In this processes and production lesson we were focused on how InDesign (adobe) can be used to produce an interactive pdf document.
To start of the piece a new document was created and the size (pixels) was set due to this being a web based output. The margins were then set (20px), along with a new created guide of a 12 rows column grid with no gutters but with a grid line every 60px, fitting to page. The baseline grid was incrementing in points of 8 too.
In the recreating of the "pervasive percussion" album art, I pasted the original as the background layer so I could 'trace' its style.
Firstly I sampled the colours to form swatch styles. This was done by double clicking the colour fill option on the top tool bar in the centre and then using the colour picker tool to select each colour manually. These were set to be saved under the RGB colour code (RGB is suitable for web use, unlike with printing.) These swatches can be seen as added to the colour tool bar on the right hand side. Using these colours and the circle tool (holding shift and alt) I could replicate the circle shape and then duplicate this multiple times until I had the right mount needed. The smaller circles were then added and grouped to the one behind- in doing this I was able to select a row of the circle at a time and align them so they look visually spaced evenly. The pink circle and adjoining thin rectangle where added in the same way.
Here it can be seen below in 'presentation' mode; without interference from tools or guides.
Next we focused on adding the content to the rest of the document pages, these were two text pages and two pages containing media (video or still image). The 4th and 6th pages were left white background and left aligned text added and filled with placeholder text.
On the fifth page an image of "count-basie" was placed to fill the whole frame of the document on the right hand side. The frame section was altered as a means of cropping the image.
Secondly the settings of indesign were changed from 'essential' to 'interactive for pdf', in order to add a mp4 video file. The file was sourced and placed on the right hand page on top of a black background, at the foot of the right hand tool bar I used the film/ media icon to choose the file through. A preview was then seen of the file towards the right.
The clip can be seen here within the fullscreen play back of the interactive pdf. This short movie also contains sound.
I also learnt that it was possible to improve interaction by adding control bars including the play/pause and volume options for the film within. It was also possible to have the video commencing on click or when the page first loads. This wasn't something I was aware was possible beforehand.
Carrying on with exploring the interactive features- I was able to add buttons within the document. I chose to add the button to the small blue circle selected in the image below. For this to be easily notifiable as to be about to be selected, I changed the second layer "rollover" layer to an effect with a shadow.
The final interactive feature i added was a contents page on the 2nd page. With an introduction on the 3rd page. To have this automated with hyperlinks within the document- I created paragraph styles for the subheadings on each different page. By doing this i was able to create contents and add each different paragraph style as an option within the table of contents. These are then numbered accordingly.
The document was then saved and exported suitably to be opened at an interactive pdf. This can be set to open automatically to full screen.The first page displayed is the one shown above (pervasive percussion), and then goes on to the contents page when the blue button is clicked. From the introduction and contents page the user can then navigate across the whole document from this list of included items. The page containing the video is set to play automatically on the loading of the page.
