How to control the opacity of a compound image

[uuderzo]

Hello...

I have a compound image built with a master picture and more subPictures.

I built the image this way because it's easier for me to pan the entire compound image.

master image

-- subPicture 1

-- subPicture 2

-- subPicture 3

My need is to fade in and out the master image in a objects and animations section.

I discovered that setting the opacity of the master image does not affect the opacity

of the subPictures. I mean... the master picture fades in and out but the subPictures

are always visible.

This leads me to specify the same opacity keyframes for master and all subPictures.

It's a bit difficult to manage the animation this way (I managed to reach my target

but it's annoying)

Is there a way to control the opacity of a compound object with a single keyframe track?

Thanks in advance.... Umberto

[Lin Evans]

Hi Umberto,

Opacity is one attribute where a parent/child relation doesn't apply so the answer is no, there is no way to control the opacity of related objects other than to duplicate the opacity settings for the related objects.

This was done to give maximum flexibility to PTE because many types of animations require individual control over the opacity of parent and child objects. Perhaps sometime in future versions there may be a optional "switch" to allow linking opacity among various related objects but right now that's not an option.

Best regards,

Lin

[uuderzo]

Thanks for your reply.

I suspected that this was done to obtain flexibility (also if the same effect is supposed

to be obtained with the use of inherited opacity and nested frames, at a price of

complicating the tree structure).

When this switch will be available it'll be welcome

Bye!

This was done to give maximum flexibility to PTE because many types of animations require individual control over the opacity of parent and child objects. Perhaps sometime in future versions there may be a optional "switch" to allow linking opacity among various related objects but right now that's not an option.

[fh1805]

Umbeerto,

In me you have a very strong and vocal supporter of the need to have this "switch" as an option in a future release. Earlier this year I built a sequence that was made up of spinning wheels (It was called "Kaleidoscope" and was posted in the sequences part of the forum). Each wheel was made up of four rings. Each ring was made up of twelve objects. Including the parent frames on which the objects were placed, a total of 52 objects per wheel. On one slide I dearly wanted to fade in twelve of these wheels, one after the other. I would have had to program at least 1248 keyframes to achieve what I wanted. If a parent's opacity could be passed on to (inherited by) its children then I would have had to program only 24 keyframes.

I don't want to force opacity to be inherited all the time. I understand - and use - the flexibility that the present situation gives us. I just want to be able, for a particular parent, to declare that all the children of this parent inherit the parent's opacity.

regards,

Peter