jkb

Just had another thought PicturesToEx(cellence) We all know the high quality that PTE produces and this would maybe help to reinforce that. Will have another think tomorrow to see if I can come up with anything else. Jill

I don't think PicturesToAV is a good idea. We are continually trying to convince video makers to try PTE especially as V10 will be a lot more video friendly. But a lot still want nothing to do with anything AV. Changing the name to contain AV would put them off even more! Not sure what would be best, everyone knows it as PTE. So to keep the same letters how about PicturesToEntertainment Jill

CTRL+A to select All is another very useful shortcut, especially in O&A when you want to show multiple timelines. Also CTRL+S to Save, but this doesn't work from O&A. Jill

This is something I would like to see in PTE, especially when working with video. Jill

We are holding the UK judging in Capel Curig, Snowdonia, most likely Sunday 9th June. Details will be on www.avnews.org.uk once the room is confirmed. Jill

I also thought it faded out rather than ended naturally, forgot to mention that last night. If you haven't already submitted it to MidPhot, then see if you can find another version with the last notes on it. Martin is sure to spot the Fade! JT49 you mention beats, backbeats etc. That is fine if you understand music - I don't, I do not understand all the different terminology - I just know if something works or not. I can listen to a piece of music & normally I will know in the first few seconds if it is right or not. I can know if two pieces will blend together & I can cut & join a piece to shorten or lengthen it. But knowing what are beats, bars etc I haven't got a clue! I have to 'see' the waveform to know where to put the transitions, I cannot do that by ear. Jill

Hi Brian, I can only imagine the amount of work in Photoshop but it was well worth it. Some beautiful 3rd images created. I think that maybe facebook has lost some of the quality as some of the dissolves weren't quite as smooth as I am sure they are in an exe. On the slides where you are doing a wipes have a look at the thickness of smoothing line. Try increasing the value from the default 30 to a much higher number. This way you get a smoother edge to the wipe & it is much less noticable. If the viewer notices something then it is a distraction. Also there were a couple of points where there was a cresendo in the music but nothing happened on screen. Have a look at the waveform in the timeline & adjust the transitions to coincide with the peaks in the music. You may need to tweak it a few times to get it just right as it depends on the content of the images as to when it actually appears on screen. Have you thought of entereing this in the Bridgend 5to8? It is a good Photoharmony sequence. See www.avnews.org.uk on the calendar page for details of this & other events/competitions Jill

A good mix of close up & long shots with a few good third images created. Personally i don't like movement happening during a dissolve, I find it very distracting. Also some of the images didn't quite fit for me & took me out of the mood of the show - the one with the runner in yellow - the background jarred with the other icy images Suitable music, but I couldn't hear all the words, but just listening on my laptop which doesn't have that good sound. But the line about 'cold last night' & the empty bench with the hat does work well I always try to fit the music/lyrics to the images & if they don't quite work then I will edit the music to fit. Jill

I would say not interactive as the show will run on its own. I consider interactive to be a show where the viewer has to make choices as to what happens next by selecting a button, text, image etc to click on. I have never actually seen a show like this. Using a Menu is a convenient and slick way of presenting several shows at an event. Yes the Menu itself is interactive, but is not something you would normally post online. Step through shows where the presenter talks about an image live to the audience and then presses the arrow key to move on to the next although not automatic, but could easily become so for posting online. I do not consider these to be interactive. Jill

normally you would just right click on a link & select copy Link location & then paste (CTRL+V) onto the page where you want it to appear. I assume this works the same for a Facebook show. Jill

Could it be the size of the show? I would think most are too big, or more likely that they are in exe format which isn't supported by an android phone. Jill

In my view, whatever type of show you produce it needs to 'say' something to the viewer to work. If it doesn't then it has failed whatever level you are aiming for. Maybe the lack of comments on some shows is because they failed to 'speak' to the viewer. Even if you are just displaying your images to a piece of music, if the right music is chosen that compliments them and the images displayed in some sort of order rather than just 'as taken' then it will 'say' a lot more to the viewer. If it is a piece of animation, again it needs to 'say' something, other than look at how clever I am! Personally I enter competitions to have my work shown to a wider audience on a big screen with good sound. If the judges happen to think it worthy of a prize - very rare ☺ - then great that is a bonus. Judging, Organising and being on the technical team for many AV events and competitions I get to see a lot of work and obviously have my own thoughts about it. When judging I have to give comments, I always start off with something good, then try to point out in a positive way where perhaps it could be improved. Then try to also finish with a good point. Critique should never be negative, but also shouldn't say something is wonderful when it isn't. These shows are our 'babies' that can take many months to produce. We all need some praise, but also need some honest critique to help bring out the best we have to offer. I think the big problem with Slideshow club is that you have download to view them, which I don't always want or have time to do. Perhaps if it could have two sections, one for video files that you can watch online and another for those that need to be downloaded. Maybe more people would feel inclined to comment if they can watch online. Jill

How many people actually make interactive shows? I wouldn't have thought it was that many

Have you accidentally changed the colour management in PTE? its under Settings/preferences/Sytem Do your images look correct in another program? Photoshop, or Windows Photo viewer? Jill

Yes that is how I knew what version it was.

Hi Igor, Thanks, Yes that worked correctly, opening & saving in PTE8 then open in PTE9. I will try to remember that if I work on any more old projects. Jill

I have an old project, originally made in PTE5.6 beta 7 that I am updating in PTE9 There is a Zoom on an object which was set up with speed options to give a smooth zoom between keyframes 2, 3, 4 & 5 with keyframes 1, 6 & 7 being Linear. The speed options are set on Zoom & Rotate But the options on Pan was left at linear for all keyframes I know we needed to set the same options on all of Pan, Zoom & Rotate even if only one parameter was affected., but it did work smoothly. When this project is opened in PTE9 it only has a speed modifier on keyframe 2 and the zoom is jerky. Not really a problem as I have sorted it by unticking the Zoom & Rotate boxes on keyframes 3,4 & 5 & it now zooms smoothly. Keyframe 6 then has a tick in the xoom & Rotate boxes to turn off the modifier. Just thought you should be aware of this in case anyone else has problems. Jill

It is something that has been needed for a long time. Even on short durations of a few seconds it would really help when you need keyframes close to each other. It would also help greatly if the waveform could be seen in O&A Jill

AR = aspect ratio ie 4:3 or 16:9 etc when you Untick 'in pixels' you get 2 boxes set them 20 and 20 click and drag your image towards a grid line then let go of the left mouse (de-click) the image should then snap to the line Jill

drag the sound to the left. If it is right at the start you will need to add a blank slide first Jill

Hi George, Is this clip on your hard drive? I wouldn't have thought it possible to degrade like this. I have very occasionally had problems if a file has been copied many times, but that is mainly due to a corruption in the copying process rather than degradation. If you have it on a cd then maybe there has been some corruption of the surface & so data has been lost. But your example does not look like loss of pixels. Any corruption normally shows as a loss of pixels - flashing or green lines and you can usually see the square pixel outlines. Do you have any other mov files taken at the same time & are they OK? I have avi files from 2004 & they play fine in the latest VLC player, although do show pixelation as they are a small size. I also have some mov from 2006 & they also look OK. They all have been transfered from an earlier desktop via a backup hard drive without problems. Jill

we both send & receive MP4, avi, mov etc using WeTransfer & haven't had any problems either way. I always scan anything I download before attempting to open or play. I only zip exe or if I am sending several files at once. Jill

Dave, interesting that you don't have the problems with timings. If for instance I make a slide style that is set for 10 secs duration, then any slide I apply that to will have it's duration changed to 10 secs. This then messes up all my carefully worked out times which fit to the music. I know that you work with Full Duration? whereas I never do. Also I haven't made or used any styles since testing the program when they first came out. Maybe they have changed since then? But then for me every 2 slide combination is unique & the same effect would work differently with another 2 slide combination. Therefeore I never need to repeat anything with the use of a Slide Style. Regards Jill

Dave, the BIG problem with a style is that it changes slide times to that of the style - which is why I never use them. Fine if you use it to add text before you make any other changes. But text. Is usually one of the last additions to a sequence, once you have everything else in place. If you use a style later in the production process all of your carefully worked out timings could be lost. Jill

I know it is another workaround, but the easiest way to have consistency through a project is to set up a text object once, then copy & paste that object to the other slides you require text. Then all you have to do is change the actual text. Jill