Slide on Slide

[JohnFeg]

I spent a long time yesterday trying to figure out how to achieve an effect I had seen in a presentation.

I want an image to appear, then remain stationary, while a second and much smaller image (or a sequence of smaller images) move into the primary slide from left, right, top or bottom; and stop at a predetermined position.

Trouble is, I really don't know what this effect is called and, consequently, have drawn a blank searching the forum.

I'd be so grateful if someone will put me out of my misery.

John

[stonemason]

Hi Ebenist

You have to create your image with the smaller image on it in your prefered graphics editing package, ie photoshop. Then save it as a new picture, then in PTE use whatever effect you prefer to go from the original slide to the one displaying the small image on the original. There is a slide show on Beechbrooke Cottage called Third Image Demo which demonstrates the steps if I remember correctly.

Hope this helps

Regards

Geoff

[Lin Evans]

I spent a long time yesterday trying to figure out how to achieve an effect I had seen in a presentation.

I want an image to appear, then remain stationary, while a second and much smaller image (or a sequence of smaller images) move into the primary slide from left, right, top or bottom; and stop at a predetermined position.

Trouble is, I really don't know what this effect is called and, consequently, have drawn a blank searching the forum.

I'd be so grateful if someone will put me out of my misery.

John

To expand a bit on what Geoff said:

Essentially what you do is take the original image and give it a name such as frame.jpg. Next select and copy the object you want to move through the frames and reduce it in size in PhotoShop, etc. Save it as a separate file and either use layers in PhotoShop to create the sequence or do it in the following manner.

Give the copied object a unique name and save it as a file. Let's just use the name moveme.jpg for an example. Next open moveme, select all, copy. This puts moveme.jpg into the clipboard. Next paste moveme.jpg into frame.jpg in the position where you want the movement to start. Level the file and name it something like frame1.jpg. Repeat the paste, level, save process for each position you want the smaller image to "fly" through. The more frames you make and the closer you space each new paste the smoother the final effect will be. End with the frame showing the last position you want the "flying" object to appear in.

Place the slides in their numerical sequence and open the shot with a fade in or whatever you deem appropriate and set the display time appropriately. On each subsequent frame either use no effect or fade (use fade if you want a "mouse tracks" type ghost movement) and set the display time for each of the "flying slides" to zero seconds and 1 mS.

The effect will be to see the original displayed for a few seconds, then see the smaller move through the positions according to the sequencing you have devised. Set the display to a longer time for the final slide.

I've created a quick and dirty sample for you and "cheated" by using an all black background (so I don't have to mess with Layers in PhotoShop). This one has only a few frames but you can see how it would work. The movement is a bit jerky because of the small nuber of frames. The more frames and the closer the positioning between frames the better and smoother the effect.

Believe me - this will be MUCH easier to do in Version 5....

Link below:

http://www.lin-evans.net/berrydemo.exe

Lin

[JohnFeg]

Thank you both, Lin and Stonemason. Having seen your demo. Lin, I had a happy day playing with the method. I took your point about producing the individual layers with only a small "step" between each one.

I probably over-egged the pudding, though! Chose to make them one pixel apart using the "Down Tab"

Got a bit confused handling the 100s of layers thus resulting.

But, after a few false starts, got a result I was very pleased with.

Now that I've figured out how to get layers back from within sets, caused major befuddlement. I must jot it down in my "lest we forget folder"

Best wishes

John

[KGHalbe]

[beginning of message deleted]

I've created a quick and dirty sample for you and "cheated" by using an all black background (so I don't have to mess with Layers in PhotoShop). This one has only a few frames but you can see how it would work. The movement is a bit jerky because of the small nuber of frames. The more frames and the closer the positioning between frames the better and smoother the effect.

Believe me - this will be MUCH easier to do in Version 5....

Link below:

http://www.lin-evans.net/berrydemo.exe

Lin

Wow ! I didn't think that it would have been possible to do that with the current versions of PTE. Just out of curiousity, since you said you used a "small number of frames", what do you call a "small number" ? I didn't think it looked jerky. I want to try something like that so I have to read up on layers in PhotoShop.

Thanks for the info, and the idea !

Ken

[Lin Evans]

Wow ! I didn't think that it would have been possible to do that with the current versions of PTE. Just out of curiousity, since you said you used a "small number of frames", what do you call a "small number" ? I didn't think it looked jerky. I want to try something like that so I have to read up on layers in PhotoShop.

Thanks for the info, and the idea !

Ken

Hi Ken,

Actually there are only 10 small jpg images in this sequence. I've zipped them up in a file called "sequence.zip" and you can download them here:

http://www.lin-evans.net/sequence.zip

Just load them in sequence begining with start.jpg, 1.jpg, 1a.jpg, 1b.jpg, etc. The set the first slide to whichever opening transition you prefer and set the second (1.jpg) to fade in but set the timing to zero seconds and 1 ms. Set each following slide except the last to no effect and zero seconds and 1 ms timing. Let the last slide remain as needed.

There really is no limit as to how many neat effects you can create. Think of this as one of the old Disney animations where artists would draw sequential images then photograph them and create a motion picture by streaming them at 24 frames per second. They used to keep them in books which you could "thumb" like pages of a book and see the apparent action.

It's actually "possible" to create scrolling, pan, zooms, etc., the same way in P2E, but it will be MUCH easier and less time intensive with version 5. You can actually create your own scrolling text - even create text from tiny objects (strawberries, cherries, limes - HA!). With enough patience you can do about everything which is possible with any other program - that's the beauty of being able to combine the power of PhotoShop or other graphics tool with P2E. But version 5 will make it ever so much more powerful.

Here's a link to a quick sample (crude - but you can get the idea) of how you could do text writing, object rotation, etc., with images.... Version 5 will make "some" of these techniques unnecessary, but there are limits. For example when you rotate with the Ken Burns Effect, you rotate the entire image. With a graphics editor you have the ability to select and save any portion of your image as a file which can be then used in a "paste" effect to do specialized things. In my sample you will see that I rotated the strawberry 360 degrees. This was done by simply selecting the strawberry in PhotoShop, setting foreground and background to black (because the background is black) then using Free Transform to rotate it a few degrees and save each iteration of rotation as a separate file. Then I used the starting image at the end so the start and finish were identical. I set each image to "quick - no transition" and set the timing to zero seconds and 30 ms.

The more you experiment the more you will be able to do complex things with your slideshows. But don't get carried away with the "effects" to the degree that it detracts from the aesthetics of the show. It's just that by using layers in PhotoShop you can accomplish anything with P2E that you can do with Vegas Video (over $600 - or PhotoDex's ProShow Producer - $500 plus), etc. There is really no limit to the versatility and P2E has the one thing which NONE of the competition has - the ability to use objects and run external code. That alone makes it one of the most powerful programs of it's type ever written.

Here's the link:

http://www.lin-evans.net/berries2.exe

Best regards,

Lin

[bharkins]

I also support the use of Photoshop with PTE for some great digital audio visuals. (I'm following Barry Beckham's term, to upgrade from the old "Slide show" term). Of course, using layers takes more time than a straight vanilla use of PTE alone, but my viewers see the difference as far superior to the "old way". One effect that I am hoping that could be done in v.5.0 is the credits "crawl" as used in every opening of Star Wars movies. It's a bit more than just panning as it is done in perspective. In fact, it wasn't that easy at Lucasfilm with all their powerful equipment and talent.

Bill

[Lin Evans]

I also support the use of Photoshop with PTE for some great digital audio visuals. (I'm following Barry Beckham's term, to upgrade from the old "Slide show" term). Of course, using layers takes more time than a straight vanilla use of PTE alone, but my viewers see the difference as far superior to the "old way". One effect that I am hoping that could be done in v.5.0 is the credits "crawl" as used in every opening of Star Wars movies. It's a bit more than just panning as it is done in perspective. In fact, it wasn't that easy at Lucasfilm with all their powerful equipment and talent.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Yes the "crawl" would definitely be nice if it could be implemented - the other thing which could really make the new P2E a dandy is if there were the ability to seamlessly drop in MPG4 or AVI video clips like you can do with Media@Show or even with ProShow Gold. ProShow's implementation isn't nearly as good as the old Media@Show but if this could be done with P2E then you can use some dynamite tools such as WildFX which has literally thousands of incredible text effects and outputs both in Flash and MPG.

I use it with some of my more sophisticated slideshows and the effects are incredible, but it does require that the software be able to seamlessly incorporate the video into the executable or DVD process.

Best regards,

Lin

[KGHalbe]

Thanks for the lessons ! I guess we are limited only by our imaginations.

I downloaded the sequence pictures and played around and have a pretty good idea of how to do it myself. Version 5 seems like it will be an answer to many prayers. Have you heard when it is expected to be released ?

I now understand how using layers, in PhotoShop, will make this easier.

Once again, Thank You for your reply, and your information.

Ken

[JPD]

In this post, I had a link to a little show with this effect, but it's done without synchronization, it's enough difficult to do with synchronisation, and difficult to do with a too big object (I don't use the Photoshop layer, only the object function of PTE)

[Lin Evans]

In this post, I had a link to a little show with this effect, but it's done without synchronization, it's enough difficult to do with synchronisation, and difficult to do with a too big object (I don't use the Photoshop layer, only the object function of PTE)

Very nice effect Jean-Pierre! It shows that there are many ways to accomplish a goal with P2E and exciting times coming very soon with version 5.

Best regards,

Lin

[JohnFeg]

I had another try at this effect. The idea was to have the moon setting and disappearing behind mountains.

To get the movement to be reasonably reallistically slow, I created the individual frames, 180 of them!, 1 pixel appart.

As the "moon" started to be masked by the mountains I carefully erased away the appropriate part behind a mask.

When I played the sequence it worked fine, EXCEPT, a faint glow of the moon's disk could be seen through the mountains.

I thought,at first, I'd been inatentive in using the erasor. But, on examining the individual frames, the bit of the moon you were not supposed to see, had been correctly obliterated.

Anyone any idea what might have caused this effect?

John

PS Lin, I didn't think your zoom was "rough" at all. You're far too modest.

[Lin Evans]

I had another try at this effect. The idea was to have the moon setting and disappearing behind mountains.

To get the movement to be reasonably reallistically slow, I created the individual frames, 180 of them!, 1 pixel appart.

As the "moon" started to be masked by the mountains I carefully erased away the appropriate part behind a mask.

When I played the sequence it worked fine, EXCEPT, a faint glow of the moon's disk could be seen through the mountains.

I thought,at first, I'd been inatentive in using the erasor. But, on examining the individual frames, the bit of the moon you were not supposed to see, had been correctly obliterated.

Anyone any idea what might have caused this effect?

John

PS Lin, I didn't think your zoom was "rough" at all. You're far too modest.

Hi John,

Perhaps you may want to try and use only every fifth frame which would make a five rather than one pixel jump (still should be plenty smooth). I suspect that the persistence of the phosphors on your monitor may hold the image beyond the "moon set" phase. You quite probably wouldn't see this effect on an LCD monitor. Just as an experiment - turn off your monitor manually in a completely dark room and measure the time it takes to completely extinguish the last vestige of image. Some phosphors have greater persistence (length of glow) than others. This hides the "interlace" on television monitors where the actual horizontal sweep at 15,750 hz draws every other of 525 lines (1, 3, 5, 7, etc.) then retraces to fill in the even lines (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.). The persistence of the phosphors retains the image between sweeps.

By cutting down the actual number of frames to about every five pixels, there will be fewer frames and the persistence issue "may" be greatly ameliorated or solved.

Best regards,

Lin

[JohnFeg]

Lin,

thank you again for that sound advice. It certainly sounds a likely cause of the phenomenon.

I'll have another try, incorporating only each 5th. pixel. Unfortunately, it will have to wait until next week. The weather forecast looks promising, I have a much visited son in Yorkshire so I'm off for a photographic trip.

Very best wishes

John

[LumenLux]

Thanks everyone for the continued sharing good questions and great answers.

Lin, you are very generous and good with your skill and explanations.

JPD - I think if you taught a school student only to use PTE, that student (if like you) could do homework of any class, using only PTE!