Newbie Question on Layers/triggers
Jun 03, 2016
Hi All,
I'm a newbie with Storyline 2 and I've got an opportunity to pick up my first gig as a media designer but I'm hitting a roadblock.
I'm skilled with Office software and PowerPoint but layers in Storyline are giving me a problem.
I'm just creating one demo slide and I thought I would organize the layers this way...
Layer 1
Text flys out on screen, a few pictures appear then after a minute or so layer 1 should disappear
Layer 2 then appears with some more text and disappears,
then layer 3, then 4 etc..
The user doesn't need to do anything during these layers so I thought it would be pretty straight forward but working with layers is making me crazy - see profile pic.
Any advice or examples for this kind of design that I could pull apart and learn from are appreciated.
Second question - any good step-by-step style book recommendations with for storyline would be super awesome :)
Professor John Oviatt
4 Replies
Hi John - I am not sure I would achieve the functionality you are describing with layers. If you would like a seamless flow of a few pieces of content, I would use separate slides and use the Base Layer properties (gear icon next to name of base layer in bottom-right of your window) to change the setting "Slide advances" from "By user" to "Automatically." Then, I might remove the Prev/Next buttons from the player, since the content is intended to flow without user input.
For text or images to "fly in," I am guessing you already know about animations and such.
Layer example attached. As Jacob points out, the Animation menu is pretty powerful. Also, note the tiny gear icons on each layer. Clicking reveals key settings that might you better understand layers.
I'd suggest you browse the Building Better Courses areas of the forums too, as I find many new insights how to present information. Is a multislide sequence the better way to present information, or single slide/multiple layers, etc.
As an experienced Office user, you are thinking of each object as its own separate layer, but in SL, a layer is more like a discrete new slide, but with the original slide still under it. In Office, a layer can contain only one object, but in SL, a layer can contain any number of objects.
If I were to do what you are describing, I would use the time line to have objects appear and disappear, with animations to control how they appear. No need for layers, nor new slides.
Hi John,
Looks like you've got some pros weighing in here - and although you may be able to find some books related to Storyline, they are not published by Articulate but some of our prolific users.
You may want to begin with the other tutorials here and information on getting started with Storyline:
Best of luck and let us know if you need anything else!
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