Background image behind main image....

[lathompson]

I saw a show that a friend sent to me, that he had made and produced online. It was pretty cheap to purchase. It had the Ken Burns effect like P2E, but also had a background image that could be ordered to be complimentary in color to the main image. With every image that appeared, a customized color (matched or contrasting) was in back of it. Sometimes with movement, sometimes static. Yes, this can easily be done in P2E, however it is something that must be done image by image in P2E and if I did this for my clients, I would be raising the price significantly in order to offset the amount of time I spend customizing 80-100 slides in their show. This is fine for those that are willing to pay the premium, however the company online that does this, charges very little for the amazing amount of apparent customization their shows provide. For $35 the online company will do a show with 50 images. That show would take me at least an hour to do and would be tedious, working fast, customizing a background for every one of the 50 images. This would also raise the chances of mistakes. For all of that, I couldn't do this for four times that charge. I'm not about to work for an hour to make $35. that same show would cost them $150 from me. And a show with 100 images is going to really get the cost up there.

I wonder if this is something that can be automated in P2E? Okay, changing colors may be going too far with automation, but it got me to thinking about something else.... As a lesser option, how about, after adding a 2nd image (a background) into the 'objects and animation window, you could check a box to put it in back of the first image, fill the frame and order it to stay there for all the images that follow in the show. That would be a one-time operation and the whole show could then be finished quickly, like it can be done now. Perhaps, since it's a second image in each show, you could then customize movement in each image later. Or, simply give us another option for adding a photo as a single, non-movable background to the whole show.

The idea is that a decorative backdrop would form a nice side design on the left and right sides of a photo that happens to be vertical? This would be really nice for a show that is 16x9 wide. It could also be very decorative behind an image that is changing sizes, showing the background behind it. Colorful, artistic, sharply defined, or perhaps blurred for effect. Right now, the choices are a solid color, a gradient or an image that is tiled, are the only choices available. Although the tiled image can make some nice wallpaper, it is far from ideal artistically. I would prefer a customized background that I could make artistically appealing in many more ways.

Okay, now it's time for one of you regulars to tell me this is possible already.... Ok, do it now, I'm ready!

-larry

[fh1805]

Larry,

Doesn't the Project Option...Screen tab section for Backgrounds give you some of this control? You can define an image to be your tiled background instead of the default of Black. If you pick one and size it to 100% instead of the default 20% you can then achieve a pleasant effect by using the Additional Options to reduce all the main images down to, say 85-90%, and set a drop shadow.

regards,

Peter

[lathompson]

Larry,

Doesn't the Project Option...Screen tab section for Backgrounds give you some of this control? You can define an image to be your tiled background instead of the default of Black. If you pick one and size it to 100% instead of the default 20% you can then achieve a pleasant effect by using the Additional Options to reduce all the main images down to, say 85-90%, and set a drop shadow.

regards,

Peter

Peter, thanks for pointing out that 20% image size for tiling. I don't work with tiled images much, so I wasn't looking for that little trick. I did increase my test background to 100%, rotated it to horizontal and it was perfect for a repeating backdrop in my show. Really dresses things up! Thanks again.

-larry

[fh1805]

My pleasure!

Peter

[wideangle]

I've recently seen reference to a rather unusual program for generating even more unusual backgrounds which contain the colours of the original image. It works in batch mode as well, so you could put all your images through it to personalise them before adding to PTE.

Mind you, I have warned you that it is different!

Look for Automatting at www.imagetrendsinc.com

Regards

[lathompson]

That's a pretty interesting plugin, wideangle. Good of you to point it out. I'm going to give it a try. Hope it allows manipulation of the effect, like blurring and perhaps the ability to change the scrambling patterns in various ways.