Show details for Invent Basics | IV_001b

Invent Basics | IV_001b

A brief overview of the very basics of Invent. This tutorial covers critical context required to get the best out of subsequent tutorials.

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In this tutorial, we're

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going to take a look at the absolute
basics of the Invent plugin

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with subsequent tutorials
going into these areas in more detail.

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So what I want to explain in this short
video

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is just what the different areas
of the Invent plugin are.

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So you'll see that if we have the Invent
plugin open within Adobe InDesign,

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there's a few different tabs five in total
which contain

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all of the information
we're going to need to use.

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First off, here we have the resources tab.

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So this is where we can actually add
additional resources

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to our Invent file
that we're going to be creating from this.

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By clicking on Add resource set,
you can see the different type of

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resource
that we're able to add to our Invent file,

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including background
sets, clip heart sets,

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font sets,

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text libraries and color sets.

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Those are all specified within here.

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And then when we take that to MegaEdit,
which we'll see in tutorials,

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that data is brought over with that

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exchange file.

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Next along we have the variables tab.

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Now this is how we can actually
utilize our resources.

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And it also means that we can create
a form which appears as part of the mega

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edit product, which allows us to modify
that product's design.

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Now, as with the resources,
there's a few different variable types

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available which will cover
during the course of the series.

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This includes things
like generic variables, such as dropdowns

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or boolean variables, so true or false,
but then has some more specific

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variable types as well,
such as time and date variables,

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specific image variables, color variables

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and so on.

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The next tab along is the properties tab.

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Now this is how we actually link
the resources and the variables

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that we've created
as part of our Invent design

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onto our actual canvas itself.

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Now, before we can do anything
with the properties tab,

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we need to have the relevant type
of element available on our main canvas.

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And what we're primarily looking for here
is an image field

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or a text field.

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So I'm just going to utilize my rectangle

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frame tool over on the left just to create
an image field as an example.

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And I'm going to do the same
with the text type tool

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used to create an in text box as well.

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Now when I select each of these
on my properties tab,

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you'll see that I have the ability
to enable those particular frames.

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And what that means if we take enable,
is that when we export this

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as a template file to take to MegaEdit,
those fields will be considered dynamic

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and we'll be able to do additional things
with them, either from the Invent file

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or within MegaEdits itself.

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So if I

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select on one of those,
so the image, for example, then enable

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I see some additional settings
which will cover in future

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tutorials.

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The last thing I want to talk about
in this particular tutorial

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is the export tab.

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This is how we actually create
the resulting MEX file,

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which is what we take over to Infigo MegaEdit

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Now in this particular tab, it shows us
things such as how many variable fields

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we have, what resources we've uploaded,
how many variables we have.

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It will take all that information
into the MEX file

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ready for us to put into MegaEdit.

 

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