[FREE] Rotate/Video Template Available

[Lin Evans]

Moved to Lin's Templates:

[thedom]

Hi Lin,

Your demo runs absolutely smooth on my PC but it's less than one year.

I don't know how much time you spend on this template but I guess it kept you busy !

Your topic made me want to try to simulate Earth 360° rotating but without frame by frame animation.

I used masks to give the feeling that the Earth (and moon) rotate.

I know the animation is completely not realistic but I had fun to make it, PTE is great !

The demo and the pte project are attached.

EarthAndMoon_EXE.zip

EarthAndMoon_Project.zip

[jfa]

Lin & Dom

Stunning, stunning, stunning! Thanks for the time and the work you have put in it must have been many hours and thanks also for the PTE templates.

Now who is going to be the first to do the solar system?

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

Very good simulation! The masks and shadows definitely can be used to simulate the rotation well. If you had a really realistic earth map with clouds, atmosphere and such it would be very, very good except for the necessity for the shadows on the wrong side, but in the great scope I can see how it might be very effective to especially simulate rotation of planets such as Mars where no one really knows exactly (well, few know, anyway) what "should" be at a particular point at a particular time. I think it would mix well with a frame by frame rotation such as my template for adding other planets such as Mars & Venus, etc., especially since it has such a tiny RAM footprint.

Best regards,

Lin

[Lin Evans]

Hi John,

LOL - we both did that a couple years ago!

Best regards,

Lin

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

Just for fun, I incorporated your system into the "sun" for pseudo-rotation. I didn't add a halo, just used it for the shadow, rotate look, etc.

I like it!

Here's a link if you want to see it:

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/template/earthtodom.zip

Best regards,

Lin

[thedom]

Nice Lin, I like it too !

[Lin Evans]

Hi Folks,

Just a reminder about this template. I don't think I made it completely clear when I explained originally. You can use this template for virtually "any" decompiled video sequence, not just for rotating an object. Let me explain in more detail.

What this template does is present your frames in a sequence like you would present a video however, you have complete control over the size, movement, speed of sequencing, etc. Let's take an example. Say you have a video of your dog catching a frisbee or chasing a ball across the yard. Take any 640 odd frames and rename them as per the template using some freeware such as Irfanview. You now can drop them in your slideshow and play them back just like a video "except" you can zoom in, zoom out, rotate, pan, etc., the video by using the provided parent frame! If you want the sequence to run faster just decrease the display time for the 640 odd frames. If you want the sequence to run slower just increase the display time for the sequence. If you want to run more than about 30 seconds of video, just save another 640 frames and rename them with the identical file names and place them as slide two using "quick, no transition" and so on. You could have an hour of video if you wish by doing this in 640 frame "segments."

Later: Actually, upon reflection, the above is not a good idea. Using the identical file names in multiple slides means you would necessarily have to have these additional slides in different folders. Then there is the problem of PTE not allowing duplicate file names in alternate locations when creating zipped PTE files from the menu. What we really need is to have multiple slides but with a continuation of numbering such as image642....image8356, etc.

I can do this, and I will if enough people are interested, but it will take time and be tedious to implement. There are two ways of accomplishing this. The most foolproof way is to simply duplicate the original slide on multiple new slides then one at a time "replace" the duplicate slides in succession with the new slide numbers. So, on slide 2, image001.png gets replaced with image641, image 002.png gets replace with image642.png, etc. The other way is to attempt to modify the PTE file in an editor such as Notepad. This can get very tedious and a single mistake can lead to disaster from which recovery would be very painful if possible at all. So if I do this I will do it by replacing one image at a time. As you will see below, this will require replacing over 8,000 images with a new file name one at a time.

I have calculated that 631 frames at 29.97 frames per second yields about 21 seconds of video (actually 21.054 seconds). Since we can stipulate seconds "and" milliseconds we can actually get very good accuracy in duplicating a 29.97 frame per second video this way. So to have close to five minutes of video time we need about 14 slides consisting of 8834 frames. I believe that nearly five minutes is quite sufficient in terms of realistic video clip simulation so this will be my goal if enough people are truly interested in using this template for running video clips in their shows. Just let me know. It will take some time but I'm willing to do it if enough people are interested.....

This is a "very" versatile template because it provides the frame sequencing and control over movement of the "entire" video. I just wanted to clarify that you can use it for virtually any decompiled video and not "just" for video which "rotates" an object. The only caveats are to keep the frame sizes reasonably small in pixel dimensions so as to not overtax your systems's resources. As an example, the demo "video clip" uses about 636 meg of RAM so use care in the size of your frames. This method is not suitable for high resolution video such as 1080p.

Note: if you convert to jpg, then use Irfanview or other suitable batch conversion software to convert the jpg's to PNG format. I used PNG so that "if" you plan to have objects in rotation, you don't have to have the background rotation with the subject. So using PNG allows the transparency but does not adversely impact the use of converted jpg frames for regular video. There is no real space savings by having jpg because all jpg frames expand to their full eight bit size in memory anyway.

A quick sample zipped executable (about 75 meg download) is available in the Slideshows section here for those interested:

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....showtopic=10243

Best regards,

Lin

[Peter Coles]

I tried to download both, but was informed that the download did not work and that I may be able to download these fron an alternative site. I tries that with no result - there no alternatives !

I'd love to witness what you have done but it seems I may be denied this priviledge.

Peter

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

I'm sorry that the downloads didn't work for you. I'm not certain what the problem may be, but they seem to work O.K. for me and I assume for Xaver so there may have been some temporary SNAFU on the internet.

Below is a link to the demo using parts of a decompiled video clip from Youtube. The original links to the template and original sample are good links in the original post above. Perhaps trying at a later time will result in success. Please let me know if you are unable to download at a later time and I will post them on an alternative host.

This link to the zipped executable of about 75 meg download size:

http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/sample/videodemo.zip

Best regards,

Lin

Peter:

Here are the three links on an alternate server:

http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/videodemo.zip (video clip demo)

http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/rotatetemplatewithreadme.zip (template with readme)

http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/earthrotatedemo.zip (rotation of Earth demo)

[Peter Coles]

Lin, I think it must be a problem at my end, as the video would not come down either.

I'll try the other sites you have mentioned.

Peter

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

Here is a MediaFire third source link to all three in case the other two don't work:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=cfda814...04e75f6e8ebb871

Lin, I think it must be a problem at my end, as the video would not come down either.

I'll try the other sites you have mentioned.

Peter

[Peter Coles]

Hi Peter,

Here is a MediaFire third source link to all three in case the other two don't work:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=cfda814...04e75f6e8ebb871

I did, eventually, manage to download the file via your second site, even though it took me two attempts, initially being informed that I could not download it, but then being told I could continue.

Anyway, I thought it was very effective.

Am I allowed to use a section of it in a Sequence I have in mind - "String Theory".

If so, how do I do that? Can it come in via "objects and animation" or is there now an alternative way, though incorporating one Sequence alongside another?

I would appreciate some guidance.

Peter

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

Sure, the template is given freely for anyone to use, modify, experiment with, etc.

I'm in the process now of expanding it so that in a few weeks (it's a slow process for me) it will be able to handle up to about four minutes of video. Right now I have it up to about 44 seconds.

So as to not overload the graphics card, I have settled on 631 frames per slide then using multiple slides. The issue which is taking me much time is manually entering image numbers for each frame. JPD does this with Excel then merges the output into the PTE file but I'm not that confident in my Excel skills so it will be a few weeks until I have finished the complete template.

As it stands now, if you will tell me the length of your video clip I will try to post a version of the template for you which will allow that length up to about one minute.

To answer your question, the way you proceed is to first decompile your AVI, MPG, etc., into PNG frames then name them in order using IrfanView or other batch processing (Photoshop with and action, etc.) so that the names are image001.png, image002.png......

Place the template in a folder by itself then start PTE and open the videosimulate.pte file (this will be the name of the one I post which is customized for you). From the main menu select and copy the available slides (there will probably be three slides) then without closing PTE, open your slideshow where you want to insert the video and "Paste" the slides where you want the video to appear in your slide sequence. Copy your decompiled video data with the renamed (image001.png, image001.png, etc.) images into the folder with your other slides which will overwrite the tiny placeholder png files included with the template.

If you have fewer images in your decompiled video than the default number in the template, simply select and delete the object numbers (image3220.png, image3221.png, etc.) which are superfluous.

You can then use the parent frame at the top of each slide to position and size the video. If desired, you can insert a slide as a background. Just place your background slide as the top object above the frame. You can animate this background object or treat it as you would any other via keyframe, etc. You may also have any other objects, etc., in animation around the running video. Experimentation will help you decide.

The speed of the video as I have programmed it is about 30 frames per second. If you want to slow it down or speed it up (like slow motion or fast forward) just adjust the slide speed via "customize this slide". Leave the "Scale Keyframes in Objects" checked so that you don't loose any frames and the video will run faster or slower depending on what time you select for the slide. Remember, if you adjust the frame for position or size that to keep this size or position you must copy/paste the pan or zoom values from one slide to the other since there is a transparent slide change between image631.png and image632.png, etc.

I would suggest saving your original slideshow to a new name for the purpose of experimenting until you have the show completed with the video addition.

Let me know if you have questions....

Best regards,

Lin

[Peter Coles]

Hi Peter,

Sure, the template is given freely for anyone to use, modify, experiment with, etc.

I'm in the process now of expanding it so that in a few weeks (it's a slow process for me) it will be able to handle up to about four minutes of video. Right now I have it up to about 44 seconds.

So as to not overload the graphics card, I have settled on 631 frames per slide then using multiple slides. The issue which is taking me much time is manually entering image numbers for each frame. JPD does this with Excel then merges the output into the PTE file but I'm not that confident in my Excel skills so it will be a few weeks until I have finished the complete template.

As it stands now, if you will tell me the length of your video clip I will try to post a version of the template for you which will allow that length up to about one minute.

To answer your question, the way you proceed is to first decompile your AVI, MPG, etc., into PNG frames then name them in order using IrfanView or other batch processing (Photoshop with and action, etc.) so that the names are image001.png, image002.png......

Place the template in a folder by itself then start PTE and open the videosimulate.pte file (this will be the name of the one I post which is customized for you). From the main menu select and copy the available slides (there will probably be three slides) then without closing PTE, open your slideshow where you want to insert the video and "Paste" the slides where you want the video to appear in your slide sequence. Copy your decompiled video data with the renamed (image001.png, image001.png, etc.) images into the folder with your other slides which will overwrite the tiny placeholder png files included with the template.

If you have fewer images in your decompiled video than the default number in the template, simply select and delete the object numbers (image3220.png, image3221.png, etc.) which are superfluous.

You can then use the parent frame at the top of each slide to position and size the video. If desired, you can insert a slide as a background. Just place your background slide as the top object above the frame. You can animate this background object or treat it as you would any other via keyframe, etc. You may also have any other objects, etc., in animation around the running video. Experimentation will help you decide.

The speed of the video as I have programmed it is about 30 frames per second. If you want to slow it down or speed it up (like slow motion or fast forward) just adjust the slide speed via "customize this slide". Leave the "Scale Keyframes in Objects" checked so that you don't loose any frames and the video will run faster or slower depending on what time you select for the slide. Remember, if you adjust the frame for position or size that to keep this size or position you must copy/paste the pan or zoom values from one slide to the other since there is a transparent slide change between image631.png and image632.png, etc.

I would suggest saving your original slideshow to a new name for the purpose of experimenting until you have the show completed with the video addition.

Let me know if you have questions....

Best regards,

Lin

Many thanks, Lin.

The Sequence is in currently early embrio. When I saw your rotating earth come from behind the sun, I thought maybe that would look good fading in and out of dissolving abstracts already on the screen. And maybe I could get the whole lot to disappear into a "black hole" which appeared within these dissolving abstracts! From what I had read, but not yet experimented with, I also imagined that two PTE files could now, within PTE 5.7, interact with each other; hence my experimental desire. The whole project is also part of an ambition I have to get a long-standing AV worker back into producing worthwhile Shows. He and his wife were (are) in many ways the father and mother of AV in the UK. His original work goes back almost 50 years - mine a mere 40 !!! His original best work was with abstracts interpreting music. Mine has almost without exception always relied on the spoken word and music, together with interacting visuals. So in my imagination, I had hoped to bring all this together to produce something memorable.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

If you could email me at:

lin@learntomakeslideshows.net

we could discuss in detail the animation you want to achieve and perhaps the best way to set it up with PTE. From your description I think there may be a couple possible ways to do this and I'm sure we can find a way to code what you have in mind for the best possible effect.

Best regards,

Lin