Seamless transition from color to b&w in just one area?

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Seamless transition from color to b&w in just one area?

Postby lwarley » Wed Oct 01, 2014 7:13 am

I have two versions (i.e., two files) of the identical jpg of a bird. One is all color. The other has the bird in color and the background in b&w.

Is there a way to transition seamlessly from one to the other? For example, I would like to zoom in from 100% to 115% on the color slide and then continue to zoom in seamlessly while transitioning to the b&w background slide.

I've tried this by starting the b&w slide at 115% and zooming it to 125%, with different transition times in and out for both. I can't get the transition to occur seamlessly. I get "flutter" or "blurring" or whatever you want to call it. Not seamless.

Actually, I'd like to do this for many jpg's with many effects, all with the same idea - fade seamlessly from all color (or all b&w) to a portion of the same slide in color (or a portion in b&w). The effect could be panning side-to-side, zooming in-and/or-out, etc.

Can this be done in PS Gold? Thanks.
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Re: Seamless transition from color to b&w in just one area?

Postby im42n8 » Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:38 am

I'm not getting exactly what you want to do, but I think I get the gist. Gold doesn't have the feature called "opacity" which changes a layer's translucency. With it, it is possible to fade one layer (that exists in an upper layer, over the one that's not fading) as both change zoom settings, thereby revealing the underlying layer and giving the impression of a color change. This can occur all at once, or from side to side, or from outside in or inside to out ... multiple approaches are possible (especially if you apply masking to the mix). Without it, you don't have the means to accomplish what you're trying to do while changing zoom. Your only bet is to keep both layers at the same zoom setting while the transition between slides occurs (fading one slide into the other).

Gold is pretty limited in what it can do ... not that there isn't a lot you can do with the features it does provide. It's just that its feature set pales in comparison to what Producer can do. It appears to me that what you want to do is only possible with Producer.

Dale
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
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Re: Seamless transition from color to b&w in just one area?

Postby lwarley » Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:55 am

Thanks, Dale. Opacity between layers with masking sounds like exactly what I need. I use masking in Photoshop to create the separate files of the same shot.

When I called the Gold customer support line, they recommended using two separate slides, rather than layers, because layers cannot use the same effect. But I can't get it to work seamlessly with two separate slides.

I'm hoping someone has a way to do this in Gold.
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Re: Seamless transition from color to b&w in just one area?

Postby im42n8 » Wed Oct 01, 2014 9:58 am

No, it can't be done in Gold the way you want. Not only does Gold NOT have masking, it doesn't have Opacity. Like Customer Service said, there's no way to apply an effect to a layer in Gold (it ONLY has slide transitions, not layer transitions...). You can approximate what you want to do in Gold by using two slides, holding the zoom and position of each image in each slide at exactly the same position during the transition. Only after the transition is complete can you change the zoom setting.

Alternatively, you "could" use many multiple slides with two images on each slide (the upper layer being the b&w and the lower layer being the color one). It's not perfect by any means but it involves using many copies of the image you want to fade. Make as many copies of the B&W image as you need; each copy being more transparent than the last (using Photoshop or whatever). Using many slides with small times associated with each and matching the ending zoom of the previous slide to the starting zoom of the current slide you should be able to approximate what you're looking to do. The upper layer will be the translucent layer and the lower layer would be the image you're making appear. As time progresses (during play), the color layer becomes more visible. If you have enough slides, the changes can appear to be pretty smooth ... the fewer slides you use the more staggered the changes appear.

Like I said, it's not perfect but .... it can make for an interesting something to appear. Given the limitations of Gold, it's the only way I know of that will let you do what you want to do in Gold.

Well, whatever you decide to do, good luck ... and have fun!

Dale :D
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Re: Seamless transition from color to b&w in just one area?

Postby debngar » Wed Oct 01, 2014 10:53 am

As Dale stated, it's better to do this in Producer and do it all in 1 slide. In addition, if you were using Producer, the 1 slide could then be turned into a slide style.

But since you're using Gold, if you don't mind a short pause between the change to B&W, here is the slide setup workaround option Dale may have been describing which applies a short pause between the change to B&W:

Assuming you have one image in complete color and another with color partially B&W...

*Slide 1: (Full colored image) (say 2 seconds long for example)
Start - Stop = Zoom (100% to 115%)

Transition CUT 0 seconds

*Slide 2: (Full colored image) (.25 seconds)
Start - Stop both at 115%

Transition - Fade AB (or whatever transition you want)
The transition time can be 1 second for example or however long you wish to take for the partial colored image to come into view

*Slide 3: (Partial colored image) (.25 sec)
Start - Stop BOTH at 115% in exact same position and zoom as slide 2

Transition CUT 0 seconds

*Slide 4: (Partial colored image) (2 sec or whatever time you wish)
Start at 115% - Stop at 150% (or whatever final zoom % is your choice)

The tiny pause in action will prevent the blur between the change in images. It's not as you described you wanted exactly but better the tiny pause than the blur.

You may wish to adjust the timing of the slide 2 and 3 and the transition time. But I would keep the 0 second CUT transitions as described to avoid the blur you noticed in your original setup. If the position of the slide moves as well, that will have to be duplicated in the 2nd image similar to how the zooms were applied in the slide setup example above.

Once you get the set of 4 slides as you want them, copy and paste the set of 4 slides to the right and replace the images with the next bird image. This avoids having to use a photo editor to make several copies of the images with different opacity.
Debbie
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Re: Seamless transition from color to b&w in just one area?

Postby lwarley » Mon Oct 06, 2014 1:29 pm

Thank you very much indeed for taking the time with such a detailed response. I'll give it a try.

I'm hoping I can live with the short pause.
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Re: Seamless transition from color to b&w in just one area?

Postby lwarley » Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:32 am

Update:
Deb's workaround worked exactly as written, including the short pause.

Playing with it, I found a way to eliminate the short pause using just two slides:
- Eliminate slides 2 and 3 in Deb's instructions.
- Change the CUT time in slide 1 from 0 to 0.1 seconds. That's all.

Then I found that sometimes changing CUT to AB (still 0.1 seconds) makes it a bit smoother.

I hope this helps others.

I created a short video to demo the effect, but I'm not ready to post it on YouTube yet, even as Private. If there's a place to post it here for this forum only, I'll do so.
Lance Warley
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Re: Seamless transition from color to b&w in just one area?

Postby debngar » Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:06 am

As for a way to post only to the forum, using the Photodex site to post shows is an option. It's a bit more private than YouTube as the show URL is not as searchable. But forum posts can show up in browser searches, and so the URL would show up at that point. It's a different output format that is viewed with the Proshow presenter plug-in. But only PC (Windows OS) computers can view that format.

To see examples, you could try to view other forum members shows posted in the sample show area sections. Look for links with the Photodex.com in the show URL.

You can create your own Photodex album of shows too. It's free. I haven't posted in my Photodex album for a few years though. I use Youtube more now for the better quality viewing experience.
Debbie
Photography http://deborah-green.com

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