dpletts

Barry has outlined a perfectly reasonable approach to adding a 'layer' to a series of slides, but I have been wondering for some while whether the ability to add another visual layer on a different visual 'track' - in the way we can add extra audio tracks - might be something for the future. David P

Hi Mark, Loved the show - some super abstract shapes and textures. Great stuff. Cheers, David P

Hi Gary, Great show. All that water! When can we see the rest of your trip? Cheers, David P

Here is a sort of antidote to all those wonderful presentations of exotic places, fantastic architecture and exciting events we see on this forum. In contrast, this is just a few views of the council housing estate on which I live, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. I have tried to highlight some of the more interesting places as well as the more mundane and you will see that it is a pretty green estate, with lots of trees and space. This is a traditional presentation with no special effects and a traditional style soundtrack. Download here David P

Thank you, Gary, for sharing this cracking slideshow. Yes, it was long, but I enjoyed every moment of it. I especially liked the variety of photos which I felt made the show quite lively - one didn't know quite what to expect next which meant that I wanted to see the next picture and so it kept the whole presentation moving. I shall certainly be watching it again a few times. David P

Very interesting. I rather liked the method of presentation. David P

Nice one, Davy. I liked the gentle animation ... and the bubbles ... a masterstroke. David P

I really enjoyed your show. I love Lincoln Catrhedral, although I haven't visited for some 15 years. I am pleased to see they haven't filled the nave with pews or chairs. The flood-lighting of the exterior when I visited was magnificent. The music, which is pretty well-know and enjoyed by many, was just right. It was written by Gregorio Allegri, an Italian composer who lived from 1582 to 1652. If a piece of music is that old and still loved, it must be good! Anyway, well done, great stuff ... thank you. David P

Veru useful tip; thank you Nobeefstu. David P

Hello George, I made a mistake; my comment for slide 4 should have been the comment for slide 2. Thanks for explaining slide 4. Having never seen funnel clouds ever in my life, as far as I am aware, I didn't understand the effect you were trying to achieve. Now the speed makes more sense. Of course, I'm probably barking up the wrong tree regarding cloud speeds - you were there, you took the photos, you know what you saw. You obviously appreciate cloud formations as do I - except when they are a uniform flat grey, which we sometimes get here in the winter during periods of high pressure. Regards, David

As we are concentrating on the cloud animations these are my observations: Slide 1: Speed could be a little slower. The direction of the animation should follow the angle of the whispy cloud, ie up and to the right which may or may not be the direction of the original cloud movement, but moving from left to right in a straight line feels contrary to the implied movement in the picture. Slide 2: Animation too fast. Slide 3: Spot on! Slide 4: Far too fast. In fact I don't think an observer would notice much movement at all. Cloud animation is very subjective and other people might not agree with my observstions. One of the problems with animating clouds in PTE (or any other animation software) is how to show the way in which the cloud shapes change over time, sometimes a short time. Now there's a challenge! Animated GIF converted from a short video sequence, perhaps? I very much admire your persistance over this and the way you are responding to the challenge you have set yourself. David P

In my experience PTE can't do that either - when the slide show is repeated it repeats the slides in the same order as the first time through. David P

As has been said, each picture is on-screen a bit too long. I think that the new cloud background is much better and scales well with all your pictures. Having said that, your original clouds looked good with the close-up pictures. Also the clouds move at a reasonably stately, pace, although in the 9th slide (I think), the one before the gentleman in hiding, maybe a little too fast? Being high-level clouds means that we perceive them to move quite slowly despite bombing along at perhaps 100 to 200 mph. But, perhaps, I'm just being a bit picky? I still like the idea, though. David P

thedom, thanks for feedback. AmbiFlow is not actually an application for making sound effects, but for playing background, ambient, music. I have a few users who run AmbiFlow whilst they are working. If you had been able to access the web page (sorry that you were unable to) you would have been able to see what it's all about. The web site has been in operation for about a year. I have no trouble in accessing the site from the last slide. I have Mozilla Firefox as my default browser. If not already open it takes a little time to launch but gets there reasonably quickly. You can directly access the AmbiFlow site: www.ambiflow.co.uk if you would like to. I am thinking about making something a bit more cheerful - emphasis on 'thinking'! David P

George, Excellent scenic pics, but I felt that the clouds were a bit too large in scale for the long-shots. Good idea, though. David P

Thanks Mick, I look forward to further feedback. David

Thanks, Rick

I have prepared a slideshow of audio clips with a variety of accompanying pictures. The idea is to promote my free software, AmbiFlow, by demonstrating some of the soundscapes that can be downloaded in addition to the suite of programs. At the moment, there are no sound examples available on the web site. Rather than just making an audio track available for download, I thought I might spice it up a bit with some visual material. This is a preview so that you can comment and advise, if you wish. Zipped, 4 minutes and a bit, 21 MB. Download here. Cheers, DavidP

As someone who has only fairly recently discovered the joys of making slideshows with this software, having never made slideshows at all before, I don't feel particularly qualified to give constructive criticism on shows presented here, other than to say to some of them that I like them - which, as has been pointed out, isn't a lot of help. I also don't have much photographic experience either, other than to take snapshots with a recently acquired instant type digital camera. So I am not in a position to comment on other people's efforts. I have to say, though, that, considering the wonderful audio features that have recently been introduced, I am somewhat disappointed in the audio accompaniament to many presentations. Its all very well to use one piece of music with a slideshow that concentrates on one place or event - monothematic, one might call it, but I would like to have a variety of sound files in a more varied - multithematic - show. David P

I thought it was good, too - a bit different - imaginative. Keep up the good work. Cheers, David P

I agree. I believe that what is required is an exponentional (possibly a logarithmic) fade rather than a linear fade so that the quiter end of the fade fades at a slower rate than at the start of the fade. The converse should apply for a fade in. David P

Not, perhaps, the perfect solution, but as a last resort you could always try converting a video clip into an animated GIF, I suppose. David P

Hi Colin, Many thanks for the information. I, also, have a copy of "Photoscape". Glad you liked Dance Squared. I first saw it in 1968. There is a sequence where shapes follow each other on a curved path. This wouldn't be easy to do in PTE as we can only animate in straight lines and perfect circles or ovals. I wonder if the powers that be might ever consider animation based on a path? ... and how useful would that be? Regards, David P

Colin, May I ask what software you used to create the graphics, please? And have you ever seen this: ?Regards, David P

Nice one, Colin! I don't have a particularly powerful computer and quite a few of my shows, and others', too, I find exhibit "a lot of jerking and the transitions are not smooth". But your show went pretty well, and I am sure there are members of this forum with top spec computers who will say the same. Good luck! David P