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Working with Movies | Working with Actors | Working with Sprite Tracks | Working with Actor Sequences



Working with Actor Sequences

Enhance your Electrifier Pro movies using actor sequences with over 140 TV-style transitions. Actors placed in a sequence will play in sequential order, and can use the Transition effect to create sophisticated dissolves and wipes as one actor replaces another.

In this section you will learn the basics of working with actor sequences including importing actors, creating, reordering, and resizing actor sequences, adding and deleting actors from a sequence, and applying transitions between actors.

Creating an actor sequence

With Electrifier Pro, you can create a sequence of actors that play one after another. All actors in an actor sequence will be drawn with the visual properties (position, dimensions, rotation, and so on) of the sequence, so actors which are dependent on a specific ink (such as Photoshop files) may not display correctly in a sequence with a different ink.


To create a new actor sequence:
  1. Choose New Actor Sequence from the Actor menu. You can make the actor sequence the same size as the movie, or set it to a specific size of its own.

Adding actors to an actor sequence

Any actor which you are planning to draw with transitions should be placed in an actor sequence.


To add an actor to an actor sequence:
  1. Click the Layout or Structure tab of the Movie window to choose the appropriate view.
  2. Select an actor file in the Finder and drag it into the actor sequence in the Movie window (the actor sequence will highlight when the file is over it). Note that only the first actor in the sequence will appear in the Layout view.

Resizing an actor sequence

If your graphics are all either larger or smaller than your actor sequence, you may want to resize it so the actors in the sequence will not be scaled unnecessarily. You can resize the actor sequence by choosing the Dimensions command from the Content menu.


To resize an actor sequence:
  1. Click the Layout or Structure tab of the Movie window to choose the appropriate view.
  2. Select the actor sequence you want to resize.
  3. Choose Dimensions from the Content menu, and enter the new size for the sequence.

Reordering actors in a sequence

If the actors would play back more efficiently in a different order, you can change the order of scenes by using the layering commands from the Arrange menu.


To reorder actors:
  1. Click the Layout or Structure tab of the Movie window to choose the appropriate view.
  2. Select the actor you want to reorder.
  3. Choose one of the layering commands (Bring to Front, Bring Closer, Send Farther, Send to Back) from the Arrange menu. The actor will move to the appropriate location in the sequence.

Deleting an actor from a sequence

You can delete an unwanted actor from a sequence by using the Clear command.


To selete an actor:
  1. Click the Layout or Structure tab of the Movie window to choose the appropriate view.
  2. Select the actor you want to reorder.
  3. Choose Clear from the Edit menu to delete the actor.

Applying transitions between actors in a sequence

Electrifier Pro includes 140 TV-style transitions that can be inserted between actors to blend the end of one step in a sequence with beginning of another. For example, you might want to fade from one actor to the next, rather than abruptly ending one and beginning another. Transitions add pizzazz to your movie without increasing file size, since all transitions included with Electrifier Pro are under 1K.


To insert a transition between two actors:
  1. Click the Layout or Structure tab of the Movie window to choose the appropriate view.
  2. Click the Effects tab in the Modifier palette to show the list of effects.
  3. Click the Transition effect and drag it onto the first actor in the pair you want to make a transition between.

For more information

For a detailed description of the TV-style transitions that are available see the Transition options section of the Authoring Reference.


Working with Movies | Working with Actors | Working with Sprite Tracks | Working with Actor Sequences

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