordinate axis, we can attain the desired rotation with the following transformation
sequence.
1. Translate the object so that the rotation axis coincides with the parallel coordinate
axis.
2. Perform the specified rotation about that axis.
3. Translate the object so that the rotation axis is moved back to its original position.
When an object is to be rotated about an axis that is not parallel to one of the
coordinate axes, we need to perform some additional transformations. In this case, we
also need rotations to align the axis with a selected coordinate axis and to bring the axis
back to its original orientation. Given the specification for the rotation axis and the
rotation angle, we can accomplish the required rotation in five steps –
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1. Translate the object so that the rotation axis passes through the coordinate origin.
2. Rotate the object so that the axis of rotation coincides with one of the coordinate axes.
3. Perform the specified rotation about that coordinate axis.
4. Apply inverse rotations to bring the rotation axis back to its original orientation.
5. Apply the inverse translation to bring the rotation axis back to its original position.
Color Models –
Color is a vital component of multimedia. Color is the frequency of a light wave within
the narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum to which the human eye responds. The letters
of the mnemonic VIBGYOR, are the colors of the rainbow light spectrum : Violet, Indigo, Blue,
Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red. Light that is infrared, or below the frequency of red light and
not perceivable by the human eye, can be created and viewed by electronic diodes and sensors,
and it is used for TV and VCR remote controls, for wireless communications among computers,
and for night goggles used in the military. Infrared light is radiated heat. Ultraviolet light, on the
other hand, is beyond the higher end of the visible spectrum and can be damaging to humans.
The cornea of the eye acts as a lens to focus light rays onto the retina. The light rays
stimulate many thousands of specialized nerves, called rods, which cover the surface of the
retina. Eye’s receptors and sensitive to red, green and blue light, so by adjusting combinations of
these three colors the eye and brain will interpolate the combinations of colors in between. This
is the psychology, not the physics of color : what you perceive as orange on a computer monitor
is a combination of two frequencies of green and red light, not the actual spectral frequency.
Although the eye perceives colors based upon red, green and blue, there are actually two basic
methods of making color : Additive and Subtractive
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Additive color – In the additive color method, a color is created by combining colored
light sources in three primary colors : red, green, and blue (RGB). This is the process used for a
TV or computer monitor. On the back of the glass face of a monitor are thousands of
phosphorescing chemical dots. These dots are each about .30mm or less in diameter (the dot
pitch), and are positioned very carefully and very close together, arranged in triads of red, green
and blue. These dots light up when hit by the electron beam. The eye sees the combination of
red, green, and blue light and interpolates it to create all other colors.
Subtractive color – In the subtractive color method, color is created by combining
colored media such as paints or ink that absorb (or subtract) some parts of the color spectrum of
light and reflect the others back to the eye. Subtractive color is the process used to create color in
printing. The printed page is made up of tiny halftone dots of three primary colors : cyan,
magenta and yellow (designated as CMY). Four color printing includes black (which is not a
color but, rather, the absence of color). Since the letter B is already used for blue, black is
designated with K (CMYK). The color remaining in the reflected part of the light that reaches
our eye from the printed page is the color we perceive.
RGB –
Red, Green and Blue are the primary stimuli for human color perception and are
the primary additive colors. The secondary colors of RGB, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are
formed by the mixture of two of the primaries and the exclusion of the third.
Red + Green = Yellow
Green + Blue = Cyan
Blue + Red = Magenta
Red + Green + Blue = White
The importance of RGB as a color model is that it relates very closely to the way we
perceive color with the RGB receptors in our retina. RGB is the basic color model used in TV or
any other medium that projects the color. It is the basic color model on computers and is used for
web graphics, but it cannot be used for print production.
CMY(K) –
Cyan, magenta and yellow corresponds roughly to the primary colors in art
production red, blue and yellow. Just as the primary colors of CMY are the secondary colors of
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RGB, the primary colors of RGB are the secondary colors of CMY. The colors created by the
subtractive model of CMY don’t look exactly like the colors created in the additive model of
RGB. Particularly, CMY cannot reproduce the brightness of RGB colors.
The CMY model used in printing lays down overlapping layers of varying percentages of
transparent cyan, magenta and yellow links. Light is transmitted through the inks and reflects off
the surface below them. The percentages of CMY ink, subtract inverse percentages of RGB from
the reflected light so that we see a particular color.
HSV –
HSV is so named for three values – Hue, Saturation and Value. This color space
describes colors (Hue or tint) in terms of their shade (saturation or amount of gray) and their
brightness (value).
The HSV color wheel is depicted as a cone or cylinder. Some color pickers use the
acronym HSB ( Hue, Saturation , Brightness) or HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) which
substitutes the term “Brightness” or “Lightness” for value, but HSV, HSL and HSB are the same
color model. Photoshop used HSB for example.
Hue is expressed as a number from 0 to 360 degrees representing hues of red (which start
at 0), yellow (starting at 60), green (starting at 120), Cyan (starting at 180), Blue (starting at
240), and magenta (starting at 300).
Saturation is the amount of gray from zero percent to 100 percent in the color.
Value (or brightness) works in conjunction with saturation and describes the brightness
or intensity of the color from zero percent to 100 percent.
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Clipping -
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picture. These lines cannot be omitted entirely from the display image because the image would
become inaccurate. The process of selecting and viewing the picture with different views is
called windowing, and a process which divides each element of the picture into its visible and
invisible portions, allowing the invisible portion to be discarded is called clipping. The
procedure that identifies the portions of a picture that are either inside or outside of a specified
region of space is referring to as clipping. The region against which an object is to be clipped is
called clip window or clipping window. It usually is in a rectangular shape.
The clipping algorithm determines which points, lines or portions of lines lie within the
clipping window. These points, lines or portions of lines are retained for display. All others are
discarded.
Clipping algorithms can be applied in world coordinates, so that only the contents of the
window interior are mapped to device coordinates. Alternatively, the complete world-coordinate
pictures can be mapped first to device coordinates, or normalized device coordinates, then
clipped against the viewport boundaries. World-coordinate clipping removes those primitives
outside the window from further consideration, thus eliminating the processing necessary to
transform those primitives to device space. Viewport clipping, on the other hand, can reduce
calculations by allowing concatenation of viewing and geometric transformation matrices. But
viewpoint clipping does require that the transformation to device coordinates be performed for
all objects, including those outside the window area. On raster systems, clipping algorithms are
often combined with scan conversion.
There are following primitive types of clipping -
Point clipping
Line clipping (straight - line segments)
Area clipping (polygons)
Curve clipping
Text clipping
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Line and polygon clipping routines are standard components of graphics packages, but
many packages accommodate curved objects, particularly spine curves and conics, such as
circles, and ellipses. Another way to handle curved objects is to approximate them with straight -
line segments and apply the line or polygon - clipping procedure.
Projection -
After converting the description of objects from world coordinate to viewing coordinates,
we can project the 3D objects onto the two dimensional view plane. There are two basic ways of
projecting objects onto the view plane : Parallel projection and Perspective projection. \
1) Parallel Projection -
In parallel projection, z coordinate is discarded and parallel lined from each
vertex on the object are extended until they intersect the view plane. The point of intersection is
the projection vertices by line segments which correspond to connections on the original object.
A parallel projection preserves relative proportions of objects but does not produce the realistic
views.
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Types of Parallel Projection-
Parallel projections are basically categorized into two types, depending on the relation
between the direction of projection and the normal to the view plane. When the direction of the
projection is normal (perpendicular) to the view plane, we have an orthographic parallel
projection. Otherwise, we have an oblique parallel projection.
The most common types of orthographic projections are the front projection, top
projection and side projection. In all these, the projection plane (view plane) is perpendicular to
the principle axis. These projections are often used in engineering drawing to depict machine
parts, assemblies, buildings and so on.
An oblique projection is obtained by projecting points along parallel lines that are not
perpendicular to the projection plane. In this the view plane normal and the direction of
projection are not the same.
2) Perspective Projection -
The perspective projection, on the other hand, produces realistic views but does
not preserve relative proportions. In perspective projection, the lines of projection are not
parallel. Instead, they all coverage at a single point called the center of projection or projection
reference point. The object positions are transformed to the view plane along these converged
projection lines and the projected view of an object is determines by calculating the intersection
of the converged projection lines with the view plane.
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Lighting -
Realistic displays of a scene are obtained by generating perspective projections of objects
and by applying natural lighting effects to the visible surfaces. An illumination model, also
called a lighting model and sometimes referred to as a shading model, is used to calculate the
intensity of light that we should see at a given point on the surface of an object.
A surface - rendering algorithm uses the intensity calculations from an illumination all
projected pixel positions for the various surfaces in a scene. Surface rendering can be performed
by applying the illumination model to every visible surface point.
Photorealism in computer graphics involves two elements: accurate graphical
representations of objects and good physical descriptions of the lighting effects in a scene.
Lighting effects include light reflections, transparency, surface texture and shadows.
Light sources, of varying shapes, colors, and positions can be used to provide the
illumination effects for a scene. Illumination models or lighting model in computer graphics are
often loosely derived from the physical laws that describe surface light intensities. To minimize
intensity calculations, most packages use empirical models based on simplified photometric
calculations.
When we view an opaque non luminous object, we see reflected light from the surfaces
of the object. The total reflected light is the sum of the contributions from light sources and other
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Multimedia And Animation BCA 1
reflecting surfaces in the scene. A luminous object, in general, can be both a light source and a
light reflector. For ex. a plastic globe with a light bulb inside both emits and reflects light from
the surface of the globe. Emitted light from the globe may then illuminate other objects.
Lighting is a very important part of animation and it can add life to a particular scene in
an animated movie. Shadows, what kind of light effects, angles from where lights fall, intensity
of light, and a lot more is the responsibility of a light artist.
Transparency -
Transparency is a characteristic that allows the level of opacity of the elements of an
image to be defined, i.e. the possibility of seeing through an image, the graphic elements located
behind the same.
Simple transparency is applied for an indexed image and consists in defining,
one among the colors of the platter, as transparent.
The alpha channel transparency consists in adding a byte defining the level of
transparency (from 0 to 255) for each pixel of the image. The process of adding a
transparent layer to an image is generally called alpha blending.
Texturing -
In 3D graphics, the digital representation of the surface of an object. In addition to 2 D
qualities such as color and brightness, a texture is also encoded with 3 D properties such as how
transparent and reflective the object is. Once a texture has been defined, it can be wrapped
around any 3 D object. This is called texture mapping.
Well defined textures are very important for rendering realistic 3 D images. However
they also require a lot of memory, so they're not used as often as they might be.
Texturing is the phase after modeling involved while creating an animation. It includes
creating a texture from the base, editing an existing texture for reuse etc. comes in this phase of
animation. Texturing is the phase where the background of real world. Using texturing one can
create brick walls, stone walls, flooring etc. Shading intensity is to be decided during texturing
phase and textures are developed like maps and then assigned to a particular scene or model.
Rendering -
Rendering or image synthesis is the automatic process of generating a photorealistic or
non - photorealistic image from a 2 D or 3 D model (or models in what collectively could be
called a scene file) by means of computer programs. Also, the results of displaying such a model
can be called a rendering.
A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would
contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting and shading information as a description of the
virtual scene. The data contained in the scene file is then passed to a rendering program to be
processed and output to a digital image or raster graphics image file.
Rendering is also used to describe the process of calculating effects in a video editing
program to produce final video output. Rendering is one of the major sub topics of 3 D computer
graphics, and in practice is always connected to the others. In the graphics pipeline, it is the last
major step, giving the final appearance to the models and animation.
Rendering has uses in architecture, video games, simulators, movie or TV visual effects,
and design visualization, each employing a different balance of features and techniques. As a
product, a wide variety of renderers are available. Some are integrated into larger modeling and
animation packages, some are stand alone, some are free open - source projects. On the inside, a
renderer is a carefully engineered program, based on a selective mixture of disciplines related to :
light physics, visual perception, mathematics, and software development.
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