JohnFeg

Igor, many thanks for your prompt reply. You hit the nail right on the head! I had saved the music, and put it into PTE "Project Options" as a .wav file. You really deserve hearty congratulations for this wonderful tool. I'm far from being an AV wizard, but, after a couple of days familiarisation, I've astounded myself with what it can produce. I must confess that, at first, I found the concept and management of keypoints difficult to understand. BUT, once "The penny dropped" it all became so clear and obviously intuitive that I could not comprehend the early problems. A bit like learnig to ride a bike, I suppose. Kind regards John

After having spent a couple of days finding my way around V.5 beta; today I tried putting some music to a short, simple sequence. When I tried “Preview”, from the main screen, the show played, but, without the music. However, when I go to the Timeline and “Play”, the music plays normally as the slides progresses. Is this an idiosyncrasy of the beta version, or, have I missed some nuance? John

Ran the large file with NVIDIA 6200. Generally very smooth, only trivial jerkyness in 2 of the zooms. The photography and the location were breathtaking. Thank you for sharing John

Lin, I think what you suggest is an excellent idea. I've now, more or less!, got my head around the concept of "Keypoints" and would be happy to contribute. I must own to finding some aspects more than a little difficult. Consequently, I've made some detailled notes, mainly as a personal aide memoire, detailing how I put together my simple and limited "first efforts". They may be useful to others. John

I've been reading this thread with great interest, and learning a lot from it. A difficulty that I have encountered is that, when I piece together one long music track, from several shorter lenths, often from diverse sources, there often prove to be aurally unaesthetic sound level differences. I'm using Cool Edit (but have only, lacking the required expertise, skimmed the surface of what this application is so obviously capable of doing) At the moment I select a section that needs to be "brought into line" with adjacent sections. Then, do a 3 or 6db cut or boost. Something tells me this is not a very scientific approach! I would be very grateful if somebody can advise a better method. John

This is unheard of in the software industry!!

Den & Guido, thank you both so much for your help. Everything is now working just as it should. John

While the subject of creating audio is warm, can someone solve a puzzle for me? I'm using Cool Edit and there used to be a line at the top of tracks, in Multi-Track mode that could be "pulled" to make a sort of trapezium, to effect a reduction in the sound amplitude, of a particular track, relative to the amplitude in other tracks. THESE USEFUL FACILITIES HAVE DISAPPEARED! probably as the result of some malpractice on my part; and I cannot figure out how to get them back. Will be grateful for any advice. John

Like you, I am dissatisfied with the quality of Slideshows produced in DVD format. Everything seems to "shimmer" so. Now I connect my computer to the TV and display the shows as .exe files. It's a great improvement, if a little inflexible. I'm planning this to be my future excuse, and justification, for the aquisition of an HDTV receiver, when regular transmission starts! John

Don't feel to bad Ron. The day after I set up my 2nd monitor I went to the trouble of reinstall inged Photoshop. Because "Bridge" would not open! John

Lin, thank you again for that sound advice. It certainly sounds a likely cause of the phenomenon. I'll have another try, incorporating only each 5th. pixel. Unfortunately, it will have to wait until next week. The weather forecast looks promising, I have a much visited son in Yorkshire so I'm off for a photographic trip. Very best wishes John

I had another try at this effect. The idea was to have the moon setting and disappearing behind mountains. To get the movement to be reasonably reallistically slow, I created the individual frames, 180 of them!, 1 pixel appart. As the "moon" started to be masked by the mountains I carefully erased away the appropriate part behind a mask. When I played the sequence it worked fine, EXCEPT, a faint glow of the moon's disk could be seen through the mountains. I thought,at first, I'd been inatentive in using the erasor. But, on examining the individual frames, the bit of the moon you were not supposed to see, had been correctly obliterated. Anyone any idea what might have caused this effect? John PS Lin, I didn't think your zoom was "rough" at all. You're far too modest.

Thank you Bill, quite like me to be at the right place at the wrong time. Best wishes John

I went into the Cottage Upload Page again today, to have a peep at all the new pictures sent in since the last visit. But, counlt not find the preview facility. Has sonething been changed? John

Maureen, Many heaartfelt thanks for taking on this worthy task. If you need any additional pictures, of a particular genre/style say, to help you develop your ideas and to facilitate co-ordination, I'm sure that many of us will be able to come up with something constructive. Just shout. John

Thank you both, Lin and Stonemason. Having seen your demo. Lin, I had a happy day playing with the method. I took your point about producing the individual layers with only a small "step" between each one. I probably over-egged the pudding, though! Chose to make them one pixel apart using the "Down Tab" Got a bit confused handling the 100s of layers thus resulting. But, after a few false starts, got a result I was very pleased with. Now that I've figured out how to get layers back from within sets, caused major befuddlement. I must jot it down in my "lest we forget folder" Best wishes John

I spent a long time yesterday trying to figure out how to achieve an effect I had seen in a presentation. I want an image to appear, then remain stationary, while a second and much smaller image (or a sequence of smaller images) move into the primary slide from left, right, top or bottom; and stop at a predetermined position. Trouble is, I really don't know what this effect is called and, consequently, have drawn a blank searching the forum. I'd be so grateful if someone will put me out of my misery. John

Many thanks Ron, just waiting now for those parcels to arrive. John

I think Ed has hit the nail on the head. Increase the number of images per person to something between 6 & 10. This is too worthwhile a project for it to peter out for want of support. John

As a very recent newcomer to the facinating subject of AV, my viewpoint on this subject may be pertinent. Although at my present "acolyte stage", I'm not yet ready to publish any of my work (after all viewing is supposed to be a pleasurable experience!) I most certainly would like to, in the future. The feedback, that I'm certain would follow from the generous members of this group, would be most welcome. I would consider that, which constructively draws attention to shortcomings, to be of greater benefit than reams of, be it ever so nice to receive, praise. There will, of course, be those whose work cannot benefit from critisism. Such could be submitted - clearly indicating "request no comments" or, more humourously, "praise only - please"! John

Thank you Ron, I was aware that I would need to obtain a new dual or an additional Video card, I've even managed to get it through the chief ecconomist! I did'nt know, however, that the video card, itself, would "ease" me through the installation. I'll let you know how things progress, but it will be a few weeks before I'm up and running as the extra monitor, a 2nd 19" CRT necessitates a major work area revamp. Incidentally, have you used the arrangement I mentioned? Thati Photoshop on one and Cool Edit on the 2nd monitor. Regards John