Image above a caption

Post your tips & tricks here for creating slide shows with ProShow Producer. This could include suggestions for style and content in addition to working with the software itself
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Image above a caption

Postby abi » Wed May 01, 2013 8:01 am

I have a slide with a caption already inside.
I would move a photo through the slide and I would have the photo above the caption, but the photo remain under the caption. Is it possible to move the photo above the caption?

Cau you help me?

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Re: Image above a caption

Postby im42n8 » Wed May 01, 2013 8:21 am

The short answer is NO! Reason: Photodex implemented the captions as ALWAYS being above layers.

The way around that is to create a graphical caption in programs like CorelDraw or Photoshop. I'd recommend you use a transparent background that is the same aspect as the show aspect (that is 16:9 or 1600x900 or 1280 x 720, etc). That way, when you resize the graphical caption within proshow, any size changes are congruent with other layer size changes.

Or, you can create a graphical caption from within ProShow. First, create the caption in ProShow as you normally would (move it like you want it and the way you want it). Next, turn off all non-caption layers. Then, in the main preview window (the one with the slideshow timeline), right click and chose the last option (i.e., "Capture Frame"). The Capture Frame dialog opens. Select Capture Current Frame (in Frame to Capture), JPEG for the format (it's probably the smallest size capture ... but PNG works well too). Select the Resolution (the default should be the size defined by the slow aspect); this is in the Output Format section. Finally, in the Destination section, give the image a name and a location to where you will save the file.

This gives you a graphic that you can now manipulate like any other layer. Import the graphical caption you just created. Next, you must remove the background. Assuming the caption was all WHITE and the background was all BLACK, go to the Adjustments tab for that layer. Click on the Chroma Key button. The "Chroma Key Transparency" dialog appears. The default "Key Color" should be black (this key color is the color that the chroma key will remove). If it isn't, make it black. Now, adjust the intensity threshold and drop off until you are left with no black background. If the caption background color was some other color, you would use it for the key color. This generally works well. If you have a white caption with a black outline and you want to keep that outline when the caption is used as a graphical caption, it means you will need to specify a background color that is significantly different than either the outline or the caption (obviously ... ). That way, the color removal is simplified greatly.

This should give you the basics to get started.

Dale
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Captions

Postby Rob_Hughes » Wed May 01, 2013 11:16 am

Dear Dale

In view of your response below, can you perhaps advise which program might have been used to produce this fantastic lyric video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qGa5rIO ... xMNk2p5tWA

I would like to try to replicate a similar lyric themed video.

Thanks for your advice.

Kind regards
Rob

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Re: Image above a caption

Postby abi » Wed May 01, 2013 11:56 am

Tks for your help.
Abi

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Re: Image above a caption

Postby im42n8 » Wed May 01, 2013 1:01 pm

Rob,

Most of the stuff in that video can be done in ProShow ... the text scrunching down and whoosing through the maze can't. (you'd have to approximate it).

Perhaps this recent posting in the forum here can be of help for what you want to do. It's going to require you knowing what your music is going to be (the beat and such) and what the text will be. Then planning out the exact thing you want to do at each step. After that, it's almost a mechanical operation. Some of the text can be graphical, some straight text (Proshow stuff). It would depend on what you want to do. But, too, you might just want to go graphical all the way (all of the letters you will use, some of the whole words ... all on a transparent background) with the typeface you want to use (or the font: typeface, weight, size, etc). This posting also provides some material to work from (including PSH and JPG files).

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21607

I'm mentioning the textwork only ... treatment of the background is something you can do in ProShow too. The "cascading" red blocks might be a bit of work to do right. But there's nothing inherently difficult with it. The smaller number of blocks on the grayish background are simple to do.

Dale
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
FPVP Blog "Making the Difficult Easier," FPVP News

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Re: Image above a caption

Postby BarbaraC » Thu May 02, 2013 6:23 am

Here's yet another way to do it...

Go to this thread: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=18714&p=145773#p145773
Scroll down until you see my post that includes a graphic. The post will explain how to make it appear that a caption is beneath a layer, but it won't be a regular photo. (It can be done, but it requires a huge amount of fussing around.)

Barbara
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Re: Image above a caption

Postby heckydog » Thu May 02, 2013 3:12 pm

After viewing the linked video several times, I would say that Adobe After Effects is an ideal candidate for the program that did those effects.

For example, the pulsating red square background makes subtle use of drop shadows and motion blurs. It's actually not a solid red, it looks like a grunge background. I've seen tutorials on how to do something very similar.

The text effect at roughly 24 seconds is done creating a mask then using a basic "text following a path" preset and motion blur.

Some of these things could be done in ProShow but a program that uses a 3D camera would be better suited, imho. I believe a lot of man-hours, ummm person-hours went into making that video and it will not be a simple process to duplicate it.

Joe

added: In AE you don't have the issue of having to deal with captions that always stay on top. I still don't know why Photodex thinks that's a good idea :wink:

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Re: Image above a caption

Postby BarbaraC » Fri May 03, 2013 2:48 am

heckydog wrote:added: In AE you don't have the issue of having to deal with captions that always stay on top. I still don't know why Photodex thinks that's a good idea

My guess is that it's a holdover from the earlier, much simpler days. I also bet that reworking how captions are handled is probably a much heftier job than we think, given that they know what all of us want. (We've let them know in spades. :!: )

I hope it's in the pipeline.

Barbara
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