Lin Evans

Hi Artie, Glad to see you over here! From the Main Screen (not Objects and Animations screen), as Tom says, if you click on "Slide" (at the top of the screen) then on "Reset Personal Settings of All Slides," the program will automatically remove whatever "custom" settings you may have set on individual slides and set everything back to the default of 4 seconds per slide display. You may then click on the "Project Options" button (bottom left quadrant of the screen) and on the "Main" tab you can set the display time to a different value (Time Interval for New Slides) if you wish and then click on "Set For Existing Slides" and all slides will be set to your new chosen value. Then, if you wish to have certain slides display for different times, you can navigate to the slide where you want a different setting and use the "Customize Slide" button to override the universal setting you have programmed for all slides and only the presently selected slide will have the new setting. This way you can set certain slides for custom time displays as well as custom transitions, etc. If you have problems with this just ask and I'll be glad to help you get the settings you want for any of your shows. Best regards, Lin

Hi Bill, The nature of software development is essentially that it "happens" when it happens. It's really not possible when developing for a new platform to give accurate estimates of when a product might be ready. There are myriad issues and lots of testing which must happen before release of a new product and the Wnsoft development team is proceeding as quickly as possible. Right now it is possible to run Windows on your Mac and produce native MacIntosh output. You can also produce MP4, AVI, DVD and even output a file which can easily be converted to BluRay for customers. Although we would all love to have a native MacIntosh version yesterday, there are other considerations which the developers also have yet to implement in the Windows version such as video clip drop in and rudimentary sound controls - these will help complete the "package" for PTE to be the very best product available for professionals to use to make presentation slideshows. I don't believe you will ever see a MacIntosh version of Producer. In my opinion, it's just too cobbled in terms of programming and way too complex with too many bugs to convert. As a former developer myself, I see it as having gone down the "try to be everything to everyone" road with the "jack of all trades, master of none" theme. PTE, in contrast, has stayed relatively pure in that the developers make every effort to swat bugs "as" they appear and they have not sold out by rushing features which work poorly or not at all. If you want to experience a major degree of frustration, just try to do off-center rotation with Producer, etc. Their attempts at matching some of PTE's features (keyframing, for example) have confused and confounded many of their users. They try to do "workarounds" to emulate some PTE features by means of what they call "modifiers" which are convoluted and clumsy. They have no 3D engine and it would take a miracle of programming to incorporate some of the great PTE features into their code. The PTE developers will put out a true Mac version in good time when it's "ready" for prime time. I don't believe they can give you a realistic estimate of when it will be ready, but be assured that they are working diligently to do this. As soon as they are close they will let us know. In my opinion, until then we must be patient and let them work without pressure. Best regards, Lin

Hi Xaver, I think it's all relative (lens rating) when it comes to extreme zoom lenses. If pixel peeping, there are obvious deficiencies in nearly all long zoom lenses, but for use in relatively low resolution (1080p) video, these issues are mostly moot. Even the sub-average rating zooms such as the Tamron, Canon and even Nikon are magnitudes better in most ways than the lenses you get with camcorders in my experience. I suspect that the Tamron will do just fine for the intended purpose. Best regards, Lin

Hi Brian, I assume you mean a template in the sense of being able to simply change file names so others can use your creation rather than the "template" feature of PTE which gathers files into a single location? If so, it's fairly straight-forward. Give your file names a very generic name such as image001.jpg, image002.jpg, etc. Then after you have finished your project, others simply rename their own images to the same names and replace your files with their own. They do this by copying their own renamed file into the folder containing your own PTE project overwriting your original files. You only need to tell the user whether the images are in portrait or landscape format and what the aspect ratio of the originals were. For example, if you create a 16:9 aspect ratio photo, then a user of your template must also either crop their own to that aspect ratio or use images having a 16:9 aspect ratio. If you use 3:2 (typical dSLR photo) then you need to inform the user accordingly, etc. It's really fairly simple - just be certain to use generic file names and use meaningful names for objects which identify their purpose to the user. Best regards, Lin

Hi Summer, Go to Main Screen, Project Options, Comments Tab. Look for "insert template" (underlined in blue). Click on this and you will get a drop-down list. Find "Picture Name" - or if you want also the extension, then use "Picture Name with Extension" and then click on "set for all slides" - that's all there is to it. Lin

Hey Jeff, Hint: Remember the opening for 2001 a Space Odyssey? Remember the monolith (sort of cube) and the one planted on the moon as sort of a space age "alarm" to possibly indicate to those who apparently "seeded" Earth for our development when our fledgling attempts at leaving this "big blue ball" were successful? The cube finally lost its battle "defying gravity" - LOL. The shooting star would be possible but not really "accurate" since a meteorite develops its intense heat from friction with the Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere in the simulation is such a tiny proportion of the overall scene that the significance would be lost I'm afraid. Shooting stars are viewed from Earth as the mass accelerates when attracted by gravitational forces and from space would be just a "blip" on the horizon. What "would" be accurate and perhaps possible would be a nice comet?? I'll have to think on that one! Best regards, Lin

Hey Tom, We do what we can! LOL. Yep, that's a pretty steep re-entry angle for sure. Did you notice where the cube ended up? Right back in Rocky Mountain National Park so the "critters" can either return home or at least their "ashes" can be interred there if the angle was too steep and the descent too rapid! Best regards, Lin

LOL - the simulation only covers three days or so. It could be that the clouds will be back! This time of year we will take any good weather which providence sends our way!! Best regards, Lin

Hey Ken, Good one! L

Congratulations to the entire Wnsoft PTE development and support team! A wonderful product and done in record time!!!! It's time for some holiday and celebration now.............. Best regards, Lin

Defying Gravity is a song written and performed by Jesse Winchester. It was also performed by various other artists including Emmylou Harris, Jimmie Buffett and Waylon Jennings. There is another song with the same title from the play "Wicked" which is performed by various artists, but this is not that one. There is a hidden "implication" in this - see if you can detect it! About 10 minutes running time.... http://www.learntoma...nggravitypc.zip (Windows PC - about 20 meg) http://www.learntoma...ggravitymac.zip (MacIntosh - about 20 meg) Lin

Hi Jean Pierre, Excellent suggestion! Hopefully, Igor will be able to implement this in the very near future! best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, The little guy (is that Rocky or Romeo?) looks like the candles are keeping him warm in spite of the snow! Very nice - I'm glad you found the free converter which seems to work fine. I think it's fine the way it is. To preload, you generally need Flash FLV which is a bit more complex and usually requires a commercial converter which also creates a player. For no more size than the three meg for your animation, I think the SWF file is fine. You might want to put a little text reminder for visitors to "wait" for a few seconds until the animation begins. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, What you need to do then is simply build the cube at the starting keyframe exactly as in my AVI tutorial. This will leave you with a full size cube which can then be sized with the controller frame. This can then be dragged anywhere on or off screen by dragging the controller frame. Next you would create a keyframe at the time where you want the cube to appear in the center of the screen and drag the cube via the controller frame to that position. Next you would resize the controller frame at that position then for the controller frame only, set the X and Y axis to the number of degrees and direction you want the spin. Fine tune the position for the stop by incrementing the degrees of X or Y (depending on how you set up the spin) until the proper face of the cube appears centered. I've made a quick sample you can use as either a template by changing image names or just use it to understand the keyframes. I've made it stop on the chipmunk. http://www.learntoma...ple/forjeff.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, I'm not 100% clear on what you want to do. Child objects inherit motion (pan, zoom, rotate) from the parent but they do not inherit opacity or color. When you say you want to drag and drop the frame and contents "off-centre" is where I loose you. When you say "off-centre" do you mean you want to change the point of center for rotation purposes, etc., or or you trying to move the images themselves up/down or left/right of the center of the display? If you could explain precisely what it is you are trying to do maybe I could give you some suggestions. Best regards, Lin

Hi Daniel, Both are perfect on my CRT computer screen so it's difficult for me to assess the issue. Shimmering is an effect which may be caused by several factors and ameliorated by several means including your video card settings. Since I don't see the problem on my CRT, I tried it on my wife's LCD display and couldn't see it there either. Both have nVidia video cards. Mine is an 8800 GT and hers an 8600 GT OC (over clocked). Both have 512 meg video RAM. The first thing, of course, is to set mipmapping (antishimmer) on and it appears that you have already done this. Perhaps others might also look at these pans of the panorama and see how many actually see shimmering on vertical objects. You might want to read this as well and see if there are settings for your own video card: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2541757 Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, You have several options. First, if you own PTE Deluxe you can use it to create either an AVI which can be converted via programs such as Isabelle uses, or you can also output a high definition MP4 h.264 file which can then be uploaded automatically to either Vimeo or Youtube. You can then embed the Vimeo or Youtube link directly into your website and your visitors can play the file when they visit your site. You may have seen embedded Youtube links right here. Several members use them including theDom. I'm assuming you want to play your snowglobe animations from your post on Panos' site. If so, tell me if you have your own website where you want to embed the Flash or other files and it will be easier to help you get started. The various Flash converters all make SWF Flash files. Some also make Flash FLV files. If your entire animation is fairly short (under 8 minutes or so) then Flash SWF sometimes will be just fine. For larger Flash files or for longer play time, Flash FLV allows what it know as "preload." Preloading lets a chosen percentage of the file spool to the user's hard disk on a hidden and temporary folder then playback begins after this amount of the file has downloaded. The preload prevents people with low bandwidth from having start/stop action and assures a smooth presentation. The advantage of Flash over other types of output such as MP4 h.264 is that it can easily be embedded on your own website. The down side is that you need to purchase a converter, or search the web for a free converter. There are some free converters available, but generally, these are not as good as the ones you purchase. The advantage of embedding a Youtube or Vimeo show on your website is that you don't have to pay for it. If there is a disadvantage, it's that the Vimeo or Youtube identity splash will always be shown. If you sign up for a free Vimeo or Youtube account, then that information is placed in your PicturesToExe upload file and once that has been done, you can automatically upload to either of these sites. Both provide link scripts so you may embed them in your own website and the visitor to your site never has to leave it to play the slideshow. So let us know whether you have a website and whether you own PTE or not, and then we can help you decide on the best way to proceed. Best regards, Lin

Hi Henri, John, Thanks! The PTE file has also been zipped and added underneath the link to the AVI in the PTE Made Easy (PTE For Smarties) section of the tutorials forum for anyone to experiment with.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, I got a DNS error, so I deleted the link and re-created it and it seems to be working. Could have been a temp problem on my server - hard to say. If you get a chance try it again... Best regards, Lin

Subsequent to my demo the other day (Crittercube) of a rotating 3D cube created in PTE 6.0 beta, theDom posted a very nice free template for PTE forum visitors to use to insert their own images and instantly have a very nice 3D cube with text and images. Following, there was some discussion and one or two forum members were curious about how this was done. It is much easier to see visually than to explain verbally, so I created an AVI tutorial which shows the exact steps one may use to create and manipulate their own 3D cubes in PTE version 6. A couple years ago, JPD did this "the hard way" with an older version of PTE and with the incredible new 3D transform feature added by the Igor and the developers of PTE, it's quite easy to do now once one understands the 3D transform features and especially the Pan Z function. I placed the zipped AVI and zipped PTE files in the PTE For Smarties section and reworked some of that post to make it easier to find the sections. Now they are numbered in red and you will find this tutorial at number 18. Here's a link to the section for anyone interested: http://www.picturest...topic=7901&st=0 Here's a direct link to the AVI tutorial: http://www.learntoma...ubecreation.zip Lin

Hi Jays, LOL - You are responding to a March "2006" post.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, It's a fun little exercise - essentially, one just copies and pastes the cube animation within the mask container then uses the controlling frame to increase the size. In this particular case, because of the correlated movement of the combined hand/magnifying glass and cube movement, it also required numerous keyframes to sync the mask size to the magnifying glass frame. It's actually fairly simple to do but requires iterative keyframe placement which is accomplished by sliding the blue triangle to maximum "out of phase" positions then inserting a correction keyframe. Lots of "fine tuning" but pretty straight-forward to accomplish. Best regards, Lin

LOL - I'll tell the "hand model" (Sherry)... Definitely could use bigger text for the tiny size of the cube. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Download once again - I think the original link was wrong... Best regards, Lin

I liked Dom's idea of putting the text on the cube, so I borrowed his cube with my images to see how it would look under the magnifying glass! Just a little fun experiment with moving animation under the magnifying mask... About 3.7 meg in Mac & PC zipped executable format... http://www.learntoma...2magnifymac.zip (MacIntosh) http://www.learntoma...e2magnifypc.zip (Windows PC) Lin