|
download
(Win2K .exe)
video
(QuickTime)
|
It's Alive! is an ActiveText-based
application for creating and editing dynamic and interactive text
documents. Its functionality is best summarized as the mutant offspring
of a text editor and Adobe AfterEffects. The user can enter, edit
and lay out text as usual. Unlike a text editor, however, which
requires her to constantly move from text to pull-down menu and
back to adjust basic visual characteristics such as font, size and
color, It's Alive! gives the user continuously variable controls
which provide continuous feedback. By using pie menus instead of
standard drop-down or palette menus, the user can do all of this
without ever having to move away from the target text.
The true fun in It's Alive!, though, lies in the fact that
the user can apply dynamic and interactive behaviors to the text,
in real-time, as easily as she can change the font. If she wants
some text to wander aimlessly around the screen, she selects the
target text, picks "wander" from the menu, and off it goes. If she
wants the text to pulse when the mouse is passed over it, she selects
"pulse" from the menu. The text will then pulse in reaction to the
mouse's proximity as it wanders around the screen. In this way behaviors
can be layered on top of one another, at the level of an individual
letter, a word or an entire passage. This provides a fluid way in
which to create visually and dynamically rich texts.
|
