Slider Feel

A challenge of this project was adjusting the slider to respond in a way that felt natural without counterintuitive macro or micro motions. To solve this, the slider value range is set to 0-50, with 2 step increments, and stops on the 10s, instead of staying with a 1-5 value range which made large jumps.

Background Sound

Another challenge was to create the appropriate atmosphere using a looped ambient night sound. Fortunately, I found a free sound effect that fit but was too loud, so I reduced the volume within Storyline several times to soften it out. I also created a Sound On/Off button to instantly mute the sound.

Firefly Movement

I drew the motion paths by hand in the hopes that the fireflies would make convincing movements on the turns. When I set them to follow the motion paths, the fireflies twitched on all the jagged points of the path. I liked this effect, so I kept it.

Lighting Effect

I wanted the final slide to show how cumulative light pollution harms fireflies. To illustrate this, I made the text and fireflies become less visible as the lights get brighter. Similar to how the fireflies' light communications are being disrupted. These effects were achieved by casting yellow shadows from the light bulb icons. Unfortunately, the icons contained so many grouped elements that their transitions were causing computers to process their animations slowly. I was able to reduce the processing load by pasting the icon group into Photoshop and then creating a single transparent graphic.