Hi everyone, I’ve been on episode since 2015
I’ve always wanted to write story’s for people to see…but it was do confusing.
When I wrote my first story it was on the writers portal in early 2017 and I was so confused!
I didn’t know what to do or where to go or who to ask for help.
And the tutorials really didn’t help me because I’m kinda slow
So this post is all about help
Where to find it
Where to go
And who to look for when to ask.
And I will be giving some advice I learned when coding story’s so let’s get into it!
Please feel free to correct anything
Or give an easier way
Or add something to the help zone
It can be on how to improve plots I’ll be adding everything in sections
Talking
I use to have a real big problem with keeping the Characters in sync with there animation when talking so here’s how I personally do talking for Characters it’s very simple and easy
For me I like my characters SCRIPT NAME to be in the middle where it’s blue
But I think you can add it on the sides aswell correct me if I’m wrong
But you would pick an animation
And close it in
Here’s an example
BONNIE (talk_asif_annoyed)
I really wish I had some food.
The animation should come off as green when you close it in
I suggest you add a different animation after a character is done talking if it is a LOOP animation
Here’s an example
Hope this works for you
narration for Characters
If you don’t want a character to speak but instead give a narration
You would simply type in this code
You would type
NARRATOR (CHARACTER)
Hey look at me I’m a narrator!
Thats an example.
Using caps/capitalized
Episode will give you an error if you write any text with out a capitalize word at the start
Or if you have all caps
So my solution
MALEAVATAR (animation)
WOW WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!
You would add punctuation at the end of a sentence
And capitalize
MALEAVATAR (animation)
Wow what a beautiful day!
Display and script names
Some people are really confused when it comes to display and script names and that’s ok
I am to still
But this is an example
You see the difference?
I can edit the display name for all viewers
And the script name is what I will be using for a character when I am writing
See I changed the FEMALEAVATARS display name as name
And I will use FEMALEAVATAR in my script it’s how I’m going to write
Just because the display name is NAME I will still continue using
@FEMALEAVATAR
To talk or to do an animation or to walk
The display name can even be fully erased when creating suspicious characters
Outfits
This might not be helpful to some people
But when you have a character
And you’re designing an outfit
I like to put caps when I type in there name
It’s a lot easier to find characters and it’s alot more neat and organized for me
When you place a characters name in all caps when you create a Outfit
Male or female
It finds the characters immediately
So you don’t have to switch the characters wearing the Outfit
sound and music
This tip is very easy
When you’re adding sound to a story
It’s very easy and simple!
Just don’t add a sound or music label at the end of your script you cannot end a scene with a label
So when you add sound or music they must be lowercase
music musicname
sound soundname
When you click on the music it will go to your script immediately so you don’t have to type it in
And if you want the sound off or music
music off
sound off
Zooms
Zooms are awesome to use in a new story
They can make readers feel scared, sad, nervous or laugh
I suggest zooms a lot they help with different pov in the story here’s how I use them
In the mobile app there is a section you can go to it’s called
Create
You would want to go SHOW HELPERS
Then camera
Then here’s your zoom option
There’s three options
Zoom
Focus
&
Reset
Zoom is when you can change the screen to go further or closer to your character or thing
Focus is when you can change the screen to go left or right or up or down
Reset is when you reset the whole camera it goes back to where you can see the person fully
You cannot change things on mobile!
You would need to copy the code into your script
You see this thing right under reset
It’s a code
You may be wondering what the 0 at the end is
That’s how fast your zoom is going to go
Let’s say we wanted a fast zoom
We would put
@zoom on 184 417 to 250% in 1
That would be a VERY fast zoom
If we wanted a slow zoon we would do
@zoom on 184 417 to 250% in 5
We can do zooms anywhere
From left to right
Ir
Up or down
Diagonal
Your pick
Also you can’t copy down the code on mobile
You can on your portal but I find it much easier on mobile
I just write it down
And to reset zoom in your script type in
@zoom reset
spot direction
When I heard of spot direction I thought I was going to have to do alot of math
So I thought my episode career was over because that’s not my best subject
Spot direction is making a character small big
Short tall
Anything you would like
Here’s an example
You would want to go right here
Spot direction
I’ll explain what all these buttons do
Change tool
Scale: Scale is where you can change the body size, and placement
Move: is where you can only change the body size
Bring to front: this is where your character is in from of every other single Character (or overlay)
They moved a layer
Forward 1+: this is where you can bring a character up a layer
It can be up one layer or up two layers or more
You’re either adding them to the front
In between or front front like
Bring to front
Backwards 1-: complete opposite of the forward
Move to back: this is where the Characters is moved all the way in the back
Change char: when you are working with overlays it can sometimes get in the way of stuff when you’re trying to move a character
So you would hit change char
It will not focus on the overlay only Changing your Characters position
Change overlay: complete opposite
Change overlay and char: you can move both
Not at the same time but there both in the way
Also there’s a code you need to copy or write down
I personally keep a messanger chat head to copy it
But you can do anything
Like writing it down on paper
So here’s my code for my characters position
Everyone’s could be different
You would want to copy the whole thing down as well like the numbers
It would look like this in your script
@MALEAVATAR spot 3.365 168 -1006
If you wanted them in another zone you would add
@MALEAVATAR spot 3.365 168 -1006 in zone 1/2/3 or whatever zone it is
If you want a character to be upside down this would be the code
@MALEAVATAR spot -3.365 168 -1006 in zone 1/2/3
The first # would be a negative
And you have to add your zone or they might not show up
Zones
When you’re working with zones you need to know how big your background is
If you wanted a cut to a zone
It would look like this
@cut to zone 1
@cut to zone 2
@cut to zone 3
When you cut to a zone it will not pan nor will it zoom it will automatically cut to a zone
I suggest you rest your zoom before going to a zone I make those mistakes lol
Panning:
Panning is when the camera pans around the screen it will not cut to a scene but it will move to a scene
It can even follow characters
If you make a character walk to another zone you can use a pan or a cut to follow them
If you don’t want to show the surroundings and just focus on your main character getting to a certain place I’d suggest a cut
But if it’s the opposite I suggest a pan
Here is how I’d do it
@pan to zone 2
@MALEAVATAR walks to spot 3.365 168 -1006 in zone 2 in 2
The camera will follow the character
Also suggestion
I have no idea if this is possible
But on one zone when the Characters exit
If they are big
Or small they will go back to there defult size
So I suggest if you want a character to stay a certain size you would make them walk away in a 2 or three zone background
uploading a background
On episode I wamted to upload a background
But honestly I didn’t know how I was do confused…
My suggestion for Android users is to get Ibspaint
Or any drawing app
Here is an example
Go to art catalog
Then go to this and change it to
Backgrounds uploaded to YOUR account
Then hit this and select a picture
Once you select a picture here are the instructions
I didn’t understand them before lol
I’ll explain what everything means
Above the picture it says
Choose a size
CAUTION: Your picture will not upload if it isn’t any of these sizes
Ok
640x1136
This is a one zone background
1280x1136
This is a 2 zone background
1920x1136
This is a 3 zone background
640,1280,1920 as the W
And
1136 as the height
Suggest
Ibspaint to edit backgrounds
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.ne.ibis.ibispaintx.app
Next is naming
This will probably make things much easier for you
EXT. means outside
INT. means inside
When naming a background it can either look like
EXT. NATURE - DAY
EXT. NATURE - NIGHT
INT. BED - DAY
INT. BED - NIGHT
If it doesn’t upload you might have forgotten to press agree on the agreement policy
Where to find backgrounds
https://pixabay.com/images/search/
http://www.episodelife.com/p/backgrounds.html?m=1
CAUTION: EPISODE LIFE BACKGROUNDS WANT CREDIT THE CREATOR HAS THERE TERMS UNDERNEATH THEIR PICTURE
and you can find Backgrounds on the forums
Walking
Walking was really confusing for me but I’ve figured it out a bit
When I do walking i use the code
@MALEAVATAR walks to spot 3.365 168 -1006 in 2 and MALEAVATAR is walk_angry
When I say
In 2
That will be how many seconds he walks
And the code
“And”
Is for him doing something while walking like a certain animation
Happen at the same time
If you want someone to do something at the same time or someone try the & method
You can use this instead if the @
It makes Characters do things at once
If I wanted all my characters to walk at the same time I’d use this
Or wanted a animation all together I’d use this
It doesn’t have to be the same animation btw
And it can be used for spot direction or zooms
Example
&FEMALEAVATAR is dance_grind
@MALEAVATAR is dance_groove
&MALEAVATAR spot 3.365 168 -1006
@FEMALEAVATAR stands screen left
&FEMALEAVATAR faces left
&BONNIE faces right
&CLAIRE faces left
@MALEAVATAR faces left
I’ll probably add more tomorrow