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Digital AV Work Flow using PTE software. - 2005
There are several excellent notes on PTE including the Help file and there are tutorials to download from the PTE site or here and an excellent tutorial entitled PTE 101 from http://www.alrobinson.com
When PTE is opened the last project worked on will automatically open ready to be continued. There are various Interface options which you can choose using the button
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in the panel ................. |
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Find the folder with your prepared images - my-new-sequence” images folder
1 Go to File / New and give your project its working / folder name e.g. my-new-sequence
b) Go to File/ save BUT make sure you save it in the “my-new-sequence” docs folder.
Navigate to find the folder. This will save a .pte file i.e the working file with all the information which relies of everything remaining in the same position.
Initially all the “create buttons are greyed out. Once you have added an image and saved the new project name these buttons will be accessible.
c) If you now click the bottom left “create” button, an executable file is created (i.e .exe) This type of file is the stand alone end product which will run your sequence on other computers. (except Macs) After that every time ‘create’ is clicked the slideshow is saved (and previous versions overwritten). Ctrl S saves the pte (working) file
which must always be saved before closing.
d) Images or ‘slides’ can be added to the image list individually, in groups or en masse. They can be moved around in the viewer , removed as required or the same slide repeated. If necessary a blank slide can be added at the beginning or end. This can either be created in Photoshop - fill an image sized 1280 pixels x 960 pixels** with black. However any image can be chosen in PTE, inserted at the beginning or end and then by unticking the show image box, this will then become a black slide.
** originally I used to size my images 1024pixels by 768pixels but I now size then larger to "future-proof" for current & future better digital projectors.
e) The new sequence can be now be previewed. All new projects have every transition box ticked so each image will show a different type of transition. To stop the show, press escape.
Click project options along the bottom bar. Seven options pages can be selected here. Initially certain settings are set as default:
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I concentrate on:
Main :
Create Slideshow (EXE)
Display each slide for 4 secs
Close show after last slide. If you wish to create an AV which gives information on the last slide, then tick when last show ends keep last show in slide on the screen. e.g. your copyright information.
Advanced
no changes necessary at this stage.
check - hide mouse cursor during the show
Music
Untick Repeat music after playing
Add - your choice of music, navigate to find your MP3 file in your ” my-new-sequence” sound folder
Comments
no changes necessary at this stage.
Screen
Any changes here depend on your personal preferences.
I prefer to "fit to screen" many others prefer to use a border, etc.
Effects
Every effect is initially selected as the default – untick them by clicking on the two blank boxes top right. Then tick Fade in/out. Effect duration - the default is 1500ms, change to 3000 ms. Disregard the thickness of the smoothing line at this stage.
Messages
No changes necessary at this stage.
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Now go back to Main page and tick Synchronize slideshow to music duration.
If you wish to have this option ………. Tick permit the control of the show (not usually necessary)
Repeat show until ESC is pressed - change to close show after last slide
Click on the customize Synchronization button
If you have not added music the timeline will display a message asking “Please go to <music> tab in Project options and add sound file(s)"
If music has been added earlier, then the timeline will show for the time length of the music file and any slides will be displayed as grey blocks.
In the Customize Synchronization option
This displays the time line. The time line can be accessed from the project options/ main/ customize Synchronization or from the button at the bottom of the PTE screen.
It is possible to either select automatic synchronization (all slides display for an equal amount of time – calculated by Pte)
or Customize synchronization (you set and modify slide transition timing using this dialog).
It is best to edit the slides (delete, insert, etc using the timeline).
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Other PTE options:
Customizing slide
Object editor
Individual sound -
Individual comment - can add title, etc - project options /comments |
Click on Customize Synchronization
This reveals the timeline. You can either click the Timed Points and add arranged points. This places the correct number of transition points in your sequence and allows you to have a first rough view of how the image look with the sound track.
In version 3.8 you can view the sequence complete with dissolves in the thumbnail viewing window (top right) or if you click OK twice to come back out into the main PTE program you can click preview you can view it full screen (press escape to stop).
Or - To place the transition points in their correct place on the time line, press play and as a new slide is needed press new transition. The transition point appears along with the picture of the slide If you click play and then the point on the time line where you want to check your sequence and you can check small parts of the sequence without having to start from the beginning each time you make a change.
I also like to customize each slide individually using the customize slide button bottom left, tick customize settings for this slide in main area and open the effects tab.
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Oct 2002 Notes for attenders at Wessex DI Group's digital AV day : last updated July 2003
Now needs updating again !
copyright Maureen Albright ARPS
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Firstly decide on your idea and how you plan to record the script, sound and images. |
1. Set up a folder with title of the project, with subfolders for images, sound, documents. Preferable use a short abbreviation of maybe three letters e.g. summer holiday = smh |
Images.
2. Images can be scanned into the computer as slides, negatives, prints or straight from a digital camera or CD. Using suitable software e.g. Photoshop (see links page) they can be corrected and adjusted, any imperfections removed by cloning, etc.
However if you need to ensure perfect dissolves and registration in some slides. It may be better to stack your images first. Then you can check your dissolves using the opacity slider before you crop or change size. I find it useful to keep a copy of the whole stack so I can remember the rough order of the images in the sequences. If you use the actions palette & batch processing first you will be unable to move parts of the image easily in your stack to create better dissolves. However it is better to quickly view your dissolves first. |
3. Resize the images for your AV software - 1024pixels by 768 pixels or 1280 pixels x 960 pixels**. (better) and make sure they are all under 400kb. Any bigger and they will cause problems. Pictures to Exe works by firstly processing the sound file and then it will process each image individually as it is needed.
Although I personally don't advise this as a quick start - for reasons I will explain later - a quick way to resize images can be by using the crop tool in Photoshop with the constraints [pixel dimensions – top box ] set to 1024 px width, 768px height (It is unnecessary to fill in the resolution here). This will crop your image. Many peopel then use a batch processing technique in Photoshop. |
However in order to seek out good dissolves and slide part of an image around to dissolve into the next, I do advise using the stacking layers method in Photoshop. You can test each slide against the next by building up a layer and using the opacity slider to check how they dissolve. If you have not resized all your image to the finished size you can use the move tool to slide the image and find the best disolved, etc.
Once you have stacked your images (lock layers to ensure they don't slip or you accidentally move the wrong layer! ) , Then place your crop tool over the top and all the stack will be cropped with each layer remaining in position (so your dissolves will remain in the stack).
Make sure you use the hide selection with your crop tool. *
The actions palette can also set up an action to crop your images and then using this action with batch processing you can produce a folder of images all resized very quickly. However it is always better to work on the images individually for best quality images to dissolve.
If you wish to have an incredibley long slow dissolve but hold the slider at certain parts of the dissolve, create a new images using two layers and the opacity slider, hold that image and then dissolve that into the next. |
4. When you are happy with your resized images save them into your PTE project images folder using the save for web option in Photoshop. This gives a much better jpeg compression than using save as jpeg. and you can view the quality of the image before deciding on your jpeg options.
Always remember that each additional saving as jpeg, you will always lose a small amount of information. Therefore if you find you need to adjust your PTE resized & cropped image, always go back to the original saved large Photoshop or gif image and correct from that. Resaving your “pte saved to web” version will always result in degradation of image quality. Only use the Photoshop “save to web” setting once on the image as its final save.
Excellent information about scanning see http://www.scantips.com |
Sound:
This can be input straight from a CD into the various sound editing software.
Please be aware and respect copyright at all times. (Contact the MCPS Mechanical Copyright Protection Society Ltd and the IAC - the Film & Video Institute for information about licences etc. ) There are also many web sites with copyright free music. Use the search engines to Find what you require.
It is best to save it as a *.wav file while it is being edited, and then as a *.mp3 file (compressed and much smaller but the sound quality is retained) to input into Pictures to Exe. To input other devices use the sound card inputs, usually located at the back of your computer. Each can be recorded as a new track in CoolEdit/ Audition or Audacity sound software so that background music, voice and sound effects can all be adjusted adding effects etc if necessary. When you are satisfied save the final version as "projectname.wav" and then save a version as "projectname.mp3".
It is advisable to keep the original *.wav file safely so that this version can be used should you wish to re record more additional tracks or edit at a later date. Pictures to Exe requires sound files to be recorded as small as possible for the processor to cope with the sequence, it is advisable to use *mp3 files in Pictures to Exe.
Small sound files can be added to individual slides by opening the third row at the bottom (labelled sound). You will be asked to select the sound to add to the image from your computer. E.g. sound of a dog barking, door slams, etc. It is essential to keep this sound file very small.
I also prefer to add a few seconds of silence at the front and end of my sound files which gives a better dissolve in and out using the black slides.
Digital AV sequences work better with only one *mp3 file if possible. So if you wish to create a show with several sound files together it is advisable to create one long sound file linking all thse files together and try to save them all as one long *mp3 file. This gives the computer processor less work |
Pictures to Exe
Select a new project (file /new ) and give it your sequence name.
Left hand side of the screen , open up your image file (click on the drive and find your folder of images, they will then show up in the left hand side of the PTE window.).
To transfer the images to the slide list, highlight the slides you wish to include. This can be done individually or by holding down the shift key a large number of slides can be highlighted and selected at once. In order for you slides to appear in the list in the correct order, you can either name them with an alphabetic order first or use numbers starting with 01. You will also need to create two black slides in Photoshop and place them at the start and end. |
To Select the options you wish to set for your sequence:
Click project options (third from the bottom left) which opens up the seven fields.
In Main – create slideshow [exe}; close show after last slide; display each slide for ……secs; If you wish to create an AV which gives information on the last slide, then tick when last show ends keep last show in slide on the screen. e.g. your copyright information.
Advanced – hide mouse cursor during the show
Screen – fit to screen, smoothing & full screen mode |
Effects – check only fade in & fade out and set its duration
I also prefer to tick show start up window and I customise the start up window so that the screen initially show an image from the sequence with a button to start it. Others prefer to allow the sequence to start at once.
Sound is next loaded by using project options – music. Select - the play background music, click the add button and find the piece of music in your projectname sound folder. Select the mp3 sound file and input. Click the show music duration and you can then calculate and average time to show your first preview of the slide changes.
In project options – main select synchronize slide show to music duration. Click on Customize Synchronization
This reveals the timeline. You can either click the Timed Points and add arranged points. This places the correct number of transition points in your sequence and allows you to have a first rough view of how the image look with the sound track.
In version 3.8 you can view the sequence complete with dissolves in the thumbnail viewing window (top right) or if you click OK twice to come back out into the main PTE program you can click preview you can view it full screen (press escape to stop).
Or - To place the transition points in their correct place on the time line, press play and as a new slide is needed press new transition. The transition point appears along with the picture of the slide If you click play and then the point on the time line where you want to check your sequence and you can check small parts of the sequence without having to start from the beginning each time you make a change.
I also like to customize each slide individually using the customize slide button bottom left, tick customize settings for this slide in main area and open the effects tab.
Choose which effect you wish to use and also the time you wish the effect to take. You will notice that the P button beside the customize slide button will appear depressed as you highlight the slide which have customized effects added to them.
Although you are given a long list of effects, most will soon lose their novelty appeal after several showings. I think the most successful is the fade in/ fade out effect.
The dissolve time can also be set for each individual slide.
You are also given the option to use the object editor on each slide. When you open it, you are given the option to add any or all of four options. These are add
a button which can be edited so if clicked gives you one of several options to exit, next slide, previous slide, help, go to first slide, go to slide number, pause, open web page, write e-mail, run application, open file or none. You can also add a hyperlink , add text to the page, or add a picture .
Beware of accidentally clicking the cursor on the three bottom buttons add, remove slide, or clear list at this time. I have done so in the past and not realised that I had removed slides. (easily done as it is very close to the customize slide button). |
The newer versions of P2E or PTE as it is affectionately known now show the slides in their folder on the left hand side and you will notice that the slides used in the project are shown highlighted while those not used remain in plain text.
If you find some transitions give a flicker, check the size of the image. Larger files will take more time for your processor to work so keep images as small as possible without losing quality and also use mp3 sound files. It is possible to link several sequences together joining their sound tracks by periods of silence to make one very long sound track.
Transition or dissolve timing should not be greater than the time between the slides or you will find the slides “hang” or miss or “loop”.
Pictures to Exe is try before you buy software and is available to download free from www.wnsoft.com. You can test it with a few slides but in order to use its full potential you need to pay $24 . You can also order by fax or phone. (see the web site). After you have paid to register you will receive an e-mail with your registration key.
There is also an excellent Forum site for Pictures to Exe at www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php
where the latest version of Pictures to Exe v4 and the latest beta versions are available to download. This site is a great fund of digital AV information.
Also http://www.beechbrook.com/pte/ has lots of good utilities for use with Pictures to Exe as well as lots of digital AV sequences from members all over the world which can be downloaded and viewed.
It is possible to zip and e-mail Pictures to Exe sequences and for very large files software is available which splits the file into parts to send – hopefully reassembling it in the correct order!
Maureen Albright ARPS January 2003
with Special Thanks to Ian Bateman FRPS and all at http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php |
I hope these notes will help and encourage many people to try to create new digital AV sequences using Pictures to Exe. The next Digital AV day will be November 2nd 2003 at Aldbourne, Wiltshire.
Full details at www.wessex-dig.org.uk and also www.avworld.org .
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Notes by Ian Bateman FRPS - Pictures to Exe - Russian
Most AV workers who have taken the plunge into producing digital sequences have by now come across the “Pictures to Exe” program (PTE). This is the product of a small software house in Kirov, Russia, and has been on the market since July 1999. The software developers are continuously striving to improve the product, and a major step forward was made in February 2001 when version 3.4 introduced a smooth “fade” effect that simulated a traditional slide dissolve. A year later, another massive step change has been made with the release of version 3.7, which introduces several new transition effects and a customisable timeline.
One of the major frustrations in producing digital AV’s is the problem of producing a synchronised sequence that will play perfectly on a different computer. This is because the “audio” part of the sequence is handled differently to the “visual” part. In the output file produced by PTE, the audio portion will play for the same duration irrespective of the specification of the computer being used. Unfortunately, this does not always hold true for the pictures. The speed of the transition from one picture to the next is governed by the hardware used to play it back. Thus a sequence that has been perfectly synchronised on a slow computer will run a lot faster on a high-spec machine, and the result is that the pictures will finish ahead of the soundtrack, and vice-versa if played back on a lower-spec machine.
Not any more! PTE version 3.7 allows you to trigger the slide transitions at fixed points in the soundtrack, so that as the soundtrack is played back, every slide is introduced at the exact time that it was originally encoded. Each slide can still be given an individual dissolve rate in seconds as before, but now you are able to trigger the start of the dissolve by clicking the mouse at the correct time when listening to the soundtrack. In many ways it is similar to the traditional method of pulsing a tape by using the hand controller, so the great leap forwards is really case of going back to basics!
The new timeline function is accessed by first clicking the “Project Options” button, and then selecting the “customised synchronisation” feature. This then brings up the timeline window (see diagram on previous page). Pressing “Play” will start up the background audio file, and a moving pointer shows you where you are in the timeline. Each time you click the “New transition” button, the next slide in the sequence is introduced at the specific point in the timeline. When you’ve finished, you can edit the timeline afterwards to correct any errors you’ve made. This can either be done by deleting/re-inserting slides, or by moving them by making precise timing adjustments (down to milliseconds) in their position. You can skip to any part of the timeline by scrolling to it and clicking while the soundtrack is playing – the audio will jump to the required point and play from there.
The finished sequence can be saved to a CD in the usual way, and you can be confident that it will successfully play back on another Windows PC. The speed of the slide transitions (ie the dissolve times) is still dependant on the processing power of the PC used, so individual dissolves may still vary slightly from machine to machine – the difference is that the start of each dissolve is now strictly governed by the soundtrack playing in the background.
Ideally, it would be great if the actual dissolves themselves could be previewed in real-time as the sequence is being encoded. This has already been suggested to the programmers, and we can hopefully look forward to this in a future upgrade. At the moment, I’ve found that the best method is to note down the individual numbers of “key” slides that need to be perfectly synchronised with a specific part of the soundtrack, and then pace the sequence accordingly. The inevitable corrections are easily made by editing the timeline afterwards.
A trial version of Pictures to Exe can be downloaded from www.wnsoft.com, and if you like it its just $25 to register. All subsequent version upgrades are free! |
Creating a Menu Page for several Digital Sequences |
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Oct 2002 Notes for attenders at Wessex DI Group's digital AV day
copyright Maureen Albright ARPS
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Open up Pictures to Exe and import a black slide.
You will need a background for your second slide which will be your menu page. You may use your own image or create an abstract image using Photoshop or other similar software. Import image into new project. Make sure it is the correct size ( and well under 200kb) |
Go to Project Options
Main . Select the folowing :
create slideshow
Customize start up window (my personal preferance)
when show ends leave last slide on the screen
inside startup window
select show image and find the image you are going to use for your menu
more about this (which I'll call my show image later)
click Ok
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Next move on to Advanced tab
For this Menu PTE show click on always show mouse cursor (otherwise you will not have a cursor to open parts of your show)
I also select show loading screen if presentation starts more than 2 secs....
Music - you don't need music for this very simple version of a menu unless you choose a very short mp3 file.
Comments - nothing needed move onto screen tab
Screen
I like toselect - fit to screen
use smoothing
100% of the screen to show slide images
full screen mode
Effects
this is only necessary to move from the first black slide if you used it to the menu page .
I just prefer to use fadein/ out and effect duration .you can choose which you prefer
Messages
I type my name in author section with my web page & e-mail.
I use copyright Maureen Albright in the comments section
OK all project options
Back at your two slide PTE sequence page.
Highlight slide 1 - black slide
main - I just display the black slide for a few seconds.
then when new box opens select use customize settings for this slide
select fadein /out
Probably don't need this at it could run under the default settings but I usually just set it at slow effect duration (it is a prersonal preference thing)
click OK
Next slide - your main menu slide
click on object editor
This opens up a large view of your image. Although it is shown at 1024 x 768 Iusually go to the top left preview in box & go to 800 x 600. This then makes it easier to see what I am doing in this mode.
You can do four things to your images
Buttons
The first top left button will add buttons. When you click this, it will drop buttons but always in the top left corner. Use your cursor to position them where you would like them on the screen. They can be spaced out or grouped together in a line or placed where ever you wish.
You may prefer to create a background image, (in Photoshop or other picture editing software), which could then already show buttons on the screen (so we see all kinds of effect. etc actually on the image button)
When you right click on a PTE button its properties box opens up allowing you to resize the button, put a caption on it e.g. name of sequence you wish it to open or other programme to demonstrate etc. You are able to change the font, make the background transparent (e.g. if you want to use your previously created Photoshop background with its button images). The important part is the action of the mouse click
I hope you remembered to set your PTE main menu to show always show mouse cursor earlier !
There are a long list of mouse click options here. The one you need to use for a menu for an evening's show would be.....
Run application and open file. When this is highlighted, you have an enter program name box. This allows you to find the program you wish to link to this button on your hard drive and clicking the menu button will open it.
If you drag a box over your new buttons you can group & lock them together & they can be moved around as a group.
When attenders bring along digital ADs to show at our RPS Wessex DAVE meetings I ask them to send me a copy on CD in advance if possible. This enables me to check it will run on my laptop and also to create the link for the menu page to run the days programme. Everything runs much quicker & smoothly and it avoids the searching and double/ multipleclicks ( six clicks is my record) that I used to do to open DAVs in the early days.
There are also several other options in the Object Editor.
A underlined will add a hyperlink so you can go directly to a web site.
Note PTE is not only for creating our digital Avs but can be used for screen savers or by professional photographers who wish to show proofs of their work. So this can be useful in certain circumstances.
Text
The third button allows you to add text to the screen on your slide
You can use this option even when you have syncronized your images to the music.
However if you tick the synchronize the slides to music option and then add buttons, which you have selected to do something. At present you may find the buttons are not active in your saved PTE file. Igor is working on this and ideally we would like the buttons to be active on the last slide of a D AV so we can daisychain several sequences in an evening or a competition.The fourth button gives you the ability to import an image. More later on that.
When you are satisfied click OK
Your image can then be viewed and tested before being saved in your new menu sequence.
Save the raw project first, so next time you want to give a show, your menu is set and you can return to the object editor and just chnage the button labels and which programs you wish to open.
Lastly save as a PTE slideshow, named to help you remember the venue, date or group you showed it to.
This sequence will remail open in the background while teh other PTe AV opens and runs v- click escape to close the digital Av and the menu screen will pop back up. Remeber you set the main window to...when show ends keep last slide in show on screen.
You could add a few more introductory images and a small piece of music provided you do not tick
synchronize slideshow to music duration.
However to create a very quick small simple reliable menu, just use the two slide option.
Other menu options are available if you check out the utilities at the "Beechbrook Cottage site"
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