How to Start a Story
There are many different coding tips you'll need to know to write a story, but here are the basics.
Creating a New Story
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First, go to www.episodeinteractive.com and click 'Create a Story'.
Next, sign in using either your Google account, Facebook account or Apple account.
After being redirected to the Writer Portal, click 'New Story' and type in your story title.
Click 'Create'.
You'll be redirected to your story page, where you can create characters, choose outfits and speech bubble style. Click 'New Episode'.
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Happy Writing!
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Basic Directing/Coding
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Adding a background into the script
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Click the 'Art Catalog' button at the top of the page, where you'll be able to see all the backgrounds you can use in your story.
Copy and paste the name of your desired background into your script.
When you add your background, you create a new scene. You can add all your characters into it after the background name.
Character Placement​
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There are a total of nine positions a character can stand in a zone. These are:
Screen right
Screen left
Upscreen right
Upscreen left
Screen center
Back right
Back left
Back far right
Back far left
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To make a character stand in a zone, the command is:
@CHARACTER stands #position#
for example, @JADE stands back far right
N.B.: ALWAYS WRITE YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME IN CAPITAL LETTERS
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Defining background zones, panning, and switching to a zone
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Every background has a 'zone'. The size of one zone is 640 by 1136. Most backgrounds have 1–3 zones, but others can even go up to six. When you add a background to your script, it immediately defaults to the first zone. At the bottom of the page is an example of background zones.
1. Switching to a particular zone
To switch to a particular zone, you will have to make use of the @cut command. Here is how you write it:
@cut to zone ——
(Change the dash to the zone you want)
Using the 'cut' command will instantly change the your background's zone.
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2. Panning the camera
To make the camera move to another zone, you will have to use the @pan command. Here is how you write it:
@pan to zone ——
(Change the dash to the zone you want)
You can choose to pan slowly or quickly. To change the time of the pan, use this code:
@pan to zone —— in #
(Change the hashtag to the number of seconds you want)
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How to make the characters talk
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In order to make the characters talk, this is the format you should use:
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CHARACTER 1
Dialogue.
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CHARACTER 2
Dialogue.
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In order to make your characters do an animation while talking, use this format:
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CHARACTER 1 (animation)
Dialogue.
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CHARACTER 2 (animation)
Dialogue.
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Here is an example:
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JADE (talk_smile_happy_loop)
Hey there!
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NIKITA (talk_greet_neutral)
Jade! How're you doing?
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N.B.: YOUR ANIMATION CANNOT HAVE A SPACE. ONLY USE AN UNDERSCORE.
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How to make characters enter and exit the scene
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To make a character exit the scene, use this command:
@CHARACTER exits right/left
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In order to make the character exit while doing an animation, you can use either of these two commands:
@CHARACTER exits right/left AND CHARACTER does it while #animation#
@CHARACTER exits right/left AND CHARACTER is #animation#
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Here is an example:
@JADE exits right AND JADE does it while walk_worried_loop
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To make a character enter a scene, use this command:
@CHARACTER enters from right/left to #position in zone#
N.B.: SPECIFY YOUR ZONE POSITION, BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE YOUR CHARACTER WILL WALK TO.
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In order to make the character enter the scene while doing an animation, use either of the following commands:
@CHARACTER enters from right/left to #position in zone# AND CHARACTER does it while #animation#
@CHARACTER enters from right/left to #position in zone# AND CHARACTER is #animation#
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Here is an example:
@JADE enters from right to screen left AND JADE is walk_worried_loop
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Making characters face different directions
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A character can only face two directions: left and right. To change/specify the direction a character is facing, use this command:
@CHARACTER faces right/left
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Making characters walk to a different position
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To make a character walk from a position on-screen to another, use the following command:
@CHARACTER walks to #position#
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You can also time this. To make the character walk to a certain position in a specific amount of time, use this command:
@CHARACTER walks to #position# in T
(T refers to Time)
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Making a character do an animation
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To make a character move without talking, use the following commands:
@CHARACTER is #animation#
@CHARACTER starts #animation#
N.B.: THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'IS' AND 'START'. 'Is' is used when you want the animation to happen first. For example, if you want your character to clap first in an audience, then everyone else claps after.
'Start' is used when you want the animation to happen at the same time as others. An example is when you want your character to clap at the same time as everybody else. 'Start' is usually followed by other characters' animations.
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