Non-linear PZR

[Lin Evans]

This is a quick and dirty AVI tutorial on how to implement non-linear PZR effects by simply using linear as normal then very quickly applying non-linear attributes. I find it easier to use linear to quickly get the effects you want then modify than trying to implement the non-linear PZR from scratch.

CAUTION - CAVEAT for all using non-linear functions. If you have multiple keypoints on a single slide with zooms, pans, etc., I can't emphasize enough: DO ALL KEYPOINTS, ZOOMS, ROTATES, AND PANS IN LINEAR. MAKE ALL CORRECTIONS AND CHANGES IN LINEAR. THE VERY LAST STEP IS TO CHANGE THE KEYPOINTS TO A NON-LINEAR FUNCTION. IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE, RE-SET EVERYTHING TO LINEAR, MAKE THE NECESSARY CORRECTIONS, THEN CHANGE TO NON-LINEAR AND CLICK ON EACH SEPARATE POINT AGAIN. IF YOU DON'T DO IT THIS WAY, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET THE RESULTS YOU EXPECT.

http://www.lin-evans.net/tutorial/nonlinear.zip

about 37 meg download in zipped AVI format:

Lin

[Peter S]

Hi Lin,

I hope your tutorial didn't already cover this but...I started to download and it looked like an hours worth so I will try again later.

In the meantime - I found that if I make an object, in linear mode, bounce from top to bottom af the screen as it moves actross the width and then change the mode to accelerate the bounce vanishes and the motion becomes a straight line. I fI then go to Setup and "glue" the key points the bounce comes back with acceleration starting afresh at each key point.

I am not sure what to do with this information but it was not what I had expected!

Peter

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

That sounds like a misunderstanding of how to implement non-linear effects. In a nutshell, take your original linear which is working correctly then highlight the 2nd keypoint. From the Objects and Animations screen click on the down arrow beside "linear" for "EACH" Pan, Zoom and Rotate and change each to a non-linear function - let's use "smooth" for all three. Next click again on what now says "smooth" for Pan and then click on "Setup". Left left click on "EACH" line which says "separate" and they will change to "glue". Do the exact same thing for Zoom and Rotate. That is click on "smooth" then "setup" then left click on each "separate" until they all say glue. Notice that the bracket which originally linked all keypoints now brackets two each. one and two, two and three, three and four, etc. Also notice that the "tag" says "Custom" for all three. I think this is a bug which will be corrected. They "should" still reflect the actual non-linear effect for the individual PZR blocks, in this case they should say "smooth"

You have now set all keypoints for the non-linear function.

That's essentially what my tutorial shows visually and verbally.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

I hope your tutorial didn't already cover this but...I started to download and it looked like an hours worth so I will try again later.

In the meantime - I found that if I make an object, in linear mode, bounce from top to bottom af the screen as it moves actross the width and then change the mode to accelerate the bounce vanishes and the motion becomes a straight line. I fI then go to Setup and "glue" the key points the bounce comes back with acceleration starting afresh at each key point.

I am not sure what to do with this information but it was not what I had expected!

Peter

[ADB]

Great tutorial Lin, very easy to follow,

Thank you!

Regards

Andrew

[Peter S]

Hi Lin,

I downloaded the tutorial and as with your write up found it straightforward and easy to follow. Very nice for what you call a "quick and dirty" effort!

I did understand how to apply the effect following your notes but in my previous post but I was trying to make an observation about a behaviour that still surprises me. I was simply experimenting but may not have explained my observation very well but here is an alternative try.

Let's say you have a linear movement with the first key point plus three others. No zoom, no rotate. Apply "accelerate" to any one of the key points. If you then play the sequence the two middle key points are totally ignored. If you look in "Setting up" the first and last key points are bracketed but I had not expected that everything connected with the middle ones showing the "Separate here" option would be ignored unless this option is selected.

Thanks for ther tutorial

Peter

[thedom]

Hi Lin,

I watched your tutorial (I'm amazed with the number of shortcuts on your desk ).

Just a precision : I saw that you applied "smooth" speed option for pan, zoom and rotate.

Actually, there is no rotation in your animation. So, I think it's useless to apply a speed option for "rotate" animation.

You separated each section for "zoom" animation and applied "smooth" speed option to each section.

But actually, there are only two sections with zoom. You could have keep glued the intermediate sections where there is only a pan and apply a "smooth" section to only first and last section.

I'm quite sure you know it but I think it might be useful for people who watch your slideshow.

An other suggestion : I think people would like to have the final pte project you made during the presentation to play with it a little bit at the end of the tutorial.

It might be a good idea to include it in the zip.

Anyway, I'm sure your tutorial will help a lot of people.

[JEB]

Lin,

Could it not be that when the "tag" changes to "Custom" that this simply reflects that "separate", which presumably is the standard state has been changed to "glue" and therefore we no longer have a "standard" state but a "customized" state?

Just a thought!

John

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dom,

Yes, I did that for what I think is a good reason (applied smooth to pan, zoom, and rotate) even though there may be only one of the three. I think perhaps I didn't explain clearly enough.

The reason is that whenever the bounding rectangle is used to resize, move or otherwise animate an image between keypoints, the "pobability" is very strong that if zoom is the intended consequence, pan will be slightly changed as well if only by accident. Rotate is less probable, but still an unintended consequence in some cases. If one does not pay particular attention to the "numbers" between keypoints, often when changing the zoom the image will be slightly moved to make the intended subject centered, etc. Since there is no "penalty" for separating the keypoints on Pan, Zoom and Rotate, it is insurance that there will be no unintended consequences in terms of expected animation. When you create a zoom with smooth and the pan is left in linear, the effect is generally not what most are expecting. Likewise with slight rotate. So changing all keypoints even though there may be no particular necessity at a specific one in a specific instance does not "hurt" the animation but rather provides insurance that if you go back and "touch up" a particular portion between keypoints, you won't forget that perhaps you changed pan as well as zoom, etc.

Hi Lin,

I watched your tutorial (I'm amazed with the number of shortcuts on your desk ).

Just a precision : I saw that you applied "smooth" speed option for pan, zoom and rotate.

Actually, there is no rotation in your animation. So, I think it's useless to apply a speed option for "rotate" animation.

You separated each section for "zoom" animation and applied "smooth" speed option to each section.

But actually, there are only two sections with zoom. You could have keep glued the intermediate sections where there is only a pan and apply a "smooth" section to only first and last section.

I'm quite sure you know it but I think it might be useful for people who watch your slideshow.

An other suggestion : I think people would like to have the final pte project you made during the presentation to play with it a little bit at the end of the tutorial.

It might be a good idea to include it in the zip.

Unfortunately I didn't keep it because it was so simplistic - in retrospect it would probably have been a good idea except that I'm not certain if it would have been all that helpful since I "changed" the original from linear to smooth to show how it was easily done.

Anyway, I'm sure your tutorial will help a lot of people.

Hopefully, but it was just a real quick and dirty example to show how it's easier (in my opinion) to create the animations using linear and change them than to create them using non linear.

Best regards,

Lin

[thedom]

It makes perfect sense, thank you for the explanation.

[Lin Evans]

Hi John,

Actually, I think it's just the other way around. When you have linear chosen and you look at the keypoints under "setup" they are depicted as "glued" But to apply non-linear you must separate them. It's a bit confusing, but when you click on separate you are actually breaking out the individual clusters of two each. Look at the brackets which show association. When you first enter setup after putting in a large number of keypoints in linear mode, the brackets show that all are "glued" with the action occurring in linear fashion between the first and last keypoint.

When you stipulate a non-linear animation by choosing it from the dropdown - let's use smooth for an example, then you click on each "separate" key to break the bond from first to last keypoints.

I think it's a bug and that the intent is for the "tag" to say either linear, accelerate, decelerate or smooth. If you have changed the default "curve" for one of the non-linear functions by manually entering values, then I believe it should say "custom".

Best regards,

Lin

Lin,

Could it not be that when the "tag" changes to "Custom" that this simply reflects that "separate", which presumably is the standard state has been changed to "glue" and therefore we no longer have a "standard" state but a "customized" state?

Just a thought!

John

[rakn]

Lin,

That was just what I needed to get started. A great help, thanks.

By the way, have you noticed if the "perspective correction for zoom" has any effect when using any of the non-linear effects ?

I have not been able to see any difference with or without it.

Ragnar

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ragnar,

I haven't tried the perspective correction with any of the non-linear zoom effects, but I suspect it only works with linear zoom.

Best regards,

Lin

Lin,

That was just what I needed to get started. A great help, thanks.

By the way, have you noticed if the "perspective correction for zoom" has any effect when using any of the non-linear effects ?

I have not been able to see any difference with or without it.

Ragnar

[Peter S]

I'm stuck again and would appreciate some help - again! Please.

The attached file shows what I am trying to achieve. I have an object moving across the screen from A to D vanishing and reappearing at E. During the move from A to D I want its opacity to drop to 10% at B and come back to 100% at C. This works fine until I try to apply deceleration.

I want the object to decelerate uniformly between A and D. I have tried glue and unglue in every way I could but have been unable to get the result I want.

Can anyone help me to understand where I am going wrong or is this not possible?? :unsure:

PZR.zip

Kind Regards

Peter

[Peter S]

I have at last found a solution to my own problem

I found that I needed to set up the entire motion first. Apply decelerate and then glue the appropriate key point.

I then moved the slider in O&A until the object reached the point where I wanted it to fade added a 100% opacity point followed 100ms later by a 10% opacity.

Moved the slider to the next position added another 10% opacity point followed 100ms later by a further 100% opacity point.

(When I applied the opacity points before applying deceleration they always ended up in the wrong place after applying deceleration. I guess this is probably a fairly obvious result in retrospect.)

I added further opacity changes after the time at which the object moved off the screen and then rea djusted my glue point to coincide with the off screen position.

I hope this is of some use to someone some time. The solution PZRS.zip

Kind Regards

Peter

[danrobson]

Great tutorial. Last itme I used PTE PZR wasn't around, just upgraded and wanted to see how to use it, found the perfect tutorial. Thanks.

[jfa]

Thanks Lin, as always your work was very well designed, informative and useful.

[MarioG]

This is a quick and dirty AVI tutorial on how to implement non-linear PZR effects by simply using linear as normal then very quickly applying non-linear attributes. I find it easier to use linear to quickly get the effects you want then modify than trying to implement the non-linear PZR from scratch.

CAUTION - CAVEAT for all using non-linear functions. If you have multiple keypoints on a single slide with zooms, pans, etc., I can't emphasize enough: DO ALL KEYPOINTS, ZOOMS, ROTATES, AND PANS IN LINEAR. MAKE ALL CORRECTIONS AND CHANGES IN LINEAR. THE VERY LAST STEP IS TO CHANGE THE KEYPOINTS TO A NON-LINEAR FUNCTION. IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE, RE-SET EVERYTHING TO LINEAR, MAKE THE NECESSARY CORRECTIONS, THEN CHANGE TO NON-LINEAR AND CLICK ON EACH SEPARATE POINT AGAIN. IF YOU DON'T DO IT THIS WAY, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET THE RESULTS YOU EXPECT.

http://www.lin-evans.net/tutorial/nonlinear.zip

about 37 meg download in zipped AVI format:

Lin

Hi Lin,

I just now viewed your non-linear avi tutorial and I have a question which is probably covered in the user guide but I haven't gotten to that part yet.

You use 'Clone keypoint' and 'Add keypoint'. What's the difference between the two, why not just 'Add' instead of 'Clone'?

You say it's quick and dirty, I say it's great for a newbie. Is there an avi on this topic which you might call more in-depth?

Mario

[Lin Evans]

Hi Mario,

Clone a keypoint duplicates the specific settings for that keypoint while adding a keypoint assumes nothing and just places a keypoint with nothing but position and the values from the previous keypoint on a timeline. The "clone" feature copies the values of any particular keypoint.

When you want a condition to "hold" for a period of time, the easiest way is to clone the keypoint then just slide it to the right for the amount of time you want it to hold. You "can" just add a keypoint as long as there is no other keypoint in between and perform exactly the same. But think about this: What if you started with a zoom in and a pan, then on the next keypoint you wanted to zoom out and perhaps rotate or something then for the third keypoint decided that you wanted to return to "exactly" the condition you were in for the first keypoint. If you simply "add" a keypoint then you must type in the precise numbers for the pan, zoom and rotate and perhaps "center" if you have changed it. On the other hand if you simply "clone" the first keypoint then slide it to the desired position you will save yourself all the effort of manually copying the values for PZR from the first keypoint.

Right now, no more in-depth AVI on this that I am aware of.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

I just now viewed your non-linear avi tutorial and I have a question which is probably covered in the user guide but I haven't gotten to that part yet.

You use 'Clone keypoint' and 'Add keypoint'. What's the difference between the two, why not just 'Add' instead of 'Clone'?

You say it's quick and dirty, I say it's great for a newbie. Is there an avi on this topic which you might call more in-depth?

Mario

[MarioG]

Hi Mario,

Clone a keypoint duplicates the specific settings for that keypoint while adding a keypoint assumes nothing and just places a keypoint with nothing but position and the values from the previous keypoint on a timeline. The "clone" feature copies the values of any particular keypoint.

When you want a condition to "hold" for a period of time, the easiest way is to clone the keypoint then just slide it to the right for the amount of time you want it to hold. You "can" just add a keypoint as long as there is no other keypoint in between and perform exactly the same. But think about this: What if you started with a zoom in and a pan, then on the next keypoint you wanted to zoom out and perhaps rotate or something then for the third keypoint decided that you wanted to return to "exactly" the condition you were in for the first keypoint. If you simply "add" a keypoint then you must type in the precise numbers for the pan, zoom and rotate and perhaps "center" if you have changed it. On the other hand if you simply "clone" the first keypoint then slide it to the desired position you will save yourself all the effort of manually copying the values for PZR from the first keypoint.

Right now, no more in-depth AVI on this that I am aware of.

Best regards,

Lin

Thanks Lin,

Is that a mid-western accent I hear, Missouri maybe? I have very close friends there and just spent two months there enjoying my first white Christmas.

Mario.

No need to answer.