How to... select an avatar as a main character for your course
Dec 29, 2012
Hi folks,
I guess the title says it all I want to create something where a user can select one of multiple characters before starting a course... That character will then be the main character in the course.
I had a look at Mike Enders screenr here and figured I'd so something with placing all characters over each other and enable/disable them based on a variable. Mike countered that you could do something with one object and have all character options as states but that seems complex to me especially if I want my main character in different poses.
If I take it a step further I'd perhaps like the character that haven't been chosen to play a part in the scenario...
Anyone got some brilliant ideas?
27 Replies
Set them as a state, normal and female (no pun intended) the set the T/Fvariable when you select your choice.
Then set it on timeline start to change the state with triggers
Hi Phil, so each slide should have a character object in the pose I want and then set them by a variable on each slide again when the timeline starts?
Yep that's it
Hi Jeff,
You can go about that a couple ways depending on how you're working with your content.
Slides
This is probably the most common way since it allows you to make all the changes at the slide level.
Demo | Source
Slide Masters
For larger project, this might work better since it controls the custom avatars from the slide master level. This is also likely the more efficient way to manage different poses since you could include a different slide layout for each of the poses. Here's a single example that hopefully gets you started
Demo | Source
Trust David to do a simple version with layouts.
Hi All,
Tx for the questions and answers. So easy to implement. Set it up after taking a quick peak at David's source file.
Thank you Phil and David, The slidemaster one is briljant and does exactly what I was thinking about. My mind always makes it so much more complex (due to childhood math trauma ). Especially when I see how easy you can do this in Storyline. Very very cool!
@Jeff Great question! I was thinking of doing something similiar in a practice course I'm working on, so this was very timely.
@David - thanks for the great demos! As always, you are my hero!
Happy New Year All!
How do you get the object you put in the slide master to always stay in front of everything else on the slide? I know who to do the is PowerPoint but not Storyline.
RE: Slides
This is probably the most common way since it allows you to make all the changes at the slide level.
Demo | Source
Great sample. One question.. can someone explain how the state changes are setup to show the other characters (see red below)? I've setup all triggers and slide master layers but when I go to change the Content slide, it doesn't allow me to change the state to Christian or Christy without changing the character for Brian as well. I suspect it is something very simple but what am I missing.
Thanks!
Richard
Hi Richard,
When you click on "Edit state" you're able to go into each state and change the character, position, or even remove the person entirely. Since these are Photographic characters, you may not have them all installed as Storyline comes with Atsumi as the one photographic character although you can purchase other ones.
Ashley,
Thanks! I guess I just needed a cup of coffee and a quick post on the forum to solve the problem!
Richard
Working without coffee should likely be outlawed. It's inhumane.
Glad I was able to help.
Hi David,
I have tried to recreate this - but can you please clarify some triggers for me? I note that when you hover over your character icons - their face appears...and then you can click on the character. However I cannot see a trigger for this hover in your source files.
I have created a hover trigger that changes the state of my character to move slightly when the mouse hovers over. But there seems to be no way for me to click the character after this.
Can you please help?
Thank you.
Amy
Hi David,
the source cannot be displayed anymore. Is it possible for you to to upload the file again?
Thanks!
I agree with Antje, would love to see the Slide source code David!
Oh, this is a bit dated, but I'll ask David if he may still have this for you :)
The links are updated!
Slides
Demo | Source
Slide Masters
Demo | Source
Hey Antje and Mike,
Try the links again - David was able to update them for you :)
Hi David,
I'm still new at creating courses and I have looked at your example, but I still have a question. How do you add a different character under another character's state?
Hi, Katie, and welcome to E-Learning Heroes! ✨
If you want to have a different character in a state, here are the steps:
Let me know if this works!
I have read these and many others and I think I am getting brain overload. It use to be easy
Set Character to value Jennifer / when the user clicks Jennifer
I am working on a new file and the trigger is so different and will not work like I want it too.
Set state of Character 1 to Jennifer / when the user clicks Character 1
On my first project, it showed both avatars as character 1. I am creating a new presentation and it is showing both character 1 and 2. I can not get the avatar to follow on the next slide.
I haven't worked with Master slides either and what I am reading this is what I need to be doing! Any help would greatly be appreciated.
I should also explain that I did hide my characters at one point, that didn't help.
I added both, just to see if that was the culprit. Gave Greg his own states even. That didn't work!
Hi, Lynda.
Thank you for reaching out!
The first trigger you mentioned is correct: set character to value Jennifer when the user clicks Jennifer. You need a variable (Character) to receive the value the user selected.
Once the variable is set, you can change the character's state based on that value.
I recorded a short Peek 360 overview (3mins) with the changes I suggest for your project.
Let me know if you have additional questions!
Have a look at the attached and see if that's what you wanted. I used a variable "SelectedCharacter". Clicking either character will set the variable. On the next slide then, based on the variable value, I set the appropriate character's state to Normal.
Oh my, one small step! Thank you both so much.