Updated Sozi tutorial: using layers

[Guillaume Savaton]

Dear Sozi users.

I am pleased to announce that the tutorial "Using layers" has been updated for Sozi 17.
You can read it in English here: http://sozi.baierouge.fr/pages/tutorial-layers.html

I hope this tutorial will clarify some concepts of Sozi and help you use layers effectively.
If you have a little time to spend on it, please try to follow the instructions and tell me what you think.
Your feedback can help me improve this document.

When the tutorial reaches a stable state, I will provide French, and hopefully Esperanto, translations.
If you want to help translate it to your own language, please follow the guidelines at http://sozi.baierouge.fr/pages/translate-web-site.html

Cheers.

Guillaume

[john.m....@gmail.com]

I am attempting to use Sozi 17 to replace Prezi for scientific presentations. So far everything has been straightforward, but I am having difficulty understanding the logic underlying the use of layers in Sozi. The example given explains in a clear way how to create a sense of motion with fixed and moving layers, but it is not clear how to best use layers for the simpler task I have in mind.

What I want to do:
 - I want to have a piece of text and/or an image appear upon clicking (be hidden initially and then visible)
 - As a simple example, imagine a slide with a bulleted list of text in which the bullets appear one at a time as you discuss them.
 - In Prezi and (and Powerpoint) this functionality is called "animation" and normally has options like: appear, disappear, fade in/out, etc.

The process I would use based on the tutorial:
In inkscape:
- Create an SVG document with all content that does not need to appear on demand (like the fixed layer with the tree in the example)
- Create each item that I want to appear in separate layers and separate locations (for example, how about 5 arrows with a label identifying different parts of the tree, so 5 layers and 5 locations)
- Create a rectangle around each item that is correctly aligned with the tree so that the arrow appears in the correct place when lined up with the fixed view
In Sozi:
- Create multiple frames with the same fixed layer
- Successively add the layers one a time in sequential frames until all are visible

At the end, I would get a view that has all the 5 labels pointing to different parts of the tree. However, this is problematic because in creating the SVG in inkscape it makes the most sense to put all the labels pointing to the tree rather than create the labels is 5 other locations and line them up within Sozi.  Also, since I want the alignments to be well controlled (using the nice alignment tools in inkscape) it is difficult to maintain this when the relative positioning of different layers is arbitrary in Sozi. I suspect that there is a more efficient way to do what I want, and so I could benefit from a better understanding of the intent behind and functionality of layers.

Other (bad) methodology:
In inkscape:
- Create the final desired view (tree with 5 arrows and labels)
- Create 6 copies of this view
- In each of the 6 copies delete the portions that should not be visible at each step
In Sozi:
- Create 6 frames each pointing to one of the views with a step transition to get appearing effect.

Thanks!

[Guillaume Savaton]

2017-07-07 22:37 GMT+02:00 <john.m....@gmail.com>:

At the end, I would get a view that has all the 5 labels pointing to different parts of the tree. However, this is problematic because in creating the SVG in inkscape it makes the most sense to put all the labels pointing to the tree rather than create the labels is 5 other locations and line them up within Sozi.

If you want to make things appear, you can also put them at their final location and use the "Layer opacity" field to transition from 0 (invisible) to 100% (visible).
 

Also, since I want the alignments to be well controlled (using the nice alignment tools in inkscape) it is difficult to maintain this when the relative positioning of different layers is arbitrary in Sozi.

I don't understand. The positioning is not arbitrary if you use rectangles and the "Fit to element" feature.

Sozi 17.06 also introduces the "Reset layer" and "Copy layer" features. It can help realign layers to a controlled state.

G.S.

[Volker P.]

Hello,

I read your layers tutorial, and I am very interested in this nice feature.
But there is still one open question: how long is a fixed layer fixed?

Assume I have a fixed layer for the first five frames, and I want to have another fixed layer for the next five frames.
In your tutorial's example you could have the green tree for morning, noon ad evening, but a grey tree in the night.

How would I accomplish this in Sozi?

Kind regards,
Volker

[Guillaume Savaton]

2017-08-24 21:48 GMT+02:00 Volker P. <volker.p...@gmail.com>:

I read your layers tutorial, and I am very interested in this nice feature.
But there is still one open question: how long is a fixed layer fixed?

A "fixed" layer is just a normal layer, except that we decide not to move it.

Any layer can be fixed for several frames or for the entire presentation.

In your tutorial's example you could have the green tree for morning, noon ad evening, but a grey tree in the night.

I would put the green and grey trees on separate layers.

Then I would play with the layer opacity to hide one while the other is visible.

Guillaume

[Ged]

Im following the tutorial and have reached ' Add an animated layer - Captions'.  It says, "The preview area for each frame should look like ..." but I see no opportunity to preview anything.  Where is the preview button?

[Guillaume Savaton]

2017-08-26 10:01 GMT+02:00 Ged <ostro...@gmail.com>:

Im following the tutorial and have reached ' Add an animated layer - Captions'.  It says, "The preview area for each frame should look like ..." but I see no opportunity to preview anything.  Where is the preview button?

The "preview area" is the area that shows the current frame of your presentation.

It is always visible so there is no need for a preview button ;-)

Guillaume

[Ged]

Under each layer in Inkscape's dialog box, your file tutorial-layers.svg, shows 'Frames.'  These show in the graphic as a red rectangle, and they are used later when uploaded to Sozi.  However, I cannot create a red frame in Inkscape, and there is little explaining how to do it. Im sorry if this is a dumb question, but can you point me to how it is done?

On Thursday, May 25, 2017 at 10:15:08 PM UTC+12, Guillaume Savaton wrote:

[Guillaume Savaton]

2017-08-27 8:14 GMT+02:00 Ged <chris...@outlook.com>:

Under each layer in Inkscape's dialog box, your file tutorial-layers.svg, shows 'Frames.'  These show in the graphic as a red rectangle, and they are used later when uploaded to Sozi.  However, I cannot create a red frame in Inkscape, and there is little explaining how to do it. Im sorry if this is a dumb question, but can you point me to how it is done?

Let me quote the tutorial: "Each layer has a sublayer named Frames. These sublayers contain rectangles that will help align the graphics when creating the Sozi presentation."

So you don't create frames in Inkscape: you draw rectangles. For convenience,you can group them into their own sublayer if you want.

To create a sublayer:

* click the "View Layers" button in the toolbar (or press Ctrl-Shift-L)

* select an existing layer

* press the "+" ("Create a new layer") button

* in the "Add layer" dialog, set the "Position" to "As sublayer of current".

Guillaume

[Danson Michael Joseph]

Hi,

Is the layer opacity available in the desktop installation of Sozi?

Regards,

Danson

[Guillaume Savaton]

Le ven. 21 sept. 2018 à 17:15, Danson Michael Joseph <danson...@danecca.com> a écrit :

Is the layer opacity available in the desktop installation of Sozi?

Yes.

[Danson Michael Joseph]

Thanks,

Can you advise how to do it because the opacity slider doesn't seem present on the desktop install.

Thanks

---

From: sozi-...@googlegroups.com <sozi-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Guillaume Savaton <guillaum...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2018 4:59:58 PM
To: sozi-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Updated Sozi tutorial: using layers

 

Le ven. 21 sept. 2018 à 17:15, Danson Michael Joseph <danson...@danecca.com> a écrit :

Is the layer opacity available in the desktop installation of Sozi?

Yes.

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[Guillaume Savaton]

Le ven. 21 sept. 2018 à 18:39, Danson Michael Joseph <danson...@danecca.com> a écrit :

Can you advise how to do it because the opacity slider doesn't seem present on the desktop install.

Well. It should be present.

I'm afraid I will need more details if you want me to help you.

- Which version of Sozi ?

- Are you using Windows, Linux, MacOS?

- 32-bit or 64-bit?

- Did you install an official version or did you build it yourself?

- When Sozi is open, press F12 and tell me if you see error messages in the "Console" tab.

- Can you send me a screenshot of the Sozi window?

If you don't mind, please report the issue at https://github.com/senshu/Sozi/issues

Guillaume