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The behaviours may be one of the most powerfull addition to Multimedia
Fusion and certainely one of the most ignored feature of the entire package!
The tutorial will explain what exactly are behaviours, where to find them,
how to use them and what are the benefits of using them.
What are behaviours.
 Behaviours
are small lists of events, specific to one kind of objects. They are
stored as a property within the other properties. This alow you to pre
define the reactions of one object, and create automated objects that
work immediatly when dropped on the frame, with no need of extra events.
Applications
are endless :
Automated buttons, that reacts under the mouse
Objects with complex movements, and preset rebounds
Preprogrammed system objects, for example a MCI object that plays sounds
from the disc and manage them automatically.
Etc!
A proper use of the behaviours in a complex project can dramatically
reduce the number and the complexity of the main list of events.
We
are going to discover the behaviours by creating an automated button
that automatically highlights under the mouse.
Start Multimedia Fusion, create a blank application and open the frame
editor.
Open the library window (Control R, or from the menu View, Toolbars,
Library window) , and choose Buttons and pointers /
Media - Widgets #1. Drag and drop the object Play
2 on your frame.
This
button contains two images, the flat button affected to the right direction
of the stopped animation (direction number 0), the highlighted button
affected to the left direction of the same animation (direction number
16). So, if we want to highlight the button, we simply should chage
the direction of the button to the right or to the left, when the mouse
is above it or not.
Direction 0 |
Direction 16 |
Highlight the Play 2 object and in the Properties Toolbar
select the Events tab and click on the New button.
This
will create a new behavior named "Behaviour #1".
Click on the edit area and finally on the New button. This will open
the usual event editor editing the behaviour of the button. Notice that
the icon of our button has a "shortcut" arrow appended to
it, like a Windows shortcut. More on this later.
Enter the following events:
This
very simple list of events makes the object react to the mouse. Run
the application and you will see the object change when the mouse crosses
over it.
Lets rename the behaviour to a proper name: in the Properties toolbar
right click on the name "Behavior #1" choose
"rename" and enter : "Automatic Highlight",
click OK to save.
Properties
are stored within the object.
Now close the event editor, close the frame editor so that only the
project window is left,
Open a new, blank application.
Open the frame editor of the blank application.
In the project window, display the list of objects of our first application,
and drag and drop our button onto the newly created frame.
Click in the frame editor to select the window, and run the new frame:
the button works automatically, its behaviour was stored inside of it
and dropped at the same time in the application.
Now, open the library window (Contol R), and drag & drop the button
named Cancel 1 into the frame. If you run the frame,
you will see that this button does not react to the mouse.
Select the Play 2 button and from the Properies toolbar
right click on the Automatic Highlight behavior and
choose copy. , Now select the Cancel 1 button and in
the Properties toolbar right click on the blank area next to the New
button, and select Paste..
 
Run the frame, you should see both buttons reacting to the mouse.
This
little demonstration has made you understand hope the hidden power of
the behaviors. They will make you gain time, they are re-useable, and
will greatly reduce the number of events in the main event list (imagine
that you have 10 buttons like these two!).
Behaviours in details.
A simple list of events, stored in the object itself.
A behaviour does not contain direct references to the objects (as in
the event editor), but shortcuts to the object. This is the reason why
a small arrow is pasted over the icon of the object.
Shortcuts
to objects
The
main object in a behaviour, is the object who owns it. This object will
always be present in the behaviour event editor, and cannot be removed.
If you drag & drop the behaviour from one object to another, the
main object and icon will be renamed to the new object (in the example
above, Play 2 has been replaced by Cancel 1
after the drop.
Behaviours can reference other objects from the frame. The reference
is made from the name of the object: if the referenced object is present
on the frame, then the events are activated, if not, they simply will
have no effect. This feature make them even more powerful : you can
prepare objects that will automatically trigger other objects if they
are lying beside them, or stay quiet if not.
Lets
program a quick demonstration.
Close the second application (the one with the Cancel button), we do
not need it.
Reopen the frame of the first application (the one with the Play button),
Create an AVI object in the frame. Make it point to whatever video you
want, and uncheck "Play at start" in the video Properties
toolbar.
Rename this object to "Video".
Reopen the behaviour event-editor of our play button as before (Properties
toolbar / Events tab / Edit). You can see a new object displayed on
the right of the object bar : the "Import" object.
Click on this import object will display the other
objects present in the frame at that moment.
Select the "Video" object and click OK: it should appear in
the event editor.
Add
the following events to the list:
These
basic events will start the video when the user left-clicks on the button,
and stop it when he right-click.
Of
course, if you run the frame, it should work : the behaviour of the
button changes the state of the video.
Lets
redo the same manipulation as before.
Open a second application, open the frame editor;
Drag and drop our new Play 2 button into the frame.
Now create a second video, same as before (not to play at start), but
do not rename it : leave the default name AVI. If you
run the application, it won't be triggered by a click on the play button
: upon running the application, Fusion links the different objects shortcuts
with the objects themselves. Our behaviour contains references to a
Video object, thus Fusion cannot find it, and inactivates
the play/stop actions.
Rename the AVI object to Video, and
run the frame : it works now, the link is established.
Once the link is established, you can safely rename the other objects,
Fusion will preserve the links by renaming the shortcuts inside the
behaviours. For example rename Video to Video
2, open the Automatic highlight and see that
it has been updated.
Things
to know about the behaviours and shortcuts.
You can create or shoot objects from within a behaviour, but the original
object must have been previously dropped in the frame, otherwise, Fusion
will not estabish the link.
You cannot drag & drop a behaviour from one kind of object to a
different kind (example active object behaviour onto edit box)
You can play sounds and musics from within a behaviour, but here too,
the sound must be inserted somewhere in the real list of event. The
link is established from the name of the sound.
As behaviours are dealing with shortcuts and not the real objects, there
is a small limitation related to user animation of objects and names
of alterable values: Fusion cannot safely get the real name of the alterable
values of an object, they wll always be displayed as "Alterable
value A/B/C...", regardless of their true name.
Alterable
value are not displayed with their true names
When using Change animation sequence action, Fusion
will only display the 12 first animations of an active object (the default
animations). Extra animations, will not be displayed. You can access
them though by using a calculation instead of a direct link to the animation
: the first user animation is number 12, the second 13 etc...
Behaviours welcomed !
Please
send us your behaviours (with a small documentation for each), we will
propose them for upload on Clickteam. If everyone shares his own work
with the other, we will quickly build a library of premade behaviours
that will save a tremendous amount of time for everyone!
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