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Visual Media Creation
Flash segment itself. Short, simple animations
are the easier to integrate with audio than pro-
longed displays.
Third, the more keypoints in your Flash movie,
the larger the file. Keep keypoints to a minimum.
Complex scripting should also be avoided.
Although Real maintains that interaction with
Flash elements as defined using ActionScript
is preserved through the Real player, we rec-
ommend extensive testing before you include
significant interactive elements in your Flash
pieces.
Don’t forget that the use of Flash for our pur-
poses is only to enhance the display of visual
information. If you find that Flash is becoming
the centerpiece of your tutorial, you may wish to
reassess the decision to use streaming media
as your method of delivering instruction.
Video Production
Digital video is a bandwidth intensive medium
that requires some special skills to edit and
prepare for presentation. If there are segments
of your tutorial that will benefit greatly from the
inclusion of video, use it. However, if your tuto-
rial does not require video to be successful, you
may choose to use other, less complex visual
elements.
One way of using instructional video is to cap-
ture actions on a computer screen with a prod-
uct like Camtasia. This can be helpful if you are
trying to convey procedural knowledge such as
interaction seqences with a computer program
or Website. Screen capture video is not as effec-
tive for teaching conceptual knowledge such as
Boolean logic or information evaluation.
Regardless of the software/hardware or format
in which your original video is captured, you
will need to convert the file to Real media for-
mat (.rm). Real Producer, Camtasia, and other
media creation applications provide options for
saving your files in Real media format. Your set-
tings will vary according to the type of server that
will host your media and the connection speeds
of your users. To determine the appropriate set-
tings for your tutorial, consult your Webmaster
and the Real Networks online documentation.
