Lin Evans

Sure, here's the link to the original, now renamed "fineartlinear.zip" Lin http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/fineartlinear.zip Best regards, Lin

In applying the smooth non-linear functon to a couple of my older slideshows I discovered a feature which is really nice about the new non-linear functions for PZR. If I click on the second keypoint (there could be a half dozen or more following) for a single slide, apply the non-linear function (smooth, in my case) to each (pan, zoom, rotate) then click on the "setup" for each and separate each keypoint pair, this attribute is carried forward for all keypoints for that slide. That is the complete complement of keypoints following the second one are automatically updated with the smooth (or whatever has been chosen) attribute. This makes short work of updating older slideshows to reflect the new non-linear functions. addendum to this observation: I find it easier to make all original actions for a single slide in linear then simply update the second keypoint with the "soft" non-linear for each (PZR) and separate the keypoints at this juncture which then applies this non-linear attribute to all following keyponts in this slide. For me it's faster than doing it at each keypoint on the original. Congratulations to Sergey and Igor for this really nice feature. Lin

Hi bjc, Thanks indeed to Sergey for all the hard work! The old abrupt start and endings are now history and the non-linear features add a tremendous amount to the perceived quality of a presentation. I'm glad to hear that the issues I was hearing in my headphones are not really coming from the embedded background sound but rather an artifact of something endemic to my sound system itself. Thanks much for the feedback! Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Thanks! I suspected my sound card might be a bit flakey. Best regards, Lin

After creating this one a while back, some of the comments included the wish that zooms and pans could have ended smoothly. This was not really feasible with ealier betas having only linear movement but after finally solving the riddle of why I couldn't get non-linear working correctly on my development computer I found it worked fine on my other computers so changed all the keypoints to "smooth" non-linear and reloaded it to my web site. I would appreciate it if anyone hears any sound glitches to let me know. I perceive some issues with the sound which I didn't have with Beta 9 but can't be sure if this is actually in the executable or is a malfunction with my sound card. For any who are interested the zipped executable (about 34 meg): http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/fineart.zip Lin

Hi Stevie, The position changes because when the zoom or pan is non-linear, by definition things happen differently in time. For example, if you take a single image and set one keypoint in addition to the starting keypoint then set a second keypoint all with "linear" as the default, the animation happens in a regular way whereby over time at 50% time 50% of the change has occurred. On the other hand, if you use say smooth which is a non-linear effect, the pan or zoom begins slowly, then speeds up then slows down. Since it starts slowly, at say the 50% position between the start and ending keypoints, the animation will be at a different point in its transition. The important thing is that all the animation be completed within same time frame, but it won't occur at exactly the same percentages at the same points. I just had a problem with one of my computers which prevented the non-linear effects from working correctly, so I've spend quite a bit of time looking at this situation. The first three keypoints must be entered before you can create multiple animations on a single slide. After entering the third keypoint make sure its highlighted then from the Objects and Animations screen you can click on the down arrow on the block that says "linear" and change the linear to one of the non-linear functions. My suggestion would be to do this on all three (Pan, Zoom, Rotate). Next go right back and click on "setup" then click on the "Glue" indicator to segregate or separate this keypoint. Do this for all three (this is important) Pan, Zoom and Rotate. At this time you will find that the "brackets" indicate that the formerly "grouped" keypoints are now separated. This means that whatever animation is assigned to the third keypoint will happen using the non-linear choice and what you "expect" is what will happen between the second and third keypoints. Do the above for each keypoint you have entered beyond the third. Remember to set the non-linear function for all three (pan, zoom, rotate) because often when you zoom by using the rectangle to drag or expand (zoom in) or zoom out you affect not only the zoom but the pan and perhaps the rotate as well. This is "one way" to set non-linear functions using multiple keypoints on one slide. The second way you can do it is to duplicate the first slide on the slide list by copy paste. The perform only one zoom or pan or rotate function on a slide by using only two keypoints. To continue in a seamless fashion to the next slide, simply copy/paste the numbers from PZR blocks from the second keypoint on the first slide to the first keypoint on the second slide and set the transition via the "custom slide" feature on the "effects" tab to "quick, no transition". Continue with subsequent slides. This second way may be more intuitive for you since you have probably used the "match previous slide" feature with Proshow Gold or Producer. Right now there is no "convenient" way to copy the animations from one slide to another - it "can" be done but at this point in the beta's it's not too convenient. Adding a blank slide was a feature in earlier PTE version and will probably be added soon before the release version. Right now the easiest way is to create a couple in Photoshop and save them to be used over and again. Other's may want to comment on how they copy animations from one slide to another. It seems I recall this being done by copy paste an existing slide and renaming another slide to the same name but one having different content. That's a bit obtuse and a definite "work-around" but a possibility. Best regards, Lin

Hi David, No problem, it's good to have the reason for my confusion clarified. If you read my last post (update, above) I've been able to get it to work on one of my other computers. I have some thoughts on it expressed there. Thanks to all for the discussion because it's helped me find the problem on this system. Best regards, Lin

Update: I've installed beta 10 on another of my systems and the separate/glue feature works normally on the second system. There is a problem with my video driver or sound card (i'm working with Igor on this) which is making some strange things happen on video animation only with Beta 10. It works fine if I disable my audio card. I'm going to disable the card and see it that corrects the problem on my development computer with Beta 10 and the separate/glue feature. After working with it for a few minutes I see that in any animation where any amount of zoom and pan are "both" included it's necessary to independently separate the keypoints for "each" feature (pan, zoom and rotate if there is any). This is powerful but not simple to do - actually it would be MUCH quicker for this particular animation to simply match the end keypoint on one slide to the beginning keypoint on the next slide with a checkbox. It would not be a "powerful," but it would be much easier and faster. It also would allow the slideshow producer to easily know which linear or non-linear feature they had used without actually clicking on "setup" and observing the wave histogram. This is necessary not only in one place, but for each of pan, zoom and rotate. I'm sure this particular feature (separate/glue) is going to be one which will cause lots of discussion in the future. I'm thinking that the default should be to have each keypoint immediately separated rather than glued as they are now when any non-linear function is selected. This way one could simply choose the desired non-linear feature and use the program exactly as they do with linear zoom "unless" they want to mix non-linear features on a single slide. It seems to me that the majority will simply choose something like "smooth" for most purposes and will rarely mix and match. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, The effect works just like mine, but the bottom line is I can't create it with a single slide and my copy of beta 10. I can only tell which non-linear effects you have placed on keypoints by analyzing the slope of the curve or not. The captions all say "custom" so if there were mixed smooth, decellerate, accelerate and pauses there would be no way to quickly tell which had been used at any keypoint without opening the settings on each keypoint and then only by analyzing the curve depicted at a given "bracketed" area. I suspect my copy of version 10 isn't working correctly on my development computer because no matter how I set the cut points, the program ignors all keypoints between one and end and just makes a single smooth animation which begins with the start keypoint status and ends with settings placed on the final end keypoint. This explains why I've not been able to understand what's going on with this setup portion of the program. For whatever reason, it's simply not working on my system. I have had some video driver issues which I've discussed with Igor. The video works perfectly on Beta 9 but with beta 10 has been very irregular so I guess I'll have to wait for beta 11 to see where to proceed. Thanks for the demo. I does show that it's working for most - just not on my system. I'll have to try it on another computer. Best regards, Lin

Hi David, Here's a sample of what I want to do. This one done with a slide copied on the slide list three time and each with "smooth" non-linear. I guess I'm dense today, but I can't seem to achieve this with a single slide using the cut/glue feature, Anyone who shows me how to do it will be greatly appreciated. I understand the basic principle of animation between keypoints, I just can't get a combination of snip and glue (or just snip in this case) to do the job. thanks, Lin http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/shark.zip

Hi Dom, I think I'm missing something about the way that's supposed to work. I'll have to play with it some more and see if I can duplicate the effect I'm looking for made with multiple slides. Thanks, Lin

Hi David, Thanks, hope the PVD doesn't last too long - mine is up and down but much better than before. You may be right about the break point - I'm still doping it out - it's not too intuitive for me to see exactly the relationships with break and glue and how this breaks down for an individual keypoint. Best regards, Lin

The non-linear zoom is really fantastic with lots of great versatility, but one issue has come to mind which could be solved in future versions of PTE beyond 5.0. When using non-linear animation for PZR, only the first and last keypoints are meaningful without using the rather complex separate function. Consider the following scenario: The user wants to first zoom in on a portion of a subject, pause, then pan across the subject, then zoom back out and again pause. With linear zoom this is a piece of cake. Just set a keypoint, drag the bounding rectangle to the desired end of zoom point, clone the keypoint and drag to the end of pause, set another keypoint and again drag the image to the point of next pause, clone the keypoint and slide to desired location, set another keypoint and size the rectangle once again to get the zoom out. Can be all done quicker than the explanation. Modifying the below a bit from the original: But what if you want the exact scenario with "soft" non-linear landings? To do this without clicking multiple times to separate keypoints from their default groupings one must insert the same slide into the slide list three times. On the first slide set customize feature to "quick, no transition," then set ending keypoint for the zoom in and drag the rectangle to the desired zoom, next go to the next slide and insert the identical pan, zoom, rotate numbers found at the end of the zoom on the first slide, next set the custom feature for this second slide to "quick, no transition, then set the keypoint where you want the pan to end, then go to slide three and set custom again to "quick, no transition" and again match the identical PZR numbers for the start of slide three to the last keypoint of slide two, set the next keypoint to the time where zoom out ends and drag the image to the desired zoom. Not so easy but primarily because you have to copy and paste the pan, zoom, rotate numbers for the begining of slides two and three. So, the feature: Have a check box which simply automates the process of "match" previous or "match" next slide. When checked, this would automatically insert the PZR values from the previous ending keypoint into the present slide and thus save a tremendous amout of time allowing much easier use of the non-linear PZR effects when doing more than a single animation in a single slide. This is not to take away from the very powerful feature of separate and glue, but sometimes it's infinitely quicker to obtain the result one is looking for by copy paste slides and duplicating the relevant numbers from end of slide "A" to begin slide "B", etc. I find it obtuse to have to click on each of PZR and look at a waveform to determine which non-linear function was used between specific keypoints. All the caption tells me is "custom" and not which linear effect was used. I must look at each and remember which graph represents which non-linear effect which rather negates having a separate category for each non-linear function. Best regards, Lin

The non-linear zoom is really fantastic with lots of great versatility, but one issue has come to mind which could be solved in future versions of PTE beyond 5.0. When using non-linear animation for PZR, only the first and last keypoints are meaningful. Consider the following scenario: The user wants to first zoom in on a portion of a subject, pause, then pan across the subject, then zoom back out and again pause. With linear zoom this is a piece of cake. Just set a keypoint, drag the bounding rectangle to the desired end of zoom point, clone the keypoint and drag to the end of pause, set another keypoint and again drag the image to the point of next pause, clone the keypoint and slide to desired location, set another keypoint and size the rectangle once again to get the zoom out. Can be all done quicker than the explanation. But what if you want the exact scenario with "soft" non-linear landings? To do this one must insert the same slide into the slide list three times. On the first slide set customize feature to "quick, no transition," then set ending keypoint for the zoom in and drag the rectangle to the desired zoom, next go to the next slide and insert the identical pan, zoom, rotate numbers found at the end of the zoom on the first slide, next set the custom feature for this second slide to "quick, no transition, then set the keypoint where you want the pan to end, then go to slide three and set custom again to "quick, no transition" and again match the identical PZR numbers for the start of slide three to the last keypoint of slide two, set the next keypoint to the time where zoom out ends and drag the image to the desired zoom. Not so easy but primarily because you have to copy and paste the pan, zoom, rotate numbers for the begining of slides two and three. So, the feature: Have a check box which simply automates the process of "match" previous or "match" next slide. When checked, this would automatically insert the PZR values from the previous ending keypoint into the present slide and thus save a tremendous amout of time allowing much easier use of the non-linear PZR effects when doing more than a single animation in a single slide. Best regards, Lin

Right, that's what I'm referring to (objects). If you look at my Navigation Bar sample, I use an invisible "button" object on each slide to call the last slide via mouse click which has multiple "button" objects each dedicated to calling a particular slide. The last slide is a "menu" slide. The sample covers not only the Navigation Bar, but using the objects (buttons) to go to particular slides.To get the button or other object to jump to slide one, you need to enter the value zero, for slide 2 enter 1, etc. The button calls seem to work in beta 10 for me with the provision for jumping to a particular slide that you call slide minus one.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Al, The problem is that the program understands the starting point for slides as zero. So slilde 1 is actually slide zero, slide two is #1, slide 3 is #2, etc. If you look at the sample use of menu on my link and check the PTE file you will find that for slide 1 I call zero, slide 2 #1, etc. So the internal count for slides begins at zero rather than one. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, The Navigation bar is working fine now with beta 10. I have posted a demo to show one way it can be used as well as a way to create a "menu" to "jump" to any slide from any slide. There is both a zipped executable demo and a PTE with explanation on this link: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6512 Lin

Hi Glenys, I thought about your use model, then created another demo with a menu which can be easily called from any slide to allow you to reach any slide you wish. It's a rather simple solution but may be one which would fit your own purpose. Here's a link to the PTE and to the zipped executable. It will look exactly as the one you downloaded, but if you click anywhere in the upper one third of any image a menu will appear allowing you to choose the slide to "jump" to. http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/navbardemo.zip http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/navbar2.zip Lin

Go here and download my demo and PTE file to see how to do this. You don't need the navigation bar even though I have included it for others to see. http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6512 Lin

The question has come up and some discussion about how to not only use the Navigation Bar, but how to create or use a Menu to allow jumping to any particular slide. I have prepared a very simply slideshow with five basic slides, four pictures and a menu. I have use the Navigation bar and made it "invisible" on startup. If you move the mouse just a tiny bit the Navigation bar will appear. You can press forward, backward, home, pause, print or exit to perform normal functions of moving about through your slideshow. I set the time to 20 seconds for each of the main image slides. In addition, I prepared a "menu" slide consisting of four buttons.The buttons are named slide 1 through slide 4. Please note that when you create your own, when you assign a slide number for the button to represent, the "actual" number will be one less than the slide. Internally, the program sees slide one as slide zero, slide 2 as #1, etc. So to "jump" to slide 1 you assign the number zero to that button. To jump to slide 400 you would assign the number 399, etc. The slide menu is brought up by simply clicking the left mouse button anywhere in the upper 1/3 of the image on the screen. This was accomplished by creating very large buttons and making them "invisible" by simply using zero as the opacity. Each slide has an invisible large button which calls the slide men named, appropriately "menu". So when you click in the upper 1/3 of the image you are actually actuating a button calling "men". When the menu appears you can click any of the four buttons to immediately "jump" to that slide. Two links below. The first to the zipped PTE so you can see how this is done and the second to the zipped executable in case you just want to try it out without loading the PTE file. This was not intended as an aesthetic slideshow, simply a demo of how to achieve this result so the music wasn't designed to fade out with the last slide, etc. Lin http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/navbar2.zip http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/navbardemo.zip

Hi Glenys, I just did it as a quick sample. You could set the individual slide times to any value, even to a length of 10 minutes or so then simply advance as you wish. You could, if you wanted do your animations within the first few seconds then just leave the remainder of the time on a suitable still version of each slide. This would make the show essentially as a totally manual slideshow. Of course this wouldn't be very aesthetically pleasing for any type of music synchronization, but would work well for a demonstration or educational type show. This would, however mean that you would automatically advance the slides with the forward control. It is also possible to include a menu consisting of "buttons" with the ability to jump to any particular slide by assigning that slide to an individual button. That could be accomplished by creating one slide called "menu" then having that slide called by a single button which could be visable or invisible depending on how you set the opacity. When this "menu" slide appears, it would consist of one button for each slide with simple numbers on the buttons. Want slide 22? just press button 22 and the show would "jump" to slide 22, etc. Obviously this approach would work better for slide shows which didn't have huge numbers of slides. Best regards, Lin

Hi Glenys, Please download my PTE file from the following link. This demonstrates a couple of the features of the navigation bar. The Navigation Bar will initially be invisible but if you move the mouse you will see it appear at the bottom of the screen. Press the forward arrow to move forward a slide, the back arrow to move backward, the pause to pause and the home to go to the first slide. The print button will allow you to print and the X button will exit the slideshow. Test this on the "Preview" function of PTE beta 10. I'm not seeing any problems with this. http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/navbar.zip Best regards, Lni

Hi Ron, Look under "common tab" Actions on Mouse Click. Choose from the drop list while button is highlighted in the objects list and that action will be associated with the button. Best regards, Lin

Hi Steve, This takes a little explanation, so bear with me. First, remember than zoom doesn't happen in a vacuum - in other words zoom and pan are nearly always related so when you set smooth on zoom, also set pan and probably rotate (if there is any rotation involved) also to smooth or there will be unintended consequences. A little more on the relationship between zoom and pan. If you zoom then watch the numbers in Pan, especially if you do it with the mouse by dragging the rectangle you will nearly always also change pan so remember that if you set one, set the others to the same and things will generally work out better. Now let's think about what is actually happening when we change from "linear" to smooth, accellerate, decellerate or custom. We are changing the actual "time" when things are happening. The only constant is the start and ending keypoints. Everything in the middle changes so that what you were "expecting" at a particular "keypoint" in terms of the degree of zoom or position of pan is happening at some other time or some other place. If what you are looking for is the "softer" take-off and "landing" then you "may" not actually need to use "smooth" to get it. It looks to me as if Igor has corrected the rather abrupt start and stop without having to change the linearity of the zoom or pan, but experiment just to be sure. This new linearity will take some getting used to. It's not a simple thing to wrap one's head around, but by setting both pan and zoom to the same linearity you will have much better luck approximating what you are trying to achieve. Try it with straight linear first and see what happens... The bottom line is that to get the effects you want with non-linear zoom (as if you were using linear zoom but with the non-linear start/stop), you will have to use the same slide multiple times in the slide list. You notice that on other than "linear" only the first and last keypoint allow changing the figures. In other words everything is "greyed" out on other than the first and last keypoints. So as it is now, only the first and last keypoints mean anything in any of the "non-linear" segments. So to get the effect you are looking for do the first zoom on slide one, then change the effect (zoom, pan, etc.) on slide 2 the third on slide 3, etc. Use "quick" no transition for each and you will get the effect you are looking for. What would be nice is if Igor could set a "match next slide" feature so that slide two automatically inherits the "numbers" for the end keypoint of slide one, slide three the ending numbers of the last keypoint for slide two, etc. This way you wouldn't have to manually match the numbers to keep a true "non-transition" from slide to slide and still be able to make it "look" like it was all done on one slide. Lin Best regards, Lin

I thought you said you didn't want to see a navigation bar and now you're asking about your own "menu"? You can make your own menus with PTE 5 just as you could with PTE 4.48. Why do you have to "time" hittng the spacebar? You can hit the spacebar any time you please. If you feel you have to "wait" until an animation is finished the don't use an animation. I'm really confused about exactly what it is that you want. I have "Pinnacle Ultimate". Now I'm even more confused. Pinnacle is much less "money"???? Where can I buy Pinnacle for $24? I paid $129 for mine. You're right, Version 5 is not ready. This is Beta 10. But I fail to see what it is that you want in a presentation slideshow program. If you own an ealier version of PTE you can have 5.0 free. Can you buy Pinnacle for nothing? LOL. You still have 4.48 - what is it that you want to do that you can't do with 4.48. You don't like "movies" then why not just use 4.48? You do like movies, then use Pinnacle or something else. PTE doesn't create "movies" it creates animated stills. You can pan, zoom, rotate, scroll, change opacity on any layers on any objects simultaneously, rotate off center, adjust XY axis an through paren/child/grandchild relationships you can manipulate the Z axis. You can synchronize music, do voice over, use some fantastic built-in transitions or create your own transitions via the huge complement of flexible features. You can create your own menus, run executable code from within a show and return seamlessly to your slideshow. You have unlimited keyframes, unlimited layers, the ability to author DVD's and burn to disk. You can create your own buttons, animate them, hide them, make them invisible, go forward, backward, jump to slides, etc., etc, etc. In short you have phenomenal powers to unleash your creativity at making professional presentations. Frankly I get the feeling that you have spent little time with the betas and are trying to "digest" too much in too short a period. This program is extremely powerful. It can do things that no other current presentation slideshow software can do, even in the Beta form. I have and use nearly every leading presentation software available including Vegas Video (complete) which cost me over $1200.00. Nothing else in my experience comes remotely close to what this program can do. Bottom line, we will just have to agree to disagree. You have everything you had in 4.48 because you still have 4.48. You have everything added in 5.0 to this point with beta 10 and for no additional cost. Give it a little time and learn to use it - Rome wasn't built in a day and you won't understand PTE 5.0 unless you spend some time with it. Best regards, Lin