Wired Sprites enable interactive content to be added to Quicktime movies. A few 'new generation' tools are currently available to author wired content. At the time of writing, only totallyHip's LiveStage exposes almost all of the wired interface to multimedia authors (other tools worth mentioning are Electrifier Pro and Spritz), however, once a wired movie has been made, it can be combined freely with other movies using only Quicktime Player.
With wired sprites, it is possible to control almost all of the properties and actions of a Quicktime movie, including many you probably didn't even know about.
The most obvious use for wired content, especially for those who are already familiar with Quicktime's excellent digital audio and video capabilities, is to control playback.
This archive contains a series of fairly standard controls which may be useful to Quicktime authors so that the standard Quicktime interface can be replaced with custom playback controls.
It is even possible to replace the graphics used in these controls with your own, as described later in this document.
Adding the controls to your own movies
You will need a license for Quicktime Pro to add sprite tracks to existing movies. This is available from Apple for the very reasonable price of $29. A Quicktime Pro license is bundled with LiveStage. When you register your Quicktime installation, you will gain access to the authoring and editing features of the Quicktime Player.
Open your movie in Quicktime Player.
Check Edit->Preferences->General and ensure that the Open Movie in New Player box is checked.
Open one of the control movies into Quicktime Player. It is recommended that beginners start with PlayPause.mov
With the control movie in focus, Select All (Command-A)
Copy the movie to the clipboard (Command-C)
Switch focus to your own movie by clicking in its player window.
Select All (Command-A)
Hold down Shift and Option(Alt) then check the edit menu. The 'Paste' menu item will be replaced with 'Add Scaled'. The full keyboard shortcut is therefore Shift-Option-Command-V. Add the clip scaled to your movie.
This operation will add the control to your movie as a seperate track, and will scale its duration to fit the duration of your movie. The control will now be present throughout your movie.
Click on the control to test it.
In Movie->Get Info you can adjust the size and position and rotation of the controls within your movie. Select the track you have added and the Size dialog. Click Adjust and, with the mouse or the arrow keys, place the control in a convenient position within the movie. Tip: The controls are very small. It's very difficult to move them with the mouse without accidentally resizing them or rotating them. It might be easier to move the main movie track instead! When you are happy, click Done.
Repeat the process for any other controls you may wish to add.
Using Movie-Controller you can switch off the standard Quicktime Player controller and use my controls instead!
Now be sure to save a copy of your movie with no dependencies on any external files. Choose File->Save As, give the movie a different name and make sure that it is self contained.
You can now use your wired movie in any Quicktime container application which supports wired actions, such as Netscape Communicator or Macromedia Director.
n.b. Not all Quicktime container applications support wired sprite tracks. Some provide only limited support for them. If you are licensee of such an application, be sure to contact the producer and encourage them to support this important new aspect of Quicktime in a future release.
About the controls
The controls should be self-explanatory, but to be sure, here is some more detailed information:
PlayPause - A single toggle button plays and pauses the movie. The pause button is active as long as the movie is running, forwards or backwards and at any speed. i.e. even if you use another control, such as rewind, the pause button will be active. The play button is only active when the movie is not running.
playFromStart - Rewinds the movie and plays it forwards at normal speed.
playBackwardsFromEnd - Plays the movie backwards from the end at normal speed.
RewindAndStop - Rewinds the movie and stops playback.
GoToEndAndStop - Puts the playback head at the end of the movie and stops playback.
Rewind - Plays the movie backwards at double speed
FF - Plays the movie forewards at double speed
SliderController - Replaces the 'timeline' slider control.
Customising the Controls - 1 (Graphics)
It's also possible to change the graphics in the controls using only Quicktime Player. For best results, your replacement graphics should be 16 x 16 pixels. The slider controller is an exception. The Slider track is 160 x 16 and the slider thumb is 4 x 16.
Quicktime Player can import many graphic formats, Quicktime Image Viewer (part of the standard Quicktime installation) can import and convert still more. I used Quicktime curve media (vector qif) for my button images, but other popular formats such as PICT or PNG are also suitable. Indexed colour images (with palettes) are not recommended, unless the palette matches the palette of your movie.
Drop your new graphic onto Quicktime player, or use the File->Import menu item.
Follow the same steps outlined above to copy the graphic and add it (scaled) to your wired movie. It may be that the added track will obscure tracks beneath. Do not worry about this.
In Movie->Get Info, select the sprite track of the control you wish to customise, then choose Image Overrides.
The image media used by the sprite appears in a list. Select the graphic you wish to change.
Click Select Override Track and choose the graphic track you have just added.
Repeat the process for any other sprite graphics you wish to customise. You can always switch back to the original graphics later.
Interesting Note; The Image Override Track need not be a still image! It can also be an animated or video sequence. You can make some very jazzy buttons this way!
Don't forget to make the movie self contained, as described above, for maximum portability.
Customising the Controls - 2 (Functionality)
If you would like to make customise the functionality of the controls yourself, then included in the archive are the LiveStage Pro projects and media library which you can use to modify the controls freely. A demo of LiveStage Pro is available from http://www.totallyHip.com, the demo is save disabled, but you can still export wired movies from it. For professional wired Quicktime authoring, it is strongly recommended that you buy a license for LiveStage Pro.
Other Controls
It is likely that I will produce other controls beyond this basic set. My most immediate plans are to produce a set of remote controls, duplicates of these, but for controlling other movies, so that you can target other movies in your web page. This is even easier than adding the controls inside your movie.
I would also appreciate that you send me a copy of any product which makes use of the controls, or a link to a web page.
If you like the movies that much, you are very welcome to send me a postcard, a CD with interesting content, a small example of your local paper currency, a tshirt or something similar. No rubbish please.
This archive may be distributed freely, but not sold for profit without permission. The archive must be complete, including the ReadMe and the LiveStage documents folder. The controls may not be distributed seperately, except as embedded tracks in other movies.
Support.
Support for these controls will be limited. All the information you need to use them is available from Apple or totallyHip. I can not guarantee a reply to any questions about them, though if you send me gifts or kind words I will be more likely to respond. Do not send me large unsolicited attachments (Max 50k!) or you will be ignored and further emails from you will be filtered into the trash.
Contact Information
Brennan Young
brennan@young.net
http://brennan.young.net/
My current postal address is available at this url:
