How long does it take?

[trailertrash]

For the more experienced users to create an average slide show. My current project has been 10 days and counting, and I just wondered how long it takes those of you who know exactly what your doing.

[cjdnzl]

For the more experienced users to create an average slide show. My current project has been 10 days and counting, and I just wondered how long it takes those of you who know exactly what your doing.

It's a bit like 'how long is a piece of string?' - I have done a 9-minute show of about 50 slides including music in under an hour, and at the other end, a show on family genealogy took my wife and myself several days, using two monitors, one each so each could see what was doing. If you include researching music where a work was not obvious at the start, resizing and photoshopping the images, applying special effects, and sweating over getting the multi-image overlays etc. to work right, it could take weeks.

And I guess everybody is different.

Colin

[Ken Cox]

Andrew

if you had got the typos out of the way first off you would have gained a whole lot of time - using word to develop your text would have speeded that up -- world time differences for answers does not help when proofing -- once you put in manual control that helped the group nail your mistakes

that is something you might consider -- entering a manual show as well as an automatic for the judges -- you would have to check with the people that enter shows all the time whether it is proper to do this

ken

[fh1805]

Andrew,

As Colin has indicated, it really is a case of "how long is a piece of string". Like Colin, I have completed a very short sequence (2m 30s) of 24 images set to music (no voice-over) in under an hour. At the opposite end of the spectrum, in June last year I started the build of a sequence that lasts 14 minutes, uses 99 main images and a further 100 png objects, five pieces of music (one of which had to be editted down from 3m 30s to 2m 10s) and has almost continuous voice-over which took me over three months to complete. In a sense it still isn't finished because I have recently found a new location that offers me a better panoramic opening image than the one that I currently use. You could say, therefore, that it has taken 12 months and counting...

Each sequence takes as long as necessary to achieve the desired quality of the end product. And some sequences are never finished; they are always undergoing change.

regards,

Peter

[jfa]

Andrew.

That's quite a question Andrew, and to assume we know what we are doing, well......

Once I have the concept for the AV settled in my mind and I have the images ready, (correct format, resolution, colour, exposure correct, boarders and other effects done), titles done and the sound-track prepared I can usual produce a 50-60 image AV with PTE in an evening, (3-4 hours), to my satisfaction.

The three main building blocks, concept, images and audio can each take days, weeks, even months to prepare.

Concept-

This can involve a flash of ideas and the whole show will appear in my mind in a few seconds, (often stimulated by some music), and other times, more often the case, I will spend many hours/days preparing a script even resorting to a sequence of story-boards at times. I usually carry several ideas for partly developed AVs in my mind and they evolve over months/years.

Images-

These may already be at hand, from a trip or taken over some time on a theme that is close to me, (family, hobby, special interest, favourite location near home and so on), or may need to be taken once the concept is established. The amount of work required in Photoshop can also vary enormously. Currently I am working on a AV made from 45 very old range-finder colour negatives. It has involved more than 60 hours to scan, cleanup, correct colour, fading, exposure etc in Photoshop and I haven't finished yet.

Audio-

Sometimes this will come first for me about 40% of the time, sometimes last 10% of the time and the other 50% it will evolve as the AV develops. If it is relatively simple I can have it ready in a few hours but if more complex, (usually the case), I may spend days recording and then preparing the tracks in my sound editor. Then there may be many frustrating hours going to and fro between the sound editor and PTE adjusting timing, changing the mix when I change the images and so on.

So to answer your question Andrew --

Concept -- time unknown,

Images -- time unknown,

Audio -- time unknown,

Production -- hopefully one or two evenings.