Ronniebootwest Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 You might want to take a look at some new Photoshop Action sets that have been created by Panos.Visit his site for the details HereRon West Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 LOL, you mean like this??http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/panostest.zipLin Very nice. I was also looking at the snowglobe action. I'll bet Lin could do a really nice snow animation. He is probably really tired of snow by now http://www.panosfx.com/images/stories/Club...nowGlobeBIG.jpghttp://www.panosfx.com/images/stories/Club...lobe_puzzle.jpgTom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Hi Tom,It's really an extension of the "snow through the window" effect I described earlier. The original is flattened and saved as a jpg then copied to the clipboard and overlaid on a transparency. The eraser tool is used to erase everything inside the bubble except the snow on the floor and the picture and frame. The picture and frame are selected then the eraser brush is increased in size to cover the entire selection and the eraser tool is set to 20% opacity and clicked once which makes the picture frame and snow beneath less transparent than the bubble itself. This is then saved as a PNG.The jpeg is then loaded into PTE as the back image in the background with the PNG duplicate in front. Because of the transparent areas, the effect is just as if the jpg is loaded by itself complete with all the Panos effects, snow flakes, ice, etc. Next a couple snow PNG's are animated betwen these like the contents of a sandwitch. Then because of the less than full frame horizontal aspect a couple black rectangle are added on either side to obscure the snowflakes which would otherwise appear on each side of the image.This one is really rough and quick, but if I get some time I will work out a more refined version. It might be possible to make a template but the difficulty is the portion made less than 100% transparent. It isn't absolutely necessary to make any of it less than 100% transparent, but it preserves the image in the frame without overwhelming it with snow. I'll have to think about how this might be worked around, but it may be possible to make a template or at least provide the PNG with the portions made transparent. I'll need to talk with Panos first about this - he may want to post the components on his site. He has some incredible Photoshop actions and I would like to see more people purchase his material which is very reasonable. Maybe with some additional exposure he can be rewarded for the great work he does!Best regards,Lin Wow, that was fast! Very nice and realistic. It's amazing what PTE can do with somebody who knows what they are doing. Thanks,TomHey Ronnie, I didn't mean to hijack your thread - definitely some great actions at the Panos FX site for sure!Lin You might want to take a look at some new Photoshop Action sets that have been created by Panos.Visit his site for the details HereRon West Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LumenLux Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 He has some incredible Photoshop actions and I would like to see more people purchase his material which is very reasonable. Maybe with some additional exposure he can be rewarded for the great work he does!Best regards,LinLin, with your incredible work (snow globe for example) he probably will see an increase in interest and sales!Thanks, as always. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Thanks LOL - I don't know how much influence this might have on his business, but I've really been impressed with his actions and his attitude. It's fun finding applications where PTE can be used to augument other products and projects.On this particular sample I've changed the original to now more closely simulate the actual effect you get when you flip one of these snow globes. There are larger and more distinct snowflakes in front which better preserve the great lines he has instituted in the action model allowing snow to fall but without obscuring his original intent. This can be seen on the original link.Best regards,Lin Lin, with your incredible work (snow globe for example) he probably will see an increase in interest and sales!Thanks, as always. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alrobin Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 On this particular sample I've changed the original to now more closely simulate the actual effect you get when you flip one of these snow globes. Lin,It would be just one small additional step to actually flip the globe over (and over, ...)! Maybe using "flippin' book" technology! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedom Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Very nice Lin !You really are the "snow master". Panos is really a huge source of inspiration with first class photoshop actions.He really diserves to earn money on this business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Hey Al,I'm trying to figure out how to keep the picture frame from falling out when I turn it over - HA!Lin Lin,It would be just one small additional step to actually flip the globe over (and over, ...)! Maybe using "flippin' book" technology! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Hi Tom,I'm waiting to hear from Panos about possibly doing that. Of course his action places any suitable photo within the frame and inside the snow globe and it's easy enough to template the globe itself and the snow at the base because that part never changes. The "trick" is figuring out how to limit the opacity for that portion of the inside occupied by the framed picture. Since the picture will always be changing I can't think of any way to effectively limit the transparency for that area. To make an area semi-transparent you must have something to apply the semi-transparency to. You can make an area completely tranparent and thats very easy to do for this simulation. Also, any parts of the image which doesn't change such as the snow on the "ground" area at the bottom and the ice crystals can easly be made semi-transparent and templated because they never change either. The part which is difficult or perhaps even impossible to template is the area containing the photo itself. If the area with the photo is not made semi-transparent, there will be falling snow of the same volume and appearance over the picture as in the rest of the globe. This might be "O.K." for some images, but I think might well obscure too much of many images to look visually appealing. In my sample I have set the transparency to 20% for this area. If you look carefully you can see snow over the photograph, but it doesn't greatly detract from the image quality. This means a template would either have complete transparency in this area meaning lots of snow or some semi-transparent mask would have to be precisely positioned behind the picture area and in front of the snow. This would then effectively mask the snow but also mask the picture inside the frame thus greatly reducing the image quality.The only other alternative would be a template which would take care of the snow and transparency issues, but would leave the PTE user having to mask off the picture itself and apply a large brush eraser set at about 20% opacity for each situation. If they have and understand Photoshop this would not be difficult, but if they don't or don't have a similar program allowing partial opacity the template wouldn't work very well.I'm pondering this, but haven't a good solution as of yet....Best regards,Lin What have you done Lin Everyone that sees your animated version of the cool snowglobe action on my monitor wants to know "can you replace the photo with one of my photos"? I hope you consider making a template. I had no idea people love snowglobes so much (it never snows here on the coast of California).Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Hi Tom,There is no real way to do this without having the picture portion be separate from the rest of the jpg. As it's converted from the Panos action and used in my simulation the Photoshop file is flattened in Photoshop. Of course a really savy user with Photoshop might extract the photo and place it between snow layers, but there would be no way to automate this without having access to the exact photo being used and that would pretty much invalidate the idea of a template. But anyone going to this degree of effort could just as easily take the component files and do the whole thing in Photoshop and PTE.I'm working on templating and creating both a PDF and Flash SWF tutorial which will be hosted on the Panos FX site. A PTE file will contain the snow.png used three times, the proper placement, timings, sizes, etc., along with a png transparency to overlay one's own flattened image. Let's wait and see how it works out then perhaps it might be possible to do iterative modifications down the road. As is will first appear, one will need only to copy their own file created with the Panos Snow Globe action and named using my file choice of name to make the PTE file function with their image. It may be fiine as is, and if not I will explain how to easily "fix" it.Best regards,Lin Interesting. Can you place the photo between the layers of snow so only the snow in the front layer drops over the photo? That might make it more realistic and easier to view the image.Thanks,Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panos Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Thanks everybody for your kind words.I need to say it one more time: Your work here is amazing!When Lin showed me his animated snow effect, my jaws dropped! Despite my very hectic agenda @ work these days, I cannot wait to give the visitors of PanosFX the opportunity to play with Lin's great effect.PanosPS: Ron, once more, thanks for your email abt the Cube actions. I will add the perspective transformation tip to the PDF tute during the weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Hi Panos,For some reason my last three email attempts to you have bounced back, perhaps something in my links are causing your email server to reject them so I'll repeat it here:Hi Panos,You just open this zipped file and extract the contents to a folder of your choice. Next you start PTE beta 5 and open the file "panostest.pte". What you will see then is the snow globe with the yellow house. If you click on "preview" the snow will fall inside the snow globe. When a PTE user take their jpg created with your action, renames it to "panostest.jpg" then overwrites the original file also named "panostest.jpg" they will see their own photo inside the globe with snow falling. The PTE user then can elect to use PicturesToExe to save the show as an executable file, a screensaver or to use the internal AVI or DVD features to create either an AVI file or burn a DVD.The way PTE templates work are specific to only a single slideshow so the dimensions of the content of a photo must match the original. Let me explain. Because the moving snow effect is partly made possible by creating a png duplicate of the jpg file containing the framed photo and by making part of that png file transparent, if the size of the framed photo inside the globe were changed it would probably work fine as long as the external size and shap of the snow globe was not altered. But if your action were changed so that the size or shape of the snow globe were different, then it would not work. I use a fairly low volume on my microphone to try to keep distortions to a minimum and it "should" be amenable to volume control so that it can be made loud enough to hear. If you use the latest IrfanView with IrfanView Plugins the tutorial should be loud enough but if you find you are having problems hearing it and the volume control doesn't help, let me know and I will try to raise the sound levels.I have created a Flash SWF which you can post on your web site to demonstrate the result. Broadband users should be able to just click on the file and see it on their monitors. I will try to make a small version suitable for 56K dial up - but here is the link to the one you can place on your site. I've zipped it so you can download it to place on your website. Just place a link to the file: "snowglobebroadband.swf" and it should play.Here is a link to it on my site so you can test it from your computer:http://www.lin-evans.net/panosfx/snowglobebroadband.swfThe quality won't be nearly as good as an executable, but should be good enough to give the viewers an idea of what to expect.Here's a link to the zipped swf to download:http://www.lin-evans.net/panosfx/downloadswf.zipP.S, I received your email question about the template file link which you have resolved.Thanks and best regards,Lin Thanks everybody for your kind words.I need to say it one more time: Your work here is amazing!When Lin showed me his animated snow effect, my jaws dropped! Despite my very hectic agenda @ work these days, I cannot wait to give the visitors of PanosFX the opportunity to play with Lin's great effect.PanosPS: Ron, once more, thanks for your email abt the Cube actions. I will add the perspective transformation tip to the PDF tute during the weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LumenLux Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Lin, in my estimation, your latest snow globe (with the yellow house) is perfection for the concept. Congratulations and thank you. And when you have Panos telling you the result is "jaw dropping", that says a bunch.In another topic you remind us how, with PTE V5, an experienced user will always find another mountain to cross. The journey is as endless as the PTE user wants. With that in mind, I am attaching a little PTE.exe file that I played with a couple of years ago. My effort was very simple of PTE and PS. If you look at it, you will recognize that my intent was for a very slow moving effect for the most part. And of course this was long before PTE V5. I am now thinking a similar approach could be integrated into your already perfected snow globe concept. I suppose the "ultimate" combination would be that a PTE show would run on the screen inside the globe in an integrated manner such that the snow falling in the globe would on cue accumulate or "melt" to provide a seasonal evolvement. I don't know if that makes sense, but maybe it will lure you on to another mountain."Moosework" example to download 2 mb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panos Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Lin, I wonder if it is possible to create a small preview (around 450px wide) which I will try to embed on my site's front page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Hi Panos,I think I can make a Flash show that size - I'll give it a try....Best regards,Lin Lin, I wonder if it is possible to create a small preview (around 450px wide) which I will try to embed on my site's front page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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