Interactive Movie; what app should i use?

[redeye be]

Hello all,

For a project i'm working on, i would like to be able to create an interactive movie, what software should i use to make this?

It's for school, i'm thinking about a movie and sound to be manipulated (chapter selection) by pressing a key on the keyboard.

example:
pressing "a" will take you to a certain short movie looping
pressing "b" will take you to another certain short movie looping
pressing "c" will play a sound and return to the movie that was looping before any keys were pressed.

I tried flash, but i don't like the video quality and size of the movie (unless i'm doing something wrong). Scripting is nice in flash though.

I tried keynote, but the quicktime movies it creates don't seem to interactive the way i want them to be.

Ultimately i would like to be able to create this movie a little bit more complicated:

• press "a": a movie about "a" is being looped
• press "b": (the script knows "a" and "b" work together) a movie about "ab" is being looped
• press "c": ("ab" and "c" don't work together) a movie about "c" is being looped

Any help/pointers on this would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

 

[Soulstorm]

Actually, if you don't give any specifics on what you want to create exactly, you won't get a decent answer.

If it's for Macintosh, you may want to tackle with applescript studio which provides everything you need to handle quicktime media.

If not, then you must know a little programming (C or C++) and system specific programming.

Or, you can use RealBasic. I haven't used that, so I don't know if that would suit your needs...

 

[redeye be]

It's supposed to be an interactive presentation of myself.

The keys represent body parts.
pushing a certain key will trigger a movie or sound.

It's hard to be more specific.
But feel free to ask if you need more specifics.

It should definitely work on a mac, for it to work on windows/linux would be plus, but is not a necessity.
It'll be part of an installation, so i can use any machine to to the stuff. No need for it to be able to run on any other machine.

I'll have a look at applescript studio, looks promising.

Cheers

 

[bartelby]

You could use Macromedia's Director.

 

[homerjward]

macromedia flash would work very well too, and then you wouldn't have to install anything, and it works on most platforms.
edit: saw you've tried that. sorry.

 

[iGav]

You could use Macromedia's Director.

I'll second that.

Take 10 minutes tops, and it's cross-platform.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Flash should work fine - you'll just need to tweak the video. Do you have a sample of it anywhere?

D

 

[Counterfit]

From a potential user's perspective, I'll also recommend Director. That's what I've seen used on almost every Enhanced CD I have.

 

[redeye be]

Flash should work fine - you'll just need to tweak the video. Do you have a sample of it anywhere?

D

The video is part of the project and is yet to be made.
How would i go about tweaking it?
I've tried flash by importing a mov and exported it as an swf. The size of the file didn't promise much.

I've never used macromedia director, but if it's any easier than applescript studio i'm in for it.
I've got five weeks to complete this project, the easier the learning, the better.

Thanks for your replies people!
Bring on some more

 

[geese]

Flash should do the job- its just you've got to change the defaults so it does not compress the video.

i cant remember how to change it off the top of my head. Do a search on http://www.flashkit.com - there should be a tutorial there.

 

[zim]

Flash should do the job- its just you've got to change the defaults so it does not compress the video.

i cant remember how to change it off the top of my head. Do a search on http://www.flashkit.com - there should be a tutorial there.

Compression will only happen if the video is imported. I would recommend using the link option, set your key commands and then export back out as QuickTime...

OR...

Director, as mentioned above, and also LiveStudio Pro are alternatives. Another method might be to make a DVD using DVD Studio Pro and set keys on the remote to activate different movies. Of the different options I personally would do a DVD and a custom remote so that whatever it is you are doing is not bound to a computer and also give you full scale video.. but that is just me.

 

[redeye be]

Thank you for your responses everyone.
It looks like (as a meeting with my teacher and some sensible thinking pointed out) the idea I had will be to time consuming to finish it the way i want it to be.

I will probably make an interactive movie some day, so your typing was not in vain

Cheers people!

 

[zim]

Thank you for your responses everyone.
It looks like (as a meeting with my teacher and some sensible thinking pointed out) the idea I had will be to time consuming to finish it the way i want it to be.

I will probably make an interactive movie some day, so your typing was not in vain

Cheers people!

translation = teacher has no clue how to do it (hehe ). honestly, the construction wouldn't be hard at all. the difficult parts would be 1. defining your audience and your own expectations as to how the work would be viewed. 2. and this is most likely the most difficult part, creating the narrative. non linear narratives can get very cumbersome due to the number of outcomes that must be considered.

 

[bigbossbmb]

a cool way to do it...

i am a film student and one project last quarter was a non-linear narrative (order of clips is user determined). we used the korsakow system (http://www.korsakow.com) and it is a great way to take QT files and create an interactive experience....use that and show your teacher it is quite possible and not that time consuming!

 

[emutree]

You sure Keynote can't handle the job you want? It sounds like the perfect candidate for this and would make it really easy. Granted you can't do your whole "press a" thing but that sounded kind of counter-intuitve anyways - just getting people to click on your body part (?) or whatever will work just as well. I whipped up a VERY quick demonstration of an interactive Quicktime slideshow to see if it wouldn't meet your needs - naturally you'd replace the boxes with your body parts (?) or whatever and have your movies and audio set up for the slides you were linking to.
You can see the test slideshow here. If that basic foundation's acceptable to you then you can push Keynote a lot farther and create something a lot more like what you first described.
Hope this helps.

 

[redeye be]

You guys are all right.
Although it would be the first movie i would have really made, thought off, directed,... you know, i do think the movie and its interactivity would indeed be possible to finish in the set timeframe.
The more interesting part of the installation would be a wire-frame model of me with sensors all over. Activating a button/sensor would then call for a certain movie to play.
I will be trying some things with certain materials but besides the time it would take me to build the entire model i also fear the cost. I will however have a decent look at materials, and will try to make some small models for tests (they will at least just look good in my proces portfolio ).

I don't think keynote will give me the flexibility i need. The buttons and the way they would work together are an important part of "me".
But thanks for the trouble emutree, you made me a .mov. It is definitely the first time someone made me a .mov. (this is no sarcasm, just a bit worried how it might come over) thx! ...

anyhow,

Some of the other ideas i have still do involve film. The interactivity, which is required, comes from a different angle, I'll have to do more research about e.g. the behavior of a projection on marbles etc.

The Korsakow system looks very interesting. I had to download and will soon try it out. thank you very much for this link bigbossbmb. If i don't use it in this project, i'll definitely use it in a future project.

So, with much to try out time isn't really on my side. There are 2 other ateliers with their own projects. I won't bug you about those (yet).

Thank you everyone.

Now i'd better start collecting footage...

 

[bartelby]

When I was at college one of the projects was to produce a non linear narrative.

One guy built a booth that controlled a Director piece using laser pointers, several LDR circuits and a butchered usb keyboard.

The Director piece was made up of several linked movies, each movie was assigned to a key, triggering the LDR circuits played the movies.

 

[0098386]

Flash or Director. That's what I say.