Kids book

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

Hi everyone,

I’ve had a Corona account for some time, but have never actually used it, I’ve recently started to play around with it again, and am really starting to see the benefits over other similar software and really want to start using this now as my main development kit.

I’m basically an author and am putting together a simile interactive childrens book - 8 pages, audio narration, page turns, simple stuff really.

I’ve been playing around with the comic template on here, and was wondering if anyone knows of a book template that I could look at to help kick start me as a guide to how to develop a book.

To be honest, I’m not the most technical person out there, and I really need an example to show me the basics so I can then use what I’ve seen and start developing my own projects.

Any advise would be great, and thank you all for your time.

Really looking forward to getting stuck in with Corona.

Cheers,

Chris [import]uid: 43642 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 324456[/import]

#2

Hmm. I am not exactly sure about ebook development but i came across this 3rd party tool called Kwik which Corona supports as well. It’s suppose to make it really easy for one to create an app from using photoshop. This might save you a lot of development time but of course it means spending a little more. There should be a 30 days free trail for you try it out.

http://www.kwiksher.com/ [import]uid: 39846 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 98932[/import]

#3

Hello Chris and welcome,

Some parts of Corona can get rather technical. I self develop stories for children. But I have a technical background so I use http://developer.anscamobile.com/content/storyboard.

There is a 3rd part toll that I think would fit you well. The name is Kwik. You find more information on http://www.kwiksher.com/. It is a app/plug-in for photoshop where you can create Corona code directly from photoshop. It supports animations, sprites and other good stuff. The only disadvantage is that you must have a license of photoshop which is expensive.

Best of luck. [import]uid: 40334 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 98933[/import]

#4

Thanks guys,

I really appreciate your help with this - thank you - its a little strange being new to a format, so your help is very kind.

I’ve found a bit of code on here that is perfect for what I would like to achieve (SoundTextSync).

I’m going to see if I can find the following, but I hope you dont mind if I post on the forum again at some point if I get stuck against a wall.

Basically, it would be amazing if I could do the following.

1: Have a main cover page (where you just click a button to go to page 1)

2: Be able to add navigation (back/next/home)

3: Be able to add in an image

4: Add in addition pages that have the same structure as all the other pages (excluding the main cover page).

I appreciate that this is quite involved, so I’m not expecting anyone to do it for me (although, I would be lying if I said that I wouldnt want anyone to do this) - but I reckon that hopefully, after many tweaks I can work it out.

Again, sorry for what may seem like really basic questions to all you that know what your doing here.

Thanks again,

Chris [import]uid: 43642 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 98947[/import]

#5

Welcome Chris,

The above advice is great - I know many developers who use Kwik and enjoy it greatly and if you are not overly technical yourself it may be just the thing.

That said I’ve worked with many people who are not “technical” and have seen many produce great projects with Corona after a little time and effort spent learning the ropes.

Whatever course you decide to take we have a great community and if you post your questions (remember, there are no bad questions, especially when starting out) you will always find people willing to help.

Peach :slight_smile: [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 98950[/import]

#6

You posted while I was writing so I missed it when posting but I have a quick question; do you plan on switching pages with buttons?

(I ask because I’ll see if I can find any sample code that may help.) [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 98951[/import]

#7

Hi Peach,

Thank you for your advice, I must say, the Corona community seem really friendly, and its really nice that people are so willing to help - I hope to return the favor sometime soon.

Regarding switching pages - to be honest, I don’t really mind, as long as you can go from 1-2, 2-3, so page turns or switching pages with buttons would be great.

Cheers,

Chris
[import]uid: 43642 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 98956[/import]

#8

Hey again Chris,

I am glad to hear that - we’re all very passionate about Corona and we always like to help however we can :slight_smile:

On that note, I’d like to share a sample with you - I just threw it together so it’s not beautiful to look at but I hope it will help; http://techority.com/bookSample.zip

It is using shapes (and one image to show how it is done) but yeah, let me know if it helps, ignoring aesthetics :wink:

Peach :slight_smile: [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 99060[/import]

#9

Oh WOW!!! Thank you Peach, that’s incredibly kind of you to take the time and put that together for me, its REALLY helpful, thank you.

I spent a while today fiddling around with Corona, and it made my day when I simply managed to put an image in a project (hey, the simple things), so this is really helpful.

I hope you don’t mind me asking a quick question, well, I actually have to if thats cool.

1: how do I change it to landscape, I’ve made a config.lua and tried changing it to 480x320, and within each pages (local background = display.newRect) but I cant seem to get it to change.

2: when I add in a background image, or some code, it seems to deactivate (or cover up) the buttons you created so I can’t go back and forward, I’ve moved my code to the bottom of the .lua list of codes (to see if it makes a difference) but the image seems to take over.

Once I’ve fixed the 2 issues above, I think it’s there, well, apart from designing the rest of the elements and sorting out all the audio.

Yep, I’m totally sold on Corona, payday for me on the 14th and I’m going to purchase my Corona membership for sure. I’ve previously been using GameSalad (which is GREAT) - however Corona seems to do more of the style developing I’m after, so thank you for helping to convince me to take the step into this bit of software.

Cheers,

Chris [import]uid: 43642 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 99075[/import]

#10

Ah, just fixed issue 2, I had:

local background = display.newRect( 0, 0, 320, 480 )
background:setFillColor(0, 215, 255)
localGroup:insert( background )

In the .lua twice, which seemed to be screwing it up.

Cheers,

Chris [import]uid: 43642 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 99076[/import]

#11

Hey,

No worries at all - helping new users is one of my favorite things :slight_smile: (I actually run http://Techority.com - if you haven’t seen it take a look, it has various tutorials all for Corona.)

For landscape mode you need a build.settings file (which you would have needed at some point anyway) but I didn’t put one in that as I made it at around 7am (I’m in Australia) and was a little dopey :wink:

So, uhm *looks* …

Copy the build.settings from;
CoronaSDK > SampleCode > Sprites > JungleScene

With that in your folder it should be landscape :slight_smile:

Peach [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 99161[/import]

#12

Hi Peach,

Ah, your an Australian, I’m actually going to OZ in June for a friends wedding, I’ve never been before, and really looking forward to finally visiting.

Thank you for the advise re the landscape, it all works perfectly now.

I’ve registered with your site and will have a rummage through your tutorials.

Just one last final thing, I thought I had fixed this, but unfortunately I havent.

I cant seem to get an image to display correctly as a background, for example, I’m trying to have an image fill the back of page 1 with text on it, and it only ever seems to cover up all the options/text on the screen?

Also, I’ve added some text on another page and when I go back and forth between pages, it seems to keep duplicating.

I’ve gone through a couple of example tutorials and I think its something to do with ‘localGroups’ however, I’ve tried a whole bunch of combos and it doesn’t seem to fix it.

Any suggestions would be really welcomed.

Thanks for all your help Peach, you’re a star.

Cheers,

Chris [import]uid: 43642 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 99175[/import]

#13

Australia is a nice place to visit :slight_smile:

First up - background.

Are you inserting it into the local group? If no, do that now.

If yes, are you adding the background before or after the text and buttons? It should be before.

Second, your text issue is also related to localGroup. We use display groups and so does director. Look in page1 or page2 and see how every visual (image, rectangle, text) I used;
localGroup:insert(imageName)?

Make sure you are doing that, it will fix it.

Peach :slight_smile: [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 24456 reply_id: 99190[/import]