Adjustment Layer - Hue variables

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

I tried my hand in duplicating the Adjustment Layer effect used in the Photodex demo for ver. 4.0.

I used less layers than they did, and I also added some rotations effects with a changed rotation center.

This wasn't such a great idea after all, since the changed rotation center plays havoc on the shadow.

The effect uses the following layers:

Layer 1: Frame
Regular colored jpg with vignette solid colored border, and chroma key transparency

Layer 2: Adjustment Layer
Regular colored jpg file

[b]Layers 3, 4, 5, and 6
Normal 4x3 pictures

Layer 7
Normal 4x3 picture functioning as background.
Blurred by 20% and less contrast


http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 0434&alb=0

Updated show

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 1204&alb=0

(music: Incompetech, images: the internet)

EDIT POST:

I have updated my original demo and includes something extra too!
More details in my signature.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Mona,

Nice demo!

Dale

[Cliff.Thomas Profile Private message]

Very nice effect.

I'm going to have to try this myself.

Thanks for sharing.

Cliff

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Thanks guys,
I enjoyed making this demo.
The adjustment layer seems to be saving some time when working with multiple layers.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Looking at what you accomplished proves to me that adjustment layers are probably going to get more use from me than modifiers will. It's a very attractive demo. Thank you so much for putting it together.

Barbara

[debngar Profile Private message]

This makes me want to try this again and not wait until Photodex responds to my adjustment layer bug problem and list of other buggy things in 2462.

Great example Mona.

Debbie

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Thank you Barbara & Debbie.

Barbara, yes, I think that you are right. I found that the adjustment layer is a nice addition in ver. 4, and not so difficult to understand.
Modifiers, on the other hand are something else !
I think that eventually we will understand them - emphasis on eventually - but it takes an awful lot of time

Debbie, does your computer misbehave if you try just a simple adjustment layer? or is the whole combination that you did that unsettles it?

[debngar Profile Private message]

A combination of gradient adjustment layer of black/yellow with the black chroma keyed out of the gradient seemed to be the culprit. The computer screen went black and/or shut down immediately. There was only 1 image underneath that layer, a Photodex background picture. It worked for a while just fine, then the more I played it back to fine tweak things the slower it worked/responded. I finally finished the demo/tutorial and as I was trying to upload to YouTube, it would shut the program down at the same slide point in the show upload. I tried it twice and quit after that. Then the whole program would just not work for me after that.

Sent an email about this to my regular guy at Photodex yesterday along with a list of a few other bugs. I'm hoping to hear back today.

Other shows run ok but seems the adjustment layer gives the program fits - possibly a show I did using some modifiers too but can't be totally sure. That one is acting very strange now, black band to left of preview screen on and off as well and program was having trouble returning to other screens when working back and forth in different windows.

I also noticed (abnormal?) large number of tmp files not being released that look like they may be related to ProShow but not sure. I finally deleted those too. I don't know how that relates to the well being of the program but remember seeing some mention of it not releasing RAM a long time ago and wonder if it's up to it's old tricks again!

Debbie

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Today I also has problems with Producer. Freeze, disappearances from screen, Dr. Watson... the whole enchilada.
Nothing consistent to point to, just fiddling with things made it completely unstable.
Hope "your guy at Photodex" can troubleshoot you (and us).

[debngar Profile Private message]

Try getting rid of your temp files, the phd and pxc file. Though it didn't seem to help me at first because it still shut down, I didn't delete the temp files until a while later. I could at least run other shows that didn't have adjustment layer feature in them.

I'm going to try running the problem show again and see what happens this time.

I also noticed that if you make changes in the program, it doesn't always give you that asterisk to denote you need to do a "save". That is weird and a bug too if you ask me.

Before V4, if I didn't do frequent saves, the program would eventually bog down and crash one way or another (not releasing RAM???). So I made it a point to save often and when I noted it definitely not performing as it should, I'd delete the little files and all was much better. I think this is also related to the new version's performance but just not sure since deleting the phd file and pxc file didn't seem to fix the problem in this case when i was fiddling with adjustment layers.

Debbie

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Now that you mentioned the "save" problem, I remembered that the program did crash when I tried to cancel something. I think that their new feature of saving, not saving and canceling ones' changes is all buggy.

[debngar Profile Private message]

This wasn't such a great idea after all, since the changed rotation center plays havoc on the shadow.

It was a fine duplication of the effect! Just remove the shadow. As I posted in the other forum, we have no control over this and apparently neither does Photodex because their demo does NOT have shadows in that segment with the frames and adjustment layer effects that appear about 1:55 and on into the show. They are only applied in the NEXT segment of rotated crisscrossing layered images that move across the screen as they did in the earlier use of that same sequence.

Just include the shadow in the other segment and you'll be good to go as they say.

I think we can successfully present a shadow on an image that's rotated, but only if it's static of sorts, not if the rotation is changed in during slide playback. The way it's presented in the Photodex demo, the rotated images with shadows move in the direction of the shadow and any problems seem to be completely unnoticeable that way.

Maybe it's something to consider in designing a slide with shadows and not do a lot of moving around unless you dupe the image and make a shadow layer of that image all by itself underneath which I have done in the past to make something stand out better. It's not worth all the bother though to me so I've not done that very often.

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

I took another look at the Photodex demo, and you are right!
They don't have shadows in the 1st sequence, only in the 2nd.

But I've made some more tests and the shadow looks better if one doesn't play with the rotation center as I did.
Also, if the image "lands" after the rotation in the required position of the natural looking shadow, everything looks much better.

I need to test this some more.

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

I have updated the show and posted an additional link in my original post.

Hope you like this new addition.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Now I'm even more impressed with this wonderful and extremely useful effect. You should be able to come up with some great templates based on adjustment layers.

Barbara

EDIT: I just checked your site and discovered your new Styles section, which includes the frame effect. Excellent.