Keynote extensions

Raconteur's picture

Hi all,

The path of discovery of QC was actually initiated by a desire to extend Keynote. I see that all of the Keynote transitions and Smart Builds (SB) are made in QC, and my group has a need to enhance that functionality, especially the SBs.

Does anyone know how to do this? All I have found online is a note saying that Keynote does not have a plug-in architecture so adding transitions is difficult (if not impossible).

Even if I have to hack an existing SB, that would be fine. The problem there is all of them are in compiled NIBs.

To the point, what I would like to do first off, is take the Turntable SB and tilt it 90 degrees so that it presents more like a Ferris Wheel than a Lazy Susan.

ANY input on this GREATLY appreciated!

Cheers,

Chris

usefuldesign.au's picture
Re: Keynote extensions

Hey Chris,

I've always assumed keynote's transitions and builds are QC compositions but I've never seen the proof. It's news to me that a .qtz can be compiled into a NIB file. I had a longish discussion with cwright on the apple dev list about encryption/protecting QC files for distribution as Keynote themes and it didn't sound like much could be done that wasn't easily got around. I'm wondering how compiled NIB files sits with that?!

Final Cut Pro, AE, et al have Apples plugin architecture to facilitate 3rd party effects but Keynote lacks this facility.

You can of course place a .qtz file or a QT wrapped .qtz file into Keynote and it will play like a movie but you cannot generate a transition to another slide as such (only fake it on the one slide). KinemeCore has an option I haven't explored yet to allow 'unsafe' QC plugins to be used in other apps. So Keynote could be set to allow Kineme GLTools etc on the host machine.

And in more Keynote disappointment the iPad doesn't have the QC framework so whatever you do get happening wont play on that (which is going to make an excellent wall or desk mounted everymans' kiosk if you ask me… oh you didn't ok!)

Let us know whatever progress you make with that, I'm all ears.

smokris's picture
Re: Keynote extensions

Raconteur wrote:
I see that all of the Keynote transitions and Smart Builds (SB) are made in QC

I haven't seen any evidence that Keynote '09 uses QC for transitions. (While spelunking, however, I did come across a way to inject plugins, similar to how Kineme injected plugins into QC in the days of Mac OS X 10.4. So it may be possible to develop a plugin that adds new transitions and uses QC to render them, but that'll be far from trivial.)

usefuldesign.au's picture
Re: Keynote extensions

smokris wrote:
While spelunking, however, I did come across a way to inject plugins, similar to how Kineme injected plugins into QC in the days of Mac OS X 10.4.
I always wanted the story on how you guys found the undocumented QC SDK if it's you know… undocumented. I'm an armchair coder :? and wonder about these things all the time. Know you're ridiculously busy smokris, but anytime you want to tell the story go for it!

smokris wrote:
So it may be possible to develop a plugin that adds new transitions and uses QC to render them, but that'll be far from trivial.
A skanky Keynote plugin / plugin creation tool would be very interesting.

cybero's picture
Re: Keynote extensions

don't you think it's a little disappointing that the iPad has no integrated camera ?

and no FW port for an iSight camera

leegrosbauer's picture
Re: Keynote extensions

cybero wrote:
don't you think it's a little disappointing that the iPad has no integrated camera ?

Yes. That said, I ask in all seriousness;

Who uses their cameras, iSight or otherwise, on their Macs? I do, but I honestly have seen very few instances of other people who also do so. My assumption was that the camera was probably being omitted from the iPad because a broad range of people seem to be generally uncomfortable with the notion of using their computers for video conferencing? Frankly, I'd be really pleased if a slew of posts were to now appear which disprove this somewhat awkward assumption of mine.

Raconteur's picture
Re: Keynote extensions

usefuldesign.au wrote:
A skanky Keynote plugin / plugin creation tool would be very interesting.

I LIKE that idea!!!

Keynote, oddly enough, has proven to far surpass Flash for rapid prototyping with my team. Granted, if we need to do something data-centric, Flash wins, but for getting ideas and interaction across to the customer, Keynote is the fastest, easiest tool I've seen in a long while.

steve holmes's picture
Re: Keynote extensions

If keynote could be feed dynamic data or control through Quartz composer the possibilities are huge. One that immediately springs to mind is digital signage and kiosk machines. That would be great as it would allow quick and easy design of things with the power of dynamic data/control.

If there is any chance of developing plugins for Keynote I would be very interested.

Steve

usefuldesign.au's picture
Re: Keynote extensions

No. I don't want a camera 4 times the size of an SLR and cheap quality to boot.

Only thing I can see is a front side camera would be good for video conferencing but most people actually prefer voice-only in truth so where's the market? The original iPhone camera takes the worse pictures I've seen out of a Smart Phone. Colour and res are rubbish so what's the point. Has an SD slot doesn't it? Prefer my cameras separate.

usefuldesign.au's picture
Re: Keynote extensions

In theory you can do this already to some degree. I could never get Keynote to pass Apple Events to the comp for interaction though. I wrote to Keynote and QC team about this in a comprehensive way but I doesn't seem like it's on their radar.

Just use QC App Builder I guess.

Keynote is really fast at producing basic motion graphics / signage for video too much faster than AE etc if it can do enough for you.