Here's the PowerPoint we use in this tutorial:
Let’s consider this situation. We want to create an interactive video for a Chinese Language course to test the viewer. We will set up a few quizzes on listening and reading comprehension. Chinese is a neat use case because using audio dramatically improves the learning experience of Chinese characters. We will see how to do it in the tutorial. We also want to make it a bit fun for the user so we will include some cartoon characters just for the sake of the demonstration. All rights are reserved. The presentation will be available in the tutorial below the video.
To create our first simple quiz., the first thing to do is to provide instructions to the user. Let’s do it both in English and Chinese. Write the instructions on the slide, and then we’ll use the automatic speech feature of automate video to synthesize the text into speech. Let’s write the instruction in English in the Notes section of the slide.
Since automate.video automatically recognizes the language to use from the text, we shall make a copy of the previous slide and change the text of the Notes section. This time we will write the instructions in Chinese. Helpful tip: we can use the built-in translate feature of Microsoft PowerPoint to do so.
Now, let's create different answers the user can choose from. One will be the correct answer, and the other the wrong one. To handle what happens when the user clicks on an answer, we will use PowerPoint's "link" feature. Once the user clicks on the correct answer, they will be forwarded to a new slide for the correct answer and another for the wrong answer. We need to create those first. Once those slides have been created, we can create links between slides. Right-click on the answer box, then select "create a link." There, choose the slide with the correct answer. Repeat the operation for the slide for the wrong answer.
Once the user has clicked on an answer, they will be forwarded to the feedback slide. If we don’t do anything, the user will see the next slide in the list. In our case, if the user clicks on the correct answer, he will see “Good answer” and then, “Bad answer”. To avoid that, we need to indicate to automate.video to skip one slide and go directly to the slide after. To do so, we will enter the following command in the Notes section of slide number 4 to go to slide number 6. Enter:
%%GOTO%
in our case it will be : %%GOTO%6%%GOTO-END%
Don’t forget, for commands, it is: two percentage symbols (%%), at the start and one percentage symbol (%) at the end.
Now we'll make the scene a bit fun! Instead of just having a voice-over, we will make a cartoon character talk. For this, we'll use a feature called "magic mouth." Let's hide the character's mouth on an image of a cartoon character. Draw a shape with the free-form shape tool on top of it. Remove the outline of the shape. Please select a color that's the same as his face to fill the shape. You can do this with the help of the eyedropper tool.
Now, draw a circle shape where you want the mouth to be animated. Automate.video will use it as a mark to animate the mouth. Warning: you must not group that circle shape with the other layer; otherwise, the magic mouth won’t work. Once you’ve created the shape, right-click on the circle you created and select “view alt text.”
In the « Alt text » text field, enter the text:
%%MAGICMOUTH% %%MALE%
or %%MAGICMOUTH% %%FEMALE%
or %%MAGICMOUTH% %%MALE_BABY%
Since the cartoon character is a young boy, we can use %%MALE_BABY% so that the voice will have a higher pitch. Then type the text you want the narrator to say while animating the mouth, just like you usually do in the note section of PowerPoint.
Once the question has been asked, the user needs time to answer. If we don’t do anything, the video will go on to the next slide. We can tell the video player to pause after the scene by entering the text in the Notes section:
%%PAUSE_AFTER%
The video will pause on this screen until the user selects one of the answers.
Now let’s see how to configure a listening comprehension quiz. Enter the text to listen in the Notes section as you did before. Now we will set up a button for the user to play the audio again. To do so, insert an icon, and link the image to the current slide. This will repeat the slide, therefore, the question.
We can use the same system to emulate a play button that will say the corresponding Chinese character out loud when we click on it. It’s like the last part, except this time, we’ll need to copy and paste the slide three times: one for the “pause after” command and one for the text for each “play” button.
Your PowerPoint is now ready to be imported to automate video to create your interactive video ! Select the option «Use PowerPoint Notes section content to synthesize voice» or the option “Use PowerPoint Notes section to create a virtual presenter” and select a “Speech only female” or “Speech only male”.
You can embed your video in any web site by clicking on the <> icon under the video and by copying the html code. You can then insert that code into your own website.
Let's see the result
Thank you for following this tutorial. We hope you enjoyed it. Go to https://www.automate.video to sign up and start creating your videos !