A Little Stage Effect for You...

[Lin Evans]

Wedding photographer Mark Ridout has been using this little effect on his slideshows with a competitive product. It's really simple, but effective so I thought some of you might like it as well. All components in the zipped file along with the executable.....

Lin

http://www.lin-evans.org/p23/stage.zip

[What A Ride]

I like it, I believe I'll impliment it in my next show. BTW, Lin, what would you suggest to use to immulate flashes or strobes going off, for instance something you might see during a concert or sporting event. Thanks Bill

[Lin Evans]

I like it, I believe I'll impliment it in my next show. BTW, Lin, what would you suggest to use to immulate flashes or strobes going off, for instance something you might see during a concert or sporting event. Thanks Bill

Hi Bill,

I haven't thought much about that possibility, but I would think you could take whichever image you have to be illuminated and use PhotoShop or other software to create a greatly overexposed version then briefly display it by setting zero opacity until you wanted the effect then 100% opacity for perhaps a period of one numeral difference. Then back to zero. This would take four kepoints for each iteration of "flash". Start with zero then at the appropriate time choose 1/1000th before and set a zero keypoint then another keypoint at 100% opacity followed by 1/1000th later zero opacity.

So let's say you wanted the effect at 10 seconds into the show. Set the opening keypoint for the overexposure at zero time, zero opacity. Then at 9999 set a zero opacity keypoint (this will keep the effect from gradually going from zero to 100%) then at 10000 another keypoint for 100% opacity then at 10001 another for zero. You could tweak the times to suit but faster usually would simulate a flash I think.... Just a thought, I haven't tried it... You would want to repeat the effect several times and do it with the overexposure as an object rather than an additional slide in the slide list.

Best regards,

Lin

[Michel]

It's useful to see how: such possibilities with the V5!

Masks, layers and picture's positions gives different effects.

A lot of imagination will permit marvellous future presentations .

[Lin Evans]

It's useful to see how: such possibilities with the V5!

Masks, layers and picture's positions gives different effects.

A lot of imagination will permit marvellous future presentations .

Hi Michel,

Very true - our imagination may be the only limitations - there are certainly lots of possibilities and creative people will surely be able to create some dynamic effects.

I wish I were more creative - I understand how to engineer the effects but rarely do I have the creative spark to come up with the innovations.

Best regards,

Lin

[ronwil]

This is very useful. I tried in PTE 4.00 to simulate curtains drawing with the "Gates (horizontal/verical)" effect for an intro but I have never used it. A PTE 5.00 version should be a great improvement. Thanks.

Ron [uK]

[Ronniebootwest]

Very neat effect! Pity that the resolution is causing such bad picture quality though.

[Igor]

Thank you, Lin

[Lin Evans]

Very neat effect! Pity that the resolution is causing such bad picture quality though.

Yes, unfortunately the only images I could find were tiny so had to be interpolated from not much in the way of pixels to start with. It would be great if anyone knows where there may be some decent resolution images of a quality auditorium and stage with the curtains drawn shut. If there were some anywhere near I would photograph them, but most of these nice concert halls and such are in Europe. Even the ones in New York like Carnegie Hall are not so great to look at.

Best regards,

Lin

Thank you, Lin

Hi Igor,

It's fun finding new ways to use your great program!

Best regards,

Lin

[alrobin]

Lin,

A very interesting and effective way of opening a show - I've seen something similar with competing programs, and now we can do this with PTE, too! Thanks for sharing it!

[Lin Evans]

Lin,

A very interesting and effective way of opening a show - I've seen something similar with competing programs, and now we can do this with PTE, too! Thanks for sharing it!

Hey Al,

Yes, Mark Ridout has been using this effect in some of his demos with Producer, etc., and since it's really a simple little effect to do and quite effective, I though I would duplicate it and post it here. There are any number of variations possible and I'm hoping some of you with more creativity will develop the idea further.

I searched the web for some decent auditorium frames but couldn't fine anything except tiny, low resolution images. I though perhaps companies which make the stage drapes would have some decent shots, but they were, in general, absolutely terrible - LOL. I'm surprised they sell any product with the really "bad" photography. Maybe someone living in Italy or France can get us some decent originals to work with. I would be glad to make them into usable PNG's and jpgs and post them but what I've got to work with is pretty low quality.

Best regards,

Lin

[alrobin]

... There are any number of variations possible and I'm hoping some of you with more creativity will develop the idea further.

I played around with it a bit, and found that if I compress the curtains horizontally at the same time that I move them a bit, the result is even more realistic.

[Lin Evans]

I played around with it a bit, and found that if I compress the curtains horizontally at the same time that I move them a bit, the result is even more realistic.

Great idea Al, also when they reach the end of their travel, one could rotate them slightly and quickly with the centers moved to the tops so that their bottom swings inward toward the direction of travel then back to simulate the normal inertia effect. I just which we could find some decent images so that once all the details are worked out the solution could be permanent for a few different samples...

Best regards,

Lin

[ronwil]

When I produced my stage and curtains effect in 4.00 using "Gates (horizontal/verical)" as reported earlier, I got the proscenium surround from some Corel ClipArt. It was in lineart and not particularly inspiring. I made my curtains in Photoshop using the Gradient tool to produce the folds in the drape.

Hope this may produce some thoughts.

Ron [uK]

[Lin Evans]

When I produced my stage and curtains effect in 4.00 using "Gates (horizontal/verical)" as reported earlier, I got the proscenium surround from some Corel ClipArt. It was in lineart and not particularly inspiring. I made my curtains in Photoshop using the Gradient tool to produce the folds in the drape.

Hope this may produce some thoughts.

Ron [uK]

Hi Ron,

Yes, with the new capabilities in version 5, we have the ability to create some serious realistic results, but as you pointed out the sample I provided was of terrible resolution.

Now if we could just get one of our members to take some decent photos of a really nice auditorium with curtains closed, it would be easy to make some very realistic effects. Unfortunately I live in the wilds of Colorado and we have absolutely nothing remotely resembling the grandeur of the European theaters. I'm not sure we have anything like it in the entire U.S. but I'm not intimately familiar with all the large cities and what exists. I have searched the web fairly extensively (at least what's available in the rather paltry 12% indexed by Google and Yahoo, etc. - I don't have access to Bright Planet, etc.) and can't find a single decent high resolution photo to use. Maybe we can talk one of our Italian or French counterparts into photographing some really nice European theaters so we can make realistic effects?? Any volunteers???

Best regards,

Lin

[JohnFeg]

Yes, unfortunately the only images I could find were tiny so had to be interpolated from not much in the way of pixels to start with.

Lin,

I have a recording of an opera at Covent Garden. It starts with a really good sequence of stage curtains. Unfortunately, it's on Video not DVD.

If anybody knows how it can be "extracted" I'll make it available.

John