Advance Rotate

[Laszlo K]

I was just watching ( I think Lin's AVI tutorial) on rotating and changing rotational axis by moving the point at the center of the image off center.

The image on the AVI is a pair of boots.

Now, I have tried all to move that point but no way that I could. I have V 5.6 and 6.0 on my computer and tried the both.

Any ideas? I have extremely stable hands, large monitor and a whole lot of patiance.

Laszlo

[Lin Evans]

Hi Laszlo,

Could you, perhaps, have your motion set to "smooth" or other non-linear? You must do the center movement before setting motion to other than linear. Leave any changes in motion from linear until the last step.

This may not be your problem, but actually it should be quite easy to change the center of any object. Another possibility is whether or not you have parent/child relationships set up.

If you will post the PTE file and tell me the object you wish to change the center of rotation on, and how you want it to perform, I'll do it for you and you can then see how it was accomplished.

Best regards,

Lin

I was just watching ( I think Lin's AVI tutorial) on rotating and changing rotational axis by moving the point at the center of the image off center.

The image on the AVI is a pair of boots.

Now, I have tried all to move that point but no way that I could. I have V 5.6 and 6.0 on my computer and tried the both.

Any ideas? I have extremely stable hands, large monitor and a whole lot of patiance.

Laszlo

[fh1805]

Laszlo,

Hold the shift key down and click on the centre point marker of the object and then drag the centre point out to where you want it. Then study the effect of doing that on the Pan coordinates and on the Center coordinates. Play with some coloured rectangles before you try it out on a "real" object.

regards,

Peter

[Laszlo K]

Actually I was trying what you were saying Lin on the tutorial -Hold Shift Key and Drag- and Peter you confermed that also.

But the darn thing will not move off center. What I was doing is creating windows and doors to open and close with no problem at all.

Watching the tutorial I figured, Well if I move the center my turning axis will move as well, so my windows possibly be more realistic.

But the point will not move.

So my problem Lin is not the actual motion but the center point is not obeying command, the program is not responding to the move command. Hah.

What could be the reason?

Laszlo

[Lin Evans]

Hi Laszio,

Post me a link to the PTE file and I'll be glad to check it for you and see. The things which can keep a center from moving are wrong selection (not actually selecting what you believe you are selecting) because you might not have "Ignore Objects Not Selected" checked in the "Tools" button in O&A or having the aforementioned non-linear motion set for the object, etc. Also there are "some" times when a parent/child relation is set that you may not be able to select the center on a child object. It all depends a great deal on specifics.

If you wish you can email me at:

lin@learntomakeslideshows.net and post a link and I'll check it and find out for you.

Best regards,

Lin

Actually I was trying what you were saying Lin on the tutorial -Hold Shift Key and Drag- and Peter you confermed that also.

But the darn thing will not move off center. What I was doing is creating windows and doors to open and close with no problem at all.

Watching the tutorial I figured, Well if I move the center my turning axis will move as well, so my windows possibly be more realistic.

But the point will not move.

So my problem Lin is not the actual motion but the center point is not obeying command, the program is not responding to the move command. Hah.

What could be the reason?

Laszlo

[Laszlo K]

Hi Lin!

Thanks for the help, and I did sent you an E-mail 5 minutes ago with the address to the PTE ( Not the whole project)

Laszlo

[fh1805]

Laszlo,

At the risk of Lin and I getting to the point where we start giving you conflicting advice, I would suggest that the most likely source of your problem is that you are not selecting the object that you think you are. Please try Lin's suggestion of clicking on the "Ignore objects not selected" option of the Tools button in the O&A window. After you've done that, select the object whose centre you wish to move by clicking its name in the Objects list and then try and move the centre point.

regards,

Peter

[Laszlo K]

Peter your observation was right.

The program is not responding to the Shift - drag, repositioning of the center. It has nothing to do with the project.

I have tried to duplicate Lin's AVI with an image, a plain JPEG ( not in any project ) just a simple image, but could not move the center off where it is.

To cut down on any mix up of selection I just throw one image on the O&A window that's it.

Laszlo

[fh1805]

Laszlo,

Ok, let's take it step by step:

• Launch PTE software
  
• File...New to create a new PTE project file (give it any name you like)
  
• Drag one image file into the Slide List (the area across the bottom of the screen where the thumbnails appear)
  
• Click on this thumbnail
  
• Click on Objects & Animation
  
• Confirm that you can see the green border line, the corner handles and the centre spot handle
  
• Hold down the shift key and at the same time, click on the centre spot and hold this click down, too(it needs reasonably careful mouse pointer positioning. In v6 you should see a pop-up "Shift" button that confirms you have the shift key held down and the mouse pointer will change from a white arrow head to a white arrow head plus a white rectangle when you have actually got hold of the centre spot - assuming a standard theme for your Windows implementation)
  
• Now drag the centre spot away from its original position. You must keep both the shift key and the left-click held down throughout the drag.
  

At what point in the above sequence do things start to go awry for you.

regards,

Peter

[Lin Evans]

Hi Laszlo,

I believe your problem is the order in which you are using the Shift key and mouse key. You must press the shift key on the keyboard first, before depressing the left mouse key. Then slowly move the mouse so that the mouse cursor moves over the small center "circle" "without" depressing the left mouse button. Once you have done this and the mouse cursor passes directly over the tiny circle in the exact center of the object, a small "square" will appear underneath your mouse "arrow." At this time depress the left mouse button and hold it down and "drag" the center into the desired position.

If you don't see the small "square" appear, you do not have the center selected and depressing and holding down the left mouse button will only result in dragging the entire image off center when you move the mouse.

I've made a little AVI for you - download it here:

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

Best regards,

Lin

Peter your observation was right.

The program is not responding to the Shift - drag, repositioning of the center. It has nothing to do with the project.

I have tried to duplicate Lin's AVI with an image, a plain JPEG ( not in any project ) just a simple image, but could not move the center off where it is.

To cut down on any mix up of selection I just throw one image on the O&A window that's it.

Laszlo

[Laszlo K]

Lin and Peter you both are correct.

The order that I was using the keys were wrong. Also I ignored the white square.

Now all works well. Tested the windows opening and closing by moving the image center to the edge of the image and using the zoom tool and runs just right.

I'm still attaching a file where the opening of the window is not aligned properly in the full open position and that was the reason for this exchange, to find a better way of doing it.

By the time I got to the end of the project with whole lot of windows shutters and doors managed to set them up right, but this way is better of doing it and a lot faster.

The Project save is in the PTE folder, and you have to rename the source ( USB stick or something like it ) to Drive "F" for pte to read it.

http://rapidshare.com/files/317715668/AV-Sig_09_Window_3.rar.html

Thanks a lot for all the help.

Regards

Laszlo

[Ken Cox]

Laszlo K

what you have so far is neat

ken

[Laszlo K]

Thanks Ken!

If you want to see the whole project I can send the link to your E-mail, but I dont't want to post it because of the models involved.

This is a great Forum and because of that things fly around 60 miles/hour.

Laszlo

[Ken Cox]

Thanks Ken!

If you want to see the whole project I can send the link to your E-mail, but I dont't want to post it because of the models involved.

This is a great Forum and because of that things fly around 60 miles/hour.

Laszlo

Laszlo

yes when you have it completed send link to

pbyk@sympatico.ca

tia

ken

[Antbrewer]

Just picked up on this thread.

I haven't had an occasion yet to animate with the centre point moved to 'off centre'. So I thought I would just try and yes it moves with the expected result. However it does this with the tool box option 'ignore objects not selected' ticked or unticked.

Should this be the case considering both Lin's and Peter's advice to Laszlo?

This is really just an academic point at the moment but all part of the great and imfamous learning curve.

Anthony

[fh1805]

Anthony,

On a simple arrangement of objects you will not usually encounter a problem. But with a complex arrangement of multiple objects where some are obscured by others "stacked on top", the mouse detects only on the top-most object in the image area - unless you select "Ignore objects not selected". So, in this situation you must select "Ignore objects...", then select the object you want to work on by clicking its name in the object list and finally use the mouse to grab a handle or the centre spot.

regards,

Peter

[Laszlo K]

Actually Anthony my problem was simply ergonomical. Just the wrong way of using the Shift key and the left mouse button, but we ended up getting into it deeper and I got a lot out of it, like be able to open a door and see the perspedtive distortion ( narrowing the farthest point) while it is opening. Great.

I have not even touched the ignore objects command since most of the objects ( windows, doors and shutters )in this project was within the top 3 layers so selecting was not a problem.

Laszlo

[Antbrewer]

Always learning.

Anthony