Newbie needs help with slideshow

[glen4cindy Profile Private message]

I am very new to PSG.

How do you put 5 or 6 photos on one screen, and have them them fade in, one by one, center focus, and then fade into the background to allow room for the next photo to do the same thing?

Your help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Glen

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Hopefully one of the Gold regulars will have a better answer but one way involves using an external editor (like Photoshop). You create a number of slides where you have one in primary focus and the "previous" image in the background. You then crossfade from the previous to the next one. The following slide would then have an initial state of 2 images in the background and then crossfade to a slide that still has the two in the background, but a third placed on it as well. You would create slides with 1, 2, 3 images etc in the background and the matching ones that would be those with a main image in the foreground. Hopefully that makes sense - I have been staring at too many soccer pictures for my daughter's soccer team DVD I need to get done

It is much easier in Producer since you can keyframe all sorts of things and layers as to what you want them to do (although keyframes have been known to drive people to drink until they get to understand them !! ) Note that the way I describe above does not look the same as a keyframed version, but it will accomplish basically what you are asking for.

mikey

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Here is another answer, though still not from a "Gold regular".

What you have to understand is that slides in ProShow Gold allow just ONE movement for each layer for the entire duration of the slide. You can only have a START position and an END position.
ProShow creates for you automatically the motion between these two positions, and you cannot interfere. You have no control on when a layer stops moving so that another should start.
As Mikey explained, this control is available only in Producer, by means of keyframes.

BUT, what you can do in Gold, is to divide your animation in several, separated slides. Each slide basically continues the motion from where the previous one has stopped. By using a 0 (cut) transition between these multiple slides, you would eventually have a continuous motion effect.

So, if I understand you correctly, you would like to make an animation of a stack of pictures (or any other kind of group formation). You also want to draw a picture from the stack, bring it into focus and then make it disappear, so that another picture should be drawn from the stack and do the same, until there are no more pictures in the stack.

What you need to do, is to make a range of slides in which you have to show the following movements:
Slide 1 - Group of pictures, one picture MOVES to center and zooms.
Slide 2 - HOLD position (as you want the viewer to have time to watch the picture, you must allow this time in a static, no movement slide. This slide contains the group of pictures, and the last position of your zoomed picture.
Slide 3 - Group of pictures + The picture leaves the frame. Another picture comes out of the group and is brought to center.
Slide 4 - HOLD position
Slide 4 - MOVE

You continue with this alternation between Move and Hold until there are no more pictures in your stack/group.

Note:
1.In order to continue a slide from where the preceding one has stopped, you have to use the function "Copy all layers to next slide".
2. The order of the layers in the stack is important because you don't want any picture to "bump" into another when it moves to the center, to zoom. So, make sure that the picture that needs to move is always at the top of your layers. You can change this order from slide to slide, to accommodate your needs.
3. Use a 0 seconds transition between all the slides with this effect.

Have a look at my effects for ProShow Gold. http://seemonasblog.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... -gold.html
I made something similar to what you are looking for and I used a similar technique to what I described above.
All in Denim for ProShow Gold
Everything that you see there was done in Gold.

Hope this helps,

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

Glen -- Mona's answer is, as always, excellent. But don't hesitate to keep asking questions if it didn't hit exactly what you need or you don't understand it but help us too in that case with a bit more info about what you want to do. Based on what I think you're trying to achieve, yes, you can do it and its not hard, you just build up the overall effect one step at a time, which is what Mona's getting at.
Dick

[glen4cindy Profile Private message]

Yes, it sort of answers that it can be done, but, I am really new at this.

I need some more basic instructions on just how to accomplish it.

I have been practicing it, so I can get a graduation show made....

The final result is going to have many photos.

PSG is the best and most affordable so far that I have found, and I really need to learn to use it to it's fullest.

I really appreciate all the fine support I am finding here.

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Glen,
Could you be more specific, please?
What part is not clear to you?
Do you understand how to insert your pictures in a slide?
Do you understand how to move one picture from one side to another?

[glen4cindy Profile Private message]

I do know how to insert pictures into a slide.

I am not familiar with how to move one picture from one slide to another.

I have always just worked with one photo per slide, and moved from slide to slide,
and moved and panned with each slide to give the motion effect, but, not multiple
photos per slide.

Sorry for being unclear.

Thanks,

Glen

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

OK, I think that I understand.

First you need to insert several pictures IN THE SAME SLIDE and to position them in a nice stack/group formation.

Drag one picture from your thumbnails into your slide.
In Motion Effects, in the left preview panel, make these changes: Zoom: 35%, Rotation (if you want 15%)
Drag your picture and position it on screen where you want it.
In Layers > Editing, Put a check mark on Drop Shadow.

Hold down the [Ctrl] key and drag another picture into the same slide.
Do the same thing for this picture as you did for the previous one. Change the position slightly so that they are not exactly one on top of the other. Change the rotation a bit too.

Go to Layers, and see that you now have two layers (two pictures that are placed one on top of the others, in the same slide)

Continue to insert pictures and to do the same changes for all of them, until you have a nice stack/formation on screen.

When you are done, and you are pleased with how your stack looks like in the left panel, press on the icon "Copy Motion Effects" and choose "Copy Start to End All Layers".
This will make your right panel identical to your left panel. The result is that when you play this slide, nothing will move.

Give this slide a duration of 1 sec.

Next, copy and paste this slide, so that you have 2 identical slides in your show.
Make the transition between them of 0 seconds.
In your second slide, in the Right panel, position your 1 st picture (the one that appears as your 1st layer), in the center of the screen, (Pan: x=0 y=0) and zoom it to 80%
Slide Time 2 sec.
When you play this slide, you will see one picture moving to the center, while all the others stay put.

As I said in my previous post, you need to give the viewer time to watch the picture, so this zoomed picture must stay on scren:
Copy Motion Effects > Copy End to Next Slide
Now you have another slide which is static.

From here you can read again my previous post, and I'm sure that it will make more sense to you. Try to think what motions you need to accomplish each time, and for each motion create a slide.

This is as detailed as it gets

EDIT POST:
I've made a quick demo for you, to better illustrate the explanations above. It is a stack of 3 pictures.
It will also show you how the picture leaves the screen while another takes its place. The demo has no sound.
http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... alb=156353

[glen4cindy Profile Private message]

Thanks Mona.

That was AWESOME!

I tried it, and I can do it!

I'm sure I can adapt it to what I need.

Thanks so much for your very detailed description.

Glen

[glen4cindy Profile Private message]

I am finding that I have one more question to ask regarding this process.

Having a stack of photos on a slide is great. But, they have to get there.

Lets say, I am in the middle of a show. I need to transition from a previous slide.

I need to get the photos there in the first place.

In the previous shows I have done, I have only had one photo per slide, and went from slide to slide
with one photo each.

Now, I have a client who wants more than one photo on a slide. They want 5, so I have to get them there,
and then move on to the next slide. I may work with them on having the photos fly off the slide as well,
it just depends upon what they want.

Is there a way to make the photos "fly" into a slide and end up in the stack before they move across the slide as Mona taught me?

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Glen,

Is there a way to make the photos "fly" into a slide and end up in the stack before they move across the slide as Mona taught me?

In your first slide:

Starting position: (left preview panel in Motion Effects) - the pictures are placed outside the safe area, outside the viewable space. You can even rotate some, and change sizes.
To get a better view of this outside area: Double click on your preview (left panel). This will bring up the Precision Preview. I think the default is 70% zoom, but you can change that to a percentage that allows you to see all your pictures outside the safe area of the slide.

Ending position: (Right preview panel in Motion Effects). The pictures are nicely stacked.

Hope this is the effect that you want to achieve.

[glen4cindy Profile Private message]

That is exactly what I was hoping I could do.

Thanks.

[glen4cindy Profile Private message]

Okay, I have one more question in regard to this process.

I am actually leaving the like 3 to 4 photos on the screen at the same time before the slide moves on to the next slide.

How can I adjust the animation so all the photos don't fly in at the same time? This is the only part that does not really look good. I bought the Senior Portrats Media Source and that is giving me great backgrounds to work with, so I would recommend the Media sources to anyone who thinks they might use them.

Thanks.

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

To separate the motions you'll just need to create one slide with each motion. To have four pictures end up on the slide you'd have a series where #1 starts blank & ends with one picture, the second starts with a copy of #1's end position and has the next picture being added... repeat until you've got all four, then add one more slide that is just a copy of the 4th one's ending so you can hold that for people to see the final result. All transitions in the series are zero length so the motions are seamless.

Hope that helps,
Dick

[glen4cindy Profile Private message]

Thanks Dick. I think I understand. Is there anything special about copying the end position? Also, will having to do it this way make the slideshow take longer to play? My client wants a show that is going to last about 16 minuts, and has 5 songs. She has a certain number of photos that she has, and this number is going to depend upon making the slides work out with the number of photos on each slide that she want on there, if I am describing it correctly.

Some slides will have 3 photos, some 2, some 1, some 4, etc........

Thanks!