Table of Contents | Electrifier Overview

What is Electrifier Pro? | Understanding the Interface | Understanding Authoring | Understanding types of Content | Understanding Export| Understanding Actor Placement



Understanding the Export Options

Electrifier Pro exports to a variety of different file formats--so you can choose the method that best suits your particular project.

There are four basic export formats: QuickTime 3, QuickTime 2.x (bitmap), Animated GIF (visual), and Wave (audio). A short overview of the benefits of exporting to each of these file formats can be found below, including a description of what is required for playback on the web.

QuickTime 3
The industry standard for multimedia delivery, QuickTime is the export format of choice for all Electrifier Pro multimedia. Electrifier Pro takes full advantage of QuickTime 3 to minimize file sizes and provide sophisticated interactivity.

Millions of people using Mac OS, Windows 95, 98, and NT already have QuickTime installed. QuickTime is distributed widely on CD-ROM, as part of popular titles such as Riven and Launch, and can be obtained free of charge from the QuickTime site <http://www.apple.com/quicktime/>.

According to Media Metrix, "The largest single owned software application or utility product outside those bundled with the Windows operating system is Apple's QuickTime which is installed on 23.9 million Windows PCs or 67.6 percent of the 35.3 million Windows PCs installed in March 1998"

QuickTime 2.x (bitmap)
For compatibility with earlier versions of QuickTime, Electrifier Pro supports export to QuickTime 2.x.

Since QuickTime 2.x does not support features such as vector animation and the newest compression algorithms, file sizes tend to be large in comparison to equivalent QuickTime 3 files.

QuickTime 2.x also does not support the advanced interactivity offered by Electrifier Pro.

Animated GIF (visual)
The Animated GIF format is intended for simple animation, since it is large in file size and thus downloads slowly, and cannot be interactive.

Animated GIFs do not support audio content, but the first sound actor in a movie can be exported separately as a Wave file.

Animated GIFs also do not support the advanced interactivity offered by Electrifier Pro.

Wave (audio)
The Wave format is intended for simple audio, since it is large in file size and thus downloads slowly.

The audio portion of an Electrifier Pro movie can be exported to a Wave file for use on its own, or in combination with an animated GIF for visual content.

For more information

For information about the difference between bitmap and vector graphics, and between frame-based and time-based animations, see Understanding Content Types and Understanding Animation in the Electrifier Overview.

To learn the basics about how to export files from Electrifier, see Working with movies in Getting Started.

For detailed information about Electrifier Pro's export options, see the File menu section of the Menu Reference.

For detailed information about delivering multimedia, see the Delivering multimedia section of the Authoring Reference.

If you are concerned with keeping multimedia file sizes small, see the Compressing video and audio section of the Authoring Reference.


What is Electrifier Pro? | Understanding the Interface | Understanding Authoring | Understanding types of Content | Understanding Export | Understanding Actor Placement

Copyright © 1998 Electrifier, Inc. All rights reserved.