Transitions

[Eric Athroll]

Hi

Can enyone enlighten me regarding the following:

1. In "Effects", what is the significance of the "Thickness of smoothing line" and is it relevant to all transition effects?

2. When calculating the length of a show for a suitable length of music, is the total show time likely to be the total number of slides multiplied by the sum of the slide duration and the slide transition times? (For shows that have a single duration/transition time for every slide).

3. If the box "synchronise slide show to music duration" is checked, and there is some disparity between the total show time and the music duration, will both the slide duration time and the slide transition time be affected or only one of these? If only one, which one?

Eric

[Conflow]

Hi Eric,

I had the same problems as you when I first started to use PTE2 - Frustration !

The 'calculation method' simply doesn't work, because interactice computations

come into play once you start to 'edit' the Show.

I went out and purchased a "Quantum Digital Stopwatch" (approx $20) its a

desktop model with Timer & Cumalative Timer - it sorted out all my problems.

As a rough guide make the "background music" about 5% longer that the

total Slide duration time. Once you are "fixed" on the total Vision duration

(inc.transitions) you can then start to think about "synchronising" both the

Vision and Sound. The 5% extra sound will allow scope to do this, and when

you are getting near the end of the job you can edit out any excess sound.

Another method is a Spreadsheet Application available from the Al.Robin web

site:- Beechwood Cottage - you will find it here in the Forums.

Brian Kelly.Conflow.

[dagrace]

I can't do all of these, but maybe I can answer some...

1) I remember reading something about this, but I can't remember where. (And I never fully understood it myself!) Perhaps in Al's PTE 101 show, or in a topic on this forum. Maybe try a search in this forum? Strike 1...

2) Yes, I believe that is true. Of course, to get fancy, you may want to start the show (like fade to black or your first slide) before the music starts, or keep the last slide up while the music finishes (there is a way to hold the last slide on the screen indefinitely).

3) This is more complicated. I am doing some tests as I write this and I think this is what I find. The experts can confirm/correct me. Let's assume you have a default of 1 sec transition and 4 sec duration. 6 slides.

a- Transition it stays fixed at either the default or whatever you override it to.

b- It appears that the total time (transition + duration) is then spread evenly over the music.

So, if I have no overrides, and 6 slides, that's 30 sec.

Now override slide 2 to have a 6 sec transition. Show will now be 35 sec.

Now I synch to 1 min of music. Here's what I think happens:

60 sec / 6 slides is 10 secs each.

Slide 1 has 1 sec trans and 9 sec duration

Slide 2 has 6 sec trans and 4 sec duration

Slide 3 has 1 sec trans and 9 sec duration

etc.

The ending slide in my experiment did not fit this model exactly, but I'm not sure why.

So after all this, maybe it isn't more complicated. I think I've convinced myself that the answer to your question is "it never adjusts the transition time." However, it seems to adjust the duration so that (transition + duration) is spread evenly.

Like I said, the experts can correct me.

[Eric Athroll]

Hi

Thanks for the responses.

When I make a PTE show (.exe file for PC viewing/digital projection) I usually set up all the slides with my timings for duration and transition, time it using the preview facility with a stopwatch and then edit music to fit. I then adjust any slight discrepancies between the music and the slides by altering the m/secs of duration. It's a little time consuming but works OK. It would be much easier though if there was a formula for calculating this.

I prefer to retain the transition time and slightly adjust the duration so as to keep the fades consistent.

What I cannot find out is exactly how the transitions relate to the durations. If, for example, I have ten slides and set a four second duration and a two second fade for each, in theory the show would last 1 minute. But, does each transition cover the fade in and the fade out of each slide - ie in my example would the first slide have a 1 sec fade in, a fully exposed duration of the four seconds set and then a 1 sec fade out to the next slide? Also, at what point does slide two start to fade in from slide one?

I think that knowledge of how the transitions and durations relate to the show time would make life so much easier.

I am into making DVDs of my slide shows (family history) and to do this use the synchronise to music facility, but would still like to be a bit more scientific in my approach to planning the sequences.

Eric

[dagrace]

I'm a visual learner and I found the custom synchronization screen useful.

It shows a gray bar for transitions and white for durations. The first slide is a bit odd, but let's take the second.

At a point in time (6 seconds into the show in your example) it says "To 2" and there's a gray bar for, in your example, 2 seconds, then white for 4 seconds, then "To 3" and a gray bar for 2 sec and white for 4...

At a microsecond before the "To 2" point, Slide 1 is showing. So at t=6, slide 2 starts to show and slide 1 is starting to fade, assuming you have a fade effect selected. At t=7, both slide 1 and 2 are showing, presumably equally. By t=8 slide 1 is gone. So I don't think about it as splitting of the 2 seconds into 1 in front and 1 in back. The visualization of this in the custom synchronization screen makes a lot of sense to me. Take a look and see if it helps.

Or email me and we can chat about it offline.

[Eric Athroll]

Hi David

Thanks for the tip - I will set up a small temporary sequence and have a look at it in the custom synchronisation as you suggest.

Because I am mainly preparing family history shows to fill a DVD, I am using the facility "synchronise the slideshow to music duration" to enable the production of an .avi file from which I encode the DVD. I thought using this facility would overide all settings and space the images to display/fade evenly throughout the sequence.

I'll have a play around with the custom synch anyway to see how the normal slideshow fits into the display/fade settings.

Eric

[Alan Lyons]

Hi Eric,

I agree with David when he says the transition is devided between both slides. Those of us who have used dual projectors in analogue shows will understand that the transition happens when one projector light fades and the other comes on. The time taken to go from projector A to projector B = your fade time. P2E operates on the same principle, but for calculating time I relate the fade to the slide now leaving the screen. so in your example slide1 has a show time of 6 sec. However in a script led show I use a rough guide to see where script needs to be put to match the slides and then move slides to fit the sound. Syncronization of a show is like French polishing, if you think you are going to get the prefect result on the first go, then you are bound to fail. You need to build up the polish in layers until a smooth finish is achived

Alan

[Eric Athroll]

For David (mainly)

I had a look at a sequence I set up based on my example posted earlier and found that when the feature "synchronise slide show to music duration" is enabled the fade out/in time is preserved but the display time is altered to fit.

I also noticed, as you mention, that slide 1 is different, in that it only fades in, there being no previous slide to fade out with; equally the last slide does not fade out.

It does seem, from this small test, that the fade precedes the display of each slide and therefore the "show time" should indeed be the sum of the fade plus the duration multiplied by the number of slides, unless of course some or all of the slides are given separate "customisation".

Eric

[Gérard de Lux]

slide 1 is different, in that it only fades in, there being no previous slide to fade out with; equally the last slide does not fade out.

Yes, and it can be ennoying not to have control over the fade in and fade out of the first and last slides.

Thus, I recommend a little trick : create a "blank" ou "dummy" picture of the same colour as your PTE background (tab "screen" in Project options); it has to be a solid background and not a gradient filling or a tiled image.

This 'image' doesn't need to be full size; it can be a 2x2 pixels image as long as it is of the very same colour as the background.

Using this 'image' in first and last positions will enable you to use the fade-in and fade-out effects of your choice for your real first and last slides.

[Eric Athroll]

Hi Gérard

Actually, I already do this for the last slide, to get the fade out and also it gives time for the music to fade out before the show disappears off the screen.

Because the first slide fades in, I don't use a blank at the beginning.

Eric

[dagrace]

The one show I successfully finished, I put a black slide at the beginning, and faded that fairly quickly but faded it nonetheless, because I didn't want my first slide to fade directly from the Windows desktop. I thought it more appropriate to fade the desktop to black, then bring up the real first slide. More like a movie theater, I thought. I also didn't want an abrupt cut to the first slide.

That's a cool thing I've noticed about this software (and results)... the fades and techniques are flexible enough that you get many different "looks" fairly easily.

[ronwil]

I don't think the original question 1 re the thickness of the smoothing line has been answered. This was covered I believe when the choice was introduced. PTE v.4.20 beta#8/Feb24 2004. But one use was explained somewhere that if you use one of the effects such as Gates/Diagonal on an image and select the thickness as 1 and then the next image select the thickness as 1000. You will see that the traversing line across the image is sharpish with the setting 1 and diffused with the setting 1000.

Ron [uK]

[Eric Athroll]

Hi

Thanks for answering that one Ron - guess that wouldn't be relevant to me as I only use either the fade or the instant change for my current projects.

Eric

[ronwil]

Eric

In the original thread to which I referred I think the main use of the thickness of the smoothing line was directed at smoothing out the "flickers", which some people were experiencing with their fades. For those who haven't read that original thread, I found it by entering a search for "Smoothing Line".

Ron [uK]

[Eric Athroll]

Hi Ron

Did the search and found it - thanks.

Eric

[cottage]

Hi Eric,

Another method is a Spreadsheet Application available from the Al.Robin web

site:-  Beechwood Cottage - you will find it here in the Forums.

Brian  Kelly.Conflow.

Gosh Al... all these years I thought it was my web site. Sorry 'bout that!