The (misnamed) screenshots plugin is ready for prime time. Whatever small tweaks may be needed will certainly be small.
For the last several days, I have been transitioning to "production" mode. I was surprised that making slideshows is still far from trivial. In retrospect, my surprise was naive. Indeed, I have come to think of my self as producer, director, script writer, production designer, continuity editor and technical director in what is, in effect, a series of "slow motion" movies :-) The analogy is fairly precise: Producer: I am responsible for allocating resources for this project. In some sense, this is the most important role. Indeed, I am *increasingly* willing to spend whatever time it takes to produce excellent slideshows. Slideshows tell a story in a new way, and a way that I think many people will find more enjoyable than reading words, words, words. Director: There are many high-level choices to be made about how the project will get done. Production designer: This includes the overall look of slideshows, and how they relate to each other. Following up on Matt's comment yesterday, it may be that slideshows should be folded into Leo's main web site more seamlessly. This will involve introductory and concluding slides being added to each slideshow. That is, all slides would be built along using the same build process as for the rest of Leo's web site. Script writer: In another sense, *this* is the most important role. Just as a script (usually) precedes the decision to start a movie, the script influences all aspects of a slideshow. In fact, I plan to spend the next few days writing "scripts" using @slideshow and @slide nodes. In other words, generating screenshots can (and should!) come later. It is *not* true that (as the Wink program asserts) that the first step in creating a slideshow is taking screenshots! Continuity editor: Recent experience shows how important this is. A slideshow should be a series of screenshots that are consistent across *several* dimensions. Not only must one screenshot follow another, but they must, in fact, tell a consistent story. So the roles of script writer and continuity editor are mutually reinforcing. Technical director: It may be that choices made in production design will affect the build process, necessitating (small!) changes in the screenshots plugin. So this is a fairly big project :-) A quite similar analogy would be the production of a series of graphic novels. The roles are in essence the same. Edward P.S. The scope of the present project shows why I have been reluctant to dive into the production of screencasts. The task is just way too large. OTOH, a series of successful slideshows might be consider "story boarding" for a set of screencasts. So if screencasts are to happen, the slideshows could be considered an intermediate step. EKR -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor?hl=en.
