Jim Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 This might interest some of the PTE users...this software allows you to create a pan 'n 'scan effect across a single photo a la Ken Burns TV documentary style. It creates an AVI file out of the resulting BMPs. You can also use some of the BMPs in PTE with a very fast timer setting and no transitions to create a similar result in your slideshow. It's easy to use and it's freeware. No spyware, ads etc. Worth checking out.ROSTRUM CAMERAhttp://www.price-media.demon.co.uk/Regards, Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaroldB Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 I'd love for PTE itself to be able to do this without burdening the user with a gigantic EXE file.Igor?Harold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted August 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Harold...what I did to test the pan/scan effect in PTE was to first convert the needed BMPs into way smaller JPGs...you do indeed need a fair few to get a nice smooth look to the effect but if you can keep the numbers down a bit and make the JPGs as small (in Kbs) as possible then it's really not adding too much to the finished PTE product. And it does look pretty good. It would be better, as you say, if PTE could do it natively but in the meantime.....Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom K Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 There's a similar program called "Stillmotion" by Imagematics, $99.95.http://www.imagematics.com/ProductPage.htmIn the Personal Edition it produces a .swf (Shockwave Flash) file that takes up very little space. I fiddled with the trial version a little bit about a year ago and was not impressed with the result - it was low res and kinda jerky, I thought. But they make higher end versions that will produce .avi files which might have a better appearance. Don't know how well they'd integrate into a P2E show, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaroldB Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Jim,I downloaded the software and played with it for a bit. For the sample picture I tried, it seemed like I needed a lot of pictures to stop the pan or zoom from being jerky. This seems like something wonderful for Igor to include in base PTE. Igor, if you can go see this software when you get back from vacation, you might see that it is not too hard to include it into PTE!Harold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potwnc Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Well... a word of caution to all... I too downloaded it and was impressed. But as those who have workedwith it will realize it introduces many technical issues. Don't misunderstand me - I also _want_ PTE to eventually produce video - but all be aware of the techical problems that are not Igor's fault: first PAL versus NTSC and Secam... second codecs - there are so many of them! Third formats... we all know mpg and avi,but what about conversion to/from mwv, asf, rm etc? Then there's resolution - VCD, SVCD and DVD all havedifferent resolutions and they're also different in PAL and NTSC formats. The technical issues go on and on...Bottom line - we would all like Igor to add video output, but can we all deal with the technical circus that it would introduce?Ray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted August 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Ray... sorry but I think you've missed my point here---the idea would be to simply use this program's produced BMPs,not the AVIs, by first converting them to much smaller JPGs then adding them, without transitions, using ultra short display times, to the beginning of a PTE show to create the illusion of a scanning movement. Adding AVIs/WMVs or even just animated GIFs etc is a different kettle of fish. I, too, would like to see these featured added, and I think we might sometime in the future, but in the meantime perhaps this method is a fun work-around to try. I've used individual frames from Ani. GIFs as an intro to PTE shows before with some degree of success but I thought the nice effect from using the pan/scan method was to give it an illusion of motion across a single frame rather than a succsession of different ones. It looks quite good when used on a row of faces in a group shot for example. I completely agree with you on the format etc confusion re the video world, it's a mess! Anyway, give the pan/scan thing a shot in a PTE show and see what you think.Regards, Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaroldB Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 Ray,I think you misunderstood me. While I wouldn't mind PTE producing DVD's, I think the ability to pan across a photo is simply a transition like any of the transitions that PTE does today. The software Jim pointed out actually generates BMP files for the intermediate images, but that is something that PTE does internally today for all of its transition effects.The one difference between the pan and zoom transitions and the transitions that are in PTE today is that the pan and zoom transitions require from and to selections on the original photo. But that is something that Igor can surely add without getting into the problems with video!I hope .Harold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potwnc Posted August 27, 2003 Report Share Posted August 27, 2003 Ray,I think you misunderstood me. While I wouldn't mind PTE producing DVD's, I think the ability to pan across a photo is simply a transition like any of the transitions that PTE does today. The software Jim pointed out actually generates BMP files for the intermediate images, but that is something that PTE does internally today for all of its transition effects.The one difference between the pan and zoom transitions and the transitions that are in PTE today is that the pan and zoom transitions require from and to selections on the original photo. But that is something that Igor can surely add without getting into the problems with video!I hope .Harold Yes I realize that the thread here is about a means to get the _current_ PTE version to _simulate_ video(at least pan and zoom). I just thought I'd alert others to some of the technical aspects of video itself.Anyway, here's the results of some further testing I just did:I used Rostrum Camera to generate a 1.9 second zoom on a jpeg image at 25 frames/second. I set 400x300pixels as the frame size. This produced 48 individual bitmap files. I converted them to jpeg files, averaging70 Kbytes each. I then loaded them into PTE (version 4.11), set the display time of each image to be 40 msecand the transition effect to be "cut - no transition". (Video - or at least PAL video format as used in Europe -is 25 frames/second, which means each image is exposed for 40 msec, which is about the maximum timenecessary for people to experience the illusion of motion.)When I created the .exe file, the resulting slideshow was very, very choppy. Instead of 1.9 seconds, itlasted about 8 seconds. I created a second .exe with a 20 msec display time for each image. The 2 slideshows looked exactly the same! This could be because I'm using quite old technology (an AMDK6/2 400MHz processor). I just ordered a 3.02 GHz replacement and I should and will repeat the test onthat machine. Or it could be a limitation of PTE itself? Hopefully Igor will read this and comment on that. Ineither case, my current K6/2 400MHz is representative of my target audience for my slideshows.So, unless I'm missing something the problem here may not be actual video (mpeg/avi format etc.) so muchas CPU power on the target machine.Ray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted August 27, 2003 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2003 Ray....that 400AMD you're using to test the rapid fire JPGs probably performs like it's tied to a tree. Wait until you get the 3Gig setup, I'm sure it'll be a lot smoother ride. If you're into video etc, which you seem to be, you've got some fun times ahead. Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potwnc Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 I got my new computer today and... the same exe files I reported on above work like a charm :-)So I guess the question now is... what is the minimum configuration we should demand of our users tobe able to experience a video-like effect in our slideshows? I can say that 3 GHz is enough and that400 MHz is not, but that leaves a huge range. Has anyone else experimented with this software? If anyonewould like my 48 jpeg files and pte file to help reduce the time it takes to do the experiment, I'd be more thanhappy to send them along.Ray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcarthur Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Another very nice piece of software which does this is GlobFX Composer. I must admit that the two things that GlobFX does that I find I can't do without, and is stopping me using PTE much, are the workflow - being able to do and see most everything on a timeline - and the panning. GlobFX can do more than simple panning, it can move the picture (not create an AVI or anything, merely moving the image on the screen) in a linear path as provided by the user. I'd like to be able to move on any path, provided by a spline or something, but at least I can choose one!So I'd like to register a huge vote for basic panning of images, then linear path panning, then complex path panning.ThanksRobert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaroldB Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 it can move the picture (not create an AVI or anything, merely moving the image on the screen) in a linear path as provided by the user. PowerPoint has been doing this, too, for quite a while, and on pretty low-powered machines, too!I would like to see this kind of stuff in PTE, too, eventually.Harold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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