Using the Live Paint Function in Illustrator to Modify Graphics for eLearning Courses
Tips for using the Live Paint function in Illustrator to modify graphics.
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- Mar 29, 2019
- 2 min
Setting up Storyline with branded themes
When starting a new project with a client, you likely will have to follow some sort of brand standards guide or corporate identity document defining your client’s logo, brand colours and fonts. Using theme colours Theme colours in Storyline will determine the default colour options for text, objects fills, object outlines and buttons. When you choose an object or text in Storyline and click Format on the toolbar, you can select a theme colour or shade for its fill and outline
- Nov 15, 2018
- 2 min
How to make a changing spinning icon gif in Photoshop for your elearning
In a previous blog we covered how to create spinning gifs in Photoshop for one icon, but it is also possible for your image to change colour, or even to a wholly different graphic when it turns to the other side. You can even do this more than once! This is great for looping between two or more graphics in the same space in your elearning. You might want to refer to the previous article on this – How to make a spinning icon gif in Photoshop for your elearning – so you will al
- Jun 27, 2018
- 2 min
Colour Theory for Graphic Design
Elearning is by and large a visual medium, and where visuals are concerned, you should think about your colour choices. You may be restricted to the brand identity colours of your client, but there are still ways to make use of your limited palette to facilitate learning. Your use of colour has an impact on the learning process. Colour can help make parts of your graphics easier to read, signal objects of importance, and change the mood or emotion of your scenes. Understandin
- Apr 11, 2018
- 2 min
Improved Motion Paths Features in Storyline 360 for eLearning Animations
Storyline 360’s made a lot of improvements over Storyline 2, one of which is the addition of more features to the Motion Paths animations for eLearning courses. This gives the programmer more control over the animations they put into their elearning, making for better, more interesting content. The first is simply the option to rename your paths, making it easier to keep track of which object you’re moving at a given time in your trigger panel. This is really helpful compared
- Mar 15, 2018
- 2 min
Designing Your eLearning to be ‘On-Brand’
Brand standards vary in stringency from client to client, but to some extent most of them have at the very least a branding document or identity guide outlining their logo usage, brand colours, a general sense of their aesthetic and the look they wish to reinforce their brand with. When designing eLearning these brand standards and identity standards must be considered. Branding is very important for a lot of companies, as it is the means with which a company distinguishes it
- Feb 20, 2018
- 2 min
Fun with words in Illustrator part 3
Using the Make with Warp options in Illustrator to shape your text into graphics for your elearning is great, but doesn’t always work in every case. For instance, suppose you’d like to make a graphic like this: This contains regular text, Envelope Warp (Arc Upper), and Text on a Path. The last one is important if you want to have your words follow lines – especially complex shapes. This is where Text on a Path comes in. This was made by drawing a looped line with the pen tool
- Feb 13, 2018
- 2 min
Fun with words in Illustrator part 2
If you’ve read Fun with words in Illustrator Part 1, you now have some text for your elearning graphics. Here’s where Illustrator can do some really interesting things with your text! Make with Warp Once you’re happy with how your text is arranged in its box, you can warp it into shapes with the Make With Warp option from the drop down menu on the Type toolbar. If you want to do something more freeform, you could choose the Make with Mesh option which allows you to set the nu
- Feb 6, 2018
- 2 min
Fun with Words in Illustrator part 1
If you’re designing graphics for your elearning that require some exciting text, here are some Illustrator basics to get you started! The Type Tool In the default Illustrator Toolbar, the Type tool is the “T” icon. Your font, colour, size, line spacing and kerning can be edited from the Character menu or the top toolbar. Once you have the Type tool selected, you can create Point Type by clicking on a place in the document where you want the text to go, or an Area Type box by
- Oct 5, 2017
- 2 min
How do you see your data?
Charts, graphs and diagrams are all very basic forms of data visualization, but infographics takes your data to the next level. Infographics are a great tool for conveying data and can help your audience quickly understand the information and how the facts correlate. What separates the really good infographics from the rest? Before creating an infographic, it’s important to determine what message you want to convey. Telling a clear story draws your audience in and creates an
- Aug 3, 2017
- 3 min
Designing icons for elearning
In our elearning, user guides, infographics and other projects, we make a lot of use of icons. Icons are useful, simplified images to use for buttons, topic headers, and other places that need a quick, punchy graphic that can be easily and quickly read. Here are some guidelines on how to create effective icons. 1. Look and feel of content design First, consider the existing look and feel of your elearning design. When designing your icons, will they be consistent and harmonio
- Aug 2, 2017
- 2 min
Is the colour of your elearning content AODA compliant?
Colour blindness, more accurately known as colour impairment or colour deficiency, is the inability to differentiate between certain colours. It’s estimated that about 8% of males and 0.5% of females are born colourblind. Colour blindness can also be caused by accidents (and other head trauma where permanent damage to the eyes occurs), or a number of diseases. Colour blindness comes in three main types: Red-green colour blind (difficulty with differentiating red and green hue
- Apr 7, 2017
- 2 min
Saying good bye to simplistic eLearning design with VR
And by design I am (for the most part) talking about Graphic Design. Think about it for a second, on a standard eLearning module, you usually have a rectangular area in which to put in your content and graphical assets, and if we talk in degrees, it’s around 90 (horizontally and vertically) degrees that you must cover. That is relatively easy, since we are used to that format and you can make a good use of white spaces (for most graphic designers, a very important concept in
- Mar 8, 2017
- 2 min
The challenge of creating infographics
Recently, I created an infographic to help summarize OPPI’s annual Business Plan. This included a lot of nested information, assorted numeric data, and key talking points they wanted to get across. The challenge was to condense and organize the information as much as possible to be more easily understood and digestible for learners who might not have read the whole original document. 1. Writing The more I worked on this infographic, the more text I had to excise from the cont
- Feb 15, 2017
- 2 min
3 Circle Click and Reveal Interaction
Here is a cute circle interaction we built to enhance your elearning. The circles will spin around each other and show content, then the learner can click any of the circles to review the content. 3 Circle Interaction To make this work, there are actually 4 slides here. The first slide contains the animations where the circles come onto the screen and show all the content one after each other. Each of the next three slides comprises one of the circles, rotated to the top, and
- Jun 9, 2016
- 2 min
ELEARNING GRAPHICS TUTORIAL – CUSTOM BUTTONS WITH STATES WHEN DEVELOPING ELEARNING MODULES
While most authoring tools do have some options for premade interactive buttons, often a particular module job or client will call for something with a bit more care and uniqueness when developing an eLearning module. I would like to share a simple walk-through which I use to create unique reusable buttons for use in any eLearning authoring tool. STEP 1 – DESIGN I begin in Adobe Photoshop. Create a canvas with a transparent background, that snugly fits the desired shape. Be s
- May 5, 2016
- 3 min
PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE PAGE LAYOUT
Effective layout is a topic that deserves volumes, but I would like to summarize six principles which every designer should keep in mind. These principles apply to every form of visual layout, from web pages to eLearning modules, to posters and magazines. Let’s examine them now: Balance Proximity Alignment Repetition Contrast White Space BALANCE Balance exists in two forms: symmetrical and asymmetrical. It deals with distribution of weight. In terms of graphics, weight is mea
- Feb 24, 2016
- 1 min
ELEARNING DEVELOPMENT – CREATING CUSTOM BUTTONS IN LECTORA
Creating customized buttons is something I consider an essential when designing visual elements in eLearning and or Web Based Training courses. When using Lectora things can be a little different when compared to the industry standard authoring tool (Articulate Storyline). With that in mind I would like to outline the process I use for creating custom buttons inside of Lectora. Below you can see the result of my custom button method, where we have the 3 primary states: Normal
- Feb 19, 2016
- 2 min
ELEARNING DEVELOPMENT – CREATING PATTERNS USING ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
As a professional I pride myself on my creativity, and I always try my best to always create visually interesting digital artwork. As a multimedia developer working in the training and eLearning industry this often manifests itself as the creating custom assets, designs and graphic elements that are used in Web Based Training modules. An extremely, useful (and what I would call underused) feature of Adobe Photoshop is the ability create your own patterns which can be saved, t
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