Spot lights effect

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juliank

Spot lights effect

Postby juliank » Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:54 pm

Hello,

I just started learning PSP (v3). I am working on a slideshow for a client. One of the highlights last year was the addition of a new wing to the existing building. I am thinking about developing an effect with three spot lights moving around over the photograph, and the then opening up to a full image (maybe with some sound effect) to showcase the new building. I am wondering if anybody has any suggestion about anything that I might find useful for developing this effect or something similar.

Thanks in advance,
Julian

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Postby DickK » Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:10 pm

I've done something much simpler but I think the principle might apply:

Assuming you have PhotoShop or PS Elements there are lighting effects that include various kinds of spotlights. I think if you used that over a series of slides moving the pseudo-spots in each slide you might get something like what you want.
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juliank

Postby juliank » Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:22 pm

This was quick - thanks!

Just checked Photoshop and I see what you are referring to. Never noticed this. I will check this out.

Interesting whether there will be any other suggestions.

Thanks again!

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Try this

Postby GabBill » Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:40 am

Julian,
This is a post I made some months ago. This was a version 2.6 effect. It'll certainly work in 3.0, but you may be able to do it easier with the 3.0 masking.

In Photoshop,
1. Create a new document with a black background.
2. Use the eliptical marquee tool to make a small circle in the
center of the document. This can be any shape you want. But make it
small in relation to the overall document size, because you'll want
to be able to enlarge the mask in PSP to cover the entire under-
layer.
3. Right click on the selection and feather it by around 5-8 pixels
to give it a nice soft edge. This is a subjective number. Play arond
with it.
4. Invert the selection, Ctrl+Shift+I.
5. Right Click on the black area and choose "Layer via copy."
6. Once you have the black layer with the hole in it on it's own
layer, shut off the background layer.
7. Lower the opacity to around 90% on the layer with the hole. Again
subjective, because you can adjust this later in PSP.
8. Keeping only the top layer, save as a PNG.
9. Use this as you would any mask. Bring it in on top of the photo
you want to spotlight. You should have made the hole rather small
(step 2), which will allow you to make the mask cover the entire
under-layer while still having a usable hole.
10. Adjust position, opacity and zoom according to your needs.

Bill
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PSP
http://www.myphotosinmotion.com

andy

Re: Try this

Postby andy » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:20 am

GabBill wrote:Julian,
This is a post I made some months ago. This was a version 2.6 effect. It'll certainly work in 3.0, but you may be able to do it easier with the 3.0 masking.............
Bill


Am I lazy or what…..just what I was about to TRY and create, you have just saved whats left of my brain cells working this one out……….
Masking can wait ….....see.........said I’m lazy!!!...... Many thanks,
andy

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Postby DanDan » Wed Jan 10, 2007 6:20 am

Bill,
Thanks for that tutorial. I use PSG, but can also make use of what you have described. Actually I have done that before, just in playing around. I often times forget things that I have played with, but not actually put to use. Your post was like a slap to the noggin, "Oh Yeah"!
_Dan

juliank

Postby juliank » Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:11 pm

Bill,

Thank you very much. This is exactly what I was looking for. I will have more time this Saturday to play with this. I assume that to achieve the spot light panning effect I will have to insert multiple keyframes within the same slide and set smoothing to e.g. 100%. Now ... if I would want to have three spot lights panning at the same (along different paths) that wouldn't be possible so spots from the bottom layer could be visible through all three of them - right?

Julian

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Postby Lin Evans » Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:19 pm

juliank wrote:Bill,

Thank you very much. This is exactly what I was looking for. I will have more time this Saturday to play with this. I assume that to achieve the spot light panning effect I will have to insert multiple keyframes within the same slide and set smoothing to e.g. 100%. Now ... if I would want to have three spot lights panning at the same (along different paths) that wouldn't be possible so spots from the bottom layer could be visible through all three of them - right?

Julian


That's quite possible. You don't need them to be visible "through" the layers, just that all layers with the spot light masks be above the layer you use as the backdrop for displaying them. I don't have a PSP sample, but you may want to look at a demo theDom and I did a while back using a different program. The principles are the same for PSP.

http://www.lin-evans.net/p2e/theater2.zip

Best regards,

Lin

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