Tuesday, April 28, 2009

KooBits For Children

KooBits For Children

I am sure you know KooBits IS for children. But let me tell you, that's also our lunch!

What?!?!?!?!?! 神经病!!! Paagal!!! Fou!!! Crazy!!!

Read between the lines guys!

KooBits ordered KFC (KooBits For Children, hehehe!) for lunch today as it was about to rain. We feasted the juiciest fried chickens in our small, squeezy pantry together. After so many years, KFC still maintained its standard of giving finger lickin' good chickens! It tasted exceptionally better when everyone gathered, young and old, together for a short chillout session.

Fastest Fingers First! Jafri grabbed the first crispy chicken and hid himself in one corner.

Then it was Dr Chen who refused to be shot while he slurps his mash potato.

Adeline is grinning from ear to ear with her drumsticks!

The two most pleasant girls in KooBits munching on their wings. Sweet girls!

And in no time, the chickens were reduced to bones. Guess whose bones are those?

Final shots before we packed up for work!


Yi Jie: Where's the camera?
Serena: Wow! That chicken over there is tempting me!
Adeline: Oh gosh! I want that chicken!
Xinying: Heh heh.

Adeline: YAY! I got that chicken!
Yi Jie: Eh, I want a bite too!
Xinying, Serena and Jafri: Cheeeeeeeeeese!

The Greediest Person Award goes to...*drumrolls* You make a guess!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Tips, tips, tips!

Hey guys!


How has KooBits helped changed the way you think of books, projects, presentations and classes? Are you a master of KooBits yet, especially those who participated in N.E.w Author Competition? I am sure all the KooTrainers have passed on our skills and tips to make the coolest books!

Here's some tips to the rest of you who did not participate in the competition! Most of the interesting stuffs are hidden in the right clicks on your mouse, which is easily overlooked.

Tip #1: Story-telling Function
If you have a picture spread across the book, the book separation line may be an obstruction to the picture. You may want to set the picture to story-telling mode by doing a right click mouse action on the selected picture.

The book separator can be seen in the Read/Presentation Mode.

Go back to Edit Mode, select story-telling by doing a right click on your mouse.

Go back to the Read/Presentation Mode, the lines are gone now! You can also move the picture anywhere now in the reading mode!

Tip #2: 2D Animation -> Picture
You can change your 2D animation into a picture by stopping the animated process. Do a right click on the picture and select stop. This requires a little bit of aiming at the right position. Let's try!

That's a 2D animation from the Nanoboy plug-in! It's electrocuting something!


You can also try selecting "repeat" and see what happens!

Tip #3: Moving the Bubble Text
A lot of people could not find the trick behind moving the bubble text, selected from the Media Panel. Today, I shall reveal the answer to all of you!

The secret lies in moving the Edit Panel away because part of the bubble text is hiding behind it, as shown in the picture below! You can then choose different corners of the bubble to perform different functions.

Bubble Text: "Help me! I'm being blocked by the giant!"


Bubble Text: "Remember, my top right hand corner allows you to move me around while my bottom left hand corner enables you to change my size! So make me fat now by giving me words!"

Tip #4: Copy & Paste are Passé
Do you know that you no longer have to go through the hassle of copying/cutting and pasting when you use the wrong textbox in KooBits? All it takes is a simple right-click on your mouse!


For example, if you were using an Input Textbox and would like to switch to Auto Textbox, right click on the mouse and go to Set Type. Select Auto Textbox (or any other textboxes you wish to switch to) and voila!

A simple right-click can do wonder!

With all the above right click tricks, you can try doing this with us now!

The Polluted Sea
  • Firstly, source the background from the Clipart first. The one above is found in Clipart -> Background & Design -> Nature -> Mountain.
  • Next, do a right click on the picture and select Locked. This will enable your picture to fuse as a background.
  • Then, find the ship, explosion and ripple from their specific location. They are all found in Clipart, 2D Ani and Video respectively.
  • For some special effects, let's start with the ripple video. Right click on the ripple video to select Transparent. This allows you to change the opacity of the video.
  • Fill the sea with the ripple video so that it will seemed like the sea is moving literally.
  • Then, create path animations for the explosion and ship.
How do you create a polluted sea as the ship moves from one point to another?
  • Select the ripple video -> Select Ani Start (to set the start point of the animation) -> Change the color of ripples by right clicking on the video (Eg. Green color) -> Select Ani End (to set the end point)

Go to the Read/Presentation Mode in order to view your animations. You will be able to see the sea changing colors as the ship moves!

Did you get that?

Have fun creating more cool books! Don't forget to publish them online!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Aspiring Authors Through N.E.w Author Competition

With the N.E.w Author Competition in full swing, the KooBits team has been busy conducting multiple trainings. Even during the school holidays, students from the Raffles Girls' Primary School and North View Primary School were still eager enough to go back to school just for our KooBits training! Talk about enthusiasm!

Raffles Girls' students in deep discussion

Hannah trying out the features of KooBits (She liked our software so much that her mother and her came to our office last week!)

Walking home with Arrifin, Patrick and Shahrin from North View Primary

Since three weeks ago, the KooTrainers have been running around the whole of Singapore because this year's N.E.w Author Competition is held nationwide for every level! As long as you are still studying, you can join us in this exciting book creation competition too.

Amiruddin, Thidarat and Arinah competing to create the best book in 10 minutes!

Participants from Eunos Primary

Through the training sessions of 2 hours, I have seen some interesting stories being created by the students. Some of them are already uploaded onto KooBits' Library. There was an animated book about the policeman who commited suicide by Noelle from Damai Primary and another entitled "The Tiger & The Deer" by Tan Yi Hui from North View Primary.


Check out Noelle's book here!

Check out Yi Hui's book here!

Training will be officially ending by the end of this week. All of us have had an awesome time interacting with different students and inspiring each other with creative book ideas or even pictures. Do you know you can make your book more realistic by adding shadows?

Step 1: Duplicate your image


Step 2: Change the color of one image to black

Step 3: Shift the picture via the Layer Panel if you have used the duplicated image

Alright, guys! The deadline for the submission of your books is between April 13 (Next Monday!) to April 20, 2009! Do take note and upload your books onto the N.E.w Author Website and even KooBits website, to share with the KooBits Team who have trained you painstakingly.

All the best to everyone! We will see you at the award ceremony!


Ooops! Before I end off, look what I have found during training in Temasek Primary!

Young KooBits Founder, Stanley Han, at the age of 11! GULPS!