Let it Snow

[james millar]

Hi all,

Got a problem with the last show I made, can't seem to get rid of the stutter in the snow layers.

If somebody can point me in the right direction I'd be extremely grateful. It was made in 5.6

Can be seen at the link below.

Jim M.

http://www.mediafire.com/?xzzvvmbaynz

[coopernatural]

Hi Jim,

Great AV, super sharp pics, well seen, and no stutter with the snow effect.

Added a nice 3D perspective.

Made me turn the heating on!

Stutter may be down to your PC/settings.

Davy

[cead]

Hello Jim,

The series is on my PC displayed excellent !

Frans

[LumenLux]

Good work Jim, and enjoyable to view. I think you have done exceptional with creating or using animated snow of the right "character" for the scenes. I mean it is difficult to have the falling snow look like the same snow that is on the ground and structures. To me, the falling snow was a "possible" texture compatible with what seemed to be a "wet" snow on the ground. There are still some photos where the brightness of the falling snow conflicts with my brain's expectation vis-a-vis the darker snow on the ground. I am certainly amazed how you, and Lin, and a few others have "perfected" the idea of artificial/artistic snow fall. If I have one suggestion for further "accuracy" - I think your mix of flakes should use fewer "elongated" flakes. Too many of that shape tend to make me think of pulled cotton rather than clinging snow flakes. Did you make your own flakes or are they from Lin or someone? Can you share your technique and maybe even a portion of your project file (.pte)? Finally, I enjoyed especially several of your photographs beneath the scrutinized falling snow. And, 2nd finally - what is the location of your photos?

[baldsparky]

Hi Jim

your show ran fine on my pc, no stuttering at all.

thanks for sharing.

kind regards

paul

[sanewcomb]

Based on the replies I would say the stuttering may be due to a monitor resolution set too high for your video card. The larger the screen resolution, the more horsepower in the video card is needed. A screen set for 1600x1200 requires a lot more than 1280x1024.

This is easy to test. Lower your screen resolution if it's above 1024x768 and see what happens. If your screen is already at 1024x768 the problem is probably elsewhere.

Steve Newcomb

Tucson, AZ USA

[james millar]

Good work Jim, and enjoyable to view. I think you have done exceptional with creating or using animated snow of the right "character" for the scenes. I mean it is difficult to have the falling snow look like the same snow that is on the ground and structures. To me, the falling snow was a "possible" texture compatible with what seemed to be a "wet" snow on the ground. There are still some photos where the brightness of the falling snow conflicts with my brain's expectation vis-a-vis the darker snow on the ground. I am certainly amazed how you, and Lin, and a few others have "perfected" the idea of artificial/artistic snow fall. If I have one suggestion for further "accuracy" - I think your mix of flakes should use fewer "elongated" flakes. Too many of that shape tend to make me think of pulled cotton rather than clinging snow flakes. Did you make your own flakes or are they from Lin or someone? Can you share your technique and maybe even a portion of your project file (.pte)? Finally, I enjoyed especially several of your photographs beneath the scrutinized falling snow. And, 2nd finally - what is the location of your photos?

Thank you for taking the time to view and comment on the show. The photo's were all taken in Scotland some central and some in the West highlands with the exception of the last one which was from the Lake District, England. I take your point about the brightness of the snow, perhaps I should lower the opacity of these layers. I made my own snow layers in P.S. Method- make a new transparent layer and duplicate, select bottom layer and fill with black. select top layer. select the brush tool and pick a preset, I used No 100 in cs3. change the F/G colour to white and paint over the top layer, do not drag the brush only click once or twice and move on until the layer is covered. delete the black/bottom layer. duplicate the transparent layer twice, deselect the top & bottom layers and with the centre layer selected flip horizontally, deselect the centre layer and select the top layer and flip vertcally. save each of these layers seperately as PNG's which will give you 3 snow layers

I have included a couple of screen shots. Sorry but it seems tht I'm not allowed to upload PTE project files.

Regards Jim M.