Lin Evans

O.K., many have seen a similar show I made using animated gif's. This one has a video plus animated gif. The software is still has a few bugs so it wasn't as easy as I had hoped, but once the wrinkles are ironed out, it's going to be really great. My animated gif's kept crashing with 7.0 beta 1. I finally got a couple of them in along with the video on one cube face. So far, the mip-mapping (anti-shimmer) has not been implemented - hoping it will be soon.... http://www.learntoma...lfvideocube.zip (about 33 meg pc format only) http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/demo/wolfvideocube2.zip (about 35 meg pc format - extended version with more video time, etc.) Best regards, Lin

Hi Phil, I hope to get a tutorial out by the second or third Beta release when the features are more fully implemented. Essentially, the videos are treated just like any other objects (images, etc) and can be simply dragged and dropped into the slide list or added to the Objects and Animations list. They can have most all the attributes of any image, that is you can pan, zoom, rotate, add borders, adjust opacity, do 3D transforms, etc. They can run on top of background images just like you would add a picture in a picture, etc. I believe either PAL or NTSC video is perfectly acceptable. Soon there will be a video "converter" built into the next Beta release which will optimize for PTE. Right now the various formats are being tested and details and bugs ironed out by the developers. The best way to find out if it works as you have them is to try. If they don't work right now, then convert them to MPEG II, etc., or even Flash FLV which cuts down a good deal on storage and upload size. The larger HD (1080p) format works fine on the web as long as your audience is willing to start the video, then pause it long enough for buffering about half the show for average broadband systems. 720P is a bit better, but still requires a wait time. One way to see these formats is to go to Vimeo where they are fairly common and see how well they do on your system. If you are uploading to Facebook, etc., then 800x600 is usually pretty good. If you need wide aspect then 720p works well. Facebook will somewhat "downgrade" the quality, but there isn't much we can do about that. It's a little tough right now to have both really great quality "and" reasonable playback without interruption unless one is willing to wait. Unfortunately, there is no "preload" capabilities for most formats other than Flash FLV as far as I know. This then places the burden of "waiting" on the person who wishes to see the slideshow. It's a bit awkward, but the only way I know to do it is to start, then pause the show and wait for the loading to get ahead enough to avoid interruptions. Best regards, Lin

LOL - beats chasing cows and stepping in you know what!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Dan, Thanks! I'll try to do that once Igor has a couple more beta's released so all the bells and whistles are in.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, LOL - probably tomorrow! I just need to find or make some "square" aspect videos to avoid using masks which would bog things down for the "equipment challenged. Best regards, Lin 7:05 pm Mountain Time - Video Cube is up and running - just a few "tweaks" and I'll post it Tom... Lin

Hi Paul, Thanks - just a quickie and you're right; the potential is mind boggling indeed! Best regards, Lin

Hi Ron, Thanks! I'm sure it won't take long! LOL I think that PTE will soon be very competitive with Producer and it's already surpassed Gold... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, I do. It played fine in the "Preview" - but was very jerky in the executable. The MOV was made with my Canon SX30-IS. I converted it to an MPEG II with Power Director and it played fine that way. Something not quite right about the direct MOV file.... Best regards, Lin

Jill, Tell Igor some details - what type video (FLV, MP4, MPEG II, etc.) and do you see the Navigation Bar on your video? If so, click on the far right on the little "speaker" Icon. This can also kill the sound... I first thought you might have confused the new feature "offset" for sound clips, but I see now that the offset for video doesn't appear to work. It's either a feature which has not been turned on or it's a bug.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, It's a Beautiful Day is a Flash FLV and the other is an MP4. I've just tried mpeg I and mpeg II and they work perfectly as well. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, It's incredible! You and the development team have given users something that many have been wanting for a long time and it works really well. I was able to create a little demo in exactly 7 minutes which uses two videos, pan, zoom, rotate, 3D transforms, text, and even an animated gif. I created a similar show with my video editor a few days ago and it took several hours to get it half-way right. With PTE's new video clip drop in, it was as simple as falling off a log!! I believe this will definitely help elevate PTE to the number one desirable presentation slideshow package. I think the ease and power of the video features will not only appeal to those who create presentation slideshows, but also to video enthusiasts who are struggling with convoluted video software and just want to present their video's and have the kind of features PTE now offers without all the huge learning curve of dedicated video presentation software. PTE is, of course, not a video "editor" but shines already as a video "presentation" tool. Thank you! Best regards, Lin

I put the stopwatch on and created a brief demo using two videos, pan, zoom, 3D transform, text, borders and included an animated GIF. It took exactly 7 minutes! To do this with my video editor would have taken me several hours and it wouldn't have been nearly as good! I can see this new feature of PTE being really well received by videographers as well as by the slideshow enthusiasts. Just the other day on a video forum, the question was asked about how to include multiple videos on a single screen. PTE now makes it a simple matter of drag and drop! Here's a link to the sample: PC format only - zipped exe file of about 40 meg.... http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/demo/videodemo.zip Congratulations Igor - You and the development team have added a whole new dimension to capabilities!!! Best regards, Lin

Fantastic Igor! This will make soooooo many people happy!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Carol, Sorry, I misunderstood and assumed since we were talking about cubes that you meant the Christmas cube with snow. Actually, it's very easy to substitute any image for the one in the template. Just do as I suggested before and extract the template into its own folder. Then proceed as follows: 1. Open PTE 2. Navigate to your folder where you extracted the files and open Project1.pte 3. Click on the slide to select then on the Objects and Animations tab 4. Click on the slide in the (girls2.jpg) list on the right above the mask object 5. Click on the "Properties" tab 6. Click on the open "folder" at top right in the "Picture" block 7. Navigate to the folder having the image you want snow on and double click on the image This will replace the image "girls2.jpg" with your new image. If the size is different, you will need to first adjust the new image in the size that you want to fill the screen, etc. Next, adjust the "Mask Rectangle" (not the mask Container) to fit the screen area of display. Doing this confines the "snow" to the screen so it won't appear outside that boundary should your show be played on a display with a different aspect ratio than the one used for building the show. You can "distort" the Mask Rectangle so that it properly fills the screen by holding down the "Shift" key while dragging the rectangle via the little squares. For example, if it is too short to fill the screen in the horizontal aspect, just hold down the Shift Key and drag it first on one side then on the other until it fits. Likewise if there is a misfit on the vertical aspect. What this mask does is control the area on the screen where snow falls. If you change the time of the display from the default of one minute, snow will fall either faster or slower depending on which way you go. The timing was set for a one minute display via the keyframes and snow.png files..... Don't forget to "save" your work under a different name to avoid permanently overwriting the template. Best regards, Lin

Hi Carol, I'm not certain what the problem is, but it "appears" that perhaps you have the wrong template. Follow the instructions below and hopefully it will work out correctly for you. Here's how to go about it. 1. Create an empty folder 2. Go here and download #19 "second link" and "extract" it into your empty folder 3. Open PTE and load the PTE file contained in the extraction (Christmascubefortutorial.pte) 4. Rename your own six square images to "side1.jpg.......side6.jpg" 5. Copy these six renamed images into the folder and when prompted, agree to "overwrite" the existing six files 7. Open the Christmascubefortutorial.pte file and test It "should" work fine unless the size of the six images was different that the size of the ones in my original. Each slide "should" be 800 pixels. This is somewhat critical until you have a good feel for what will happen with different sizes. Essentially, the mask must be adjusted to accommodate other sizes. It would also be a good idea, if you haven't already done so, to download the AVI tutorial (link one on # 18) and watch it to get familiar with the reasons for various interactions and to see how to turn off snow for one or more sides of your cube. Hopefully this will help you get started on the right track... Best regards, Lin

Hi Howard, What a miserable day to have to have a flat!! Nice use of the video simulation - works perfectly for me. Yes, this is a perfect example of when a little video clip could be nicely integrated to help tell a story. Thanks! Best regards, Lin

Hi Carol, Once you have done a few and get the "formula" down in your mind, they will become really easy and quick to make. The really great thing about PTE is that you can then add amazing animations to any (or all) cube "face(s)" Very soon, when version 7.0 beta 1 is released, you will even be able to place "video's" on a cube face. Here's a little sample I made a few weeks ago which demonstrates some possibilities: http://www.picturest...sleep-aid-cube/ Over the years I've placed some cube samples on the forum which have variously, snow, 3D transforms and other animations. Also, If you go back through Dom's posts he has some "internal" cube views, etc. Other geometric possibilities exist as well such as this: http://www.picturest...at-new-clothes/ http://www.picturest...mplatetutorial/ Best regards, Lin

Hi Richard, The first thing which came to mind when I read your post was a question about your hardware. PTE uses something referred to as "hardware rendering." Essentially, this means that the GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) on your video card is used for most animation. This is a two edged sword. First, it is tremendously advantageous in that the CPU is freed up to do other processing and the GPU allows complex animations with incredible smoothness. However, the other side of this sword is that if your video card is not up to the task, you may have the kind of issues you are describing. Also, if your video card drivers are not current, this can also impact the usability. There really is no incompatibility of any kind with borders and animation. Any issues you may be seeing are undoubtedly hardware related. If you could reveal the type and model of your video card, perhaps I could make a suggestion about a solution whether driver or hardware centric. You can go to the "Start" "Run" and then type in "dxdiag" and you will be able to run a diagnostic which will give all relevant information. This would be very helpful in diagnosing your problem. Best regards, Lin

Hi Carol, Probably, your best bet is to email Dom and I'm certain he will be happy to help you learn to use the template. Perhaps there is something you are missing in the instructions which is causing this issue. You may want to download and look at my video tutorial on cubes which "might" help you discover where you are going wrong. Here's a link: Go to # 18. If you have problem with the AVI file, download and install the freeware player Kantaris Media Player Best regards, Lin

Just a little show I did for a friend. She loved it - so that's all that's important. Little "skin" but nothing to hide from the kids.... http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/debbie/myattemptatart.zip (about 10 meg) PC format Lin

Hi Barry, Looks super to me! Beautiful place and lovely presentation IMHO. Best regards, Lin

Hi, Beta 1 of Version 7.0 of PTE (which all registered users will be able to use, and is a functional version) will be posted for download any day now. With this you will be able to drop in video clips which run seamlessly in the same slideshow. You will also be able to rotate, apply 3D transforms, use borders, use masks, have multiple video clips on the same screen and other things not possible with competitive presentation slideshow software. Follow the link provide by Dave for a thread explaining, etc. You "should" get the deluxe version to have all the neat features such as saving your shows to mp4, output to native MacIntosh executable format, etc. Best regards, Lin

Hi Vince, From your description, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "open it." Do you mean that if you open PTE and load the "filename.pte" that images are missing? If by "open it" you mean "play" the executable, the basic images are contained in the PTE executable code, but intermediate images for pan, zooms, etc., are created on the fly by the computer using the original jpg's or png's as starting points. The best way to transfer PTE files from your other computer is to use the ZIP function. "File " "Create backup in Zip" then copy the zip file to the new computer where you can "unzip" and extract the entire set of images, sounds, objects, etc., contained in the original show. It sounds like you have not copied all the files you need to create or manipulate your original show. If you could explain in more detail it would be helpful. Best regards, Lin

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html Lin

Hi Kim, There are some very powerful new features just now being added to PTE. Some of these will shortly be available to all users via beta 1 of version 7.0 which may be available this week. One of the beautiful things about this product and this company is that all registered users have the option of working with the nearly fully functional beta versions. There are major changes being made presently which not only consist of additional and very useful functionality, but also cosmetic and interface changes. The problems associated with documentation and support of a rapidly changing product are many and varied. Jeff and I chose a point in time when PTE had made a major change to try to offer supplemental support via the "unofficial user guide." We were planning an upgrade to cover new features and changing menus, but the changes kept coming at a rate faster than we felt we could keep up with. I haven't spoken with Jeff for some time now, but I've thought that perhaps a complete re-write of the unofficial guide may be in order after version 7.0 is released. Of course one of the issues we face is that Jeff and I are English speakers and our user base is world wide. So what we do needs to be translated into multiple languages for optimal benefit. One of the issues facing the developers (Wnsoft) is that they are a relatively small company with limited resources. They actually have made great strides in the past few years just in being able to produce a user guide, which is, as you note, still rather skeletal in nature. We hope, as do the developers, that this deficiency may be rectified in the near future. There is a need to rethink the "method" of producing a guide or manual, and perhaps a change to a "modular" approach rather than a unified document as we did in the past. It's perhaps easier to keep up with incremental changes and updates this way. I've discussed this with the developers and they are planning to try very hard to keep up with documentation and support for the new features. Of course, the features must be implemented and in their final or near final format before it makes sense to do this. This is why Ken mentioned that for optimal success with this program, it's a good strategy to check the forum regularly, because this tool is much larger than any of us, so we cooperate very closely with one another to try to help new users with understanding the myriad features and power of this amazing tool. One of the very useful tools which is available is the "Frequently Asked Questions and How To" section which Peter Appleton has championed - link here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showforum=18 This section is kept current and there are many helpful hints there. I glossed over a great deal in my previous answer to you, but there is "so much" that this program can do, it's very difficult to try to explain some of the functionality in a brief answer. In addition to pan, zoom, rotate, opacity, etc., which can be programmed with or without parent/child relationships, there is also the entire area of 3D transform with X, Y and Z axis features which also have the same functionality. Then there are features unique to quasi-video modes such as animated GIF and with the advent of version 7, now video clip inclusion. All which can be programmed with the aforementioned functionality. It's really an amazing product which, as a programmer, you will come to appreciate even more as you work with it. PTE is more akin to a low level language which one can use to build magnificent structures with. As you noticed, many competing products are "pretty," but functionally bereft. PTE is that tool which one can use in innumerable creative ways to build amazing shows. Rather than have lots of "canned" themes and templates, it lets one build their own on a "nuts and bolts" level. Perhaps in the future, Wnsoft will offer templates of their own, but right now you may want to look at those offered for a very reasonable fee by some of our members such as theDom here: http://www.thedom.fr/ You can always find some useful links on one of my sites here: http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net Go to the "links" page.... Hopefully, you will find the answers you need for your project and quickly learn the intricacies of PTE. If you have questions, just post them here on the forum and someone will quickly try to help you solve any problems you may encounter. Best regards, Lin