Lin Evans

Yes, that's essentially how you would proceed. Go to Photoshop and click on File, New then set the attributes to 8 bit RGB color and the Background Content to Transparent. Set the size to something large enough to handle your photo ot the human human figure (you will trim it shortly) then click on O.K. You will see a rectangle with a "checkerboard" background. This is your transparent background. Next open the file of your human figure then click on Select All. The image will be completely selected and bounded by "marching ants" dotted lines. Next click on Edit then on Copy. Now close the human figure photo and click on Edit then on Paste. This places the human figure on top of the transparent background. Next use the Eraser tool with opacity set to 100% to erase all except the part you wish to see in your PNG file. Next use the Rectangular Marquee tool to surround the area you want to save (crop it close) and click on Image, then Crop. Next save this file as a PNG and give it a name you will recognize. This creates the floating "human" head or whatever you have used. This PNG file will then be placed in the Objects list and must reside in the layer "above" the one you wish it to appear over. So if you had a picture of a horse and wanted this head to replace the horse's head you would place it in the layer above the horse and move it with the mouse and rotate, etc., to size and place it where you wish. Best regards, Lin

Hi Russ, Welcome to the Wnsoft PTE forums.... Since most of your questions have been addressed, let me make a couple comments in the body of your text... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, I suspect it's a false positive. There are perhaps 30 different virus/trojan/spyware detectors being used by forum members and if only one is finding an issue it's very likely an error. Some detectors tend to err on the side of caution and report issues where they really don't exist. Perhaps others can comment on whether they see any issues. I'm using the latest versions of Nod 32, PC Tools Spyware Doctor, UniBlue Spy Eraser, Pareto Anti-Spyware and Adaware and none of these are reporting an issue. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, Thanks! I like to keep most of them at original size to minimize the amount of storage and renaming so these were pretty large images in general which does strain some of the 64 meg systems. I make art shows for some of my art gallery clients who use extremely high resolution monitors (9 megapixel) and PTE plays 10 and 12 megapixel images in native size (downsampled slightly for the monitor) very well. Best regards, Lin

Hi Al, Thanks! Most are 3888 x 2592 (10 megapixel) and average about 2.9 megabyte jpg. One is close to 8 megabytes. Four are smaller at 4.7 megapixels. Best regards, Lin

Any object may be made to "disappear" by setting its opacity to zero. But in order to make a portion of what appears to be an "object" such as the frame around a picture disappear, that portion of the picture must actually be a separate PNG file and thus reside on a separate layer. A background, to be made to disappear must be a file. This can be either a PNG or jpg, etc., and must be on a separate layer from other objects. Something must remain as a background if only the "black" screen of no background. If you can give a specific example, perhaps we can help you realize your animation. best regards, Lin

Hi LW, Great photos under difficult conditions! The performances, costumes and pageantry are incredible. The only change I would make would be to time the show and then use Audacity or other sound editor to fade out the music at the end of the slideshow to correspond with the length of the slides. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, He wants his videos made with Video Builder to "autorun" on his DVD player attached to his television rather than having to go through a "menu". That is he doesn't understand that video doesn't work like an executable. Best regards, Lin

Hi Neil, Thanks! For the first series of hawks (all except the soaring hawk and the two perched on the metal "T" fence post) the camera was a Canon 40D with a Canon 70-200 F2.8 and a Kenko Pro 1.4x Teleconverter. For the Pronghorn antelope, the Waite Philips mansion and the three hawks previously mentioned (soaring - "T" post) the Sigma SD14 plus Sigma 80-400 F5.6 OS or Sigma 15-30 for the mansion. The moon-rise shot was with the Canon and aforementioned lens. The baby bucks play-fighting was with the Canon. The opening and closing shot was with the Sigma SD10 and Sigma 70-300 F4/F5.6. Best regards, Lin

I believe that's one of the bugs yet to be worked out. Igor is looking into the problem. Best regards, Lin

Thanks Judy, They are indeed wild, free and beautiful creatures. I never get tired of photographing them and go to Cimarron a couple times or more each year. The word cimarron means "wild and unruly" and this characterizes well the history of this colorful part of the SW. Best regards, Lin

Thanks, Ken Best regards, Lin

Hi Bernard, Thanks! Yes the size of the image presents a problem for older machines. Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, Yes - just the wind... Thanks! Best regards, Lin

Beautiful Jeff, Captures the mood and scenic wonder of the SW. Basil's music is perfect. best regards, Lin

Hi Bernard, Beautiful imagry and excellent composition for the show! Best regards, Lin

If you like hawks .... Some views from Cimarron, NM - about 36 meg - good video card needed... http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/cimarronnm.zip Lin

Hi Bill, The two puzzle slideshows were made with a beta copy of version 5 but work exactly as they would had they been made with the release version. Though they appear very similar, they are quite different from a hardware requirement perspective. The one which ends with the spinning goats will play on almost any computer, even one with only 32 meg very weak video card. The other one requires a pretty good video card to run smoothly. The difference is in the expansion into memory. Where the first has a total size equal more or less to the compressed size, the second expands to require about 128 meg of video RAM and a fairly good video card to run smoothly. The fact that the second would not play on your old desktop means that you will not be able to play or create many of the more sophisticated PTE shows without upgrading your video card on the desktop. If you go to the Start, Run then type in DXDIAG and clic on OK you can run the diagnostic and it will report exactly what you have in the way of Video RAM, Video Card and Active X. You first need to find out what type video bus your desktop computer has such as PGI or AGP then a recommendation can be made as to which type replacement video card you should get to allow running PTE properly. You can ask Igor for recommendations, but if your motherboard supports it, the NVIDIA 8600 is very good. If you have the older AGP video slot then one of the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro cards can be used which are very good. They were originally about $500 but can now be purchased for around $75 over the web. Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, Did you find the possible bug that Stonemason was reporting in Beta 10 where manual advance was not working properly after working properly in Beta 9? http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7688 Best regards, Lin

Hi John, Sorry, I was looking at a different portion of the image - the trees surrounded by a slight halo which can sometimes happen when fill light is used. I think the lighter at the top with crepuscular sun rays converging inward rather than outward is explained by the extremely heavy, dense, low cloud cover. I've seen this effect after a storm in Tahiti when dark, moisture laden air surrounds an area heated by the land mass. The cool air clings to the surrounding water while heat rising from previously warmed land and vegetation clears an area above the land causing a funnel shaped corridor which creates a path for the sunlight following the funnel shape. Best regards, Lin

Welcome back John! The lighting effect might be partly explained by the use of fill light in software. Did you by any chance use Adobe Camera RAW and "fill light"? Best regards, Lin

Hi Bruce, Actually, it's not a "problem" per se - but rather that in order to insure that a font is going to look the same on a different computer you need to convert it to a PNG file thus insuring that it will be identical. As you discovered, if a font is used as "text" and that font is not resident on the computer a slideshow is played on, Windows chooses a replacement font. But if you convert the text (rasterize to PNG) to a PNG it becomes a graphic image rather than a text object and will always look exactly the same regardless of the machine used to play the slideshow. Best regards, Lin

Hi Bernard, Thanks! If you talk to him tell him we miss him around here but to get well and rest up - we just wondered how he was doing and were worried. Best regards, Lin

I haven't see a post from JPD in some time and wondered if anyone had heard how he was doing after his illness??? Lin

Translation: Thank you, yes I have the Deluxe version. I will try it without checking the MPEG and let you know. Thanks Bernard, Yes, it's not necessary to check the "create MPEG" Lin