Lin Evans

+2 - I've suggested that in emails in the past also.... Lin

Hi Gary, The time will probably come when you find a good reason to use masks. Think of them as a way to confine some activity to a particular place on your image. For example, let's say you wanted to create a fire in a fireplace in a room and you wanted to have the reflections of that fire in some object which sat on the hearth. First you would need to decide how to create your fire and then you would need to find a way to confine it to the exact place where you wanted it such as in a fire place. If you had a room scene with couches, chairs, etc., you wouldn't want the fire in the middle of the couch! So let's say your fire was a video you took of a fireplace with your video camera or your dSLR in video mode. Let's say you ran the video through a video editor and made it fairly small so it would somewhat fit into the fireplace, but the fireplace in your living room scene was a slightly different size and shape than your video. How would you deal with this? Then there is that reflection you want on the object on the hearth. How would you confine the reflection to just the points you want to show it reflected in? The solution is to take your image into your editor such as Photoshop and "paint" the exact dimensions of your fireplace with pure white. Then paint the exact areas of the object where you want the reflection pure white. Next you copy and paste your entire image over a transparency and with the eraser tool erase everything except the white areas. Select an area containing the white and save it as a PNG file. Select the other area containing the white and save it likewise. Now you have two custom masks which you simply use to confine your fire and reflection to the proper areas. You can adjst the opacity of the mask to allow more or less of the "reflection" and use the full white inside of the fireplace to confine your fire to that area. You can use these masks as a "child" of the main image so if you zoom, etc., they stay in proper size relationship. So you play your video inside the mask containers and now you have something you couldn't have accomplished without the mask. There are literally thousands of ways to use masks effectively in your shows. You will become very fond of them once they become second nature to create and implement. Best regards, Lin

Did you look at the thumbnail? It explains in more detail. I like and use the program myself. Want to move a few keyframes in concert? Can you do that now? You can with OAK Did you not download PhotoShop and learn it? Did you know all about what it could do for you before you worked with it, or did you take the word of others who had worked with it that it was something you might find useful? You bought it at great expense too, didn't you? You probably don't need OAK because you probably don't have the inclination to do the things it can help you with. It's a free program - download it and try it or not. Really it makes no difference to anyone but you. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, Not to answer for Jean-Claude - but the purpose of OAK of which Jean-Claude is the author is seen in the opening of the PDF instructions here: OAKObjects, Animation, keyframesWhat is the purpose of OAK?Globally visualize, manipulate, modify overall temporal dataof all objects in a slide issued from PTE and synchronizeobjects to the soundtrack with the help of Audacity. Oak is furnished and documented in both English and French. You can download it here: http://diapositif.net/forum/download/file.php?id=41166 When it is installed a PDF will be found in the installation folder which is by default found in C:\Program Files\OAK1.0.2c The PDF instructions will show you how to use it. It is a fantastic tool which uses the clipboard to transfer information between itself and the yourfilename.pte file. It's a very thorough piece of work and consists of over 24,000 lines of code/text. Having some of the features incorporated into PTE would be a wonderful thing or having PTE contain the option of using it like a plugin would be a very nice addition. I'm certain Jean-Claude can explain it's complete function in much more detail than I have, but it is an invaluable time saver for those who wish to do complex animations and synchronizations. See attached thumbnail below for more information... Best regards, Lin

Does 512 have to have anything to do with anything? Don't overthink it... In the immortal words of Bill Murray: "It just doesn't matter." Best regards, Lin

Maybe we should segregate the answer between the "mask rectangle" (in this case) and the "Mask Container." The container (I know. rhetorical) defines that area of display which "could" be affected by the mask. The mask itself is variously called a rectangle, circle or simply "mask" defines that actual area of display affected by the masking. The container can be precisely adjusted to fit the display, but precision is not really important at all here. It's only important that the container be as large or larger than the area masked. There is no relevant penalty for it being larger than the display area just as there is no advantage. The mask itself is rarely equal to the entire display area but rather defines that region of masking. So making the mask container precisely the same aspect ratio and size as the display is just not really an important thing in my opinion. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, Part of the answer is probably that no matter how many separate choices were offered, someone would always want another. Another reason is that rarely does someone mask the entire screen - it's just not the usual purpose for a mask. It's so simple to drag it to the dimensions you choose and to distort it to your own purposes that having a bunch of rarely used aspect ratios would probably be superfluous from a programming perspective. Best regards, Lin

Hi Denis, I agree that your keyframed version is much more realistic than the perspective zoom in terms of keeping the perception of linearity constant. The question I have is how you arrived at the proper ascending increments which appear to offset the normal linear motion nearly perfectly? Regardless of how I adjust the "slope" of the linear curve, I can't seem to duplicate what you have done, You have done a very nice job of providing a realistic constant zoom. Best regards, Lin

Hi Denis, What is it that you do not agree with? When you say it "didn't work" do you mean it did nothing or that it did not do what you expected? here is a quick sample to see the difference in what a linear zoom and perspective zoom does - how one interprets it is another issue entirely and may depend on individual perceptions. http://www.lin-evans.org/demo/comparezooms.zip Remember, zoom in PTE is designed to work within a slide and not between slides. To accomplish smooth zooms between slides requires work-arounds as you have demonstrated in your tutorial. Many years ago I demonstrated what I called an "infinite" zoom where multiple images were matched so that the ending zoom in on slide one matched the field of view and focal length of the starting zoom for slide two and so on. The zoom was from a wide angle photo of a tiny object to a full macro view of the same object. This appears to be what you have done in your sample tutorial, but not being fluent in French I'm not absolutely certain of this. Best regards, Lin

Hi Peter, Zooms are a tool which are designed to work within a slide, not between slides. There may be a way to do what you are trying to accomplish, but to help you design your show, it's necessary to see the project. If you will click on "File" "Create Backup in Zip" and post the resulting zip file then I will look at your project and help you design it to get the smooth result you are looking for. You have said a "magic" word in your description of a "single slide" with linear motion. "Seems to." The issue is that the linear slide is absolutely linear, but the human brain doesn't interpret it that way. As the image gets smaller, we perceive it as zooming quicker when it indeed is zooming at a very constant speed. To correct for your own "perspective" there is a checkbox on the Common Tab in Objects and Animation called "Perspective Correction for Zoom." Click this and observe a simple zoom out and zoom in and you will perceive that it is linear when ideed it compensates for you perception by actually slowing down the zoom out and speeding the zoom in accordingly. Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, What I think the underlying issue is, is how to attract new users to the product. We old photographers who create audio visual shows of our still photos and sometimes even our video's are a dying breed. If you examine the age group of audio visual competitions and shows you find a pattern of older folks, many of whom are retired or nearing retirement. Igor began this product as a very young man and with a young man's vision of the future. Fortunately for the product, he is only fifteen years older than when he began, yet still a young man. Many of us who have used his product since its inception are in the twilight years of our lives and the product is just now coming into its own and gaining world-wide popularity. The future market is clearly for the youth who have a totally different interest than most of us in terms of image/video display and manipulation. What is the most common "toy" among children and even young people of high school age? For a few it's sports toys such as the football, basketball, baseball and associated things, but for the vast majority it's what? Video games! Video games come and go but the tools to allow the inquisitive young minds to create these type things persist through time. There exists a natural variation in tools to allow creative young minds to explore the possibilities. Some of these tools are produced by 3D animation companies (Maya Blender, etc.) and some are produced by graphical manipulation companies (Adobe AfterEffects, Eyeon Fusion, etc.) and then there is PTE which has a huge head-start on a niche of its own. Though PTE exists firmly in the realm of presentation slideshow creation software, it's truly much, much more. It represents possibilities not equaled in other products which are extremely attractive to the younger buyer. In the not too distant future, we old codgers who make presentations with still slides and throw in a few video clips now and then will be history. The future is elsewhere and the tools which have a significant start with PTE need to be preserved and improved. This not to the detriment of its primary purpose at present, but should not be left by the wayside because these very things which you see little use for are precisely the things which attract the younger buyer to this product. I use many of these other tools but frankly, I can do things with PTE which would take me fifty times as long to do with my other expensive 3D and graphical manipulation software. There are some things I can do with PTE which there is apparently not another tool available which can replace it. My feeling is that for the preservation and growth of Wnsoft, this niche needs to be exploited. Perhaps sometime in the not too distant future PTE will divide into two major areas of interest. The conventional slideshow and the animation show. Of the two, one has a limited future life-cycle. The other is looming large on the horizon in my crystal ball.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Barry, Sometimes there are simply too many variables to enter manually for seriously complex animations which some users create. I'm reminded of JPD's Penser Avec son Pinceau which was recently posted to the Demo section of Slideshow Club. Have you watched it? It's difficult to even conceive of creating such without the help of a spread-sheet or at least a tool such as OAK to aid in the calculation and distribution of the data. Obviously, the vast majority of users will never create nor even want to create such an incredible masterpiece, but the need remains for those who do to have a means of doing so. Another example is the creation of bezier curve motions. It sometimes requires thousands of keyframes to accomplish the desired results. The "points" at which certain motions coincide with the background music might be set manually with some facility, but the intermediate keyframe values are often far too complex to calculate for manual creation and entry. The idea for future advancement of PTE would be to have a tool which allows both the novice as well as the experienced presentation engineer and also the experienced animator to more easily build their desired artistic creations, I think. Best regards, Lin

Excellent idea Igor - Social media is a wonderful way to spread the word about PicturesToExe! One suggestion: Put a "Try It" link on the FB page to get the visitors to the Wnsoft Site !!! Even though there is a "Contact" link, I believe the words "Try It" should appear because many will not realize that a free trial is available unless they first click the "Contact Us" link. Best regards, Lin

Excellent suggestion Denis! Best regards, Lin

Audio doesn't copy with slides so you must either make the entire creation as a single show or copy and paste the slides and add the audio to the newly created portion as you go along. Best regards, Lin

Yes, but from his former message I got the feeling that he wasn't familiar with the fact that the mask can be made to virtually any rectangular size or oval shape. Once created it can be duplicated by observing the numeric values. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, Just a side note. Any "mask" in PTE can be adjusted to virtually any aspect ratio and once you have it visually as you want, then you can observe the numeric coefficients in the Animations Tab in O&A and set those numbers for any other images of the same aspect ratio. Just hold down the keyboard "shift" key and drag the side of the mask desired to any position. You can repeat this action with all four sides of a rectangular mask. You can also distort the shape of the "round" mask to any oval shape you desire by doing likewise. You can further distort the shape of any mask by applying three dimensional aspects and use the keyboard shift key to adjust accordingly. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jeff, Thanks!! Sometimes a ballad or a poem compels me to make a show like this. It's a shame that children today rarely understand or even know our own history. If seeing old real photos in context with a mosaic historical ballad can help generate a bit of interest in history, pehaps the future may somehow be affected for the better - at least I hope so. Yes, it was a hard way to die - especially if there was no gallows. Many hangings were conducted by compelling the condemned to stand on horseback then swatting the horse. This small drop was almost never sufficient to snap the neck, but indeed a lingering and slow death from strangulation. It seems we had a fascination with hanging when a single bullet would have sufficed. I recall seeing even a supposedly rogue elephant named Mary which had killed a human handler hung from a crane in Tennessee. Strange thing the human mind.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Andrew, Very moving to see respect paid to the armed forces. There seems to be much less patriotism in my country today. Sadly the liberal movement in the US has tarnished the word "patriot" to equate to something they deem lower than a snake's belly. Very nice images and excellent choice of background music! Good job!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Yep, a hard life in those days. If you look carefully at the images you'll notice that the cowboys on the frame immediately preceding the one of the four on horseback where the mandolin appears are rangers - there are two "stars" from the badges apparent in the image. I had to comb the archives at the Library of Congress collection to get suitable images to match the lyrics and construct some of them from several. This show is not everyone's cup of tea for certain, but having had relatives in the cattle ranching business back in the late 1800's through the 1950's it rings a bell for me. I listened to my grand-dad tell stories from his life on the trails between Texas and New Mexico in the old days and stories his pop told him. The poem indeed reflects a mosaic of truths from frontier justice. Lots of situations arose where it simply wasn't possible to get to a place where a judge and courthouse and jury were available and frontier justice was meted out by the available cowboys and ranchers as they deemed fair. The original transcription to music from Willa's poem was done by the old folk singer and superb guitarist Paul Siebel. I hear Paul sing this back in the early 60's. He never recorded the song, but a young David Bromberg was his assistant in those days and David was the first to actually record the song. EmmyLou and Waylon did the duet, but I didn't like their rendition nearly as much as David's which was much closer to what Paul did. I love EmmyLou and Waylon was great too, but on their rendition it's more like just going through the motions - not her best work IMHO. Paul just up and quit the music business. He's still alive and living on the east coast while mostly playing with his sail boat these days from what I hear. He modified the words a bit from Willa's poem for the lyrics. Willa used the Spanish Johnny character in her famous novel "The Song of The Lark." Best regards, Lin

The strategy would be to not combine huge images with intricate animation. It's incumbent for users to keep in mind that the only time an image needs to be larger than the expected display resolution is when there will be deep zooms into detail. Best regards, Lin

That's fantastic Igor - congratulations!! PTE just keeps getting better and better thanks to you and your team's dedication and hard work! Best regards, Lin

I think we need to realize that there are multiple reasons for shows. Some create them for competitions, some just for friends and family to remember holidays or vacations. Some create shows for a demonstration of software features and some just to see whether it is possible to do certain things which may or may not have any social redeeming value. Some shows are simply historical reminiscences and have no intended artistic implications. Sometimes I like to make a slideshow which visually depicts the message in the lyrics of a song and at other times I choose the background music to complement the slide content. Because of the greatly varied nature of presentations and the wide variety of human cultural experiences in the audience, it's generally not reasonable to expect that everyone would like or appreciate the results. So what is really important is that the results please the intended audience and that audience may sometimes be only one's self... Regards, Lin

http://www.lin-evans.org/johnny/spanishjohnny.zip http://www.lin-evans.org/johnny/spanishjohnnymac.zip Slight modification ..... now a bit under 9 megs.. About 9 meg Lin

You may want to also consider the Sigma 18-35 Art lens - more flexible with docking station and generally considered better glass. The 17-40 has a reputation for significant chromatic aberration at full wide angle on a FF sensor. http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Compare/Side-by-side/Sigma-18-35mm-F18-DC-HSM-A-Canon-versus-Canon-EF-17-40mm-F4L-USM___1141_0_794_0 Best regards, Lin