Have you ever found an image of a person but wish they had on a different color shirt? Maybe you need the image to better meet your uniform or branding requirements. In this screencast I show you how to use the Replace Color options within Adobe Photoshop. This is a quick and easy way to make these simple changes. Note that there are many different techniques to accomplish this same thing. Also, depending on the image and colors, not all techniques will work for all images.

Adobe has just released it’s latest version of Captivate. Seems as if they just barely launched Captivate 6 and now 7 is out. We are pleased to inform you that our Captivate Templates are now compatible with Adobe Captivate 7. We’ve made a few updates so be sure to download the latest version of the templates from the template library.

• Adobe Captivate Player Skin Widgets
• Adobe Captivate Layout Themes

So, what’s new with Captivate 7?

Captivate 7 software features include:

• Enhanced support for HTML5-based eLearning content and also lets you create courses that meet accessibility standards.
• Add more interactivity to your courses with drag-and-drop modules.
• YouTube video streaming and in-course web browsing.
• Record system audio along with narration. 
• Generate reusable advanced action templates. 
• Import GIFT format questions to create quizzes in a jiffy. 
• Now also publish to Tin Can-compliant LMSs.

This week I stubbled onto a website that inspired me (screenshot above). I Love clean, simple, bright designs which this has. Usually I tend to design layouts that have more depth to them. Depth is created with gradients and shadows. Though there is some depth, this design is mostly flat but works excellent because the layout is compositionally balanced.

Below are some screenshots of what I came up with that could be used for an eLearning course.

I simply downloaded a few templates from our eLearning Template Library and modified the colors. The illustrated kid character was the funnest to modify. I downloaded the Adobe Illustrator Source files and was able to change all the colors. Here’s a tutorial on how to do this.

Below is the original illustrated kid character.

There are some amazing graphic designers out there. Who better to seek inspiration from than those who are experts. I often do a quick screenshot of things that catch my eye and archive them for later use.

Recently I did a Webinar for Lectora users on how to use custom HTML5 inside Lectora projects. In this webinar I focused on two awesome, but different HTML tools.

1. Interaction Builder
   This tool is perfect if you know nothing about HTML or HTML5. You simply choose a pre-made interaction/game, fill out the content forms within the tool and then publish an HTML5 or Flash object. Insert the final output into your eLearning/mLearning Authoring tool (I’ll show you how to insert HTML5 content into Lectora V11).
2. Adobe Edge Animate
   The second tool I show has easily become one of my most favorite tools. Edge Animate is much like Flash and After Effects, so if you have ever used those tools you should feel right at home. Instead of producing SWF files or video files it produces native HTML5 content that can be seen on any HTML5 browser or mobile device.

During the webinar I was asked why I would use these tools over just building an interaction natively inside Lectora. That is a valid question and the biggest reason why would be ANIMATION. You have more control over animation within these tool than you do within Lectora. You can also navigate to different parts of a game without having to go to different lectora pages.

Click the link below and check out the webinar for yourselves. Let me know what you think

Watch Webinar

Download the free HTML5 Templates

(Note: You will be asked to create a Free Account in our Template Library to gain access to all of our free templates.)

We’ve recently added this fun new game template to the eLearning Template Library. Feed the Seals is very similar to Angry Birds as you have to slingshot a fish out to each seal. This game template is available in Flash (.fla) actionscript 3.0.

Note: This template is available to download for all current Template Library subscribers. Learn more about membership.

We’ll be in Dallas next week for ASTD’s international conference. We’d love to see you! Stop by our booth.

About the Conference
Held each spring, this premier event for workplace learning and development professionals welcomes 8,000 attendees from more than 70 countries. These professionals manage all aspects of learning in their organizations. From CEO to specialist, from dean to student, ASTD 2013 welcomes people from across the globe.

Learning is a key driver in companies big and small. At ASTD’s International Conference & Exposition, we typically bring Fortune 500 companies like Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Bank of America, and AT&T together to share what they are doing in learning to help grow businesses of all sizes.

See ya’ll soon!

I have taught many sessions on Adobe Edge Animate and am often suprised that many attendees are unaware of what it is and how they can use it within their eLearning courses. We are all aware that Apple refused to allow Flash on any iOS device, launching many Flash developers (many of those eLearning developers) into mayhem. I just imagine many developers holding signs on the street saying “I will code in Flash for food”.

Being a Flash developer myself, I was wondering if I spent years learning a tool that was now obsolete. Flash is still a very useful tool but it seemed like everyone is afraid to even mention Flash. Even with those initial concerns I knew that Adobe would never abandon Flash but perhaps transition it into a different type of tool. We are seeing this currently with the ability to export from Flash to HTML.

During this period Adobe was quick to release an early BETA version of a tool called Adobe Edge (now Edge Animate). I was super excited to try it out and quickly saw that this is Adobes answer to a Flash-like tool with HTML5 output.

So what is Adobe Edge Animate? Adobe Edge Animate, simply put, is a Flash-like tool that only outputs HTML (HTML5). That means anything you create in Edge is viewable by any mobile device. It uses a stage WYSIWYG environment with a library, properties panel, timeline to animate any object on the stage, output is all HTML, no Flash and no required plugin to run.

Edge Animate uses javascript as its coding language and is tightly integrated with jQuery. This means you can use jQuery commands to make calls right within Edge Animate creating highly interactive and custom HTML5 animations.

So what does this mean for eLearning? Well, it means we have another flexible tool to create very custom animations and interactions without being limited by what any eLearning authoring tool can do. You can take the animations and interactions and import them in to your eLearning tool. The good thing about Edge is it is a pretty easy transition for anyone that has ever coded in Flash. That means Flash developers can put down their “I will code in Flash for food” signs and pick up a new skill set with Adobe Edge Animate.

To see a simple sample of what can be done click here. You can download the sample for free from our template library. Sign up for a free account and download the source files.

We’ve recently added lots of new templates for Lectora Inspire in our eLearning Template Library. Each template has 40+ pre-designed page layouts to choose from. You also get the content box images so that you can mix-and-match to create more. We include .psd and .png files along with the Lectora Titles. This way you can go in and change colors and make any graphic design change you need.

A subscription is needed to access the Lectora templates. Learn more about our eLearning Template Library subscriptions.

Quarantine | Developed for Adobe

Quarantine is a scenario based / soft skills training module designed to teach new officers at a prisoner of war camp. They learn how to engage with prisoners and respond to prisoner requests. The catch? It’s a POW camp for Aliens.

From the client: “I was thrilled with the work eLearning Brothers did on the project. Andrew Scivally assembled an amazing team to produce and create the work. . . Their most important quality? Listening. They took a great deal of time from the first moments to carefully listen to my goals for the project and to propose directions that provided me with useful options. They were imaginative and responsive to the project requirements. They also brought a significant understanding of the module’s target demographic (military and defense organizations) which helped in the selection of material and the representation of content.”

Read More / Demo Course

Learn more about eLearning Brothers Custom eLearning development

We love using Articulate Storyline and imagine we’re not the only ones. Today we’d like to share one of our Articulate Storyline game templates for FREE! We hope this helps you create awesome Storyline courses.

(Note: You will be asked to create a Free Account in our Template Library to gain access to all of our free templates.)

Did you know that our eLearning Template Library is loaded with over 20 Articulate Storyline game templates?