I just got a subscription to Elearning Bros for the cut out people because I've run thru all the Articulate characters and EB has great storytemplate files that include multiple looks/postures for each character via states. But I'm noticing that when I try to crop them they also resize at the same time. I've never had this issue in Storyline before, has anyone encountered the same issue?
It sounds like you are using the prebuilt storyline character templates from eLearning brothers rather than the image file library (these do not work the same way as the inbuilt Storyline characters). I managed to import one of their templates and did have similar issues cropping, but if I held the shift key whilst cropping it seemed to work ok..was really slow and chugged on my *powerful* system though. This is probably because you are attempting to crop 10 images at once (the template has 10 states). You could edit the states and delete the ones you don't need and then crop this would improve the response.
It may be better to invest the time in creating your own series of character images from the eLearning brothers library that suit your needs. Unfortunately Articulate does not support custom made characters so you have to insert each pose image individually as you need them. This is way the I typically work.
I really hope that Articulate can add custom character banks in the future... iSpring has a character creation tool and it's awesome to use.
Thanks Christian - you are correct that I'm using the character templates. Today it seems to be hit or miss as to whether it crops properly or not. I did try removing the extra states, but then I no longer had the outline with anchors that I can grab with the crop tool.
Sounds like I'll just need to use individual images instead of the templates. They are great images, so I'm happy to have them but I went with Elearning Brothers thinking their templates would make things easier.
You have my vote for creating the custom character banks - I even made a feature request for that yesterday! :)
I am the technical support supervisor for eLeraning Brothers. Sorry to hear you are having difficulties. When you first sent in that support ticket I didn't realize it was the character packs that you were attempting to crop.
We are aware of the issue that when you crop an image that has multiple states with different sizes in the states. The image will skew unless you edit each individual state. That is why we created two versions of each pack one full body character and the other cropped which are all bust shots.
Attached shows the available options on download and a video that Sherrie sent me of the problem.
You also mentioned, "since importing these character templates Storyline is acting buggy in a way it never has. Mostly with long delays and jittery action." I have never seen or heard of this issue before. I wonder if it is from importing SL1 into SL2. Emily have you ever heard of anything like this happening when importing a .storytemplate file?
Thanks Bryce for chiming in here and helping out in terms of the character issue.
In regards to the "jittery" behavior of importing in a template, it's not something we've seen but we'd be happy to take a look at one of the templates that is causing you difficulty and you'll just wnat to confirm that you're working locally as described here.
The buggy behavior didn't happen specifically with the import process, but after I imported several character templates Storyline starting moving very slow, with some long waits for reactions to some use of ribbon options. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly, but I will see if capture a recording of what I'm talking about.
Thanks for the update and I'm happy to hear things are working ok. I didn't see any odd behavior with that template either, but a colleague of mine did offer a thought in regards to the sluggishness. It could be connected to having too many high-res, transparent characters on a slide, as the slide will have to process all those alpha transparent characters upon each load or visit.
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Hello Sherrie!
Unfortunately I do not have any of their images to test with. Hopefully some other members of the community can chime in with some assistance.
It sounds like you are using the prebuilt storyline character templates from eLearning brothers rather than the image file library (these do not work the same way as the inbuilt Storyline characters). I managed to import one of their templates and did have similar issues cropping, but if I held the shift key whilst cropping it seemed to work ok..was really slow and chugged on my *powerful* system though. This is probably because you are attempting to crop 10 images at once (the template has 10 states). You could edit the states and delete the ones you don't need and then crop this would improve the response.
It may be better to invest the time in creating your own series of character images from the eLearning brothers library that suit your needs. Unfortunately Articulate does not support custom made characters so you have to insert each pose image individually as you need them. This is way the I typically work.
I really hope that Articulate can add custom character banks in the future... iSpring has a character creation tool and it's awesome to use.
Thanks Christian - you are correct that I'm using the character templates. Today it seems to be hit or miss as to whether it crops properly or not. I did try removing the extra states, but then I no longer had the outline with anchors that I can grab with the crop tool.
Sounds like I'll just need to use individual images instead of the templates. They are great images, so I'm happy to have them but I went with Elearning Brothers thinking their templates would make things easier.
You have my vote for creating the custom character banks - I even made a feature request for that yesterday! :)
Thanks again for the insight!
Thanks for submitting a feature request Sherrie!
Hi Sherrie,
I am the technical support supervisor for eLeraning Brothers. Sorry to hear you are having difficulties. When you first sent in that support ticket I didn't realize it was the character packs that you were attempting to crop.
We are aware of the issue that when you crop an image that has multiple states with different sizes in the states. The image will skew unless you edit each individual state. That is why we created two versions of each pack one full body character and the other cropped which are all bust shots.
Attached shows the available options on download and a video that Sherrie sent me of the problem.
You also mentioned, "since importing these character templates Storyline is acting buggy in a way it never has. Mostly with long delays and jittery action." I have never seen or heard of this issue before. I wonder if it is from importing SL1 into SL2. Emily have you ever heard of anything like this happening when importing a .storytemplate file?
Thanks Bryce for chiming in here and helping out in terms of the character issue.
In regards to the "jittery" behavior of importing in a template, it's not something we've seen but we'd be happy to take a look at one of the templates that is causing you difficulty and you'll just wnat to confirm that you're working locally as described here.
Sure, here is the file, however, it never was jittery for me. If you wouldn't mind to chime in Sherrie and let us know more of what you experienced?
The buggy behavior didn't happen specifically with the import process, but after I imported several character templates Storyline starting moving very slow, with some long waits for reactions to some use of ribbon options. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly, but I will see if capture a recording of what I'm talking about.
I haven't been able to duplicate what I was seeing. Maybe rebooting this morning did the trick :)
Hi sherrie,
Thanks for the update and I'm happy to hear things are working ok. I didn't see any odd behavior with that template either, but a colleague of mine did offer a thought in regards to the sluggishness. It could be connected to having too many high-res, transparent characters on a slide, as the slide will have to process all those alpha transparent characters upon each load or visit.
Let us know if you run into any other issues.
That makes sense. All the more reason to want to be able to add custom images to the built in characters sets :) (had to get that in there LOL).
Thanks to everyone for the help.
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