MODIFIERS: A Quick and Practical Example
http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... alb=148411 (The Result, not a video tutorial...)
-[ Revised 100811 ]-
MODIFIERS. Modifiers are an advanced feature of Photodex’s Proshow Producer (PSP). Their use is typically attributed to a master user of PSP. The thing is, that is not necessarily so, with the appropriate guidance. There are many simple modifiers you can use where only a minimal knowledge of PSP required. Photodex has documented modifiers pretty much the same way that they have documented PSP (update: the manual for v4.1 is MUCH more informative and useful. Still, it's more of a user guide than a how too manual). Effectively, the modifiers have been identified and described at a top level. However, aside from an example or two, nothing in the modifiers manual provides any effective guidance to the potential user on how to use them.
Modifiers have the potential to save the slideshow builder a considerable amount of time and effort. What I’ll present here is a quick example that can be easily expanded upon for even more practical uses.
MASKS. When you mask a portrait you lose the ability to use PSPs features that provide that portrait image a border or shadow. So, you have to build those features if you want to use them. Why then would you want to mask a portrait image? Assume you have two images and you want to fade from one to the other. However, each is from different cameras and so are slightly different in size. To make both appear the same size and to make their fade in/out look professional, you would mask the two images. Effectively the mask will crop them. Another example might be that you want to use the portrait orientation to show only a portion of a landscape image. At any rate, masks are used for a wide variety of reasons. Understanding masks is crucial to effectively using PSP.
KEYFRAMES. Keyframes help you control the movement or appearance of an image/layer. Knowing keyframes is also crucial to take advantage of the power of PSP.
DESCRIPTION. What I’ll do is provide a relatively simple and practical example that demonstrates the use of modifers, masks, and keyframes. I’ll have an image zoom into view, pause, and then fade from view as it zooms to 0.
This example assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP. You need not be proficient. Exact steps on how you use/access a particular feature is not presented. I'm assuming a transition time of 2s on either side of the slide.
• First, put your portrait image onto the slide.
• Set the slide time to 5 seconds.
• Double click on the slide to open the Slide Options Dialog
• Next, add a gradient layer. Put this as layer 1.
– I often use a gradient instead of a solid color layer because I may want to use multiple colors later. If you start out with solid color layer and then later find out you need colors for some reason (i.e., need a gradient layer), you will have to add a new layer and then duplicate keyframes and their locations/rotation/zoom/etc, and/or modifiers etc ... it can result in lots of work!).
• Make the layer solid white
– Allows its use as an intensity (grayscale) or alpha (transparency) mask interchangeably.
• Set the size to 800x1200.
– This is 3:2 aspect. If for a 4:3 aspect image, use 900x1200.
Select the Layers Tab.• In Layer Settings set the scaling for each layer to “Fit to Safe Zone” and the zoom to 90%.
– Note that this makes the two layers the same scaling. Zoom following will work best between layers that are scaled similarly. Dissimilarly scaled layers that use zoom following may result in unexpected/unwanted results (but it could be interesting!). In this case, the two layers (the portrait image and the image mask layer) are sized approximately the same.
Select the gradient layer• Now, select the Effects tab and click on the Motion Effects tab
• Add keyframes. Right click on the time line. In the resulting dialog select “ Insert Multiple”
• Put 5 into the resulting dialog and hit OK.
• Right click on keyframe 2.
• Select Set Time. Assuming the transition in time is set to 2 seconds, set it to 2.01s (or any time slightly PAST 2 seconds; there is a bug in PSP that can cause problems if the slide is copied with a keyframe located exactly where the transition time changes to slide time or vice versa).
• Hit OK.
• Set keyframe times. Right click over kf3, select Set Time, set it to 3.5s, select OK. Now, set kf4 to 4s, kf5 to 5s, and kf6 to 5.5s. Kf7 should be firewalled at 9s.
Select the region between kf1 and kf2. Set:• kf1- pan: -20,20. zoom: 0,0.
• kf2- pan: -20,20; zoom: 50,50
• kf3- pan: -20,5; zoom: 0,20
• kf4- pan: 20, -20; zoom: 40,0
• kf5- pan: 0,30; zoom: 20,20;
• kf6- pan: 0,0; zoom: 90,90;
• kf7- pan: 50,50; zoom: 0,0.
Select layer 2 (image layer).• Right click on pan-x box. Select Add Modifier. Apply to: All Keyframes; Type of action to [+] Add to Modifier; Variable Amount Based On: Pan X. From: Layer 1. Multiply By: 1.00. Select OK
• Pan-Y box. Add Modifier. Apply to: All Keyframes; Type of action to [+] Add to Modifier; Variable Amount Based On: Pan Y. From: Layer 1. Multiply By: 1.00. Select OK
• Zoom-x box. Add modifier. Variable Amount Based On: zoom-x; From: layer 1; Multiplied By: 1; Add an action. Set Type of Action to [-] Subtract from Modifier; Constant Amount: 100.
• Zoom-y box. Add modifier. Variable Amount Based On: zoom-y; From: layer 1; Multiplied By: 1; Add an action. Set Type of Action to [-] Subtract from Modifier; Constant Amount: 100.
• Set Zoom-X and Zoom-Y to the largest value in Layer 1: 90
Now, set layer 1 as a mask. Layer 1 (gradient) and layer 2 (portrait) are now a mask set where layer 2 is the masked layer and layer 1 is the masking layer.
Add a gradient layer (we’ll use it as a border). Note that you could use another image or graphic for a frame or border to achieve this effect too. However, rather than do that I'm creating this border in PSP for illustration and the specifics of adding your own frame / border to follow zoom and position is up to you!
• Give it a size of 800,1200 (again, this is for a 3:2 aspect image; use 900x1200 for a 4:3 image. This layer should be the same size as layer 1 for border purposes. I could have duplicated layer 1 and obtained all of that layers settings but that's not the purpose of this tutorial).
• Set the color to white.
• Set the size “fit to safe zone,”
• Set the zoom to 91% (1% larger than the largest zoom of layer 1).
• Move this layer to the lowest layer, layer 3.
Add modifiers (apply to all keyframes) to layer 3• Pan-X. Variable Amount Based On: Pan X; From: Layer 1.
• Pan-Y. Variable Amount Based On: Pan Y; From: Layer 1.
• Zoom-X. Variable Amount Based On: Zoom-X; From: Layer 1. Type of action: [-] Subtract from modifier; Constant Amount: 100.
• Zoom-Y. Variable Amount Based On: Zoom-X; From: Layer 1. Type of action: [-] Subtract from modifier; Constant Amount: 100.
• Go to Effects|Adjustment Effects. Set Blur to 40.
Note that this layer and layer 2 only have the default number of keyframes.
Play the slide and see what happens! Next, change the layer 1 settings of the pans and zooms and see what you get when you play the slide.
NOTES
1. If the layer 1 maximum zoom is changed from 90 to some other value, you need to change the maximum zoom of the other layers that depend upon it for their zoom to the same value (if you want to zoom amounts to be the same). That is, if the largest zoom of layer 1 is 110, then set the zoom of the dependent layers to 110).
2. If the value of the maximum zoom is over 200 the dependent layers may not zoom down to zero the same as the master layer.
3. Do not enter a rotation amount for any of these layers. For some reason, a rotation breaks the zoom “fix” I’ve discovered that enables a zoom follow.
4. Zoom actions ... when you follow the zoom of another layer, you're using a value that appears to be interpreted as percent of a percent in the referencing/following layers' zoom (unexpected zoom values are possible if you don't provide a correction value). Adding the -100 action after the zoom reference to the master layer seems to create a correction that works well for most zoom values below a maximum zoom of 200 in the master/reference layer.
As you can see, if you work with it, this example is rather simple. It consists of only 3 layers (a mask layer, an image layer, and a border layer). But, what I've provided is information that can easily be expanded to other layers or sets of layers. (NOTE: if you want to have a layer follow another layers' location but be beside it, you can add an action of -1 that multiplies the pan-x value ... so a pan-x of 20 becomes a pan-x of -20 for the referencing layer). So, if you decide to change the location and/or zoom of the master / referenced layer, that's essentially the ONLY layer you may need to change! It's not appropriate for all situations. But where it does, it can save you time and effort.
Good Luck!
Dale
Last edited by
im42n8 on Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:58 pm, edited 11 times in total.