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:
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.
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.
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.