Lin Evans

Hi John, You can't add time universally (on all slides simultaneously) between any particular keyframes at a particular point without sliding the keyframes individually, but as endevil says, you can use the "scale keyframes in objects on timechange" feature to equally distribute the time and maintain the "relative" relationship between keyframes. This does, however, have to be done on an individual slide by slide basis. You reach this feature by the "customize slide" function. So in effect, what you are doing in terms of your request is, as an example, adding a second to the display time of the slide and spreading this second equally among the various keyframes. Setting this feature on one object does affect all objectes associated with this slide. That is, if you click on the "scale keyframes" on object four, it will be set for the main slide and all other objects as well. Best regards, Lin

Hi Didier, Igor will have output from version 5.7 which will create native MacIntosh slideshow files output by a Windows computer, but right now the only way to run the PTE software on a MacIntosh is by using Bootcamp or other software which will allow the Mac to run PC software. The developers are working on a MacIntosh version but it will take considerable time to come to release - perhaps in one year. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, Very nice! One minor thing I noticed - when a URL is entered in the "Help" screen, no matter what the URL, the browser only goes to Winsoft! LOL Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, Just for fun, I incorporated your system into the "sun" for pseudo-rotation. I didn't add a halo, just used it for the shadow, rotate look, etc. I like it! Here's a link if you want to see it: http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/template/earthtodom.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, The compression level shouldn't matter. JPGS expand in memory to their full uncompressed size regardless of compression (quality). Best regards, Lin

Hi Fried, It ran perfectly smoothly for me at 1600x1200 (almost same resolution as 1920x1080) on my Nokia 445Xi monitor. I'm using an nVidia 8800GT video chipset card (512 meg RAM) on a Dell Inspiron 530 (duo core) with 4 gig RAM. OS is Win XP Home Edition. You wouldn't, by chance, be running some anti-virus software simultaneously would you? Sometimes it helps to temporarily stop AV software because some of it really hogs system resources (not video resources). Do a Ctrl Alt Del while the PTE file is running to pull up the Windows Task Manager and see what your PTE memory load is. Also check the overall RAM loading for other programs. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, I suspect he means Work In Process. Lin

Post a link to the zipped executable and I'll recover them for you. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, LOL - we both did that a couple years ago! Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, Very good simulation! The masks and shadows definitely can be used to simulate the rotation well. If you had a really realistic earth map with clouds, atmosphere and such it would be very, very good except for the necessity for the shadows on the wrong side, but in the great scope I can see how it might be very effective to especially simulate rotation of planets such as Mars where no one really knows exactly (well, few know, anyway) what "should" be at a particular point at a particular time. I think it would mix well with a frame by frame rotation such as my template for adding other planets such as Mars & Venus, etc., especially since it has such a tiny RAM footprint. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, That's a thought... also I would also like to see the same quality video created for Youtube as with the Create for PC and Mac option. I've noticed that the same show which is 35 meg when converted to MP4 for the Create for PC & Mac is only 11 meg when created for Youtube with the same 1600x1200 file size. Perhaps there is some reason for not sending a large, quality file to Youtube but I don't remember it being this way on previous Video Builder iterations. Best regards, Lin

Hi Moriz, That should work fine. You don't need to disable hardware acceleration, but it helps if you disable it on the menu exe only. It is best not to have animation on the menu. You don't really need to have a button on the individual PTE shows to return to the menu. You can set Project Option, More Tab, Run Application/Slideshow on Exit to run your menu. Set this on each slideshow then when they exit, they will automatically run the menu again or whatever show you ask. Though you can do the above, normally, when a show is called from a PTE menu, the control will automatically return to the calling exe, which in this case is the Menu.exe program so you "shouldn't" need to do anything to get the menu back. I would test this with a single show before making the entire menu. By the way, your written English is excellent, no problem understanding. Best regards, Lin

Hi, Am I missing something? Can't you just choose "HD Video for PC & Mac" and get exactly the same results??? Best regards, Lin

Hi Moritz. You "can" do it with 4.x but it's not necessary. You can make your menu with 5.6 just as easily and with many more features. If you can explain exactly what you want this menu to do, I will try to explain how to proceed. Best regards, Lin

Just to add to what's already been said and to clarify: You can't "add" the executable but you can copy and paste the slides complete with the PTE coding for animations, etc., by the method explained. This will not, however, copy any associated music or audio. You will have to do that manually. PTE "can" call any external executable codes, run them, then return seamlessly to the calling slideshow, but what you want to do is much more straight-forward and can best be accomplished as described by Xaver and Dave as originally explained by Hawk. Lin

Hi Laszlo, Well, it's "almost" still today! I missed it by 42 minutes, but the template and demo are finished. You will find the links here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....showtopic=10095 Best regards, Lin

Moved to Lin's Templates:

Hi Laszlo, Yes, the sword's look fine now and the show runs great on my system. Of course, you may show the 3D slideshow. If you want to quickly step to the rotating Earth with orbiting moon, just use the right arrow key to advance through the various slides quickly. I'm working now on a rotation template which I will post along with a short demo show to show how it could be used. The difficulty, for anyone embarking on such a project, is to create the multiple images (I used about 640 for the template) needed for the smooth rotation. Typically, a video of a rotating subject would be decompiled into individual jpg's or png files (I will use PNG's for the template). These then would need to be each pasted on transparent backgrounds and have the appropriate portions of the image erased to make transparent background "floating" pngs. This is a formidable task in and of itself. Right now I'm doing copy and paste individually on 640 png files then I will create a Photoshop action to select, inverse then delete (erase) the backgrounds so I will have 640 "floating" png objects for the template. These are, in this case, pictures of Earth each with a slightly different rotation. The user of the template may use these images or replace them with their own each named "image001.png, image002.png... etc.," so that whatever object files they create will rotate. The advantage of doing it by object rather than by individual sequenced slides is very obvious when you think about it. As individual slides, we have essentially duplicated a video but we have almost no control over things. To dynamically change size or position, etc., during the show, we would need to manipulate each and every slide independently. This would be almost an imposible task. By using the independent slides as objects, however, we can assign them all as "children" of a frame or rectangle, then manipulate them collectively. This allows some very unique and impressive results which simply can't be done by inserting a video unless that "particular" video had exactly the effects we want to produce. I think this will become apparent in my demo. Of course creating the template takes hours and hours of work - even days of work. Because with this many objects, memory becomes a major concern. Just getting the objects into the proper order takes many hours of work because only about 20 objects can be manipulated before running out of RAM. This means move 20 objects into proper order, save, exit PTE, reopen and repeat the process until all 640 objects have been properly ordered. Then there is the three keyframes per object (1920 keyframes) which also can only be placed about 20 in one open session of PTE. So place 20 keyframes, save, quit, re-open PTE and continue. This is why having the template is quite valuable for someone who wants to do such a process. Perhaps only a few people are really interested in doing such a thing, but the challenge is interesting for me so others may choose to use my template or not - it will be freely offered for anyone wanting to experiment with this process. Hopefully, by the end of the day I will have it and a demo available. If not, then tomorrow. Best regards, Lin

Hi Daniel, Beautiful reflections of an historic place indeed. Saint Malo has quite a history. For those unfamiliar, I copied a bit of history from Wikipedia here: =========== History Saint-Malo during the Middle Ages was a fortified island at the mouth of the Rance River, controlling not only the estuary but the open sea beyond. The promontory fort of Aleth, south of the modern centre in what is now the Saint-Servan district, commanded approaches to the Rance even before the Romans, but modern Saint-Malo traces its origins to a monastic settlement founded by Saint Aaron and Saint Brendan early in the 6th century. Its name is derived from a man said to have been a follower of Brendan, Saint Malo. Saint-Malo had a tradition of asserting its autonomy in dealings with the French authorities and even with the local Breton authorities. From 1490–1493, Saint-Malo declared itself to be an independent republic, taking the motto "not French, not Breton, but Malouins".[4] Saint-Malo became notorious as the home of the corsairs, French privateers and sometimes pirates. (In the nineteenth century the city's "piratical" notoriety was portrayed in Jean Richepin's play Le flibustier and in César Cui's like-named opera derived therefrom.) The corsairs of Saint-Malo not only forced English ships passing up the Channel to pay tribute, but also brought wealth from further afield. Jacques Cartier, who sailed the Saint Lawrence River and visited the sites of Quebec City and Montreal — and is thus credited as the discoverer of Canada, lived in and sailed from Saint-Malo, as did the first colonists to settle the Falklands – hence the islands' French name Îles Malouines, which gave rise to the Spanish name Islas Malvinas. The commune of Saint-Servan was merged, together with Paramé, and became the commune of Saint-Malo in 1967. Saint Malo was the site of an Anglo-French summit in 1998 which lead to a significant agreement regarding European defence policy. ==================== Thank you for this reflection on the resting place for so many....... Best regards, Lin

Yes, but not animated GIF images. Lin

Hi Laszlo, What you wish to do requires many more than 25 images. To turn the object (flower in this case) smoothly in a slow motion would require about 60 images per second of turn. So if you wanted to turn the object through 360 degrees in say 10 seconds, you would need about 600 images sequenced via the timeline at about .016 per image. This can be done with PTE by placing the about 600 images as separate objects each on its own layer then setting keyframes with a fade in and fade out via opacity for each. The first object would begin with 100% opacity then at a keyframe about halfway from 0 to .016 (about 8 in the keyframe block) it would require another keyframe set also to 100% with zero opacity at .016. (16 in the keyframe). The next layer's object would begin at zero on the timeline with zero opacity then at a point halfway between zero (about 8 on keyframe) and .016 it would require a second keyframe set to zero then at .016 the opacity would be 100% then returned to zero at .024 (about 24 on the keyframe block). These numbers are a bit easier to deal with and will result in a frame rate of about 62.5 frames per second resulting in smooth movement. It's then very easy to get your numbers for PTE's keyframes by using Excel or other spreadsheet with a formula of incrementing one column by 16 and the adjacent by 8 for each subsequent cell. Then you can print off the sheet and use it to fill in the keyframe values for each layer. You would then continue this complex sequence of killing the opacity on the previous slide and making the present slide 100% throughout each increment for the various slides of each layer for the 10 second period and once completed, you could copy and paste the slide multiple times to continue for additional 10 second rotation periods. Of course you could also just set the slide to "repeat". This is a very time consuming job with PTE but the results can be very, very good. It's not something you will do without lots of four letter words and you will have to save frequently, quit PTE and reopen to avoid running out of memory. If you have problems, let me know and I'll create a template for you so you can rename your PNG slides accordingly, copy over my slides and have it rotate 360 degrees. To get your PNG files transparent for the background, the best way I've found is to shoot on a solid color background (black usually works) which is not a color found in your subject then create a Photoshop action to select by color and delete the background. Do this for each of the 611 images (600 to 611 works well) and you will end up with separate png objects with transparent backgrounds. To create your slides you will need either to take about 611 frames each at .6 degree increments on a turntable or, better yet, use a 60 frame per second video camera or digital camera to shoot an object rotating. Let me know the speed of rotation you need such as one rotation every 10 seconds, etc., so the template will be correct. You might wonder, why not just put each frame in a separate slide and sequence each slide for a time of .016? The reason is that PTE can only reliably sequence individual frames of subsequent slides at a speed of about 75 to 150 ms without dropping frames. The reasons are technical, and the old 4.x version of PTE "can" sequence slides as fast as 10ms reliably, but when you add the ability to create 60 slides + per second using the GPU (graphical processing unit - video card) for PZR effects, then you have a totally different issue where the per slide display time can't be faster than about 150ms reliably without dropping frames. Because of this, the way I've described is the "only" way I've been able to get smooth motion on this type of sequenced frame rotation. PTE "can" do it as objects on layers but not as individual slides because of the PZR issues. The "easiest" way to get the 600 images would be to use a good digital camera or high end video to create a "video" then use a decompiler to separate frames and output to PNG format, etc. If photograph it on a black background then you can use Photoshop to delete the background from each image and save as a transparent PNG. You can then manipulate the background via slide set to display for the duration of the show. Using a solid color background you won't need to worry about the perceptual differences in background appearance. I realize this is a complex process and probably not worth the effort. I have done it on several occasions to make the "earth" spin in some of my demos. If you want to see what it looks like, go to my site (linked below) and download my 3D.zip show. Near the end of the show I have the Earth spinning through 360 degrees with the moon orbiting the Earth. This is the way it was achieved. The show is about a 35 meg zipped executable. http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/demos/3d.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Thanks for this excellent report. Here's my take.... 1 Voice Over for HMS Trincomalee using Zoom USB mike. Clear, but a tad "booming" on the bass register. Perhaps because of the Zoom USB mike? 2 Voice over for Ripon Cathedral using the Olympus LS-10, as are all the following. I prefer the sound on this one - was this using the built-in condenser mike on the Olympus? In either case, the sound was clean, crisp and of excellent audio quality 3 OB in local Chemists shop. As would be expected - lots of background noise but still quite possible to discern individual voices. 4 OB in Mini Supermarket. Again - as you explain, lots of background but still clear. 5 OB in local hardware shop. Less objectionable background but nice audio quality 6 & 7 OB Ladies choir in village hall. Able to clearly discriminate voices and music. Not bad at all for a very portable digital recorder. Can you tell me if this unit is configured so that you could plug it in to your computer and it would act as the microphone for a "live" AVI recording session of on-screen activity such as speaking when demonstrating PTE or other software? I've had a dickens of a time trying to find something which works consistently for me for this purpose... Best regards, Lin

Hi Davy, I think for serious audio work, there is no question that Audition 3 is far superior to any free product - no question in my mind. The only real issue is "cost." When a product is well over $300 (perhaps closer to $400 U.S.D.) it seems to be reserved for only those who really need the bells and whistles. For simple editing, Audacity seems to be quite sufficient for most. I would love to have Audition myself, but since I don't do a lot of demanding audio work, I use Audacity for most of my editing. For clubs where perhaps users can combine their funds to purchase a software for a commonly owned system, as long as it's not in violation of the software license agreement, I think Audition would be a wonderful addition. For individuals like myself who are teetering on the "poverty" level with a fixed income, it's a bit over the present limit. Costs are one reason why I've not upgraded from Photoshop CS. It is "sufficient" for my purposes and within my budget right now. For those who have sufficient discretionary income, Audition would be a wonderful aid, no doubt! Best regards, Lin

Hi Henri, Igor can tell you about his specific nVidia 8600 GT card which doesn't use a cooling fan but instead has cooling "pipes" which act as a heat sink - (most cards do have cooling fans) but having a cooling fan doesn't necessarily mean noise. As an example, my nVidia 8800 GT card runs ghostly quiet "almost" all the time. To use the 8800 GT card, which is a middle of the road medium-high performance card, you must have a power supply which furnishes at least 450 watts of power as well as power connections to furnish dual power to the card. My default power supply with my Dell inspiron 530 was not up to the task and I swapped it out for a 750w model which was up to the task. Immediately on startup, there is a brief period of a couple seconds when the fans all come on then silence. The "only" way I've been able to get my 8800 GT's cooling fan to make any perceptible noise is to run one of my screen saver aquarium programs which allows the user to set the frame rates and I set the frames to 380 frame per second. Then the card is severely worked and the cooling fan comes on. No PTE file that I have ever created, even those which tax the video system, will make the 8800 GT fan audible at all. I think if you will build your new system with at least a 600w power supply, buy any of the latest nVidia cards you will not find them to be noisy at all even though most do have cooling fans. There is new technology, however, which uses liquid cooling and also one which has different designs and is also used on some of the newer nVidia cards and possibly on other cards. Read about it here: http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/4125/39/1/1/ Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, I'm not certain I understand your question. One place where you change the order of slides is here: Or you can click on "View" "File List Sort Order" from any of the various screen views....