A New Menu Concept - At Least For Me...

[Lin Evans]

As many of you undoubtedly realize, I have a lengthy fascination with snow, water, etc., effects. A lot of my personal "slideshows" use numerous effects and not because they are necessarily the best way to present material, but just because I like them.

I prepared a number of my water effects shows which use selected web images which were suitable. Most of the images were taken from my friends own Facebook or webpage collections so are those which they specifically like. I modified them with my water effects and I used a few of PTE version 8 beta’s features in some. Actually, most of them could have been done with version 7.5 and only a couple of the dozen slideshows really use features specific to version 8 such as Alpha Channel RGBA and nested masking, etc.

I thought I would combine them all with a menu in an archived zip folder so that anyone interested could download and see them. The combined file size is about 418 megabytes including the menu, but since today's shows including video can often be much larger than this - I think people with reasonably fast broadband and who have an interest in this type thing might be willing to expend the bandwidth to download.

This is a long way of getting to my point which is that when I created the menu - it was sort of a "blah" gradient of blue with a dozen choices plus "Exit". Suddenly it occurred to me that there is no valid reason why we can't include audio and video in our menus! Wow, a light had been turned on in my head. I know, such a simple thing, but it was something I had never considered before. With our ability to use the opacity feature on all objects, including video, it was a simple thing to place an effective video with a soothing theme in the background behind my Menu Text and include an appropriate soundtrack. So I did that.

The theme of the water effects in the shows was "Tranquility." I made four of the little theme shows for personal friends, Tonya - (a close friend of my late wife), Debbie - (one of my friends from my college days), Lisah, (a close friend) and Judy (my dear ex wife and the mother of my daughter). So these four little personalized tranquility shows are part of the dozen. Since the theme was "Tranquility" and almost all of the shows consisted of water effects, I chose an appropriate video for the almost subliminal backdrop for the menu.

I think this type thing may eventually be of interest and I believe Wnsoft should find a way of marketing this feature possibility. I don't believe this type thing is really possible with any of the competition.

Two of the shows contain artistic nudity. Those are “Moons” – a double entendre – since a “Moon” is a euphemistic slang for the “backside” (derriere or moon in French, bum in the U.K., etc.) and “Secret.” I believe neither should be offensive to any adult or child, really, but if you do download the file and don’t want to see a girl’s cute bare behind – don’t open either of those … LOL.

In “Moons” a combination of nested masking, small RGBA alpha channel videos from ParticleIllusions, alpha channel video from BluffTitler in the opening credits and such were used. Just fun things but the main point is the menu. The menu (menu.exe) is used to call any of the shows in random order and to exit from all. The menu allows automatic return and reopen after each show is finished. In the background on the menu is an embedded video adjusted with opacity to create an almost subliminal effect. At least that was the intention. I call it a “living menu” for want of a better descriptive…

Anyway, if you have the time, interest and bandwidth – here is a link. Unzip the archive in a folder together and run the menu.exe file.

Link To Tranquility Archive (about 418 meg zipped Windows exe files)

Best regards,

Lin

[Ken Cox]

LIN

runs fine

nice background mermaid)

ken

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for checking it! Glad to know it worked ... Actually, quite a number of mermaids in there - LOL

I like the concept of something other than just a static menu - keeps it interesting for me...

Best regards,

Lin

[Bert]

Hi Lin,

I just played all your "Water" shows, some have more appeal than others but the water movement is all of them is very realistic. And as you said the menu with a moving background makes it interesting..

Thanks for showing.

Bert

[Lin Evans]

Hi Bert,

Thanks for watching....

Best regards,

Lin

[thedom]

Lin, that's absolutely superb !

It's very relaxing, everybody should watch it. It really deserves the download.

I will keep it close and play it when I feel stressed.

And in a PTE point of view, a lot of work and ideas in those shows.

Thanks a lot for sharing.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

Thanks! Lately I have realized that tranquility in my own life is becoming more important as the years pass. It's really a wonderful thing that PTE has the features which we can use to help express our creative sides. It's such a joy to have a tool which is so versatile. I'm finding different uses for it every day - it's sort of like a fine quality Swiss Army Knife. It may not be "perfect" for every task, but it gives more versatility, in my experience, than any other single piece of software I've used.

Best regards,

Lin

[MUR]

Wonderful effects but how can I do something similar. Are you thinking to post (or sell), a tutorial or similar?

MUR

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mur,

Actually, I have posted already several tutorials on this as well as a link to the free software to download to allow you to easily create some of the water effects. Here's the link -

My link

Tutorials number 42, 43, 44, 45 - scroll to near the bottom of the page for download links...

Best regards,

Lin

[stonemason]

Hi Lin very impressive and elevates menus to a new level, well worth the download. Question, did you have to redo all the slideshows in the new version, or is there a way around the version mis-match when creating menus?

Best regards

Geoff

[Lin Evans]

Hi Geoff,

Thanks!

Actually, the menu doesn't really care about the version of the exe it calls so no rework was necessary. Most of the shows were done with the beta, but a couple were with 7.5 although I've tested it with some old 4.x shows and everything works as expected. It's great to have the options we get with the beta version of 8.0 and having the option of using video is a big plus I think.

For clarity, I misunderstood what you were actually asking so to avoid confusion for the reader - yes the version number must be the same for "run slideshow and return" but adding a "run application" at the end of older slideshows to call the menu is indeed necessary if you want them to automatically return to the calling menu.

Best regards,

Lin

[stonemason]

Hi Lin

Did you use "run slideshow with return" on the text links or a different command. I always use run with return, but I thought that required all shows, and the menu to be created with the same version, which can be a pain at times.

Thanks for your time

Best regards

Geoff

[Lin Evans]

Hi Jeff,

Out of old habits, I used "run application" then placed another run application in the separate shows. I did just try run slideshow and return with a show made with 5.3 and like with earlier version, the version number must still be the same for that feature (run slideshow with return) to work. I misunderstood your earlier question.

Best regards,

Lin

[stonemason]

Hi Lin

Thanks for all the info, I'm not sure what the pro's and con's are for "run application" and "run slideshow with return", old habit's I guess, I've always used run with return, so I'll probably stick with it. It's a bit of a pain converting existing shows, but doesn't take that long really, and not something that has to be done that often.

I will now sit and watch your excellent shows with the lights low and a glass of something warming.

Best regards

Geoff

[PGA]

...I'm not sure what the pro's and con's are for "run application" and "run slideshow with return"...

This goes back to the days of Windows Vista. There was a conflict over control of the graphics card between Vista's "aero" desktop design and PTE's need to have exclusive control of full-screen graphics. This resulted in the much-debated "desktop flashback". Igor introduced Run Slideshow as a method of PTE retaining full control of the graphics card across a change of "application". But, as you are clearly aware, it does require all sequences to be Published using the exact same version of PTE.

...It's a bit of a pain converting existing shows, but doesn't take that long really,...

Agreed! When showing sequences to an audience I prepare a menu specific to that audience and those sequences. I use thumbnail images to carry the "Run Slideshow with return" command. It takes me about 20 minutes to build the menu and to redo the Publish of the selected sequences.

regards,

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Both

That all sounds OK when you have the make up of the show, the problem arises when using shows you haven't made & want to include in the menu. If they have been made in a different version you are stuffed. I've been banging this drum for 2 years now & is one of the reasons I haven't up graded from 7.07, I know you can go back to a very early version & use exe's from different sources, but without any of the bells & whistles of 7.07. My latest publc show at the end of October uses a video clip as the actual menu page, can't do that with the earlier version.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1