Water Effect Tutorials are Up...

[Lin Evans]

Hi Guys,

The water effect tutorials as promised are up here:

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7901-pte-made-easy-tutorials-continuously-updated/

Numbers 42, 43 and 44

Lin

[nelson]

Thanks for sharing your expertise Lin, it is appreciated.

Kieron

[Lin Evans]

Thanks Kieron,

I added the link for download of the Sqirlz WaterReflection Freeware to the tutorials section this morning...

Best regards,

Lin

[DPaul]

Hi,

I am a new PTE user, and I saw the "Sqirlz" examples.

When I try to download this software from Tucows, it coomes with a host of malware, invasive trackers, and even a trojan.

It took me 30 minutes to uninstall all this unwanted stuff.

Is there any place safe you can download the "Sqirlz" software ?

thx,

DPaul

[Lin Evans]

That's really bad news - Tucows is usually quite safe. I'll see if I can put the necessary files together later today and provide a link.

Here's the link:

http://www.lin-evans.org/sqirlz/sqirlzall.zip

Just download and extract in a folder and run the install program. There should be no malware in this...

Best regards,

Lin

[DPaul]

Lin,

Your help is much appreciated !

PS. If I only want the ripples and not the reflections, I suppose that some PS will be necessary (flip the ripple area and let it reflect onto a black surface, and cut the part you don't want), or can I find a ripple software somewhere that does not add reflection?

thx,

Paul

[Lin Evans]

Hi Paul,

If you could download from my link the AVI tutorial/explanation it will help you with understanding the procedure. Essentially what was done is to crop the area created by the mask, paint over the rocks, ice and objects within that area with the same iridescent colors adjacent to these objects then create the ripples by using SqirlzReflect. With no geographical objects (shore line, rocks, ice, etc.) to reflect, the program will simply use the entire area. Once that is done the animated gif created (I used the animated gif rather than an AVI because it's smaller, quicker and just as good and it will repeat for any length of time) will be revealed by the mask created in Photoshop which confines the ripples only to the pure white areas which constitute the mask itself. In addition, because it's too time consuming to diddle with the reflect program to get just the perfect amount of "ripple," the original jpg was used in the layer above the mask as well as below the mask. The image below the mask provides all the geography not revealed by the mask. The identical image above the mask is used with desired (less than 100%) opacity to attenuate the strength of the reflection. Seriously, download the brief tutorial/explanation and you will immediately see how it works best.

As for other software to do the ripple effects, I couldn't comment because I only use the one referenced which is very powerful except for the limited selection capability which effectively prevents it from being used exclusively for creating the entire image as used in PTE. This software can be used to create excellent rain effects as well as ripples of several types and including flow direction, etc.

I just realized that perhaps you haven't seen the latest post I made on this so I'm posting the link to the example and from there a link to the AV tutorial below.

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?/topic/17621-things-which-can-be-done-with-pte/

Best regards,

Lin

[DPaul]

OK, thanks. Will try. Looks simpler than my solution

Paul

[Lin Evans]

Hi Paul,

Let us know how it works for you... by the way, I posted one more sequence to my demo on the other link. It's a summer boat and ocean scene with rippling water and a couple extras for fun... It's now updated on the original link...

Best regards,

Lin

[DPaul]

Hi Lin,

I have studied your samples, and doing so came up with a simplified versien, that works for my current case:

Here it is:

a) Imagine a canal (at night), buildings on the other side, lights reflected in the water. NOT the buildings.

I now want ripples in the water (+ right to left flow) but NO reflections of the buildings NOR the lights, I already have them in the original pic.

c) Cut the water (with reflections) in the orifginal pic.

d) make it a new pic and flip it vertical.

e) then add a black canvas of the same size below the pic. SAVE.

f) Do the reflections + ripples + flow in Sqirl, and save "reflections only" as animated gif.

g) Put the gif in PTE on top of the original pic.

Seems to work for me.

Paul

[Lin Evans]

Hi Paul,

Another way to "skin a cat" - LOL Sounds logical to me and would love to see the results!

Best regards,

Lin

[DPaul]

Hi Paul,

Another way to "skin a cat" - LOL Sounds logical to me and would love to see the results!

Best regards,

Lin

I'm new in this PTE business, so if you can tell me what to do.

I've published a file "for the internet", and I end up with 2 things: an exe and a ptshow, both zipped.

How do you get to view these? (I do have a place to put them on my site)

thx,

Paul

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Paul

Post the link to a zipped exe file on your site.

Yachtsman1.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Paul,

The "for the internet" is a tiny bit misleading because some might think that it would be a file which could be viewed much as a video from one's website. What lead to this was the fear of downloading executable code which "could" be possibly hiding a virus, trojan or other malware. Though this has never been the case with any PTE executable which is well protected by the developers, to avoid the issue of anti-virus software creating false positives with PTE executable code, the developers decided to offer the choice of the regular exe file with everything included in the single file, or an executable portion which was digitally signed plus a data file. By being digitally signed, antivirus software will always accept the code just as they do executable code from Microsoft, Adobe or any other major company. So this zipped file is to be hosted on your own or any site and downloaded by the user. The user then simply extracts the two archived files to a folder of their choice and mouse clicks the exe file name and the program runs just as a single exe file would. The difference being the protection of having a digitally signed exe file. The latest operating systems will still give the user a warning, but anti-virus software, because of the digital signature, will not miscategorize the file as a virus.

Best regards,

Lin

[DPaul]

OK Guys,

This is it:

http://www.milestone.be/test/testanimation.zip

Paul

[Guest Yachtsman1]

FAB U LOUS.

Yachtsman1.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Paul,

Looks great! Because you use an animated gif file, you can set the display time on the slide to virtually any length without affecting the appearance of your animation other than the length of the display. If you wanted this slide to run for say 30 seconds just change the slide time. Also, if you click on the gif file in the Objects and Animations screen, then click on the "Properties" tab and then on the "adjust Image and border" button then on the "Animation" tab from the ensuing Adjust Image and Border window, you have further options for adjusting the display of your gif animation. For example, the "intervals" will reflect the default time established by the creating program (SqirlzReflect in this case) and you can change this intervals time to speed up or slow down the ripple effect without making an additional gif with SquirlzReflect.

As an example, here's one I made from an internet picture. The default I used in SqurlzReflect was 30 frames or an "interval" of 30ms. I changed it in PTE to 100ms to get a more gentle and slowly rippling effect.

http://www.lin-evans.org/demo/tina.zip (about 12 meg)

Though you can't keframe changes in real time for these parameters on a single object, by some creative keyframing and the use of the opacity control, you can actually effect a good workaround. For example, you have an animated gif of a bird flying and you want to change the wing action from a flap to a soar as it moves across the screen. You start the animation either way - flapping wings or soaring depending on the settings you give it in the animations parameters. Then you place the identical gif in a second time and set the wing action to the opposite (flap or not) then keyframe the first out of view with a nearly instant change in 100% opacity while simultaneously keyframing the duplicate which has the opposite wing action in. Since they are separate objects (even though the same file) you can adjust the parameters independently.

Best regards,

Lin

[DPaul]

Wow, another good tip. Thx.

In fact, this animation is the start of what is to become my first diaporama for public viewing.

I've shown you the static version only, but the panorama (and the ripples) are 5.000+ pixels long, panning from right to left. Looks good :-)

Enough hijacking this thread. I've got some basic questions, I'll look for the appropriate thread.

Paul

[DPaul]

Hi,

I seem to have a small problem with this:

a) a slide is 12 secs long

b )I show several things, the last one being an animated gif of 2.5 seconds. (still 0% opacity at 8 secs, 100% at 8.01 secs)

c) Animation is designed to run only once (lights going on in lanterns, 5 of them with 0.5 secs interval)

-> I have a problem showing the animation happening, because I have the impression that the animation starts from slide second 0,

when the lanterns are not visible yet.

So the idea is that the picture (gif) pops up after 8 secs, and then the animation runs once.

I get the pic, not the animation.

I've been looking for an "animation delay, ..." , nothing so far :-(

?

Paul

Lin wrote.....

"...Also, if you click on the gif file in the Objects and Animations screen, then click on the "Properties" tab and then on the "adjust Image and border" button then on the "Animation" tab from the ensuing Adjust Image and Border window, you have further options for adjusting the display of your gif animation. For example, the "intervals" will reflect the default time established by the creating program (SqirlzReflect in this case) and you can change this intervals time to speed up or slow down the ripple effect without making an additional gif with SquirlzReflect..."

[Lin Evans]

Hi Paul,

The only way to control an animated gif is with opacity, keyframes and the provisions of Adjust Image and Border. Unlike a video, there are no tools to control, start time, etc., but you can adjust the offset in ms, so that would be the way you could control the start time of the GIF. So use the Animation Tab on the Adjust Image and Border (from Properties Tab in Objects and Animations Screen) to control start time of gif. 1000 ms per second....

Best regards,

Lin

[DPaul]

Hi Paul,

but you can adjust the offset in ms, so that would be the way you could control the start time of the GIF.

Best regards,

Lin

That is what I was looking for. It does the trick. In the mean time, I did find an alternative use for the picture ,

and in combination with this "offset", it's even better than intended :-)

Thx,

Paul

[davegee]

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