Beginner's Guide to The Active Reader
Installation
1. Unzip the latest version on your computer.
2. Open Unity and navigate to File > Open Project, then click Open Other and choose the tool folder.
3. Click Open.
Initial Setup
Upon installation, you should check a couple of things before starting your project:
- Navigate to File > Build Settings, and make sure PC/Mac Standalone is selected, or iOS if you have a license to build on that platform. If not, select your choice and click Switch Platform. The Unity symbol appears next to your current setting.
- Make sure you are in the Editor Scene. To check, go to your Project tab and find the Scenes folder. Double click editor_scene to open it.
- If you do not have an iOS license, makes sure you are in Indie mode or your assets won’t load properly. Check by selecting LibraryObject in the Hierarchy tab, then checking the inspector for the Unity Indie checkbox.
You're now ready to begin a new project!
Creating a New Chapter
Navigate to Active Reader > New Chapter to get started. You will be prompted to enter a Chapter Name for your project. When you're finished, click Create.
By default, the project will save to the same directory as your tool. Look there under Documents > Projects to find your project folder. We refer to this directory as your story folder. If you'd like to store your project elsewhere on your computer, simply move the entire story folder (named the same as your chapter name).
To begin working on your chapter, go back to Unity and press the Play button at the top center of the screen.
Navigate to Active Reader > Open Chapter. Find your story folder, choose the .flow file, and click Open.
Chapter Flow
Upon opening a chapter, the Chapter Flow tab will appear. You can dock this tab anywhere in Unity. Here you'll find the list of your current pages (center), if any, as well as available pro and indie bundles (left).
Creating a New Page
To get started, create a new page by clicking the New Page button near the top left corner of the Chapter Flow tab, and a new file will appear in the list in the center of the window. Click the edit button next to this new page to see its properties.
Here you can change the name from New Page to whatever you'd like. Click the red Save Flow button at the top of the Chapter Flow window when you're finished.
Loading/Unloading Bundles
To add bundles to be loaded and unloaded by this page, drag bundles from the list on the left into the appropriate box in the page properties window (load and/or unload).
Notice the bundles are sorted by pro and indie. Make sure you are working in the proper mode before adding bundles!
When you are finished setting up your bundles, click the Edit button in the page properties window to get started.
Page Editor
A timeline window called the Page Editor will appear. This timeline is similar to Flash, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, etc. Objects you spawn will appear on the left, and the animation blocks will appear to the right of those names. Your tools appear as buttons at the top.
Clicking Play in this window allows you to preview your work in the Game tab. Make sure the resolution of that tab in the upper left drop down menu is set to your target device’s resolution.
Spawning Objects
To bring new objects into the scene, you’ll need to spawn them. If you’d like to spawn one of each asset in the bundles loaded by this page, click the One Each button. If you’d like to spawn assets one at a time, click Spawn Object and choose the assets individually.
Animation
To animate an object, select an object and click the Motion Block button at the top of the page editor and click Add Block. The middle of the blue motion block allows you to select it, and the ends have darker colored boxes that represent key frames. By default, the motion block has set both keys at the objects’ current position. To change a key frame, move the object to a new position and right click the desired key frame to set the new position. Motion blocks record position, rotation, and scale information.
To change the color and transparency of an object over time, use a Color Block. Apply it to an object the same way you would a motion block, and set the colors however you’d like. The color picker gives you the freedom to choose any color imaginable!
To add text to a page, click the Text Block button. The text editor window will appear. Here you can choose and set your desired font and type (or paste) your text. Click Create Object when finished, and your text object will be created (represented by a purple block). Stretch this block out to have the text appear with a typewriter effect (one letter at at time) or simply shrink it to have it appear instantly (and maybe apply a color block to have it fade in instead).
Interactivity
To edit your events, double-click the green event block in your page editor. If you don’t already have one, select an object and click the Event Block button.
This is the Event Editor. You will start out with a Root block, which is activated when the page loads. All of your events will stem from this block.
On the left you will find a full list of available event blocks sorted by category. Click a block type to spawn one at the upper left corner of the event editor. Blocks you’ve spawned in this session will be orange.
The squares on either side of the block are its input (left) and output (right). To connect events, you will string them together, connecting inputs to outputs. To do this, simply click on an output block and then on an input block. Repeat to disconnect. To delete a block, click the X button on the lower right of the block.
Saving and Unloading
Don’t forget to save your page periodically by clicking the Save Page button in the page editor. When you are done editing, click the Unload Page button to clear it from the scene.
You can have multiple pages open at once, however keep in mind that they will all be loaded in the same Unity scene and therefore may overlap if they have objects placed in the same Z space. This can be a handy feature to test transitions.
You are now on your way to creating amazing interactive books! If you have any questions about this process or run into any problems, please send an e-mail to support@tallchair.com.