Spotlight Behaviors

Default Behaviors

The main thing thing that makes spotlight so easy and quick to create a story is its default behaviors. Unlike in cinematic format, spotlight format allows you to just focus on the dialogue and narration of a story. There is no need for specifically spot placing characters or other components, they have default behaviors that already happen.

Here are some examples of the default behaviors that occur in spotlight:

Sliding In/Out for Dialogue

Characters automatically slide-in and slide-out when they alternate in speaking (characters do not need to be placed)
The 'Main Character' will slide in from the left side, while all other characters will slide in from the right
- We will go over setting the 'Main Character' in the next lesson

Animations without Dialogue

Characters may perform animations without having any dialogue
They will slide in and perform the animation like so:

Cuts and Pans

When a cut or pan is called in a story, the character will automatically slide out first

Overriding Default Behaviors

Although spotlight has a lot of default behaviors that make it quick and easy to create a story, you are able to override these default behaviors should you want to do so.

Here are some examples of the ways you may override default behaviors that occur in spotlight:

Character Screen Placement/Facing

You may use screen placements "upscreen left" or "upscreen right" to directly place whether a character is on the left or right side of the screen.
- Example: "@CHARACTER stands upscreen left"
You may also set which way a character is facing: "@CHARACTER faces right"

Character Stays on Screen

A character may stay on the screen while narration occurs by using: "((character_stays))"
This can only apply to the last character that was on the screen