MultiMedia on a Budget by Joseph Weintraub President, Thinking Software, Inc. Thinking Software is a small artificial intelligence consulting firm in Woodside, New York. They achieved some notable multimedia success after winning the Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence at the Boston Computer Museum both in 1991 and 1992, with our "talking software" programs PC Therapist III ('91) and PC Professor ('92). PC Therapist IV added a clever animated talking head and synthesized voice output to the PC Therapist III. With voice, animation, VGA color graphics, and interactivity, PC Therapist IV was a true Multimedia Product that captured a lot of attention. It will soon be released in a Windows 3.1 Version with SoundBlaster Pro Voice Output and full MPC Compatibility. We are also experimenting with Virtual Reality, and the mix of artificial intelligence and MPC called "The Multimedia Expert System", typically used as a sophisticated high-end automated training aid in technical subjects. True MultiMedia with full motion video can be fantastically expensive today in 1993. The high end JPEG video accelerator boards alone are currently $2000, about the price of a new 486DX33 PC with 200 Meg hard drive. In addition, just 60 seconds of this high definition video can consume more than 52 Megabytes of Hard Disk space. A ten minute MPC video production would require 10 times 52 or an astounding 520 Megabytes. How big is your hard drive right now? As a User, you can get somewhat over 520 Megabytes on a single CD-ROM, but as an MPC Developer, you would need several Gigabytes of Hard Disk to work with and store this video before it is converted to CD-ROM. GigaByte Hard Drives are available, and in fact a 2.1 Gigabyte SCSI Hard Drive and Controller would add just about $3000 to the cost of our hypothetical 486. Our first MultiMedia Disk, however, was called "The New Psychology". It was produced on a very tight budget, on a 386 PC with just a 120 Meg Hard Drive, yet is still a visually exciting and powerful half-hour presentation. It can be viewed on almost any DOS Machine with a Color Monitor, giving a potential audience of over 200,000 users, compared with the current installed MPC Base of under 12,000. The New Psychology is a deep analysis of how and why life is lived on our planet today. It is based to a large degree on the work of Wilhelm Reich, a famous psychiatrist, and Immanual Velikovsy, archeologist and best-selling author of "Worlds in Collision". You might wonder how an archeologist involved in explaining the Bible, and a radical psychiatrist who discovered Orgone Energy, wind up with their unusual theories intermingled in "The New Psychology". I do not have the time and space to present their ideas here, but I will tell you how we produced this sophisticated and professional automated VGA Slide Show on a 3.5" High Density Diskette for the IBM/PC for under $2500 and can sell it profitably for just $29.95. Step 1. Prepare your slides and photographs. The easiest way, by far, to create your first multimedia presentation is to adapt a slide-show or video for playback on the VGA or Super VGA Monitor of your PC. That way, you don't have to worry too much about "creating" the presentation, and can concentrate on the technical details of getting it onto your PC's hard drive. If you are creating a new presentation from scratch, you might consider shooting a few hundred Kodachrome Slides with your Nikon, and selecting and arranging them in sequence in a slide projector tray till they do a good job of presenting your ideas visually. Later you will bring that slide presentation into your computer room and digitize it! Of course, if you can afford a Fotoman Digital Camera from Logitech, you can save a good deal of time, not to mention film. (It uses magnetic disks). Step 2. Write your narration. Show your slideshow to a roomful of people, or even just one other person. As the slide show procedes, narrate in a loud clear voice so you emphasize and explain your ideas fully. Capture the narration on a quality tape recorder! Later, you can have this tape typed onto the computer, or perhaps even digitized directly into a MPC Sound Track on your hard drive. (Note that digitized voice takes up a lot of hard disk space. Do not plan to digitize more than 20 minutes of voice and music.If your narration is longer than 20 minutes, plan on presenting the text as bright-white on a blue backgound, or some other eye-pleasing combination.) Step 3. Install software and study the Manuals Cover to Cover. At a minimum, you will need some sort of Digitizer Board installed in your computer, some sort of video camera to capture your slides, and the software that comes with your Digitizer Board that "Takes the Digital Picture" and stores it on your hard drive. In addition, you will probably want PC Paint or PHoto Styler to touch-up and perhaps add text to your digtized images. If your slides, photos, video camera or digitizer are black and white, you can "colorize" the images effectively once they are on your hard drive, and often come up with a more creative presentation than if you had started with perfect high-resolution color. You will also need a Multimedia Run Time program or "Slide Show" Software Package to present your finished images with sophisticated wipes and dissolves between screens. We used "Show Partner" from Brightbill-Roberts with extremely effective results. You will actually learn to use your software by working with it, but you can save yourself a lot of trouble by READING THE MANUAL FROM COVER TO COVER! Step 4. Get your hardware installed and ready to use. We purchased a very simple but effective B&W Digitizer board with a B&W Video Camera. The total outlay for hardware and software was under $500. While the board we used is no longer available you can still get a low resolution board from Video Eyes for under $300. Instructions for installing your hardware will vary with the board, but in general you just turn off your 386 or 486 computer, slip the board into an open slot, and secure it in place with just one screw. If no jumper switches have to be set, this should take you all of ten minutes. Step 5. Prepare your work environment and try the tutorial. Someone once said to me "When you work, ONLY work!" and I consider this very good advice. Get the family out of the house or office. Put out the dog and feed the cat. Turn off that darn TV and put on your "creativity music", which should not be so loud that you can't hear yourself think! Forget about your diet, your doctor, your spouse, your kids, your income, your taxes, your health and any other worries that might be sabotaging your creative impulses! Why is creative thought like meditation? Because they both require a certain mental discipline, solitude, and quiet time and space. What is the sound of one hand clapping? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? How many pixels are there on a Super VGA Screen? What is the secret of a successful PC Slide Show or Multimedia Presentation? For me, the secret is in limiting my use of unusual special effects to a minimum. For you, you may discover it is something else. Working with your specific hardware and software in a "loose" experimental way without worrying too much about perfect results may allow you to create moods and styles that are effective and very new! Step 6. Go thru a mini-presentation with just three slides. Don't mechanically record every slide in your tray just to get it done, only to find out after days of work that you have repeated the same mistake 300 times. Instead, take just your first three slides all the way to a finshed presentation. Save your results on a floppy disk. Turn off your PC and leave the room. Go have a beer and a few pretzels....maybe a pastrami sandwich....or some brussel sprouts with garlic and butter....whatever...then come back.....turn on the PC....make believe you are the audience....start your 3-slide presentation.....does it work? If not, fix it. If it does work, you are on the right track. Go on to slide number four. My work consisted of a lot of mental leaps and bounds, but basically came in two flavors: 1. GRUNT WORK 2. CREATIVE PLAY The grunt work involved turning on the slide projector, focusing the next slide, focusing the B&W Video Camera on the projected image, endlessly adjusting the size of the image, observing the image on the PC Screen and pressing some keys to save it to the hard disk. The creative play involved colorizing the image in PC Paint, and trying out the seemingly endless variety of wipes, drips, weaves and dissolves available in Show Partner! Thats the most fun I've ever had with both feet on the floor! Step 7. Prepare your full Visual presentation. Add text where appropriate. Now that you know what works and doesn't, continue until you have completed your full presentation. Don't be afraid to continue to experiment with timing, color, text, dissolves & wipes, and other special effects. The longer your presentation, the more you must do to hold the viewers interest through the entire show. You may be adding text to the bottom of screens, or you may be alternating screenfuls of text and VGA images. Be sure your screens don't zip by so fast that your audience can't finish reading the text. Since machines vary so much in speed, it is safest to ask the user to "press any key" to continue to the next screen. A show that drags along on an old 286 may just zip by about ten times too fast on a new 486. Of course, if you are using a soundtrack with digitized speech, you will want to keep text to a minimum.....perhaps just titles and credits. Step 8. Check your spelling and continuity. Nothing destroys your professional image like a mis-spelled word. If you know you can't spell, use a spell checker (or a literate friend) to check the spelling of your text. Don't get too fancy with fonts. Two or three font styles in bright-white against blue is just perfect! Blue on white or yellow is also quite readable. Avoid tiny type that older folks won't be able to read. Old English is tempting for some applications, but can also be difficult to read on a PC Screen. Step 9. Add voice or music if a planned part of your presentation. Add any special effects (in moderation please - this is not a psychedelic light show for a rock concert!) A good presention does not require digitized voice, music or special effect sounds, but if you have the time and equipment, a sound track can add a lot. However, not all of your customers will have a SoundBlaster Pro with stereo speakers, so be sure your show stands on its own, even if no sound system is available to the viewer. Don't count on the PC Speaker to deliver intelligible speech. It varies too much in quality from one PC to another, and some Laptops have no speaker at all. Step 10. Make Backup copies of all your work. How would you feel if you worked for 48 straight hours, completed the first Multimedia Presentation of your life, and then had a fatal hard disk CRASH that WIPED OUT ALL OF YOUR WORK WITH NO HOPE OF RECOVERY OF EVEN ONE SINGLE SCREEN!!!!!????? You would feel pretty sick, right? So backup, backup, backup, backup! We have a Jumbo Colorado Tape Backup that backs up our 212 Meg Hard Drive in under 20 minutes just by pressing F1. But even if you can't afford Tape Backup, you can afford a stack of floppy disks! It only takes five minutes to copy your presentation to a floppy, but it can save you DAYS OF WORK!!!!!! Backup! BACKUP! B A C K U P ! Yes - I mean you! Copy that presentation in progress to a floppy disk! Take the floppy and hide it in that metal box where you keep all your important papers! Take another to your bank safety deposit box! It costs less than a dollar! It can save your sanity! B A C K U P Y O U R W O R K ! ! ! Right Now! No Excuses! Backup! BACKUP! B A C K U P ! Step 11. Prepare your "Silver Master" You are getting down to the short strokes now. Your presentation is almost complete. Arrange all your PIC Files neatly in a single directory with your run-time software. View it from start to finish. Does it look good? Yes? Then COPY IT TO A FLOPPY and stash it securely in your bottom drawer! That is your EXTRA INSURANCE BACKUP. Now copy to a another floppy. That is your "SILVER MASTER"! Step 12. Alpha Test your Silver Master by yourself. Change if Required. If you can sleep on it, this is a good time to do so. When you wake up the next day, view your Silver Master. Any required changes will stick out like a sore thumb. I know you are tired, but make those required changes. Update your backups and Silver Master with the changes. Step 13. Show your Silver Master to a friend or loved one. Your first exposure to the world should be to a friendly part of the world.....a friend or a loved one. Step 14. Ask for honest criticism, then revise as required. But still, you don't want false praise. You want honest constructive crticism. You must learn to accept criticism from others, and develop the knack of seeing your work through their eyes! What sings to you, may not sing to everyone.....how general is your intended audience? Are you aiming your work at a special group? If so, show it to a representative member of that special group. If ANYONE might want to enjoy and learn from your Multimedia presentation, then grab anyone off the street and show it to ANYONE! Communication involves you, your medium, your creation, AND your Audience! Check it out before you try to sell it! Step 15. Prepare your "Golden Master" Your Golden Master is the Master from which all sale copies will be reproduced. It should be perfect. I like to use Norton Utilities VL (Volume Label) to give my Golden Master a special unique Volume Name, and then use Norton FD (File Date) to revise the file date and time so they are the same on every file. These two steps add a small professional finishing touch you will find on many professional disks. You will notice that every file is dated 01/01/94, and every file was created at 12:00:00 am. This is of course impossible, yet has become the mark of a professional Multimedia Disk. Step 16. Beta Test your Golden Master with a co-worker or other person whose opinion you respect. I know you think you have tested more than enough, and everything is perfect, but there is always one more bug. Now enlist the help of a co-worker and find that last mis-spelled word or other tiny error that will be so irritating after it has been copied onto your first 100 labeled diskettes! Step 17. Ask for honest constructive feedback. Make Final Revisions. If you still have to make a few creative changes or clarifications, now is the time to bite the bullet and do it! There will not be another chance like this to get it right! Now that its right, if you are unfortunate enough to have a boss, this is when you show it to your boss. Step 18. Make a small production run of about 100 Disks & Manuals. Wow! You have "PUBLISHED" your first Multimedia Presentation. If it is unusual and wonderful, perhaps your next run will be 5,000 or 10,000 copies! Or maybe a few hundred thousand! Or maybe you will have a million seller on your hands and get rich and famous! Step 19. Run ads in PC Magazine, BYTE, PC Computing and Computer Shopper. Damn the Expense! Send Review Copies to every reviewer in the world. Install 800 Number for orders. Get Credit Card Vendor Status........Phone Ringing OFF THE HOOK!......Wealth, Happiness and Freedom! (The New Psychology is available on a 3.5" High Density Disk, with the 36 Page A.I. Catalog, for $29.95 from Thinking Software, Inc. 46-16 65th Place, Woodside, N.Y. 11377....this has not turned out to be a million seller yet.....but people seem to like the disk and NOBODY has returned it! (We don't accept returns). Companies that need MultiMedia on a Budget can contact Joseph Weintraub directly at (718) 803-3638 or (718) 898-3126.) Joseph Weintraub 46-16 65th Place Woodside, N.Y. 11377