Lin Evans

Hi Colin, Wonderful job!! Nice landing in Johannesburg, by the way! Flight Simulator has come a long way since I last used it back in the 80's! Excellent mix of video with stills. You aerial photos reminded me of flying my little Aeronca Chief back in the early 60's - fun times. That was quite a production! Best regards, Lin

Hi Moises, It's a very nice intro and very similar to one sold by GenArts in Sapphire Edge. SE is, as you point out, quite expensive but also very good. I'm certain PTE users would love to have the web address where you found the beautiful freeware clip! Best regards, Lin

Sapphire Edge? Best regards, Lin

We've had twenty inches of snow in two days so I've been playing..... I thought about how several tools might be used together with PTE and came up with a letter to a couple friends - Ken will appreciate this - LOL... If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll provide all details...... http://www.lin-evans.org/lettersample./letter.zip (about 19 meg zipped exe) And for those who prefer video.... http://www.lin-evans.org/bf/bf.htm Lin

Hi Harold, Not to answer for Xaver, but it is a bit tricky to get perfect sync when muting the video and copying the audio track. It can be done, but it's not the easiest thing to fine tune. In a future version, Igor has said that he will have audio controls for the video much like the present audio controls for audio which are very good short of audio editing. I don't believe that there are plans to have a full audio editor or video editor - those things are best left to software which is designed specifically for that purpose, but having the same degree of control over audio in a video clip as we now have with the audio track would be a welcome addition in my opinion. Best regards, Lin

http://www.lin-evans...n/halloween.zip The Sequel - LOL (13 meg PC) (Thanks Herhey) Lin

Hi Brian, Good "head's up." The G3D numbers are just a relative indication of what one might expect. I only use them to exclude some cards from consideration. For example, if the rating is 300 on one and 2600 on another, it's a pretty good bet that the one with a 300 rating isn't going to be able to handle a PTE application with heavy use of masks and animation demanding smooth execution which the one with 2600 will handle about anything PTE can throw at it. Some of the integrated cards are just fine as you say. The only caveat is that when one starts using and sharing resources with the CPU, how well the system will perform depends partly on how heavy the loading is on the CPU and what's being shared. With the dedicated cards, the hardware rendering concept gives the user a bit more probability of a good outcome when system resources are taxed because "most" software doesn't use the GPU that heavily. PhotoShop CS5 is now using hardware rendering, but people will generally not be playing a slideshow "and" using Photoshop simultaneously. I have a fairly large database of the performance with my test files on relatively new integrated systems. I generally tell people who are anticipating doing heavy masks and mixing video with stills and animation and are in the market for a new video card to not consider anything with less performance than my old nVidia 8800 GT. I have a friend who used a high end MacIntosh which has a card rated #73 (from the top down) while my old nVidia 8800GT is rated #114. My card (on my old Dell with XP home and maxed out on RAM for XP) actually outperforms his Mac on the same test files for smoothness, etc. So you are correct that the numbers are not always indicative of exactly what to expect, but they still are about all we have in general to work with right now. The post was made back in 2009 and there have been some major changes since then. One thing I do know for certain is that if you have a card which consistently scores above 2000 on the G3D it will be just fine for anything we have managed to throw at it yet. An excellent buy is the Radeon HD 6850 which sells for around $140 U.S.D. and has sufficient power to handle anything PTE can throw at it. Of course, as you note, one must have a power supply up to the task. I had to shoehorn a 750 watt power supply in my Dell to handle my 8800 GT. I'll probably eventually buy the HD 6850 which I've tested, and put my 8800 GT in my Gateway along with an upgraded power supply. The 8800 GT is absolutely silent and never produces any heat under the loads I throw at it, but I'm noticing that adding "some" multiple videos in separate slides seems to be yet another issue for the old 8600 GT which "used" to be pretty smooth on everything. Since PTE incorporated masking, the loading has greatly increased. When one adds video "and" masking it begins to tax the system. Best regards, Lin

Create your MacIntosh output with the "zip" option then put the zip file up for Mac users. MacIntosh requires a number of files, not a single executable file like the PC. If you don't know the Apple system, you are far better off using the Zip option. All necessary file will be included inside the zip folder. Just "publish" the zipped folder and everything should work fine for most Mac users. Best regards, Lin

As a user of PicturesToExe since its inception, I've watched this fine software evolve to its present position as the leading worldwide choice for audio visual creation where quality of image and flexibility of features are paramount. PicturesToExe or "PTE" as it is known by users, is a magnificent tool. Whether one wishes to make a simple presentation of their photographs, or create masterpieces for audio visual competitions, PTE serves them equally well. In addition, it offers those who wish to experiment with animation and unique video implementations a platform where one's imagination is the only real limiting factor. In my opinion, and based on having used nearly every competing product, PTE simply stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is truly a "nuts and bolts" product which can be used by the complete novice to quickly and easily create a simple and elegant presentation, or can offer the experienced user myriad challenges and opportunities to facilitate their creativity. I congratulate the Wnsoft development team for their creation and for their willingness to listen to their users and quickly and efficiently make suggested changes which continue to make this product the industry leader where price, performance, image quality and flexibility are essential ingredients. Lin Evans Berthoud, Colorado

O,K. - here's how it is done: The opening sequence was a mix of a portion of a fire video with normal PTE text manipulation. The first "Ring Of Fire" behind the PTE Lepona Cube is a video I created manually using ParticleIllusion SE 2.0 software (hereafter I'll refer to it as PI). ParticleIllusion is a particle emitter software used by makers of multi-million dollar movies in Hollywood. It's a wonderful software which lets the user import still images or videos and "modify" them with thousands of particle effects including water, fire, dust, smoke, flashes, lights, objects, etc. The SE variety which I used is relatively inexpensive ($99 U.S.D) and there is also a slightly more sophisticated Version 3.0 which costs about three times as much, but does some more sophisticated things. I'll provide a link to the website after this message. So ParticleIllusion was used to not only create the "fire ring" but I took a jpg image of one of my wooden frames into PI and added the fire effects then created an AVI file of the frame and fire effects to which I added a mask and image of one of Lisah's paintings. PI allows you to work on a timeline of "frames" and add effects at desired frames. Though I only used single effects for this demo, it's possible to add any number of effects to the same screen, object, video, etc. You choose the display resolution which can be way higher than HD and adjust your display resolution accordingly. The single PTE in fire was created manually along this frame time line then made into an AVI video. The second wooden frame was made like the first, then that AVI was brought into PTE and a mask was added to put one of my landscape photos of fall color into. The final page was also done with PI and PTE. I created the white text script "RING OF FIRE," in a broad and bold font with PTE, screen captured this font and used it as the "mask" to run the flames inside. The flames were created quickly in PI (about 20 seconds) then an 800 frame AVI was exported and this was run behind the mask for the lower portion of the last screen. A second 800 frame video of the actual Fire Ring was created and both these videos were displayed simultaneously and their positions adjusted in PTE to get the final page with PTE generated text. ParticleIllusion is very easy to use for simple "particle effects" but you can also learn to "modify" and "create" your own particle emitters to make incredible special effects such as those used with PI in multi-million dollar Hollywood studios productions. Right now, you can download and install PI for a free, no restrictions 30 day trial. If you intend on using videos with PTE, PI is well worth the investment in my opinion. Here's a link: http://www.wondertouch.com/index_2.asp Best regards, Lin

Hi Moises, You have the synchronization correct where the bass drum is in sync with the lights which light up with each drum beat. Where did you get the mp3? You said that the sound on the video was bad? Sometimes, in the process of creating a video, the reason for not having perfect synch between video and audio by "time" is that the video may have been made with 25 frames per second then changed to 30 frames per second (PAL versus NTSC). When this is done, the actual "pitch" of the sound track is slightly altered to match the change in video frame rate. I don't know if this is what happened in this case but it's entirely possible that the reason the sound was bad on the original was because of someone using video software and changing from 25 to 30 fps. This could be the reason for you having to put in the 2 second into the show start time. It could also be that the mp3 you have has been slightly altered in pitch using a sound editor. In a selection of this length, a slight pitch alteration using a sound editor would not be noticed in the mp3, but when you tried to match it to the video, it might not come out exactly correct. Best regards, Lin

LOL - When you were a kid, didn't your mamma tell you not to play with fire??? O.K. - Before I reveal the Halloween secret formula for making and playing with fire - let me whet your appetite with a little further fun and then I'll confess the whole demonic plot and explain exactly how it's done.... http://www.lin-evans...eoffireshow.zip (42 meg) Lin

http://www.lin-evans...e/pteflames.zip (11 meg zipped exe) UPDATED 10/29/11 http://www.lin-evans...eoffireshow.zip (For PC - an enhanced and more sophisticated sample of fire techniques) 42 meg http://www.lin-evans...fireshowmac.zip (For MacIntosh - an enhanced and more sophisticated sample of fire techniques) 43 meg NOTE: The above two shows will tax your video card and resources. If you have less than perhaps the performance of an nVidia 8800GT you might have issues with smoothness, especially at the flame run around the elk picture frame and with the last page which runs simultaneous videos and a mask. Lin

Hi Ken, I edited my reply because I realized the the word was intended and correct because it rhymed with "Lot". Interesting history though.... People have various ideas about "why" the word "upsot" was used. Hard to say what the original author intended so tis a mystery - LOL Lin

Looks fantastic! Really nice use of features and the little video at the start with the glitter was done seamlessly. Your production took me back to the days of Mitch Miller and "Sing Along With Mitch" when they used little bouncing balls on each word in syncopation with the music... Excellent job! Best regards, Lin

Just a sample of how one might use an "intro" with several different shows. In this case, I used the modified introduction I posted a few days ago as an introduction to a simple showing of Lisah's (a friend) art. She probably would not like the introduction because she likes things very "understated," but then again she isn't much of a marketing type - but "is" a fantastic artist and vocalist. The intro starts softly and builds and the main show's background music is purposely muted and decreased in volume to act only as a soft background for the art. For anyone interested - about a 59 meg zipped Windows exe.... http://www.learntoma...naintroshow.zip Lin

Hi Harold, Yes, I think so.... It seems that you may have a misconception about how keyframing works with PTE... Keep in mind that you can use a video as a background to run behind a series of sequential still slides and you can have a series of still slides running sequentially behind a video. In the case of a single slide as in the example, how would you tell the video to begin say six seconds into the slide while the still slide is still visible without the offset? You could "duplicate" the slide and start the duplicate at the six second mark concurrent and as a second object on a layer with the video residing on a different layer, but without the offset there is no way to make this happen using a single slide and video. When you put two or more objects in the same slide frame on a timeline, they will all be visible simultaneously. That is setting the first keyframe at a starting point somewhere along the timeline other than the beginning will not cause the object associated with that keyframe to "wait" and appear at the time where you have moved the first keyframe position. So to make the video "appear" at the position of the third keyframe, you could set the opacity to zero at the first keyframe then another at zero and cause the video to "appear" at keyframe three but it would have already been running for the time frame between keyframe one and keyframe three. You would miss the first part of it that way. The only way to actually have it "start" at the time of keyframe three would be to have it as a second object or "slide" and to keep the image behind it you would have to duplicate it as mentioned above. The reason I mentioned a possible misconception about how keyframing works is that there really is no straight-forward way to have the video "start" at the position of the third keyframe without the offset. As I said, you could do a "work-around" by duplicating the slide, but there are many scenarios where you can't do a work-around but need to control "when" your video begins playing. A scenario of the type above might be that you have two or more videos running simultaneously on your slide (slide is being used as a generic term here for background and timeframe) and you want to control the timing for when each begins playing. You can't do that with keyframes. Once you work with videos in PTE for a while, the reason for the offset will become more apparent. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tony, You didn't mention the details on your previous post, so I assumed you still had your previous version active. It appears from the fact that PTE knew that you had a "previous version" that the information is still in the registry and the program is still installed on your system even though you may not have the icon on your desktop to run it. If you use Windows Explorer and look in the Wnsoft PicturesToExe folder you will see that in each version of PTE, Video Builder has its own folder and it's own files. I assume that a usable version of Video Builder exists on your system and that this information is contained in your Windows Registry. If you have not "uninstalled" the last version of PTE which had a licensed version of Video Builder, then it will probably still be useable. As I said earlier, Video Builder is not necessary to use video clips and the old version you have will "always" work if it is not "uninstalled." Look in your Program Files for Wnsoft PicturesToExe then look for various versions and I'm betting that your version with a usable Video Builder is still installed. As long as you don't uninstall it, it should be usable permanently. Installing a new version does not overwrite the old. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tony, Let me see if I can help sort it out. Your existing version would allow you to make native exe files for the MacIntosh so PTE is just telling you that your Video Builder has been superseded by a newer version which you are not eligible for free upgrade to. Consequently, your system created the Mac version just as it would have the day you purchased Video Builder. You software doesn't "quit" working when Video Builder expires and you can always continue to use the version you have complete with all the features resident in that version. Video builder is not necessary in order to add video clips. Video builder allows the creation of DVD's and MP4's, uploads to iPhone, YouTube, iPad, etc., but if your old version of PTE had a version of Video Builder, that version will continue to operate just as it did when you purchased it. It will continue to work just like it always has, but you don't get whatever features are only available in the latest version. When you "upgrade" to the latest PTE version, the newer Video Builder version comes with, but it won't work unless you pay for it so PTE "reverts" to the older version to do whatever it was capable of doing. Best regards, Lin

Hi Harold, Offset, whether in the Audio or Video functions tells the software "when, in respect to the start of the timeline for this video or audio" you wish to have that object "start." Let me first explain it with sound because it's easier to understand that way. Let's say you had a music background and you wanted the music to start after an image slide had been on the screen for six seconds. You would set the offset to six seconds and after your image was displayed for six seconds the music would begin. In contrast, the "start time" is how far "into" the music track, you want the sound to begin. Let's say you wanted to skip the first 12 seconds of the sound track and begin the playback at exactly the 12 second time into the music. You would then set the "start time" to 12 seconds. So if you wanted to have that music begin playing at six seconds into your image, you would sett the offset to six seconds and the "start" time to 12 seconds. Video is exactly the same way. "except" that the first frame of the video, as you noted, would "freeze" until the offset time rolled around and then the video would begin. To avoid seeing the first frame, simply keyframe the opacity for the video to zero using two keyframes. The first will be set to zero opacity and the second to zero to hold this zero opacity along the timeline with the third to 100% at the precise time you want the video to "appear." The timing between keyframe two and three will determine how quickly the first frame fades in. Best regards, Lin

Hi Mike, Could you tell us which operating system you are using and take a couple screen snaps and post them so we can see what's happening? I can't seem to duplicate what you are seeing and would like to see what it looks like. I'm assuming you mean Ctrl F11 and Ctrl F12 rather than Ctrl F11 and Ctrl 12? Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, I'm afraid you are up against a loosing battle. Screen video capture software is designed, primarily for use by people in the "educational" fields where perhaps they are explaining how to use software, etc. This use is not very taxing and the primary "animation" is mouse cursor movement. Even though the "capture" software provides high frame rate speeds such as 60 fps, it doesn't "translate" well because of numerous technical reasons. I've attempted to do this for a number of years and have even resorted to breaking down the captured video into still frames and sequencing these frames with PTE. This has worked "much" better than trying to use the video directly. Also, if you don't need audio for the sequence and it's not too long a clip or too complex in colors, you might try conversion software which converts either the still frames to animated gif or converts the video to animated gif. Where there are images which can be adequately displayed with 256 colors, this often works well. Back in early PTE beta 5.7 days, I made a demo of some of the great features of PTE. With the exception of the ability to include video clips, it's still quite relevant today. In this demo, I showed a simulation of the Earth rotating around the sun. This was done using still frame captures - over 800 of them converted to PNG's with transparency - to get the rotation for the simulation. It was a daunting task, but the outcome was very smooth "if" the viewer's system had sufficient resources. As it turned out, I seriously taxed the resources of ordinary video cards and CPU's to get all the animated effects with water, snow and celestial motion. If you have a decent video card in your system and don't mind downloading a 102 meg file, you can see the result from the link below: http://www.learntoma...emoshowfull.zip (for PC) http://www.learntoma...showfullmac.zip (native exe for MacIntosh) Best regards, Lin

Hi Swede, It's not a bug. The logic is a little different than you might expect. The way to achieve what you are looking for is to first program all four keyframes in linear. Next, click on the second keyframe and set all three attributes (pan, zoom and rotate) to "slow" Next, click on custom (do this for each of pan, zoom and rotate) and then click on both "separate here" tabs so that they say "glue here" then click O.K. This should give you what you are looking for. It may seem a bit strange to set all three attributes (pan, zoom, rotate) to "slow" but this is "insurance" against possible mistakes such as accidentally changing a small value in pan or zoom. So even if there is no pan or zoom programmed, change the attribute of all three to "slow down." Probably, the only mistake that you made was failing to go into "custom" and click on "separate here" - that is necessary to properly set the keyframes. You may want to go to my tutorials (PTE Made Easy) on the forums here and review the PZR AVI Tutorial. #1 on the Tutorials List on my post.... http://www.picturest...uously-updated/ Best regards, Lin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TFT_LCD#In-Plane_Switching_.28IPS.29 Lin

Update: I changed the timing a bit to get more of the effect I was looking for. I rezipped and posted back on the original link. I wish I had a bit longer flame sequence, but the video I used was borrowed from a sample from a company I just ordered some slow motion water effects clips from. This company is giving away some samples for the cost of shipping and handling for a limited time. They normally charge around $249 U.S.D. for their royalty free video clips, but right now for a limited time and until they exhaust the current supply of samples, they will ship you some high resolution clips for the costs of shipping, material and handling which is about $8 U.S.D. These are royalty free and can be used commercially as well as for private use. They appear to be very, very good but I haven't yet received mine. They ship not only normal high resolution clips, but also clips with Alpha Channel. For those who are not familiar with this term, for video - the Alpha Channel is like our transparency for PNG files with PTE. I'm hoping Igor will be able to implement the Alpha Channel in a future version of PTE. This will allow us, for example, to have a sequence with flames or water and our own video or stills behind on a separate layer. Only the area of the actual water or flames would be in front (or behind) the other layer. It makes for some really terrific possibilities. You may have seen this technology many times and not realized that it was what you were seeing. For example, a couple news commentators might really be sitting in a studio in Los Angeles or London and they "appear" to be sitting in Central Park or perhaps at a little cafe on the Champs Elysees in Paris with people walking by and chatting at other tables. This technology is possible by blue screen or green screen Alpha Channel and would be a fantastic thing to have with PTE. Anyway, for those interested - here's a link: http://www.footagefi...DayWhileYouWait Best regards, Lin