Lin Evans

Hi Jim, If you have time, download it again - I've made a few changes and improvements I think. Something I've suggested to Panos for an animation of a possible Photoshop action. Best regards, Lin

Hi Laszlo, That's an easy one for you to do as long as you have the EXE files which you want to run and the computer you want to run them from. Essentially you make a one slide "slideshow" with your choice of buttons or png objects, etc., to use as "objects" for the menu choices. Each object is seen on the one main slide and you can have text under or "on" the object or button. You simply create the number of objects necessary for each one to represent one slideshow to be called. Next click on one of the objects in the object list in Objects and Animations to select it. Next click on the "Properties" tab. Next click on the "Action on Mouse Click" button and choose "Run Slideshow With Return." Next click on the small "Open Folder Icon" underneath and navigate to and select the slideshow to be run. Repeat the above for each object's associated slideshow. Save the file as an Exe. When you run this Exe file then click on a choice it will run the associated slideshow and return to your "Menu". You probably will also want to dedicate one button or object to an "Exit". That's all there is to it.... Best regards, Lin

Winter comes quickly sometimes .... about 7 meg - short demo of the dawn of winter... http://www.learntoma...ntercomespc.zip (Windows) http://www.learntoma...tercomesmac.zip (MacIntosh) Youtube: Lin

Thanks Ray! And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to your and your family as well! Best regards, Lin

About a year ago I started a PTE Group on Vimeo, but never did anything with it because I wasn't yet happy with the performance there. I believe it has greatly improved and wish to extend this invitation to all PTE users who wish to upload to Vimeo to join the group. Hi, Lin Evans wants to share his videos with you on Vimeo. Vimeo is where people connect through video. It's fun and super easy to use. Join Vimeo today and start sharing video with Lin Evans and other cool people you find on Vimeo. http://vimeo.com/join See you there, Lin Evans http://vimeo.com/user724315

Hi Doug, Most photographers use on-line type ordering programs so that the customer can go to the website, choose the "event" and see the images in various formats. Then the customer can pick and choose among the photos and order directly from your website. A program like PTE can be used to easily make a CD or DVD of images, but interactivity is much easier via the web than by a resident software program unless the client can come to your studio to order and choose. You're correct that you wouldn't want to install any software on their own computer. It's much better to have all the private viewing and selection of photos over the web than trying to do it with the inconvenience of the customer traveling to your location. Here's a link to one such software. There are literally dozens, perhaps hundreds of these available: http://www.eventphotosoftware.com/index.html Take your time and find one which fits your own personal needs best, and use PTE for its intended purpose as a presentation slideshow product rather than a crippled sales tool. The software which is specifically designed to sell photos is much more useful for this purpose. Best regards, Lin

Link on Vimeo for those with less than optimal video cards here: http://vimeo.com/8110601 Lin

Does it "crash" when you load the Video Builder Key? Does 6.0 crash when you try to open PTE after installing the Video Builder upgrade? More information will help sort out the problem. Best regards, Lin

Actually, It would be "possible" to do this (zoom) now via the "show Window" feature, but I'm not sure all the work would be worth it. You could set a button for each image with the button (or area of screen) to show a zoomed window for image 1 or image 2 when clicked on. It's not difficult to program, but I don't think PTE is really designed for this type of interactivity in terms of "choice." It's really not that type of program even though it can be used to display full resolution slides. There are specific software packages which are "interactive" in that you can do these types of things while the program is running, but not as a show completed and made executable. I think for a photography business where the intent is to display side-by-side images, make a choice and proceed, PTE is not the proper tool. There are packages designed specifically for these purposes. Best regards, Lin

Hi Maureen, Beautifully photographed and masterfully presented! We believe you have captured the essence of not only the season, but the place as well. We thoroughly enjoyed this and hope someday to see it for ourselves! Best regards, Lin & Sherry

Hi Ken, I'm impressed that the 9600 card handles so much very well. ATI has done a great job with this on - you can watch TV or compute or do great graphics and animation! I was worried that the poor girl floating in the Manihi Lagoon might be scared right out of her bikini if one of those reef sharks cruised by. Then I would be left with an "R" rated show and have to censor my audience - LOL Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, Unfortunately, it is true - at least for the 8800 GT. I had to upgrade my default Dell 350 watt power supply to a 750 watt to accommodate the 8800 GT. Actually, it only required a 450 watt power supply but there was such a little difference in cost that I bought the larger one. You can buy a "good" quality 750 watt power supply for under $100 U.S.D. Having more reserve power means that the fan runs very rarely and it's whisper quiet. Unfortunately, Dell is terribly "stingy" on their power supplies and didn't even have available connectors to power the 8800 GT. Most of the more powerful video cards require power not only from the bus connector, but also from the power supply as well. A good, shielded power supply is really an excellent investment, especially if you are running numerous peripheral devices all pulling power from your system. This time of year I envy your great warm temperatures! When I was young, I really enjoyed battling the elements, shoveling snow, skiing, snowshoeing, winter camping, etc., but these days I tend to complain more and do less - LOL. I enjoy playing more with the computer than fighting the weather anymore - HA! I use getting older as an excuse, but I think I've just gotten lazy. I used to make 50 mile, high altitude (13,000 - 14,000 feet elevation) treks to photograph wildlife and now I look for longer focal length glass so I can sit more and walk less! I've go to change these habits soon or I will not be able to in a few years. About 10 miles is all I'm good for these days before I start thinking about making camp, warm soup and a comfortable sleeping bag. Well, the sun has finally come out and I guess I'd better get back to snow removal... Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, The timings are 32 seconds for the falling leaves in the Great Smoky Mountains, 57 seconds for the snow/moonrise at Bear Lake, Colorado, 56 seconds for the Iguazu Falls and 52 seconds for the summer at Manihi Lagoon (Tahiti), I suspect that it's (the Falls display time) a perceptual thing because there is less obviously visible going on depending on the size and resolution of one's monitor. With a really large and high resolution display there are subtleties in the Iguazu Falls which take a bit of time to digest so perhaps it may depend on one's environment while watching. Perceptually, the last slide at Manihi seems to go very fast while the moon rise and Iguazu Falls seem much slower even though there are only a few seconds separating them. Changing the timings much more requires a tremendous amount of rework because the animation was originally timed for a 60 second cycle for individual slides. To shorten one of the slides requires lengthening another to match the background music. This (timing issue) is especially true of the Iguazu Falls because changing the timing dramatically requires rework of about 10 separate PNG motion layers so I probably won't rework it much. It does indeed require a pretty powerful video card to run things smoothly. If you decide to upgrade, be sure to visit this link and check the ratings for any desired card. The nVidia 8800 GT ranks 46 in current order of power testing and newer and more powerful cards are being released daily. When I bought the card it was one of the top rated, but now ranks only in the upper 1/4 or so. The speed rating on this particular site is 957 for the 8800 GT and higher numbers are better. The top ranked cards may go as high as 2582 (ATI Radeon HD 5870) so there are a number to choose from but I would suggest one at least as high as the 8800 GT. http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ Best regards, Lin

Hi Bill, Yes, way below zero today and probably won't warm up until perhaps Thursday or Friday. I've been shoveling snow for the last couple days trying to stay ahead of it. Hopefully, by Thursday I'll have the driveways cleared and a path to the barn. The "hickup" isn't surprising because the show is really graphics intensive. Depending on one's video card it "can" be smooth, but it takes a pretty powerful card to run the whole thing smoothly. I figure a minimum of an nVidia 8800 GT and anything better to really do it justice. On the waterfall graphic there are multiple PNG files on different layers as well as a mask or two. It's always more taxing when the water movement is in different directions. That particular shot was an aerial photo of Iguazu Falls by the great French Photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand, the author of Earth From Above which is a fantastic book of his aerial photos. It's a particularly difficult one to animate because of all the different directions of water flow. I've added a final animated "summer" globe to the show (same links) so can finally get back to shoveling snow tomorrow morning - LOL. Best regards, Lin

Hi, You don't actually need a BluRay burner to create a 1080p HD show, but you do need a BluRay player or an hdmi cable and hdmi output on the computer to play it back on a television. To create the file with PTE, you set your original images to the desired resolution (1920x1080) and create the slideshow. Then you use the "Create" HD Video for PC and Mac to output an MP4 h.264 file. From this point, you have several options. If you want to place this file on a standard DVD media blank (4.7 gigabyte) then you need some specialized software which formats a standard DVD media blank to a BluRay compatible format and burns your MP4 file to the disc. There are several software packages such as Pinnacle Studio 12 (and probably Pinnacle 14), Nero, etc., which can do this. PTE doesn't burn a BluRay directly. Once burned to media, you then need a compatible player which will play the BluRay compatible disc. Most of the newer BluRay players will do this. You can't, however, play the BluRay formatted disc on a standard DVD player which is designed for PAL or NTSC format even though it may have been used to create the high definition DVD. You could also use one of the Western Digital devices which are available to play the 1080p mp4 h.264 or if you have a computer (preferably a notebook) with an HDMI output you can play the executable directly without going through the process of creating a video (mp3 h.264). The very best quality will be the executable played directly via the HDMI cable and output using the TV as the computer monitor. PTE's Video Builder does not support burning BluRay directly at this time. Perhaps in the future. Buying a BluRay recorder for a PC is possible, but quite expensive and not really necessary, nor in my opinion the best way to go. Best regards, Lin

Hi Laszlo, I believe your problem is the order in which you are using the Shift key and mouse key. You must press the shift key on the keyboard first, before depressing the left mouse key. Then slowly move the mouse so that the mouse cursor moves over the small center "circle" "without" depressing the left mouse button. Once you have done this and the mouse cursor passes directly over the tiny circle in the exact center of the object, a small "square" will appear underneath your mouse "arrow." At this time depress the left mouse button and hold it down and "drag" the center into the desired position. If you don't see the small "square" appear, you do not have the center selected and depressing and holding down the left mouse button will only result in dragging the entire image off center when you move the mouse. I've made a little AVI for you - download it here: http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/laszlo.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Laszio, Post me a link to the PTE file and I'll be glad to check it for you and see. The things which can keep a center from moving are wrong selection (not actually selecting what you believe you are selecting) because you might not have "Ignore Objects Not Selected" checked in the "Tools" button in O&A or having the aforementioned non-linear motion set for the object, etc. Also there are "some" times when a parent/child relation is set that you may not be able to select the center on a child object. It all depends a great deal on specifics. If you wish you can email me at: lin@learntomakeslideshows.net and post a link and I'll check it and find out for you. Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, Thanks! It's good to hear that it's working for several! Best regards, Lin

Hi Bill, Thanks! It's always fun pushing the software to see what the limits might be! Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, I'll work on that! Or, at least something summer-like... Best regards, Lin

Hi Laszlo, Could you, perhaps, have your motion set to "smooth" or other non-linear? You must do the center movement before setting motion to other than linear. Leave any changes in motion from linear until the last step. This may not be your problem, but actually it should be quite easy to change the center of any object. Another possibility is whether or not you have parent/child relationships set up. If you will post the PTE file and tell me the object you wish to change the center of rotation on, and how you want it to perform, I'll do it for you and you can then see how it was accomplished. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Thanks! I wish it were smooth for all, but just can't get the quantity of leaves without significant load on the graphics. I've tested it on several systems and it varies quite a bit, so this is probably another good one to test a video environment with. If a video card runs this one smoothly it's pretty well optimized I suspect. Best regards, Lin

Tom, I finally got the leaves pretty much as I wanted them - same link - some significant improvement I think. Unfortunately, this is really graphics intensive. Even my wife's overclocked nVidia 8600 GT has a tiny bit of jerky motion on that animation. It's butter smooth on my 8800 GT but I fear that it will be on the ragged edge for many viewers. Hopefully in a year or so the need to use so much care in motion will subside with better video hardware becoming increasingly available. I've made the objects (leaves) about as small as practical and there are only 12 of them, but duplicated twelve times so that there are 144 falling leaves each with its own motion animation which puts quite a bit of stress on the video. It's a pity that those with less than optimal video can't enjoy the same motion and smoothness that we who have upgraded video cards can. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jim, LOL - Winter's here and zero degrees F in Colorado! It's definitely the graphics card issue - this one is pretty graphics intensive with the combinations of masking and larger objects. Unfortunately, there is no other way I know of doing it. Hopefully, in a year of so everyone will have a decent graphics environment as older cards get replaced or systems get upgraded and these issues will be just fond memories. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ron, Whether or not it pertains to the issue I'm not certain, but yes, the 8800 GT is "magnititudes" better than the FX1700, but it's made for desktop and not for mobile (Laptop), etc. The FX1700 has a G3D rating of 310 and a ranking of 213 while the 8800 GT has G3D rating of 958 and a ranking of 46. This makes the 8800 GT over 400 percent stronger for graphics. If you are using the FX1700 in a desktop, I would definitely suggest upgrading if you want to do much in the way of animation. I would suggest at least an nVidia 8600 GT card. The 8600 GT doesn't require a big power supply and the 8800 GT requires at least a 450 watt power supply and must have power from not only the bus but also from additional leads on the power supply. I can't tell you whether or not a more powerful graphics card will solve the problem, but there are "many" better cards than the FX1700. Go here: http://www.picturest...showtopic=10555 Click on the link there and look up any video card and see the ratings, etc., before buying. There are many newer cards than the 8600 GT and the 8800 GT which are both more powerful and cheaper. Best regards, Lin