It is a term that has come out of the realm of the techies and has become commonplace. Almost everyone has heard it today but few know the possibilities it offers as a career option. Multimedia is more than MMS i.e. multimedia messaging system, a service provided by our mobile service providers. Let us first define, what is multimedia.

'Multimedia' as the name suggests is many medias together where 'multi' means many and 'media' means a information transfer medium or a communication medium. What could these 'many media' be? There are numerous and diverse ways of communication using mediums like-text, pictures, graphics, videos and sounds. Multimedia provides a platform to bring these mediums together to form a presentation, which is loaded with creativity and information that enhances the viewers experience with its interactive features. For example- CD-ROM and online games , e-card that you send to your friends and family, animated movie like Shrek, Happy Feet, The Lion King , kiosks, movie trailers, the special effects you see in the movies like the ones in Matrix, Superman, Spiderman, Men in Black and like, dynamic websites, computer based training kits. The list is long. The scope it provides, as a career is huge and is in various industries.

To start with first one has to decide which aspect of multimedia is one interested in or atleast know which one is one inclined to. The second step is to learn the computer applications. There are two ways of learning here- doing a degree course second, getting a diploma. Degree courses will have a syllabus that will cover designing concepts from the very basic to the advance level, formatting, writing, publishing and computer applications. It will cover all the aspects of becoming a multimedia designer and later you can decide what's your forte. In contrast to this a diploma course will be of a shorter duration and will normally teach you the computer applications or softwares only.

Generally, people opt for the diploma courses as they are for shorter duration and with the options that are available in this field, one need not necessarily be good with drawing and illustrations, it is only if you decide to become a character artist 2D/3D or an illustrator you need to be good at it. There are a few basic softwares that everyone aspiring to work in this field should know like-Photoshop, Illustrator/Corel draw and Flash. Out of these three Photoshop is a MUST. It is a software that allows you to work with graphics and modify them as you want.

The softwares you learn depend on what you want to become. Softwares are customizes and are meant to perform specialized tasks like Photoshop is mainly used for working on graphics, Flash for making web animation, 3D studio Max for making 3D characters, FrontPage and Dreamweaver for designing webpages, Pagemaker for designing content meant for printing and so on. Now for example you want to become a Web designer so you would want to learn -Photoshop, Flash and FrontPage or Dreamweaver. These will form your base, from here you can keep updating yourself. For eg.if you want to learn the programming part of Flash, which makes the software really dynamic you would want to learn Java Script. Its an continuous learning process because there are new softwares coming up almost everyday in the market or more features being added to old softwares.

Job opportunities offered by multimedia are in the field of Graphic designing, Web designing, Media, Gaming industry, Movies 2D and 3D both, Advertising, Publishing, making of Computer based training presentations, Criminal investigation, Fashion designing, interior designing, Logo designing and like. It is a good option for people who want to work from home and there are plenty of sites that offer such projects.

It can be an interesting experience if you have the zeal to try and do something new and you enjoy creating something that doesn't exist and the challenges that come along in the process of doing so.