Lin Evans

Hi Dave, Just want to remind folks who are using Photoshop and contemplating video time lapse creation, that to do any video editing with Photoshop, one must have the extended version of Photoshop or Photoshop CS6 which has video capabilities in the non-extended version - Thanks Neil for the reminder.... Excellent video tutorial, but makes me appreciate the simplicity and visual ease of edit with PTE even more. The number of steps necessary with Photoshop to accomplish what was done in the tutorial shows the power of Photoshop Extended as a video editing tool, but also focuses the viewers attention on the complexity of Photoshop. Of course the facility to immediately change the video resolution in Photoshop before rendering is a powerful feature. Some of the things shown in the tutorial such as masking are far easier and more powerful with PTE in my opinion. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, Maybe I didn't make it clear ... That's why I said there are two ways to create it. The higher resolution images, during the creation of the original MP4 are zoomed into and the result is a 1080p image created from the 10 or so high resolution images rather than from 1080p resolution images. If the original video is created without zooming and subsequently zoomed into as a video, there is no advantage in using higher resolution images. I believe it might be more difficult to zoom into the still images because one would necessarily have to match the degree of ending zoom on the first image to the degree of starting zoom on the second image, etc., and we're talking, in the relevant case, about one second frames. The result might be better, depending on the degree of zoom and the quality of the originals to do the zooms via the stills, but it might also not be worth the added effort. I'm not certain which way would actually work better in real practice because it would be necessary to probably use the navigation bar and "drag" (scrub) through a video to place keyframes for video zoom in and out. I usually like to do my zooming in camera when shooting video, but in the case of time-lapse photography I suppose one would just have to experiment to find the best solution depending on individual circumstances. Best regards, Lin

Hi Chris, There are at least two ways to approach this with PTE. First, the decision about the image size. Since your scenario requires 10,800 images (60 images per minute times 60 minutes per hour tines 3 hours = 10,800 images) to avoid serious system resource loading, you may want to resize all except those images you intend to zoom in on to the size you intend for your output. If you intend to zoom in for some predetermined period, then use higher resolution on only those images which will be involved. For example if the zoom is to take place over a 10 second period, then ten images would be involved. The other images should be no larger than your final video resolution. If HD 1080P then there is no need for the vertical aspect to be greater than 1080 pixels for most images. Next sequence them in PTE in the order you wish them to appear and create an MP4 h.264 video. Load this video back in a new PTE file and perform your zooms and other desired animations on the video with PTE using the timeline and appropriate keyframes. Finally, save your work and output as either an MP4 h.264 video, or convert using the PTE convert facility and output as a Windows or MacIntosh native executable file. The second way would be to perform the relative zooms on the images before creating the first video, but this method with only a one second and "quick, no transition" between images might be a little more time consuming than doing the zooms after the video had been created and before the final video output. Remember, PTE also allows you to fine tune the video speed so that if you needed to slightly speed up the final video output, that would be easy enough to accomplish. Best regards, Lin

Hi Paul, Xaver has commented on the color profile aspects so I will only mention that you have complete control of volume at the time of manual display via the video style navigation bar. On the far right is a volume slider which allows any volume level from zero to whatever you have programmed as maximum. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, Thanks! Lately I have realized that tranquility in my own life is becoming more important as the years pass. It's really a wonderful thing that PTE has the features which we can use to help express our creative sides. It's such a joy to have a tool which is so versatile. I'm finding different uses for it every day - it's sort of like a fine quality Swiss Army Knife. It may not be "perfect" for every task, but it gives more versatility, in my experience, than any other single piece of software I've used. Best regards, Lin

LOL - they will be after that next! The good thing is that they will have to buy PicturesToExe to make it work! HA! Lin

Now Nikon is filching my idea - LOL Lin

Hi Moises, Gary had posted a rather long question about unrelated things along with his "Thank You." Since they had nothing to do with your template, I removed that part of his post and placed it in the off-topic section of the forum. Eric was just confirming that that what I moved from Gary's post was off-topic and didn't belong here. Leaving it here would have put the thread totally off subject so that part of the message was moved. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, The exact procedure is slightly different for different versions of Windows. I'm not certain about Window's 8 because I've never used it, but with XP you right click on the PTE file and then if there are multiple PTE files listed, you need to run the Properties to see which is PTE 7.5 and choose that one. If PTE isn't listed then you follow the prompts to get to the PTE exe file, but don't leave the window and go directly to the PTE file or Windows will not log the correct file. With Windows 8 there may be a different procedure, but it would greatly simplify things if he just opened PTE 7.5 and then opened the pte file. Doing it that way there is no confusion by Windows about what is expected. Best regards, Lin

Gary, Here is the procedure for changing the default opening program: http://windows.micro...-a-type-of-file Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, If that's what he's doing, then it will always open in the latest version of software installed. That's the way it's supposed to work. If you have four versions of Photoshop or six version of PTE or three versions of some other software and click on the file itself, unless you have instructed Windows otherwise it will always choose the most current version to open the file with. It's the only logical way to proceed. My suggestion would be for him to open the version of PTE he wants to work with and then open the PTE file so there is no issue with defaults. Best regards, Lin

Gary, What is your procedure for opening a file - exact steps. Why are you trying to open a PTE file from "My Computer" rather than from PTE? What happens if you open PTE :7.5, then navigate to the PTE file you want to open and click on it? Best regards, Lin

Actually, the "styles" were created as the author desired (Igor in this case), If you just want to blur without zooming and have not created your own style to accomplish this, just select the image you wish to blur so that the first keyframe is selected. In Objects and Animations, click on the small blue down arrow in the "Blur" button and move the slider which appears to the right while watching the amount of blur. If you move it to the left it will sharpen. You may overwrite the maximum values to accomplish greater than the degree of blur you get with 400 or greater sharpening than -20. If it is the fact that you see the "edge" of the image appear to "shrink" which is the concern, whenever you apply a universal blur to an image the edges will get darker around the periphery of the image. The image is not actually zooming smaller, it's simply an artifact of the blur algorithm. Of course you can "keyframe" the amount of blur thus go from a blur to a sharp image or vice versa. In the example provided via the "style" - there is a keyframe at the very end of the slide which provides the zoom in or zoom out values. Best regards, Lin

Hi Bert, Thanks for watching.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Ken, Thanks for checking it! Glad to know it worked ... Actually, quite a number of mermaids in there - LOL I like the concept of something other than just a static menu - keeps it interesting for me... Best regards, Lin

Hi, First of all, don't use the timeline for this. It's entirely possible to use the timeline, and I'll tell you how to do it in a moment, but first let me tell you the way I would go about this. Go to the slide list instead by clicking on the Slide List tab. Click on the first slide.to select it. Right click and choose "Insert Blank Slide." The blank slide will be inserted before your first slide. It's that simple. Now, if you want to do it the harder way, go to the timeline and click on the first slide to select it. It's more difficult to see the first slide because it will usually be much smaller than on the slide list because its size depends on how much "time" it occupies. After you have made sure that it's "selected" then right click and choose just as above on the slide list to "Insert Blank Slide and it will be automatically inserted before the first slide. If you have already inserted it in the wrong place, just click on the "Slide List" tab, then click on the blank slide, drag it to the left of the first slide until you notice a dotted line then drop it. That's all there is to it. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, It's great that you were able this time to convert without error. It's difficult to know - perhaps the other video players have less stringent requirements that PTE's converter since they were only playing rather than converting? I don't know the answer to your other question, but I've tried 100% and the default with the converter and really haven't been able to tell much difference. I "think" the differences are really the amount of compression. Compression usually lowers quality some, but there are limits to our ability to visually detect this sometimes even though it may be measurable. Perhaps it's like some audio which certain frequencies are lost, but those frequencies which are lost are beyond the hearing range of most who listen? It would be nice to have video stabilization in PTE but I'm not certain where we should stop with filters since it's a player rather than an editor. There are a few free stabilizers such as the one available for VirtualDub. I'm not certain what would be required to make the PTE player compatible with this, or if it's even possible. Perhaps you could put that idea into the "suggestions" thread... Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, I can find no apparent reason that the hardware wouldn't be compatible, so I'm guessing that there may be some issue with file corruption of some type, but it's certainly not clear what it might be. The video card and CPU are very powerful and you have quite sufficient RAM on both the system and GPU so that should not be an issue. There have been no reported incompatibilities with Windows 7 so maybe we should let Igor look into this if the problem persists with 7.5.10 and 8.0 beta. I believe there were significant changes between 7.07 and 7.5.10 in video handling. So right now, do the files work correctly with 7.5.10 and 8.0 beta? If so, I would suggest keeping the later versions of PTE because there are improvements in video handling. Best regards. Lin

As many of you undoubtedly realize, I have a lengthy fascination with snow, water, etc., effects. A lot of my personal "slideshows" use numerous effects and not because they are necessarily the best way to present material, but just because I like them. I prepared a number of my water effects shows which use selected web images which were suitable. Most of the images were taken from my friends own Facebook or webpage collections so are those which they specifically like. I modified them with my water effects and I used a few of PTE version 8 beta’s features in some. Actually, most of them could have been done with version 7.5 and only a couple of the dozen slideshows really use features specific to version 8 such as Alpha Channel RGBA and nested masking, etc. I thought I would combine them all with a menu in an archived zip folder so that anyone interested could download and see them. The combined file size is about 418 megabytes including the menu, but since today's shows including video can often be much larger than this - I think people with reasonably fast broadband and who have an interest in this type thing might be willing to expend the bandwidth to download. This is a long way of getting to my point which is that when I created the menu - it was sort of a "blah" gradient of blue with a dozen choices plus "Exit". Suddenly it occurred to me that there is no valid reason why we can't include audio and video in our menus! Wow, a light had been turned on in my head. I know, such a simple thing, but it was something I had never considered before. With our ability to use the opacity feature on all objects, including video, it was a simple thing to place an effective video with a soothing theme in the background behind my Menu Text and include an appropriate soundtrack. So I did that. The theme of the water effects in the shows was "Tranquility." I made four of the little theme shows for personal friends, Tonya - (a close friend of my late wife), Debbie - (one of my friends from my college days), Lisah, (a close friend) and Judy (my dear ex wife and the mother of my daughter). So these four little personalized tranquility shows are part of the dozen. Since the theme was "Tranquility" and almost all of the shows consisted of water effects, I chose an appropriate video for the almost subliminal backdrop for the menu. I think this type thing may eventually be of interest and I believe Wnsoft should find a way of marketing this feature possibility. I don't believe this type thing is really possible with any of the competition. Two of the shows contain artistic nudity. Those are “Moons” – a double entendre – since a “Moon” is a euphemistic slang for the “backside” (derriere or moon in French, bum in the U.K., etc.) and “Secret.” I believe neither should be offensive to any adult or child, really, but if you do download the file and don’t want to see a girl’s cute bare behind – don’t open either of those … LOL. In “Moons” a combination of nested masking, small RGBA alpha channel videos from ParticleIllusions, alpha channel video from BluffTitler in the opening credits and such were used. Just fun things but the main point is the menu. The menu (menu.exe) is used to call any of the shows in random order and to exit from all. The menu allows automatic return and reopen after each show is finished. In the background on the menu is an embedded video adjusted with opacity to create an almost subliminal effect. At least that was the intention. I call it a “living menu” for want of a better descriptive… Anyway, if you have the time, interest and bandwidth – here is a link. Unzip the archive in a folder together and run the menu.exe file. Link To Tranquility Archive (about 418 meg zipped Windows exe files) Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, Try the beta of 8.0 - no need to uninstall anything... It will not replace 7.5 but install with its own icon. If that doesn't work, let me know the Operating system, video card type and amount of RAM for the system and for the video card. We'll try to sort it out. It shouldn't make any difference at all that the video was inverted. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, It converted fine for me both in 7.5 and in 8.0 beta 1 also. Of course you just use Objects and Animations and rotate it 180 degrees and it plays fine. Which version of PTE are you using? Best regards, Lin

Hi Jill, Easy is a relative term, and yes, there are multiple ways to "skin a cat." By using the customize slide feature which may be obtained either by right clicking the slide or by clicking on the Customize Slide button, there is no chance of dragging in the wrong place or typing the value in the wrong place which is possible from either the timeline or the slide list. That's the reason I suggested a new user do it the foolproof way until he/she learns more about the program. Best regards, Lin

Hi Chris, You are going about changing the duration in a most unusual way. Highlight the slide you wish to change the duration of in the slide list then click on the Customize slide button and then on the Main Tab, simply type in the duration time value you wish for that slide and click on "O.K." This will only affect this single slide and nothing else will be changed. Though there are other ways of changing the slide display time such as from the timeline, this way is foolproof. Best regards, Lin

Hi Wille, Actually, you still have misunderstandings which are expected unless you have sufficient time to digest this product. You do not have to switch over to a text based list of file names - that is an option and not a necessity. There are multiple ways to display your images and there is indeed a graphical based display, you need only become aware of "how" to set your preferences. Click on "Settings" in the tool bar on top. Click on to remove or replace the checkmark on table view of slide list or table view of file list to switch between text view and graphical view. If you want a full screen view of the file list then the F3 and F4 keys are your toggles. Many people who use PTE never use the text based lists while others prefer it. I too was a software developer for many years and I understand that people all have different ways of working - but regardless of our experience and knowledge of software, or our expertise with other software, this program simply can not be mastered in a short period of time. As I described, it's best to use the slide list to order your images and videos rather than the timeline. It's a simple one click tab to go back and forth. Seriously, you simply do not yet understand how to use the interface or change the interface to the one which best suits you. It's indeed possible to drag and drop any image precisely where you want it on the timeline, but you must understand how that's done. Hold down the left mouse button and drag your image onto the timeline. Drag it downward until the thumbnail disappears and a vertical red line appears. Move the red line to the precise time you wish that slide to begin in accordance with the time scale and release the left mouse button. It's really quite easy, but you need to learn how it works. If you want to move any slide on the timeline, left click on that slide and drag the thumbnail downward until the vertical red line again appears. Drag the red line to the precise time where you want the slide to begin and release the left mouse button. It's a "timeline" not a visual thumbnail line. That's the slide list. In the Slide List you can drag any image and drop it in any order. A vertical dotted line will appear as an indicator of when you have sufficiently moved the slide in a lateral motion to properly drop it into the desired position. If you right click on any thumbnail slide you can use the drop-down table to remove any slide from the line of tumbnails. All slides to the right will then orderly move to the left. Hopefully, you will find something which will work the way you are used to working and will do what you need. I wish you the best of luck in your quest. Who knows, as you say perhaps some day you will rediscover the value of this product. Best regards, Lin

Hi, Sorry it didn't work out for you, but PTE is not an editor, it's an extremely powerful presentation tool and as such has an interface conducive specifically to that task. I'm not certain which other applications you are accustomed to working with, but you certainly can add, remove and move images easily on the slide list, not the timeline. Editing is not a primary feature of PTE because the developers believe that sufficient specialized editing tools exist to handle that task beautifully. There are numerous things which will be improved in the imminent beta release (probably Monday) of version 8 of PTE with "some" editing capabilities primarily centered around audio features, but again, it's not destined to be an editor. I'm unsure of why you are having problems with "deleting" an image and not having the adjacent image on the slide list move to the left. That's precisely how PTE works. Actually you are not "deleting" the image, but rather "removing" it from the collection of images in your show. It's best if you do not "drag" and drop your images on the timeline, you "should" do that on the slide list. Then it will work exactly as you expect. Indeed, if you want to "move" the position of the image - click on the "slide" button and drag your image to any position desired, but do not do that on the timeline. Though you "can" insert and remove slides via the timeline, that's really not the place to do that. As for a freezing video image at the end? All you need to do is click on Keep Full Slide Duration under Preferences/Project Tab. Object Properties are changed in the Properties tab of the Objects And Animations screen. Specific animation properties are changed in the Animations Tab on the Objects and Animations Screen. The Common Tab on the Objects and Animations screen allows a wide variety of options. There are far to many options for object properties to allow changing by choice or a pick-list with a simple right click of the mouse, that's why there are three tabs and multiple other screens devoted to object properties. You really can't expect to learn PTE in a few hours or even a few days. It's a very powerful and complex software. Some of us have been using it for over a decade and are still learning new, useful and innovative ways to use it. Actually, many powerful programs are at first somewhat non-intuitive. For example, perhaps the most powerful video editor which exists is LightWorks. It's used by the movie industry and has been the mainstay of editing for a huge number of major motion pictures. If you really want to see "non-intuitive," download a free copy and play with it for a few days. There are very good reasons why PTE is "the" number one choice of AV competitors world-wide. In the recent Royal Photographic Society United Kingdom National Championships, 98 percent (all except one) of the competitors used PicturesToExe, including all the winners. That's how "good" this product is perceived to be by those who work with slide and video combination presentations competitively! It's too bad you didn't stick with it long enough to really learn how to use PTE, but perhaps it's simply not the right product for you. Not everyone is wired exactly the same and not every software is a good "fit." AVCHD can be a problem. This is not only true for PTE but also for other software which uses both stills and videos. That issue will be addressed in the future and there are already huge video handling improvements and very useful new features shortly to be available including things which simply can't be done by other products. A few months ago, on a Friday afternoon, I saw an example of what a sophisticated MacIntosh and Adobe Creative Suite user spent a week creating using the most powerful tools available from Adobe and Apple. It took three different software tools and a week of hard work according to the author to create his demonstration. I duplicated and actually made a much more intricate show entirely in PTE in four hours and posted it to YouTube. The show consists of a 3D video room with 646 individual video screens (three walls, floor and ceiling) playing simultaneous videos . In addition, a rotating, zooming cube changing in real-time from a single image on all six sides to playing separate videos on all six sides. I use a wide variety of presentation slideshow and video products including some which cost ten times what PTE costs and I could not have done this with "any" of my other products. Obviously, this is not a project of any consuming interest to most, but it does demonstrate the power of this product. In addition, I posted three tutorials to YouTube showing people exactly how it was done. Here's a link if you would like to have a look - It's HD (1080P)... Best regards, Lin (Icejasper)