Creating an interactive video with Near-Life CREATOR is easy. In this tutorial, we’re going to take a closer look at using overlays. Overlays make your scenarios interactive by allowing the end-user to trigger an action. There are different overlay options available to you depending on the media format you’re working with, including hotspots, buttons, text and images.
Adding overlays to your interactive video
In the tutorial video above, we show you how to use all of the different types of Overlays to achieve the same outcome: Jump to URL.
The instructions below will go through the different types of Overlays and how to add interactions to your interactive video.
1) Once you’ve set up your scenario, go to the Canvas and open the Node Editor.
2) To add an overlay, click on the icon for the overlay type you’d like to use from the Add an overlay menu.
- NOTE: In 2D scenarios, you have access to Text, Images, Hotspots, and Buttons. In VR scenarios, you are limited to Hotspots and Buttons.
3) Overlay names are optional but do get pulled into the end of scenario report so, just like creating nodes, it’s always a good idea to give your overlay a meaningful name as you go along. It also helps you choose the correct Overlay if you want to edit it later.
TEXT
1) To add Text to your interactive video, select the Text icon in the Add an overlay menu
2) Enter the text you want to appear in the scenario in the Text box. You will see your text appear in the Node Preview Pane.
3) Edit the text font family, size, style and colour in the corresponding boxes.
4) You can move the text into place by dragging it in the Node Preview Panel.
5) Interaction – you can set a Jump to Node or a Jump to URL.
- To Jump to Node, select the node from the drop down menu. If there is no Node, create one by selecting <New Node>
- To Jump to URL, simply add the URL in the available field
- If you don’t want an interaction, leave Jump to Node as <None> and Jump to URL blank.
6) Feedback – optional – add feedback for this interaction here. This will appear in the end of scenario report, if you have opted to display it.
7) Score – optional – if you’ve set a pass score, you can enable score by ticking the box and entering a number between -100 and 100
IMAGE
1) To add an Image to your interactive video, select the Image icon in the Add an overlay menu
2) Image source – select the Image that you would like to add from the drop down menu.
- If you don’t have any images in your Media Library, you can scroll up to the main media section and click the Upload media link.
- Alternatively, you can Save or Exit the Node Editor and Upload media via the Canvas then return to the Node Editor.
3) Interaction – you can set a Jump to Node or a Jump to URL.
- To Jump to Node, select the node from the drop down menu. If there is no Node, create one by selecting <New Node>
- To Jump to URL, simply add the URL in the available field
- If you don’t want an interaction, leave Jump to Node as <None> and Jump to URL blank.
4) Feedback – optional – add feedback for this interaction here. This will appear in the end of scenario report, if you have opted to display it.
5) Score – optional – if you’ve set a pass score, you can enable score by ticking the box and entering a number between -100 and 100
HOTSPOT
Hotspots allow you to add an interactive layer over your media. So, for example, if you had media of a room with a door and you wanted something to happen when the end user clicked the door, you’d add a hotspot to cover the door.
1) To add a Hotspot to your interactive video, choose between a rectangular Hotspot icon or the Hotspot circle in the Add an overlay menu
- They both work the same way but they’re just different shapes.
2) You can position and resize hotspots by clicking and dragging one of the selection handles that appear on the sides and corners of the shape in the Node Preview Pane.
- To maintain proportion, drag a corner handle.
- To rotate the shape, click on and rotate the rotation handle that appears connected to but off the shape.
3) Options – you can set whether or not to show the hotspot overlay to the end user. You can choose from always, never or only on hover.
4) Interaction – you can set a Jump to Node or a Jump to URL
- To Jump to Node, select the node from the drop down menu. If there is no Node, create one by selecting <New Node>
- To Jump to URL, simply add the URL in the available field
- If you don’t want an interaction, leave Jump to Node as <None> and Jump to URL blank. But we can’t think of a reason why you’d want to create a hotspot without an interaction.
5) Feedback – optional – add feedback for this interaction here. This will appear in the end of scenario report, if you have opted to display it.
6) Score – optional – if you’ve set a pass score, you can enable score by ticking the box and entering a number between -100 and 100
BUTTONS
1) Buttons come in groups. But you can have a Button Group with a single button.
2) To add a Button Group, select the Button Group icon in the Add an overlay menu
- Button colour, text and position default to the settings you saved in Scenario Settings.
3) Button size – you can choose from small, medium and large.
4) You can reposition the Button Group by dragging it in the Node Preview Pane.
5) Enter your button text in the Button Text field
6) Interaction – you can set a Jump to Node or a Jump to URL.
- To Jump to Node, select the node from the drop down menu. If there is no Node, create one by selecting <New Node>
- To Jump to URL, simply add the URL in the available field
- If you don’t want an interaction, leave Jump to Node as <None> and Jump to URL blank. Again, we’re not quite sure why you’d want a button that didn’t do anything but, the option is there just in case.
7) Feedback – optional – add feedback for this interaction here. This will appear in the end of scenario report, if you have opted to display it.
8) Score – optional – if you’ve set a pass score, you can enable score by ticking the box and entering a number between -100 and 100
9) To add another button, click the Add New Button option. This will add the new button directly below the first button.
- If you moved the Button Group from its default position, you may need to reposition it again to show the new button.
10) If you want to add another set of buttons, you’ll need to create a completely new Button Group.
11) Simply click on the Button Group icon in the Add an overlay menu and repeat the formatting steps.
HOW OVERLAYS ARE ORDERED
Overlays are added as layers on top of your main media. The first overlay you add will appear as the first item in your Overlay list and every subsequent overlay will be added on TOP of the first overlay. In the list view, overlays appear with the bottom overlay at the top of the list and the top overlay at the bottom of the list.
WHY IT MATTERS
Moving your overlay order will determine what you can see and interact with. In the example below, the background image was added AFTER the editor had already created a few overlays. This meant that those overlays and interactions were hidden by the background overlay.
Here is the list view:
You can see that the Background layer is in the middle of the list, hiding the overlays that are listed above it.
When you move the Background layer to the top of the list, it moves to the back of the pile of overlays.
You can now see all of the overlay elements in the preview screen.
OVERLAYS IN VR INTERACTIVE VIDEO
If you have a VR account, you can only add Hotspots and Buttons. This is to do with the way that overlays are rendered for the immersive headset experience.
You add and format Overlays exactly the same way as in 2D with a slight exception.
When you add a button group, CREATOR will automatically place the buttons in the optimal location for VR headset users, in the middle and horizontally, to facilitate button selection using gaze input. We therefore do not recommend using more than one button group when working with VR media.
If you are a CREATOR+ user, you will be able to add conditions and achievements to your Overlays. See Advanced game features.
Downloads
UsingOverlays.pdf
Want to know more about interactive video?
If you’d like to learn more about why Near-Life is the right tool for creating interactive videos, please go ahead and book a demo.
Or, if you’re already confident it’s right for you, you can get started right away with a free trial
Be sure to check out the rest of our ‘How to make an interactive video’ series: