Lin Evans

It's just a part of the button creation effects Igor has built into the program - I just selected the default "aqua" button. There are some issues such as proper alignment of the buttons and the fact that the button size and shape is affected by the text written on it. This tends to make the menu of buttons look a bit asymetrical. Perhaps in the future we can have an "align to grid" or similar type feature which along with a button choice which is independent of the text size (i.e., the text is varied rather than button size and shape) will allow a better looking menu. Maybe when Igor and Sergay get some time to rest up, they might even provide a "feature" which looks at the number of slides in a show and automatically creates a menu of buttons properly indexed and linked to automate this process. But until then we can play with the great feature set and make our own - LOL. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, I used a product called Pro Magic Lenticular Designer - Link Below. It's not a "stand-alone" product but rather works with Photoshop to use layers. Essentially you place different "objects" as PNG files on separate Photoshop layers then Lenticular Designer creates the anaglyph with different "depth" profiles which you can adjust through the software. It's primarily a product for 3D printing (lenticular printing) but does work well for 3D creation from 2D images. It's part of a "suite" of products designed to produce a lenticular print. Most products of this type are extremely expensive and not broken out into separate packages. This one is the least expensive I've found which really works as described. It's $279.00 U.S. but if you produce lenticular printing it's very well worth it. I do lenticular prints for some of my clients so could amortize the costs. It's much "easier" to just set up your camera or cameras to take an individual frame the slide the camera over about the width of the human eye separation (approx 2.5 inches) and repeat the frame. I just use two identical inexpensive digital cameras mounted side by side. If you don't have a digital camera amenable, this software is one way to achieve the effect. http://promagic.software.informer.com/ Best regards, Lin

Earlier I posted a "menu" consisting of a slide containing 25 buttons which anyone can simply copy and paste to the last slide in their slideshow then call with a hidden large button (instructions on the download thread) to make it easy to "jump" to any slide from any other slide. Below is a link to a full slideshow using both the navigation bar and this menu feature. Simply left clidk your mouse on the upper one third of any slide to pop up the menu. Click on any number from one to twenty to immediately "jump" to that slide. On my sample, numbers 21 through 25 are linked to slide one. http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/rockymtnspringmenu.zip Lin

Hi Peter, I just tested it - turn hardware acceleration off on the menu executable and you won't have this issue. Lin

Hi Peter, It works the same way as with your for me. I don't think this is a memory issue but perhaps a hardware acceleration issue. Go to the screen tab of the Projects Options and see if hardware acceleraton is checked or not for the menu. If it's checked, uncheck it and build the executable again and try it. If it's unchecked, put a check beside and do same and let's see if perhaps having two PTE shows each with the hardware acceleration in same or different modes may make a difference. Lin

NOTE - for anyone who downloaded this before the time of this update, buttons five and thirteen (5, 13) had no assignment. This has been corrected and the download now works properly. If you use this menu and have fewer than 25 slides, either delete the extras or assign something like "go to first slide" or to get a null response, simply assign the menu slide number to the extras. Don't assign "none" for the action because that will perform an "exit" from the slideshow. Perhaps a bug on that key. This is an easy implemented menu for anyone to use to jump to any of 25 slides. You can add it as your last slide. Following is the process. Open "Menu.pte" file then highlight and "copy" the only slide called "Menu". Do not close PicturesToExe but open the slideshow you want to use it with and "paste" this slide as the very last slide. Take note of the number of the menu slide. Open each slide in your show and "add" a button. Drag the button so that it's HUGE and covers at least the upper third of your image. Set the attribute for this button to "go to slide number" and place the slide number of the last slide (Menu). Make the huge button invisible by setting opacity to zero. Be sure that the button occupies the top layer on the slide. Do the above for each slide except for the button slide. Be sure to set the mouse cursor so it will be visible then save the show. To start, I would suggest you save it under a different name until you test everything. Any time you left click the mouse button, it will call up the "Menu" then you can simply click on any slide from one to twenty five and the program will go to that slide. If you include a navigation bar you could then pause on that slide if you wish. When you are finished, again click in the upper one third of the screen and go to any other slide. You could modify this to include more buttons for more slides, but be careful because you use lots of memory this way. I would suggest saving every few minutes if you go over about 40 slides. Lin http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/menu.zip

Hi Igor, I just lost about three hours of work on a menu system because I ran out of memory - LOL. I "should" have been saving my work, but didn't. If it's not too much work for a future version, perhaps an "autosave" feature with a check box so it would be prossible to prevent this type thing and one could only loose the work since last save. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, A quick way to find out would be to zip up the executable and post a link. Then others with various video power could test it and see if they have the same result. Best regards, Lin

Hi Johnny, I really enjoyed your presentation. There certainly were lots of people on the wall! Last time I was there there were not nearly as many visitors, but I wasn't there on a weekend day. It looks very cold - cold enough to frost the camel's breath I think! When I was there last a few years ago it was about 10 degrees, snowing, and the wind chill put it below zero, LOL. I see by the final show that the smog situation hasn't changed in the city. In Beijing it was terrible most of the time - I wish there were a way they could improve the air quality, but it's difficult with so many people and so many open fires for cooking, etc. This show would be a great candidate for going back and changing the linear zoom to smooth I think. Some of the rather abrupt stops would be vastly improved. I did that with one of my shows. Best regards, Lin

Run this little sample (zipped executable) -+- click on the buttons, watch the "smooth" action on rotation, observe the off-center rotation and the use of parent/child relationship allowing linked rotation with opposite individual rotation of children, etc. See multiple layers as object pass behind other objects. See timed transparency, see Z axis rotation via parent/child/grandchild ..... Lin http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/tryme.zip

I can't tell you why media player does this, but I can give you a solution. Download Irfanview and plugins and change the association for mp3, etc., to Irfanview which has it's own player. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, Actually, I think it's just the other way around. When you have linear chosen and you look at the keypoints under "setup" they are depicted as "glued" But to apply non-linear you must separate them. It's a bit confusing, but when you click on separate you are actually breaking out the individual clusters of two each. Look at the brackets which show association. When you first enter setup after putting in a large number of keypoints in linear mode, the brackets show that all are "glued" with the action occurring in linear fashion between the first and last keypoint. When you stipulate a non-linear animation by choosing it from the dropdown - let's use smooth for an example, then you click on each "separate" key to break the bond from first to last keypoints. I think it's a bug and that the intent is for the "tag" to say either linear, accelerate, decelerate or smooth. If you have changed the default "curve" for one of the non-linear functions by manually entering values, then I believe it should say "custom". Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, Yes, I did that for what I think is a good reason (applied smooth to pan, zoom, and rotate) even though there may be only one of the three. I think perhaps I didn't explain clearly enough. The reason is that whenever the bounding rectangle is used to resize, move or otherwise animate an image between keypoints, the "pobability" is very strong that if zoom is the intended consequence, pan will be slightly changed as well if only by accident. Rotate is less probable, but still an unintended consequence in some cases. If one does not pay particular attention to the "numbers" between keypoints, often when changing the zoom the image will be slightly moved to make the intended subject centered, etc. Since there is no "penalty" for separating the keypoints on Pan, Zoom and Rotate, it is insurance that there will be no unintended consequences in terms of expected animation. When you create a zoom with smooth and the pan is left in linear, the effect is generally not what most are expecting. Likewise with slight rotate. So changing all keypoints even though there may be no particular necessity at a specific one in a specific instance does not "hurt" the animation but rather provides insurance that if you go back and "touch up" a particular portion between keypoints, you won't forget that perhaps you changed pan as well as zoom, etc. Hopefully, but it was just a real quick and dirty example to show how it's easier (in my opinion) to create the animations using linear and change them than to create them using non linear. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, I suspect this is because you "may" not have applied the "separate" on keypoints for each of Pan, Zoom, Rotate or not have "glued" them back after changing the attribute back to linear. If, for example, you apply it to Zoom without applying to Pan and both Pan and Zoom values deviated from the original keypoint, the unusual effects will happen. As long as you are aware you can actually "use" this to make interesting effects, but I suggest that if you want to achieve the original linear you would get it by changing all three back to linear and "glue" all keypoints back to the original condition. Only when we actually ignore the bounding rectangle when setting up our pan, zoom, rotate is it likely that we would have a "pure" pan, zoom or rotate. That is if we grab a corner of the bounding rectangle to size it and we move it even a tiny amount we have also affected the Pan as well. And if we are not very, very careful, we may also have changed the rotation from zero even if not intended. It's much safer to simply set the non-linear effect for pan, zoom AND rotate unless, of course, we have some reason to have one set to a linear and others set to non-linear. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, That sounds like a misunderstanding of how to implement non-linear effects. In a nutshell, take your original linear which is working correctly then highlight the 2nd keypoint. From the Objects and Animations screen click on the down arrow beside "linear" for "EACH" Pan, Zoom and Rotate and change each to a non-linear function - let's use "smooth" for all three. Next click again on what now says "smooth" for Pan and then click on "Setup". Left left click on "EACH" line which says "separate" and they will change to "glue". Do the exact same thing for Zoom and Rotate. That is click on "smooth" then "setup" then left click on each "separate" until they all say glue. Notice that the bracket which originally linked all keypoints now brackets two each. one and two, two and three, three and four, etc. Also notice that the "tag" says "Custom" for all three. I think this is a bug which will be corrected. They "should" still reflect the actual non-linear effect for the individual PZR blocks, in this case they should say "smooth" You have now set all keypoints for the non-linear function. That's essentially what my tutorial shows visually and verbally. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, It's like the one I posted - ask users to repeat the comments outside of the suggestion by not using the "reply" but rather "new topic" to confine the discussion to the areas not locked - hopefully that will work Lin

Excellent suggestion! I hope it's adopted. Lin

This is a quick and dirty AVI tutorial on how to implement non-linear PZR effects by simply using linear as normal then very quickly applying non-linear attributes. I find it easier to use linear to quickly get the effects you want then modify than trying to implement the non-linear PZR from scratch. CAUTION - CAVEAT for all using non-linear functions. If you have multiple keypoints on a single slide with zooms, pans, etc., I can't emphasize enough: DO ALL KEYPOINTS, ZOOMS, ROTATES, AND PANS IN LINEAR. MAKE ALL CORRECTIONS AND CHANGES IN LINEAR. THE VERY LAST STEP IS TO CHANGE THE KEYPOINTS TO A NON-LINEAR FUNCTION. IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE, RE-SET EVERYTHING TO LINEAR, MAKE THE NECESSARY CORRECTIONS, THEN CHANGE TO NON-LINEAR AND CLICK ON EACH SEPARATE POINT AGAIN. IF YOU DON'T DO IT THIS WAY, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET THE RESULTS YOU EXPECT. http://www.lin-evans.net/tutorial/nonlinear.zip about 37 meg download in zipped AVI format: Lin

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