Lin Evans

Hi Dom, It works well with mp4 h.264 conversion as well. There is a command line parameter to remove the gif "splash" and the text in the read.me file says that this will greatly speed up the appearance of the executable but so far I'm unable to get it to work. It's probably a syntax problem on my part. I've registered at their forum to ask about how to remove the splash (exact syntax including spaces, etc.) but they require a five day wait before posting (go figure!!). Best regards, Lin

Hi Ray, I suspect that the difference is sixty plus frames per second versus thirty frames per second. I recently (several months) installed a forty inch Samsung LED 1080p television and have played the samples back in both executable format and all manner of mp4 h.264 formats which I've been able to create and output using both USB memory stick and by connecting directly to my development system via high speed hdmi cable. I can still see a clear difference in motion smoothness between the executable and mp4 h.264 version in the outputs at 1080 x 1920. It seems logical (though perhaps I'm missing something) that my system is sufficient to produce optimal output on the mp4 since it plays the executable flawlessly and at a much higher frame rate. Unfortunately, I don't have a BluRay burner so can only use AVCHD to test output on my Samsung BluRay player and as you have mentioned, that bitrate is quite inferior to BluRay. I share you enthusiasm for the future, but for now, I just don't believe that h.264 in its current configuration is up to handling the very complex animations smoothly. Having said this, however, I'm perplexed as to why we are seeing what amount to significant differences in output and wondering what part the system configuration might play if any? The question, I suppose, is why would a computer system and video card which is capable of rendering perfectly smooth animations on this sample with executable output at over 60 frames per second not be also capable of rendering an mp4 h.264 at half that frame rate smoothly? Perhaps there are system differences which prevent smooth "playback" of a properly rendered h.264? The actual rendering process should be actually a slam dunk for such a system, so the playback seems to be the problematic area. I fully understand why my AVCHD would not be smooth because of inferior media constrained bitrate, but when the direct playback via high speed hdmi cable using the same video card which produced the rendering is inferior, then there would appear to be other variables at play. Perhaps someone with both a BluRay burner and a powerful video card can burn the h.264 to BluRay and report back on the results played on a good 1080p television. It would be interesting to try to get to the bottom of this dilemma and perhaps then be able to prepare documentation so PTE users can know what to expect. Best regards, Lin

Hi Andrew, Are you clicking on the down arrow beside smooth then clicking on "setup" and clicking each "separate here" point for each of Pan, Zoom and Rotate? Best regards, Lin

http://www.aleosoft....aker/index.html This tool creates a Flash driven gallery and slideshow which can consist of stills or videos including Flash versions of your own PTE shows. You can mix stills and video and have a music background which can be switched on or off with a button control at the bottom right of the image. You can allow the slideshow to auto-advance or you can pause and use it as a manual slide advance. It's possible to click on an icon and have a full screen slideshow and press "ESC" to return to the normal mode. I'm not a big fan of Flash galleries, but this one is very easy to use. I created a small test show with just still slides linked below. It takes a while to load because I added an MP3 background track. Before I added the MP3 the load size was about 400K and after it was about 11 meg. The actual MP3 additional size was about six meg so adding sound does slow things down. I'm sure that adding a Flash slideshow in the mix would also greatly slow down loading, but there is a counter which lets the user see what's happening. I discovered later that only if the sound is made part of the SWF file does it really slow down the operation. I found a checkbox to make the sound external and not part of the SWF and now the SWF is back to about 400K, the site loads nearly instantly and the sound works fine. Just something which may be useful to those creating websites. The code for the Gallery is generated very quickly and you can just FTP the files to a folder on your website without including the embedding code necessary for adding the Gallery as a link from a web page. If you simply create a folder on your server and upload the "images" folder and three files you will have a rather neat and extremely quick photo gallery which can also hold Flash SWF slideshows. In addition, the program will convert from mp4 h.264, AVI, etc., automatically to Flash so you can just add an AVI or MP4 h.264 like a slide and it will automatically be converted to Flash FLV and added as a slide. You click on the slide icon and your slideshow plays. You have choices over the bitrate, framerate, etc. It's not perfect, but it's one way to display your photography slides and slideshows created in PTE in a very easy to construct gallery. If you try it (30 day trial) I've found that you can get decent results with PTE shows, especially if they are not too complex. Make them reasonably small and they work well. Here's a link to my sample: http://www.lin-evans...test/slide.html Lin

Hi Ian, With a blank slide, I don't know any way to prevent this. Why don't you use some "special slide" which can be used for all your transitions to other shows and set the display time for that slide to a bit longer time, then use the first keyframe to set the opacity to zero and fade it in after a few seconds with opacity set to 100%. If it works the way I think it will, then the screen will snap to black after leaving the externally run slideshow and fade in to your "special slide" and continue from there. This special slide could have something indicating your club or whatever and be used over and again rather than a black screen. It's unavoidable to have the black after exiting the last show, but this black would fade in to your slide and I think it would look more professional this way. If there is a way to force an end to a show where the last slide remains on screen I'm not aware of it. It would have to be done with an external program which works within the operating system because there needs to be an "interrupt" signal to end such a show. This is generally done with the "ESC" keyboard command, etc. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, The larger (in dimensions and file size) the file used for this type of animation, the more likely there will be jerky movement. The "anti-shimmer" or mipmapping really has nothing to do with this issue. There is lots of complexity in this type of animation and only with top-end video cards will certain motions be smooth. In my development system, I have what was at one time a top-end video card (the nVidia 8800GT) but which now isn't even close to the really good ones. If I use the large eleven megapixel image used in my demo and try to zoom on the "Z" axis while panning a 3d transformed image rotated on the Y axis, the motion is jerky even on my system which generally will play "almost" any PTE animation smoothly. If I resize this image to around 1084x768 I can do it smoothly. It's just asking too much of most systems to create on-the-fly 3D transformed images of large sizes with "Z" axis zooms simultaneously with pans. The answer is to use as small an image as useful for your viewing audience. I wouldn't recommend doing this type of animation even with a two megapixel (1920x1080) image unless you are certain that the system your show will be played on has a top-end video card and plenty of available RAM. Also be certain that no anti-virus software is running in the background and usurping resources. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ian, On the slide from which you wish to run the external PTE show, if you click on the "Customize this Slide" button you can choose under Advanced Options to Run an External Application which would be, in this case, the external exe file to be run. After this external file is closed then PTE will return to your slide and continue. This assumes that you have the slideshow located on the hard disk of the system being used to run PTE so you can properly inform PTE of its location. Unless I misunderstand your need, this should be a satisfactory solution for you. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Is it the red flower with the yellow floral background and reflection which appears just after the first screen and moves in from the left side that you are referring to? If so, that's just done by changing the Y axis rotation and using the pan feature on a slide like this: http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/slidein.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Here's a quick sample of what I think you describe. Just unzip and load the PTE file and you can see how is was done by looking at the 3D transforms. http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/sampletest.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, My "PTE for Smarties" tutorial section is continuously updated as PTE evolves, but the tutorials are all still relevant since they show the basics of how PTE works and this has not changed since the version 5 betas. You have some misconceptions which I think will be easily cleared up if you just follow the logical sequence of the tutorials. In the next beta release of PTE (which will be available to all registered PTE users) there will be some simplifications of 3D transforms which will make that part much easier to understand, but I think your misconceptions stem from an apparent belief that "masking" has something to do with 3D animations. It doesn't really. First, animations are simply linear changes from one slide or object (an object can be a complete jpg or a PNG with transparency and only the opaque parts visible) to another with a different position. For example, a zoom consists of a starting slide, an ending slide and a number of intermediate slides which smoothly transition between the two. You simply use the automatically placed keyframe for the starting slide, place a second keyframe somewhere (your choice) along the timeline and highlight this second keyframe. You then zoom the image visually while this second keyframe is highlighted and PTE automatically creates all intermediate images necessary to smoothly transition from slide one to the fully zoomed slide. The identical concept is use for pans and rotates or for any combination of pan, zoom and rotate. The 3D transform is also done via the keyframes and can be combined with pans, zooms or rotates. 3D transforms allow perspective alterations of any image or object and this includes the ability to completely rotate the image or object in 3D space. Think of a 3D transform as if you were holding a picture printed on a thin sheet of paper at arms length. You can then rotate it horizontally, vertically or any combination of horizontal and vertical using your hands. Let's use a vertical rotation as an example. Hold the paper and rotate the top downward toward you and you will note that the top edge appears wider while the bottom edge appears more narrow in width as you continue to rotate this picture. Eventually, you see only a thin horizontal line and then as you continue to rotate you begin to see the back of the picture in the same perspective. As you continue to rotate you eventually see the bottom of the front of your picture which appears wider than the top. As you continue to rotate through a full 360 degrees the picture eventually looks exactly as it did when you started. This was an example of an "X" axis rotation. This is how 3D transform works. From the Animations Tab of the Objects and Animations screen click on the 3D parameters button and you can set the X and Y parameters in degrees. This will rotate the image vertically and horizontally. The "Pan Z" is a setting which determines the position in 3D space of the object or image you are working with. This position is relative to how close or far away and whether it is seen directly in front of your line of vision or (in conjunction with Pan) to the right or left. Hold the picture in your hands at arms length. Now bend your elbows and this brings the picture closer to your eyes. That's a "Pan Z" effect. Now imagine that there were two pictures. The first being held at arms length and rotated 45 degrees clockwise while the second was held in the same position it would occupy with your elbows bent and also rotated 45 degrees clockwise. If you had two objects visible on the scree simultaneously seen in these relative positions you would be seeing the effect of 45 positive degrees of Y rotation with one object set to zero Pan Z and the other set to some arbitrary value other than zero. So Pan Z determines how far away or how close the object appears while the animation parameter "Pan" determines the left or right position. Now you may be wondering about "solid" 3D objects and how they are made to appear to rotate in 3D space. To create a "solid" object with PTE you must place 2D objects in various positions using Pan Z and various X and Y 3D transform positions and "hold" them in the proper perspective as "children" of a controlling object. This controlling object is usually an invisible "frame" When you rotate, pan or zoom the controlling frame, the child objects of that frame are rotated, panned or zoomed in unison. It is only possible to really do this with PTE using objects which "fit" together from a geometric perspective. PTE is not a 3D modeling software such as Maya or Rhino or Blender, etc., it simply allows three dimensional transforms. For example, if you create some "square" images using your favorite photo editing software, you can place six identically sized image in their proper perspective positions as outlined in my "cube" tutorial and create a 3D "cube" which can be rotated, panned, zoomed, etc., in 3D space via a controlling frame. If you are really ambitious, you could create tetrahedrons, octahedrons, etc., which are much more complex and these also could be manipulated in 3D space. To create and rotate a sphere is a totally different issue and this really isn't done the same way but there are some "tricks" using masks, etc., which can be used to simulate the rotation of a sphere. These are much more complex and you can learn to do this, but first you need a thorough understanding of how PTE works. My suggestion is to start with the tutorials and go through them in order until you have a thorough understanding of the basics. Here's a link to my tutorials in the Tutorials section of the forum. If you have problems seeing the AVI's I would suggest downloading and installing the free Kantaris Media Player here: http://www.kantaris.org/ Tutorials Here: http://www.picturest...?showtopic=7901 Best regards, Lin

Hi Robert, Michael was fantastic and there was never a doubt about whether his "dunk" would exit the net! I'm never certain that my efforts will pan out but sometimes lucky.... When we lost JPD, we lost the one true "master" of PTE. His approach was thorough, mathematical and reasoned. My approach is more experimental with lots of trial and error. Sometimes things work out, but there are many failures along the way. I thank you for the compliment, but mostly I'm just wandering in the wilderness looking for that light at the end of the tunnel - LOL... Best regards, Lin

Hi Ray, I used the default bit rates for audio and the Custom preset with 30 fps at 1920x1080 mode=1 pass, quality = 100, and used the same for the 25 fps. The size differences between the 30 and 25 fps version were about as expected considering the five fewer frames on the 25 for each second of playback. The original one I posted the link to was created as a 1080p for Vimeo using the only settings available. I don't know why it was so much smaller than the "custom" versions at 30 and 25 fps but I uploaded trials of the default as well as the 30 fps to Vimeo and there was no visible difference in their on-screen appearance or their performance. Of course they are converted to Flash by Vimeo and I don't know whether Vimeo changes video bitrates to make all HD videos equal or not. I've also tried the same show on Youtube with similar results. I made an AVCHD using the default version which was created using whatever Igor has programmed as defaults for 1080p and played it on my BluRay player with my Samsung 40" LED TV via a high speed HDMI cable and the playback was not really smooth. Likewise for the computer. I played the 30 fps version and the Vimeo version of the mp4 over my computer and it was essentially identical to the AVCHD on the Samsung. None were nearly as smooth as the executable version. The "image quality" was about identical to the executable, but the playback was not smooth. I have made numerous other AVCHD's lately, some with complex animations and some with just jpgs with minimal pans, zooms, rotates, etc., and they played virtually identical to executables of the same shows. I can only conclude that mp4 h.264 simply can't handle complex animations such as the ones in my demo. If there were an issue with resources or video card (both are sufficient in my case) then I'm assuiming it would also appear in the executable. There could be issues with bitrates, but Video Maker doesn't, as far as I can determine, allow any changes to video bitrate when producing an mp4 h.264. The only bitrate adjustments allowed are to the audio as far as I can determine. That's why I wondered if you meant creating an AVI and then converting that to mp4 h.264 because with AVI there are variable bitrates available as I remember. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ray, You mean as an AVI? Or do you mean using the custom controls to give 30fps and 25fps? The actual 29.97 isn't an option but perhaps 30 fps is an approximation. I can create as 30fps and 25fps if that's what you prefer. Best regards, Lin 30 Frames Per Second Link 25 Frames Per Second Link

A recent thread: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11591&view=getnewpost? has, among other issues, raised the question of whether or not there is a qualitative difference between MP4 h.264 at 1920 x 1080 pixels progressive and either MacIntosh or Windows executable of the same slideshow. The inescapable answer is "yes" there is a significant quality difference depending on the content, complexity and type of animation in the show. Let's put an end to this question which seems to periodically crop up when users notice no apparent differences between the MP4 and the executable formats. There "is" a difference folks. It may or may not become apparent depending on your resources and the type of show, but it is a very real difference. Many may not always see these differences, but if a significantly complex animation with a number of objects is created then played back on a system with sufficient resources to properly execute the slideshow, the differences are night and day in terms of smoothness of the playback. It doesn't matter whether the mp4 show is played back on a true BluRay disc, on an AVCHD, memory stick, Western Digital (or similar) device via a high speed HDMI cable or on a computer with unlimited resources, the differences are significant. If your slideshow consists of only normal sized images ( perhaps 1600x1200 or smaller) with some pan, zooms and rotates with transitions between slides, you may find that there is no perceptible difference between the Mac or PC executable and the MP4 h.264 or a BluRay or AVCHD created from the MP4. On the other hand, if you have lots of objects and significant complex animations, the differences will be immediate and very apparent. To demonstrate this, just play back my demo show "Alley Cat" which I have linked below. There are links to the MP4 h.264, the MacIntosh native executable and the Windows Executable. If you wish to see the differences, download the MP4 h.264 and your choice of the executable files and try it for yourself. Windows Link (about 8 meg) MacIntosh Link (about 8 meg) MP4 h.264 Link (about 48 meg) Lin

Hi Andrew, Thanks! It was a fun show to create just for the animation capabilities of PTE.

Hi Bill, Thanks! This one was not simple. We had worked out the cube some time ago and it's pretty straight-forward and doesn't take very long to create, but the tetrahedron and especially the ending isocahedron were quite problematic. It took, perhaps 30 hours to work out. Jean Pierre (JPD) had shown one in one of his last amazing shows and I regret that I never had the chance to speak with him to ask him how he did it, so I had to "reinvent" the wheel for myself; so to speak. There was lots of trial and error and a few choice words - LOL. It's not the type of project to be entered into lightly - LOL. Today is the last day of winter and it's going out with a bang here. Yesterday it was sunny, warm (about 60 degrees) and very spring like. Today its snowing furiously with about six inches already and another perhaps foot or more due today. In the high country along the northern Colorado front range, they are expecting up to four feet today! I'll try to get some pictures later and post them! Best regards, Lin

Just a repaint of an earlier fun demo in 1080. Alley Cat for PC & Windows: http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/alleycat1080.zip (Windows - about 8 meg) http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/alleycatmac1080.zip (MacIntosh - about 8 meg) Lin

Hi Marcel, Could you possibly do a screen capture and post it so we can see exactly what is happening? I'm sorry that no one has replied to you request for help yet, but we can't quite understand exactly what is happening. When you click on "Create" it asks you for your login and password. When you type these in, then I understand that Youtube doesn't accept them? Is this correct? When you go directly to Youtube and put in your login and password does it accept them directly? Thanks, Lin

Hi Gary, The executable file will always be equal to or "better" than the video file assuming the system you play it through has sufficient resources such as video card, RAM and at least temporary priority access to these resources. Also a prerequisite is a proper computer monitor with a decent resolution and refresh rate and quality intermediate components such as a high speed HDMI attacment. Video is created by playing back stored images which were originally created with your PC in the first place. Executable code is played back by the creation and display of these same images in real time. There are some types of animation which play back better on CRT computer monitors which have better refresh rates and less probability of ghosting from fast moving objects than many high definition television receivers. The "best" television screens for fast moving objects are plasma types. The worst are LCD screens with slow refresh and next best are LED screens with better refresh. I believe you mentioned a Samsung 40" LED television which could fall into one of two categories depending on the individual model. It "could" have a refresh rate of variously 60Hz, 120Hz or 240Hz. The higher the refresh rate the "cleaner" some fast moving animations will appear. Conversely, if your computer monitor is an inexpensive LCD type you "could" get better results from your MP4 h.264 or conversions to BluRay and playback on the television than an executable played back on a less responsive computer monitor or with somewhat compromised video GPU. If you play your executable slideshows through a high speed HDMI input cable and with a computer having sufficient resources on the same television screen as your Bluray or mp4 h.264, the executable "should" be slightly better than the video providing that the above requirements are met. If this is not the case, then the suggestion would be that one of the components (the HDMI cable, GPU, CPU, RAM, etc.) is compromised in some way. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, Thanks for noting this - actually, all the links are wrong now. My Domain name expired and my host didn't notify me. The Domain went into Redemption and the host wants more money to renew it than I can afford so I purchased a different domain name for the site. After about three weeks I can repurchase the domain and everything will then work as normal "unless" someone buys it before I can renew it. lin-evans.net no longer will work but lin-evans.org is up and running and pointing to the same website. This means I must change all my links from lin-evans.net to lin-evans.org. I will try to do this for all my PTE Made Easy files but it will take a little while since the entire link is not visible on the PTE site. I must copy and paste the link location in the address line then make the changes, copy it again and paste it in the edited line. It will take a while I'm afraid. Best regards, Lin All Fixed Now - I hope!

Hi Folks, Due to some recent interest in snow effects I have posted two new AVI tutorials for Intermediate/Advanced users of Photoshop who would like to create snow animations where snow builds up on trees, rocks, vegetation, etc., over time during the animation. These two AVI tutorials are accompanied by a "components" zip file which contains modified Panos Snow Globe PNG files to allow those who wish to do so to animate inside a Panos FX created snow globe. The tutorials are number 23 in my tutorials section and are pretty large AVI files being about 110 and 90 meg respectively. To animate the buildup of snow over time and use my tutorials you need to either have Photoshop or be able to extrapolate the Photoshop preparation to your choice of photo editing software which allows selection by color, fill, etc. Unfortunately, I don't have other software such as Elements to experiment with, so if you don't have access to Photoshop you are pretty much on your own. Essentially, what I'm doing is creating multiple PNG files with differing degrees of snow simulation covering vegetation. These are then played back with snow animation inside the snowglobe using PTE's fade in/fade out feature to simulate gradual build up of snow over time. Various other animations such as cloud movement, etc., can be used for more advanced PTE users, but this will give those who are interested some foundations to build on. Below I have placed links to the Tutorials section as well as to a sample of this being done in one of my own simulations: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7901 (link to tutorials page) http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/xmas/springsnowspc.zip (Windows Sample) http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/xmas/springsnowsmac.zip (MacIntosh Sample) Best regards, Lin

Hi, Not bad at all! I'm in the process of moving into town from our ranch so things are in disarray right now but in a couple days I should be able to dig up my tutorials and get the new one posted in the tutorials section here. Do you have Photoshop? If so that will make it easier because my procedures are based on Photoshop but could be extrapolated for any image editing software with similar features. I'll post a notice on the forum when the tutorial is up. Best regards, Lin I have the tutorials posted now and a reminder posted in the Slideshows section: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11568&pid=74898&st=0entry74898

Hi, Looks good! You might want to add an intermediate layer of intermediate sized flakes moving at a different rate and in slightly different direction for maximum effect. In different frames, you could vary the speed of the snowfall and the display time for individual slides. If you are interested, I have a tutorial which I haven't yet posted which will also show you how to build the snow on objects over time such as in this demo: http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/xmas/springsnowspc.zip (Windows - about 35 meg) http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/xmas/springsnowsmac.zip (MacIntosh - about 35 meg) Best regards, Lin

Our thoughts and prayers are with JPD's family. He will be greatly missed. His contributions to PTE were incalculable and his mind was unique. Lin and Sherry Evans

You can't "convert" from an executable file to other formats - to create video files you need the PTE files and original images. Executable code works by giving your computer "instructions" to create transitions, etc., on the fly. Video works by storing created transitions, animations, etc., and playing them back and doesn't require a "cpu" to function hence the ability to play video on "players" which have no real computing "brain." Do you know which version of PTE you shows were created with? It "may" be possible to recover the original images then you could re-create the slideshow in an "internet friendly" format such as AVI, Flash, MP4 h.264, Mpeg 2, etc.. You could also do screen captures to get your images but they would be at the resolution of the display device. Best regards, Lin