Hello and welcome to the articy:draft X Basics tutorial series. In this lesson, we take a look at assets.
articy:draft is a visual tool and therefore it’s only logical to offer the possibility to garnish projects with images and other media files, or to reference data like text-files exactly where you need them. Assets can, for example, be used to provide avatar images for entities or as an underlying background image for locations.
Import assets
To use assets in your articy:draft project they need to be imported first. Go to the asset section, via the Jumpstart page (1) or the Navigator (2).
Create (1) or choose an appropriate folder and click on import assets (2) in the toolbar or from the right-click context menu, and select the files you want to import from your hard drive.
Importing assets creates copies of the selected files and stores them in your project folder, in addition a link connection to the original source files will be kept as well. You can see the source location in the object’s property sheet, in the general tab.
Access the property sheet via the toolbar button or with F8.
Open and edit assets
Using “Open Asset” from the toolbar or double-clicking the tile opens the selected asset with the default application set up in Windows for viewing the respective file type. Using the toolbar action allows to open multiple selected assets at once.
“Edit asset” opens the selected asset or assets in the default Windows application for editing the respective file types.
If this is not the application you are looking for, as in my case I do not usually edit my images with Paint, use “Open containing folder” to open the asset location in the Explorer where you can open the asset in question with the desired application to edit it.
After editing click “Update Thumbnail” to have it reflect the current version on file.
Working with source files
In case an edit of an imported asset does not work out as expected, you can “re-import the asset” from the original source.
If an asset source file can no longer be found because it was moved or renamed, or you want to exchange an asset with a different one, you can use “Choose new asset source” on an imported asset. Let’s say I focus on the writing and design part and a much more talented colleague is in charge of art. I created a placeholder asset to use for a character, but now they informed me that the artwork is finished, so use “Choose new asset source” and select the final version. And it is looking good!
If the asset is already used somewhere in the project, updating the asset’s source will update the places where it is used as well. If you would create a new asset by importing the new file, you would have to look up and update all places where the old asset is in use with the new asset manually.
I am primarily using images in my examples, as changes are easy to see, but it holds true for other media as well.
Using assets
As mentioned at the start of the lesson the main application for assets in articy:draft is using them as preview images or connect them to an object as a reference for additional information.
Entities, as well as the Flow Fragments or Dialogue nodes can have preview images. Right-click on the preview image area and select “Choose target”.
Now you can select an image file from your assets. Alternatively you can drag and drop an image file from the Navigator. Please note that not all image file types are supported as preview images.
Another area where image assets can be used are locations (1). Here they can serve as the background for a map for example (2).
In addition to a space for preview images, Entities, Flow Fragments and Dialogue nodes also have a so called reference strip. Here you can drag and drop everything that you want to have directly connected to this specific object. That can be articy objects themselves or any form of imported asset. For example on this Dialogue node, which contains a dialogue between Mina Harker and Van Helsing the entities of the speaking characters were added as a reference, to serve as a quick visual cue.
We could also reference some concept art here, to convey a feel for the atmosphere, a document with additional background info for the writer, basically everything anyone on the team could need in regards to this scene. You have all information readily available at your fingertips, without having to look through different places for scattered pieces.
Exporting assets
Another big advantage of assets is the fact that they can be exported as part of the project data in certain exports, for example the engine exports to Unreal and Unity. I could make use of the avatar image of a character entity (1), by accessing it in the engine and displaying it in the dialogue UI (2). Or I could attach a music file to a scene by means of a template and have it played as soon as the scene starts in the game. So many possibilities.
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