ActiveText Behaviors

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collision detection
cruise
explode
move to mouse
move away from mouse
snakelike
wave
concrete
gravity
rain
cryptographic
synonym shift
presentation
dies on contact
lines
make throwable
scroll
sequential
springs
throb
viral
fade
shatter
swarm

     
Behavior
Description It's Alive! TextOrgan Menu Image
default :
collision detection

all text is automatically given a collision detection behaviour. this allows the text to respond to the presence and proximity of other text. if you want to remove this behavior, select behaviors:remove and delate "collision detection"

X X  
movement
various methods for making the text move on-screen
cruise

text flies off screen in random directions with random acceleration. boundary detection is performed so that the text bounces back from the edges of the screen.

max acceleration
the maximum speed which the text will attain
range: 0 - 100000

degree of drag
the amount of friction the text will have
range: 0.0 - 100000.0

X X  

explode

text flies off the screen in random directions.

minimum force
the minimum speed which the text will attain
range: 0.0 - 1000000.0

maximum force
the maximum speed which the text will attain
range: 0.0 - 1000000.0

time delay
the amount of cycles between starting simulate mode and the onset of the explosion behavior
range: 0.0 - 1000000.0

X X  
move to mouse

text moves towards the mouse

X X  
move away from mouse

text moves away from the mouse

X X  
snakelike

text moves around the screen like a snake. this is a compisition of two other behaviors: springs and cruise. first springs is applied between the chunks you have selected, connecting them together. then cruise is applied to the last chunk selected. this causes the last chunk to randomly wander around the screen, dragging the other chunks along with it.

max acceleration
the maximum speed which the text will attain
range: 0 - 100000

degree of drag
the amount of friction the text will have
range: 0.0 - 100000.0

X X  
wave

text moves in a vertical sine wave.

maximum crest
height of wave in pixels
range: 0.0 - 50000.0

phase increment
speed of wave motion
range: 0.0 50000.0

X  
gravity

behaviors which move text from top to bottom on the screen

concrete

text drops to baseline and then bounces. the baseline is wherever the target text was at when the behavior was applied. if multiple targets are selected, they will descend in staggered manner, with a slight delay between each chunk.

 

X  
gravity

magnitude
speed of descent
range: 0.0 - 1000000.0

elasticity
how much the text bounces when it hits the basline
range: 0.0 - 1.0

feedback
how much text chunks interact with each other when they bounce off the baseline
range: 0.0 - 1.0

ground type:
determines where/how the text stops falling

  • none - text disappears off bottom of screen
  • loop - text falls down, then loops around to top again
  • window - text stops at the bottom edge of the window
  • plane - the horizontal plane specified in the y-coord box
X X  
rain

target text falls down the screen, then reappears at the top of the screen and begins falling again; similar to gravity:loop.

 
lexical

uses the WordNet dictionary to perform automatic glyph/word replacements

Note: if WordNet is not installed on the same machine in the same directory as It's Alive!, these behaviors will not work

cryptographic

randomly swaps in different glyphs

speed
the speed at which the glyphs will change
range: 0.0 - 1.0

number of shifts
the number of times the glyphs will change

X  
synonym shift

these behavior uses the WordNet dictionary to automaticaly cycle through the synonyms of the words in the target text (if there are any.)

speed of shift
the speed at which words will be replaced
range: 0.0 to 1.0

 

X  
presentation
a very customized behavior for creating a slide-show like presentation X
dies on contact
target text dies on contact, i.e., it disappears and is removed from the document X
lines
draws lines between the target texts X  
make throwable
the user can select the text and throw it such that it exhibits inertia and rebounds from the window sides X  
scroll

scrolls text vertically or horizontally across the screen. you create this behavior without a target text

direction
vertical (up or down) or horizontal (left or right) scrolling

justification
justify vertically scrolling text
range: left, right or middle

chunk
text chunk to scroll
range: glyph, word, passage

speed
speed of scrolling
range: 0.00 to 10000

source text
either input the text directly into the box, or choose a plain text file to load

X  
sequential

displays a text one chunk at a time

order
order in which to display the text
range: sequential, random, reverse

justification
justify the text
range: left, right or middle

chunk
text chunk to scroll
range: glyph, word, passage

hold
how long to hold each chunk on display
range: any positive integer

source text
either input the text directly into the box, or choose a plain text file to load

X  
springs

connects the target texts with invisible springs

spring constant
order in which to display the text
range: -1000000 to 1000000

damping
order in which to display the text
range: -1000000 to 1000000

friction
order in which to display the text
range: -1000000 to 1000000

X  
throb

rhythmically grows and shrinks the target text

minimum size
smalles size
range: > 0

maximum size
largest size
range: > 0

fractional step
size of each step
range: 0 to 1000

X X  
viral

target text adds its behaviors to any other text it encounters

dormancy period
amount of time before the behaviors of the target text become active on the encountered text
range: 0.0 to 1000000.0

X  

fade

(previously labeld disintegrate)

target text fades to the background color

drag
amount of drag on the target text
range: 0.0 to 1.0

acceleration
rate at which the target text's speed of movement increases with each collision
range: 0.0 to 500.0

radius
distance from origin at which target text begins to fade
range: 0.0 to 640.00

  X  
shatter

target text breaks away explosively from its origin

force
speed at which the text breaks away and rebounds off other text
range: 0.0 to 300.0

  X  

swarm

(previously labeled particle)

target text swarms around origin

drag
amount of drag on the target text
range: 0.0 to 1.0

acceleration
rate at which the target text's speed of movement increases with each collisoin
range: 0.0 to 500.0

  X