Lin Evans

Hi Roger, Thanks! I sent one to my grandkids and I hope they enjoy playing with it! You and your family have a very Merry Christmas too! Best regards, Lin

Thanks Daniel, Though this was just a little fun exercise in the possible, you're right, the important thing is that there are features available in PTE which make it very versatile for more than just presentation slideshows. Best regards, Lin

Thank you for trying it Bert ! Best regards, Lin

Hope they have fun - I sent you a PM.... Best regards, Lin

Although it is not yet possible to adjust sound in your video directly yet (fade-in, fade-out, use sound envelope, etc.) there is a viable work-around. If you extract the sound from your video as an MP3 (use the freeware Xmedia Recode) you can then insert the extracted audio track as normal sound in the audio track, "mute" the video and adjust sound using all the audio features now available. If you don't have this software you are welcome to download it from my site on this link: http://www.lin-evans...edia/xmedia.zip Just use it to extract the audio as an mp3 then follow the procedure outlined above. Best regards, Lin

Hi Chris, Thanks! I heard by email from another Mac user that it worked fine so that's good news! I "think" this is the first time we've really tried "interactive" executable code with a Mac. I had a discussion a while back with someone who wasn't impressed that PTE could do "native Mac executable" files because he mistakenly thought that PTE only created video output which could be seen by Mac users, and of course, any "video" code created by any presentation slideshow product can be seen on a Mac, and most any Windows slideshow product can be run on an Intel based Mac via Bootcamp, etc. The difference is huge though because PTE can be used manually with all features working.... Best regards, Lin

Thanks guys, just a little fun thing - I wish a Mac user would try this and let me know if everything works there. Lin

http://www.lin-evans.org/xmas/xmascardpc.zip (about 25 meg zipped PC exe) http://www.lin-evans.org/xmas/xmascardmac.zip (about 25 meg zipped Mac native exe) Lin

Bravo Andrew! The photography, presentation and music were wonderful! Some of these could only have been taken from a boat ride down the Seine? Lots of it looks very familiar from my last trip to Paris many years ago. Best regards, Lin

WOW! Outstanding - both the photography and presentation! Excellent job! Best regards, Lin

That's a bit "windy" for old Scotland, Eric - dang... those Scottish Lasses are smiling! Hold down them Kilts lads! Best regards, Lin

Sorry Peter - danged winds can be wicked sometimes. This happens nearly every year where I live. 100 mile per hour winds are not uncommon here - we have frequent "micro-bursts" which do localized damage. My daughter tells me southern California has been hit hard lately. It seems our weather patterns are being manipulated by forces beyond our control.... At least you were not injured...... Best regards, Lin

NIce one Eric! Great "summer/winter" contrasts. I must admit, though, that I was a bit confused by the song "The Royal Canal" as to whether I was looking at the Tyne or in Ireland, but quickly figured it out - LOL Best regards, Lin

Thanks Colin, Actually, about three hours to get everything correct and PTE shines as always! Best regards, Lin

Hey Ken, Good eye! A+ - visual memory C+ Different room - no snow on this one - LOL. The one with snow outside is unchanged as is the bedroom scene for Christmas with snow. I didn't put any in this one because I wanted to keep the file size down and to insure it would work with minimal resources. Best regards, Lin

An experiment.... There's much more going on in this presentation than is readily apparent. The interesting thing to me is the facility for doing this using PTE to accomplish some of these tasks which would not be possible with most other presentation slideshow software. For example, the pictures (above the fireplace and on the table) were replaced with ones from my artist friend Lisah. Not as straight forward as it might appear because each of them present issues which require XY and Z axis manipulation because of perspective. PTE made this fairly simple to do. The view through the windows was changed via creation of a PNG transparency then using layers in PTE, the completed image was captured with HyperSnap at higher screen resolution then the jpg was placed in the show replacing the PNG. There are three "mini-videos" running in masks. The candles, the fireplace fire and I'll let the viewers find the third.... there are also png objects used for overlay in a few places. All in all - an interesting challenge, but PTE was up to it. The purpose of three small videos rather than one large one was to conserve both resources and file size for this show which runs four minutes. http://www.lin-evans.org/justdroveby/jdbmac.zip (Native MacIntosh exe - about 35 meg) http://www.lin-evans.org/justdroveby/jdbpc.zip (Windows PC zipped format - about 35 meg) Lin

It's difficult to say why without more information. Which operating system, which version of PTE? Can you see the "magic.exe" show? If so, then PTE can "play" an FLV video on your system. The next thing would be to try a different Flash FLV video. It could be that there is something about your particular FLV which PTE doesn't like even though you can see it with another player. Try moving it to a different folder. Open PTE and navigate to the new folder and try File/New and see what happens when you drag the FLV into the slide list. If that one doesn't work, try another If neither work, zip up the PTE file and send it along with the FLV which doesn't work to Igor. Best regards, Lin

You probably just need to load the latest Adobe Flash player on your system. I use Flash in PTE all the time - if you can play the "magic" exe you can see Flash with the proper player which PTE becomes. PTE has no problems with Flash as far as I can determine. It could be that without the ability to play Flash because you don't have the Adobe Player installed, you are not able to import into your PTE file, but once you can play a Flash video you "should" be able to use it in a PTE show with no problems. Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, It was in Flash FLV format. Actually, most any format will look really good if the original capture is decent and the frame rate and bit rate are not compromised by subsequent format changes. I suspect the original was taken from a tripod and with a decent video camera or dSLR then simply transferred to Flash FLV with a good bitrate and original capture frame rate. Best regards, Lin

O.K., Here's your project file: http://www.lin-evans.org/magnify/magnifyingegypt.zip Here's a zipped exe: http://www.lin-evans.org/magnify/magnify.zip Play with the "opacity" to make the shadow of the magnifying glass stronger, weaker, & move it's position as desired. If you change a keyframe for position of the "frame" to move the magnifying glass, do likewise for the "mask circle". Change to linear before making changes and change back to "smooth" and "separate" keframes for each of PZR to get smooth movement after any changes. This should give you a starting point at least... Best regards, Lin

Xaver has showed you how to do this, and even given you a template to work with. If you have the png file of the magnifying glass from your "template," all that's different is the circular mask is placed where the "glass" of the magnifying glass is located. You do that by positioning the mask itself rather than the container. If you take the small amount of time to "learn" how it's done, you won't need a template to do it in the future. Essentially, you have two copies of the same image at different (zoom) magnifications . The one with the greater magnification is the one inside the mask. The circular mask just "reveals" the image with the greater zoom which is on a layer beneath the image to be magnified. You use keyframes to adjust the position of the mask and "magnifying glass." You can use the "parent/child" relationship to more easily move the magnifying glass frame and mask together in synchronization. The "template" you attached from Dominic just "brightens" the image because the opacity levels are different on the images. What you should do is study the template Xaver gave you then use the PNG image of the magnifying glass and also the reflection, etc., if you want, but put the magnifying glass "frame" inside a circular mask which you can select right in PTE.l Adjust the size of the mask to fit the circle of the imaginary magnifying glass optic itself. Don't use too much blur - maybe 5 percent. The "image" you put inside the mask should be a duplicate of the one outside but zoomed in. You can adjust the position of the image manually via pan. If you want the magnifying glass to appear to magnify greater in real time, you simply change the "size of the magnifying glass frame" (make it larger as if it were being raised toward the viewer) while simultaneously zooming the image within the mask. The template you have from Dom was done before PTE had masking capabilities so there was no way to make the glass appear to actually "magnify" anything..... If you provide the image you want to use - I'll do a very quick sample for you and you can work from that.... Best regards, Lin

Translated into Canadian: eh? L

http://www.lin-evans.org/magic/magiccardman.zip Just a little fun diversion for all to see.... Lin

Hi Bob, Good one! Nice analysis of the crowd and probably "right on" in your conclusions! Good to see you posting here and looking forward to more from you soon! Best regards, Lin

Hi David, EXCEPT.... there are hundreds of thousands of implementations of AVG being used by potential viewers of PTE shows. Even if "everyone" who visits this forum tossed out AVG and installed Microsoft Security Essentials, the very serious issue of false positives would remain a problem. The developers of AVG MUST fix this issue. Some time ago it was Symantec's SONAR product which was causing fits. They "finally" seem to have corrected their problem. Now it's AVG and similar programs which apparently use the same "engine" which are reporting the same false positives. We can patch our own issues by using different products, but the real underlying problem is still there and it must be addressed, or the public's "opinion" of PTE will be severely compromised. In my opinion, we can't just bury our heads in the sand and ignore this. Best regards, Lin