I’ve got a small group of JPEGs that are video thumbnails with titles, and each one is set with a trigger so that when it’s tapped, a group containing a video and a “close-box” below the artboard is set to show at location centered on the artboard, and a second action is set to play the video.
The “close-box” is an X in a black square in the corner of the video set with a trigger so that when it’s tapped it returns the group (containing a video and a “close-box”) back to it’s original location under the artboard. A second action rewinds the video and a third stops it.
This worked temporarily, until I set up the third video, at which point when I entered the scene I could hear the audio from three videos simulataneously. I started all over from with the first video again (deleting all of the videos and triggers), but before I got to the second video I kept hearing the audio from the first video after it had been “closed” with actions set for rewind and stop.
Has anyone had any success in making this sort of pop-up video gallery work? Thanks.
Not to answer my own question, but I’m adding a scene trigger for Upon Entering that puts an Autoplay Off action on each video and changing the “close-box” from Rewind and Stop Video, to Rewind and Turn Autoplay Off. Seems to be working so far. If this method is successful I will reply with a full description of the process.
Hi, I am in the midst of trying to create a video gallery which seems to have similar problems. I tried to get around it by having the video thumbnail be linked to a new scene with the full video. But I am still having issues. Is it possible to share your workflow in more detail if you were successful? Thanks!
Making a new scene just to hold one video shouldn’t be necessary. You can have a scene that holds all of your videos without issue.
I’m sure there are as many opinions and methods for creating this as there are people using Composer, and though I cannot claim that this method is the best, it has worked well for me, and I am always open to suggestions for improving it or replacing it when they are presented.
In this method, each video is in a group that is off of the artboard to the right, and is shown and started by using an image button (a video icon in this instance). Using a naming convention for your groups and videos and close buttons is important here.
The video icon image button has these actions assigned to an “is released” trigger:
Show at location > Group. I use a group containing the video and a close button (this close button is also an image button). Please note: “Show at location” being where I want the video’s center to appear on the artboard, taking into account that it is in a group with a close button.
Play > Video. Usually this will suffice, but it helps to have a trigger attached to the scene itself with a series of actions under “When Scene has been entered” that hides all of the off-stage groups. Hiding a group even though it is off-stage is really important because it saves on load times. In the video’s Behavior palette, make sure “pause when hidden” is checked.
On the close button, add an “Is released” trigger with these actions:
Show at location > Group. This time the location is the original off-stage location.
Hide > Group
Rewind > Video
Stop > Video
This method has allowed me to have a dozen large videos in the same scene because every group containing a video is hidden until a video icon calls upon it to be shown on-stage.
If you don’t like the idea of having a visible Close button, then it can be invisible and off-stage. Just add a trigger to your video for When Video Ends > Simulate a Tap > Close button. I call this “Seb’s SimTap”, since Sebastien introduced me to this practice, and it has been a huge help to my builds.
Lastly, I must reiterate that a solid naming convention is a lifesaver when trying to keep everything clear and organized for sanity’s sake. I very rarely have assets with the same name anywhere. Their names use “shorthand” that tells me what group, video, and scene they belong to even if I cannot see what scene or layer I am in.
Hope this helps, but please ask if anything is unclear.
Super helpful! Thank you. I was also reading online about the excel spreadsheet setup using an asset grid template and placeholders. As you said there are so many ways to create in this platform, which is both helpful and crazy-making at the same time
You’re welcome. And Melvyn brings up a good point, that adding a stop video action can help if you’re still having issues. I’ve used this and Turn Autoplay Off before with success when videos were not behaving as anticipated. Best of luck!
