Lin Evans

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 Now imagine that this hat pin has been replaced by an invisible "frame" in PTE.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

Hi Dom, Thanks! I edited my original post to explain that one must have version 6 beta 21 or better to get the 3D depth function of Z position. Best regards, Lin

Hi Folks, On my last tutorial on the new 3D Transform features of PTE Version 6, I covered the X and Y transform and showed how it might be used to make reflections or flip images vertically or horizontally, but I saved the "Z" Position for another tutorial. theDom posted a very nice example of how the Z Position works, so I thought it would be prudent to make the brief tutorial explaining how this works. You can download the AVI from either the PTE Made Easy (PTE For Smarties) section of the tutorial forum page, or here for your convenience: As Dom pointed out in the post below - this only works with PTE version 6 beta 21 or greater.... Igor made changes from the earlier version which was actually only a perspective zoom. The new Z Position feature functions as a 3D "depth" feature and is indeed a fantastic addition to PTE. http://www.learntoma...3dzposition.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Be certain that the cube can accommodate a sufficiently large power supply to drive the necessarily powerful video card. I discovered when I ordered a Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop with the largest power supply available for it that it was insufficient to drive the nVidia 8800 GT video card. At that time, the nVidia 8800 GT was close to the top in terms of performance, but now it rests well below half way down the list with a rating of 949 compared to over 2023 for a top end nVidia GTX 285 card. The more powerful video cards generally require at least a 500 watt or greater power supply (I installed a 750 watt one in my Inspiron) and also must have connectors to furnish power to the card itself. Smaller, less powerful video cards draw all needed power from the BUS. The larger video cards also may take a couple slots away from the motherboard. They don't "use" two slots, but their size makes it impossible to fit another card into an adjacent slot. This may or may not be an issue for the "cube" but it's worth investigating early in the decision making process rather than later. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, You find the "low quality of resizing" in PTE - Objects and Animations - Property Tab I think the word you are looking for is "snap to grid" but it doesn't apply here unless you were using the grid feature. If you place a check mark beside "low quality of resizing" you "should" be able to line everything up perfectly. Don't let it confuse you, it's really very simple. You add a rectangle before you place your objects. Next, highlight the word rectangle in the objects list, right click the mouse, choose "Add" then "New Image" choose the pieces by holding down the CTRL key on the key board and click each with the mouse. Then you simply click on "Open" and PTE will place the separate pieces offset under you image name. They are now "children" of the rectangle. Any pans, zooms or rotates you perform on the rectangle object will be reflected with all the pieces, but you can also move the pieces independently of the parent rectangle. The "children" all inherit the motion of the parent rectangle, but may have their own movement independently as well. So, if you want to zoom the assembled image, you don't need to zoom each piece individually. You just zoom the rectangle. If you want to pan the assembled image you pan the rectangle, if you want to rotate the assembled image, you rotate the rectangle. Play around with it and you will quickly see how it works. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, I'm not sure what the problem might be. I did a slice demo a while back and had not problems at all lining things up perfectly. I'm wondering if there might be some issue with your video driver, etc.? I'll test a few possibilities and get back to you. Did you by any chance not have a checkmark beside "low quality of resizing?" If not, put a checkmark there to avoid pixel rounding and try again. Also, you may want to put all of you pieces under a rectangle as children so when and if you decide to do something in the way of animation with the combined image, you won't have a problem with realignment. When you make fine adjustments to position of the pieces, don't use the mouse because it isn't precise enough. Do the very fine adjustments with numeric insertions. I begin each "split" by aligning everything perfectly then write down the numeric for each piece's X and Y pan. This way you can manipulate the slices any way you want via the keyframe then simply enter the original keyframe numbers for each piece to reassemble them perfectly. Lin

Hi, It sounds like your are resizing (you mention of checking or not the "low quality resize" button). Find the Photoshop size of your original image then open PTE with that original slide loaded. Go to Objects and Animations and click on the "Common" tab. Click on the Size and Position in Pixels button. Click on the "In Pixels" tab. Type in the exact pixel dimensions as given by Photoshop for your image under "size." Now test it with the preview and it should be identical to your Photoshop image. How are you getting the "crop" from your example? Are you using a screen capture tool, etc. If you resize by either using the bounding rectangle or by typing in zoom dimensions, the image is being manipulated. If you play the image back at its original size there should be no change Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, What magnification are you using in O&A? Crank it up to about 400% to do your pixel match and you shouldn't have any problems. A thin line between segments means that you don't have a perfect pixel match. This should be apparent at large magnification, but possibly not on a smaller screen. Best regards, Lin

Hi David, I get it, I just believe that there is no "correct" answer, only preference. It's like arguing whether Apricots or Plums are "better." For me the large screen TV is better; for you the projector is better. It's all a matter of "taste." Best regards, Lin

Hi Max, Yes, you can easily make the reflection at any angle both horizontally or vertically. You have complete control via the X and Y axis. The reflection I used was 180 degrees or a complete vertical flip, but you can set the angle to any degree for either the main image or the reflection or both. Best regards, Lin

Hi David, You do see the fallacy in that logic, don't you? if 2' 8" and 4' 8" are the same, then it follows that 4' 8" and 8' are as well. Actually, I don't believe that 2'8" and 4'8" are the same at all myself, especially if you are dealing with the same technology. Personally, I believe that a 60" large screen high definition television displaying a high definition 1080p slideshow is superior to a 1080p projector projected at identical dimensions. It then follows that as you increase the size of the projection with the attendant and necessary decrease in brightness and contrast, the larger projected image has less acuity and sharpness. The point is that a 60" large screen is quite large enough for 100 people to clearly see a very nice slideshow at 30'. If by preference you like it larger, dimmer and with less acuity then blowing it up to 8' with a projector is a valid choice. The only important thing is that you use what works best for your individual situation. Best regards, Lin

Hi, The only time PTE modifies an image in terms of visible quality is when you have the anti-shimmer or blur checked in Objects and Animations. If you display the image at original dimensions at 100% there is no modification at all. If you display fit to slide or cover slide, etc., and the display resolution is smaller in pixel dimensions than the original image, the image will be downsampled to fit that screen size. If the original image is smaller than the display resolution it will be upsampled. You have the option of either choosing fit to slide where the image fills the horizontal aspect of the display or cover slide where the image covers the vertical aspect of the display. You may also choose to type in the original dimensions of the image and when you have not altered the zoom in Objecta and Animations, the full original image is displayed with absolutely no alteration. If you have resampled your camera's capture to the display device's pixel dimensions in either horizontal or vertical aspect (or both depending on the display's aspect ratio) then by choosing either fit to slide or cover slide there would be no change at all from your original resample providing that the aspect ratio of your resample perfectly matched the display device. For example, if you crop your original capture to 1920 x 1080 and displayed this image on a wide screen 1080p television, neither fit to slide or cover slide would change the image in any way because the original crop and the display device would have identical pixel dimensions. Likewise were you to resample a 4:3 original from an Olympus 4/3rd capture to the display dimensions of a 4:3 monitor. In such case the "original" as far as PTE is concerned would be your resample. When displayed the "original" and the PTE displayed image would be virtually identical. In the case of the 1920 x1080 crop, had you resampled then cropped rather than simply cropped the original camera capture, the display by PTE would be identical in quality to your resample rather than to your original. Note the difference between "cropping" an original which leaves you with 100% original pixels but not original full content and resampling something like a 3:2 (typical dSLR capture aspect ratio) then cropping. PicturesToExe produces the finest image quality of "any" presentation slidshow software. In fact, it's one of the very few presentation slideshow products which "doesn't" necessarily change the image quality. Best regards, Lin