JRR

A number of people wanted to know if I would put the "animation" show on Beechbrook Cottage, they seemed confident that I would get it to work, I was not !!! Well I did finally, with the helpful advice of fellow forum users. Thanks ! I ended up going with 275 images in 59 seconds. (I started at about 400 images) The first working version was 49 individual images repeated randomly in small groupings for a total of 275 images. Each of the small groupings contained images carefully cropped to have the central flower in the same position. While that worked, I found the backgrounds jittering around slightly a little disconcerting. So the second version uses 4-5 backgrounds with up to 26 different images constructed by cloning bumble bees from other pictures shot at the same time. I ended up with 149 images that were again repeated randomly, but this time in larger groupings. Trying to make the bees blend well into the background was not the easiest, so don't look too hard. It is not a work of art, more a work of exhaustion. Just enjoy the show. It is a fun piece that I will use an introduction to another AV show currently in production: "Beekeeping". That one is 75% done but I can't finish it until we lose our snow and the flowers start blooming and I can fill in a few missing shots. Look for "The Flight of the Bumble Bee" on Beechbrook Cottage.

Thanks everyone I had much better luck today (except uploading, which I am discussing with Bill now over e-mail )

Welcome to PTE Clubmud !!!! Once you get the hang of things - which won't take long - you will see how great it is ! I am not exactly sure what you mean by a blank/title page with no photo. But to me that sound like you want a black page. I just make up a new page in PhotoShop 800x600 and fill it with 100% black. Then that is the first slide/image in my PTE show Is that you what you are after ? If not maybe if you could give us a few more details. Have a fun with PTE

Michel: I have not done anything that long, so I am guessing. I assume you were using a mp3 sound track. Have you tried redoing the track at a higher compression rate for the mp3? That would give you a smaller sound file. Hope it is that simple, even it means sacrificing a little on the sound quality (but that would not bother my tin ear )

Welcome aboard Chuck Sorry but I have to agree with Guido, your suggestions are neat, but I suspect of limited application to the PTE users. Unfortunately PTE can not do it all ! (Although sometimes it seems Igor sure as heck tries to keep us all overjoyed.)

Thanks everyone, I will keep on trying

I have tried for the past few days on and off again to get to Beechbrook Cottage. I have had no luck Is it down or am I just trying at busy times ?? Thx

Ernst: PTE does that well. It works for me. The one image show is "told" to stay on the screen, the other shows are "told" to close and they come back to the one image show. I really like this feature of PTE (took me a while to figure it out, but with Alrobin's help...

Been there done that Took me a while to figure what the heck was going on !!!! Even though I put large instructions on my shows and tell people click once Someone always clicks twice.... I think someone (Boxig ??) has a utility that prevents this

Truelight: I think you will find PTE does do some of what you want. If you do an auto synch, then click on TIMED POINTS above the TIMELINE (I think it is called - I am not at my own computer now) you will be provided with the auto timing and you can then customize it if you want. (I discovered this the other day) Alrobin's ADJUSTOR utility will also help out here as well. (BTW ProShow Gold - not that I use it as I prefer the nice features of PTE that they are missing - did not keep up with my bees show, it was about 10-15 images behind)

Strange one !! Possible issues: - are all images the same size pixel-wise (eg 800x600) and roughly the same kb-wise (eg 100-150kb) ? - are your transition times set to allow them to finish before the next image is called up ? (eg. a transition time of 4000ms with an image duration (on-screen time) of 3000ms is a no-go. Those are my suggestions, I am sure others will have better Good luck

Michel: Not sure how often I would use that feature, but it sounds as though it might be useful. I would concur it should go on the list of updates, but not at the top.

Igor, Guido et al Thanks for all your help. I do realize that I am pushing PTE (and my computer ?) to the edge by trying to get so many images to fly by. PTE sure gives me what I normally want, and so much more for "nomal' type shows and "normal" fine tunings Igor: I am likely the only person who would want to do such a show, so please do not spend much time trying to improve PTE in this area. I think I have seen several more popular requests for further changes to already great software that should have priority. While I did get a test version to work with smaller images (pixel-wise) yesterday, I realize now the images were VERY small (byte-wise) so I will spend some time and see what I can make it do. Thanks again Thank you all

Guido: Tried it with leave image on screen. It had no effect, but it was a good try. I did do a test with a 30 second sound file this AM and smaller images as cici suggested (thanks Sam ) That seemed to work fine. OK back to PhotoShop to change sizes and do some fine tuning to the images.....

Thanks Harold

Robert: One of the problems with the forum format is trying to find answer to questions like this. I, and others, have provided details on this in others threads, but you would not know it from the post titles Here is what I posted recently in the BLACKOUT thread: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Any way to do the custom synching: Add your images Add your music (PROJECT OPTIONS > MUSIC > add) To custom synch: 1. PROJECT OPTIONS > MAIN > tick on "Synchronize Slide Show to Music" 2. Click on CUSTOMIZE SYNCHRONIZATION... 3. Click on 2nd bullet from top: CUSTOMIZE SYNCHRONIZATION 4. Click on PLAY and click on "new transitions" where you want a new slide in beat with the music. Don't worry if it is not exact, you can easily adjust them later. Hope that helps xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx If you click on PAUSE rather than STOP when playing, the cursor will stay within the timeline and not go back to the start.

Robert: try http://www.beechbrook.com/upload/

Oops, you're right Ernst Rimsky-Korsakov !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guess I better go back to music class

I suspect it is the sensitivity of the microphone. If I use the mic that comes with the computer, I get a fuzzy background, but I use my "normal" mike and record on a casette then transfer, via LINE IN, to the computer it is OK. The good news is that COOL EDIT (likely others can, but Acoustica can not) can remove it for you. Use TRANSFORM > NOISE REDUCTION and select a sample between your words.

In another post I mentioned that I was doing a one minute show with about 250 images. (bees flying around flowers set to Mozart's Flight of the Bumblee) Turns out I needed 387 images in 68 seconds !!!! It ran OK using the small preview in the TIMELINE BUT when I ran it in the normal preview it would not stop !!! I had set it to close after the last slide, but it was all wound up and didn't want to stop ESC did not work (it usually won't in mid transition) so I had to use CNTRL-ALT-DEL to get it WHOA !!! Guess I can't do it, but then I was asking an awful lot. Is it a problem with transition time, or duration time ? Thx

Igor: PTE keeps getting better and better I am doing a show with all cuts - not something that I have done before but I have 250 or more images in one minute. Phew !!! When I went to PROJECT OPTIONS and set up CUT as the default, the descriptions indicate no transition time, so I did not change the transition time default of 1500ms to zero (20ms). When I put my transitions in under CUSTOM SYNCHRONOIZATION, the Timeline became one solid grayline as I went along. It was showing the transition times as 1500ms, but it was the CUT that was being used. I went back to EFFECTS, changed the transition time to 20ms, clicked OK and came back in, all looked fine then. It does not seem to happen when I set up CUTS via CUSTOMIZE SLIDE It is not a big deal, but maybe something you could fix next time round. Thx

Charles: Welcome to the forum. I think you will enjoy the forum almost as mucg as PTE itself. In case you are not sure what Michel meant by "on Cottage" there is a site http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/ where many PTE shows and utilities are kept for downloading. It is well worth the visit. (Hope you have a hi-speed connection)

Ernst: I didn't mean my comments to be interpreted as saying where have you been on all this. Sorry, I was merely trying to bring you up to speed on the topic.

Ernst: From other posts, I gather you have been away from the forum for a while, welcome back. The feature you are asking for is one that we have asked Igor to add to his shopping list many times over the last while. It seems to come up at least 2-3 times per month. We also have asked to be able to change transition type from the TimeLine. HaroldBe, Alrobin, myself and others have likely been too repetitive in asking for this feature. Hopefully with more people asking for it, the priority for this feature being added will be moved up the line. No matter what great stuff Igor does for us, we always want more Poor guy

Martin: The adjustments to transition type and time can only be done from the Customize Slide on the main screen. We have Igor to allow us to do it from the TIME LINE. Hopefully when he gets out from all the other requests, this one might surface to the top. There are a few ways to start the preview from other than the start. If you are still in the TIME LINE screen, click PAUSE to stop, NOT STOP and then click just below the timeline where you want to start again from, you'll get a blue triangle, then click START. You can start the larger preview screen anywhere, by right clicking on the image you want to start from in the listing and you will see a START PREVIEW FROM CURRENT SLIDE CTRL+R Or you can click the "slice of bread" at the bottom right of the image preview screen (top right of the main screen) and away it will go from the slide highlinghted in the listing below. Hope this helps