ActiveX
ActiveX is a set of methodologies and procedures that allow you to create Software Components, which are small, reusable modules of executable code that perform well-defined functions.

Actor
An Actor is an object. It can be virtually anything: A photo, animation, sound or video clip, text, 3d object, etc. Even a background graphic is an Actor. (See Object, below.) The Actors view mode is accessed via the View menu or by double-clicking on a Chapter icon.

Animation
The Animation facility within the Actors view allows you to apply additional control over the movements of an Actor. These include the speed at which you might require a number of frames to move, whether you want an Actor's movements to repeat (or Ping pong), etc.

Background
All Scenes feature a Background (a .jpg image file which is, itself, another Actor) in front of which "normal" Actors perform. And, in much the same way as a stage performer can interact with a backdrop, Actors can also hide behind a Background and use it to create various illusions.
You create a new Scene by first giving it an appropriate Background, after which you may enter that Scene (the Actors view) to introduce further Actors. Oh, and because a Background is just a type of Actor, it can be manipulated like any other Actor... so it can be made to wander around the screen, and so on.

BRI
Binary Research International Inc., the American-based company responsible for the worldwide Distribution and Marketing of SkunkLabs LiquidMedia. Visit the following web site for news about SLMS or to download the latest evaluation copy: www.BinaryResearch.net

Button
A Button is a User-programmable icon that you would place on your screen such that, during your Presentation, you could click on it to make your Presentation do a variety of different things.

COM
The Component Object Model (COM), which defines the way in which ActiveX-compliant applications interact with each other, is what ActiveX is based upon. Specifically, ActiveX defines standard interfaces that objects can use to expose their own functionality to other objects, and it's through these interfaces that different applications can then communicate with each other.

Control Point
A Path (or Spline) will always have two or more Control Points assigned to it. These can be used to "tweek" the shape of the Path or to act as points to which you can assign an Action or Event.

DirectX
DirectX is touted (by Microsoft) as being a stable and well-documented platform upon which Programmers can build a Multimedia application. Microsoft adds: "DirectX opens the doors to Windows functionality without asking the developer to sacrifice performance and shifts the
burden of hardware support back to the hardware manufacturers." In short, DirectX provides low-level access to multimedia hardware in a device-independent manner.

Double Buffered
"Double-Buffered" is a screen term. Normally the screen contains a section of memory to which Programmers "draw", to display graphics. This area is called a buffer. When we "Double-Buffer" the screen, it means we have two buffers: one that the screen displays and another to which
we draw. Once we have finished drawing to the first buffer, we swap them around so the screen is displaying the one that we were drawing to, while the one that was displayed becomes the one to which we draw. The benefits of Double-Buffering are that you don't get a "tear" on the
screen... a visible thin line that shows up on the screen with descrepencies on it.

Drop Shadow
Real-life Actors have shadows, so why shouldn't ours? You can apply a shadow to an Actor in the States screen when in the Actors view.

Fullscreen
The Fullscreen (vs Windowed) view (accessed via the View menu) allows you to dedicate the maximum amount of screen real-estate to SkunkLabs LiquidMedia.

Icon
Small graphic element that represents something more detailed. In the case of the "Storyboard Thumbs" and "Storyboard Rows" View, the icons are "snapshots" or "thumbnails" of the contents of the Scene they represent.

LM
SkunkLabs' Liquid Media... Presentation Software with Attitude!

Media
"Media", as it applies to SkunkLabs LiquidMedia, includes video clips and animations such as .avi, .mp3 and .mpg files, which can be treated just like simple bitmapped (.jpg) graphics, so you can now "wow the socks off" your audience with multiple video clips all flying in different directions across your screen.

Mesh
A mesh is a 3-D object (or, more accurately, a 2-D object with 1 pixel depth) that has been broken up into a grid. Each intersecting point in that grid can be manipulated and dragged around any axis [and, hopefully, animated] to distort the object, providing a virtually unlimited amount of very sophisticated effects.

Object
In the Scene mode, the Insert menu allows you to insert various Objects. An Object (or Actor) may be an Image, Text, Button, Media, Sound or even a rendered 3d model. (See Actor, above.)

OLE
OLE stands for "Object Linking and Embedding", and it was designed to allow one application to link or embed information created by another application, producing a "Compound Document" or an "OLE Document". Since it's original conception in 1991, however, OLE has grown. OLE version 2 created a new definition: that of the Component Object Model, or COM. This, in turn, eventually led to the ActiveX technology.

Path
A Path is the route that an Actor takes as it moves around the screen and is controlled courtesy of the Path menu, accessible in the Actors view. (Also see Spline.)

Presentation
In the context of SkunkLabs LiquidMedia, that which is displayed (and heard) on one or more screens when the Play or Preview commands are used.

Play
You may "play" a Presentation using either the Play or Preview commands. If you are within a Scene (in the Actors view) and only wish to see how that Scene looks, then select Preview from the Play menu. Selecting Play from the same menu will "play" the entire Presentation. This will obviously take longer and will use more system resources. (Preview does not work from the Storyboard Thumbs view.)

Scene
A Scene is rather like a chapter in a book or a like a scene in a play. A Scene will always contain one or more Actors, including the Background.

Size
The Size of an Actor is controlled courtesy of the Path menu, accessibly in the Actors view. Blurb about World Coordinates, Local Rotation and Local Position...

SkunkLabs
SkunkLabs Ltd., is a New Zealand-based software development company that was founded by some of the Programmers who were initially responsible for creating Ghost, the world's first PC-cloning program. Ghost was sold to Symantec Corporation in 1997 and, for a while, was called NORTON Ghost... These days it is called SYMANTEC Ghost.

SLMS
SkunkLabs' Media Studio. This was the name of SkunkLab's Liquid Media until it's name change in January 2001.

Software Component
A Software Component is a small, reusable module of executable code that performs a well-defined function. ActiveX is a set of methodologies and procedures that allow you to create such Software Components.

Spline
A Spline is a curved line (or Path) , the shape of which you can change by using one or more Control Points.

Split
You Split a Path to create another hot-point between two other hot-points, so the Path the Actor takes will be seen to meander more. The Split command is accessed via the Path screen in the Actors view and can also be invoked by depressing the S key on your keyboard.

State
The State of an Actor (such as whether an object is transparent, sports a fashionable drop-shadow, etc., is controlled courtesy of the States menu, accessibly in the Actors view.

Storyboard Thumbs
Storyboard Thumbs (accessed via the View menu) are simply "thumbnail" (small images) that show, at a glance, how the beginning of each Scene looks. Double-clicking on a single Storyboard Thumb icon takes you to the Scene it represents. This is the View with which you're greeted when you first launch SkunkLabs' Media Studio.

Tween
The word "tween" is actually derived from "In between" and is commonly refered to in animation circles. In the context of LiquidMedia, it refers to the individual segments along a Path, along with the properties that have been assigned to those segments.

View
The View menu allows you to see your Presentation data in a number of different ways: You may choose Storyboard Thumbs or Storyboard Rows at the "top" level, or you select the Actors view, which will take you inside a specific Scene. Any of these options will also allow you to work within either the Fullscreen or Windowed view.

Windowed
The Windowed (versus Fullscreen) View (accessed via the View menu) gives you the ability to run SkunkLabs' Liquid Media in a window on your screen, such that you can also work on other (non-Liquid Media) things at the same time.