A flat design themed online show and tell

Dec 05, 2013

Hi everyone

I've created an online show and tell for colleagues at my institution to introduce a new tool we're rolling out (Microsoft Lync). I wanted to demonstrate the ways in which the tool could be used to support learning & teaching, much like I would do in a face-to-face session.

If anyone would like to see the finished piece, you can do so here: http://elearning.net.marjon.ac.uk/lync/

I hope you like it and that it inspires you to create something new. 

How-to

  • For the theme I used a flat design colour palette available on the web, and stuck to just 3 individual colours.
  • To animate the characters I used a mixture of states to change facial expressions. Blinking was achieved by saving a character (in each state) as a PNG, opening in Photoshop and redrawing with closed eyes. I then used layers containing the closed eye version and show/hid each layer throughout the timeline (I achieved this using shapes of stage, and triggering when their timeline finished).
  • 'Hand drawn' animations were created using a piece of software called Simple Diagrams. Each object was saved as a PNG, and then animated by revealing on the timeline.
  • Audio was captured using USB mics, outside of Storyline for ease of editing.

I'm happy to answer any other queries if you have any!

Adam

6 Replies
David Anderson

What a great demo, Adam. 

Besides the clean design, the thing I like best is the use of graphics in place of text for most of the course. The hand-drawn illustrations, callouts and animations made this far more engaging than if the project were text-based.

I'm curious to know how you storyboarded the graphics and animations in those slides?

Thanks a lot for sharing.

Adam Read

David Anderson said:

What a great demo, Adam. 

 I'm curious to know how you storyboarded the graphics and animations in those slides?


Hi David.

I worked through my script and identified doodles that matched, sometimes combining 2 or 3 to represent something I was discussing. I built up the whole image that I wanted to end up with first, before saving the individual elements as transparent PNGs. In terms of Storyline I inserted my audio narration, and then timed animations to appear at set times. This involved a bit of jiggery, previewing the slide, then adjusting, etc. 

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.