Templates

Introduction

Templates are used to create graphical elements that can be changed on the fly during a show. They can be slide elements in a traditional presentation, broadcast graphics elements, complex show segments or even entire touchscreen applications.

The important foundation of Templates in Ventuz are two main attributes:

• Animations, graphics and logic are separated from the assets and data so that the latter can be changed on the fly while the former always remain the same.

• There is a clear animation path to and from the template, such that Ventuz can find its way into and out of it, so they can be instantly called any time, from anywhere - without the operator having to worry about screen conflicts or smooth transitions, see Template Engine for more information.

Because one of the main goals of a Template is to separate the assets, logic and data from the animation and structure, they also provide an interface for the scene designer to decide which elements should be changeable by the operator during a show and which are set in stone.

General Info

The template itself is represented by a Present State in the Animation Editor, a position where all elements are on screen and in place where they are supposed to be. This means the creation of templates is quite straightforward and follows the general paradigm of Ventuz content creation without introducing a wholly new workflow. Or, in other words, you don't need to learn a whole new toolset to use these features.

An important aspect of templates in Ventuz is that they are designed to help prevent and/or correct operator error in many ways. For example, they have strict relationships that are defined during scene setup so that two templates can be mutually exclusive (and with thus never accidentally come on-screen at the same time) or mutually dependent (so one cannot exist without the other being on-screen first) or independent (so that one can be on or off screen regardless of the other). It also allows for filtering of behaviours depending on the data or assets input by the operator. So a template might behave slightly differently if a movie is used instead of an image, or a text might start scrolling if the length is longer than a given number of characters - but the operator never needs to worry about this. They just enter the data and plug in the visuals and the Ventuz logic handles the rest.

Templates also can be referenced by Pages. Pages are small XML files which contain the data with which to populate the template, links to the visuals and a reference to the template itself. This enables a page to be very small, but when called up, it points to the template and fills it with all the appropriate data.

Template Hosts and Templates

There is a general difference on how the Director interprets a scene inside a project. It either uses it as a Template or a Template Host. This changes how the user can interact with it while playing out the show.

While a simple Template will only hold one specific function or Animation and its attached data, a Template Host might include multiple animations with multiple Templates. Which can be therefore changed individually without the need of queing another Template. Here is a visual example of it inside the Director.

As you can see a Template Host gives the operator the opportunity to change the Animation to any other animation that is currently in the scene. Which gives way more flexibility to the whole show.

But what do you have to do inside the Ventuz Designer to make a Template a Template Host?

Normally any scene that has one or none data item in its Scene Data will be a Template.

As soon as there are at least two data items inside the Scene Data it will be seen as a Template Host by the Director.

Conclusion

Templates are a powerful mechanic in Ventuz and are well worth learning to use correctly. To start learning about them, look to the Template Engine and the Designing Templates pages of the User Manual.