Select character at start (by using vaiable)

Yes! 

1. Create a variable to store the student's choice (Ex: Avatar)
2. Create a selection screen with the student's options.  When the student selects a character and clicks submit, adjust the variable to be the character they chose.  (Ex: Male1)
3. On any screen with a character, create a state for each of the possible characters (Ex: Male 1, Female 2, etc.).
4. On the slide, add a series of action triggers to change the state of the character based on the variable, when the timeline starts.  (Ex: change state of image 1 to the state Male 1 if  the variable Avatar is equal to Male1)

I hope that makes sense.

Hi Diane,

Not sure what I'm doing wrong but can't seem to make it work.

1. I've created a variables (Male) and (Female).
2. 
3. Created a selection screen with 2 images
4. When Male is selected, I have set a trigger to adjust the variable (Male) when user selects male image also with jump to slide (Introduction)

5. 

6. When Female is selected, I have set a trigger to adjust the variable (Female) when user selects female image also with jump to slide (Introduction)

7. 

8. In the (Introduction) slide, The (male and female) graphic is turned into a button that contains these 2 states (Male and Female)
9. 
10. Next step is confusing to me... I've set some triggers but having hard time getting it...

11. 

What am I doing wrong? :(

Thanks, Susie

Hello, Susie,

You only need 1 variable, not 2. 

Create 1 variable to store the choice.  You can call it "character" or something like that.

When the student clicks the male character, change the variable to the value "male"

When the student clicks the female character, change the variable to the value "female"

It looks like you have the states set up properly. 

On that slide, add two triggers that say:

Change the state of the graphic to Male if  the variable "character" is equal to "male" when the Timeline starts.

Change the state of the graphic to Female if the variable "character" is equal to "female" when the Timeline starts.

Hopefully that should solve it.  Otherwise, let me know!
Diane

Hi Diane,

Your answer has helped me accomplish this in my project as well.  Thanks so much!  I have one small issue.  As the user clicks from slide to slide, for one brief moment you can see the alternate avatar before it changes to the next.  I have checked that there is no animation and no delay with the character on the timeline.  Do you know how I might fix this please?

Hmmm.  I haven't encountered that myself.  Are there other actions that run on the page first?  If so, perhaps moving this action to the top of the list might help.  Another option is to make "hidden" the default state.  It would still take a split second for the right character to appear, but at least they wouldn't be looking at the wrong character.

Greetings,

I was able to impement this in a customer service course I created.  However, I am having the same issue that Heidi described above: the character blinks from male to female for a split second on every slide change.  I tried both of the recommendations from Diane on having the action at the top of the list, and starting as hidden with a state change, but neither seem to be working. 

Has anybody else tried this out and experienced this issue?

Does anybody have suggestions on how to correct that issue?

Thanks!

This is because the trigger fires as the slide is visible, no real way to fix it

I was having this same problem, where there would be a delay before my selected avatar would display. Then I tried removing the transition on the slides, and it did the trick! Before, I had a fade transition, and the avatar would appear after the transition was finished (.5 seconds). With no transition, there was no delay!

Thanks for sharing Becky :)

Hello Diane

Thanks for sharing.

I have added another step-by-step process along with  the source file. I hope it fills up the gap for people who are getting stuck doing it in one way.

Thanks Melwyn, always great to have another example here! 

I know this was a discussion from several years ago.  I am having trouble because I have three characters.  Has anyone tried this with three characters?

Hi Rebekah,

Yes, this will work with three characters! Simply follow the steps Diane outlined at the top of this discussion. 

If you get stuck along the way, we're here to help! You can share your file here, and we'll point you in the right direction. Since this is a public forum, you'll want to remove any proprietary information before attaching your file to a new reply.

Would be incredibly helpful if there was a way to set the state of the character to a variable instead of having to create multiple triggers on every slide. This approach becomes very cumbersome and hard to maintain. 

An ideal solution would be something like this:

Set state of Character = variable when timeline starts

The variable would be what the user selected at the onset of the course. This also removes any dependencies, e.g. if any of the states of the character asset are added or removed. Nothing else would need to be updated in the project because everything is tied to the variable that the user selected.

Faisal,

Programmers have wanted that ability for decades. As nearly as I know, no known computer language implements it in any way that is shorter than one IF statement per option.