Blurred Backgrounds Effects in E-Learning #366: Challenge | Recap
Design Visually Rich Backgrounds Using This Simple Effect
Background images are one of the best ways to add visual intere...
Published 3 years ago
Version 1.0
Blog Post
Thanks to Fotor for the free easy blur on this image. Decided to put Deshaun at a concert where he's trying to have a phone conversation. What I WANTED to do was trigger a volume change in the music when you view the blurred background, but had to settle for pausing the media instead on that layer. The music volume change, of course, is supposed to represent clarity of the text. Maybe a stretch?
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/80ad1079-7f7a-4dad-ae06-1e82d31fce7e/review
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/80ad1079-7f7a-4dad-ae06-1e82d31fce7e/review
- This is cool - linking the audio volume to the blur effect is a neat idea. A trigger / variable to control this based on the user's action would be a great addition. A little like being able to switch the Closed Captions on or off without relying on the default player button.
- I deleted my silly answer for you, Jonathan, and also deleted your own answer by accident. Of course, it was obvious that you knew exactly how to manage closed captions (I was surprised). I completely misunderstood what you were saying. Sorry.
- Ha! No worries. I often explain what I'd like to see in terms of what we can already do, so I appreciate the opportunity to clarify and discuss. That's what we're all here for!
- Great idea, Jonathan! I've seen some pretty cool uses of dials and sliders for blurring, so I could incorporate something like that to control the audio files. I just wish that Storyline offered a little more in terms of volume control for the files, but that's probably a pretty heavy ask for software that is not, at its heart, DAW software. Thanks for the feedback!
- I almost found the Holy Grail, Peter. (about dynamic sound control, of course). And, Glory to him!, is a cleaver JS trigger solution from Math Notermans. No issues with track alignment as there is only one track and the JS triggers handle the entire volume level. His file.story is here:
https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/how-to-create-a-sound-volume-button
Thanks to him.
I recreated your demo with a very-very simplified copy of Math's solution.
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/10efc235-0853-49e2-9ccf-3b76b9e9281e/review)
I only kept two buttons: high volume and clear volume. These are the same buttons for blurring and unblurring the background so you have both effects at the same time. Of course, JS triggers don't work in Review, so you need to download the .story file here:
https://www.course-design.fr/download
Then click on the story.html file to see the demo in action or open the .story file and export for web. It works well. Let me know.
AND, I'm also answering Jonathan by adding buttons to manage captions without relying on the default player button (as captions are enabled or disabled by changing the built-in variable "Player.DisplayCaptions" (false or true ), it's easy to create buttons to change the variable as you need).
- I like your take on this challenge. I think it's possible to achieve the intended effect by copying the audio file. You reduce the volume of the copy. Playing both on the base layer and then switching off the loud one on the layer. Here is an example: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1Ae9E_kDRYaCuDD5pfnq37z5pMJEPlgEc
Hope it helps.- Great idea, Hilla, and thank you for the suggestion! I think the only issue I'll run into is that the music won't line up if you go back and forth, as I'll have to pause or stop the loud track while the soft one plays continuously, so if you flip back and forth the loud track won't be in sync with the soft one. But, for the purposes of this demo, we'll roll with it. Also, I tried to check out your link but the link brings up a 404 error. Thank you again for the suggestion!
@DavidAnderson, any chance Articulate might be able to add a "mute media" button that mutes the volume until it's triggered back on again without pausing or stopping it? As a musician this interests me, but might be too niche for a formal request. Not sure how many other folks would be interested in said feature (never occurred to me prior to this challenge).- I'm glad it helps you! The link works for me perfectly. No idea what's the problem. In the demo it's shown how to go back: just stop both media, hide the layer and go back to this slide. The slide must be reset to the initial value.
There is well another issue: the preview works perfectly but published in review the difference in volume gets smaller.
- So I did it. Still kinda crude and if you flip back and forth you can sometimes hear the "quiet" track playing, though I've adjusted the volumes to the point where its negligible. The issue of track alignment still persists, so I'm still very much interested in a "mute audio" trigger or variable, but cannot find anything to control media volume in this regard. Thanks again, Hilla, for a great suggestion!
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/80ad1079-7f7a-4dad-ae06-1e82d31fce7e/review- Love it! Really nice blur!
- So cool!:)
