4 images -one slide

[burntb4 Profile Private messageWebsiteYIM]

Hi again.
Is there a way to have a slide open with a background picture and then have 4 pictures appear in it one at a time ending with all four of them visible at the end of the slide that would be timed for about 12 seconds or longer if necessary for the effect?

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Yes, it is quite a bit easier in Producer with keyframes, but the trick in Gold
(or at least the way I did it when I had gold) is to use 5 slides that you
make up in your regular editor. All 5 have the same background, you
arrange whatever you want on the first 4 with 0, 1, 2 or 3 images visible
in each one (no images, just the background for the first). The last slide
would then have the background with all 4 images on it and you just
put the slides in sequence and crossfade between them as you go - you
can make all sorts of things happen that way (including making the
images change places on the background).

mikey

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

There's almost always more than one way to do something in ProShow. Mikey's method will work but it's not how I'd do it -- but you might find his easier to do if you're comfortable with an editor. Here's what I'd do -- lots harder to describe that do.

First slide is the background with a hold time, a transition and a transition time.
Second is a copy of #1 onto which you drop "foreground 1" and put that where you want it. (same transition & timings)
Third is a copy of #2 which has "foreground 2" added as another layer and position it. (same transition & timings)
Fourth is a copy of #3 which has "foreground 3" added as another layer and position it. (same transition & timings)
Fifth is a copy of #4 which has "foreground 4" added as another layer and position it. (Cut/0 for transition)
Sixth is a copy of #5 as it ended with all four foreground pics on the background a hold time to keep it on screen.

Your description makes me think this is what you're trying to do, try it and if that's not it and you still need help just ask some more questions.

Now once you've got that built you can do some interesting things with it if you wish. Save it first, tho'! As described each foreground picture simply appears positioned and sized to fit one of the four spots you want the foreground pictures. First thing you could try is setting different transitions for each of the foreground shots as they're added. And if you if you want to get fancy, it's not hard. For instance, you can play with pan, zoom & motion as you bring each foreground into view. So, you could for example, have each foreground picture come in full frame, covering the background, then zoom it down to size while moving it to the spot you want it in. And just repeat that for each foreground picture adding it as a layer on top of the end state for the prior slide. Sound hard? It's not--build the simpler version and then fiddle with it if you want -- or not

It's not the same thing but it may help you understand the idea of manipulating each picture as a layer if you look at this -- (there may be a more relevant tutorial but I can't think of one and if you find that confusing, just ignore it entirely):

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 9646&alb=0

Hope that all helps -- if not, just keep asking questions!
Dick

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Very good Dick -- I had forgotten that Gold now includes layers (it didn't when
I was using it a couple of years ago). So now you have two ways of doing it
(probably a couple of more out there too)

mikey

[burntb4 Profile Private messageWebsiteYIM]

Mikey/Dick. FABULOUS. It worked just perfect .Thanks for the effort.

Dick, your way is easier for someone like me that has not advanced far enough yet to be using an 'editor'. The only editing software I currently have is MS Digital Imaging Suite . My next software purchase will hopefully be an editing program that works well with PSH. Any suggestions as to what one should consider looking at would be appreciated. Again--THANKS.

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

Glad it worked for you. See... wasn't hard was it? Well, not after the explanation anyway--which is often the case with this stuff.

Actually, there are quite a few threads about editors here and there's a whole thread about favorite free software that has a couple editors mentioned. Editors are hard to pick because they've always got a learning curve and each one is quite a bit different from the rest--so this one you may love and that one you may hate while and there's always a crowd that thinks your backwards. In the end it's going to be how much you'll use it and how much time you want to invest to learn it. It does no good to have a powerful editor you can't even figure out how to do a simple edit with. There are quite a few sites with image editing software reviews, I'd investigate those and then come here to sanity check your thoughts and options.

Dick