Lin Evans

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

Hi Gary, Let me try to explain it to you. A cube has six sides and two sides lie parallel with each other at all times. Dom created three frames. Each frame lies in the center of one set of two sides of the cube. Imagine a cube (create one out of paper if it helps to visualize this) with a long hat pin pressed through the very center of one side and coming out the other side so that this pin goes exactly through the center of two of the parallel images. Now imagine that another long hat pin goes through two more images right in the center. In order to do this precisely, hat pin two would necessarily penetrate hat pin one. So if you were to remove the cube you would have two pins forming a perfect cross with all four lengths equal to one another. Now in your mind, put the cube back on the two pins and imagine a third hat pin through the exact center of the two remaining parallel sides of the cube. Now mentally remove the cube and what do you have left? You have a wire device with six pins (the top and bottom of each of the three) joined in the very center. Now imagine that you number each of the cube sides from one through six. Then imagine that you cut them out so you have six square, identical flat pieces of paper, but with a different picture drawn on each. Now, carefully stick side 1 and two on opposite ends of the same hat pin, balanced perfectly in the very center. You now have two sides of a cube which are "controlled" by one of the original hat pins. Now imagine that this hat pin has been replaced by an invisible "frame" in PTE. The frame, as a parent, controls the motion of the two cut out images. The images are rotated so that each are parallel to the plane of the frame. Frame one lies up and down. This would represent the "Y" axis. Now imagine exactly the same for a second frame which lies horizontal with images 3 and 4. This would represent the "X" axis. Now imagine exactly the same for a third "hat pin" frame which lies with one end of the hat pin facing you and the opposite end facing exactly away from you. This represents the "Z" axis. This is how the cube which Dom has created works. One frame which is oriented at 90 degrees on the X axis has two images it controls which form the top and bottom of the cube. To get in proper orientation, the top image is rotated 180 degrees on its "Y" axis which the bottom image is moved to 100 on the "Z" axis. The next frame controlling the right and left side of the cube (as oriented from your line of sight) has its frame rotated -90 degrees on the "Y" axis and to properly orient the two sides the one on your right is oriented 180 degrees on the "Y" axis and 100 on the "Z" axis (pan "Z"). The next frame controlling the front and back images (from your orientation) is set to zero on "X", "Y", and "Z", while the cube side facing you is at zero for "X" and "Y" and -100 for the "Z" pan depth while the side opposite is zero on the "X" axis, "180" on the "Y" axis and 100 on pan "Z". If you rotate the controlling frame for each pair of sides, you will see how this works. So what you have are three frames all as children of a controlling frame each having two child image "sides" of the cube. By precise alignment for depth ("Z" axis) and rotation orientation via "X" and "Y" axis, a perfect "cube" is formed. The "Whole Cube" frame controls the three child frames which in turn each hold two child images in proper orientation to form the cube. Best regards, Lin

Hi Carolyn, There is no universal copy/paste to all slides feature, actually that is not something most would use because each slide may be quite different. Perhaps the easiest way to do what you want is to simply place a single slide into the slideshow and make all your custom shadows, etc., add your image then save the show. Re-open and copy paste the original slide as many times as you intend to have new slides in your show. If your slideshow consists of 30 slides, just copy/paste the original 30 times. Once you have done this, then just use the "Change Image File" to replace the second through nth slide with the one you want in the sequence. The shadows, and added slide, etc., will then appear exactly as in the first slide for all subsequent slides. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, The latest update of AVG detects this false positive as far back as PTE 5.7 beta version 2 - LOL. It's yet another sloppy AVG false positive. They err on the side of caution to the degree that they produce numerous false positives on other software as well. I had to disable my AVG resident scanner to install beta 23, but a scan detects the same false positive on all betas since beta 2. Igor has been notified. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, It's a false positive by AVG - this same error has been happening with latest AVG detection since PTE beta version 2 of 5.7. That is AVG's latest upload detects this "trojan" with even 5.7 beta 2. I had to disable my resident AVG shield to install the latest beta 23. AVG needs to be notified so they can fix their problem. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Dom, Ken, Sorry, I've been gone most of the day working on setting cement board for putting tile in the kitchen of the place we will be moving into. It's a real mess right now. Four years ago we bought carpet for the entire little house but it wasn't cleaned out and we ran out of funds to continue working on it. Now that we are loosing the ranch to foreclosure, we are forced to get it into condition to live in. The company we purchased the carpet from sold it because we couldn't install so we lost about $800 in credit and the price of carpeting has doubled since then. They were nice enough to give us $2,064 in credit which is just enough to carpet the living room, hall and family room. The kitchen had been carpeted but trashed so I've had to put in a new sink, new garbage disposal and have to paint the entire house inside and about half of the outside. I ripped the carpet out of the kitchen and just finished laying the cement board and will tile the floor tomorrow. I've only got another week to finish the painting inside before the carpet layers will be out so will not be around too much on the forum for the next week or so. I still have to put tile in two bathrooms and change some light fixtures, replace a toilet and repair lots of really trashed doors, closets, etc. The water heater had burst and flooded the living room and hall so have to replace that as well. Too much work for this old rancher - LOL - I'm feeling my age tonight! Tom, I don't know if it's going to be possible to animate the face of a cube because of the front/back thing, I'll have to think some about how to proceed. It's easy enough to mask off the area but I'm not certain whether I can keep the snow/water from being seen through the other sides of the cube yet. I tried yesterday but was not successful so need to ponder on it a bit - LOL.... Best regards, Lin

Hi José, Just a little more beside what Tom explained. If you use the create in zip for the Mac, the Mac user will unzip and they will only see a single icon even though there are a number of folders and files. When they click the icon the slideshow will play. It confused me as well when I first saw all the folders and files, but everything works perfectly for those with Intel based MacIntosh computers running OS 10.4 or better. The zip is by far the easiest way to distribute to a Mac user. It is indeed as easy as for a PC user because the Mac user only sees an Icon which when clicked will play the slideshow. Best regards, Lin

An interesting observation.... I copied and pasted the controlling frame for the crittercube demo and simply moved the start point for the duplicate. The interesting observation was how moving the starting location for the cube movement nicely shows how position on the screen affects timing and motion in 3D. Just as it should, the cube on the right side has a slightly different 3D position and slightly different timing than the original, even though they are absolute duplicates except for starting screen position. This demonstrates how 3D works in relation to "where" on the screen the motion or animation takes place. Interesting! Crittercube dance in Mac and Windows version.... http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/crittercubedance.zip (Windows) http://www.learntoma...ubedancemac.zip (MacIntosh) Lin

Hi Henri, That's great to hear! I will try to do it if I get a few moments. I think the one Dom posted will work perfectly though. There are a number of logical ways to build the cube and all seem to work equally well. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, Nice one! It is great to have the 3D Transform feature available and definitely simplifies creating some great effects. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Unfortunately, transparency (opacity) is not an "inherited" attribute so the only way to alter transparency is to change it for all six sides evenly via keyframes. It would be possible to add duplicate cubes by copy and paste of the frame then change the frame's 3D transformations for different effects. It would also be possible to add different images via substitution or "name change" but I didn't actually design it correctly (I should have named the slides image1.jpg, image2.jpg, etc.) for that purpose. I suppose it could be made into a template, but probably I should design it from the ground up for that purpose for the best results. Yes, Jean Pierre did indeed post the first six sided 3D rotation and it was "much" more difficult and complex before the 3D transform feature which greatly simplifies building the cube. It's a pretty straight-forward task now. The future of different animated effects via PTE is looking very bright these days. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, Actually, that's quite possible - see my most recent demo of "Critter Cube" which is a six sided cube created and animated entirely within PTE. The complete animation of the cube is controlled from a single frame. It's definitely not necessary to animate individual components though it is quite possible to do so. The strength of the PTE approach is that you have both inheritance from the parent as well as individual child animation possible - it makes many of my sequences possible. You just need to spend a little more time working with the new features to fully understand them. Look at some of JPD's animations for some inspiration - they are done in a similar way. Best regards, Lin

Hi Alan, Good to hear that it runs smoothly! Yes, the cube was entirely constructed in PTE 6 beta 21 from the elements first seen in the opening sequence. I believe there are several logical ways to construct such a cube, but I did it by making each of the six sides children of a controlling frame as well as children of each other. The frame controls rotation on the X Y axis in 3D space while both the Pan Z and conventional zoom parameters are used to control size and placement. The 3D X and Y transform controls the position of the pieces respective of each other while the 3D X and Y parameters of the controlling frame controls 3D rotation of the whole. On the opening sequence, all six images are children of a controlling parent frame and their individual "depth" separation is controlled by their respective "Pan Z" settings and the 3D Transform Angle Y of the frame controls their collective position angle. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Good to hear - it doesn't use too much in the way of resources so "should" be pretty clean on most systems. It actually looks decent on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.c...d&sa=0&sq=&dm=1 or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Z2wcVUtqA Lin

Just a little demo of some things possible with Version 6 Beta 21+ About 2.2 meg http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/crittercubepc.zip (PC version) http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/crittercubemac.zip (Mac version) Lin