Lin Evans

Hi Dom, I compiled it in zipped Mac format so you can compare with what your machine makes.... http://www.lin-evans.org/dom/mactest.zip Best regards, Lin

O.K. - second childhood? LOL - who cares.... This is just a fun intro for a planned slideshow on the images captured by the Hubble Orbiting Telescope and Camera. It consists of a StarShip Console with instrumentation and a flight from Earth past the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, etc., into the Milky Way and through the Carina Nebula, a distance of between 7 and 10 Light Years. Of course to navigate such a tremendous distance requires warp speeds vastly exceeding the speed of light. We leave Earth at sub-light speed, past the moon then accelerate to warp 2 and approach the Carina Nebula. Once we enter the vast nebula, we accelerate to warp 6 then exit the other side where we slow again to sub-light cruising speed. We encounter some space anomaly and an errant planet resembling Venus, then cloak for our return and see the first two slides of what will be about a 70 slide show ending abruptly, for now. It's a long journey, even at supra-light speed and takes about seven minutes, but made for an interesting construction. About 43 meg download for those interested in child-like things..... http://www.lin-evans...flightintro.zip (Windows PC zipped exe) http://www.lin-evans...ghtintromac.zip (MacIntosh native exe) Lin

Hi Dom, If you will send me the PTE file, I'll make a Mac Show and send it back to you. If it works on your Mac, then compare the files one at a time with the one you created until you find either one missing or somehow "different" from what is created by your own system. Obviously, something is slightly different if your system will play creations from someone else's native MacIntosh exe files, but not from your own. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Wow! It's all the dropped frames which are causing the problem. I'm not certain whether it's your ISP or Youtube's server which is causing the problem. I've had intermittent issues with Youtube in the last hour with running the show once and having a total of (2) dropped frames, to running it a few minutes later and seeing (99) dropped frames. When you have as many as you are seeing, the results would indeed be terrible. Rest assured it's not a problem on your end, but something between your ISP and Youtube's servers. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Thanks, I'll check out the blue marble animations... Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, It's difficult to guess why a Youtube video might work well for some and not for others. It's pretty smooth for me and for several others who have tried it. It could be a resource issue (too much going on in your system simultaneously) or it could be a web dowload speed issue or even your own player might be problematic. I'm assuming it's playing for you as a Flash rather than as an MP4. On most systems that's how it would be seen. I see a slight "stutter" in the rotation at about 20 seconds (by the watch) then pretty smooth the rest of the way. Best regards,

Hi Mick, I wish I had an answer, but they are just zipped exe or native Mac zips uploaded to my website and a link provided. I really have no idea why they would work differently...... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, It's the greatest - must let the world know!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor Maybe the word will get out in the U.S. !! Best regards, Lin

Or - subtitle - Stop at the Cradle of Civilization at 3:21:37 pm http://www.lin-evans...gicearthvid.zip (PC) http://www.lin-evans...earthvidmac.zip (Mac) 24 meg Or this variation on the theme: (Youtube version)PC Version: http://www.lin-evans.org/sample/watchmagicearthtransvid.zip And the Mac version: http://www.lin-evans...transvidmac.zip Lin

Hi Tom, That might be interesting, I'll see about coming up with that.... I think 1280 x 720 is about as good as Youtube will support with any animation. That's what I used. Lin

Lin

Thanks Jean - I think it would make a nice opening, especially for a video presentation on YouTube, etc., where the extra 14 meg of the little video of Earth turning wouldn't be so noticeable as with an exe show. Maybe I can convert it to Flash and get the size down a bit without sacrificing the quality. I was finally able to capture a decent Earth rotation AVI from Celestia and it works well with David's code for the text. Best regards, Lin

http://www.lin-evans.org/dave/mond2exe.zip (about 17 meg) http://www.lin-evans.org/dave/mond2pte.zip Lin

Hi Daniel, Very beautiful and I appreciate that you left the control keys so it was possible to linger a while on some of the wonderful scenes! Thanks for sharing this - a lovely place even in winter.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Paul, Beautiful photos and beautiful show! It all works very well for me!! Absolutely no need for animation or changes in my opinion. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jean, Yes, that's exactly how I feel about PTE. It's a means of creating some amazing animations without having to go through the process necessary with 3D construction software including wire frames, skinning and other very labor and time intensive processes with a rather steep learning curve. Of course with the requisite skills in the dedicated 3D programs, many amazing things can be done, but then these programs do not allow the ease of presentation and the ability to also easily incorporate stills, videos, masking and other features of PTE. PTE is rather unique in this and I think the popularity will grow not only with photographers and AV enthusiasts, but in the future I see animators taking advantage of these unusual features. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Actually, unless you wanted to actually "go into" the house via a door, the easy way would just be to create the door and windows with masking. If you were following the little fun that David and Jean and I were having with "bending" text. David created a very nice circling text and titled it Le Monde. I then provided "Le Monde" or more precisely, the Earth rotating for the text to circle. This was a small video captured from Celestia of the rotating Earth. Of course with a video and without yet the ability of PTE to handle the alpha channel transparency via green screen, the only way to avoid the dark "rectangle" surrounding the Earth was to place the spinning globe inside a little circular mask easily done inside PTE. The the mask under a controlling frame to dynamically change the size to accommodate Davids dynamic text size change. I think doors and windows could easily be done in the same manner without getting too fancy with framing around them when constructing a simple cabin. Of course if one wanted them to be "functional" then it would necessarily be done differently. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jean, Of course, you are absolutely correct. In my little tutorial, I begin by addressing the fact that "actually" building a house is much more complex than creating the components or "material" to build it with. But of course it (building a house with PTE) could be a very interesting learning process for one's advancement in learning to manipulate objects in PTE. The "title" of my tutorial (Building a House With PicturesToExe) was rather "tongue in cheek" or perhaps the title C'est une remarque un petit peu taquine. Your tutorial in French is very complete, but as you say, few probably found it helpful only because "most users" of PTE are using it to display their photographs rather than as a 3D animation tool. I use a little screen capture tool called Screen Recorder Gold http://www.capture-screen.com/ to make my tutorials. It's rather simple and doesn't have lots of flexibility, but I usually don't do more than talk and use the mouse cursor, so serves fairly well for the purpose. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, Are you creating them with the "zip" option? I find that's the easiest way to send then to Mac Users. If not, try that. Best regards, Lin

Have you ever considered building a house? To do so, we need timbers and siding and roofing, and perhaps bricks, etc. Can this be done with PTE. Actually it can. If you've looked at Jean Cyprien's amazing show about the little bell (Choupinette de retour de Romea), he has built a very nice and attractive wooden bell-house structure to house the bells. So my purpose for this tutorial is not to actually "build" a house - that would take too long. But what I would like to do is show you how you can easily use my cube template to construct wooden timbers, planks or sheets of wood, to use for construction material. Though the tutorial deals with "wood" timbers, sheets, planks, etc., you could just as easily build a "brick" wall, a chimney (just use the right shaped mask) or many different shaped three dimensional objects via the basic concept and masks. Here's a link to the new tutorial - I hope some of you have time to look at it and enjoy the ease of manipulation of the cube template to do many more things. http://www.lin-evans...akingahouse.zip Lin

Hi Jean, Yes, I remember from JPD's first example! Your "Sorcerer's Apprentice" was also a great lesson in "geometry" and a pleasure to watch. I recently made a little tutorial after JPD's example of the elliptical "orbit" in much the same fashion as his example, though not nearly as beautiful with shadows, etc. PTE has given us an amazing tool with which to express creativity. I only wish I were more creative but must be satisfied with trying to help others learn the technical aspects so that their creativity can be expressed. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Dang, those weightwatchers lunches without the bread and butter can be so boring! But Igor can have all the bread he wants (he could stand to gain a few pounds!) while the rest of us drool and wish!! Congrats!! Keep at it and when you get the chance, try to capture some closeups of a gull in flight with the video on your camera and try creating an animated gif as I described. It will be a project which will teach you lots of patience and be ultimately rewarding because of the results! Best regards, Lin

Amazing Jean, I can't imagine the work which went into doing these with version 5. I was always impressed by both your and JPD's early creations which took PTE into uncharted seas! Best regards, Lin

LOL - "that" might be more difficult... Lin