alrobin

This is a great loss to the PTE community and the AV community as a whole! Maureen was a skilled photographer and AV producer, and did much to encourage others, including myself, in this field, not only in the UK, but other countries as well. My wife and I also stayed with Maureen and Robert while on a visit to the Cotswolds, and the AV Festival at Cirencester, and they couldn't have been more hospitable. Maureen will be greatly missed by all who knew her. ..........Al

Thanks, Jill! It's hard for us "old folks" to keep up with all these changes (improvements?) in technology! ...........Al

Thanks Dave for your reply. However, I should have mentioned that the first key frame is a "mask container". When I click on the mask container icon and select "Add mask template", a key frame is added with all animation options checked, including "Opacity = 100". Next I click on "Mask Content" in the list of keyframes on the right hand side, and hit the "Add Image" button. At this point the key frame animation options are still all checked. Finally, I clone this key frame (using the "+" button) and all the clones are added without any animation options checked so that I have to go over all of the key frames in turn, selecting the animation options I want, for each one. .............Al

This apparent bug in version 9 is not critical, but annoying, nevertheless. I have a map in a travel show where I have a little car running around on the highways. When the car comes to a particular town, I flash the name of the town as well as a representative image from that location, superimposed on the map. To accomplish this, I generally use four key frames for each town, with opacity zero for the first and last of the four frames, and 100% for the second and third. After positioning the frames, I find that the "opacity" option in the "Animation" menu is not checked, and no value is set in the little associated boxes. However, the default opacity is, in reality, 100%, for each of the four key frames. The next step is to set the opacity of the first key frame to zero. To do this, I check the "opacity" box, and set the value to zero. When I move to each of the following key frames, lo and behold, their values are now set to zero too, but their opacity boxes are unchecked. But I want key frames 2 and 3 to remain at 100 %, so I have go to each of them in turn and reset them to their proper value. This is not a big deal, but I'm using a lot of key frames for that image of the map, and it gets a little tedious. Thanks for listening, ..........Al R

Dave & Lin, I enjoyed your examples of pseudo 3-d motion in your AV shows. Here is another example in a show I put together some time ago after a trip to the southern USA. I used this technique several times in the show, and IMHO, it adds a bit of variety to what would have been an otherwise more boring presentation. (by the way, it's 63 Mb in size). http://www.alrobinson.com/BigBend.zip Igor, I love the new Forum! ..........Al

HI, Lin, Still the master of special effects, I see - cool! Merry Christmas to you too! ...........Al

I'm OK with it. I prefer HD mode (16:9) anyway, as a rule, but I rarely use "cover mode" as it could necessitate cutting off part of an image. However it is easy to reset all slides to "fit to slide" if required. .........Al

Interesting slideshow, Mark, and congratulations on the win.You captured those waterfalls very well! And your synching was spot on! My wife and I were in Iceland last May, and again the end of January. Very picturesque place! I love the lights of the cities and towns this time of the year too.My only regret was that we weren't able to get closer to the waterfalls, but the colours in the water, and in the ice were very delicate and subtle.By the way, what was the background music used in the AV? Just curious. I'm having trouble finding suitable for a show of my own. (However, I wouldn't think of copying the one you used! :)Can someone please tell me what I did wrong here? 

Wow!! This video speaks for itself, and for PTE! Bravo, Barry!

Jim & Gwen, Very interesting and informative as usual! Excellent photography too! It's like "old home week" back here on the Forum!

Charlie, That was a wonderful production! A perfect example of the benefits of mixing stills and video in an AV. I had seen examples of interspersing video clips between still images in AV productions before, but somehow they never impressed me much. Now with PTE's flexibile video capabilities it is possible to mix the two media tastefully and effectively, as your two AV's, "Fashion Show" and "Jazz", so cleverly illustrate. Hope to see more of your work in future!

DaveG wrote: Yes, I'm starting to see some of the complexities. Especially when multiple sound sources are involved and need to be controlled. Perhaps, although from what I've seen so far, PTE handles the mixing of stills and video quite well.

Ken, being a "newbie" at this video stuff, I don't even take myself seriously! Please don't dare ask me to update "Adjustor" for video situations!

Thanks, Peter - I'm starting to get the hang of it. However, in my tests, using only 3 images, with KFSD checked, rearranging the 3 images inadvertently added 2 seconds to the total length of my test show, which, since I was using a single common sound track, meant that the sound cut out 2 seconds before where I wanted it to. In a larger show, one should be aware that rearranging a lot of slides in the show could add a significant amount of time to the total length. This time does not correct itself if the slides are put back in their original order, either! I suspect most of my work will be with video as an object, as I still can't quite get my mind around PTE as a video producer, any more than I would consider using it as a video or image editor. However, it's nice to have the option of using video clips along with stills. I can probably live with some of the idiosyncrasies. I'm still a newbie at this video stuff, and I see I have a lot to learn.

Thanks for the heads-up. As I understand the problem, it occurs only when moving slides around in the presentation. In my example, KFSD unchecked gave the preferred result after switching two slides.. Any option which results in a change to the total duration of an AV is not acceptable to me, and this is what happens when I check "KFSD" in my example. . "KFSD" only makes sense if there is a solid definition of "slide duration". It appears that some users consider it to mean the time from the start of an incoming transition to the end of the transition into the following slide. Back in the old days, the common definition was "the time from the start of one transition to the start of the next." To me this makes the most sense because at the start of the "outgoing" transition one is really saying "I've had enough of this slide, so let's get on with the next one". The fade-out transition then is really not part of the duration of that slide, although technically, remnants from that slide are still partially on the screen. At the start of a transition, one is full of anticipation for what is coming next, and really not interested any more in the slide currently fading out. I, personally, do not see any need in my own presentations to check the KFSD box, even if I were rearranging slides. I am willing to go back and tweak duration and/or transition times if rearranging slides upsets the aesthetic flow within the presentation. For my needs, it is important to keep the start of a slide's transition (or that of it's replacement) at exactly the same place in time when rearranging slides as otherwise all the synchronization to the music would have to be redone. Possibly because of my background, the total slide "duration times" (plus the time of the last transition in the AV before final cut-off) should equal the total time of the show. If we count the overlaps twice, this will not be the case. One could solve the matter by prorating the total dissolve times according to the intensity of the incoming and outgoing slides on the screen at any given time, but this would get to be a tad ridiculous, as one would have to call on a mathematician to apply principles of elementary calculus to the problem in the case of non-linear transitions. So for my purposes, slide duration will always mean the time from the start of a transition to the start of the next. Perhaps someone can enlighten me about the possible implications this interpretation might have, specifically to the application of video objects.

Thanks, Tom and Lin! This is what happens when one comes late to the party! I understand now how it works, and it is quite clever. However, I still would prefer a less-analytical method of setting the "offset". There's really no other need to calculate it's value as one is really only interested in how it syncs with whatever else is going on in the animation. I still think being able to set the offset value by sliding a key icon back and forth and watching what happens in the Obj & Anim window would be preferable to first determining its numerical value and then setting this value manually into "Properties". It would be more intuitive and easier to visualize. However, maybe this will come eventually as Igor improves the GUI nature of the interface. (just like he did for music synching). But I can work with this the way it is, now that I understand it. Thanks again for your patience, and help! By the way, what sparked my interest in this was a YouTube AV called "Jazz" created with PTE by a J. C. Pizolatto in France. I don't know if he's a Forum member, but this AV is amazing!

Lin, I understand the "duration" parameter, and it works as it should. However, the offset seems to be different from what you described - I'll have to go back and run a few more examples to try to figure out what is going on. I still don't see why the video can't be made to start where one positions the "key" icon. That would make things so much simpler. Could it have something to do with loading the video into RAM before actually calling for it to run? Igor, any explanation? This reminds me of the earkt days of PTE when we struggled so hard to perfect music synchronization, and be able to set up parameters by dragging bars, etc., on the timeline .

Thanks, Lin - I figured there must be a way. I wouldn't have found that input box in a month of sundays! However, in my example, for a clip of approx 5 seconds, when I set the start time to 0, the duration to 2 sec., and the offset to 30 sec., the video starts at 35 sec, and ends at 37 sec. Go figure! Igor, would it be possible, without a lot of redesign effort, to make things a little more intuitive by having the program automatically calculate the start time to be equal to the point at which the icon is placed on the animation timeline, and then allow the clip to continue for a prespecified "duration" time? I can't imagine any need to be able to place the video clip on the animation timeline at a time different from the start of playback. This way, it would be simple to control the video start time by simply sliding it's icon over the animation timeline. Please correct me if I'm way off-base here, or if there is some reason why this wouldn't work.

I'm having a problem controlling the start of a video clip inserted in the Objects & Animation window. I would like the video clip to start when the opacity of a superimposed object goes to zero. However, it seems to start playing at the beginning of the timeline, regardless of where I place it on that timeline. Am I missing something, or is this a feature, Igor, that you might consider adding in a future version of PTE? I can probably accomplish something similar if I make multiple copies of the same slide, spread them out on the main project timeline, and superimpose the video clip on the slide that starts where I want the video to start playing. It would be so much easier, however, to be able to place the video clip somewhere on the Obj & Anim timeline and have it start playing at that point. I really want to sync it with a particular animation, not a specific slide. Ken, I used the word "video" seven times, but this note doesn't belong under "Video".

I first discovered PicturesToExe while it was still in its infancy. I was looking for something that would allow me to synchronize still images to music. PTE at that time did not provide a solution to what I was looking for, so I left it and continued searching. I could not find anything else that met my requirements, and when I returned to the PTE Forum a year later, around 2002, I was very happy to discover that the program had been upgraded and was now offering the synchronization I desired. Since then I've participated in beta-testing of many new versions, and for a while was quite active on the Forum in an attempt to help streamline all the new features. My two main concerns have always been accurate and flexible synchronization, and a user-friendly interface, both of which Igor and his team have provided in today's version of PTE. Now I am dabbling in the new world of mixing still photographs with high-quality video, as offered today by most new digital cameras. This capability opens up a whole new dimension in AV production. Again, PTE provides the best software. Igor and his team are still dedicated to keeping up with the rapidly-changing and complex technology involved, and are still as responsive as ever to the requests and complaints of the users. I know of no other software provider who would receive a personal request for an obscure modification to the program in order to solve a unique personal problem, and reply the following day with a whole new beta version to try out. There are still improvements to be made to PTE, and new features that would be nice to have, but overall, PTE provides the highest-quality transitions involving large high--resolution images, and the smoothest, most seamless combination of images and high-definition video, over the widest range of hardware and user applications, of any other software anywhere near it's price range. All the best, Igor!

Thanks, Lin! It's amazing how one can find so many interesting things to do when one is retired! I may be back more often for help and advice now that I have a digital camera with HD video capabilities (the new Nikon 1 - couldn't afford the D4). Never thought I would ever get into making movies! But what attracted me most to this camera (and others like it) was the ability to take a still photo at the same time as one is recording a movie, and the ability to put both together seamlessly in PTE. So now it is readily possible to have a relatively innocuous slide show end up with some really dramatic and surprising "movie" effects! The possibilities are endless!

One thing I find so amazing with the new versions of PTE is the ability to treat an inserted video in "Objects and Animation" as if it were just another slide, and add pan, zoom, etc to the entire video. Nice work, Igor!

I experienced exactly what Igor is describing when I downloaded the latest version from the Forum, and then tried to run it. Fortunately I was able to discover the little "Run" button hidden at the bottom of the options window, and run the program successfully. However, I find I can no longer run Video Builder, and here I thought I had a "grandfathered" lifetime "subscription" to it?? Maybe because I've upgraded to a new pc? But I still have my old key file. I do love the new format for video builder, and all the options for output formats - nice work, Igor!

Maureen, I love your AV's! Your photography and treatment of lighting are superb! I have almost the same beamer as Gilio has (a Mitsubishi 5000), and whereas the colours of some AV's look a bit washed-out on a 100-inch screen, compared to what I see on my pc monitor, the colour and highlights in your shows do not deteriorate at all. Maybe a little less intense, but still fantastic! And every image is tack--sharp! Gorgeous work! As my daughter would say, "you rock!" .............Al

Thanks, Igor, Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, but the new 'official' version 7 seems to be OK So far, no sound glitches. It could have been just interference from another background program too. Thanks for considering my problem, and good luck with Version 7! .........Al.- another happy camper!