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Video Production for Multimedia

Producing digital video elements for multimedia projects involve the following steps:
·         Shooting the necessary video sequences using a video camera
·         Capturing or digitizing the video data
·         Video editing and post-production
·         Embedding into the projects

Step 1: Shooting
Shooting the required sequences for a multimedia project involves relevant equipment, people, location, storyboard and money! Depending upon the specific requirements of the project and the budget available, it may turn out to be a simple handy-cam shooting on a nearby location or a complex shooting involving different locations and characters.
Step 2: Digitizing the video data
Video-capture or video digitizing is the process of converting analog video signals to digital data. The signals, once converted, are fed into the computers and stored as digital video files.
The process of video capture varies, depending upon the equipment used for video shooting.
·         If you have used a camcorder or handy cam with digital video out option using USB, then the videos can be captured directly – without the need for external interface.
·         Some handy cams support fire wire interface instead of USB, in which case you need a fire wire card for video capture.
·         If none of these interfaces are supported, then you need a dedicated video capture card – which will accept the audio and video signals from the camcorder and do the digital conversion process using dedicated steps.
On the application side, you certainly need dedicated software to capture the video signals coming into the computer and store them as digital video files in appropriate formats. Most video post-production software like Adobe Premiere, Ulead Video studios etc have facilities with which video capture can be accomplished with ease.

Video Capture Card
A video capture device (or a capture card) is essentially an expansion board that can handle a variety of different audio and video input signals and convert them from analog to digital or vice versa.
A typical circuit board consists of the following components:
·         Video INPUT port to accept the video input signals from NTSC/PAL/SECAM broadcast signals, video camera or VCR.
·         Video compression-decompression hardware for video data.
·         Audio compression-decompression hardware for audio data.
·         A/D converter to convert the analog input video signals to digital form.
·         Video OUTPUT port to feed output video signals to camera and VCR.
·         D/A converter digital video data to analog signals for feeding to output analog devices.
·         Audio INPUT/OUTPUT ports for audio input and output functions.


Video Compression Algorithm or CODEC
Raw videos without any compression will occupy huge file sizes – even a small video clip spanning a few seconds will consume several megabytes of storage space. For example, let us consider a video clipping of size 320 x 240 (which is quarter screen video, when the resolution of the monitor is 640 x 480) playing at the rate of 30 frames per second (full motion) in true 24-bit color.
In such a video, each frame would consume approximately 225 KB. Since we need to store 30 frames per second, we need at least 6750 KB per second or 6.59 MB! Imagine how much memory we will need to store 10 seconds of such data! It becomes impractical to handle raw videos of that size.
Hence, digital video professionals came out with different kinds of compressions algorithms to handle raw video. The compressions algorithms have grown in number over a period of time, and it is most likely that even in your own desktop computer – at least a dozen video codecs may already be installed!

Product
Company
Intel
Indeo Video Drivers
Microsoft
Microsoft Video1, Microsoft RLE
IBM
Ultimotion
Supermac
Cinepak drivers
Moving Picture Expert Group
MPEG


The process of compressing raw video, using a particular compression algorithm is called encoding. The process of interpreting the encoded information and understanding the audio or visual information contained in them is called decoding.
For encoding our videos, we may need specialized software encoders available from various vendors. However, for decoding, we can use Microsoft Media player or Apple’s quick time player that contain decoders for all commonly used codecs.
Step 3: The video editing and post production
Digital video post-production is the process of editing and mixing videos within the computer, using relevant software tools. Video post-production has grown over these years into a multi-million dollar industry.
There are many things you can do during post-production. Some of them are:
·         Adding, removing and rearranging different portions of the video clipping shot
·         Resizing video
·         Mixing and remixing audio
·         Editing color, blend, lighting and other attributes of video
·         Adding special effects / titling etc
·         Interlacing 3D animation with live video shoots
·         Interlacing still photographs with live videos

Step 4: Embedding the video in the project
The edited video after the post production is used in the multimedia project.


Compiled By: Chaudhary Amit V.
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