Adobe

Object effects


 

Object effects help you quickly draw users' attention to the required objects on a slide. To see the effects that you can apply to objects, select an object, go to Window > Effects, and click .

For a detailed description of these effects, see this post on Lieve Weymeis’s blog.

You can create effects in Adobe Flash and use them in Adobe Captivate. For more information, see Creating custom effects in Adobe Flash.

For an overview of object effects, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_cp_objecteffects_en.

    Showing and hiding the Effects panel

    Go to Windows menu, and then click Effects.

    Options on the Effects panel

    Effect Properties
    Properties of an effect that is applied to an object.

    Live Preview Mode
    Shows how the object effect looks when the video is played.

    Animation Trigger
    The trigger for a specific object effect. The triggers can be time-based or event-based. Object effects with the time-based trigger are applied after the previous object is played. Object effects with event-based triggers are applied when specific events occur, such as, a click of a button or an entry to a specific slide.

    For a specific object, you can apply effects with both time-based and event-based triggers. Object effects with event-based triggers take precedence over effects with time-based triggers.

    Creating event-based animation triggers

    1. Select the object that is the base for the event. For example, to apply an effect to an object after a specific slide begins, select the slide.

    2. In the Actions panel, select Apply Effect in the On Enter or On Success drop-down lists.

    3. In the Object Name drop-down list, select the object to which you want to apply an effect.

    An event-based animation trigger for the selected object is created and listed in the Effects panel. You can choose the event-based trigger while applying an effect to this object.

    Applying effects to objects

    1. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and then select Effects.

    2. In the Animation Trigger drop-down list, select a trigger for the effect. By default, the time-based trigger is selected. To apply the object effect when a specific event occurs, create an event-based trigger, and then select it in the Effects panel.

    3. Click and select the effect to apply to the object. To use an already saved effect, click Browse and locate the XML file that corresponds to the effect.

      You can create a sequence of effects by applying multiple effects to a single object.

    4. Click Live Preview Mode to preview the effect on the object. Click Edit Mode to return to the editing mode.

    5. To apply the effect to multiple objects, click and select either

      • Apply To All Items To apply the effect to all objects that belong to the object type.

      • Apply To All Items Of Same Style To apply to all objects that use the same object style.

    Defining motion paths for objects

    1. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and select Effects.

    2. In the Animation Trigger drop-down list, select a trigger for the effect. By default, the time-based trigger is selected. To apply the object effect when a specific event occurs, create an event-based trigger, and then select it in the Effects panel.

    3. Click , select Motion Path, and then select the type of motion path you want to apply.

    4. Click the symbol that appears at the right corner of the object. The direction of the motion path indicated by an arrow appears.

    5. To change the direction of motion, click the arrowhead and drag it in the new direction.

    Modifying object effects

    Use the Effect Properties panel in the Effects panel to modify the properties of an object effect. To show or hide properties, change the default values, or the range of values, edit the <effect_config> section in the XML file of the object effect. The XML files for the default object effects are at <Installation folder>/Gallery/Effects (Windows) \Applications\ Adobe Captivate 6\Gallery\Effects (Mac OS).

    Creating custom effects in Adobe Flash

    You can save the classic tweens as XML files in Flash and then use the effects in Adobe Captivate. To select and apply an effect created in Flash, select the object, click in Window > Effects panel, and then click Browse.

    You can create the effects with any default duration you want. For a 30 fps project, an effect with 60 frames has a default duration of 2 seconds.

    To make the parameters of the effect available on the user interface for editing, edit the XML file to specify the required parameters. These parameters appear on the left side of the Effects panel.

    To enable editing of parameters:

    1. Open the XML file and in the Keyframes element, identify the property that you want to make available for editing on the user interface.

      This property typically has a numerical value assigned to it. For the list of properties that the Keyframes element can contain and their description, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_cp_flashactionscript_en.

    2. Change the numerical value of the property in the Keyframes element to a string.

    3. Add a new element, effect_config to the XML file. In this element, add a config_item element for every property that you want to make available for editing on the user interface. For details on the elements and attributes that you can add in this element, see XML elements for effects configuration parameters.

    4. In the config_item element (child of effect_config), add the attribute property_value.

    5. Specify the string that you assigned to the property in step 2 as the value for this attribute.

    6. Add the other attributes, such as type and default_value. For more information, see XML elements for effects configuration parameters.

    7. Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 to enable editing for as many properties as you want.

    XML elements for effects configuration parameters

    The hierarchy of the effect_config element is as follows:

    <effect_config> 
    <config_item> 
        <effect_property type="number" property_value="BLUR_X" default_value="50"> 
    </config-item> 
    <config_item> 
        <effect_property type="list" property_value="QUALITY" default_value="1"> 
            <list_items> 
                <list_item> 
                </list_item> 
            </list_items> 
        </effect_property> 
    </config_item> 
    <config_item> 
        <effect_property type="color" > 
            <effect_sub_property> 
            </effect_sub_property> 
        </effect_property> 
    </config_item> 
</effect_config>

    Element

    Attribute

    Value

    Type

    Description

    effect_config

    effect_type

    motion_path

    		  

    Use this attribute to display the handles for editing the x and y coordinates of the motion path.

    config_item

    display_name

    		  

    String

    Specify the name of the configuration item (property) displayed to users on the Effects panel.

    effect_property

    property_value

    This attribute is mandatory.

    		  

    String

    Specify the value of the configuration item. This value must be the same as the one that corresponds to the appropriate property in the ‘Keyframes’ element.

    For example, in the Glow.XML file (Gallery > Effects > Filters), the Keyframe element contains BLUR_X as the value for blurX. To make the value of ‘blur’ editable from the user interface, add BLUR_X as the property_value in the effect_config element.

     

    default_value

    		  

    Number

    Specify the default value displayed on the user interface.
     

    valid_range

    Syntax: valid_range="{{0,255}}"

    		  

    Number

    Specify the range of values applicable for the configuration item. For example, valid_range="{{0,255}}" indicates that the lowest value is 0 and the highest is 255.

    You can specify the attribute ‘modifiers’ to modify the value specified on the user interface.
     

    type

    This attribute is mandatory.

    number

    		  

    Use this type to indicate that the configuration item is a number. You can specify the following attributes with this type:

    • valid_range

    • increment

    • modifiers

    • decimal_places
       

    list

    		  

    Use this type to indicate that the configuration item is a drop-down list. You can specify the following attributes with this type:

    • name

    • value
       

    color

    		  

    Use this type to indicate that the configuration item is to be associated with a color palette. You can specify the following attributes with this type:

    • rgb

    • alpha
       

    bool

    		  

    Use this type to indicate that the configuration item is a Boolean. The configuration item is associated with a check box.

    The default value can be true or false.
       

    seperator

    		  

    Use this type to separate the configuration items with a horizontal space on the user interface.

    This type can be used only for the config_item element.
     

    increment

    		  

    Number

    Specify the value by which the parameter must be incremented when you click the parameter value, hold-down the mouse button, and move the mouse.
     

    modifiers

    Syntax: modifiers= "{offset:0,multiplier:0.01}"

    • offset

    • multiplier

    Number

    Use this attribute to modify the value specified on the user interface. Use Offset to increase or decrease the value specified on the user interface. To decrease the user-specified value, use a negative number as the Offset.

    Use multiplier to multiply the value specified on the user interface by a number.

    This attribute can be used with the type ‘number’ only.
     

    decimal_places

    		  

    Number

    Specify the number of decimal places to be allowed for the configuration item. For example, a value of 3 allows you to specify 0.001 and not 0.00001.

    list_item

    (child of effect_property and list_items)

    name

    		  

    String

    Specify the name of the list item(s).
     

    value

    		  

    Number

    Specify the value that must be posted back to the Keyframes section when users select a list item.

    effect_sub_property

    (child of effect_property)

    rgb

    		    

    Use this attribute to specify the default hexadecimal RGB number. For example, specify rgb=”ff0000” for red.

    This attribute is valid for the type ‘color’ only.
     

    alpha

    		  

    Number

    Use this attribute to specify the default transparency of the color.

    This attribute is valid for the type ‘color’ only.

    Best practices for creating effects in Flash

    • Ensure that the FPS of the Flash application you are creating for effects is 30.

    • Ensure the value of ‘property_value’ in the effect_config section of the effect file (XML file) is the same as that of the one in the Keyframe section.

    • Break a single effect into multiple effects if the number of parameters is more than five. You can then create a sequence of these effects to achieve the desired result.

    • Avoid exporting an effect created using frame by frame animations in Flash. You cannot achieve the desired results when such effects are used in Adobe Captivate.

      Instead, create effects using classic tweens and import these tweens into Adobe Captivate.

    • Group the effect parameters by keyframes. You can use the ‘seperator’ type to group related properties.

    • Check if the XML file of the effect exported from Flash is valid, before using it in Adobe Captivate. To do so, open the XML file in a browser or an XML editor.

    Saving and deleting effects

    1. Click in the Effects panel.

    2. Browse to the location where you want to save the effect or the effect sequence, and click Save. The effect sequence is saved as an XML file.

    3. To delete an effect, select the effect, and then click .

    After saving an effect sequence, you can apply it to another object in the project.

    When you use the effect sequence again (at least once) in the project, it becomes available in the Advanced Actions dialog box.

    Note: However, when you apply the effect sequence using this dialog box, the result of the effect may differ. For example, the duration of the effect does not get scaled proportionately based on the object's timeline. See www.adobe.com/go/learn_introtoeffects_en for more information.

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