The Time and Temp Cop Out

In our previous lesson, we learned how to add text layers to a Doodle. We will now look at how to animate these layers and create some special effects that will allow our Doodle and our ad on our LED sign to have a little bit more pop and a little bit more attractiveness. When working with animations, it’s very important to also know how to control the total length of your Doodle. Located above the layers ,there will be a play length set button. The set button will allow you to control the full and total length of the ad, which will be important as we start to dive into the animations. There are three types of animations: an enter animation, a hold and an exit animation. Each set of animations will have a list to choose from and in order to better assist you in selecting the correct one, there will be a preview of the animation above. For some of the animations, you’ll have further control. With the typewriter effect, you can have the typewriter effect appear for each letter, each word, or the entire line. When you are happy with the animation that you would like to apply to the “A Great Day” layer, select “Add to Timeline.” You will now see the effect on the enter effect line to the right. You will also see under the effect name “two seconds.” Let’s say that you want your animation to be a little bit longer than two seconds. Select the clock icon in the lower right. Change the length of time and let’s preview by selecting the play button on the top right and get a feel for how long and how fast our effect is going to take. Four seconds is probably too long. Let’s go back to two and we’ll leave it at that for this demonstration. We’ll now select a hold effect. This is what the text will do in between the enter and exit. We’ll select a different effect for the exit and you’ll notice that the three together: two seconds plus two seconds plus two seconds equals six seconds. That is the total play link that we currently have set up right now. We can preview the Doodle and now we can consider putting secondary effects on the second layer, which is the “to edit” text layer. This will give you independent control of your animations. When working with multiple layers, text or otherwise, we recommend minimizing the number of effects used. We recommend using the same effects on the same types of layers to reduce the complexity and the craziness of an image. Oftentimes, simple is better and easier for the people who are viewing your sign and viewing your Doodles. The last thing to cover in this lesson is that you do have the ability to add as many text layers as you wish. We recommend using larger, simple fonts and reducing the number of lines to give your viewers the best chance to take in the message you’re trying to convey. This completes our lesson on adding text. Our next lesson will cover adding images and background videos.

It’s now time for you to start making your own ads. When you first launch Doodle Editor you’ll see a list of all Doodles that you’ve made and saved. It’s important to note that if today is your first day, you won’t see anything in there, but as soon as you start creating, you’ll start to see your list grow. Each Doodle will have some basic information that will help you sort and locate what you’re looking for, including name, height, width, how long the play length is and when the last date it was modified. You’ll also see a short little preview on the right side to help jog your memory of which doodle you’re looking at. Today we’re going to start with creating our own, new project; our own new Doodle. Once you start your new Doodle project, you’ll see a black rectangle in the middle of the screen. This represents the aspect ratio of your display and the doodle that you’ll create. You’ll also notice the pixel height and pixel width of the Doodle you’re creating. We can now look at the blue buttons on the left side of the Doodle Editor. These buttons help change how you view the black rectangle. You can zoom in, you can zoom out. You can also move, with the hand tool, where the black rectangle sits. You can add grid lines and a border line to help reinforce the image that you’re looking at. These will all be helpful in helping make sure that your best seeing what will be going on to the display, once your doodle is saved and loaded to your sign. The green buttons located above the blue are where we will add text, add images, change the background color, add special links to RSS feeds, and save our Doodle once we are completed and ready to load for the sign. Let’s start by changing the background color. The default is black, but you can change the color to any color that you wish. Located at the bottom are some samples that are some default colors and you’ll also notice the background color slider, which allows you to choose and select a specific color based off an RGB color scheme. When selecting background colors for your LED display, we recommend focusing on darker colors: blacks, dark reds, dark blues, dark greens. These perform significantly better than all-white backgrounds. For our first Doodle, we’ll select a dark red background. Let’s now put some text on our Doodle. As soon as I select the text tool, you’ll see that I’ve got a text one box, which is also the text one layer on the right, and you’ll see in the center where I can actually modify the text on the layer that is shown on the Doodle. It’s a great day so let’s go ahead and tell the world that. We’ll start with positioning this in a spot that might be more aesthetically pleasing. You’ll see that I’ve got full control over where I can place this ad, and I can also use the blue alignment buttons that are shortcuts to allow us to place it somewhere on the display that we think best fits. I particularly like the align center button. After placing the location of the text, we can now change the style, that includes the font. We can make the font bold or italicized. We can change the font size if we wish. Please note that if any part of your text or image falls outside of the black rectangle, or in our case the red rectangle now, it will not display on the sign. The word day will not appear once it’s scheduled to play on your sign. So let’s move that down a little bit. Let’s find a more appropriate font size, and then let’s center it again. You have full control over the text color using the RGB sliders or any of the color samples below. It’s important to pick colors that are contrasting with the background. It makes it easier for the eye to see and we recommend using an outline to increase the visibility and the legibility of your words and fonts when displayed on your sign. We now have a great first text layer so let’s add a second. We will position this first text layer a little bit higher on the display and when we add the second text layer, notice that the layer has the same properties as the first layer. We’ll change the text. We’ll align it, and it’s important to note that right now you’ll see that “to edit” is above “A Great Day.” We can change the order of these layers by using the up-and-down blue arrow located in the lower right hand corner. This will allow you to move any layer, whether it’s text or image, in front of another to get the desired effect. We can also move this second layer to anywhere on the display we like and can control its properties independently. So for the sake of training, let’s make this second layer blue and we’ll position it to best fit on the display. You can add as many text layers as you like. We recommend trying to minimize the amount of text that you do put on an advertisement. Once you’re ready for this to be completed, we will now save our Doodle with a name that best represents what this ad is, and allow us to search and find it at a later date.

Let’s now review “My Graphic Library.” My Graphic Library is your online web-based backed up server where you can load your personal graphics, animations, images and third-party ads from websites like Project Content. Inside this module, you’ll notice that there is a folder structure on the left side of the screen. Here is where you’ll be able to sort out any files that you bring into SM Infinity. There is no limit to the number of files that you can upload into your folders, and depending on the size of your folder, you can sort and review in two methods. One either by selecting multiple pages and sorting through, or by viewing all results on one page and scrolling down. When you select a file you’ll get a media preview and you’ll also have the ability to change any file name and review key properties such as the dimensions and when the file was loaded. Inside your My Library, you’ll have the ability to add sub-folders to best fit your management and advertisement needs. These sub-folders will allow you to upload files, and it’s important to note that media files can come in a wide variety of extensions. To upload a file, simply choose choose file. Locate the file on your PC and once it’s open you can change the file name and you can also choose which folder you would like for it to be placed. You will now see in the Tuesday ads folder that we just created the wheat image that we uploaded. Let’s say down the road you have forgotten where you placed the wheat image and you want to be able to search. Simply type in any keyword that you think might be a part of the file name, hit search, and you’ll be able to locate your wheat. My Graphic Library also has a folder labeled “General.” “General” is a library of pre-made content that SM Infinity provides to all users. In here, you’ll find a variety of holiday, seasonal and basic advertising messages. All of these can be used in My Schedules and Doodle Editor. You now have the ability to upload files to SM infinity and it’s time to start the Doodle Editor. We’ll go back to the home screen and begin the next lesson.

Hello, I’m Luke with Next Led. Today we’re going to look at SM infinity and how to register new users. When you arrive at SMInfinity.com, you will be prompted to login in order to access your account. Initially you will be given a Next Led login and password. This will come from an account manager or somebody on our service team. When you enter SM Infinity, you will see the module “My Users.” Go ahead and select that module and open it up. Inside you’ll see the Next Led username and password that you created and that it’s already set up as an owner role. We are going to have you add yourself as an owner, in order to be able to access this software in the future. This will give you the full flexibility to create your own password and also be able to reset and control your passwords moving forward, should you need to change them. You should also note, that you will be able to add multiple users to your account, should you have someone else in your company or business that you would like to be able to control the sign as well. After adding the user, you’ll select save and you will see your new user included on the list. After completion, logout and go back to the main login menu, enter your new email address and password that you created, and confirm that you’re logging in. Should you have any issues please contact Next Led for service and support. Thank you and make it a great day.