Using events
Karaoke Video Creator gives you the full control over the karaoke video you create. You may change the text properties, colors, and display images anywhere in the song. These extra options are available by the means of events. Event is executed after the preceding word is painted or highlighted (it depends of the event, eg. Clear screen is triggered after highlighting, while Colors event during painting). This behavior may be changed for Set Background events, for which you may choose exact time of activation.
You work with events in the lyrics editor. They are displayed as boxes with text describing the type of the event.
In order to insert a event position the cursor in the place the event should be inserted and right-click to open a context menu and select an event type from there, click the Insert Event button on the lyrics pane toolbar (
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Below is the list of events available in Karaoke Video Creator. After you select the type of the event another dialog box is displayed that allows to set the properties of the selected event type.
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Causes a screen to be erased after the last word before the event becomes highlighted |
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Allows to change colors for text (both normal and highlighted), effects, background, and border |
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Inserts countdown mark before the next word that helps the singer to start on time |
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Allows to display an image on the screen. Before the picture is displayed the screen is cleared. |
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Allows to change the coloring of the text to visualize the change of a singer |
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Changes the background of the video |
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Allows to modify the properties of the text |
Events can be edited. To edit an event double-click it in the lyrics editor or right-click it and select Event Properties command from pop-up menu.
Events can be deleted like other text. There is one more editing feature available for events -- you may copy event and insert it in some other place in the song. to do this right-click an event to copy and select Copy Event command. Now right-click in the place you want the copy of the event to appear and select Paste Event command from pop-up menu.
CLEAR SCREEN EVENT
This event will cause a screen to be erased after the last word before the event becomes highlighted.
You may select the mode that will be used to clear the screen (the default Simple is the fastest and results in immediate screen erase). Reverse will cause the effect to be reversed (ie. Left to Right will become Right to Left).
If scrolling display mode is selected, after clearing the screen lyrics will painted from the top of the screen.
COLORS EVENT
Colors event allows to change colors for text (both normal and highlighted), effects, background, and border.
Colors change will affect all words after the event. We do not recommend changing background and border colors in the middle of the page, only after of immediately before Clear screen events.
COUNTDOWN EVENT
Countdown event tells Karaoke Creator to display a countdown marker before the next word is highlighted. In the current version of the program countdown marker is a string of dots.
Countdown time defines the duration of the countdown (2 seconds by default).
Number of items is the number of characters to display.
Use repeated character select the default mode of repeating the single character several times. You may change the character used in Character to use field.
Use text allows to enter text that will be used as a countdown. The text has to be entered into Text to use field.
DISPLAY IMAGE EVENT
Display Image event allows to display the image on the screen. Before the image is displayed the screen is cleared.
The image will be displayed immediately after the last word before it is highlighted.
File
You need to select the file containing the image. The following formats are supported:
- BMP (Windows bitmaps)
- JPG
- PNG
To invoke the file selection dialog box select Browse button.
Link to file and Insert contents options
By default Karaoke Creator leaves the images on the hard disk and reads them when needed (Link to file option selected). This behavior reduces the size of PK3 files and allows making changes to the images using image editors (you do not have to visit the event again -- just edit the image and re-create the song). However if you delete the image file from disk, it will not be available.
If you would like to share your PK3 files select Insert contents option. It will cause Karaoke Creator to include the image in PK3 file, so you may send it over to a friend or delete image files. Note that if image source file is deleted you will not be able to edit it any more.
Keep on screen for N seconds
This setting controls how long will the image be visible before it is erased. Note that painting time (up to 10 seconds for a full screen sized picture) and erasing is not included, so the total time that the picture takes equals to the sum of painting time, display time, and erase time.
Selecting 0 will cause the image to become erased immediately after it is fully painted.
Border color
Choose the color that will surround the image. Note that it is different than Borders color setting in Colors event, as it refers to the area not taken by the image, and not only to the border of the screen. If you are using image as a background (in Set Text Area event) the background color must match the background color of the text.
Display mode and Erase mode
These settings control the way image is painted and erased. By default images are painted from left to right and erased immediately. You may change it by selecting any of the display effects.
Checking the Reverse checkbox will cause the effect to run backwards, for example Left to Right mode will become to Right to Left.
Note that selecting Fade and Simple as Display mode will cause the screen to go blank for several seconds (the image still needs to be painted, and this is done in a way that is not visible, yet still takes time).
Alignment
You may select the position of the picture if it is not full screen sized. Simply select the appropriate rectangle. By default images are centered.
Force scaling
This option will force the image to be scaled to the size defined in Width and Height boxes. This size cannot be larger than the full screen (288 x 192).
Dithering
If the number of colors in the image is larger than 16, Karaoke Creator will reduce it. You may select the algorithm that is used to make the image look as good as possible with the lower number of colors. Selecting none will disable any dithering. The simples way to see how each of the algorithms works is to select it and then to click the Preview button.
Resizing
This setting controls the way image is scaled if its size is not 288 x 192 (full screen).
Fit will cause the image to be scaled up or down to take as much screen as possible.
Fit if larger (default setting) will scale the image only if it is too large, it will not stretch it.
Crop will not scale the image and will display as much of it as possible.
All resizing modes retain aspect ratio of the image.
Preview
Notes
· Images with more colors take longer to paint.
· Inserting image in the middle of the song may use up the time and cause the loss of synchronization.
DUET EVENT
Duet event allows to change the current duet mode.
In regular version of Karaoke Video Creator duet mode changes the coloring and alignment of the text to visualize the change of a singer.
With full duet mode enabled duets can be parallel. The upper part of the screen is taken by Singer 1, and the lower by Singer 2. The lyrics for each of the singers are highlighted independently. Please see Creating duets section for more information.
All words after the event will be colored according to the selected mode. Three duet modes are available:
· Singer 1
· Singer 2
· Both
You may view and change the predefined coloring and alignment assigned to duet modes by clicking Duet settings button.
Mode allows to change the duet mode that you would like to modify. Only Singer 1 and Singer 2 modes are available -- for Both Karaoke Video Creator uses global settings for the song (as defined in Video Settings dialog box).
Color and Highlight allows you to change the color of the text assigned to the selected mode, while Alignment controls the alignment of the text assigned to the selected mode.
The duet settings are global for the song.
Note: Colors and Text settings flags overwrite the duet settings.
SET BACKGROUND EVENT
This event allows to change the background of the karaoke video. You may display an image (BMP, JPG, or PNG) or a movie (AVI or MP4).
Current background
This window displays the current background (either set in Video Settings dialog box or by another Set Background event placed earlier in the song). If the current background is a movie you will see a first frame of the movie.
New background
This window displays the new background. Use Browse button to find the file you would like to display. You may use still images (BMP, JPG, and PNG formats are supported) or videos (MP4, AVI, MPEG, WMV).
Transition
Transition defines a way how the background will change from one to another. Several options are possible, you may also define the duration of the transition.
To change the background immediately set the duration to zero.
Preview
Here you can see how the transition will look like.
When to display
This is an advanced feature that allows to define the exact time of background change. By default new background is applied after the word preceding it has been sung. You may change this by selecting When next word begins. It is also possible to define time offset to be applied -- for instance selecting '10' will cause the background to be changed ten seconds after the word has been sung (or 10 seconds before the next word will be sung, if When next word begins is selected).
TEXT SETTINGS EVENT
Text Settings event allows to modify the properties of the text.
Font
This setting specifies which font will be used for the lyrics and how large the letters should be. If you are trading you PK2 files make sure that you use fonts that are installed on the destination computer.
Vertical alignment
Allows to change the placement of the lines of the text. You may select Center, Top, or Bottom which would place the text at the appropriate part of the screen, or choose Space evenly, which makes sure that the first line is at the top, the last at the bottom, and all the spaces between the lines are equal.
Horizontal alignment
This setting controls the way the individual lines of text are placed. You have the choice of Center, Left, and Right.
Lines per screen
Allows to specify the maximum number of lines to be shown. Note that if the font size is too large, the actual number of lines may be lower.
Additional spacing
The number of pixels to insert between the lines.
Additional letter spacing
You can add extra spacing between each letter of the word it the font you are using is too condensed.