UNSW Embryology

About Movies

© Dr Mark Hill (2004)

Acknowledgements

Introduction

This page contains technical information and description of terms for movies and animations used to illustrate various aspects of development in the UNSW Embryology program.

The below the listed terms are links to the different groups of movie available.

Movie Terms

Animated GIF- An animated GIF is a graphic image on a Web page that moves. Animated GIF is a file in the Graphics Interchange Format specified as GIF89a that contains within the single file a set of images that are presented in a specified order. An animated GIF can loop endlessly (and it appears as though your document never finishes arriving) or it can present one or a few sequences and then stop the animation. Reloading a page will run and animated GIF again.

AVI- Windows AVI provides the capability to develop animation files that can be included in multimedia presentations and as part of WWW pages. The files (which end with an .avi extension) require a special player.

compression- method for making file size smaller and therefore easier/quicker to transfer

GIF- (Graphics Interchange Format) developed by Compuserve. standard image format (along with JPEG) for the WWW.Technically, a GIF uses the 2D raster data type, is encoded in binary, and uses LZW compression. There are two versions of the format, 87a and 89a. Version 89a (July, 1989) allows for the possibility of an animated GIF, which is a short sequence of images within a single GIF file. A GIF89a can also be specified for interlaced presentation.

JPEG- is a graphic image created by choosing from a range of compression qualities. When you create a JPEG or convert an image from another format to a JPEG, you are asked to specify the quality of image you want. Since the highest quality results in the largest file, you can make a trade-off between image quality and file size. Formally, the JPEG file format is ISO standard 10918.

Kb- kilobyte a measure of computer memory or storage, a kilobyte (KB or Kbyte*) is approximately a thousand bytes (actually, 2 to the 10th power, or decimal 1,024 bytes).

Mb- megabyte as a measure of computer processor storage and real and virtual memory, a megabyte (abbreviated MB) is 2 to the 20th power bytes, or 1,048,576 bytes in decimal notation.

morph- artificial animation by running a sequence of images together.

MPEG- (Moving Picture Experts Group) a movie format.MPEG (pronounced EHM-pehg), the Moving Picture Experts Group, develops standards for digital video and digital audio compression. It operates under the auspices of the International Oganization for Standardization (ISO). The MPEG standards are an evolving series, each designed for a different purpose. (Note that .mp3 file suffixes indicate MP3 (MPEG-1 audio layer-3) files, not MPEG-3 standard files.) You can download shareware or commercial MPEG players from a number of sites on the Web.For additional information, see About MPEG on the official MPEG Committee Web site. An illustrated Overview of the MPEG-4 Version 1 Standard is available.

Plug-in- applications are programs that can easily be installed and used as part of your Web browser. A plug-in application is recognized automatically by the browser and its function is integrated into the main HTML file that is being presented.

PNG-A patent-free replacement for the GIF, the PNG format, has been developed by an Internet committee and major browsers will soon be supporting it.

Quicktime- is a multimedia development, storage, and playback technology from Apple for all platforms that combine sound, text, animation, and video in a single file. Using a Quicktime player that either comes with a WWW browser or can be downloaded from Apple or the browser company, you can view and control brief multimedia sequences. Quicktime files can be recognized by their file name extensions: qt, mov, and moov.

Shockwave- developed by Macromedia, is a family of multimedia players. WWW users can download the Shockwave players (Windows and Mac) from the Macromedia site and use it to display and hear Shockwave files.

streaming- means that movies or sounds play as they arrive and you do not have to wait until the complete file downloads to view of hear.