Lin Evans

Nice one! Looks great - wish we had some larger screens so the whole known solar system could be simulated. Best regards, Lin

Hi Drury, (Addenda) It just occurred to me that you may not have created the puzzle pieces using the same method I explained (Photoshop action by Panos) and if so, it may be confusing because the pieces are "synchronized" via the PNG transparency so that they line up perfectly for the assembled product at 100% zoom. If your puzzle was made otherwise the instructions may give you spurious results. You don't want to add the keypoint to the "right" of the blue because that gets you into the following slide's timeline. The timeline for your individual puzzle piece is all in blue. 19 seconds would make the end point for your piece extend into the start time for the following piece. This is fine if that's what you want and is frequently used to give overlapping "fades" for effect, but for what you are trying to do this is not correct. Slide the keypoint back just into the edge of the blue at 15 seconds. I suspect the easiest way for you to learn this is to start with only two slides. Set the time for each to about 15 seconds via the "Customize Slide" feature. When you "insert" a slide, the effect in terms of pan and zoom will be keyed to the precise timeline position where you actually inserted the keypoint. You can "approximate" the time but once you make the insertion, the effect will be linear between the previous keypoint and this keypoint, but not necessarily linear between zero and the new keypoint unless you were very careful with your insertion. This probably accounts for the discrepancy you notice between where you inserted the keypoint and whatever effect you may notice even after you move the keypoint. Eventually Igor may make a feature to calculate what "should" be the proper zoom or pan number at the point where the keypoint ends up, but right now it doesn't work like that. The "black circle" tells me that you have a transition selected such as the "circle" transition. That's why I think you should hold off on your slideshow until you learn how things work by using only two slides at first. The more slides you have and the more objects, the more possibilities there are for confusion until you get a handle on the mechanism. Once you figure it out, it will be very easy to use, but there is a learning curve. So try only two slides and experiment with pan/zoom/rotate and with various keypoint positions. Follow the tutorials step-by-step and once you get the hang of it you will find it extremely powerful and easy to do very complicated things with this program - things not possible with ANY other current slideshow program. It's always fun to try and make a "real" slideshow right away, but you can quickly get into problems and better to start with very simple things like learning to zoom, then learning to pan. Even with things like zoom there are some very powerful features which can get you into trouble. The small "square" between the X and Y axis, for example, can be clicked on to make it possible to change the X axis and not the Y axis. Run the Morgan Dollar simulation on my website (click on the Slideshow Demo link) and you can see what I mean. Its a small zipped executable, but demonstrates some of the power you will have once you work out the kinks. http://www.lin-evans.net Best regards, Lin

Hi Ron, Thanks much for the feedback. The ripple effect only really makes sense for a lake or relatively still body of water which can be either smooth or have "ripples" along with reflections. In a river or creek such as the coyote is standing in where the water is running, reflections are rare in any substantive way and the "lapping" effect of ripples in still water wouldn't work I'm afraid. The may, perhaps, be another way to simulate the running water. I'm working on that now... The Reflect effect is done by a program (not in Photoshop, etc.) which uses the original image to create a mirror image at the bottom and then create multiple images each having slightly different distortions to simulate a "ripple" effect in the water which is also simulated by the program. The program has three output methods. It can create an AVI file which you can adjust the length of via the program, it can create an animated Gif file or it can output sequential jpg's, etc., which can be used in your PTE show. To do the effect in my sample took a total of 211 jpg images which consisted of a repetition of 30 original jpgs. Each of the 211 images has a display time of 66ms which effectively simulates a 15 frame per second "movie". I have run as many as 10,000 of these jpgs using PicturesToExe in a simulation. There is no additional memory overhead after the original 30 which are then copied en mass and duplicate to to 100 then that 100 copied to get to 1,000 and the 1,000 copied to get to 10,000. For normal displays lasting a few seconds such as the one I used in the demo, a couple hundred set at 66ms works out very well. You can download the software from AL's link and install it and play with it. I find images which "could" have a lake or pond beneath (not which actually "do" have such) work best. The Moose cow and calf were actually headed down to a pond which was around 20 feet below the actual bottom of this frame so the realism is more believable, I think. So you wouldn't want for example a tree cut in half by the frame at the bottom of your image, but rather an image cropped in such a way so the water and reflection would be a legitimate possibility for the effect. Best regards, Lin Hi Ken, It's a pretty large file (the pano) so perhaps some resource issue may be responsible for the slight jerkness you experienced. It plays smoothly on all of our systems, but they all have fairly good video cards with lots of RAM. Best regards, Lin Hi Al, Thanks much for the feedback! I'm sure the reflection effect can and "will" be overdone in the weeks to come, much as it was on the web in the Java "Lake" applet when that became available. One of the ongoing issues with creating slideshows is the attempt to determine how many and what type transitions and effects create the most pleasing aesthetic. Even with refinement, the final product will please some and not others so there really is never a true "right or wrong" but we can all agree that it's very easy to over use effects. Personally I like simple fades for the majority of my transitions but sometimes throw in a "gratuitous" page turn or other - perhaps out of boredom - LOL.. Best regards, Lin

Yep, something wrong on the net tonight, perhaps my server is acting up. I can't ftp or even reach the site via ftp so will find out and correct it tomorrow hopefully. Sorry.... I just uploaded it from another system under a new link and updated the original message with the new link. It "should" be O.K. now - don't know what was going on.... ----------------------------- O.K., link seems to be good now, I just downloaded it and tested it.... ----------------------------- Lin

Can "Reflections" be used effectively in a slideshow lead in? Well, just for fun I tossed one in for this less than five minute show (about 43 megabyte zipped executable download so broadband needed). You judge. Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park scenery and critters...... Soft music... http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/rmnpreflect.zip Lin

Hi Louie, Go to Project Options, Music Tab, Put your songs in there then uncheck "Repeat Music After Playing". Take out any music you may have entered on individual slides through the "Customize Slide" function and it should work perfectly. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jean Pierre, Yes, the possiblities are endless and limited only by one's imagination. Indeed I did both a 20 and 30 piece puzzle - the samples for the Video Test are 32 layers on the puzzle. As you say, it's not something we would normally do in a real slideshow, but your 565 piece puzzle and being able to accomplish this without a huge RAM overhead shows the tremendous possibilities for P2E. Best regards, Lin

Hi Louie, Are you running the release version or the Beta 5 version? The sound on the Beta 5 is not yet set up to stop after the last slide, but on the release version 4.xx the sound should work perfectly, even on the trial. Are you using mp3 or something else? Are you putting in the sound via the Project Option are trying to use background voice over for an individual slide and inserted via the "Customize Slide" feature? A little more background will help us sort out what's going on. Best regards, Lin

Hi David, What you are dealing with is called the parent/child relationship. There are several ways to get objects on the identical level without any "indent". The easiest way for me is to zoom the image to about 10% then right click way away from the green bounding rectangle in the grey area of the Objects and Animation screen. If you click "on" an object name then right click and "Add" a new object (image), you will end up with this: OBJECT 1 ----OBJECT 2 This is the parent/child relationship you would also get if you used the "rectangle" to bound the two in the visual view. To prevent this, you click away from the word object on the object list or do it as suggested above and use the zoom feature (to the right of Paste on the tool bar on top) to click far away from any rectangle. Then you should see this: OBJECT 1 OBJECT 2 Once you have the objects in the object list, go to the Properties tab and click on the "Transparent to Selection" box so there is a checkmark in it. This way when you actually click on an object in the object list, you will see only the rectangle which bounds that object. Now click on the object in the object list then right click the mouse and choose order. You can then move any object forward or backward by one step or all the way to front or back. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Good idea, thanks! Lin

I have placed a number of links to my executable slideshows and demos in one location to facilitate finding them not only for my own use but for any new visitors who want to see some of the features of PicturesToExe in action. I have a link from my website at: http://www.lin-evans.net And you can reach the demo download page directly by clicking on or entering this link in your browser: http://www.lin-evans.net/demo/index.html Some of my shows as well as those of other members are located also on Dom's very informative site at: http://thefreedom.free.fr/share/index.php?subcat=6 Best regards, Lin

Hi Derek, Let's start with getting the four pieces into the object box without them having a parent/child relationship. The easiest way to do this is visually. Put in the first object as you have been doing. First go to the Objects and Animation screen an look up at the top bar of tools. Do you see the Copy and Paste tools? Immediately to the right of Paste there is a zoom box which changes the view from Auto to some percentage. Select a very small percentage such as 10% and you will see your object bounded by a green rectangle. Put the mouse cursor far away from the green rectangle on the Grey portion of your screen and right click the mouse. Choose "Add" then "Image" and choose your second object. Repeat this process for the third and fourth pieces of the puzzle. This process puts all four pieces of your puzzle in separate layers and all in the same object list. For the puzzle you don't need the pieces to be separate images in the slide list, just the first piece becomes slide one and the other three are on separate layers. When you click within the green rectangle the program will assign a "child" relationship just as it does when you click on an object in the object list and right click and add that object from that position. When you click on the grey area far away from any bounding rectangle, you will be able to add objects without having any parent/child relationship. You will know this because the objects will appear under one another in the objects list in a straight line rather than having an "inset" as if a tab key had been used on a second line of text in a word processor. Once you have all four objects added, you can begin to manipulate them. Each object will automatically have a keypoint at the start of zero assigned. To be able to manipulate each object you will want to highlight the object in the Objects and Animation screen in the objects list then click on the Properties tab (next to the Animation tab) and put a check next to "Transparent to Selection" by clicking in the square next to that choice. Doing this reveals the green square you see when you click on an image which belongs to that image. To set things to some reasonable time such as 15 seconds click on an object then click on "Customize Slide" and change the time from the default of 4 seconds to 15 seconds (or whatever duration you want for the puzzle. Do this for each piece so they all have a 15 second duration. Next you may want to size the pieces. So click on an object in the object box then drag the rectangle by the corner to make the object larger or smaller. All this applies ONLY to the zero or start keypoint. Since the objects lie on top of each other, you may want to temporarily place a zero in the opacity block for three of them. You can reveal them or hide them or make them semi-transparent by using the opacity numbers from zero to 100%. Once you have them all sized as you would like you can begin to manipulate their actions. Go to the far right on the timeline. Notice that the timeline is two blue long horizontal bars bounded by white on either end. The white signifies the start and end with the white on the left being at zero time and the white on the right being at 15 seconds for this individual example. Place the mouse cursor at about the 15 second point on the "BOTTOM BLUE BAR" and right click then choose ADD KEYPOINT HERE. You have approximated 15 seconds so if you want that keypoint to be precisely 15 seconds change the number in the keypoint box accordingly. Do this for each piece. Now remember you have some position for the start of a piece and you now want a position for the ending. Your start position may be completely outside the black square representing the computer monitor or it may be wherever as well as the size. This is very important - ALL ANIMATION TAKES PLACE BETWEEN KEYPOINTS -. So you MUST click on the end keypoint then move a puzzle piece or resize it or change the rotation, etc. That puzzle piece will take the corresponding actions over the 15 second period. Were you to insert additional keypoints, you must click on the keypoint to make it active (it turns blue) and any change you make in the position, rotation, size, etc., for that object at that keypoint will be reflected in time from the position, rotation, size, etc., held at the previous keypoint. Remember you must actuate a keypoint by clicking on it then make a change in the movement, size, rotation, etc., for that object. You must then click on a different object and do likewise to make it animate. Align your four pieces at the final (15 second) keypoint as you wish the puzzle to appear when assembled. Best regards, Lin

Works flawlessly, Jean Pierre! Great execution and beautiful subject too! Best regards, Lin

That's a very nice model and explanation Jean-Pierre, very similar to the method I used in my "Planets" demonstration, the primary difference being that you are creating a perfect ellipse with the invisible "radius" on the center while I was availing myself of the diameter differential on a planet to seek a non central "anchor" point for the rotating object's (planet's) center. The non-central point allows an eccentric motion in the arc with the planet passing closer on only one side of the arc. The same effect could be created with your model by moving the invisible anchor square in relation to the center of the "atom". In the Planet model, I needed the "electrons" (planets) to also spin on their own axis (with the exception of the Moon) so that's why the duplication of each planet with one being set to zero opacity. I didn't include yet another child relation to a "shadow" to simulate the true effect of the real shadow cast by the light from the Sun on each planet but that would have been easy to achieve. Imagine taking additional children anchored to the existing children in your simulation and the complexity of motion could be virtually endless subject to memory limitations. P2E is definitely a wonderful tool and could be advantageously used in the classroom for simulations in Physics demonstations. Best regards, Lin

Hi John, Use the "zip" feature found under "File" "Create backup in Zip". This feature saves everything except any executable or AVI files you may have created. It zips up all the original jpg., etc. along with the pte file and puts them all together. That's how people have been sharing their work over the web. The program gathers all the files from various folders and puts them all in the zip. The zip has the date and file information written right into the file name. Best regards, Lin

Try the same link again. I changed the display time to 66 ms per image which gives a much better effect and with 1100+ images it lasts for two minutes. This time the first slide will re-appear and you can press ESC at any time to exit. Best regards, Lin

I "tinkered" with the settings for P2E and found that about 15 frames per second works beautifully. That works out to about 66 ms per frame. Set the transitions to "none" then adjust each of the 29 or 30 images to 66 ms with quick, no transition. Select the first image of the set then go to the last (#29 or 30) and hold down the shift key to select the entire group. Right click and copy then go to the bottom and paste. Repeat until you have about 100 then go top and bottom again and copy 100 and paste about five times. The entire show will be under 7 megs and will last about two minutes with 1100 odd images. I mentioned 29 or 30 images because the most Reflections will output is 30 but for whatever reason I only ended up with 29 -probably my error.... I redid the show with the 66 ms timing - I think it's much better now.... http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/reflect.zip Best regards, Lin

LOL - it's probably not "freezing," the reflections only run for four seconds. There is a five second image with text, then the sequence runs for four seconds then the last frame stays until you press ESC. I have it set to stay on last image after show closes. Best regards, Lin

Dom posted a link to a very nice free program which creates "reflections" in water under any image. The program has the ability to output AVI, Animated GIF or sequential files including jpg format. By exporting jpg's you can then import them into pictures to exe. Here is a sequence of over a thousand files which were simply duplicates of the 29 frames used to make the effect. Because PicturesToExe uses duplicates for processing in a very, very efficient way, there is no big memory hit for using a thousand or even a few thousand images which are largely duplicates. The following link to a sequence created by Reflections as sequential jpg files then 29 of these were loaded into P2E Beta 5 and then easily duplicated by using the CTRL key and clicking on each of the original 29. From there a simple copy, paste, paste, paste, paste, etc., gave over a thousand images but the entire executable is less than seven megabytes. Import the originals, then set the Project Options Effects to none and set the individual time to zero seconds and between 2 and 6 ms for each slide before you copy and paste them. In PicturesToExe Project Options disable transitions and set each of the individual slides to about 66 ms which gives a frame rate of about 15 frames per second. This works our very well for smoothness of the water ripple effect. If you don't already know how to copy/paste, use the 30 frame sequential output in Reflections then I suggest putting all of the jpg's in a folder by themselves. Select them all and put them in the slide list. Only when you have all the slides set for 66 ms and Quick, No Transition, then click on the first slide, go to the bottom of the list and hold down the shift key while clicking on the last slide. This will select all slides. Right click the mouse and left click on "Copy Slide". At the bottom of the list right click the "Paste" and your 30 slides will be copied complete with all the 66 ms times and no transitions. Repeat the "paste" until you have a bit over 100 slides then repeat the copy process by clicking on the first slide the hold the shift key and click on the last. Do the Copy again and past the 100+ slides at the bottom. When you have a bit over 500 slides, repeat the copy process again and past that additional 500+ on the bottom. When you have a bit over 1100 slides at 15 frames per second, you will get about 2 minutes or so of effect. You can then individually adjust slides inserted before and after and go on with your show. If you only want the slide with the effect for a number of seconds, divide the 1100 slides in half for one minute, in quarters for 30 seconds, etc. http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/reflect.zip Best regards, Lin

Hi Al, You don't have to disassemble them, the program can output sequential jpgs so it's ver easy to make something like a 30 frame sequence then just duplicate it for a run of the number of seconds you need in PicturesToExe. Because p2e takes advantage of duplicate photos, there is no big memory hit and it actually works well even with several thousand images. Putting in the first 30 takes a bit of time, but then you can select them with the CTRL key, copy the whole lot and past them numerous times. Here's a sequence of a few seconds done that way. There are over a thousand images in this sequence, but they consist of ony 29 actual images duplicated so that the file size is only about 7 megabytes. http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/reflect.zip Best regards, Lni

I don't think the feature is enabled to stop the music yet. I use silent mp3's to hold it until the show is over. Yes, the water in the desert idea is an interesting juxtaposition. Maybe you could add some "palm trees" and have a real "oasis" as a fade in for the end of the mirage? Best regards, Lin

Cool - reminds me of the Java applet "lake" popular a few years ago. http://www.ibdprince.com/java2.shtml Lin

Hi Peter, Yes, (sequence using some of these techniques) I posted a link in your other comment. Quote from my explanation above: Best regards, Lin

Hi John, Are you using a CRT monitor on the desktop? If so, try hooking up the video output from the laptop to the CRT and see if you still have the same effect. It could be the difference between LCD and CRT. The CRT has a phosphor "persistence" which adds some smoothness to movement while the LCD often has problems displaying the same files in the same way. When you drag your mouse cursor with the laptop do you get a "trail" which lags the actual movement? Just some possibilities. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, Here in the U.S., to my knowledge, we have no AV competitions. I create slideshows for clients (primarily Art Gallery owners) to help them display their products for their own customers. I also sometimes display my own photography via sequences (I do photography professionally specializing in photographing art). My "hobby" is wildlife photography. I have no real interest in competition other than enjoying the beautiful results. As I have explained earlier, the purpose of making these rather complicated demonstrations is not an end in itself, but rather a teaching aid to allow those who wish to make very subtle improvements to their own sequences to understand how the various features of PicturesToExe and other presentation slideshow software may be used to that end. Quite obviously, most will not use this program as 3D modeling software - there are already many good programs which are designed specifically for that purpose, but the capabilities in PicturesToExe "may" be exploited by those who wish to make a very sophisticated and entertaining "opening" or "preamble" to their sequences. Just because the capabilities are latent in the program doesn't mean we "must" use them but rather that when and if we decide we need them they are available. Having these capabilities within a program without either knowing that they exist or knowing "how" to exploit them is rather a waste, so better to have the knowledge and not use it than to want to achieve an artistic effect and have no clue as to how to proceed, I think. Here is a link to an actual artistic sequence I created which uses some of the powers of PicturesToExe. This one is a tribute to the Hubble telescope... This one a zipped executable of around 35 megabytes.. http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/vger2.zip Best regards, Lin