Valentine Mystery Critters: a digital picture book

As a picture book author-illustrator, I've been intrigued by the advancements in digital books, especially features that aren't possible in printed books. After looking into book apps and other technically arduous and expensive ways to add motion, effects such as appear/disappear, and other fun elements to my picture book making toolbox, I recently found a much simpler way. The video shows how adding simple animations can allow a book to exist that would be impossible otherwise. And I made it myself without a lot of unnecessary fuss.

As the video mentions, Valentine Mystery Critters was made in PowerPoint, of all things. I used the built-in vector shapes to keep the file size small and also just to see what could be done with simple circles, triangles, rectangles, and of course, hearts. Optional speaker notes are included in case a teacher or parent wants to extend the book beyond reading and watching it. For example, you can discuss the different kinds of shapes, their colors, their orientation, and so on before proceeding to watch the shapes assemble themselves into a critter.

Naturally this format has advantages and disadvantages, so here goes:

Pros

• PowerPoint is installed on zillions of computers.

• The book can be read on Mac or Windows computers with or without a projection system.

• It can be viewed on iPad with the free app SlideShark...it's easy to use and even has a built in laser pointer, which is always fun.

• While it was tedious work to get the animations working right, it was relatively easy and straightforward to make the book in PowerPoint compared to hiring a developer and trying to enter the labyrinth that is the Apple iTunes/App story, for example.

• You can include printable activity pages.

Cons

• PowerPoints have limited interactivity compared to book apps and the various formats for interactive whiteboards.

• PowerPoints don't have digital rights management like iPad apps do, so somebody could steal my work and post it online. What can I say except let's hope the pirates have bigger fish to fry than to steal my digital children's books...! Also, people who use pirated versions don't have access to updates.

• The book won't function properly on old versions of PPT. Someone has tested it for me and it works fine on the Windows 2007 version. Of course, most digital products run into this issue.

There probably are other "cons" but I can't think of more at the moment.

Here's the cover and the link to the book on my TeachersPayTeachers store.

No doubt I've only scratched the surface of what can be done in PowerPoint...the program has been around for a long time, but it's new to me. One thing that is on my list is to make a non-linear something or other, because you can have multiple links on a slide that take you to different slides.

Update: I've also made a version for Mac Keynote. (It won't work on the iPad, but the PowerPoint book will with the SlideShark app. Ironic, I know!)

Have a great Valentine's Day!

Easing for animations demo

While learning how to use DIY app software, I’m running across quite a few things I know very little about, such as animation. A simple type that moves an image in a straight line is called a linear animation. The Photoshop plug-in Kwik has quite a few ways to create variation with easing. Easing changes the speed and other aspects of how the image moves from point A to point B.

The easing options have interesting names such as InExpo and inOutElastic. For the inexperienced, their descriptions can be a little tough to visualize and differentiate, such as:
inOutExpo: starts motion from a zero velocity, accelerates, then decelerates to a zero velocity using an exponential easing equation.

As opposed to:
OutExpo: starts motion fast and then decelerates motion to a zero velocity as it executes.

Being a visual person, I’ve been making a demo app to see the various features in action. This video shows all the easing methods (plus 2 widgets because there was some extra room):

Aside from the easing method selected, all other aspects of the animation are the same for each one. The video is a little jerky but it gives the idea. For a interactive demo of easing options on the web, check out this page.

I hope this is helpful to someone...it certainly is for me, at least.

Cartoon bunny drawing tutorial

Kids love to watch me (or any artist) draw and usually get busy afterwards creating their own artwork. Here is a step-by-step drawing of a comical rabbit character:

Enjoy!

DIY app software Kwik tutorial: making a butterfly fly

The short clip below was made with the Photoshop plug-in Kwik and previewed using Corona. Basically, the art is in layers in PS, the animation and interactivity is added using Kwik, then the app can be previewed in the Corona simulator. Once the app is complete, it can be uploaded to the various app stores. More details on all that can be found on www.kwiksher.com.

I drew and painted the art in Illustrator and Photoshop. Here are the steps to make the animation:

I made 6 images of the butterfly with the wings squinching in then out again, saved in PNG format. The images must be named like this: Name_1.png; Name_2.png, and so on. These will create the “movie clip” that will run in a loop to create the flapping motion. [Note: these 6 images could have been on a sprite sheet as an alternative method.]

The artwork elements were sized for a 1024 X 768 pixel document @132 pixels per inch to fit an iPad screen. The first butterfly image was placed as a layer in the Photoshop file, along with the hibiscus, bushes, and background. A new Kwik iPad book project was made using the layered Photoshop document.

I selected the butterfly image layer, then moved it off screen in the lower left corner. This was the starting position so the butterfly can fly into the screen.

In the Kwik panel, I clicked the Add Animation icon (circled in red):

A dialog box comes up with quite a few options, so here we go (numbers refer to image below):

1 I changed the animation name to get rid of the random numbers Kwik generates.

2 Type: From the drop down menu, Movie Clip was selected.

3 First File: The movie clip will replace the butterfly layer. I used the Browse button to navigate to the first of the 6 images. Kwik will automatically bring in the rest.

4 Image Width/Height: The numbers were obtained from the first butterfly image.

5 Number of Images: In this case there are 6 images in the butterfly wing flap loop..

6 Loop: It’s hard to know how many times the wings will need to flap, so I just entered any number than adjusted it later to arrive at the number of 42. Most of the remaining numbers are a result of tweaking after watching the preview.

7 End Position: Once you start moving the x and y sliders, the butterfly can be seen in the PS document (remember, it had been offscreen.) X controls the horizontal axis, Y is vertical.

8 Duration: This controls how long it takes the butterfly to go from off screen to its final position.

9 Starts: This animation starts as the page loads (as opposed to being triggered by a button.) The delay is 1 second so it’s not too abrupt.

10 Easing: There are several methods that change how the butterfly goes from start to end position. Some go past the end point, some bounce, some speed up or slow down, etc.

11 Loop: This refers only to the path the butterfly takes from start to end position, not how its wings are looping as in step 6. It loops once meaning the animation runs once. If “forever” is checked, the butterfly will disappear and fly in from the corner over and over.

12 Rotate: It is set to 20% so the butterfly starts with a vertical orientation then makes a slight turn to the right by the end of its path. However, the path itself is a straight line.

So, this seems like a lot of stuff, but it starts to make sense after you do it a few times.

Additional notes:
Sometimes it’s a little tricky to reopen the animation dialog box to tweak these numbers. You have to double click it, but sometimes it doesn’t work right away.

The End Position sliders sometimes don’t update the image on the screen, but by clicking back and forth from the x and y boxes, it usually will.

I used Screenflow to record the animation in the Corona simulator. Love it!

Free trilobite coloring page!

This is adapted from the illustrations in My Teacher is a Dinosaur and Other Prehistoric Poems, Jokes, Riddles, & Amazing Facts. I’d love to see one colored in, so please send me a photo!

 

Blogs about science books for children

It was a pleasant surprise to find this review of The Shocking Truth about Energy on the blog Simply Science: Using books for easy science lessons. I certainly can’t argue with this quote:

“The publisher says the book is for younger audiences, but I loved it and can see it read by older kids, too. It is succinct and complete, and a wonderful resource. I’d love to see it in every library in this energy-conscious age.”

It is funny how publishers put an age range on books that isn’t necessarily that accurate. It may have something to do with how they organize their catalog or some other arcane reason. Guess I should ask one of these days.

Here is an activity page for this book. Enjoy!