Motion paths - when will they be available in Storyline?

Thank you Stephanie,

The video suggestion is one I hadn't considered - it wouldn't work in all situations for me but it might for some of them!

What else are you 'missing' in Storyline?  Hearing about the gaps is as helpful to me as hearing all the positive things.  Don't get me wrong - I like Storyline a lot!

Peb

Not sure from articulate,  but I would think animations is a version 2 feature

Thanks Phil.............. so now the question becomes......... when will we get our hands on version 2?

(does that sound greedy when I don't have version 1 yet?)

Peb

First of all, I'm glad I'm on board with Version 1.    No regrets.  Zero.

Yes, there are some things that I would have liked to have seen added (we all probably have our own "wish lists" there) but all in all, it's a very solid and mature first release IMVHO.  Kudos again to Articulate. 

A lot of great suggestions came up in the beta--and I've seen more here since release.  Will be interested to see how Articulate continues to mature the product. Win!

It's critical that if you'd like to see something added that to submit a feature request for Articulate's consideration, even if someone else has probably added it previously.  The more "votes" for something the better it usually is.

One thing we asked for in the beta is for Articulate to mature this product faster and more aggressively than they have other products in the past.  They indicated that was their intent.

So I'm expecting more extra goodness sooner as opposed to later.  Articulate has indicated here that an interim release is being worked on.  No ETA and no public details yet.

Hi Peb. Ditto what Gerry said. No doubt an update will come out within a year that will add new features, like animations. Perhaps some interim minor updates as well to deal with some of the bugs? That said, I haven't found the product to be "buggy" - it's stable on my Windows 7 64 bit computer and that's a good thing because I tend to push it too the limit of what it is intended for.

Things from my p.o.v. that are missing:

- Motion paths and triggered animations are features I feel are missing. By triggered animation I mean an event (mouse click even) sets off an animation.

- Related would be to be able to use to cue head for finer control over event triggers.

- Some additional triggers seem like they should be there (like "off" triggers - on mouse off not just on mouse over.

- Being able to play background tracks seamlessly across slides like you can in Presenter would be nice.

- And the other thing is the HTML5 output on a mobile device requires that you click a PLAY button to play the project. Though acceptable when creating elearning with Storyline, not so intuitive if your Storyline project is a website or some other communication piece.

I'm finding that developing projects is way faster in Storyline. There were more workarounds in Presenter with less sophisticated output so I am very happy to be working in Storyline. And those fetures that I rely on that aren't quite there yet do require some working around but overall it isn't terribly difficult or time consuming for me to do.

Stephanie

Agree with Stephanie, Storyline is definitely faster, mouse off trigger would be good.

Already exists, Gerry! Use the Jump to File / URL trigger and add:

http://community.articulate.com/forums/AddPost.aspx?ForumID=65

LOL

Just hoping that improvements such as adding animations doesn't require having to pay for an upgrade.  Between purchasing Storyline and potentially upgrading to Studio 12 Articulate is clearing out my budget. 

If the past is any indication, point releases will be included with a version release. Typically, only a whole version number increase will require an upgrade I'd wager it'll be more than a year before you see a full version number (2.0) upgrade requirement.

I hope they add animations as a point release, I just see that this is one of these must have reasons to buy version 2.0

Think it has been stated in the past point releases are free but version 2 would be an upgrade

FYI - here is a how-to screenr and live example regarding leveraging PowerPoint motion paths and transitions.

Ha Gerry, I've been lurking in this post and you just made my day.

I agree with Stephanie, about the use of PowerPoint video as a way of capturing motion paths. It is really easy to do and works like a charm.

I'm hoping Articulate can get releases to the market faster than they did with Presenter. I have a feeling they were a little restricted with Presenter because they were so tied into PowerPoint.

Look what happens when you go to sleep - all these folk on the other side of the world giving me  feedback through the night!

It's really useful to understand what happens with interim and full upgrades - so thanks for that information - Phil and Steve. 

Stephanie - your screenr was really helpful.   Much food for thought here!

I can't check out whether the conversion to a video file will work......yet...... I know you will find it unbelieveable but I am currently using Office 2003 (my organisation moves slowly in terms of upgrades - I only moved onto 2003 a year ago!!!)  I expect to have 2010 in the next month or so, so this aspect will sit on the back burner.  But now I know there IS a workaround for me to lean on.

Thank you everyone.

I am very much enjoying the exploration of Storyline - hitting a few 'Where the heck is it - I know it's here Somewhere!' moments and I suspect I may be asking some daft questions later on if I can't find what I am looking for. 

Stephanie, do you know if there's any way to save a PowerPoint 2007 file as a WMV file and have it work the same way you've shown? I'm currently looking at getting Storyline, but I'm worried that I won't have any workaround if only PPT 2010 converts to WMV. Thanks very much for this information and your Screenr!

Hi Aimee. PowerPoint 2007 doesn't save to avi or wmv format that I'm aware of. There are a host of 3rd party utilities out there that can do that though and they are pretty inexpensive (just seach for "ppt to movie" and you'll see a lot of options). You could also use Storyline's screen recording feature to record the playback of a PowerPoint 2007 animation and if it isn't too complex (too many fast moving objects) then it'll likely playback in Storyline fine but its more accurate and has smoother playback by converting from PPT and bringing it into Storyline as a wmv or other video format.

Stephanie

Thank you, Stephanie! I'll look for and test one of those 3rd party software options.

I've mentioned this elsewhere but I really like Anime Studio for path animations. Does a great job for the cost of the tool. Not super intuitive but works well once you get over the short learning curve. Here are a short set of silent demonstrations on how to do stuff in Anime Studio:

//www.screenr.com/user/xpconcept

Steve, I just had an offer come through for anime studio, really wish you hadnyt done that! You know each time you reccommend I end up buying, flame painter is a good example!

As much as I used to rely on animations, I really don't miss them any more.  I used to think I would have issues with that, but it has pushed me to make more interactive content and think a little differently.  Instead of moving something on the screen to a location for the learner, I ask the learner to move the item to the correct spot.  For example, (I work in health care):

• In Presenter: I would use a motion path to move an 'alcohol swab' to the patient to clean an area.
• In Storyline: I ask the patient to clean the area using the 'alcohol swab' using dragged over or dropped on and a hot spot.

Good luck!

Good point Kate. I think some designers have fallen into the trap that simply because it moves, then it's interactive. Not so much! I work with a couple designers who have migrated to Storyline after I had been using it for awhile and they've commented how much harder it is to develop in Storyline. Wait - don't jump to conclusions!  =-)

I asked them why it was harder and they said because there were so many options available to them that it required a lot more thought to put together a great design. Yes - you heard that correctly! It's not harder to develop in Storyline as they originally said, it simply is forcing them to push the envelope to create better courses versus the same ole thing over and over.

That's a pretty awesome problem to have in my opinion!

On a side point, some of the limitations in Storyline isn't because of Articulate but rather due to HTML5 limitations. I believe Articulate wanted Storyline to have one file that could output to 3 platforms (Flash, HTML5, & their mobile player on the iPad). Being able to do that means you can't put in a bunch of features that aren't supported on all 3 otherwise you have a massive chart to keep track of when you can or can't add a certain feature.

Jamie, during the beta I asked the developers  if the lack of animations was due to HTML5 limitations and we were promised that this was not the case and that they would not do that.  I think the lack of animations is mainly because these were the animations available in Quizmaker and they never received many feature requests for additional animations in quizmaker and then felt this would be sufficient for Storyline.

The developers I think were suprised when everyone in the beta would at some point ask where motion paths, or emphasis animations were.

Good to know Phil. I'll submit a feature request for the motion paths as well so it will have one additional vote. =-) I've used multiple development tools in the past and I do miss the flexibility of motion paths but I've learned to get around that by changing the design so it's not the end of the world for me. But, it is a nice to have.