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Lin Evans

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Posts posted by Lin Evans

  2. Fun in Insanity....

    in Slideshows & AV Shows

    Posted

    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

  3. Fun in Insanity....

    in Slideshows & AV Shows

    Posted

    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

  4. Fun in Insanity....

    in Slideshows & AV Shows

    Posted

    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

  5. Berlin

    in Slideshows & AV Shows

    Posted

    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

  6. Music and speech

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

  7. PTE menu with Proshow Producer sequences

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

    Hi Lin

    I asked the question as the original query was about PTE menus having problems opening Proshow exe's, and wondered if the same thing happened with Proshow menus opening PTE exes. Nothing sinister. :ph34r:

    Regards Eric

    Yachtsman1.

  9. Produce DVD without jerky animation

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

  10. Another PTE Menu capability question

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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

  15. 3250mm Lens Combo

    in Equipment & Software

    Posted

    Hi David,

    LOL - I don't know if it's "better" - but it is "bigger.." Actually, the F4 VR 600 is a dynamite lens, but out of my league in costs. The reason I keep my little Nikon CP990 and CP4500 are for digiscoping only. I use them with my Swarovski spotting scope and my Meade ETX-90 which I removed the base from and use only as a spotting scope. The Meade is not nearly as durable (waterproof, fog proof, etc.) as the Swarovski, but with a mirror lens there is never any chromatic aberration and you can buy one of the older model Meade's for under $200. It actually works quite well with the Nikon D7000 as well. I just use a T mount on the camera and a T adapter on the Mead and you get the 1400mm tube focal length of the Meade plus the 1.5x crop on the Nikon giving you 2100mm effective focal length. It's a fixed F14 so you need decent light, but with a rock steady tripod and mirror lockup you can get some amazing frames.

    The advantage of the big Nikon F4 is the VR which stabilized pretty well from the frames in your link. Camera shake - even a tiny amount at those focal lengths can wreck a shot. The nice thing about the little digicams used afocal as compared to the dSLR using only the scope as the lens is that there is no mirror to slap so vibration is only what happens via wind or a less than optimal tripod. Sometimes I hang a bag of rocks off the center of the tripod to stabilize it.

    Digiscoping can be fun - I'm the original moderator on the digiscoping forum at Steve's Digicam - been doing it since the CP50 Nikon was available. It's lots of fun and sometimes you even get usable material..

    Best regards,

    Lin

  18. support ticket

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi Doug,

    It sounds like you may have the music track linked to a slide. At the top right of the main screen there is a "speaker icon." Beside this icon you will see the words "Add Sound or Voice." I would begin by looking at the 14th, 15th and 16th slides and see if there may be a link to the first music track. If the sound track has been added you will not see "Add Sound or Voice" but instead see the title of the track. If you find this to be the case, just click on the title and from the drop-down box choose "Remove Sound File" then save.

    Worst case scenario, if you don't find this to be the case, use the "File Create Backup in Zip" and post a link to your zipped project and one of us will troubleshoot it for you.

    Best regards,

    Lin

  19. Clone Keyframe

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi Tony,

    It's really not a silly question at all. Unfortunately, once additional keyframes have been created, the ability to go back and insert a true "clone" of a particular keyframe is lost. You must do it as you have been. If you clone the keyframe "before" adding additional keyframes, all parameters are preserved, except of course the time point on the timeline.

    Best regards,

    Lin

  20. Cntrl_Shift_P

    in Slideshows & AV Shows

    Posted

    Hi David,

    I would agree with everything you have said except the part about not bringing a prototype to the product. Many software developers place undocumented features in their software so that the more experienced users can both iron out the wrinkles and make suggestions about modifications and utility of the feature just as we are doing now. In this way, when the feature becomes a documented part of the software, there will be fewer discussions of "they should have done this, or why didn't they do that?...." when approached this way. We have seen this type of debate frequently about audio issues. Then when the developer "does" implement nice features without this iterative process, there is usually the cry for "more" and the complaints that "such and such" does it better.

    Obviously these negative issues are not reflective of your personal comments or opinions, but rather a generalization of my observations about the process. By giving those who are interested in such things a "taste" of what "could" be possible - it stimulates debate and helps foment a cohesion of direction to take in the development process. Should the developers just place such a fully developed feature in the next version without this process, then there would surely a myriad of "complaints" from we, the peanut gallery - LOL.

    Already, I see developing whispers of "I would rather 'they" spend more time fixing this, refining "my favorite feature," etc, and "we need this rather than that" and so on and so on. The bottom line is that it is very difficult to try to please the various and sundry desires of a diverse user base. As users, we each have our own preferences and use paradigm for this very versatile product. I think Igor and the team have done a bang up job of walking that tightrope and continue to bring us neat new ideas which can greatly enhance our experiences as users of PTE.

    Best regards,

    Lin

  22. Cntrl_Shift_P

    in Slideshows & AV Shows

    Posted

    Thanks, I understand now.

    I have no ideas other than either a quick and loss-less way of converting to grayscale or sepia and as you demonstrated, transitions between any of the two or three without resorting to outside software. I think that's exactly what Proshow has done and now, even without "any" further refinement, it can be done in PTE as well.

    A long time ago I posted a sample when "masking" was first made available and that too is a possibility with this new feature. We can place either the black and white or sepia inside a mask and move the mask over the color version or vice versa. It can make some interesting effects.

    Best regards,

    Lin

  23. Cntrl_Shift_P

    in Slideshows & AV Shows

    Posted

    Hi David,

    I'm not 100% clear on what you want to see. The CTRL SHIFT P presently adds no overhead to file size. If you perform the CTRL SHIFT P and copy and paste the sepia and black and white in addition to the original color image as three separate slides, there is no increase in the executable file size over the original single frame made into an executable... The sepia and black and white are treated exactly as if you had copied and pasted the original twice more - no increase in overhead at all.

    So if I understand correctly, what you would like to see is the ability to have some transitional shift between sepia, black and white and color automated in one layer rather than as transitions between three slides?

    Best regards,

    Lin

  24. Nikon D8000

    in Equipment & Software

    Posted

    Hi David,

    Those are really nice images from the D3, but the new D800 and 800E, at least from the images posted made with pre-production cameras, don't seem to be anywhere near what can be produced by the D3 except in terms of absolute optical resolution. I'm certain the optical resolution as measured by black and white resolution chart photos will be impressive, but unless something changes, the "zip" just isn't there. I suspect that the super high optical resolution is exposing the weakness of lenses and probably resulting in diffusion at even F8 which would account for the "softness" of the images presented so far. I'm pretty happy with what I get from my D7000, but I wouldn't trade it right now for a D800 or D800E if the samples are truly representative of what the camera/lens is capable of. Maybe better lenses will have to be made or used on these new super high resolution units to get the full benefit of the new sensors.

    Best regards,

    Lin

  25. Pencil Drawing Query

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Jean-Pierre was never able to finish what he was working on, but a "program" to do a very similar thing is available from David Fitzpatrick called VisiSketch Pro - you can read about it and purchase it here:

    http://www.visisketchpro.com/

    David is a ProShow Producer user and writes some other great software too. Much of it is useful for PTE as well, though some of what he does takes advantage of certain features available in Producer which are not yet available in PTE.

    JPD's rendition was done entirely in PTE with the help of EXCEL to create data points, etc. He wanted to finish it for the PTE users, but his sickness was robbing him of his concentration per his last message on the thread.

    Best regards,

    Lin

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