Tutorial - Dise Composer Basics Part 2
In this tutorial we are going to demonstrate some more of the powerful editing features in the DISE Composer. We will continue the example in the previous tutorial, and learn how to edit the angle of an object, how to add transparency and how to change the properties of an object.
If you did not save your work in the first tutorial, here is a short recapitulation of the steps to create it again.
- Add a background movie from the Library in
”Data/Content/Background Video” by using drag and drop. - Select “Use object as background” from the right-click-menu.
- Add a text with size 40 and color it yellow.
- Add a picture of a globe from the Library in
”Data/Content/Images/Airport”, and make it rotate. - Add an in/out movement to the text.
Sizing and rotating objects
Select the text object by clicking on it.
As you can see by the indication lines, the size of the object is larger than the text it contains. Resize the object by dragging the black handles.
Leave space for another text row below the text.
We want to tilt the text slightly.
Double click the text, and watch how the handles change.
When you grab one of the handles and move it with the mouse, the object will rotate around the circle in the center.
Tilt the text slightly to the right.
Adding transparency
Now, drag and drop another video from the Library.
You will find it under “Data/Content/Video” with the name “Klocktornet”.
As you can see, the video is very large. Use the black edit handles to resize it to a more suitable size.
Try the video with the “Play” button.
To stop playing, hit the “escape” key on your keyboard.
Now we want to add some transparency to the new video object.
Lower the “Alpha” slider to the right to about 50 %.
Play the video again. Notice how you can see the background video trough the half-transparent video in the front.
Edit an object
We want to change some settings for the text object.
Right click on the text and choose “Edit object…”
This will bring back the dialog for the text object from tutorial 1. Each object type has different dialogs, since they have different settings.
Enter another text row, containing the macro for the current time %T.
Make the text centred with the toolbar buttons for text justification
Check the checkbox “Parse Date/Time/Place macros” at the bottom of the dialog.
Click OK.
We are now finished with our second lesson.
We have learnt how to resize an object, how to tilt it at an angle, how to add transparency to it, and how to edit specific details about an object.
As a bonus, we also learnt how to add the current time to a text object by using a macro. You are already becoming an expert.
If you want to save your work, click the save button.
If you feel tired, take another break.
If not, here are some extra treats for you to explore…
- When you rotate an object, the center of the rotation can be moved with the mouse. This center is also the center of rotation when you have added a rotating movement on an object, like we did on the globe in the corner.
- The transparency of an object can be specified as a gradient transparency with different Alpha-values for each corner. See the Transparency-tab in the object settings palette.
(To show the Object settings palette if it is closed, click the settings button in the toolbar at the top)
- To see more useful macros for the text object, go to the text dialog (right menu-“Edit Object…”). Then, right click in text field where you entered the text. The popup menu will list all possible macros.