Lin Evans

Hi Gary, Thanks! LOL - I tried it on a friend who is quite astute but knows nothing about PicturesToExe and it passed muster for being the "real thing" which was my intent. I just wanted to see if I could make it "real" enough appearing to fool an unsuspecting observer. It was a fun project and not as easy to pull off as I first thought. Best regards, Lin

Hi Douglas, That's correct. The problem with having anything other than a zero time reference for the first keyframe on a slide is that it would be illogical. All actions on a slide must have a reference point and the automatically inserted keyframe for each slide is that zero time (for the individual slide) used to reference any further actions by keyframe. So, the idea of replacing the first keyframe with other than a zero value would be counter intuitive. That first keyframe, de facto, becomes how you want the slide to first appear to your audience. Any changes require additional keyframes. To "hold" a value for the start position when there "will" be changes requires a second keyframe with an identical value to the first placed somewhere further along the timeline. Then to "break" that static setting requires a third. In essence, being able to select a "set" of keyframes to apply identical animations to subsequent "selected" slides actually requires the same amount of effort whether doing it by copy paste of keyframes (not possible) or copy paste the original slide "with the keyframes and their relative values" and then selecting a different slide to substitute for the copied one. There has been discussion on the forum about whether this might be a future "feature," but nothing really has been yet decided so far as I know. A "universal" change to apply a single set of keyframes to "all slides" would not be all that difficult to program, but doing it "selectively" gets complex because of the variables. You might put your comments and requests in the "suggestions" tread for future consideration. Best regards, Lin

Hi Ralph, It's actually the "real" LG 3D (Largest in the World) from the CES 2012 Show in Las Vegas. It's a long story, but I've "modified" the real thing to allow playing one's own video. The huge display was "screen captured" as a frame from a video, then re-sized, placed on a transparency and the screen content removed and made totally transparent. Then the grids were created in Photoshop and placed on and whole thing was then saved as a PNG which included the surrounding part of the room. Next a mask was made excluding everything "except" the doorway and floor area so that the real doorway could be used with the original video capture of the people walking through. The the original video played behind so that only the parts allowed by the mask are seen with one's choice of video playing on the "big screen." Crowd noise from a Comdex video was extracted and saved as an MP3 and played back. Here's another link with part of Barry's "official" Wnsoft video playing on the big screen... Best regards, Lin

O.K. That's something I can fix I think... Give me a couple minutes... L O.K. - fixed now... Let me know if you want to see a different video on the CES LG 3D Display - LOL Lin

Hi Ralph, What kind of "text?" What does it say and in what context? Best regards, Lin

Hi Douglas, As David points out, the way to do this is to assign your values to slide one, then copy and paste (once you copy, just use Ctrl V to paste) that same slide as many times as you want these values for additional slides. Next, just go to the copied slides in Objects and Animations and use the "Properties Tab" (small icon at top right next to "picture") to navigate to and select the image you want for this slide. The "values" assigned for keyframes will remain with the new picture. PicturesToExe works on an individual slide concept rather than a "distributed" properties concept. There is no universal setting for keyframes though you can set universal display times for slides and also universal transitions. Best regards, Lin

PTE Splash at CES 2012? 1 Link 2Lin

HI Shirley, In 7.5 it's "File" "Templates" "Manage Templates" (or "Create Template From This Show). If you are referring to having lost that feature in version 6.5 there is also the File "Create backup in zip" which gathers all files and creates a zip file containing everything you need to move the entire show to a different drive or computer. Unfortunately I no longer have 6.5 on my systems so can't tell you how to do a template or what could have happened. I would suggest, however, upgrading to 7.5.3 unless you will lose Video Builder and have to repurchase it. The great feature upgrades are well worth the small cost of Video Builder in such a case in my opinion. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, LOL - that "drum beat" helps drive those flickering displays into one's brain to trigger seizures. There should be a law!! HA! That was an extreme example, but the keyframing is pretty straight-forward, just a bit repetitious because of the number of displays. The first "secret" is the order you use to put each video into the layers. They are entered in the sequence which you wish to see in terms of the switching effect. All displays should be first set to start with zero opacity (in this case all but the first) and then on the first one a second keyframe also set to zero opacity holds that zero opacity for whatever time you wish. Then a third keyframe very close to the second one determines how quickly you want to illuminate the display. This keyframe is set to 100% for the opacity. Then with the cursor still on this selected keyframe at the 100% opacity, you go to the next display on the layers and the cursor will appear at this position on the timeline. You click on the "Plus" sign and a keyframe is automatically inserted at this position which will still have the zero opacity because you had first set all to zero opacity. So your second layer begins, de facto, where the first layer ended. You then press the "Plus" key again to insert the third keyframe for this layer, then manually enter the increment. In this case I used increments of 50. So, for example, if the last keyframe on the first layer was 5000 (five seconds), then I would enter 5050 as the value. I then leave the cursor with this value selected and go to the third layer which will have the "tick mark" or cursor position on the timeline where it "should" be to start the third layer. Just click the "Plus" key twice and enter the increment of the previous stop time for the previous layer plus the 50 and continue doing so for the remaining layers. To achieve the same effect on a single distributed video (like the ship on the turbulent sea) you would simply create a dark rectangle, size it to fit the display screen on video one, set its opacity to 100%, then copy and paste it quickly over each video. Then you would proceed exactly as above except instead of regulating the opacity of the video itself, you would regulate the opacity of the black or dark grey rectangle. You "could" get fancy with the rectangle created or create and manipulate a jpg or png image in Photoshop, etc., by adding reflections or such to approximate the appearance of an inactive real display. By the order in which you place each layer, you could do things such as write your name with the on sequence - LOL. Best regards, Lin

Lin

Hey Tom, Thanks! Of course I don't mind - that's why I put them out there! LOL Best regards, Lin

Hi David, I agree about masks for EXE output, but once the project is converted to video, the use of extensive masks is immaterial to the system being played on. For example, I've created test projects using over 100 masks with which my XP system with a decent video card struggled to work with as an executable or even in preview. However, once exported as a video, it would play on the most pitiful systems without a hitch. So, with the exception of regular conventional slideshows, I'm converting "most" of mine to video for display and demonstration purposes. Best regards, Lin

Hi Erik, I had forgotten that you moved. Yes, out here in the western U.S.A. 150 miles is only a couple hours drive (we generally drive around 75, 85 mph) and I remember how long it took me to just get from Bristol to Stonehenge - LOL. It was also amazing to me that Sherry and I asked several people how to get to "Stonehenge" and a number of them didn't even know what it was! It seems it is far a more important place to foreigners than to many of the locals. One replied - "oh - is it that pile of rocks?" Finally, we found an old "drunk" coming out of a pub who knew "precisely" where it was, and directed us to it "pub by pub" LOL. Definitely, your traffic and the maze of tiny towns and settlements makes a 150 mile trip much more difficult in some parts of the UK for sure. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, Since it only moves "all keyframes" (I think) it isn't much good for specific groups. I like your idea and I remember when you suggested it... I believe that there is lots of room for improvements. For example, Erik suggested that I turn on individual screens one at a time on my last Video Room animation. I thought about it and realized what a "huge" job it would be to keyframe this sequence for 128 separate display screens. I was considering programming it in Excel sort of like JPD used to do and then thought of how easy it would be if there were a feature which one could set to increment a single program setting for a selected object by a specified amount and apply to all selected objects. For example, say I set two keyframes on an object to turn on opacity. Opacity begins at zero then in say .02 second goes to 100%. Then I select multiple objects and in the order selected, apply the same two keyframes but increment the start times by .04 seconds with each object adding .04 to the start point while maintaining the .02 off/on value. But then I realized how very few times it would probably be used and how complex it would be to program it and thought it probably has no place in a presentation slideshow product - LOL. It reminded me of how really advanced JPD's reasoning was years ago. I'm not certain I could even get it right if I tried to implement this using Excel. I might try it with a greatly simplified version with say only four objects and see how it might work. I know some of the French users such as Jean Cyprien use this method developed by JPD quite effectively. There have been some major steps made by a few of their forum members toward doing some amazing things such as a program which modifies your PTE file to allow following a bezier curve. PTE has the engine to allow some incredible animations but the interface has not yet caught up to the power of the program. I remember when JPD did a couple things which Igor said he didn't know PTE could do! I'm still scratching my head over some of Jean Cyprien's amazing feats with PTE as I did when JPD kept coming up with perplexing solutions. It's all fun isn't it? Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, I get 4 and 8 on my Win XT system so maybe it would be worth mentioning to Igor that your results are not the same. It could be something unique to your OS, etc., and I'm sure he would want to know. I think that perhaps there is something not quite right going on with your OS or system. I think the user guide is correct, but your results are not as intended. We need more users to try this and report results. Best regards, Lin

Hi Erik, Excellent - I watched it also the first time you presented it. Excellent photography and the vertical pans work very well. The voice-over is very well done and the poetry was read with conviction and feeling well projected. Now that we have video available, why don't you go back and shoot the gulls and the gently rolling waves and substitute the animation with video? I think it would work better. No matter how we "try" to animate birds in flight, it won't seem natural unless we limit the number of them greatly. It is possible to convert special video frames to animated gif but only a very few frames are amenable and it's a "lot" of work. Video is simply so much easier for things like rolling waves and birds in flight that I think it would be worth the effort to re-shoot those frames and substitute. In all, an excellent presentation with music and synchronization and choice all nicely blending for me. Thanks for the remake! Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, If you set up a test like this: Set display time to 8 seconds and put a keyframe at four seconds. Now leave the option unchecked and change the display time to 16 seconds. The keyframe stays at four seconds. Change the display time back to 8 seconds and the keyframe remains fixed at four seconds. Now check the option and change the display from 8 seconds to 16 seconds. The keyframe now goes to 8 seconds. So the "relative" position is maintained. I haven't done extensive tests to see what happens with multiple keyframes but you could try to place one keyframe at two seconds and one at four and see if the result is four and eight. This would be how I suppose it "should" work with the option checked. Yes, there is no "global" change option. It's just slide by slide; that is, if one changes the gobal option for display times on slides the individual settings per slide do not (I think) respond to the option for scale keyframes. There is always room for improvements. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dave, It's not a workaround - just pointing out that we can move "all" keyframes in either direction by a specified amount of time with the Ctrl E feature and that when we change the display time for a slide we have the choice of leaving keyframes in their "absolute" position or moving them relative to the time change. The way I read Gary's message it seemed that he wasn't aware of these features. It would be ideal to have a "master/slave" type control by selective click and perhaps in a later version Igor may find a way to do this. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, A couple things you may want to explore. Keyframes can have either relative or absolute positions now. On the "customize slide" "Main" tab, check beside "Scale Keyframes in Objects". You can do "part" of what you are asking in terms of moving keyframes together. If you press CTRL E you can move "all" keyframes simultaneously in either direction by the amount you enter into the value. Lin ]

Hey Eric, That wouldn't be too hard to do except it would take some time. There are two ways to approach it, but the easiest way would be to make a mask and just "sweep it across the screen. The "best," but more involved way, would be to make a matrix "mask," set the individual screens each in its own mask and keyframe the individual start times. Probably more work than it's worth unless one were doing if for a major motion picture where they can spend a couple weeks and thousands of dollars for a single effect. There are 128 individual displays on each wall so it would require 128 masks each with an individual opacity change from zero to 100%. On the "distributed" screen one would need to mask each individual screen. On the individual displays the masks wouldn't be necessary and it would be possible to just turn the opacity off for all to start and sequence the "100 % opacity" with three keyframes for each video. You're coming along well with getting the hang of it so probably after watching the tutorial set could do it without too much difficulty. Best regards, Lin

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Hi Abdol, Thanks!! A Happy New Year to you and your family! Best regards, Lin

Hi Jose, The Sony Vegas stabilizer is good, but have a look at Mercalli 2 here: Mercalli 2 (Requires Vista or Higher Win OS) - not for XP Video industry specialists generally think that the image stabilizer in Adobe After Effects CS6 (Warp) is about as good as it gets... Warp Image Stabilization Best regards, Lin

Hi Folks, I've completed three in a series of four tutorials on creating the 3D Video wall and using that creation to create a 3D Video Room. The entire Video Wall and Video Room can be created in PicturesToExe without use of a third party software. However, to create a "curved" video wall, it's necessary to use an image editor which allows Transform Warp. This can be done with Photoshop and I show how to do so in the second tutorial. There will be a fourth tutorial up later today or tomorrow which shows how to "capture" your creation of the gridwork in PTE and use Photoshop to create a transparent PNG file so that one can use the gridwork to overlay the video wall creations. Below are links to the YouTube Tutorials: 1. Creating the Video Wall in PicturesToExe 2. Using my provided 6x6 Gridwork to overlay your own 6x6 video wall creation, etc. 3. Creating the Video Room using your created Video Wall 4. Gridwork png component files for you to use Link To Zipped Gridwork Component Files to Use Above also all posted on the Tutorials Link to my tutorials above as well as here: Link To Learn PicturesToExe site

Hi Colin, Have you been able to get them to work and such? Forbes says it's not correct here - that it is a misunderstanding.... http://www.forbes.co...tions-for-free/ Best regards, Lin