Lin Evans

Hi Patrick, There was a goal, and it does tell a story, but probably lost in the translation. You would perhaps need to understand English better to understand the story. None of the photos are mine but all are web photos, nor is the background music which is by Richard and Linda Thompson. Actually, all of the women are white but color or race has no relevance to anything. One of the problems with subtle "stories" is that they sometimes do not transcend culture or language easily. Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, Thanks - fun putting it together - something a bit different for me for a change! Best regards, Lin

Thanks! Fun to try to complement a good song with a story told in images.... Best regards, Lin

Hey Davy, I'm trying to be more "subtle" - LOL... Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, Could be that my ISP was doing some routine maintenance and had me temporarily off line. Otherwise it seems odd that all three links would be down.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, I'm not sure what could be the problem - the links seem to be O.K. - maybe try a different browser or possibly my ISP was down for a few moments at the time you tried? Best regards, Lin

http://www.lin-evans...ple/dimming.zip http://www.lin-evans.../dimmingmac.zip http://www.lin-evans...ing/dimming.htm Lin Lyrics below for clarification: This old house is falling down around my ears I'm drowning in a river of my tears When all my will is gone you hold me sway I need you at the dimming of the day You pull me like the moon pulls on the tide You know just where I keep my better side What days have come to keep us far apart A broken promise or a broken heart Now all the bonnie birds have wheeled away I need you at the dimming of the day Come the night you're only what I want Come the night you could be my confident I see you on the street in company Why don't you come and ease your mind with me I'm living for the night we steal away I need you at the dimming of the day I need you at the dimming of the day

Hi Erik, You don't need to drag a slide to add it. Before when you clicked on "Add Slide" it simply let you choose a slide from the tree and click on it. Now, as has always been the case, all you need to do to add a slide from the list is double click it. The Add Slide was simply a duplicate way to accomplish the same. As with all Windows based software, you can "drag" the Windows so that your slide list thumbnails will be larger or smaller. If they are too small, you will loose information such as the slide number or name. It sounds like this may be your problem - or as Peter suggested?? Best regards, Lin

Hi, Nice selection of b&w images but I think it would be more meaningful if you included a slide or two with the background of where and why the boneyard for old fishing boats. I know you included the location in your description, but for general presentation purposes, having it in the show itself might be very helpful for the viewer. I like the background music, but for only 40 or so images, probably it would be useful to resize them to no larger than 2 megapixel (about 1600x1200) since there is no real reason for them to be larger. No zooms or anything to do more than fill the normal highest resolution displays which are generally about 1080x1920 or 1600x1200 for CRT's. This would make your show somewhere around 12 megabytes which would facilitate download. Photoshop compression at about 8 would do it and resize to no larger than 1600 pixels on the long side. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum! Best regards, Lin

Hi Daniel, You've given me an idea for a new show!! LOL Best regards, Lin

Hey, that's an idea - a space cow! My little dogs would laugh.... Now I just need an affectionate dish and spoon ... Hmmmm. Thanks Ken! Lin

Hi Erik, I get no shimmer with PTE 7.x regardless of where I set sharpness. Are you on an LCD monitor? Best regards, Lin

Cool link Patrick, thanks! Best regards, Lin

Hi Patrick, Yes, I actually had the night lights activated for the capture and adjusted the position and size of the Earth via mouse control, but if you "sync the orbit" you don't get the Earth rotation which I wanted. Instead, you get the day/night with the "atmosphere" and clouds in rotation but with the Earth synchronized to a fixed position viz the observer. If there is a way to have day/night lighting "and" the Earth rotation I have yet to understand how to achieve it. The moving stars in Celestia are not a problem because I limit the capture to just the small area surrounding the Earth itself, then use a circular mask to isolate only the Earth in its rotation with my own starfield background displayed around the globe itself. What would be ideal would be to capture still images of each continent with the lighting, then overlay the lights as a PNG and turn them on and off via opacity keyframes. That way both the rotation "and" night lighting would be available. Perhaps if I turn off the atmosphere and clouds and leave the nightlights, I might capture stills of various positions of the Earth's rotation, make PNG transparencies and overlay these. There would be a bit of work because one would want the atmosphere to not be occluded by the PNG overlays so they would need to have transparency where the image is black between lights. Of course that presents yet another problem because without the black for contrast, the lighting of cities across continents would not be nearly as dramatic. Not an easy thing to accomplish if you want to keep the rotation of the Earth. Best regards, Lin

Hi Patrick, Thanks for watching! Excellent suggestions! The project was all assembled with PicturesToExe - just an experiment in the use of masks, video, parent/child relationships, etc. I use various programs to create the components. Particleillusion SE was used to create the vortex, flaming meteor, explosions, debris after explosions. Celestia was used to create the Earth in rotation capture. The moon in the first half was my own photo and a NASA photo from space of the moon was used in the second half. Unfortunately, there are some things which though easily accomplished with PTE if the components were available, are difficult to obtain such as the moon in rotation to keep the same side facing the Earth as should be the case. The starfield simulation was done in Photoshop using NASA photos and various Photoshop techniques. Since the scene only represents a few days (minimal rotations of Earth) It wouldn't seem normal to incorporate moon phases, though since it's all "fantasy" I suppose I could do that. It would be much more difficult to represent night and day on Earth - perhaps in a future version I might try. It could be done by PNG overlays and opacity keyframes but would be a monumental undertaking I think. In all, it's simply an experiment. I may eventually do the entire solar system including real solar storms and all nine or so planets. I have done the solar system before, but not since video was available to PTE. In the past I had to use nearly 700 separate PNG transparencies to get Earth rotation. Now it's much easier and quicker with video and the video card loading is much relieved. It's still a very big problem to simulate rotation of other planets. It "could" be done with Maya or Blender, etc., then made into small videos and incorporated in PTE using masking techniques, but I'm not proficient with these 3D software programs so it could be a huge project. Best regards, Lin

My New Production - Titled BOHICA The Big Crunch! (for those unfamiliar with military parlance that translates "Bend Over, Here It Comes Again). Sub Title: Lin's Loosing It. You've heard of the Big Bang? Well, this is the Big Crunch - the return of the killer stars after the appearance of the "flaming comet" - The end of the Moon as we know it - LOL. I've posted some of this before so didn't bother to upload the exe's unless someone just wants to see them, let me know. Just a combination with some additional changes and a quite different sound track. For those interested in a really nice selection of free royalty free music, I strongly suggest paying attention to the ending for credits. The creative commons license only asks that you credit the author as done in this fun production. See it here: http://www.lin-evans...unch/crunch.htm Lin

Hi Patrick, Very nice presentation. You managed to seamlessly integrate aerial and satellite photos with your own in a very interesting and informative show! Thanks for sharing, and it's very nice to see you back on the forums! Don't stay away so long!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Robert, Put the first music selection in via the Project Options and put the second music selection in via the slide where you want it to begin. Go to the "slide in question" from the Main Screen and select that slide. In the upper right hand corner of the screen click on the speaker icon and choose "Add Sound File." Navigate to the music selection and add it. Next, click on Project Options and then on the Music Tab. Put click in the block beside "Do Not Interrupt Sound Comments When The Next Slide Appears" That should do it for you. Best regards, Lin

Hi Erik, Actually, the reason for my question marks is that unless you are referring to a DVD menu, Proshow, AFAIK, doesn't do "menus." Most Proshow users I know who need to run external code use PTE or MMB or Autorun to create "menus." Best regards, Lin

Menus produced in Proshow??? Lin

Hi Pele, Not to answer for Tom, but the data rate is very important for smooth animation. The much greater data rate with BluRay or AVCHD will definitely give you "much" smoother animation than DVD, especially if you are pushing the limits of the bottleneck. Standard commercial movies on DVD use myriad techniques not available to ordinary users to smooth animation. Leading edge blur among other "tricks" are done with super expensive equipment to minimize jerky motion. It's quite possible to encode animation in an MP4 which simply can't be done correctly in the relevant sense with DVD. I believe if you try AVCHD you will find it much, much better in every way than DVD - that is providing your player will actually "play" AVCHD. Not all BluRay players will. Check the specs before purchasing anything. A standard DVD player can "not" play AVCHD even thought AVCHD can be burned to the media with a standard DVD burner. It takes a BluRay player capable of playing AVCHD to play it back on an HD television. Best regards, Lin

Hi Skipper, If you created all with the same version of PTE, you could set each menu button to "Run Slideshow with Return" and after each show runs the control would come back to your menu... This is assuming each portion (preparation, dinner, etc.) was a separate slideshow. If the separate portions are only slide positions on a single show, then there is no way to automate the return. You can also run your video inside a "mask" for even more control.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, Isn't it 3x the price of MMB? Best regards, Lin

Cool show Giel, it made me feel like an inkblot in a Rorschach test - LOL. Love the music, I think of adding a disco ball and laser light show!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Davy, Some incredible animation and realism. I saw it twice at IMAX in 3D and it was incredible.... Lin