Lin Evans

LOL - Back to the future. Everyone wanted the old IBM keyboards "because" of the click/tactile nature. One company, Northgate, made their fortune with really great copies of the IBM concept. I would still be using the two Northgate's I have left which were parts of custom systems I built and sold years ago, but the function keys in those days only went to 10 so....... LIn

Hi Tom, Hard to say - probably in the interest of compatibility like you surmise. Pay particular attention to the "copy/paste" of the frame and content which essentially duplicates the entire animation, but on the opposite layer which makes it exceedingly easy to simply opacity keyframe the object on the top layer out for passage behind another object, or leave it as is for passage in front. Essentially there are duplicate animations happening simultaneously but with no real overhead because of the way PTE works. Yes, JPD was not only a great guy who unselfishly shared his ideas and amazing constructs, he also was one of the most innovative thinkers I've had the pleasure of knowing, even if it was only via the internet. He, like some others, were taken way too soon by a damned disease which should have had cures twenty years ago. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Actually, although as Peter has discussed above, there may be a much better method in store for the future, it's actually not so difficult to do this for a complex animation as my little example might imply. I just used a very simple child example to demonstrate the "sandwich" idea, but in practice, were there to be several objects with complex motions and different circumstances, there is another very logical way to accomplish this as explained in my #33 tutorial here: Link to relevant tutorial #33 Even though the tutorial linked above is titled: Move an Object in Elliptical Orbit and Make The Object Pass Both In Front Of And Behind Another Object the principles are very relevant. It might be worth the few minutes to download and watch. Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, I've got an older desktop still in service which also has an nVidia 8600-GT - not the mobile version - and it runs it smoothly too. I think the 8600 was the first GPU I used to do 3D animations with - pretty good old card for its day for sure. You know, at our age we have to do something to keep our minds occupied so senility doesn't creep up on us - HA! Making these fantasy shows is lots of fun for me so I don't mind putting in the time and effort. The new features of PTE 8 really speeds up the process and lets the user take advantage of bits and parts of other productions to help ease the journey. Best regards, Lin uote]

Hi Tom, Here's a quickie for how I would proceed... I intentionally made it "not perfect" so you can see the "sandwich" http://www.lin-evans...m/objectzip.zip Lin

Hi Tom, The answer is no. In order to make the red square disappear behind the blue one and apparently pass in front, etc., requires duplicating the red as a child of the blue, etc., and playing with opacity, position and size. It takes a bit of "trickery" to create the illusion. Best regards, Lin

So someone uploads a file to dropbox for you and you have not downloaded it and it magically appears on your own hard drive? Doesn't work that way for me... If it worked that way, Dropbox would have to have a really great crystal ball which would automatically know the URL of every computer which might ever request a file from someone else who had uploaded it. That would be a pretty good trick if it could be done. The assumption is that the OP wants to attach to something other than his own files which are presumably already on his hard disk. Personally, I think you are playing word games here. What I said in my post is correct. You don't find someone's files which they have posted to dropbox for download until such time as you have them on your own system. Lin

Hi Canico, You don't actually "move" your images. Just put them all on either your hard drive or on some other form of local media and navigate to that place from PTE. You will not be able to attach to images in Drop Box - you have to download them to your system first. On the top of your opening screen in PTE there is a small "drive" icon. Generally it will be found on the left side of the tool bar line just under the word "help." Click on this icon to navigate to attached devices including your internal hard disk and then look below and you will see the "tree" structure of that device. Click on the appropriate folder and you will find your images located on that device. You may then either double click an image, drag and drop an image to the slide list or right click on the list and take the appropriate steps from the drop-down table. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, Most laptops do not have a dedicated GPU and it "could be" you are running into a bottleneck because of that, but I seriously doubt that this is the complete problem. I've played video via my USB 2 ports on my own laptops without problems and they are not top-end units at all so I would suspect that the salesman may be correct in this case. Actually, if you get a higher end laptop which has both a dedicated GPU and the integrated "shared" version you should have no problems running your shows. Bottom line - when you go to pick up your new laptop, try it before you leave the store. If it doesn't work, cancel the sale. Best regards, Lin

Poignant and thought provoking Moises - excellent !!! Best regards, Lin

HI Tom, I've been thinking about that! I have some ideas but haven't yet decided the best way to implement them - LOL.. On the Icosahedron, I haven't filled it completely as you might notice on the lower corners of each triangle. I did do one with 3720 video screens (as opposed to the 3460 in the presentation) which had all the "corners" filled with video. But that one was on the ragged edge of my hardware limitations and not completely smooth. I think I will do another and completely fill the confines of the icosahedron but with a few hundred less video screens and higher quality on each. UPDATE: I created a successful one with 3620 + images which runs smooth as silk... I updated with two new links on the original post... One for Mac and one for Windows... I'm searching for just the "right" fireplace for a Christmas tree and fireplace animation with rotating icosahedron and cube ornaments. I'm thinking rotating tiny cubes within each face of the main cube ornament and flashing sides for the icosahedron - LOL Best regards, Lin

Playing with pushing the limits again folks - A Mega Icosahedron running three thousand four hundred and sixty simultaneous video displays.... Thanks Dave for the Icosahedron !! I just filled it up with videos - LOL Link - about 96 Meg Zipped Windows Exe Added two new versions 11/9/13 3620+ individual video displays on rotating icosahedron Link to new version Windows zipped exe 103 meg Link to new version MacIntosh - about 104 meg Lin

Nice job Moises !!! Lots of work there and impressive results! Best regards, Lin

LOL - say it ain't so Tom, say it ain't so!! Lin

Hi Dave, It's a nice retro-look camera, but overpriced in my opinion. The only "real" advantage is its ability to use legacy lenses. I do like the fact that there are lock mechanisms on a couple of the major controls which minimizes the probability of accidentally changing a setting. It's a fine 16 megapixel camera, but with no built-in flash and nearly a 3K price tag it will probably not appeal to a huge number of photographers. In some ways it's like a Leica - those who can "afford" the luxury of the name will enjoy it and Nikon users who have deep pockets might want one for nostalgia's sake. I'm with you. I would buy a D7100 or even a D800E first . Best regards, Lin

Hi HC, Think of a frame as a rectangle object with zero opacity. The most common use of a frame is as a controlling object in a hierarchical parent/child construct. Let me give you an example. Let's say you had multiple objects in an animation such as text, several images, etc., and you wanted all of these objects to zoom larger or smaller and perhaps pan across the screen simultaneously. Of course you "could" set individual keyframes for each object and synchronize their individual keyframe times, but if you had multiple objects this could be a very tedious task. What if you needed ten keyframes to create the particular desired animation and there were fifteen objects which you wanted to control simultaneously? This would then require ten time fifteen or 150 separate keyframes with identical values at keyframe points for each object. Doing this could get really complex. The simple solution would be to add a frame and make each of the objects a child of this frame. Then simply animate the parent frame with the ten keyframes and all of the child objects would respond exactly as if you had programmed them independently. This represents a huge time savings. Let's say you were setting up an object to move in an elliptical orbit around another object. To do this requires a bit of "mechanical" linkage to simulate what could be achieved with a mechanical construct having different length lever arms, swivels, etc. Having either a rectangle made transparent or a frame makes this a very simple task with PTE because of the hierarchical parent/child relationship. Please watch my tutorial linked below to get a feel for how the frame or invisible rectangle can be used to achieve such an effect.... Link to Tutorials: Download and watch tutorial and demo #33 The word "Container" generally applies to masking and the container is an overarching construct which holds the mask and the objects to be masked. As you go through tutorials on masking, the concept of container will become clear. The "container" can be manipulated via keyframes and in turn can be made to animate the mask and objects within. Think of the container as a "frame" for masks and masked objects. Hopefully, this will help you understand the primary use of frames with PTE Best regards, Lin

Hi Ray, Very enjoyable sojourn seen through a different portion of the spectra revealing details normally missed or at least glossed over with conventional photography. Well done and thought provoking! Best regards, Lin

Hi Hector, Not directly by a "merge" command, but you can combine the slides from two files by copy/paste. Open the slideshow you want to copy from and select the first slide, navigate to the last slide, hold down the shift key, left click the mouse to select all and then right click and choose copy. Open the show you want to add these slides to, navigate to the last slide, and paste. This will combine all the slides and associated animations, audio, etc., from the copied show into the show to be modified. Use care that there is no audio portion from the first show extending beyond the last slide timing or the audio timing portion of the second show may be compromised. Even thought the audio from the pasted show is included, you won't be able to see the audio waveform on the timeline. There are ways of modifying the PTE file using a text editor, but really a bit too complicated to explain here and should only be done if you are intimately familiar with all internal processes. Best regards, Lin

Of course it is in the links I gave - repeated below for your convenience: But an app is not just any old software program — it's a special type of software program. An app typically refers to software used on a smartphone or mobile device such as the Android, iPhone, BlackBerry or iPad, as in "mobile app" or "iphone app." In recent years, the shortened term "app" (coined in 1985[3]) has become particularly popular to refer toapplications for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, the shortened form matching their typically smaller scope in relation to applications used by PCs. Maybe if you could learn to read more carefully, you might know where I get my opinion ... The term was "coined" in 1985 - not exactly a "new word" - 28 years.... I believe it was you who started the argument.... L

That's still your "opinion" and I don't share it. My response concerned my demonstration which was absolutely not designed nor output for a mobile device, pad device or any device other than a MacIntosh computer. I agree personally with the Wikipedia definition and explanation below. So you are welcome to your opinion about what the term "app" refers to, and thank you very much, I'll keep my opinion which is quite different...... Terminology[edit] In information technology, an application is a computer program designed to help people perform an activity. An application thus differs from anoperating system (which runs a computer), a utility (which performs maintenance or general-purpose chores), and a programming tools (with which computer programs are created). Depending on the activity for which it was designed, an application can manipulate text, numbers, graphics, or a combination of these elements. Some application packages offer considerable computing power by focusing on a single task, such as word processing; others, called integrated software, offer somewhat less power but include several applications.[2] User-written software tailors systems to meet the user's specific needs. User-written software includes spreadsheet templates, word processor macros, scientific simulations, graphics and animation scripts. Even email filters are a kind of user software. Users create this software themselves and often overlook how important it is. The delineation between system software such as operating systems and application software is not exact, however, and is occasionally the object of controversy. For example, one of the key questions in the United States v. Microsoft antitrust trial was whether Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser was part of its Windows operating system or a separable piece of application software. As another example, the GNU/Linux naming controversy is, in part, due to disagreement about the relationship between the Linux kernel and the operating systems built over this kernel. In some types of embedded systems, the application software and the operating system software may be indistinguishable to the user, as in the case of software used to control a VCR, DVD player or microwave oven. The above definitions may exclude some applications that may exist on some computers in large organizations. For an alternative definition of an app: see Application Portfolio Management. In recent years, the shortened term "app" (coined in 1985[3]) has become particularly popular to refer to applications for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, the shortened form matching their typically smaller scope in relation to applications used by PCs. Lin P.S. No matter how you selectively quote the link I gave you earlier, it does not agree with your definition of App. Here's the paragraph you quoted "and" the following paragraph: So I am going to try to explain what an app is. The word app is a noun, and it’s short for “application.” Application in this case refers to a software application — in other words, a software program. But an app is not just any old software program — it’s a special type of software program. An app typically refers to software used on a smartphone or mobile device such as the Android, iPhone, BlackBerry or iPad, as in “mobile app” or “iphone app.” But the phrase “Web app” or “online app” is also used in a business setting as an abbreviation for “Web application” or “online application” — meaning software that you access and use while online, via a browser, instead of software residing on your computer (such as Microsoft Word).

You have your "opinion" and I have mine. http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/03/what-is-an-app.html L

Hi Tom, I believe that this message is due to a security setting on your Mac of which the default can be changed by the user. I have a friend who had the same message which was reported for zipped Mac exe files several months ago. It seems Apple doesn't like anything that doesn't come from an "Apple Store" or "Apple Developer." Of course it's not an "app" and for certain it doesn't come from a Mac App Store. It may be a legitimate security measure by Apple but it may also serve as a means of frightening Apple owners into not using anything which doesn't provide more revenue stream for Apple. I'm suspicious that it may be the latter especially because of the huge amount of virus, trojans and other malware threats experienced by Apple users NOT. LOL. Best regards, Lin

Thanks Ken! For the "kid" in all of we old codgers! LOL Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, There is also the freeware version of Video Pad Video Editor. If you download and install the free codec huffyuv and read this old, but still relevant information I think you will be able to create an AVI and keep the RGBA : http://www.steves-di...ng-video.html#b Best regards, Lin

Hi guys, Just a fun demo of some of the possibilities with RGBA AVI using the alpha channel. In this demo these are the effects which were created in Particleillusions and output as RGBA alpha channel AVI vidoes. These videos were then used in PTE to create an MP4.h264 which was converted by PTE 8.0 beta to the PTE AVI format. This video was then used as the sole file to create the MacIntosh and Windows exe files: The smoky fire to the right at the feet of the dragon, the fiery inferno on the lower left, the smoke emanating from the dragon's nose, the dragon's fire breath, the blue magic crystal ball in the dragon mistress's hand, the running horse and the red comet were all small AVI videos with alpha channel transparency. These were the components used to create the effects. Obviously these type effect are of no significance to those doing AV shows for serious competition purposes, but may be of very much importance in attracting younger users to PTE. Windows Link - 21 meg zipped exe MacIntosh Link - 21 meg native MacIntosh exe Lin