Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzle.zipLinO.K., I couldn't resist - I added a little music - play it through twice for best ending effect.... LOL Quote
lathompson Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzle.zipLinO.K., I couldn't resist - I added a little music - play it through twice for best ending effect.... LOL Lin, you have entirely too much time on your hands! lt Quote
JPD Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Hi Lin,I just have music and ... a black screen, even the third time, and it's very difficult to stop, I suppose there are views which must take a lot of time, and PTE wait the end of the view to try to stop (I had several slideshows for which I was obliged to kill the process).I think that Igor will have to modify the escape function, because now some views can have a duration of 1 minute or more, that's a problem. Quote
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2006 Author Report Posted June 2, 2006 Hi Lin,I just have music and ... a black screen, even the third time, and it's very difficult to stop, I suppose there are views which must take a lot of time, and PTE wait the end of the view to try to stop (I had several slideshows for which I was obliged to kill the process).I think that Igor will have to modify the escape function, because now some views can have a duration of 1 minute or more, that's a problem.Hi Jean-Pierre,There must be some type of bug - possibly because I used a midi-file. On most systems this show plays very well so it would be a good idea to find out why it's not working for you. The delay between the begining of the sound and begining of the images on my system is about 4 seconds and pressing the "ESC" key kills the action immediately. The fact that you have had problems and had to kill the process with other slideshows indicates something unique to your system is incompatible with this, when we find out what it is it will probably be easy to correct.I have removed the midi sound and posted another zipped executable with a link for you to try. If you could try it and let us know the results it might help to determine the cause. There should be about six or seven seconds delay on this before images appear.http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzlenosound.zipBest regards,Lin Quote
Ken Cox Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Lin the one i d/l'd yesterday at 17:54 plays without soundthe one i downloade just now from the original link plays with musicesc stops boththe no sound you just posted plays with no sound and will stop with the esc keyken 10:33 edst Quote
goddi Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 O.K., I couldn't resist - I added a little music - play it through twice for best ending effect.... LOL Lin... It worked just fine on my PC. Neat stuff!!! In fact, I was trying to do a similar 'puzzle' last week but I could not figure out how to 'cut up' an image without going completely crazy. Can you tell us what software or method you used to create the puzzle pieces??? Thanks... Gary Quote
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2006 Author Report Posted June 2, 2006 Lin the one i d/l'd yesterday at 17:54 plays without soundthe one i downloade just now from the original link plays with musicesc stops boththe no sound you just posted plays with no sound and will stop with the esc keyken 10:33 edstHi Ken,That's the way it should work. I added the sound then reposted without changing the file name. The one I just posted for Jean-Pierre was done without the sound to see if it had some bearing on the problem he was having with it. Something strange going on with his system and this file I think.Best regards,Lin Quote
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2006 Author Report Posted June 2, 2006 Lin... It worked just fine on my PC. Neat stuff!!! In fact, I was trying to do a similar 'puzzle' last week but I could not figure out how to 'cut up' an image without going completely crazy. Can you tell us what software or method you used to create the puzzle pieces??? Thanks... GaryHey Gary,The easiest way is to use a PhotoShop action which someone with lots of PhotoShop experience and lots of time has already done - LOLGo here and download the free Puzzle action first:http://www.panosfx.com/Load the action in PhotoShop and run it, adjust any parameters such as contour, outer-glow, texture, etc., to suit your taste then open the results in ImageReady and export the separate layers as PNG files. The rest is just import into P2E on separate layers, adjust the animations for each and you have a "puzzle" slideshow.Lin Quote
goddi Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Load the action in PhotoShop and run it, adjust any parameters such as contour, outer-glow, texture, etc., to suit your taste then open the results in ImageReady and export the separate layers as PNG files. The rest is just import into P2E on separate layers, adjust the animations for each and you have a "puzzle" slideshow.Lin Quote
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2006 Author Report Posted June 2, 2006 Load the action in PhotoShop and run it, adjust any parameters such as contour, outer-glow, texture, etc., to suit your taste then open the results in ImageReady and export the separate layers as PNG files. The rest is just import into P2E on separate layers, adjust the animations for each and you have a "puzzle" slideshow.LinLin.... Thanks so much for the pointers. I tried the puzzle action on an image and was successfull in making a 20-piece puzzle in PS CS. Now I have to work on animating it in PTE5. Very cool. Just to pick you brain a little more...is there a way to cut up an image in, say, random pieces, as opposed to this particular action that looks like a puzzle. I'd like to do it based on what is actually in each particular image, not a preset pattern. I was trying to use the Crop tool but I can not get it to do random sizes. What I'd like to do is to be able to cut out a piece in an image and save that as a puzzle piece. Then cut another piece out and save it, etc... Until the entire image has been cut out and each piece saved. Sort of a reverse-crop. Any ideas...??? Thanks for your help. GaryHi Gary,No way that I'm aware of to get a "random" pattern cut out. You "could" use one of the selection tools rather than the crop tool and cut out pieces of an image then create transparent background PNG files from them. It's time consuming and you would need to overlay the transparency and follow the original contours of the cut edge to get a proper fit. This would take lots of time. You also may want to dissect the action and see how Panos used the tools to make the puzzle cut-out. Best regards,Lin Quote
thedom Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Lin,Just to let you know :- I have a horrible framerate on my computer (about 2 frames/sec, with or without sound).(AMD Athlon 1,67 Ghz + Nvidia Geforce4 Ti 4800 Se).- It's a little bit better on my girlfriend's laptop (Dell Inspiron 6400, brand new) but definitely not smooth... Btw, this puzzle idea is really nice. Quote
ronwil Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Gary you say "What I'd like to do is to be able to cut out a piece in an image and save that as a puzzle piece. Then cut another piece out and save it, etc... Until the entire image has been cut out and each piece saved. Sort of a reverse-crop. Any ideas...???"You can cut out the pieces and save what is left of each layer in Photoshop exactly as you have described. Saving as Lin has said as a *.png file. Then reverse the order of playback of each saved layer. So you would start with one piece and so on.Ron [uK] Quote
Ken Cox Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 would this plug in work for the Adobe users?http://www.gold-software.com/download1944.htmlken Quote
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2006 Author Report Posted June 2, 2006 Lin,Just to let you know :- I have a horrible framerate on my computer (about 2 frames/sec, with or without sound).(AMD Athlon 1,67 Ghz + Nvidia Geforce4 Ti 4800 Se).- It's a little bit better on my girlfriend's laptop (Dell Inspiron 6400, brand new) but definitely not smooth... Btw, this puzzle idea is really nice.Yep, it's pretty graphics intensive. Thirty separate images moving simultaneously. It's nice and smooth on my 3.2 Ghz with ATI Radeon 9800 pro card, but I can imagine that with anything but a very optimized grahics environment it's asking quite a lot. I just did it more as a torture test than anything else. The program can certainly handle everything fine, the hardware is crying for a beer - LOLLin Quote
goddi Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Lin.... Yikes....!!!! I don't know how I did this but I finally got something to look like a puzzle with animaition. Was a good learning exercise. It is rough but my head was about to explode until I finally got the hang of it...sort of. Thanks for the push!!! GaryAdded.... I thought I could attach the .exe file but not having much luck... Is it possible???Let me see if this works... http://mysite.verizon.net/goddi1/birdpuzzle.zip Quote
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2006 Author Report Posted June 2, 2006 Lin.... Yikes....!!!! I don't know how I did this but I finally got something to look like a puzzle with animaition. Was a good learning exercise. It is rough but my head was about to explode until I finally got the hang of it...sort of. Thanks for the push!!! GaryAdded.... I thought I could attach the .exe file but not having much luck... Is it possible???Let me see if this works... http://mysite.verizon.net/goddi1/birdpuzzle.zipWorks perfectly! Congrats - the first one is always the most difficult. Once you grasp that you just run the action then open the file in ImageReady and export as separate files (you probably will want to rename them when you import them as objects into P2E) you will have it mastered.I've found that it takes lots of video card power to run a 30 layer puzzle. TheDom couldn't get it to run smoothly on either of two laptops and I tried it on my wife's new Dell laptop and it (my 30 layer puzzl) was pretty jerky. I suspect that 20 layers is probably optimal for smoothness on the majority of systems. I have a pretty powerful graphics system on my development computer so the 30 layer puzzle runs very smoothly, but Jean-Pierre couldn't get it to run at all on his system.Best regards,Lin Quote
goddi Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Works perfectly! Congrats - the first one is always the most difficult. Once you grasp that you just run the action then open the file in ImageReady and export as separate files ...Best regards,LinLin... Thanks, but your puzzle is much more creative. The Photoshop part was the easy part... I don't know how you got all the parts spinning around all at the same time. With my 'technique', I had to add in all the previous pieces to each piece's annimation. For example, for the 5th piece on the top row, I had to copy in pieces 1 - 4, and then animate the 5th piece. For the 6th piece, I had to add in pieces 1-5, and then animate the 6th piece. I really don't have a good understanding of an easier way of doing it but....at least I got something done. I hope the manual will be 'good for dummies'. Thank... Gary Quote
goddi Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Well.... I am getting a little closer to your technique...not that close, though. My big problem is that I don't know which image I am working on. In the 'Objects:' list, each one is named "Image". When I click on one of them, the specific image does not get highlighted. I did something....but still confused........Second try: http://mysite.verizon.net/goddi1/birdpuzzle-2.zip Gary Quote
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2006 Author Report Posted June 2, 2006 Well.... I am getting a little closer to your technique...not that close, though. My big problem is that I don't know which image I am working on. In the 'Objects:' list, each one is named "Image". When I click on one of them, the specific image does not get highlighted. I did something....but still confused........Second try: http://mysite.verizon.net/goddi1/birdpuzzle-2.zip GaryHi Gary,Highlight the first object then click on the "Properties" tab and rename it - do this for each and just give the the shortened names like a1, a2, b1, b2, etc. Then you know which is which. Click on any one of the renamed objects from the Objects and Animation screen then right click your mouse and choose "Order" then "bring to front" . Once you have the object brought to front "and" have one or the keypoints for it highlighted, you can resize or move it accordingly. Just do this sequentially for each object and eventually you will have all actions set as you like. Best regards,Lin Quote
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2006 Author Report Posted June 2, 2006 Lin... Thanks, but your puzzle is much more creative. The Photoshop part was the easy part... I don't know how you got all the parts spinning around all at the same time. With my 'technique', I had to add in all the previous pieces to each piece's annimation. For example, for the 5th piece on the top row, I had to copy in pieces 1 - 4, and then animate the 5th piece. For the 6th piece, I had to add in pieces 1-5, and then animate the 6th piece. I really don't have a good understanding of an easier way of doing it but....at least I got something done. I hope the manual will be 'good for dummies'. Thank... GaryYou get them all moving simultaneously by having actions set for each and having these actions occuring during the same time periods on the time line. This is done by choosing some period of time such as 10 seconds as a "finish" point for the second keypoint. So the default keypoint is set to zero, the next keypoint is set to say 10 seconds. The animation path you choose for the second keypoint will happen between zero and 10 seconds. Then you choose another keypoint perhaps 2 seconds further to end the animation and set the pan/zoom to zero and the zoom to 100%. This places that particular puzzele piece where it must be at that particular time. Do likewise for each using 10 seconds as the "activity" period for the animation for each and be sure that all are set to 100% opacity so you can see them. Choose different animation paths and vary the third keypoint time by a second or so for each. So if you "plant" the first puzzle piece at 11 seconds, then plant the second at 12, the third at 13 or such and so on.The end result is that you have all the pieces (or as many as you wish) doing something simultaneously, then one by one they settle at their own respective zero points so the puzzle gets completed. Best regards,Lin Quote
ronwil Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Whilst all this has been going on since my last post, I have worked through and written the following tutorial.Preparation of a “Pieces Puzzle” in Photoshop1. Start a new image File>New. In the drop down menu, name it say “Piece Puzzle Background”; from the Preset select 1024 x 768 pixels; and from Background contents select Transparent. 2. From the Layer drop down menu duplicate the Background layer and name it Piece Z.3. Open the image you want to “cut up” and resize it to 1024 x 768.4. Select the image and with the Move tool drag it exactly cover the “Piece Puzzle Background”. Save it as Piece Z.png in your allotted folder.5. Create a duplicate layer of Piece Z and rename it PieceY6. Switch off the Piece Z layer and open the Piece Y layer.7. Select the first area you wish to cut out as a piece and with the eraser tool cover the area to expose the transparent background beneath. Save as Piece Y.png.8. Repeat from 5 to 7 until the whole transparent background is exposed, naming each piece in reverse alphabetical order Piece Z, Piece Y, Piece X etc.Size 1024 x 768 pixels has been used as an illustration.Ron [uK] Quote
goddi Posted June 2, 2006 Report Posted June 2, 2006 Garylink is no good yetkenoopppss.... Sorry, I thought the upload got there. It should work now. Thanks... Gary Quote
goddi Posted June 3, 2006 Report Posted June 3, 2006 Hi Gary,Highlight the first object then click on the "Properties" tab and rename it - do this for each and just give the the shortened names like a1, a2, b1, b2, etc. Then you know which is which. Click on any one of the renamed objects from the Objects and Animation screen then right click your mouse and choose "Order" then "bring to front" . Once you have the object brought to front "and" have one or the keypoints for it highlighted, you can resize or move it accordingly. Just do this sequentially for each object and eventually you will have all actions set as you like. Best regards,LinLin... Yes, I see how to rename the images, now. I think you really have to do this as you add the images because it is not that easy to detect which image is which. I have also found that if you toggle the 'blur' choice on and off, you can double check that that is the image you are renaming. But I am not too successful on changing the 'Order' and highlighting a keypoint. When I highlight a keypoint, all the images are moving. I could not get it to allow resizing. The images just stayed 'glued' together. I'll have to take a break and work on it some more. I might have created my puzzle a bit different than yours so it might not be reacting the same as yours does. But thanks...I am inching along. Gary Quote
Lin Evans Posted June 3, 2006 Author Report Posted June 3, 2006 Lin... Yes, I see how to rename the images, now. I think you really have to do this as you add the images because it is not that easy to detect which image is which. I have also found that if you toggle the 'blur' choice on and off, you can double check that that is the image you are renaming. But I am not too successful on changing the 'Order' and highlighting a keypoint. When I highlight a keypoint, all the images are moving. I could not get it to allow resizing. The images just stayed 'glued' together. I'll have to take a break and work on it some more. I might have created my puzzle a bit different than yours so it might not be reacting the same as yours does. But thanks...I am inching along. GaryHi Gary,I posted a link to a new "puzzle tutorial" on the main page. There is also a link to the included components and the p2e files so you can follow step-by-step.Here are the links for your convenience:http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/puzzletutorial.pdfhttp://www.lin-evans.net/p23/puzzletutorial.zipLin Quote
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