Lin Evans

Yes and no - it depends on what you play the dvd on. Only an "executable" format can be random so if you create a random exe file an place it on a DVD as "data" and play it back on a computer, then the show will be random, but once it is burned into a DVD format for playback on a television, there is no longer any way to randomly cycle images. The dvd "player" in this case acts simply as a media device to hold the images and make them available to the OS via the slideshow program's instructions. The computer is a "smart" device where the program which tells it what to do can be made so that by some algorithm, slides can be displayed in a seemingly "random" manner. Video is a "pre-packaged" or "canned" environment where each images has preset parameters. There is no way with current technology to create a "random" selection because playback devices are "dumb" devices which simply follow preset rules for display. Best regards, Lin

Did you check to be certain that you set the DVD to the proper format for your player and your area (PAL or NTSC)? Best regards, Lin

Yes, via Google Translate... Ja, mit Google Translate, außer dem kleinen Widerhaken an den Französisch und Briten, hab ich ziemlich einig. Es musste mittels PDF vom Deutschen ins Englische übersetzt werden .... Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Lin

Hi Sydney, PTE allows you to display whatever your capture device creates in a series of stills, video or mixed media format. As long as the output of the 3D capture is in some standard video container such as MOV, AVI, MP4 h264, Flash, etc., then you can make a show and play it on your television. The 3D shows made with PTE in the past were made to be used with anaglyph glasses, but there is nothing inherent in the present 3D technology which would prevent PTE from displaying such a show as long as the output is not in a proprietary technology. Of course, if the technology requires a specialized video card, display device, etc., you would need such to view the results in 3D on your computer or television. Best regards, Lin

How quickly time passes: Five years ago I posted this sample in a thread on a photography site - it was a relatively unknown technique then and it was well received - here is the original text and the link: NOTE: Turn sound down a bit - the background music is too loud!! --------------------------------------------------------- A number of ways have been devised to present images in a three dimensional mode. Some, especially in animation use layers to hold objects which may be moved in front of or behind other objects. Also dynamic changes in size of objects as they approach or depart from the observers perspective can simulate 3D. Of course having two objects with slightly different capture positions may be viewed "cross-eyed" and the human brain interprets this as it would had the object been viewed real time with our overlapping fields of view. Then there is anaglyphic photography where red and cyan glasses are needed to see the effect. Finally there is oob (out of bounds) processing which introduces perspective distortion, shadows, image size and position relative to a "frame" which would normally encompass the image. Having portions of an image inside with other parts outside make a realistic if somewhat imaginary three dimensional effect. The image below is an "oob" construct representative of this technique. My original was quite amenable to this technique. Images which have a subject coming toward or going away from the observer at an angle, and especially those with an appendage (arm, leg, head, etc.) ahead, reaching, etc., are especially amenable. For those interested in seeing more of these as well as 3D animations, here's a link to a 19 meg Windows zipped executable file where I have several more oob images depcting motion into and out of frames as well as motion animation using techniques mentioned above. The executable has been thoroughly tested and certified free of any harmful threats (worms, virus, spyware, trojans, etc.). http://www.lin-evans.org/pte/3d.zip Lin

I agree - just for general information: The Save and Use by Default when clicked saves "all" the current parameters including: left, center, right justification, sharpness, line spacing, bold, underline or italics, and font. There is no indication that anything has happened, but when this line is clicked all current settings are saved and used by default until changed and re-saved. A little "pop-up" saying "saved" or some indication that something has happened would be helpful as would better documentation in the user guide. Best regards, Lin

Schöne Mini-Rezension, Xaver! Nice mini-review Xaver! Lin

Hi Gary, I'm a little confused... Did you remove the sound and then add the MP3 to the video with the external software, or did you just remove the sound, place the video without sound in PTE and put the MP3 in as an audio? I assume that you did not add the sound via the 3rd party software to the video itself? The question then becomes why you added the sound via the sound comment instead of putting it in as an audio track? Not that there is anything inherently wrong with putting the sound in as a comment - it just seems that the most straight-forward way would to have been to add it as an audio track and use the envelope, offset, etc., to control it... I don't see the need for checking "do not interrupt sound comment" but the important thing is that you have the slide length set to at least the length of the video.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, Both of yours worked fine on my 1024x768 screen... Lin

Hi Dave, Shows there is more than one way to "skin a cat" LOL - It can also be done with masks... which effect a partial... Best regards, Lin here's a quick sample and the pte file: http://www.lin-evans...csortarings.zip http://www.lin-evans...rtaringspte.zip

Cool use of masks Dave - just in time for the Olympic Games too!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, That's my problem too - I'm not sure I would get it right. It's difficult without the source code to see exactly the formula used for setting acceleration, slow down and smooth. Probably it could be done in a general rather than specific to PTE means - perhaps on graph paper. If I get the time, I might try - or perhaps just do a web search to see if someone has already done it... high probability of that I think... Best regards, Lin

Hi David, Just one minor technical and admittedly "nitpicking" observation - it'a actually the "behavior" of the motion of the object between keyframes. The "speed" it measured from keyframe to keyframe might well be identical assuming one measures speed as end time of arrival of the object at the second keyframe along the timeline minus start time of the motion of that object at the first keyframe. But because the object might start slower and gradually go continually faster (accelerate) or start faster and gradually slow down (Slow Down) or start slowly, accelerate then gradually slow down (smooth) as opposed to begin, maintain and end with a constant speed (linear); the position of the object at any "point" in time will be different depending on the behavior chosen. Of course measuring speed by subtracting start time from end time is arbitrarily imposing an average upon a behavior which obviously might not be constant. I know "we" all know this, but this reminder is for the new user readers who may not realize exactly what this discussion is about. It would be nice if there were a series of graphs to which we could refer in order to put this into a visual which would make it much easier to apprehend (I think).... Best regards, Lin

Cool Charlie - I think you have it "wired" LOL. It's looking great!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Paul, Just make the slideshow as a video without the cell phone, add the cell phone as a single slide, set the time of the slide equal to the time of the video, run the video inside the cell phone window and save the whole thing as another video to convert to Flash... All the transitions, etc., will stay inside the window of the cell phone. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jill, As I said, the "easiest" way to do it is with a video. It could also be done as you describe, but the "quality" isn't really all that different depending on the type of video you create and the resolution and type of display device your audience is using to play back. Up to 1080p a video done using an AVI output and the Xvid codec is virtually identical to an executable and has the advantage of being easily amenable with an HD Television. Of course if it is a large slideshow with numerous slides, the video will make the overall size of the show for download purposes much larger which can be problematic. Even complex animations are butter smooth with the Xvid codec and the IQ at the approximate two megapixel resolution size is quite equal to an executable. The other issue you will have with the executable and multiple slide concept is if you use 3D transitions. The cell phone will not remain on screen in a static manner as the slides are changed, but will come and go with the rest of the image. If you use simple fades or transitions which do not interrupt the entire screen, then indeed it will appear as if the phone remains static and only the phone's screen display changes. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, As long as there were the "option" to go back to the way it is now for flexibility, I see no real issue with having all defaulted to whatever you choose. The question has been asked in the past about auto setting of "glue" "separate" at keyframes to avoid having to manually change for multiple keyframes on multiple objects, but so far there has been no explanation as to why the default is as it is. Perhaps there are programming issues which make it difficult - I don't know because I don't program in Pascal. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, That might make a good suggestion - why not post it in the suggestion forum... Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, Keep this in mind. When you set multiple parameters (zoom, pan and/or rotate) you "must" set the parameters to the identical rate of change (linear, accelerate, slow down, smooth) to avoid unanticipated results. It's not a bug with PTE, it's just complex logic. As Peter explained - you are asking the program to perform at differing rates of change. The reason there is no shift with linear is because it is the "default" and all parameters are defaulted to the same rate of change. Whenever you change one of these parameters and others are active and not changed, you will see a "shift" in position at various points along the timeline. This is inevitable and the logical result of linear versus non-linear interactions. If you think about it for a bit and work through the logic it will become apparent. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, It's not a bug. You were asking PTE to perform a zoom at one rate of change while performing a pan at another. The net result is to "shift" the position viz the observer at various points along the timeline. Even though it's not always "necessary" to set all three parameters to the same rate of change, there is no "penalty" for doing so and it obviates the potential for issues such as you experienced. There are times when one might want these types of non linear behaviors, but generally just setting all three parameters to the identical setting will result in one's expectations being met. Best regards, Lin

Gary, A long time ago I wrote a tutorial covering the necessity of setting pan, zoom and rotate to the same linearity or non-linearity. Your problems will be solved if you set all three to the same - in this case - accelerate. Regardless of the logic - the probability is that there will nearly "always" be slight shifts from zero due to mouse cursor control, etc.,when you are setting parameters. Set all three: Pan, Zoom and Rotate to Accelerate.... Best regards, Lin

Hey, quit that Anthony, I resemble that remark! LOL Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess. Actually, were I designing the interface, the animation tab would not be under the "Borders" canopy, but perhaps that was done for expediency when the feature was introduced. It's difficult sometimes, to decide where to put feature calls in a program. Several who wanted to use animated gifs were very glad to see these features implemented, but the manual and documentation (at least to my knowledge) didn't cover it and that's too bad because if you use animated gifs these are absolutely "great" features. For example, when I put my "eagle" inside the wire frame "globe" I wanted to make the entire animation loop seamlessly (remember, you first thought it had multiple slides?). I couldn't have done that without the ability to alter the wing beat frequency of the eagle to facilitate a seamless start for the loop. The interval feature allowed me to do that without having to resort to a third party software and remake the entire animated gif. Even with an excellent third party software it would have been awkward at best because to get it "right" was an iterative process. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, Actually, I think you implied a question about what the animation tab was for which is what Xaver explained. The animation tab is quite useful for those who use animated gif's in their presentation. Experimentation with this is the best way I've found to enhance understanding. Best regards, Lin ....

Hi Jim, The problem with inserting templates from metadata fields is that different software which reads metadata assigns slightly different names to the fields. This makes it very difficult to always be certain that your files (images) have the data in the correct place to be revealed via the PTE metadata call. My suggestion is to go into each IPTC field available to you in the software you use to write or modify the metadata and put the "title" as shown by your software then make a temporary "trial" show with only a couple slides, call the field as described by PTE and see what name appears from the actual image. That way you can be assured that if you can always retrieve the data you want from the template call. Of course you have all the normal font, size, color, etc., to assign via the Comments tab. Best regards, Lin