Lin Evans

Hi John, Cèlou and Ian were kind enough to explain that the way this was done was to change the zoom over time from 100 percent to zero on the X axis. Notice that there are two regions where zoom information is located side by side. In the default mode, when you change the numbers in the left or right block the opposite numbers change to the identical values. If you click on the "tiny" square between these two blocks where the numbers are written it acts like a "toggle switch" so you can change the values in one without changing the values in the other. Think of these as the X and Y axis. Change the number in the one on your left as you face the screen to zero while leaving the one on the right at 100% and the image begins to "squish" over time until at near zero it becomes simply a line. So if you were to set perhaps a six second time from the zero line, the object would "appear" to be rotating on the vertical axis. Conversley, if you were to "flip" the image on the horizontal axis in PhotoShop then perform the opposite action by beginning at six seconds with zero and ending with 100% at 12 seconds, it would appear as if the object had rotated 360 degrees on the vertical axis. You would, of course, start the second object at zero transparency, put in a keypoint at about 5999 (6000 is six seconds) to change it to hold the zero opacity then another keypoint at 6000 changing it to 100%. You would also do likewise for the first object, that is set it to 100% opacity to start, set a keypoint at about 5999 to 100% opacity to keep it from disappearing gradually then put another at 6000 to zero opacity to make the first side disappear as it hit the zero zoom at six seconds. Here's a link to an example I just did which will, hopefully make it clear. It's a coin so I also added a vertical edge view at the six second point (rather crudely, I admit) to simulate what you would see in real time. It's very difficult to dissect the keypoints because they fall on top of one another so you have to plan it out in advance and trust the numbers. http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/morgandollar.zip Lin

Thanks Cèlou, That was quite clear - I understand. Best regards, Lin

Ian - thanks so much, that's exactly what is happening with the pan being moved simultaneously to create the new position as if the object had flipped. I'm feeling really dumb now for not noticing the tiny block in the center between the X and Y axis on the p2e Objects and Animation screen which toggles between locking the X and Y axis and allowing independent action of each. I was looking for a difficult explanation by trying to "puzzle" out how one could save a range of free transform perspective changes in PhotoShop and scratching my head.... silly me - LOL Thanks again, Lin

Could someone explain how the free transform effects work (moving object in perspective such as flipping a silver dollar to show first one side then the other), or as Cèlou did with the cards. I understand how to do this in real time in PhotoShop, but how does one save the entire process as a motion to be used in p2e? Lin

Very nice Cèlou, I'm uncertain how you get the free transform effects into p2e? Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, LOL - you're absolutely right! It was hidden so well I didn't find it when I first looked. I suspect I must have accidentally clicked on "clone" keypoint at some time. I've removed it and uploaded the zip file again so now there "should" be three keypoints, one at zero then two more near the end of the timeline. The second to placehold the zero for opacity and the last to reveal the background as a replacement for the puzzle view. Good catch!! Lin

Hi Dom, I've discovered a "bug" in the "invision" software. I actually corrected the link three different times and tested it each time, but the changes didn't "stick" - LOL. Apparently you can't "correct" a link with Invision's complete edit, you must "delete" the link and start over. Each time I changed the link the typo returned. Interesting..... Actually, only one of these keypoints is not necessary. The first keypoint which "should" have remaned at zero on the timeline was necessary and automated when placing the main image in the slide list. If I deleted it, or moved it this might be even more confusing - LOL. The last keypoint has to be there to make the main image visible and the next to last is there per the tutorial as a "placeholder" to prevent the image from gradually going from zero opacity to 100% opacity throughout the full period of animations. It's true that one "could" delete or move the original zero keypoint to the timeline point where the main image should start to become visible leaving the opacity at zero, then place the ending keypoint for the main image a few seconds later to effect the fade in to effectively replace the puzzle with the solid image. But doing it this way would be confusing because in the tutorial I refer to the black space at the top and bottom of the screen when originally adding the background image. Also I suggest that the reader set the opacity to zero for this background object so it doesn't obscure the puzzle pieces as they are brought in one at a time. Moving this beginning keypoint to another position such as at the 13 or 14 second point set to zero opacity followed by a 100% opacity would be from a programmer's perspective more elegant because it would require one less keypoint, but from the instructional and learning perspective less effective I think. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, I posted a link to a new "puzzle tutorial" on the main page. There is also a link to the included components and the p2e files so you can follow step-by-step. Here are the links for your convenience: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzletutorial.pdf http://www.lin-evans.net/p23/puzzletutorial.zip Lin

I thought there was enough interest to make a tutorial and step-by-step on how to do this including using the PanosFX action. I kept it simple with only four pieces, but I think anyone can extrapolate and get the same results with 20 pieces or so. Here's the link to the tutorial http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzletutorial.pdf Here's the link to the zipped file containing all the components so you can play with them: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzletutorial.zip Best regards, Lin Note: link corrected above and a bug discovered in the "complete edit" feature of the forum. You can't "edit" a link, you must delete it and re-type the entire link. If it is edited, the error will first appear to have been corrected in your edit view, but the edit will not be saved and the error will remain.

You get them all moving simultaneously by having actions set for each and having these actions occuring during the same time periods on the time line. This is done by choosing some period of time such as 10 seconds as a "finish" point for the second keypoint. So the default keypoint is set to zero, the next keypoint is set to say 10 seconds. The animation path you choose for the second keypoint will happen between zero and 10 seconds. Then you choose another keypoint perhaps 2 seconds further to end the animation and set the pan/zoom to zero and the zoom to 100%. This places that particular puzzele piece where it must be at that particular time. Do likewise for each using 10 seconds as the "activity" period for the animation for each and be sure that all are set to 100% opacity so you can see them. Choose different animation paths and vary the third keypoint time by a second or so for each. So if you "plant" the first puzzle piece at 11 seconds, then plant the second at 12, the third at 13 or such and so on. The end result is that you have all the pieces (or as many as you wish) doing something simultaneously, then one by one they settle at their own respective zero points so the puzzle gets completed. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, Highlight the first object then click on the "Properties" tab and rename it - do this for each and just give the the shortened names like a1, a2, b1, b2, etc. Then you know which is which. Click on any one of the renamed objects from the Objects and Animation screen then right click your mouse and choose "Order" then "bring to front" . Once you have the object brought to front "and" have one or the keypoints for it highlighted, you can resize or move it accordingly. Just do this sequentially for each object and eventually you will have all actions set as you like. Best regards, Lin

Works perfectly! Congrats - the first one is always the most difficult. Once you grasp that you just run the action then open the file in ImageReady and export as separate files (you probably will want to rename them when you import them as objects into P2E) you will have it mastered. I've found that it takes lots of video card power to run a 30 layer puzzle. TheDom couldn't get it to run smoothly on either of two laptops and I tried it on my wife's new Dell laptop and it (my 30 layer puzzl) was pretty jerky. I suspect that 20 layers is probably optimal for smoothness on the majority of systems. I have a pretty powerful graphics system on my development computer so the 30 layer puzzle runs very smoothly, but Jean-Pierre couldn't get it to run at all on his system. Best regards, Lin

Yep, it's pretty graphics intensive. Thirty separate images moving simultaneously. It's nice and smooth on my 3.2 Ghz with ATI Radeon 9800 pro card, but I can imagine that with anything but a very optimized grahics environment it's asking quite a lot. I just did it more as a torture test than anything else. The program can certainly handle everything fine, the hardware is crying for a beer - LOL Lin

Fantastic!! We'll see that in beta 3 then? Thanks, Lin

Hi Gary, No way that I'm aware of to get a "random" pattern cut out. You "could" use one of the selection tools rather than the crop tool and cut out pieces of an image then create transparent background PNG files from them. It's time consuming and you would need to overlay the transparency and follow the original contours of the cut edge to get a proper fit. This would take lots of time. You also may want to dissect the action and see how Panos used the tools to make the puzzle cut-out. Best regards, Lin

Hey Gary, The easiest way is to use a PhotoShop action which someone with lots of PhotoShop experience and lots of time has already done - LOL Go here and download the free Puzzle action first: http://www.panosfx.com/ Load the action in PhotoShop and run it, adjust any parameters such as contour, outer-glow, texture, etc., to suit your taste then open the results in ImageReady and export the separate layers as PNG files. The rest is just import into P2E on separate layers, adjust the animations for each and you have a "puzzle" slideshow. Lin

Hi Ken, That's the way it should work. I added the sound then reposted without changing the file name. The one I just posted for Jean-Pierre was done without the sound to see if it had some bearing on the problem he was having with it. Something strange going on with his system and this file I think. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jean-Pierre, There must be some type of bug - possibly because I used a midi-file. On most systems this show plays very well so it would be a good idea to find out why it's not working for you. The delay between the begining of the sound and begining of the images on my system is about 4 seconds and pressing the "ESC" key kills the action immediately. The fact that you have had problems and had to kill the process with other slideshows indicates something unique to your system is incompatible with this, when we find out what it is it will probably be easy to correct. I have removed the midi sound and posted another zipped executable with a link for you to try. If you could try it and let us know the results it might help to determine the cause. There should be about six or seven seconds delay on this before images appear. http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzlenosound.zip Best regards, Lin

That's great news - there are some times........... this afternoon was one - LOL Lin

http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzle.zip Lin O.K., I couldn't resist - I added a little music - play it through twice for best ending effect.... LOL

LOL - no, (hate) that's not one of my "attributes" :-) Actually, my first (and only) tutorial was and is a "beta" tutorial. There are several different types of approaches to teaching which work differently for different "thinkers". We are not all wired the same way and what works very well for some doesn't work well at all for others. In my many years teaching in a university environment, I found that no one approach works best for everyone. Some prefer a "referenced" approach where there is a table of contents, referenced pages and modular presentations while some learn better from a "linear" approach where the student is led step by step through the practical application of actually "doing" rather than "reading about" doing the task. In short, some learn by reading and thinking, others learn by doing. My first hurried attempt at this was in response to several requests and was designed not as a "manual" but more as a basic tutorial on how to use and understand the concept of "objects" as presented in the then two day old beta release. It was important to me to convince those who were a bit perplexed by all the new possibilities to get their hands "dirty" so to speak, and actually "create" a very short slideshow consisting of a couple slides. Because once one discovers how easy it is and has a handle on the concept of keypoints, then the confidence gained from that experience makes understanding the more esoteric concepts much easier. When the rewrite is done after or coinciding with the release of version 5.0 I suspect Jeff and I will work out perhaps a "two pronged" presentation where both approaches may complement each other and satisfy each type of learner. Best regards, Lin

I wanted to convert my MicroSoft Publisher document into a PDF file, so I thought I would have to buy the $300 Adobe Acrobat product. In looking for it on the web, I found what appears to me to be a fantastic deal for anyone wanting to convert documents to 100% Adobe compatible PDF. There are a number of low priced or even free PDF converters, but in doing some research I've found that some of them are not truly reliable and some have issues which I didn't want to deal with. I found and downloaded this one which really works perfectly for me, so thought I would pass it along. Docudesk has two products of interest (actually they have more, but the Standard and Pro versions are all most will need) which very quickly, very efficiently convert nearly any products output to PDF format. It works like a charm. You just open the document in whichever software you use (MicroSoft Word, Excel, Publisher, WordPerfect, etc., etc., ) then print it selecting the Docudisk print to PDF as your printer. It took only six seconds to convert my ten page Microsoft Publisher document which I used to create my HTML pages into a beautiful 100% Adobe compatible PDF file which you can see at the link below: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/tutorial.pdf The fine print on the screen capture which was downsized from its original capture size to fit into the Publisher format was not readable even with the magnifiers we have been discussing. The screen resolution was just too low and as a GIF (which is what Publisher converts the jpgs to) it was simply not very usable either in print or as a screen readable document. The text was fine, but the text "as image" on the screen captures was pretty sorry. After conversion of the MicroSoft Publisher document to PDF, it's very easy to zoom in and read the document as well as the text from the screen capture because it had not yet been converted to the low resolution GIF format. Now for the good part. Anyone who has a need to provide PDF documents can buy the professional version of Docudesk for $29.95 - worth a look folks! http://www.docudesk.com/ Lin

Hi Guys, I decided to convert my html tutorial to PDF format and I believe it is quite readable that way. Apparently the smaller sized web text couldn't be read even with the magnifier software so after looking at Jeff Evans' PDF version I was curious if it would work better as a PDF. I downloaded a trial version of a PDF conversion software (Highly Recommended! and I'll devote another page to this on a different thread) and it took all of about six seconds to convert 10 page of html code from Microsoft Publisher into what I think is a very readable pdf document. So here are the links to both Jeff's and my PDF versions of the initial tutorial. I will be updating mine with the release of beta 3.... Lin http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/tutorial.pdf http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/jvedette/PTEV5guide.pdf Lin

Hi Barry, It actually wasn't a problem with the original screen capture, the resolution and readability was fine (I have lots of different screen capture tools) but rather the resizing of the entire captured image to fit the available space in MicroSoft Publisher which caused the distortion and relatively tiny print. Originally, I wanted to preserve the entire page for perspective so that new users could see an overall image as they would on their own computer at that part of the program. In retrospect I realize that cropping only the relevant parts would have worked much better and the readability would have been excellent. I'm in the process of revising and modifying the tutorial as new features and information has become available. The original was done in about 30 miutes and only a couple days after the beta was released so there is plenty of room for improvement. UPDATE - I just converted it to a PDF and I believe the problem is solved - the original is quite clean under PDF magnification: Link below: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/tutorial.pdf Best regards, Lin There are a couple - Jeff Evans and I have each been working independently on slightly different approaches. The two links are below: UPDATE - Actually Three Links - I've just updated my html to a PDF document which is MUCH easier to read: http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/tutorial.pdf http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/jvedette/PTEV5guide.pdf http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/index.html Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor, Yes, but two ways. First way: go to zoom view and zoom out to 10% right click on grey area outside any bounding rectangles then add multiple objects. They go under each other on object lines, yes? As so they are independent of each other and "belong" to the area outside any other object. Second way: draw rectangle with rectangle tool. Click on multiple objects and add. As so they "belong" to the properties of the rectangle so are "grouped" to follow the rectangle. Best regards, Lin