fh1805

Jeff, I almost always use frames because, when I do use animation (which is rarely), I almost always have complex animation (because animation is the "raison d'etre" for that particular sequence). I never animate simply to "add interest". To my mind animation has to complement the image and enhance the story-telling. If it enhances the story-telling but isn't complementary to the image then it's a distraction. If it is complementary to the image but doesn't enhance the story-telling then it's a gimmick. regards, Peter

Andrew, I agree with the comments above, in that it was a well-conceived sequence that informed. But I think it could be improved still further. You used different pieces of national music for each country and set the posters against a variant of that country's national flag; so you don't need the slides that tell us, via text captions, which country is being represented - we already know! Also, the change of music at each change of country is somewhat abrupt and this, for me, disrupts the flow of the sequence. If you were to mix your music items into a single continuous stream, using cross-fades to get from one piece to the next, you would have a sequence that then truly flowed. regards, Peter

Andrew, Having watched your WW2 Poster sequence and noted the animations you were using, I think I might know why you are having difficulty. The first animation I noted was when one of the posters was rotated about its Y axis and, at the same time, was panned horizontally to the right. I am guessing that you had all four keyframes on the poster object itself as follows: K1 - Rotate Y start K2 - Pan start K3 - Pan end K4 - Rotate end You might even have had just two keyframes: K1 - Start of rotate Y and of pan right K2 - End of rotate Y and of pan right Am I correct with one of these scenarios? The secret of success in animation control is to use "Frames". I very rarely apply animation directly to the object itself. 99% of the time I set the object as the child of a frame and apply the animation to the frame. And if I want two or more different animations at the same time (as you did) I set up a nest of frames, for example, as follows: Frame1 - Pan controller Frame2 - 3D Rotate controller (set as a child of Frame1) Object - set as a child of Frame2 Now I can programme the pan keyframes on Frame1 and define them as being "Smooth" and programme the Rotate Y keyframes to exactly the same pair of times (or different ones) without these being affected by anything I do to the pan keyframes. I hope this makes sense. I suggest you set up a new project, just one slide and one extra object on that slide and have a play. It's quite easy to do. regards, Peter

Ken, There isn't one! To me, this is a major weakness in PTE's design. I, too, spend a lot of time changing to the font that I want to use. When Igor re-worked the text handling I had hoped this would be included but it wasn't. regards, Peter

This has my vote, too! regards, Peter

Andrew, Quick answer - don't know! Try it. Then you become the expert and can tell us what happens! regards, Peter

Andrew, You will only need to do a "Separate here" if you have three or more keyframes. If all you have is two keyframes then simply changing from Linear to Smooth will do the business. With just two keyframes there is no need for "Setting up..." and "Separate Here" at all. regards, Peter

Andrew, To further elaborate on Lin's reply... Linear motion is identical throughout, no matter how many keypoints your object has. Smooth motion applies between two adjacent keypoints. So, to programme Smooth motion correctly you have, as Lin indicated, to click on the Linear button and then click on "Setting up..." and then on the "Separate here" links to break your keyframes up into pairs. Then apply the Smooth option to the pair that you want it to apply to by clicking on the grey vertical bar with the little "down-arrowhead" in order to see the various options. A little experimentation should help you get to grips with this aspect of animation. regards, Peter

Do File...Create Backup in Zip and direct that operation to save the file on your USB device. This will copy the project file and all the images and sound files that it uses, to the memory device as a .zip file. If all you want to move/copy is the exe file, just use your normal file management technique to copy/paste the file or drag/drop the file. regards, Peter

Ken, Your answer fits the observed facts. So it's not a bug, just a behaviour. regards, Peter

So, it isn't just my system. That's a relief. regards, Peter

Igor, I have just noticed a possible bug in PTE. When I switch between the Slides view and the Timeline view, the image displayed in the mini-viewer moves up and down a little. I first noticed it whilst using v6.0.1 but have just downloaded v6.0.4 and the problem is still present. I can recreate it with just a simple one image project. Environment is Vista Home Premium SP2 with nVidia 8400GS. I have found the fault to be present in v5.52 and v5.64. I wonder if it really is PTE-related. I think I would have spotted this long ago. And I suspect others would, too, and would have reported it already. regards, Peter

Ken, In the current implementation of 3D control in PTE v6 there is no direct control over the Z axis other than Pan along the Z axis. What you cannot do in PTE is, for example, build a cube and then work on the assumption that the three axes of that cube (which we as people would probably refer to as the cube's X, Y and Z axes) remain the X, Y and Z axes as the cube changes its orientation. The Rotate X control does behave in this manner. If you apply some "static rotate" on the Y axis and then rotate on the X axis, the effect is as you would expect. Similarly, the Rotate Y control behaves entirely as you would expect. But the only Z axis is that which is perpendicular to the 2D plane of the monitor; and the only controls are Rotate about Z (from the Animation tab) and Pan Z from the 3D parameter window. I found this very confusing and non-intuitive when I first tried to get to grips with the 3D animation capabilities. regards, Peter

You don't give any indication of your previous experience with PTE. As you have just joined the forum, I'm assuming you have very little such experience (if I am wrong, forgive me, I do not wish to offend). I would suggest that trying to learn how to animate using PTE by "reverse engineering" someone else's work is not the best way to learn. I think you would be better served by downloading and studying some of Lin Evans's excellent tutorials and by experimenting for yourself using some simple "coloured card" images created using your favorite image editor program. In my experience, you need to understand what the various controls of the animation do in order to understand how someone else's settings achieve their end result. regards, Peter

Crossfade, Start by getting your two images placed side-by-side on a single slide as independent objects (i.e. not as children of the base slide and not as children of one another). Then set the duration of the base slide to be long enough to include the duration you want for the flip (by using Customize Slide...Main) Now take the base slide into O&A, selec the Animation tab) and add a second keyframe to one of the two image objects at the point in time where you want the flip to end (don't worry about any values just yet, simply get the keyframe where you want it (probably at or near the half-way point of the slide's duration?). Then select the other image, and add its second keyframe (this should end up at the exact same time as the previous image's second keyframe) Now activate the 3D Parameters pop-up window. Select the second keyframe of one image file and set Rotate X to 180. Select the other image file and select its second keyframe and set Rotate X to -180. That will give you contra-rotating images about the X axis. Next you need to add the second pair of images to this slide. These two images will need their start points set to +180 and -180 of Rotate X and their end-points to +360 and -360 respectively so that they complete the full rotation about the X axis. You will need to untick "Show back..." in the 3D Parameters box, but I'll leave you to explore this for yourself. Come back if you have further questions. regards, Peter

Lennart, Will the following technique achieve the result that you want: Open a new Microsoft Word document, set your basic font (for example Times New Roman) and type your text there, when you need a special character proceed as follows: - Insert Symbol - Within the Symbol window, set the desired font (for example, Times New Roman) - Select the special character that you need When you have all your text in the Word document, cut and paste from Word to PTE's text box, ensuring that the font name in PTE is the same as the font used in Word (for example Times New Roman) I haven't tried this myself but it is how I would attempt it. regards, Peter

Anthony, I think the clue lies in the word "architecture" in the error message. As I understand it, the Mac must have the Intel chipset in order to run the executable file. But, again as I understand it, the user does not have to use any of the various virtual machine software that our Mac colleagues mention in their posts (e.g. Bootcamp and similar) in order to host a copy of Windows. regards, Peter

I have been asked by Eric Legallet, who has taken over JPD's role as principal administrator of Diapositif.net forum, to post this message of thanks from JPD's wife, Danielle. "Les enfants de Jean-Pierre, les miens, et moi-même sa compagne, vous adressons tous nos remerciements chaleureux et émus, pour votre soutien, votre amitié, votre présence aux obsèques, merci à tous ceux qui n'ont pas pû se déplacer, mais qui ont participé à l'honneur rendu, merci pour les magnifiques couronnes de fleurs, pour les messages de regret, empreints de mots si justes, de condoléances, d'admiration, quel bel hommage ! nous en avons été trés touchés et fiers pour lui, encore merci de nous avoir accompagné ! La cérémonie fut émouvante et réussie, nous formions tous un bloc autour de lui, absents et présents, aujourd'hui Jean-Pierre est une étoile qui brillera toujours dans nos coeurs. Encore tous nos remerciements à vous tous. DANIELLE." Translation into English "The children of Jean-Pierre and myself, his companion, extend to you all our warmest thanks for your support, your friendship, your presence at the funeral. Thank you to all those who were not able to attend but who participated in the honor paid. Thank you for the beautiful wreaths, for the messages of sympathy, carrying such appropriate words, of condolence, of admiration; what a beautiful tribute! We have been very touched by these; thank you again for providing them! The ceremony was moving and successful. We formed a block all around him, absent and present. Now Jean-Pierre is a star that will shine forever in our hearts. Again our thanks to you all. DANIELLE." Any errors in the English translation are mine; and I apologise for them in advance. regards, Peter

Anthony, So, you still cook on an open wood fire, do you? Peter

Apologies accepted! We all have off days. regards, Peter

Peter S, It was only when the subject of recording streaming sound was raised that I realised it was possible to do it with Audacity. All my previous use of Audacity has been as a sound editor and not a sound recorder. I rip music from CDs and record voice-over and sound-effects on a Zoom H4 digital sound recorder. Thanks to your willingness to perform those tests (which confirmed that the feature existed in Audacity v1.3 and that it worked) I was then motivated to try and work out why I couldn't do the same. As a result of your efforts I now have an additional source of sound-track material. I'm deeply indebted to you. regards, Peter

They might be wire-less as far as the signal is concerned but they ain't cable-free when it comes to powering them. There would still be a significant trip hazard. regards, Peter

I do now!!!! The problem was that Stereo Mix was not Enabled in the Windows Control Panel for Sound. I found the info about this problem on the Audacity Wiki via the Audacity website. Thanks for suggesting I try there, Ken. ...and it works! And since I don't do any recording within Audacity, I can leave it set this way. Yippee! regards, Peter

Just think of all those trip hazards (= cables) in a large hall. How's your Liability Insurance? regards, Peter

Peter, Ken et al, I do have Audacity 1.3.11 but I don't have Stereo Mix. Indeed, as you will see in the attached screen shot, I don't even have a drop-down box. My sound-card is a RealTek. Is this a factor? regards, Peter