How to Create Your Own Demos

How to Create Your Own Demos

You can also make narrated or subtitled demos using time travel. Such demos will have VCR-like controls for replaying and skipping sections.

Advanced users:

To create a demo just add -o <filename> to the command line before starting ToonTalk. This will create a file named filename.DMO in the "demos" subdirectory of ToonTalk. The "dmo" file records everything you do (every mouse movement, keyboard click, etc.) Double clicking on the file will start up the demo. Alternatively adding -I <filename> to the command line will run the demo. Please check the "demos" subdirectory first to learn the names of existing demos so you don't override them. Note that if the command line includes both -I and -o then the newly created output demo will just contain the new part of the demo. At the Windows command line you can put together the two parts of a demo by entering "copy /b demo1.dmo+demo2.dmo demo3.dmo" where demo2.dmo was created as an extension to demo1.dmo. Alternatively set GenerateLogs to a value greater than 0 and then retrieve and rename the demos created in the Demos folder.

Adding subtitles to your demos.

When ToonTalk starts running a demo named X it looks for a file named X.ust. ("ust" is the default extension name for American English subtitles - in general the extension is the two-letter country code followed by 't'.) You can override the default for your computer by providing an "SubtitlesSuffix" entry in the "FileExtensions" section of the ToonTalk.ini file in your Windows directory. A subtitle file is made of entries separated by a blank line. Each entry has the time in milliseconds since the beginning of the demo followed by the text of the subtitle. It is recommended that any lines of text more than 60 characters be broken. The "demos" subdirectory of your ToonTalk installation has many sample subtitle files. One way to obtain the millisecond timings is to press F9 while the demo is playing back. This will record the time in your <user name>.txt log file in the "users" subdirectory.

Adding narration to your demos.

When ToonTalk starts running a demo named X it looks for a file named X.spk. ("spk" is the default extension name for American English narration files - in general the extension is the two-letter country code followed by 'n'.) You can override the default for your computer by providing an "SubtitlesSuffix" entry in the "FileExtensions" section of the ToonTalk.ini file in your Windows directory. To create a narration file you should record segments of the narration (256 is the maximum number) and name them "s01.wav", "s02.wav" and so on. These files should be placed on the main ToonTalk directory while generating the narration file.

To create the narration file (in the "Demos" subdirectory) add '-create_narration 1' or '-create_narration 2' to the command line. A value of 1 changes the meaning of F11 to mean start the next narration segment (the next s<nn>.wav file). A value of 2 means use the start times from the subtitle file. If you want to specify the times when the narration should start but don't want subtitles, then create a temporary subtitle file (where the lines of text could be anything (e.g. "X") and only the start times are important. You can use '-create_narration' together with '-o' or '-I' depending upon whether you want to create the demo and narration at the same time, or to add narration to an existing demo.

Coordinating the subtitles and narration.

If you wish to create both narration and subtitles, you can create the subtitles first and use '-create_narration 2' or else you can create the narration first and then run your demo with "-print_narration_start_times 1" which will print the start times of each segment in your <user name>.log in the "Users" subdirectory. You can then use these times while creating your subtitles file.

Tips:

If you make a mistake while recording a demo you needn't redo the whole thing. You can run toontalk -I PartlyGood -o NewVersion and then take control just before the old demo goes bad.
Avoid using keyboard accelerators for tools (e.g. 'e' to make Dusty erase things). These accelerators differ from language to language so if you use them your demos probably won't work in a different language version of ToonTalk.
If you are creating a demo on a fast computer and expect the demo to be run on slower machines then it is recommended that you add -y 50 (or a similar number) to the command line while recording to slow down your machine. And set the screen resolution relatively low -- perhaps 800x600. Use 'Set Options' for this.
You can create a video or animation of a demo by creating series of screen snapshots.
If your demo includes Marty speaking then don't have Marty use subtitles since then they can't be added to the demo as well. The talk balloon is a good alternative (with or without text-to-speech).