Common Questions

Q

Can I use Electrifier Pro with my favorite multimedia applications such as Director or mTropolis?

A

You can use Electrifier Pro with any application which can display QuickTime movies, from multimedia applications such as Director or mTropolis to your favorite word processor.

Some Windows applications may need to be upgraded to play back QuickTime 3 movies because of major improvements in QuickTime 3, but this issue is not specific to Electrifier Pro.

Q

If I use the step forward/backward buttons to move through the movie, the changes in time are sometimes not as smooth as I would expect. Does this affect playback?

A

No. Playback is always as smooth as possible, and depends only on the processor speed and whether other applications are in use. Stepping smoothness depends on the type of content, the way it is stored, and whether it has been edited.

Q

When I animate a vector graphic in Electrifier Pro, all the previous "frames" remain visible, leaving "trails" following their animation. These trails are only visible in the area covered by the current location of the actor. Why isn't the actor being erased properly before redrawing?

A

This occurs when an actor with empty areas (such as a vector graphic) is animated by itself in a movie without being placed in a sprite track. Since sprite tracks are designed to provide the smoothest animation possible, such actors should only be animated if they are placed in a sprite track.

Q

When I use non-opaque inks in Electrifier Pro, I get strangely inconsistent results. Why aren't inks working properly?

A

This occurs when a non-opaque ink is used on an actor that is animated by itself without being placed in a sprite track. Since non-opaque inks modify the background color, and the background is only defined within a sprite track, they may have unpredictable results when used on their own. We recommend that non-opaque inks only be used within a sprite track.

Q

When I rotate a Photoshop file or a special effect such as fire or clouds in my movie, it rotates the background actors as well. What is going on? Shouldn't an actor with transparent areas show the actual background beneath it?

A

Whenever an actor with an alpha channel is drawn using a masked ink, any transformations such as rotation or perspective which are applied to that actor will also be applied to the portions of other actors which it overlaps. This is a bug in QuickTime 3 which will be fixed in a later version. In some situations, you can solve this problem by using a non-masked ink such as Tinted Light.

Q

When I place a GIF, vector graphic, or Ripple in my movie, the actors behind it don't show through the transparent areas. Why isn't transparency working correctly?

A

This occurs when you place an actor with non-masked transparent areas directly in the movie. The problem does not occur with masked actors (which produce transparency using alpha channels), such as Photoshop files, Fire, or Clouds. If you will be placing an actor with transparent areas directly in the movie (for example, as an overlay on a VR panorama), you should use Composite rather than Opaque ink. Actors with transparent areas will draw correctly using Opaque ink as long as they are placed in a sprite track.

Q

When I import a QuickTime VR movie into Electrifier Pro, it displays correctly in the Layout view, but it displays a broken movie icon in the Preview view, and a message appears in the control bar saying that a software error occurred. Why doesn't Electrifier work with my VR movies?

A

Electrifier Pro supports all VR movies in the QuickTime VR 2.0 file format. If you try to import a file in QTVR 1.0 format, you will see the broken movie icon you describe. You should convert your QTVR 1.0 movies to the new format to take advantage of its improved hotspots and more efficient streaming. An extension which allows you to export QTVR 1.0 files from MoviePlayer Pro as streaming QTVR 2.0 files is available on Apple's QuickTime site.

Q

When I create a QuickTime VR movie with navigation buttons in Electrifier, I get a broken movie icon if I click a button before the movie has finished loading. How can I fix this?

A

This occurs when you use an action to jump to a VR node that has not been loaded. The problem does not occur with ordinary QuickTime VR scenes because the node hotspots do not load until the whole VR is available. One workaround is to replace your multi-node VR scene with a series of single-node panoramas, and use URL hotspots in the VR (and Go to URL actions for your Electrifier sprite buttons) instead of node hotspots (and Go to Node actions).