Reflection on Motion Media and Information

Motion Media

There is no universally adopted definition for motion media.

- Motion media in essence is visual media that gives the appearance of movement.

- Motion media can be a collection of graphics, footage, videos. It is combined with audio, text, and/or interactive content to create multimedia.

Examples: animation, videos, live streaming, presentation, flash mob.

In motion media:

- each picture is a frame and that motion is created by rendering or showing consecutively several frames per second.

- 24 frames (pictures) or more per second makes for a smooth animation.; videos, film, slides also make use of frames.

- the series of graphics or images follow a sequence to create a story. This sequence is often called a storyboard which shows a set of components (audio, visual, videos, etc) changing in time to create a story or a message.

Motion media can be produced formally and informally.

Informally produced motion media are created by individuals often for personal use. Formally produced motion media are created by professionals who follow industry standards in creating, editing and producing motion media. Formal production of animations involve the following steps:

- writing the story  - writers and directors create the story board

- script is written and dialogue is recorded

- animators sketch major scenes; inbetweeners fill in the gaps

- background music and background details are added

- drawings are rendered

Videos are produced in the same manner except that instead of drawing the scenes they are acted out and shot. Once the scenes have been shot, all clips are edited and put together in a final product.

Motion Media Formats, Types and Sources

There are widely accepted formats, types and sources of motion media. These are selected by creators and users of motion media and information.

1.  According to format:

- Animations - animated gifs (Graphic Interchange Format), Flash, Shockwave, Dynamic HTML

- Video formats/Video Codecs - motion media use large resources. Codecs compresses and decompresses videofiles. Examples are H.26N series, Quicktime, DivX, MPG, MP4

2.  According to purpose: education, entertainment, advertising

3.  According to source: personal, social media, media companies

4.  According to audience: private or public; directed or general

In some of these, media convergence can be observed with one artifact falling into several categories.