Struggling with cue points for an interactive video clip

May 08, 2017

Hi all.

I have imported a video clip into Storyline 2 and am trying to make it interactive by using cue points to pause it at specific important points, at each of which a layer opens that overlays the video with a message to the user.  Once the user has read it and clicked a "Continue" button on the message, the video needs to continue playing from the point where it last paused.

I have also added shapes (numbered markers) with arrows to point out specific things to the user at those pause points, and have used the timeline to stagger their appearance in the course so that each one coincides with its relevant cue point.  In essence therefore, when the timeline arrives at each cue point, the video must pause, a number and supporting arrow appears to point out something specific on the video and a message displays.  Once the user clicks "Continue", the message, arrow and number disappear and the video continues playing (until the next cue point, when the cycle repeats again).

Unfortunately, however, I can't get Storyline to recognise my cue points.  The layer with the message, as well as the number and arrow, appear at the relevant cue point as per the set up triggers, but the video refuses to pause even though the "Continue" button wasn't clicked.  I have tried using triggers to pause both the timeline and the video, on both the base layer and the subsequent layers, but with no success.

What is the difference between pausing the timeline and pausing the video in my context?

Thanks.

3 Replies
Adam Hoe

Hi Graeme,

There could be a few things happening here.

Attached, is a very small sample that seems to align with your interaction if you want to cross reference the triggers and so on.

If you are able to share your file, even a small sample of it, it will be helpful in determining the issue.

Did you you insert the video exactly by using Insert > Video > Video from file? Or is it embedded by some other means?

Hope this is a helpful start to resolving your issue.

 

 

Graeme Foulds

Hi Adam.  Thanks for the response - appreciated!

After an entire morning of struggling, I eventually managed to sort it out.  Turns out that (and this is not anything I've ever seen anyone mention before in a tutorial or anything) there is some kind of "minimum distance" necessary between the start of the video and the first cue point.

I had my first cue point set for just a fraction of a second after the start of the video, and I guess Storyline couldn't react fast enough?  After I redid the video to add a bit of extra time padding to its start before the first cue point was due, I was able to correspondingly shift that cue point further back to occur one second into the video.  Storyline then picked it up without problems and everything ran smoothly and as planned throughout.

I see that Storyline 3 is now out.  Hope they've put some work into cue points in that upgrade - my experience in Storyline 2 is that they're useful, but rather clunky to work with.

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