Text effects

[Lin Evans]

Of course it would be nice if the next version of P2E with the new graphical engine would or could do fancy scrolling, flying, tumbling text, etc., but "IF" P2E could simply allow dropping in short video clips such as is possible with Media@Show, ProShow Gold, etc., it would be VERY easy for the user to create their title and credits screens with any number of incredibly good programs, even the freeware Microsoft Movie Maker 2 which is shipped with Windows XP.

I use several programs to simply overlay dynamic text with hundreds of text effects on a jpg for the first and last slide. Just drop the short video clip as the first slide then again another as the last slide and you have solved one issue via third party software rather than having to design in and create from scratch all these effects. Programs like Wild FX Pro have literally hundreds of incredible text effects which can easily be made into a tiny video clip. With ProShow Gold I simply drop the clip in the first slide spot and have complete prefessional text effects for the opening and credits pages. It's seamless and works wonderfully.

Having the video clip as a slide would greatly enhance P2E's appeal to many who desperately want text handling.

Lin

[Lin Evans]

Just a little more on this as an explanation.... Not all slideshow programs which allow intermix of video and still slideshows handle video equally. As a test I decided to insert a small .avi video show of text into ProShow Gold and Media@Show, two programs which allow a video clip to be dropped into the show as a slide and seamlessly play them.

The results were quite revealing. Media@Show did a MUCH better job of producing optimal video quality than ProShow Gold. This may be reasonable considering that Media@Show had its origins in video and then developed their slideshow program later. Ironically, Media@Show doesn't really need any help with their text handling, because they already have the best and fanciest text handling of any slideshow. ProShow Gold could certainly use the help, but as you will see in the example below, doesn't really handle video all that well in terms of image quality.

Hopefully, when PicturesToExe finally has the new graphical engine in place, it will handle video as well as Media@Show. Media@Show, I believe, is at the end of its life cycle. The program was sold to a Taiwanese company and their technical expertise and support has been less than stellar. It has several bugs which they have been unable or unwilling to fix, but it does make an excellent example of a program which should be studied to find out how they handle video and text so well. Below are the results of my little video clip insertion in ProShow Gold and Media@Show....

Lin

http://www.lin-evans.net/dpreview/videohandling.jpg

[LumenLux]

I am interested in your experience Lin, but is the link as you intended? The link is only to your screenshot .jpg as best I can tell.

My original use of PTE, and still main benefit, is the best presentation of good still photography. I have never liked the "video" approach to presentation of stills on a computer. I think that is why I dismissed Media@ and several other programs when I started using PTE.

Some months ago, I needed to make a presentation combining digital stills and miniDV video. After much exploring, and some discussion here in this forum, I concluded to use a "video" program to carry the stills instead of PTE to carry the substantial video segments. I liked the results of combining the stills and movie segments. But, big BUT, the stills suffered vs. the PTE quality to which we are accustomed. It would be nice if someday Igor could bring in video as you suggest. I am not aware that this capability is expected in his current redo of his PTE engine. I would want the video incorporation only if the presentation of your still photography would not be compromised. I am also confident that Igor would agree. I think you agree also? It may be however, that the video handling of text could be inserted much easier than quality rendering of regular digital video?

[Lin Evans]

I am interested in your experience Lin, but is the link as you intended? The link is only to your screenshot .jpg as best I can tell.

My original use of PTE, and still main benefit, is the best presentation of good still photography. I have never liked the "video" approach to presentation of stills on a computer. I think that is why I dismissed Media@ and several other programs when I started using PTE.

Some months ago, I needed to make a presentation combining digital stills and miniDV video. After much exploring, and some discussion here in this forum, I concluded to use a "video" program to carry the stills instead of PTE to carry the substantial video segments. I liked the results of combining the stills and movie segments. But, big BUT, the stills suffered vs. the PTE quality to which we are accustomed. It would be nice if someday Igor could bring in video as you suggest. I am not aware that this capability is expected in his current redo of his PTE engine. I would want the video incorporation only if the presentation of your still photography would not be compromised. I am also confident that Igor would agree. I think you agree also? It may be however, that the video handling of text could be inserted much easier than quality rendering of regular digital video?

Yes, that's the correct link. The link shows a screen capture of an avi video clip inserted into ProShow Gold and the identical clip inserted into Media@Show. The instant screen capture of the two are displayed above and below with an explanation as to which is which.

The video quality of the ProShow Gold rendition was much poorer than the one from Media@Show. This was expected because Media@Show came to be via a company which has a long history in video. This also probably explains why Media@Show has the best text handling and effects of any current slideshow program.

Having great video handling within a still slideshow program in no way necessarily compromises image quality. My point is that third party programs already exist such as WildFX Pro which offer fantastic video text which can be exported as avi or mov files. Any slideshow program which can seamlessly mix (Media@Show does it) video and still photos can take advantage of these already sophisticated programs without spending tremendous amounts of resources and time developing their own text handling.

ProShow Gold doesn't handle video clips well from the point of image quality. Media@Show simply overcompresses the stills to facilitate running in hardware deprived environments, but this is no longer necessary because the "average" system today is four times as powerful as the "average" system of three years ago.

A graphical engine which can properly display the Ken Burns effects "should" be able to handle small video clips with ease - hopefully P2E will eventually do both. Of course we all want optimal image quality for our slideshows. The pan, zoom and rotate are extremely important to many simply because when done correctly it adds a depth and holds the interest of the viewer better than a simple display of the still image. It also allows proper viewing of panoramas without resorting to programming "tricks" to try and display them in an engine not designed for that purpose.

It's quite possible to present a slideshow in a program which offers the Ken Burns Effects and video clips without using any of them. Having them simply makes the program that much more versatile.

Best regards,

Lin

[LumenLux]

Thanks Lin, it was a hasty oversight on my part when I looked first time at your linked .jpg. Indeed, the quality of the two text versions is easily distinguished.

[Lin Evans]

Apparently it is "possible" to get good crisp text from a video with ProShow Gold, but to do so means setting the parameters so that rendering is close to the video default you are using. Since the largest video is a good deal smaller than a normal screen show with an executable file, the only way to get "both" good video text (or video) is to make a slideshow with much smaller images - something which is not feasable for me. It's interesting that the same doesn't apply to Media@Show in that it can produce a crisp video right beside full sized images for the regular slideshow. Just a different approach, I guess, than ProShow Gold.

Lin

[Igor]

Text animation effects will appears with new Visual editor of objects in v5.10 (after v5.00).

I think in the more far versions we'll add support of inserting of video clips.

You are right with the new graphical engine. It's a base for many future versions.

You raised very interesting theme. How you consider, when HDTV appers will most people still use usuall photos in slide-show or prefer inserts video clips in HDTV quality instead of Pan/Zoom/Rotate effects?

Moreover maybe photographers even will prefer to use not creating of slide-show in real-time, but editor with encoding video. However it's a slow variant to always wait.

[Michel]

Also, here, it's a very good new !

But all the effects and new animations would be just a choice for the photograph and don't use to much animations is essential for me.

A video clip is no more a slideshow !

[Lin Evans]

Also, here, it's a very good new !

But all the effects and new animations would be just a choice for the photograph and don't use to much animations is essential for me.

A video clip is no more a slideshow   !

LOL - yes indeed, a video is no longer a slideshow, but sometimes you have something you want to "say" which can't be said as "effectively" with still slides.... Click the link below to see what I mean

for broadband only....

Lin

[Michel]

Movie ! Movie ! Movie !

[Lin Evans]

Movie ! Movie ! Movie !

Rename the extension to wmv and it should run - I've corrected it on the link... Ha!

LIN

[Michel]

Movie, Movie, yeh, yeh !

Mediaplayer opened mwv, na ! Skeleton dance !