Pictures to Exe Menu Tutorial

[Guest Yachtsman1]

If you are anything like me, reading long explanations of how to do something has always been a toil, that's why my motto is "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words". I haven't seen many professional tutorials of this type on how to do things in PTE, but what I have seen made me want to emulate what I'd seen. So after producing a few written tutorials, Lin put me onto the software he uses for his tutorials. After grappling with how it works for a few hours & using a few long shortcuts I have put together a tutorial on how to construct a menu in PTE. I won't bore you with the trials & tribulations I had with the software, but eventually I've arrived at what I will call a draft version. Some of the action may seem speeded up, similar to the problem I had with my Last Tango show, & haven't yet been able to correct in this tutorial. I know it's basic stuff to most of the forum regulars, but if you check the stats, there are many more watchers than contributors, hopefully this may draw them in & they will start to contribute.

Mechanics

YouTube, 6+ minutes, commentary, software PTE, Audacity, & Debut Video Capture. Comments welcome taking note of what I've already said about the show above.

Yachtsman1

Link removed by author, PM me if you want the link.

[smithrg]

Thanks Eric, I have never made a video menu before, your video will be very helpful.

Best regards, Gayland

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Thanks Eric, I have never made a video menu before, your video will be very helpful.

Best regards, Gayland

Thanks Robert

Since I made that one I've been looking for a solution why the action was double speed, I found the software was recording at 15FPS, when it was added to PTE, it was speeded up to double that. I was able to compensate with the voice over because I recorded that separatley & edited it to suit the video speed, however, the lion was the give away. I've tried every which way to make it compatable to editing in PTE but failed. The only solution for now is to record the whole shooting match as an MP4 including the sound. Watch this space. Glad it may be of use.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[xahu34]

The given construction has a particular deficiency: It isn't mobile. I would recommend to keep the menu show and shows called from there in a separate folder, while programming the calls relative (instead of using absolute addresses). Then it is possible to move this folder to other places on your computer or even to other machines, as well.

Regards,

Xaver

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Something lost in translation there Xaver, I think you had better explain further what you mean :unsure:/> :unsure:/> :unsure:/>

Yachtsman1.

[xahu34]

In the meantime I've noticed that my statement was not quite correct. As long as the called shows are in the same folder as the menu show, the construction will work, even if the menu and the called shows have been moved in the system, although (after being moved) the path information in the menu isn't correct any longer. I do not like to place the called shows into the same folder as the menu, but put them into a common sub-folder, e.g. called "Shows". Then I use relative addressing as shown in the attachment.

Regards,

Xaver

[Guest Yachtsman1]

That wouldn't work for me as I build the shows & menu on one machine then transfer the menu folder to my laptop so I can use the menu away from base.

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Thanks Tom

I was amazed how many hits I had on YouTube for the tutorial, there must be lots of "silent witnesses" out there still looking for information. As the original was very sketchy I've done a follow up on adding music to the same menu. Unfortunately, PTE won't accept the raw info' from the capture software for some reason, probably just a codec mismatch, it works in the mini player but not the full preview, it just shows a green screen. Also I haven't yet been able to get my Olympus recordiing mike accepted by the capture software. I'm using a USB connection for it, it works with Audacity, but not Debut. Because of this I'm having to record the VO with the Olympus, edit it with Audacity then add it into the tutorial via PTE which is time consuming, but on the plus side, I'm able to ferret out the coughs & errr's and sort any background noise & volume, and change things around before adding it to the finished article. Watch this space. ;)/>/>/>

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.