Overview
This lesson introduces Content Collections. You will learn about creating Content Collections, organizing content using them and arranging them.
Additionally, the properties of Content Collections will be discussed.
| Prerequisites: Lessons 01, 03, 04 |
Creating a Content Collection
There are two ways to add a content collection to the playlist:
- By adding it from the content browser or by adding a subscene
- Or background map to the playlist.
To add a Subscene to a Segment:
- Drag and drop it from the Content tab to the Layer you want to put it in. (Chyron Weather will not allow you to add content to a layer of the wrong type.)
- A grey line will appear where the content collection will be created. A Content Collection is automatically created from that subscene. Initially, it contains just one object, but you can add more Subscenes. By default, the collection will be named after the Subscene added.
Image description: Grey bar shows point of content collection creation
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Note: You can use the Search Subscenes feature to find Subscenes to add to a collection. Access it via the Content tab. Results are filtered according to input. Content Collection names are unique, a number will be added when a content collection by the same name already exists. |
Lesson 5.3 shows a Segment composed of a Geo referenced layer containing a single object, a Subscene named World_Map.
Image description: Lesson 13 A content collection containing a single object
Organizing content
To organize content multiple elements can be group in a single content collection.
To add additional objects to the collection, click the Add Content Object button and browse for content to add. Double click the subscene to add it to a collection.
| Tip: Put subscenes together in a content collection that you want to fade in/out at the same time and where nothing should be layered in between. |
Lesson 5.4 shows a segment composed of:
- a Geo referenced layer containing a Content Collection containing one object, a subscene named World_Map
- a screen referenced layer containing a Content Collection named Title containing two objects, Subscenes named Lower_Third and Lesson_5
Image description: A content collection containing several objects
The presentation looks like this:
Image description: Presentation illustrated
You can quickly and easily replace or delete content.
To replace content, click the replace button:
Image description: Replace a Content Object
Select an object and double click it to replace:
Image description: Selecting a Content Object replacement
Image description: Presentation showing replaced Content Object
Click the Delete button to delete content:
Image description: Delete a Content Object
As seen, Content Collections may contain several Subscenes. As a rule, Content Collections should group objects which are:
- Shown/hidden together
- Displayed on the same level
- Match the content (meaningful combinations of objects)
Once objects have been added to a collection, their order may be changed by dragging them above or below each other. As they form a stack, this can affect the visibility of some objects. For example, placing a lower third above a text object might mean the text is obscured.
Lesson 5.10 shows a presentation comprising a map and a title composed of a strap and text.
Image description: Presentation showing object hierarchy
The text is placed above the strap in the hierarchy. The underlying hierarchy can be reviewed in Lesson 5.12.
Image description: Content object hierarchy
Review the order of objects in a Content Collection if an object is not visible/partially visible.
Content Collection properties
To enable drop shadow:
Click the Enable drop shadow to apply a shadow to all the objects in the Content Collection:
Image description: Enable drop shadow
The shadow properties are editable with respect to offset size (x and y axis), blur radius and color.
Values are in pixels (offsets, blur) and hexadecimal (color).
Image description: Drop shadow properties
In and out transitions of content collections
It is possible to define the transitions between Content Collections. By clicking on the fade type (beginning/ending of content collection) the transition type can be chosen:
Image description: Changing default values of transitions
Default value for transition duration can be set in preferences (see lesson 3).
Six options are available for screen referenced content collections:
- DiscreteDissolve (hard cut)
- LinearDissolve (fade)
- SmoothPushLeft
- SmoothPushRight
- SmoothPushUp
- SmoothPushDown
Image description: Content Collection transitions
Their duration and a delay may be defined. Both values cannot be negative, and their sum cannot be greater than the duration of the segment.
Values are in seconds.
Georeferenced content collections only have a DiscreteDissolve (hard cut) and LinearDissolve (fade). Displacement can only be achieved for the entire layer by using the transition of the geo focus.
Arranging Content Collections
Content Collections are arrangeable. They can span one or multiple segments and can be transitioned in and out multiple times (occurrences). They can also be arranged vertically to define the layering and to enhance the readability of the playlist.
Adjust length and position
To change the position of a Content Collection, click and drag the Content Collection to the desired location.
Lesson 5.17 shows a Content Collection named Title being moved to a new position.
Image description: Changing position of a Content Collection
The duration of Content Collection may be increased by clicking and dragging on the edge of a Content Collection:
Image description: Increasing the duration of a Content Collection
| Tip: Chyron Weather indicates which edge may be selected by highlighting it yellow. The mouse cursor also changes to a bidirectional arrow. |
Image description: Content Collection spanning two Segments
Content collection hierarchy
Content collections are organized hierarchically in the form of a stack.
For example, Lesson 5.20 shows a Segment containing two Content Collections: Weekday and Title. Title is at the bottom of the stack; Weekday at the top. What this means in practice is that Weekday appears on top of (in front of depending on your perspective) the Title Content Collection.
Image description: Content Collection hierarchy
Drag and drop content collections above or below each other to rearrange them. A grey bar will indicate possible positions.
Image description: Change layering
Pay attention to the order in which Content Collections are arranged. If content is invisible/partially
visible, it might be because of this.
Duplicating content collections
Content collections may be duplicated by clicking the vertically up or down:
Image description: Duplicating a Content Collection
Dragging the “Drag to Duplicate” button horizontally has a different effect. It will create an occurrence (see section “Occurrences”).
Making content collections invisible
Content collections may be hidden by clicking the Hide button:
Image description: Hiding a content collection
Hidden content collections are marked with the red “closed eye” icon:
Image description: Hidden content collection
Deleting content collections
Content collections may be deleted by clicking the Remove button.
Image description: Deleting a content collection
Occurrences
There are times when you might want to reuse a Content Collection in a Playlist. In such cases, using an Occurrence is the solution.
To create an Occurrence, click the Drag to Duplicate button on the Content Collection and drag it to the next Segment in which you want it to occur (horizontally).
Lesson 5.26 shows a Content Collection with two occurrences: One in Segment 1 and then reoccurring again in Segment 3. The white bar in Segment 2 indicates an Occurrence. By default, the transitions are the same as the original, but can be altered.
Image description: Occurrences
| As an occurrence uses the same content, changes made to the content in the initial Occurrence will ripple throughout all other occurrences in the Playlist. |
Occurrences can be moved up or down (vertically) within a Content Layer by clicking on the white space in between them and dragging to the new position to change the layering. Moving a single occurrence vertically will detach it, creating a copy of the content.
Image description: Moving occurrences
Note that if you click a drag an Occurrence left or right (horizontally) the Content Collection will be joined back to a standard Content Collection.
Image description: Reverting Occurrences
Saving content collections
You can save a Content Collection and reuse it across Playlists as they form a part of the DesignModel.
To save a Content Collection, click the save content collection button:
Image description: Saving a content collection
Give the content collection will be saved with its current name which can be changed to something meaningful. A folder structure should be used to organize content collections.
The saved Content Collection can be accessed via the Collection Browser.
Search for Content Collections by entering keywords into the Search Collections field
Image description: Collection browser
Lesson Activities
Quiz |
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Questions |
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Question 1: What content collections can be used for? A. To have the same GeoFocus for all contents B. To have clear arranged structure of the segment content C. To make several contents invisible at once
Question 2: Which content is the topmost of the collection, if the hierarchy was not manually changed? A. The last edited content B. Always the first added content C. The first from above of the content list
Question 3: What is the difference between a content object and a map object? A. Map objects are always geo referenced and content object always screen referenced B. Map objects are just background maps, content objects are all other objects C. The corresponding folder of the source files differs
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Answers |
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1. The correct answers are B & C. 2. The correct answers are A & C. 3. The correct answer is B. |
Tasks
- Open a new playlist
- Add a background map and two content objects to the content collection
- Create a new segment in your preferred way, duplicate the content collection and drop it into the new segment
- Delete one of the content objects and the background map from the duplicated collection
- Add a drop shadow to the remaining content object
- Make the first content collection visible for both segments, the other one just for the second segment