Kid's Studio¬ - The Next Generation in Storytelling
CyberPuppy Software, Inc.
WHAT IS KID'S STUDIO?
Kid's Studio is a sophisticated, yet easy to use, all-in-one multimedia application created specifically for children. Kid's Studio gives children the ability to combine high-quality images with paint, text, sound recording and special effects to create full-screen slide shows, QuickTime¬ movies or printed stories.
Included with Kid's Studio is a Treasure Chest sampler╤a library of 250 images organized into themes like wild animals, crazy cartoons, American history, Earth and space, and nature in action. Images from the Treasure Chest are seamlessly integrated into the Kid's Studio application. Users simply click on the Treasure Chest icon to access a browser which presents thumbnail-size pictures of each image╤available at the click of a mouse.
The Kid's Studio unique Cookie Cutter Technology¬╤special cut and paste tools in fun shapes╤helps young users create their own artwork. As an added bonus, users who have a CD-ROM drive can use Photo CDs with Kid's Studio (Photo CDs can be made from regular 35mm negatives or slides by many local photo finishers). This new technology lets users personalize their stories with their very own photographs.
Kid's Studio is targeted to children age six and up. The storymaking capability is ideal for developing communication skills of children in grades 2 through 8╤both in school and at home.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR DEMO
This demonstration of Kid's Studio requires the following :
Ñ Macintosh LC
Ñ System 7.0
Ñ 12" monitor with 256 colors
Ñ 4 MB RAM
Ñ 2 MB free hard disk space
Ñ CD-ROM drive to support Photo CD (optional)
A QUICK TOUR OF KID'S STUDIO
The following guide walks you through the basics of Kid's Studio. It will teach you some of the features of our multimedia storymaking application. This tutorial does not cover all aspects of Kid's Studio; consult the manual for more in-depth storymaking.
Installing Kid's Studio
Insert the Installer Disk into your floppy disk drive and double-click on the Kid's Studio installer icon. You will see an introductory screen. Click on the Continue button. You will see a dialog box that asks you to install software as: Kid's Studio. Navigate to the place on your hard drive you would like to install Kid's Studio and click on the Save button. When the process is finished you will receive a message that the installation was successful. Click on the Quit button.
Activate the Control Panel
To open Kid's Studio, double click on the application icon featuring the CyberPuppy. The application opens to a blank page and the Kid's Studio Control Panel. From top to bottom the Control Panel includes the following:
Ñ Treasure Chest library access
Ñ Photo CD access
Ñ Writing capability
Ñ Drawing and painting capability
Ñ Storyboard feature to reorder pages and set transitions
Ñ Full-screen slide show feature
You can animate each icon by clicking and holding the mouse on each one.
Storymaking Basics
To begin creating a story in Kid's Studio, let's start in the Treasure Chest. Click on the Treasure chest icon to activate the Treasure Chest browser. Notice the "Categories" list in the lower left. Click once on the down arrow in the "Categories" list so that the title "Earth & Space" appears. Click on the "Earth & Space" category and notice how the preview image updates to reflect the image within that category. Click once on the preview image of the Milky Way. The image becomes highlighted and a text description of that item appears in the box below. Click on the Add button and the title of the image, Milky Way, appears under the My List area. Click the OK button and the image is sent to your page.
Choose a Background
Under the Page menu, choose the Background... command. You will get a dialog box with an unchecked Background box. This is because the default setting for the page is no background. Click the Background box. Notice the default color is black. Click the OK button and you will soon see a black background for the page that falls behind the Milky Way image.
Selecting an Object
To select a graphic (or text) object, such as the Milky Way, simply click once on it. Handles will appear at each corner. You can move the object by holding the mouse down on it and dragging. To re-size, click on a handle and drag towards the center of the object (to make it smaller) or away from the object (to make it larger). The proportions will stay the same.
Add Sound
With the graphic image of the Milky Way still selected, choose the Add Sound... command under the Page menu. (Make sure your microphone is plugged in.) Click the Record button in the sound dialog box and speak into the microphone. Click on the Stop button when you're finished. You can immediately hear your recording by clicking on the Play button. The sound attaches itself to the object, allowing you to add multiple sounds to any page.
Cookie Cutter Technology¬
Now click on the Paint icon in the Control Panel. You will enter the Paint Box. To take advantage of Cookie Cutter Technology¬, first choose a yellow fill color (hold the mouse down on the lower pop-up/tear off palette with a rainbow pattern and drag your mouse to a yellow color). Then fill the paint canvas with yellow paint (by clicking on the paint bucket icon and then clicking anywhere on the canvas).
Hold the mouse down on the cookie-cutter selection tool╤the lower-left tool in the outline of a cookie╤and choose the Moon cookie-cutter. Drag the mouse across the canvas and a Moon shape will appear. When you achieve the desired size, click the Glue tool (the bottom-right tool). The Moon will automatically be sent to the page and the Paint Box will close. The moon becomes a graphic object, ready to be positioned or re-sized on the page.
Make a New Page
Choose the Add Page command from the Story menu. Then choose the Milky Way again from the Treasure Chest. Choose a black background for this page too.
Add a Special Effect
Double-click on the Milky Way. It will be sent to the Paint Box. Now choose another cookie-cutter shape and drag it within the image of the Milky Way. Choose the Glue tool and it will be sent back to the page, replacing the previous image of the Milky Way. Special effects like these can be performed on any graphic object, including Photo CD images.
Add Text
Click on the Write Box icon in the Control Panel. A rectangular space appears in the center of the page, ready for your text. Type something and then select the text with either the mouse or by choosing Select All from the Edit menu. Now choose a font, size, style, alignment, color, and/or background for your text. Then de-select the text box by clicking elsewhere on the page. If you want to change your text, simply double-click on it. To reposition the text, click once on it and then move it with the mouse, just like a graphic object. To re-flow the text, click and drag one of the four handles when selected.
Storyboarding
To re-arrange the pages of your story or add transitions to your pages (for a slide show), click on the storyboard icon in the Control Panel. Thumbnail images for each page appear within the Storyboard dialog box. To make page one become page two, simply drag the thumbnail of page one onto page two. The pages will automatically be re-arranged and re-numbered.
Double-click the thumbnail of page one. A transition dialog box will appear. Select a transition and then click the OK button. A small preview of the transition appears to the left of the thumbnail image. Do the same for page two, and then click the OK button in the Storyboard dialog box.
Run your Story
To run your story, simply click the slide show icon (puppy) in the Control Panel. The screen will turn black and your show will begin. Enjoy!
THE REAL VERSION OF KID'S STUDIO
In the full version (1.2) of Kid's Studio, you can save your story as a Kid's Studio document for future editing, or you can turn your story into a full-screen QuickTime¬ movie by choosing the Save As... command under the File menu. In version 1.2 you can also print your stories to black and white, grayscale, or color printers.
The minimum requirements for the full version of Kid's Studio are as follows :
Ñ Macintosh LC
Ñ System 7.0
Ñ 12" monitor with 256 colors
Ñ 4 MB RAM
Ñ 7 MB free hard disk space
Ñ CD-ROM drive to support Photo CD (optional -- required for CD-ROM version)
Ñ QuickTime¬ (version 1.5 or above) (optional)
Kid's Studio 1.2 is currently available for the Macintosh at a suggested retail price of $59.95. The application and Treasure Chests are stored on four 1.44Mb 3.5" disks or one CD-ROM.
A MS-Windows based version will be available Summer 1994.
CYBERPUPPY PHILOSOPHY
CyberPuppy creates innovative and easy-to-use multimedia applications for users of all ages. The overall goal is to help people use technology for communication and learning. CyberPuppy software products incorporate leading-edge technologies to challenge and entertain in groundbreaking ways.
CONTACT INFORMATION
CyberPuppy Software, Inc.
P.O. Box 19500
Rochester, NY 14619
Tel : (716) 436-3570
Fax : (716) 436-2783
Sales : (800) PUP-BYTE
Tech Support: (716) 436-3570
Thank you for your interest in Kid's Studio, from CyberPuppy Software, Inc.
