"3D" Picture in Picture

[thedom]

More than 6 month after my trip in Tanzania, here is finally a short slideshow of my safari.

To make this slideshow, I made an intensive use of masks to enhance my pictures.

Probably overdone in this show but please consider it as a promotion of this feature.

[ 5 minutes and 25 seconds - 37.45Mb]

Download it here, on my personal website.

As usual, comments welcome.

[deskjet1uk]

Such beautiful settings and as usual the wildlife are such a fantastic subject matter. I admired the photography and your use of masks did not put me off at all, I kept glued to the screen. IMHO brilliant and thanks for allowing us to view such beautiful creatures in natural habitat.

Ralph

[nharris]

Hello:

I just downloaded and viewed your Tanzania show. The images were superb and I really enjoyed the presentation. I.too,felt the masking was quite unobtrusive and added to the effect of the show rather than the opposite. How did you set up the white borders for the frames ?

Thank You

Noel Harris

[davegee]

Hi Dom,

I have tried the EXE and I'm experiencing some extremely jagged (stepped) edges on the white borders on my 1024x768 screen.

I haven't tried it on my larger screens yet.

DaveG

[Ken Cox]

Dom

great picts

IMHO

too many frames spoiled your show - reminds me of the pan and zoom thread a while back

you could of had a frame at start and finish describing the events

why not try it with your book template?

ken

[xahu34]

Hi,

A technical remark from my side. On my machine with a monitor of size 1680x1050 and an Nvidia 8500 GT card, I had some trouble with this production: The mask effect did not run in a smooth way during the transition periods. Furthermore, the image frames are slightly bent leading to jagged image boundaries. So, I stopped the show.

Best regards,

Xaver

[frets3]

Hi, Dom,

Thanks for sharing your gorgeous pictures! The excellent mask effect enhances the apparent photo depth.

I admire your photography and ingenuity.

Best wishes,

David

[thedom]

Thank you very much for your comments.

I noticed this problem of jagged (stepped) edges too.

Actually, I think it's because antialiasing is not applied to PTE masks. I think I will make a suggestion for Igor to add it (if it's feasible) because it's quite annoying.

Anyway, I changed my presentation a little bit , I used a "trick" for this aliasing not to be visible (just applied a white .png white border over it), changed the movements of the pictures in order fo the transition to be smoother even with medium video cards and added 2 pics.

Xaver, DaveG, if you have the courage and time, could you please download it again and tell me how it runs for you now ?

[Igor]

Dominique,

I noticed this problem of jagged (stepped) edges too.

Actually, I think it's because antialiasing is not applied to PTE masks. I think I will make a suggestion for Igor to add it (if it's feasible) because it's quite annoying.

We'll try to add antialiasing option for edges of Mask Container in v5.7.

I really didn't expect such case, because we thought that Masks usually have smooth border. But your works always exceed any expectations and borders!

[xahu34]

... Xaver, DaveG, if you have the courage and time, could you please download it again and tell me how it runs for you now ?

Dom,

The new version does not show jagged edges, the transitions now run in a smooth way.

Best regards,

Xaver

[nharris]

Thank you very much for your comments.

I noticed this problem of jagged (stepped) edges too.

Actually, I think it's because antialiasing is not applied to PTE masks. I think I will make a suggestion for Igor to add it (if it's feasible) because it's quite annoying.

Anyway, I changed my presentation a little bit , I used a "trick" for this aliasing not to be visible (just applied a white .png white border over it), changed the movements of the pictures in order fo the transition to be smoother even with medium video cards and added 2 pics.

Xaver, DaveG, if you have the courage and time, could you please download it again and tell me how it runs for you now ?

Hello:

I looked at the new version and the edges are fine at 1024x768. I looked at the prior version at the same resolution and there were some jagged edges on the masks.

The new one is just fine.

Noel Harris

[Almark]

Dom,

How on earth have I missed your sharing place? Sadly I will have to revisit and may spend too much time there ;-)

[Almark]

Dom,

Wonderful Photography. For me the photography always comes first and I really liked the photos of the 3 giraffes and the reflection of you (I assume) on the ant - great work.

In relation to the slight pans for each image, some go left, some go right.

The ones where the pan goes in the same direction as the animals work best for me:

lion going left to right watched by the herd of zebras,

the birds in flight

The ones were the pan goes against the direction of the animal's movement don't work as well, as it makes them appear to moving the wrong way, (backwards).

I viewed this at 1920x1200 and the were no jaggies, everything played just as it should. With your permission I would like to show this AV to interested members of my camera club, as it is a great example of what can be done with PTE and masks, and of course to let members appreciate the excellent photography.

[Igor]

Dominique,

There is a simple way to avoid jagged edges of a frame.

In the image file "3dbook-frame.jpg" used for Mask add one-pixel border around the mask using 50% of black color (127 of 255 in Photoshop). It will add smooth edges to the mask and remove aliasing.

However in v5.6 there is a visual bug with Mask which occurs in some rare cases (particular form of mask and adjusted opacity of Mask Container). And modified Mask as I suggested will cause this visual defect. We'll release updated v5.6.1 on this week to fix this issue.

[davegee]

Dom,

Version 2 plays fine on a 1920x1200 screen - no jegged edges.

A question - What is the resolution of the original full screen images?

DaveG

[happynewyear83]

More than 6 month after my trip in Tanzania, here is finally a short slideshow of my safari.

To make this slideshow, I made an intensive use of masks to enhance my pictures.

Probably overdone in this show but please consider it as a promotion of this feature.

[ 5 minutes and 25 seconds - 37.45Mb]

Download it here, on my personal website.

As usual, comments welcome.

Hi, I'm interested in learning the effects in your demo... Can anyone teach me how or is there any video tutorial which i can learn from??

[thedom]

Almark, I totally agree with your comment. You're right, it will look much more natural if the direction of the animal's movement is the same as the pan of the image.

I would be honored if you could show my AV to members of your camera club. When do you plan to show it ? If I have time, I will make the modifications with th movements...

And you are more than welcome to visit my website from time to time.

Igor, thank you for implementing antialiasing in next version.

DaveG, NoelH, thank you for your test and feedback.

DaveG, the resolution of the pictures is 1280x960.

Happynewyear83, this animation is quite complex : 10 objects by slide to simulate shadows, white frames, reflection, ... parent-child relations, frames, PTE Masks, a lot of keypoints for each object with different speeds options.

I don't your skills with PTE but if you are a beginner I really recommend to start with simple a animation.

You will find excellent tutorials posted by members in the Tutorials and Articles section of this forum : http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showforum=8

You can also download templates in the free templates section of my website : http://www.thedom.fr/share/dload.php?actio...y&cat_id=22

[Igor]

Dominique,

Igor, thank you for implementing antialiasing in next version.

It is already done.

See today's v5.6.1 Beta:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/picturestoexe-setup_beta.zip

And as I've wrote above regarding first revision of your slideshow:

"There is a simple way to avoid jagged edges of a frame.

In the image file "3dbook-frame.jpg" used for Mask add one-pixel border around the mask using 50% of black color (127 of 255 in Photoshop). It will add smooth edges to the mask and remove aliasing."

[Ken Cox]

IGOR

and how is the common man supposed to remember this sort of diddling around

and

is it now a prerequisite to use adobe software to achieve perfect picts with your program ??

ken

[Almark]

Dom, I will wait for your update. I am in no rush. I like to show a few AV's every Wednesday at the CC.

[xahu34]

... is it now a prerequisite to use adobe software to achieve perfect picts ...

When constructing masks (alpha channels) it is quite natural to work with an image editor. Just an example: Play with the effect by combining a low-key image with a mask which is obtained by the image itself (desaturated, blurred, and with a modified curve).

Regards,

Xaver

[LumenLux]

IGOR

and how is the common man supposed to remember this sort of diddling around

and

is it now a prerequisite to use adobe software to achieve perfect picts with your program ??

ken

Of course not Ken! You and I both know common man can't do all this. But it is still wonderful to see what some minds can do. And if it is just a perfect picture you are after - we all take those by the armload!

[thedom]

The ones were the pan goes against the direction of the animal's movement don't work as well, as it makes them appear to moving the wrong way, (backwards).

Dom, I will wait for your update. I am in no rush. I like to show a few AV's every Wednesday at the CC.

I modified the show (same link). You were right, it's much better now.

Thank you for your suggestion.

[Almark]

Thanks Dom, i will show this tomorrow, er later today ;-)