Help with animated GIFs

[jrandolph]

I have attached an attendance/lunch count chart that I used last year in ActivStudio. When I open it this year in Inspire, the animation opens in a separate media player window. I need it to not do that, as I type students names on the pumpkins and they move them to say they are here or what they want for lunch and the animation is supposed to run in the background. What do I do?????

[saha]

Hi ,
The animation you have is actually a quicktime "mov" file and not an animated gif.
Inspire does not currently have a way to play mov files within the flipchart and hence the issue you are having.

However I did make an Inspire flipchart with your animation by converting it to flv.

Now your flipchart will open with Inspire and the animation will be play embedded in the flipchart.

[beachteacher]

When I open the flipchart, in the browser window I see the ghost in the background. In the flipchart, there is a black background and toward the top of the page I get the action button, but it doesn't do anything when I click on it. I'm running a PC with latest version and Vista.

[LisaD]

Hmmm. the ghost plays automatically for me. It's really good! I'm on a Mac.

Lisa

[saha]

beachteacher,
Do you know if you have a flv player loaded on your computer?
you may have to download a plugin through your web browser that will enable you to play flv video files.

[jrandolph]

Thanks so much, it works great now!! Is the process to change the mov file a difficult one? I have a few others that I haven't been able to use for the same reason. Thanks again[clap]

[saha]

you are welcome.
Converting mov to flv is easy conversion online without need to download any software.
You can do it via:
http://www.zamzar.com

Once you convert to flv and embed it in your flipchart, you will need to tweak it a bit, by resizing the placeholder, setting it to loop, hiding the controls and setting it to the bottom layer so that your annotations and images are on top of the flv placeholder.

[beachteacher]

I use several computers. One has Vista (the flv file did not play). One of the computers with XP played the flv. when I opened the flipchart. What/where would I look for to be the difference between the two computers?

[saha]

Hi Beachteacher,
On the vista machine where you cannot play flv you can download adobe media player.
http://www.adobe.com/products/mediaplayer/
This should let you play flv files

[beachteacher]

saha,
I downloaded the program to the computer with XP. It still doesn't play on the computer with Vista. It flashes/shows for a second when I open the flipchart. :confused:

[saha]

beachteacher,
you may not have the right video codec installed.
See if installing this helps:

http://files7.majorgeeks.com/files/3d2d0418e6f72774f366f5d741b8a6ad/multimedia/K-LiteCodecPack510Standard.exe

[beachteacher]

That installation did not help.:confused:

[saha]

When you open the flipchart, go to the next page and then come back to the first page. see if that helps

[beachteacher]

:( Tried that, didn't work. The ghost image appears for just a second. On the computer running XP it appears when I open the flipchart and then I can click on the action button to stop and start it. Vista isn't working........... :mad:

[jrandolph]

Oh no another problem:( I can't keep the pumpkins and the text over the top of the animation. When I open the chart, I see the text and the pumpkins for a split second and then the animation starts and they disappear! In the page browser they are there, but on the page in the chart they are not. Help again please!

[beachteacher]

:D I thought I was just the special one who couldn't get the flipchart to work correctly. Just curious, what operating system are you using?

[jrandolph]

XP:confused:

[mpatton]

Have you downloaded the latest version of Inspire? I am on a PC with XP and yours/Saha's flip is working perfectly. Really cute, BTW; I bet the kiddies love it . I would like to see your others.

[jrandolph]

Yes I have the latest version. Do you see the text and the pumpkins on top of the ghost as the ghost is moving? That is what I don't see. The ghost works great, but I can't get the text and pumpkins to show:confused:

[mpatton]

Ohhhh...it is not working perfectly then. I see the pumpkins on top of the dancing ghost but no Names. I did play around a little bit. Clicking on the background stops the ghost and when that action is off you can do some editing. Then I clicked on the Text tool and a 'text edit box' popped up and all of a sudden some black text appeared that says 'type here' and I was able to edit that to 'Mary', etc. So I am wondering if you had the pumpkin grouped to the student name? and if you didn't and had them on different layers, then somehow the layers got screwed up. Or maybe that happened when Saha redid the flipchart. Just some things to consider..hope it gets up and running!

[beachteacher]

I have the latest version of Inspire on both of my computers. The one running XP works great, the one running Vista briefly shows the ghost and I see all the pumpkins, but no names on the pumpkins. I do see the ghost in the browser window (Vista).

[saha]

Hello all,

Beachteacher...thanks for your patience on this.

On Vista platform I have been unable to view a flv file embedded inside an Inspire flipchart. It appears to work the first time the flv file is embedded, but once saved and relaunched, it shows a black blank window instead of playing the flv file. I am going to flag this issue and see if our testers can replicate this problem.

On Windows XP and Mac, embedded flv files play like a champ in Inspire.

So, to make this animation playable on any platform, I have attached the following flipchart. This version will play on any platform.You can move the pumpkins, annotate over the animation and also type text over the animation.

Please make sure that on the following setting, this box is unchecked.
http://www.prometheanplanet.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4990&stc=1&d=1255185001

[beachteacher]

Saha,
Good work!! [clap][clap]
It is now playing on the Vista computer. There are a couple of differences from the XP compter. I am not able to click on the ghost an stop/start it like I can with XP. Also, in the browser window it shows a large image of the placeholder instead of the ghost. Just wanted to share this information with you in case you neededwanted it.

I did look and that box was unchecked.

Many thanks for your hard work and diligence.

[saha]

You are welcome.
There are couple of things you can do to be able to start/stop or see the image on the placeholder.
If you go to the property browser for the media file, you can check the box "show controller" and you can change the placeholder image.

[jrandolph]

Wow I love this forum! Thanks soooo much, my kindergarten lovelies will have so much fun with this on Monday:D

[teddiem]

I have XP and it plays great on mine. I thought the idea was to have student names on the pumpkins and I can't do that?
Teddie

[saha]

Hi Teddiem,
I am able to use the text tool and type a name anywhere on the screen. Then that text can be dragged on any pumpkin. Or each pumpkin is an ungrouped object and dragged anywhere on the screen and then the name could be dragged and placed on a pumpkin.

Is this not possible on your end?
Anytime you have a animated gif or video on a page, depending on the hardware and rams on your computer, it may take just a tad longer to do things like drag objects and text.
Please see attached flipchart with names of students on pumpkin

[teddiem]

Works great. Thanks. Pretty cool!!
Teddie

[alisonc]

How do I get this flv file of the ghost to save on my computer. It is in the flip chart but I want to save the file to use in another flipchart. What is the URL to access this movie?

[saha]

Here is the flv file

[alisonc]

Thank you very much for the file![clap]

[saha]

Hi Beachteacher,

I know this is an older post. But we both found a problem with playing embedded flv files on windows vista earlier.

This problem has now been resolved with the latest update of Inspire.

Please see attached. It plays fine on my vista laptop.

Cheers

[beachteacher]

Thanks. I appreciate you remembering. Since then I have switched to Windows 7. But there are others out there that are running Vista that this might help. Thanks again.