Software Takes Command

302

SOFTWARE TAKES COMMAND

projects and video compositing, Illustrator for print illustrations, InDesign for multi-page designs, Flash for interactive interfaces and web animations, 3ds Max or Maya for 3D computer models and animations, and so on. But these programs are rarely used alone to create a media design from start to finish. Typically, a designer may create elements in one program, import them into another program, add elements created in yet another program, and so on. This happens regardless whether the final product is an illustration for print, a website, or a motion graphics sequence, whether it is a still or a moving image, interactive or non-interactive, etc. The very names which software companies give to the products for media design and production refer to this defining characteristic of software-based design process. Since 2005, Adobe has been selling its different media authoring applications bundled together under the name “Adobe Creative Suite.” Among the subheadings and phrases that were used to accompany this brand name, one in particular is highly meaningful in the context of our discussion: “Design Across Media.” This phrase accurately describes both the capabilities of the applications collected in a suite and their actual use in the real world. Each of the key applications collected in the suite—Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver, After Effects, Premiere—has many special features geared for producing a design for particular output media. Illustrator is set up to work with professional-quality printers; After Effects and Premiere can output video files in a variety of standard video formats such as HDTV; Dreamweaver supports programming and scripting languages to enable creation of sophisticated and large-scale dynamic websites. But while a design project is finished in one of these applications, most other applications in Adobe Creative Suite will be used in the process to create and edit its various elements. This is one of the ways in which Adobe Creative Suite enables “design across media.” The compatibility between applications also means that the elements (called in professional language “assets”) can be later re-used in new projects. For instance, a photograph edited in Photoshop can first be used in a magazine ad and later put in a video, a website, etc. Or, the 3D models and characters created for a feature film can be reused for a video game based on the film. This ability to re-use the same design elements for very different projects is very important because of the widespread practice in creative industries to create products across the range

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook

Software Takes Command

Published on Aug 30, 2013

Bloomsbury Publishing

Software has replaced a diverse array of physical, mechanical, and electronic technologies used before 21st century to create, store, distribute and interact with cultural artifacts. It has become our interface to the world, to others, to our memory and our imagination - a universal language through which the world speaks, and a universal engine on which the world runs. What electricity and combustion engine were to the early 20th century, software is to the early 21st century. Offering the the first theoretical and historical account of software for media authoring and its effects on the practice and the very concept of 'media,' the author of The Language of New Media (2001) develops his own theory for this rapidly-growing, always-changing field.