Multimedia Fusion Tutorial - I
Intro - Making a Simple Slideshow
[ Intro ] [ Storyboard Editor ] [ Frame Editor ] [ Event Editor ] : : [ Next Lesson : Bouncing, Collisions, Paths ]

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"Multimedia Fusion is the most flexible, powerful, and full-featured authoring tool available today. Best of all, you can get superior and impressive results with no programming skills or knowledge required. Discover the secret tool used by so many multimedia pros, game creators, and people from all walks of life. Simply start by creating a frame containing any graphics you desire. Then start inserting and dragging objects. Finally, set their behaviors in the intuitive, grid-style Event Editor and you are on your way to great creations! But this fast and effective approach does not sacrifice flexibility and power. The objects, called extensions, in Multimedia Fusion allow you create even the most complex and fully functional software as you become more familiar with them. Multimedia Fusion provides you with everything you need to start creating software of your own imagination and design. From multimedia applications and presentations, to exciting games and stunning screensavers, you can be creating, sharing, and even publishing your work in no time." - Clickteam

"It has been my observation that for every 20 students I witness diving into a complex language like C++ only 1 survives the almost yearlong ordeal to make even the simplest game. Those that start with good libraries (e.g. SDL, Allegro) elevate this success to 1 in 10. But, imagine a tool that could transform your game idea from concept to completion in less than 1/10th the time with a near 100% success rate! Multimedia Fusion is that tool. True, spending years to learn a complex programming language has many benefits, but the graveyard of failures is so immense that one can't help but wonder what fantastic applications could have been... but never survived the challenge. And we can all agree that the enduring titles have always been those with playability, i.e. engaging content, depth, and ease of use. Multimedia Fusion allows you, the developer, to focus your full attention on this playability factor!" - Mr. Jacobson

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[ Storyboard Editor ] [ Frame Editor ] [ Event Editor ]

INTRO - Getting Started If the Vitalize plugin is properly installed you should see an actual interactive Multimedia Fusion example slide show imbedded in this web page below. You can download the editable source file HERE. In this fast track tutorial series you will learn the most common features of Multimedia Fusion so that by lesson 6 you will have made a slide show and a mini-game and converted them both to web playable form to distribute to your friends! In this first lesson (Windows experience is assumed) you will familiarize yourself with the main editors (introduced as needed) and make a slide show style presentation in the process. Let's get started! 1) Start Multimedia Fusion and close the "Tip of the day" box. 2) If you don't see the MMF libraries window click VIEW - Multimedia Fusion Libraries 3) Begin a new application clicking FILE - NEW - APPLICATION 4) Arrange the windows (and expand the library folders) as indicated below to allow you more workspace

[ Frame Editor ] [ Event Editor ]

Storyboard Editor This is where you add frames to your application. Each frame is the same as a single slide in a slideshow or a single level in a game. A frame/level/slide can be a title screen, a picture, an animation or movie, or even a completely different application! Each frame can have a title, its own size, an entering and exit transition , even a password if you have the need. The storyboard editor should already be open after completing the previous introductory getting started steps. Under the first (and only) frame click on the number square to the left of "More..." to add more frames. The default frame type is the standard "Frame" so when you are prompted to choose from the 5 options just choose Frame and click OK. Do this one more time so you have 3 frames (slides) to work with in this lesson.

[ Intro ] [ Event Editor ]

Frame Editor This is where you arrange all the objects on each slide/level/frame. Each object (e.g. background, picture, text, movie, button, character, and sound) can be arranged in the Frame Editor. Now, when you click on the number box to the left of each frame in the storyboard editor (see above) the frame editor will open (see below). Go ahead and click on box #1 to the left of the first frame to open the frame editor. When you add objects to the frame stage area its icon appears within the column to the left. Objects can be placed off stage to come onstage later or can be made invisible at the start to be made visible later. Some objects are never visible because they perform special behind the scenes functions. Right-click within the stage area and choose Insert Object. An object type selector will open up and present you with a large list of possibilities to choose from. The help files and bonus pack documentation will describe each object in greater detail. For now we will select the Button object and click OK. You can also quickly add more common objects using the toolbar options. The box will disappear and the mouse cursor will become a crosshair in the stage area for precise positioning. Left-clicking in the stage area will open up another box to let you set the button options. Type in NEXT for the Button Text and click OK. You can play around with the other options later if you like. The button should now appear in all its glory on the stage! But clicking on the button will do absolutely nothing productive at this point. Giving the button an event to do will occur in the Event Editor (next and final section). You can also move and resize the button after you make it. Spice up each frame adding backgrounds and characters by browsing in the library window and dragging what you like out to the stage area. Objects can be resized by grabbing the corner "handles". Also, after placing the object you can click on it again and the handles will change so that you can also rotate the object (shown below on dragon). In Lesson 5 you will learn how to import your own graphics from outside of Multimedia Fusion. Add TEXT objects to each frame, e.g. 1) title slide 2) main content slide and 3) conclusion slide using a subject of your choosing. And remember to add a Next button to slide 2.

[ Intro ] [ Storyboard Editor ]

Event Editor The event editor is the power center where controls and object interactions are scripted. Clicking an object to start an event, pressing a key to go to the next slide or move your character, making objects move and bounce, or causing a sound to play are just a few of the endless possibilities. For this slide show we need to make our "Next" button have an event that when clicked will advance our presentation to the next slide. Whatever slide you happen to be working on in the Frame Editor can now have it's events scripted by clicking on the Event Editor button , opening up the events grid (see below). 1) Right click on "New condition" 2) Right-click on the button icon from this frames object inventory box 3) Select "Button clicked?" from the dropdown options In your new "Button clicked" row go across to the 3rd column under the Storyboard Control icon and right-click to open the options dropdown list and select "Next frame". A check will appear in that box and now the button will actually work when you run the application! Don't forget to go select the 2nd slide and repeat this whole process so that the button on that slide works too :) Now, if you have all your 3 slides fully decorated and ready, it's time to RUN your application!!! Go back now if you wish into the Storyboard Editor and play around with transitions . This wil add special effects between slides changing. Be sure to SAVE your work with a unique name because after the final lesson you may wish to convert your presentation to a web browser compatible slideshow using the Vitalize plugin. Tips: "If in doubt, Right-click!" Objects can be locked (to avoid accidental deletion) or moved to overlap above or below others by right-clicking on them and changing these properties. Challenge: Make a Replay button on slide 3 that starts the slide show over again.

[ Next Lesson : Bouncing, Collisions, Paths ]