Would like the objects on screen to change states every .5 seconds

Oct 06, 2015

I am trying to make an animated arrow effect by turning the state off and on based on time. I am starting to enter triggers for each object...there will be a lot of them. Is there an easier way to do this? Perhaps conditions? If so, how? I certainly do appreciate your help in this matter.

13 Replies
Walt Hamilton

Steve,

You've done yeoman's work on the graphics. Great job.

I would give you two general cautions

1. Not all state changes work on items that are within groups. That notwithstanding, I made changes to the arrow without ungrouping it.

2. There is a limit to how long the path to a story can be, and publishing adds a lot of characters. If funny things happen when you publish, you may want to shorten the name.

That said, this version may be what you want. There is a timer (in the form of two alternating layers) on the master Shine. They change the PointLeft variable every .5 seconds. Any item or any slide can hear when the variable changes.

On the introduction slide, I added a state to the arrow, and two variables to change it.

 

Steve Berebitsky

 

Walt

First of all, thank you for your compliment. Secondly, I feel silly. I completely forgot about the scene you dove into (I was wondering why the file I uploaded was so big).

In "Introduction" there are two slides. The base I removed for confidentiality reasons. The problem is AssistGas08 layer. I am trying to get an animated arrow effect. Thank you Walt.

Walt Hamilton

Layer AssistGas08 layer is your original layer.

Slide1.1 is the same effect using a timer. The advantage of a timer is that you only put in the triggers once, and it goes as long as you want.

Slide 1.2 is a different approach.

A third option might be to use motion paths and show little packets traversing the lines.

Steve Berebitsky

Walt thank you for your help. I am going to dive into (Boolean) variables so I can understand what you have done in your solutions. I am unable to follow the logic. I may have come up with a solution that works (it needs to be aesthetically tightened up a bit). It works, but for me to get a better handle on Storyline, I will need to roll up my sleeves and do a bit of learnin'. Thank you again Walt.

Walt Hamilton

Looks great to me.

One thing I meant to mention earlier is that using built-in states like hover for uses apart from their native function sometimes results in (usually very) strange and (not very often) wonderful things. I would really use a custom state, rather than Hover. Edit states, select Hover and duplicate it, giving it your own name. Of course, then you have to change the triggers :(, but in the long run, you'll be happier.

Steve Berebitsky

Walt, thank you for the advice. I will change it up. I am all about being happier in the long run. Ashley, the link regarding the states does not explain why not use built in states for other than their native function. The object I used does not have a native state except for the name. I selected that name because it was simply there as a choice. Can the name effect the outcome? Thank you.

Walt Hamilton

Buttons come with all of the built-in states already populated, and designed. So if you do something to change them to a new state, the change will show.  Objects can have those same states, but they are blank unless you design one.

Built-in states come with their own set of triggers that are not visible to us, but they still function. So for example, in your story, if the user hovers their mouse over one of the objects, it will show its hover state, which may or may not be what you want.

So can the name affect the outcome? If you use the name of a built-in state, you  automatically get those built-in behaviors and functions. It may change to that state when you want it to, but it will also change when its native activity (hover, click, etc.) happens.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Couldn't have said it better myself Walt... 

Steve, I shared those so that you knew which states were built in and how they were set up to behave. If you're using one of those names as a "custom" state - that's partially where issues could occur. So you can create your own state even if it's something as simple as Hover2 then it'll work how you tell it to work. 

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