TheDom-RoadMap

[mwo_achenbach]

Hello Lin!

Many thanks for your many examples and excellent tutorials. I am enthused at all times when I am studying your shows and techniques.

But the TheDom-RoadMap is too artistic for me. I understand that you combine to effects. Left to Right and Top to Bottom and you use two maps. One without and one with your route.

I use Street Atlas USA 2007; where it is simple to create these two maps.

But I do not understand the use of the rectangles. This is beyond my comprehension!

Please show me step by step what you did.

Many thanks. I am curios about it!

Yours sincerely

Manfred

[Lin Evans]

Hi Manfred,

There are a couple or more "roadmap" demos - one done by the Dom and one which I did and perhaps others.

Essentially they are all done in an identical fashion. First you scan the map or copy the jpg image of the map you want to use. This jpg becomes the bottom layer or bottom "object" on the obects list. Next you open Photoshop or other software which has the ability to create PNG files. You then click on File, New, set transparent as the file type and make the file size equal to the dimensions of the JPG of the map. Next you open the map jpg do a "select-all" then "edit" "copy". This puts your map image on the clipboard. Next close the jpg file of the map. The transparency will still be open and look like a checkerboard. This checkerboard appearance means you have a transparent layer.

Next you do an "edit" "paste" which will paste the jpg image of the map over the transparency. Then you choose the "eraser" tool and a brush size which approximates the width of the road or roads you wish to demonstrate travel on. You take this brush and follow the path you wish to highlight on your map and as you brush over the road it will disappear and that portion will be replaced with the checkerboard pattern.

What you have done is "cut" a transparent path in the map. When you are finished you save the map as a PNG file.

Next you open PTE and put the JPG of the map on the slide list then open Objects and Animations. Next add the PNG map then select the PNG file and do CTRL PgUP to put it on the top layer. The image will now look just like the JPG map because the JPG map "road" is showing through the transparet "hole" along the route. You have just overlaid the transparent route map over the jpg map and because the road is cut out on the transparency, the underlying printed road on the jpg map shows through and it appears identical to the jpg map. No one would know that there are really two maps, one on top of the other. The only portion of the jpg map which actually shows is that part which is revealed by the "cut-out" portion of the PNG map lying above.

Next you create a car, a boat, a motorcycle, airplane or whatever PNG object you choose to travel along the path. This is created in the same way you created the PNG map. You make a transparent image in Photoshop, copy-paste the object and use the eraser tool to remove everything except what you want to show the "crop" the object to the smallest rectangle containing the object and save as a PNG.

To indicate travel along the path, any object which has color and small size can be used. I used a colored rectangle which you can automatically create with the "rectangle" feature of PTE or just make a small colored rectangle in photoshop. Again, a small PNG object works fine as would a small jpg object.

The essence is that "any" object which you place on a layer "between" the jpg map and the png map will show through the cutout area. So you simply move the object along the road visually by dragging it and using keypoints whenever you want it to stop and start.

That's really all there is to the basic roadmap animation. You can embelish it by making duplicates of bridges, etc., and placing these above the real features so you can make objects pass beneath, etc., but the important thing to understand is how the essence of this animation works.

Just imagine having two identical maps. you cut out the road with an Xacto knife and when you lay the one with the cutout on top of the one which has not been altered it appears just like there is no cut-out, but there really is. So if you were to slide a piece of colored paper between the two maps and move it along the path of the road, what you would see is that colored piece of paper showing the exact path taken by the cut-out. This is what you are essentially doing electronically.

Best regards,

Lin

Hello Lin!

Many thanks for your many examples and excellent tutorials. I am enthused at all times when I am studying your shows and techniques.

But the TheDom-RoadMap is too artistic for me. I understand that you combine to effects. Left to Right and Top to Bottom and you use two maps. One without and one with your route.

I use Street Atlas USA 2007; where it is simple to create these two maps.

But I do not understand the use of the rectangles. This is beyond my comprehension!

Please show me step by step what you did.

Many thanks. I am curios about it!

Yours sincerely

Manfred

[Ken Cox]

Mario

did not mean to single you out but approx a year ago a question came up that had been brought up before many times and many times since

What resolution should still photos be?

a member directed us to the Adobe forum

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/?1...QaBEf@.3bb8822c

i had to register at the time to view

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bb684c4/

they have many packages and if you buy their products in the box you get a manual yet when cruising their forum they got the same questions/problems as we have for products that are seldom less than $100 and we hear from people that they bought such and such product and now they have to pay for a plugin etc to really do the job - Igor just raised the price with the advent of the deluxe burner pkg.

- and all we got is homemade manuals - homemade shows - written by ordinary people that are more than willing to share their expertise

and guys like me that try to share tips and where to find information for all to share

ken

[Peter S]

Hi Manfred,

If you want to see what the PTE project looks like go TheDoms site and you can download his project.

The Dom Road Map PTE project

http://www.thedom.fr/share/portal.php

http://www.thedom.fr/share/dload.php

http://www.thedom.fr/share/dload.php?actio...amp;file_id=211

You can look at his jpg, png and red rectangle and see how it is all put together - which is exactly as Lin describes.

Kind Regards

Peter

[mwo_achenbach]

Hi Lin,

many thanks for your detailed step-by-step explanation. Now I have got it.

It is indeed very simple if you understand how to set in the layers.

Without your help I would mull over till this day.

Yours

Manfred

Hi Manfred,

There are a couple or more "roadmap" demos - one done by the Dom and one which I did and perhaps others.

Essentially they are all done in an identical fashion. First you scan the map or copy the jpg image of the map you want to use. This jpg becomes the bottom layer or bottom "object" on the obects list. Next you open Photoshop or other software which has the ability to create PNG files. You then click on File, New, set transparent as the file type and make the file size equal to the dimensions of the JPG of the map. Next you open the map jpg do a "select-all" then "edit" "copy". This puts your map image on the clipboard. Next close the jpg file of the map. The transparency will still be open and look like a checkerboard. This checkerboard appearance means you have a transparent layer.

Next you do an "edit" "paste" which will paste the jpg image of the map over the transparency. Then you choose the "eraser" tool and a brush size which approximates the width of the road or roads you wish to demonstrate travel on. You take this brush and follow the path you wish to highlight on your map and as you brush over the road it will disappear and that portion will be replaced with the checkerboard pattern.

What you have done is "cut" a transparent path in the map. When you are finished you save the map as a PNG file.

Next you open PTE and put the JPG of the map on the slide list then open Objects and Animations. Next add the PNG map then select the PNG file and do CTRL PgUP to put it on the top layer. The image will now look just like the JPG map because the JPG map "road" is showing through the transparet "hole" along the route. You have just overlaid the transparent route map over the jpg map and because the road is cut out on the transparency, the underlying printed road on the jpg map shows through and it appears identical to the jpg map. No one would know that there are really two maps, one on top of the other. The only portion of the jpg map which actually shows is that part which is revealed by the "cut-out" portion of the PNG map lying above.

Next you create a car, a boat, a motorcycle, airplane or whatever PNG object you choose to travel along the path. This is created in the same way you created the PNG map. You make a transparent image in Photoshop, copy-paste the object and use the eraser tool to remove everything except what you want to show the "crop" the object to the smallest rectangle containing the object and save as a PNG.

To indicate travel along the path, any object which has color and small size can be used. I used a colored rectangle which you can automatically create with the "rectangle" feature of PTE or just make a small colored rectangle in photoshop. Again, a small PNG object works fine as would a small jpg object.

The essence is that "any" object which you place on a layer "between" the jpg map and the png map will show through the cutout area. So you simply move the object along the road visually by dragging it and using keypoints whenever you want it to stop and start.

That's really all there is to the basic roadmap animation. You can embelish it by making duplicates of bridges, etc., and placing these above the real features so you can make objects pass beneath, etc., but the important thing to understand is how the essence of this animation works.

Just imagine having two identical maps. you cut out the road with an Xacto knife and when you lay the one with the cutout on top of the one which has not been altered it appears just like there is no cut-out, but there really is. So if you were to slide a piece of colored paper between the two maps and move it along the path of the road, what you would see is that colored piece of paper showing the exact path taken by the cut-out. This is what you are essentially doing electronically.

Best regards,

Lin