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Inside a mask container you have two classes of objects: image objects having the standard layer structure including parent-child-constructions, and there are masks (at least one mask). For sake of simplicity, let us assume that all masks are B/W images. There is no correspondence between single masks and single image objects. The masks control the transparency of the overall composition of all image objects. For each pixel of the screen the degree of transparency is defined by the grey value of the masks at this pixel (255 means opaque, 0 means totally transparent, 128 means semi-transparent). In cases where several masks cover a particular pixel (intersecting masks), the maximum grey value of these mask seems to be chosen. Regards, Xaver

http://www.highland-musikarchiv.com/ Not cheap, but many German AV people make use if it. Regards, Xaver

Your settings look good, at least for playing an exe-version of your show on a PC. Maybe you did something wrong when creating the video. Regards, Xaver

You seem to love this feature. It would never come to my mind that I would do or test anything in case when KFSD (keep full slide duration) is on Regards, Xaver

Following the actions described by Jean, a slide that has been named after its main image (during creation) changes its name into "Blank", the original name is lost, and you have to reinstall it manually. This is different from the behavior of version 6.5. Regards, Xaver

I made a few extra tests, and I now could see some anomalies, as well. I could create a sequence with 5 or 6 slides, and I could not go back from slide 2 to slide 1 using the left arrow (no matter if the navigation bar was on or off) . When testing Cedric's example, while making fast changes forward and back, the scene sometimes seemed to block, no reactions on the arrows. When making a test with my present work under production (about 100 slides), I did not see any problems. Igor, I would recommend thorough testing. Regards, Xaver

As a start, let us consider a simple, but rather typical situation: The B&W-version of your image may have the same pixel dimension as the original colored image. Let us furthermore assume that the images and the screen have the same aspect ratio. The you may insert your images into two consecutive slides. For the second slide you may define an appropriate transition effect (Customize Slide > Effects). Start with a simple fade in/out, but try other effects and effect durations, as well. Regards, Xaver

Sorry, I do not see that kind of behavior Regards, Xaver

Did you read it? Regards, Xaver

Did you ever try the keyboard shortcuts (Control + PageUp, ...) ? Regards, Xaver

Templates as they can be downloaded from Lin Evans, thedom, and others typically are small PTE projects. If you want to integrate the included effects into one of your own shows, you can do the following: First open the *.pte-file from the template, and then use the so-called Hawk method to copy slides from the template into your own show, see here or here. Regards, Xaver

Nashiki, all you can do is making some tests. Do pans, zooms, and rotations run smooth, or not? What happens if you run several animated images at the same time? Do the 3D-transition effects run smooth? Quite demanding: Animation of objects in mask containers. I think that your kind of video system cannot give the performance of a medium or even high-end graphics card. All major AV-tools use Direct3D, so you may see some shortcomings with all of them. Regards, Xaver

My impression is that there is quite an easy speed model in the game. Each animation is divided intro three parts: 1. accelerated animation, 2. intermediate animation, 3. decelerated animation (negative acceleration). The model seems to be as follows: Part 1: constant positive acceleration (linear increase in speed, quadratic increase in distance), Part 2: constant speed (zero acceleration, linear increase in distance), Part 3: constant negative acceleration ( ... ). Simple test (not a complete proof): Define a slide of length 60 seconds. Insert a rectangle at ( x = -100 , y = 0 ). Give it a second key point at time 60 sec with position ( x = 100 , y = O ) . Set the speed profile to "Accelerate" (speed parameters 100, 100). Start the animation and stop it at 30 second. Then the rectangle should be at position ( x = -50 , y = 0 ), its one quarter of the overall distance. This shows at least the quadratic behavior in the accelerated part of the animation. Regards, Xaver

I think that this suggestion is (to some extent) not complete. A speed option is not a parameter for a single key frame, it is always is a relationship between two key frames whose intermediate key frames are glued. So in my opinion, if we want to define a default situation we need a description that is more precise. Sorry A possible default situation could be the following: All key frames are separated (none is glued), and if we set a speed option for two adjacent key frames for some animation type, this option should hold for all of them. Regards, Xaver

You are right, you can do it if you want to do it. But who really wants to do so. I live in an AV environment that is dominated by very expensive AV tools which have appropriate audio interfaces. In cases where I recommend PTE I have to use other arguments Regards, Xaver

Sorry, here I must disappoint you Like Peter, Jill, and others I do not like (and do not use) the KFSD feature (Keep Full Slide Duration). Until today I have not yet done anything serious with videos in PTE, but if I did so I would manage the situation without KFSD. Regards, Xaver

What does amuse me? If you ever have built a soundtrack using parallel audio tracks (either in Audacity (or another audio tool), or in AV tools like Wings or m.objects, you will never agree to use the present PTE audio tools which would mean the following: You have to work with parallel tracks in the project options window for music without a simultaneous view, and then there is additional audio inserted via the main window, whose existence you only see if the corresponding slide is highlighted, audio which sometimes is cut when the next slide starts. All in all, this is not a professional user interface for audio, and we all hope that in v7.5 all this will look better. All this has been known for a long time, and v7.5 is about to be released soon (hopefully), and then you start and maintain a discussion of that kind. This (at least for me) is just a little bit amusing. Regards, Xaver

I just said that I am amused, I do not have to tell a joke. I normally have a very conventional way to compile my productions: I either have a story and prepare appropriate images, or, I have some images and conceive a story. I write a kind of script including commentary. I record the commentary, split into many short clips (normally a few seconds each). I arrange the images in PTE and choose an appropriate time for each one. I look for music clips, arrange a music mix in Audacity, and I export this mix. I keep the mix and its ingredients as an Audacity project, so I can easily make changes, if needed. In PTE I synchronize the transition points according to the music (e.g. start or end of transition together with beat 1 in the bar). Now I work in PTE and Audacity simultaneously: I place all comments on one track in my Audacity project (like pearls on a string). In PTE (from left to right) I look where to place the next comment. Sometimes it starts within the time of one slide and ends within the time of the next one (the critical situation in this thread). I shift the comment to its place, and then I go for the next one. If there are sounds, as well, I use additional tracks. Occasionally I export the soundtrack as an MP3, and in PTE I look how it works together with my images. In my audio project everything can be changed, if needed. There is nothing exiting with this method. It just gives precise results. I hope that v.7.5 of PTE will provide an appropriate graphical interface to its audio tracks. In this case most (or at least part) of the work can done within PTE. Let's see what will happen. Regards, Xaver

No problem, we need not always agree Best regards, Xaver

With a lot of amusement, I did read the posts in this thread. In my opinion, the concept of sound comments for particular slides is outdated, and hopefully can be avoided in v7.5 BTW: I have never used this concept. Regards, Xaver

Artem, Do you think that most of the users are in the position to understand your example? I don't know. At present time, I do not see a big advantage in the new algorithm used in v7, and there are situations where the old method seems to be the better one. All in all, I do not regard all this as a serious problem. And, I really can live without seeing my suggestion to be implemented Regards, Xaver

Sorry, but I normally expect from a forum user to use his/her brain, and to practice some experimentation. Isn't it a pity that there was a need for post 4 at all Regards, Xaver

While watching the watching of the watchers, I had some trouble to decide what to watch Regards, Xaver

Artem, You can do a lot in Photoshop, but that isn't the point. It seems to me that you did not understand my post. Consider a 24-bit image, having 3 color channels (R=red, G=green, B=blue). Of course, you may use Photoshop to extract and export, say, the image's red channel as a B/W-image (B/W = black and white). Now you can apply this red channel as a mask in PTE. As far as I am informed, when using Wings Platinum, you can apply an arbitrary RGB-image (R=red, G=green, B=blue) as a mask object (for some other objects), and you have a choice which of its three channels is responsible for the control of transparency (of these other objects). Yes, you can go via Photshop, but here I would prefer the way of WP (Wings Platinum). A similar choice could be offered for 32-bit images regarding the fourth channel (so-called alpha channel). Regards, Xaver

Wouldn't it be fine to have several options? Examples: The situation as given today: Each color channel of the mask image acts as mask (alpha channel) for the corresponding color channel of the image in the mask container. A grey-scale version of the colored mask image should act as mask. A particular color channel ( R, G, or B ) of the mask image should act as mask The alpha channel of the mask image (if there is one) should act as mask Regards, Xaver