Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2007 Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 All you old-timers can skip this - you've seen it all before in one way or another, but for the new people who are not familiar with PicturesToExe and some of the rather unique capabilities, this is a little demo of a couple of the features not found in other presentation software.Two of the very nice features in PTE's animation tool kit are off-center rotation and the parent/child relationship. Let's start with off-center rotation. Normally when an object or picture is rotated, it's done from the approximate center mass of the image or object. In PicturesToExe you have the option of moving this center of rotation anywhere you wish. What does this mean then? It means that you can not only spin an object on it's center mass axis, but you can also, by simply holding down the shift key on your keyboard and left click and hold the mouse button on the tiny center green box in the center of the green bounding rectangle of a selected object, drag the "center" anywhere you wish. Then imagine that a rope was tied to the center of the picture but anchored somewhere in space and the image could be rotated or swing around like you would swing a rock in a sling.So if you do this with an image or object, the object turns upside down and rotates from an upright to upside down back to upright position as it revolves around the imaginary rope swing. But what if you wanted the object to stay in the same upright position throughout its rotation? Then you take advantage of the parent/child relationship. You duplicate the object as a child of the original, set the original to rotate say 360 degrees but make it invisible by using the opacity control. Then you place the child over the same starting point coordinates as the parent and set its rotation to negative 360 degrees with 100% opacity. This way the object that you see stays in proper orientation throughout the rotation. Neat trick! Of course you can also describe bezier curves or do elliptical curves, etc., in much the same way. The possibilities are endless. The following little demo uses a number of PNG objects. Note that the four objects in the outer perimeter rotate and maintain their upright orientation throughout. This is done as previously described. The four objects in the inner perimeter rotate in the opposite direction. Two of them maintain their upright orientation while two others do not. The center object rotates clockwise the reverses its rotation.Finally, the background consists of twinkling stars. This was done via a dark blue PNG file with tiny "holes" which are simply transparent. A blue/black jpg was copied, then pasted over a transparent background then various sized tiny round eraser brushes were used to poke tiny "holes" of transparency. Behind the blue/black starfield a jpg file created in Photoshop has multi-white and dark patterns with splotches of red and yellow rotates slowly creating the "twinkle" in the stars.Later I will create an AVI tutorial to demonstrate how this is all done for anyone who is interested.Here's a link - about five megabytes zipped executable:http://www.lin-evans.net/pte/dothis.zipBest regards,Lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted June 2, 2007 Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 thks LinAVI ETA? ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronniebootwest Posted June 2, 2007 Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 Hello Lin,Thankyou for another of your detailed explanations, though I find it a little difficult to follw. I am sure that, even us older guys are not yet up to speed on this sophisticated rotation stuff Yes please, we do need an AVI tutorial on these effects, then maybe I can break it down into a detailed pdf so that we can all understand how it is done.Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 Hi Ken,I have some time so I'll do one today.Linthks LinAVI ETA? ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted June 2, 2007 Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 make sure you feed the mare first:)ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 Hi Ron,The AVI is up and linked on the Tutorials forum now. If there is any interest on the starfield background, I'll do a brief one on that later.LinHello Lin,Thankyou for another of your detailed explanations, though I find it a little difficult to follw. I am sure that, even us older guys are not yet up to speed on this sophisticated rotation stuff Yes please, we do need an AVI tutorial on these effects, then maybe I can break it down into a detailed pdf so that we can all understand how it is done.Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lin Evans Posted June 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 Hey Ken,The horse is munching contentedly and the AVI is up and linked - time for coffee - LOLLinmake sure you feed the mare first:)ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted June 2, 2007 Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 time for beer and nap -- it is 100 deg f here --g'kids in pool keeping ducks out )thks again for all your effortsken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronniebootwest Posted June 2, 2007 Report Share Posted June 2, 2007 Thanks for that Lin, I will take a look at it and see if I can follow your instructions.Your work is always appreciated!Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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