Lin Evans

Hi Andy, Most excellent! Perfect use of images to complement the song and historical facts! Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Looks great. I think the ending on the last words of the song now works very well! Best regards, Lin

Hi Eleanor, No, not the same as all. It saves all the "raw material" for you. The PTE file, images, music, etc., are saved in a zip file. This zip file can then be moved from folder to folder, to another system, etc., and it contains all the code to immediately recreate the existing show. You can just unzip it and extract all the original images and codes which are ready to edit, add new slides, whatever. The PTE file holds all the code to create the slideshow so when you open it at a later date you will always have everything stored in one zipped file to allow you to simply re-create or continue on and make changes. Just what you want to do... Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Here's a quick "Collage" of some of your images. You could put this in as the last page and spend the remaining time for the song just zooming and panning on the individual images.... Best regards, Lin http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/collage.jpg

Of course, Click on "File" then "Create backup in zip" and your entire PTE project is zipped into a file containing not only all the slides but all the instructions (PTE file), to recreate the transitions, animations, music, sound, etc. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, That's not too unusual when a DVD slideshow is played on some computers. Try the same disc on a commercial DVD player attached to a TV and I'll bet it's fine. Best regards, Lin

Hi PF, Actually that particular transition doesn't exist with PTE but is easy to create. That's the nice thing about PTE - if you don't have something you can almost always create it. To give you specifics I need to know a bit more about just what you want to do. Essentially, if you have a solid color backdrop and want to make text disappear in a "wipe" you just need to create a solid jpg the same color as your background. You simply pass this solid color from left to right, top to bottom, diagonally, etc, across the text at the speed you choose. You can also create a PNG with a feathered leading edge to make it a "soft" wipe or use any type of PNG "mask" to make special effects. If you could post a quick PTE file of the screen you want to do this with, I will create a quick sample for you. Best regards, Lin

Try here. Song was recorded by a number of different people beginning with Petula Clark. Available on a number of albums: http://www.google.com/musicsearch?id=1op0S5_QztE You can buy it here by a number of artists for $.99 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_dmusic?u...p;x=11&y=19 Lin

Hi Gary, Did you by chance change the font or font size or set it to bold, etc.?? Any change that you make can be applied to all slides but won't be unless you click on set for existing slides. Also if you have inadvertently changed the drop shadow it could affect the text clarity. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, I thoroughly enjoyed your show! The reenactment clothing was spectacular and believable, obviously most were of authentic dating. Only the new cars, plastic bottles of tea and soda, color photos, etc., in the pictures allowed the viewer to know that it was a reenactment. Of course the age of some of the participants in uniform might be a hint! LOL. Very nice and much appreciated. The music was fitting - perhaps a collage of images could be made to display and round out the end of the show and let Vera Lynn finish the song We'll Meet Again".... Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Just for you! Just a "little" head movement and closer look.... about 3 meg.... http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sampl...eadmovement.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Guys, Thanks - fun playing with the little feathered "fiend" - LOL. Robert, that's a great idea - it would improve the hand/eye coordination of we old reprobates to have to chase around after the tiny flying "target" for a mouse click - HA. It would be fun to add some more animations to the humming bird, but this was a starting point to determine the expedient way to proceed. In doing this I learned some things about PTE which helps me make numerous tiny increments in keyframe timings. It's "MUCH" easier to set a time to something such as 60 seconds, do the automatic insertion of keyframes with the "plus" key which gives timings of a half second per keyframe so zero, 500, 1000, etc.,. Then if you want it much faster just change the time to 30 seconds or 10 seconds or whatever smaller display time and check "scale keyframe in objects" (on time change). This way you get precise increments very close together. So if you "really" wanted 60 seconds but wanted the keframes separated by say 1/8th seconds you would just start with 240 seconds and put in all keyframes then change the time to 60 seconds with "scale keyframe in objects" checked and you're there! Lin

Hi Debi, Actually, you don't have the latest version which is 5.5 so go ahead and download that and install. No need to erase 5.0 it will create another folder and icon for 5.5. You don't set the TV safe zone in Video Builder but rather in PTE. Go to Objects and Animations screen then click on "Tools" (bottom right) then choose TV Safe Zone and the program will give you a visual indication of where the cut-off is so you can keep important information inside the boundaries. NOTE (9/3/08): Ken is absolutely right - you have the option of using the "safe zone" also for menu building to keep your text from running off the screen. So turn on Menu Builder in PTE to avoid loosing important portions of your images to the different aspect ratio and overscan of TV and turn it on in Video Builder to avoid misplacement of text and navigation buttons, etc. Best regards, Lin

Small - about 3 meg... ?? http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sampl...gbirdflight.zip (improved version) 9:03 pm MT Lin

LOL - probably! But they actually have a "membrane" which covers the eye rather than closing eyelids. It's not very "photogenic" and bird photographers frequently pull their hair when their "best" shot ends up with a bird in such a condition. So my hawk model decided to keep her eye open even with the "surprise" of the lightning strike. Nice of her, eh? Best regards, Lin

Hi Bart, Thanks for the comments! Actually, it's an iterative process to try to evoke more realism in the animation process. Though PTE is actually not designed as an animation software it lends itself to some creative things very nicely I think. Dominic (theDom) has gone above and beyond in creativity with some amazing ways of using PTE. I can't wait to see what he does with the soon to be released 5.6 version and the new masking capabilities. Yes, my own private jet! I commandeered it specifically to fly past my window in weather no sane pilot would attempt so we gave the crew the day off and flew it by remote control! LOL... Best regards, Lin

Hi Robert, Yes, I think the general perception is that backlight in the clouds and the "flash" effect from rather close lightning strikes gives more "realism". The composite image was created to more or less "spotlight" this effect. In reality, there seem to be many more lightning strike images where there is little or no cloud backlighting than with, but not as impressive and perhaps not evoking as much perception of "realism" Thanks much for the feedback, Best regards, Lin

A single slide with some subtleties. Will eventually be used in a slide show.... about 7 meg... Lin http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sampl...comingstorm.zip

Hi Barry, I think the significant word in Peters suggestion is "need". Yes, you "can" make the images larger than the output size for the projector but it's not "necessary". There is no advantage to be had by making them larger except for ones where deep zooms are used. Best regards, Lin

Hi Geo, Yes, executable code stores all the original files along with "instructions" to the computer to create intermediate files on demand. So when you create a zoom or pan or rotate, all the additional images necessary to make the animation transition from the original photo to the end result photo are created on the fly. This is true for executable code. For movie code such as avi, mpeg, mov, dvd, etc., each individual image must be created and stored within the file structure. There are two ways to decrease the size of the executable file. You can decrease the dimensions of the original while maintaining the aspect ratio or you can increase the compression of the jpg. The advantage of decreasing the dimensions is that you have a true decrease in the load on the video card and RAM. When you increase the compression (smaller number in Photoshop, etc.) you decrease the executable file size but you do not really decrease the load on the video card or RAM, etc., because the jpg expands within memory to the same size as it would be had you used an 8 bit tiff file, etc., there is not a true advantage other than just making the executable file size smaller. It requires less storage space on the hard disk or storage media, but when the show is played each jpg which is under compression expands to the full 8 bit size without compression. The disadvantage, if you use too much compression, is that you sacrifice image quality. It's probably not wise to use a smaller number than 6 for compression or you begin to sacrifice image quality since even when the jpg expands to the full 8 bit size it doesn't magically create the data lost due to compression. So if you actually change the dimensions - such as from 1200x1600 to 800x600 as an example, you not only save executable file storage space but you also lower video card and RAM loading without undue sacrifice of image quality. Best regards, Lin

animation improvements. This, one of my earlier rain animations, has lightning strikes but something was missing which I "think" I have corrected. Lightning takes on many forms (polymorphic) where at times there are few, if any, cloud effects such as increased brightness surrounding the bolt. At other times there is a wide area around the cloud which is strongly illuminated. After studying a number of lightning strike photos, I added a new one with cloud illumination. Any thoughts??? http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/firestarter.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, There are a wide range of "adjustments" you can make on transitions with rolling or curl depending on the "radius" you choose. The effect you see which Igor used is designed to show you the 3D effect. There are nearly infinite variations you can program for yourself. Note Igor's comment that "they are not fully optimized" in this demo.... Lin

Hi Peter, Pay special attention to the upper right hand corner as the penultimate image transcends via the mask. You will see the sky from the previous image remaining. This mask allows some incredible effects permitting elements of two images to be viewed simultaneously! Best regards, Lin

LOL - Great idea! Lin

Hi Igor, Great effects! The mask is outstanding! Looking forward to the beta releases! Best regards, Lin