Interactive Media Design
Interactive Media Design Course
For those aiming to make a career in the interactive multimedia design industry, entry into one of the vast range of multimedia design courses is essential. However, the quality of courses varies almost as much as their content and those seeking to study towards a multimedia design degree should take the time to research exactly what is on offer from the range of interactive media design degrees.
With IDI, the aim of our multi media design course is straightforward, we focus on the creative use of digital media to produce multimedia content.
Multimedia design is about making interactive media. Our students can expect to gain extensive experience of producing interactive media such as:
Websites, interactive guides to places and products, online art and advertisements, new forms of comics and films, online social sites, casual games and experiencing visionary design at the cutting edge of multimedia communications.
As a student with IDI, you will be involved in designing and making interactive content for mobile phones and portable media players on desktop and laptop computer screens, with the experience and needs of the user in mind.
Multimedia design is about the pleasures of using computers to work, play, entertain and communicate ideas and information. Using interactive digital technologies, multimedia design finds new ways of telling stories and new forms for expressing ideas in a networked world.
Our interactive media design course develops your knowledge and skills about creative media in the modern world and enables you to build a challenging and exciting career in a variety of fields such as web and multimedia development, mobile multimedia applications design, e-Commerce and website development.
*Please note: The Interactive Design Institute currently delivers this course to the level of Certificate in Higher Education (Cert.HE) and Diploma in Higher Education (Dip.HE) online. Subject to approval, students will have the option of completing their interactive media design degree either online or through attendance at the University of Hertfordshire.
The programme specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the course and the intended learning outcomes that you might be expected to achieve.
Module Descriptions Level 4 (Year 1 of Degree) click here
Media Histories and Culture
Media artefacts such as web sites, live and animated films, models, computer games, are shaped by a number of processes and contexts. This module establishes and develops an understanding of key concepts and principles for examining media culture and its objects, and enables you to begin to locate your own work within broader cultural and professional structures.
Media Histories and Culture Document
Principles and Practices of Interactive Media
The relationship of word and image is one of the fundamental principles of communication and therefore knowledge and skills in understanding this relationship is vital for any interactive media designer. In this Module students will learn to understand visual language by applying words to visual experiences and create visual images to illustrate verbal ideas. This interaction of word and image will form the backbone of the project, both in theory and as means to explore graphic design and its role in Multimedia.
Principles and Practices of Interactive Media Document
2D Animation and Video Practices
This will be an introduction to both animation and the use of digital video which will include its creative, theoretical and technical theory. There will be two main activities, one for animation and one for video. There will be a common theme between both activities which will be the notion of the "Object". The use of the Object will range from its association in art and cultural significance to simply bring inanimate objects to life.
2D Animation and Video Practices Document
Pixel Image and Sound
This module is about the development of basic skills that will help establish good art and design practices. In addition it should introduce some of the basic technical issues associated with the production of digital image and sound.
Pixel Image and Sound Document
Module Descriptions Level 5 (Year 2 of Degree) click here
Traditions and Locations
This Module allows the student to develop an understanding of their own work in context with both a wider computational aesthetic and within the traditions of 20th Century art and Design. Particular attention is given to the analysis of ideas that specifically relate to students' own work. Assessment is typically based around the submission of an extended study of a particular practitioner, genre, group, form, theme, theoretical perspective or cultural issue.
Traditions and Locations Document
Teamwork Practices
This module will continue the theme of looking at how we interpret the real world in a virtual one which we established in the Content Management for Network and Mobile Media Module. This time however we will be looking more closely at how our perception of the real may or may not be altered when and after it has become a digital representation.
Teamwork Practices Document
Authoring Interactive Narratives
This module will look at how we can translate given narratives into an Interactive and hypermedia environment. Through practical creative work and discussion, this module engages students with contemporary thinking about the inter-relationship of narrative and interactive media, promoting debate and critical thinking in order to better practice through the development of critical reflective and analytic thinking.
Authoring Interactive Narratives Document
Content Management for Network and Mobile Media
In this Module, students will explore the relationship between real and virtual space. Using mobile devices virtual spaces could be constantly updated from our experiences of real time and space. In addition this module deals with the design and realisation of Interactive Media artefacts where content is created dynamically in response to such things as user profiles or histories, or is contingent on things such as geographical location, movement, patterns of use or access, or is accessed through pervasive networks and mobile devices.
Content Management for Network and Mobile Media Document
Elective Module Options click here
Level 4 (Year 1 of Degree) Certificate of Higher Education
In year 1 you develop skills and understanding of the processes used to create digital images, to work with digital video, animation and sound, and to make interactive media. You analyse and discuss existing interactive media as a way of getting better at making your own work and making sure that it communicates well.
Your studies include such topics as:
• experiments in animation, audiovisual production and interactive narrative
• fundamentals of interactive design and ActionScript programming and web design
• authoring and coding software to control the flow of images and sounds
• analysis of user experience, responses and needs
• study of the multimedia field, its industries and its practitioners
Level 5 (Year 2 of Degree) Diploma of Higher Education
In year 2 you can start to specialise in areas of multimedia, or develop as an all rounder. This means that many year two projects are influenced by the things you want to learn more about and the career direction you want to take. Creative work develops your skills further to meet the challenge of more complex problems.
Your studies include modules which:
• extend and deepen your knowledge of multimedia applications
• explore professional studies of the multimedia industries and current media debates
• simulate media industry by experiences of group work and 'live' projects
• explore theories of narrative, gaming and interface design
• consider ideas about 'good design' and the needs of users
Level 6 (Year 3 of Degree) BA
*Please note: The Year 3 (Level 6) programme described here is that currently available through attendance based study at the University of Hertfordshire. Subject to validation, students may also have the option of completing a year 3 (level 6) programme online. However, the content and award title of this programme may vary from the one described here.
Year 3 is the 'portfolio level' – the emphasis at this level being on building a portfolio of work as a preparation to entering the design profession. You will have the opportunity to enter national design competitions, and will work to a series of professional briefs. You will also be able to negotiate personal projects in order to develop your personal creativity.
Interactive media designers create the overall look and feel of a wide range of interactive communication products. Using text, data, graphics, sound, animation and other digital and visual effects, they may work on projects such as internet sit, electronic games, online learning material and interactive television.
The interactive media sector employs 53,100 people, with a high concentration of jobs in London and the South East. Most designers work for graphic design, advertising, marketing and communications agencies. Some work for larger private or public sector companies. This is a fast growing industry, but competition for jobs is high.
There are no set academic requirements, most entrants are graduates. A degree or post-graduate qualification in an art and design-related subject such as graphic design or multimedia design is particularly useful. It may also be possible to start in a more junior post directly from school.
Salaries may range from around £15,500 to over £50,000 a year.
What is Audio?
Aim
On completion of this activity you will have developed an understanding of how sound works and how it can be recorded.
Objective
During this activity you will be expected to use your sketchbook and blog to record research needed to complete your sound journey.
Duration
The suggested time allocation for this activity is 120 minutes.
Resource Requirements
An A4 Sketchbook and a sound recorder.
Audio refers to a range of frequencies detectable by the human ear – we know this as ‘sound’. The highest pitch the human ear can hear is about 20 kHz, and the lowest (bassest) pitch we can hear is about 20Hz. Working with sound can involve the production, manipulation, recording and reproduction of soundwaves. But what are ‘soundwaves’? How are they produced and how do we hear them. In this section we will also look at sound equipment, understanding different components, find out what they do, and decide on what equipment we need, and how to use it properly.
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