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Eric, If Crittercube and Cube have both played OK then your PC supports 3D animation. Go ahead and play with it in PTE v6 and enjoy!!!! regards, Peter

Ralph, Whilst I can understand the desire of PTE users for some kind of "fast track" to their learning, there really is no better way of understanding how to animate than by practising for yourself. Put an object on an image, give it a couple of keyframes and then play around with the little up/down arrow buttons beside each of the Pan, Zoom and Rotate fields. Take it one step at a time. Get to understand Zoom before starting on Pan. Get to understand Pan before starting on Rotate. Get to understand simple rotate about object centre before trying to rotate about an offset centre. Only combine several events after you understand each event in isolation. Learn to crawl before you walk, and to walk before you run. When you feel that you understand how the values here influence the behaviour of your object, open up the 3d Parameters window and play around with the up/down arrows and the Show front/Show back fields. This step-by-step practical approach will teach you far more about the control of animation than any attempt to reverse engineer someone else's work. Also, visit Lin Evans's website and download some of his tutorials on the subject. regards, Peter

Eric, Re: Testing your system Although it was never intended to be a "PTEv6 Capability Test", you could try my "Rubik's Cube" sequence. It makes extensive use of the 3D Animation of objects (up to c.270 objects on any one slide). And I know that at least one AV group in the UK has used one of my older sequences, "Kaleidoscope", to stress test their graphics card. Both sequences were posted in the Slideshows section (you will need to use the forum's search feature to find the topic for "Kaleidoscope" as it is getting on for a couple of years old). You could also check out some of the sequences that Lin Evans has created. Some of these also give the graphics a good workout. Re: Video-Builder Your current Video-Builder key will remain active on new PTE releases until it reaches the end of its two-year life. At that point it will continue to operate with your then installed versions of PTE but will not work with any new versions that you install after it has expired. To get Video-Builder working again on all releases after it has expired you must renew the registration (i.e. pay the Deluxe Upgrade licence fee again in order to get another two years of happiness) regards, Peter

Ray, I apologise for having mis-understood what your original challenge was really about. But many thanks for setting it. I've enjoyed working on my variant of Rubik's Cube over the past two-three weeks and have undoubtedly learned an immense amount about 3D animation in PTE as a result. This I might never have done had it not been for your challenge. regards, Peter

Roger, Exactly my point! The iTunes environment is an Apple proprietary one and attempts to get sound files out of it into other, more open, environments are always going to have to overcome problems of compatability (or rather, the lack of it). Just because other manufacturers use something doesn't mean it isn't proprietary. Such other manufacturers will have a paid a licence fee to the patent/copyright/intellectual property owner for permission to use it. (I'm not saying that that is the case with regards to MP4. I'm stating it as a general principle that underpins "licence to manufacture" for something that you do not hold the rights to) If WnSoft have to start paying (potentially massive) licence fees to other companies, the cost of PTE will have to rise significantly. Is that really what we want? I'm not saying don't add support for more sound file types; I'm simply pointing out that there may be some significant downsides of so doing. I'm sure we can rely on Igor's impeccable judgement as to which, if any, new file types he adds into the pool of those supported by PTE. And whichever he chooses, we can be certain that the resultant quality will be first class! regards, Peter

Whilst I have no objection to adding more sound file types to the list of those supported by PTE, I feel I must make the cautionary observation here that, in my opinion, any sound file types supported by PTE should also be supported by the audio editor that many of use - Audacity. In Audacity v1.2 (which I believe is the official version at the moment) there is no mention of MP4 as an audio file option. Also, Tom, I'm just a little concerned about the reference to Apple - that suggests to me that it is a manufacturer proprietary format. Wouldn't PTE be better going down the Open Systems route? regards, Peter

Gayland, I owe you an apology! In PTE v6, doing Help...About does, indeed, show the status of both the standard features licence and the Deluxe features (Video-Builder) licence. I'm sorry I doubted you. I'll have to do my homework more carefully in future. regards, Peter

Hi Dom, I really value your critical input. Thanks very much indeed! Allow me to check that I understand you here. Are you suggesting allowing the cube to slow down and then speed up again across the slide3-slide4 transition? That would be contrary to my desire to try and maintain a constant angular rotation speed. I would welcome a more detailed explanation (via e-mail off-forum if you wish) I've now learned how to do non-linear 2D animation and have applied it to all the 2D animation (Pan, Zoom and Rotate). I agree that the layer rotation looks much smoother. Again, I agree. I have actually re-built the entire sequence to a slightly different cube structure (simpler, with fewer redundant items) and have adopted a different approach to the 3D rotation. I used Excel spreadsheet to calculate the degrees of rotation based upon the duration of each slide; so that the angular rotation (3D Y) is almost constant throughout the sequence. regards, Peter

Jeff, So, you want me to reveal the secrets of my wizardry? OK, I'll take some of the covers off. There are three distinct build variants of the entire cube (Cubev1, Cubev2 and Cubev3). Then there are exactly twelve slides in the sequence as can be seen from the Slide Count comment. These twelve slides each have the following purpose: Slide1 is just black Slide2 carries the title/intro text Slide3 introduces Cubev1 and uses 2D Zoom, 2D Rotate with a displaced centre point and 3D Rotate to spiral the cube into the scene Slides 4-11 then keep the 3D animation going as smoothly as possible Slide4 sees the Top and Bottom layers rotate (one goes clockwise the other goes anticlockwise) Slide5 introduces Cubev2 and sees the Top and Bottom layers rotate (one goes clockwise the other goes anticlockwise) Slide6 introduces Cubev3 and sees the Top and Bottom layers rotate (one goes clockwise the other goes anticlockwise) Slide7 fades the coloured squares out revealing the actual image parts Slide8 uses Cubev3 and reverses its previous layer rotation Slide9 uses Cubev2 and reverses its previous layer rotation Slide10 uses Cubev1 and reverses its previous layer rotation Slide11 continues with Cubev1 and fades out the black borders Slide12 is just black Each cube variant is built to the following structure: A controlling frame (Cube Controller) A child of that frame (CubeX where X=1, 2 or 3 - depending upon which cube variant was in use on that particular slide) As children of that cube: three sibling frames (Layer1, Layer2 and Layer3; one for each layer of nine small cubes) As children of each Layer: three sibling frames (Top Row, Middle Row, Bottom Row - simply to help me keep track of which part of the Layer each small cube belonged to) As children of each row: three sibling frames (CubeX, CubeY and CubeZ [where X, Y and Z were drawn from the numbers 1-27 and represented the 27 possible small cubes] - each cube representing notionally the left, centre and right cube on each row) As a child of each small cube: one, two or three frames (FacetX, FacetY, FacetZ - to represent the little squares [where X, Y and Z were drawn from the numbers 1-54 - representing the 54 possible facets on the whole cube]) As a child of each Facet: A BlackBorder.png file sat above the actual facet image file (this allowed me to fade out the black borders at the end and reveal the whole image on each of the six faces of the entire cube) There, that should be clear enough! regards, Peter P.S. For the attention of all forum members: Because of the amount of mental energy that was invested in this project (almost 100 hours of very intense concentration, thought and analysis) I do not feel able to release a template of this project. I will happily describe and discuss aspects of the design concept and of the detailed design - but I will not discuss any detailed aspect of the actual build or the details of the animation. If you want a Rubik's Cube of your own, you now know it can be done. I will guide you - but I will not build it for you.

Gayland, Quite right, but it doesn't tell you anything about the Video-Builder component. Until recently I had only the base PTE licence but Help...About from the PTE main window always said I had the Deluxe version. I think every PTE download, downloads the Deluxe version. The status of the Video-Builder component is then dependent upon whether or not the user has purchased the Deluxe product or just the base product. regards, Peter

Jean, Video-Builder is not a separate download. It is included within PTE when you download and install that. However, it requires a separate Registry Key to unlock its full potential. To find out your exact status with Video-Builder, open any existing project in PTE and then do a Create...DVD-Video Disc. This will launch Video-Builder and you can then do a Help...About within the Video-Builder window to find out what status your copy of Video-Builder is at. regards, Peter

John, I never managed to do that back when they were all the rage. regards, Peter

Thanks! Peter

Bill, Thanks! regards, Peter

Howard, I'm afraid I cannot really advise you what you might be doing wrong as I never connect to MediaFire as a Guest. Whenever I connect I am automatically logged into my account. So, unfortunately, I never get the "guest" experience. All I can say is that the stats on MediaFire indicate that it has been successfully downloaded 72 times so far. Perhaps you just need to try again? Sorry I cannot be of more help. regards, Peter

Lin, Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I did it, in part, because I knew I would learn a lot about PTE's 3D Animation features. But I don't necessarily agree with your comment about the relationship between energy and project. I animated one small toy, you animate the solar system!!!! regards, Peter

Jim, Thanks for the compliment - and thanks for the ensuing discussion off-forum. Peter

Thanks! Peter

Dave, Thanks, but I do hope you don't feel disheartened. Remember, when I started out on this challenge I had only very limited knowledge of 3D animation (but a fairly thorough understanding of how to control 2D animation in PTE). I was learning 3D as I went along. And to begin with I couldn't get my mind in tune with the principles behind the PTE way of doing it. Personally I find that tackling an ambitious project, such as this Rubik's Cube one, gives me the motivation to really learn how to use the animation features. The knowledge I have gained doing this project will, I hope, enable me to help other forum members as they grapple with 3D animation. regards, Peter

Tom, I had two pieces in mind as I worked on the visuals: "Windmills of my Mind" and Strauss's "Blue Danube" Waltz (latter inspired by the space station sequence in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey"). In the end Windmills was an almost perfect length (I had to lose just 3 seconds of running time in the animation) and so I went with that. To my mind, the choice of music is the most important aspect of a successful AV sequence. I know that I get a huge amount of positive feedback from my audiences over the appropriateness of the music that I use. regards, Peter

Dom, The 3D animation runs across Quick transitions. Looking at the profile for smooth I feel that using smooth would cause the cube to come to a stop and restart across each Quick transition, wouldn't it? I suppose I could apply it to the Layers when they are being rotated, though. I'll certainly give that a try. regards, Peter

Hi Fersigo, I can confirm that I have no problem with an nVidia 8400 GS using DirectX 10, so perhaps your use of DirectX 11 with your card is contributing to your problems. regards, Peter

Stu, Only twelve slides but those twelve slides are driven by a PTE project file that is almost 3MB in size. I haven't had the courage yet to turn PTE Reporter loose on that! regards, Peter

The advent of 3D animation in PTE v6 has opened up many new possibilities. Elsewhere on the forum a, perhaps light-hearted, challenge was laid down to produce a Rubik's Cube animation. Being unable to resist such a challenge, I set about trying to produce a satisfactory animation of a Rubik's Cube. Here's the result: Cube.zip (7.7MB download, expanding to 9.0MB executable, run time 2m 23s) Please note that this is the same link that I attached to a post in that original topic. I would welcome all and any feedback. regards, Peter

After almost 100 hours of detailed planning, preparation and development combined with a huge amount of learning (often by trial and error ) and after three or four "false starts" , I've finally achieved all the Design Criteria I set for myself PTE v6.0 is an awesome piece of software! I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labours. I will welcome all and any feedback. regards, Peter Cube.zip (7.7MB download, expanding to 9.0MB executable, run time 2m 23s)