Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby cherub » Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:43 am

BarbaraC wrote:Nope, I'm speaking of modifiers for zoom. No tilt involved. The only thing I'm setting in the followers is the minimum allowable zooom.
Barbara


OK, then I misunderstood.
Sorry about that.

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby VidQueen » Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:53 am

BarbaraC wrote:Nope, I'm speaking of modifiers for zoom. No tilt involved. The only thing I'm setting in the followers is the minimum allowable zoom.

However, I've ended up finding exactly the same thing as you, Jennifer. I set up more of a real-world thing where the top layer was a frame, the second layer a mask, and the third layer an image. My first attempt gave Producer a major heart attack, and my second attempt reaped the same result as yours, Ms. J.

I'm giving up. For simple zooms, it's easier to just set them manually.

Barbara


Heck, I wasn't even using a mask....I just used two PNG images that are 1280x720 including transparency space (the photo fits perfectly in the frame when both are set to 100%).

So, I think I'm not crazy; if Mona can't get it to work then it probably doesn't work :wink:

I do have a solution, though: scrap the entire interface, create a single 3D environment for all layers to live in, then give us a single camera layer. Problem solved! No need to parent anything, everything just sits where it's supposed to and the camera revolves around them.

If I close my eyes real tight and click my heels three times will that work?

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Jan 09, 2014 11:32 am

VidQueen wrote:If I close my eyes real tight and click my heels three times will that work?

Make sure to wear your ruby shoes. That's the trick.

Barbara
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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby VidQueen » Thu Jan 09, 2014 11:58 am

BarbaraC wrote:Make sure to wear your ruby shoes. That's the trick.

Barbara


Damn Nike's.

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby irwin » Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:33 am

Assuming it is a sofware bug, one can try another workaround. It works for me.
Add etxra action to your zoom modifier, which substructs zoom value of slave layer.
See picture below.
Image
Slave layer's initial zoom should be set after adding modifier.

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby VidQueen » Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:43 am

irwin wrote:Assuming it is a sofware bug, one can try another workaround. It works for me.
Add etxra action to your zoom modifier, which substructs zoom value of slave layer.
See picture below.
Image
Slave layer's initial zoom should be set after adding modifier.


Thank you, Irwin :D

The problem is that I'm not trying to find a workaround for myself. I need the program to actually work, as is, so that my customers don't also have to learn extra work arounds when they need to customize my styles. I don't mind jumping through hoops for myself, but I just can't assume that my customers will know how to do that and I can't spend all of my extra time helping my customers take extra steps to make a broken feature work :cry:

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby BarbaraC » Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:11 am

Irwin, I tried your method, but I must be doing something wrong because it ends up with the follower layer remaining static.

EDIT: I take that back! The added multiplier is supposed to have the follower layer referring to itself. Once that's done, it works just fine.

Thank you!

EDIT #2: All bets are off if one tries to use a color solid mask that's reshaped to fit within a frame, the X and Y zooms being necessarily unlinked. The modifier screen warns that there are cyclic dependencies. I'm with Jennifer on this one and will go back to the KISS principal.

Barbara
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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby im42n8 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:17 pm

One "small note" per Photodex. The technique for following a function from another layer does not work for zoom. Apparently zoom's implementation is pretty darned complex. I do know that I can use the number entered into any function box content for my own purposes EXCEPT for zoom. Whatever is entered into the zoom box is not the number we can work with. No modifier query of the zoom box contents will return a value we can use for any purpose not related to zoom (at least not that I've been able to discover).

You can whine about it all you want, but that will change nothing. You need to work with what we were given. The zoom feature is not broke ... zoom simply doesn't work in the way you'd like it to work such that you can use it like any other function. As a result, the zoom following techniques that we have discovered are bone fide techniques, not "work-arounds" in the usual sense.

Each technique for zoom following has it's pro's and con's. Until Photodex changes it's method of handling zoom or until it changes modifiers to actually see (and use) the user entered number contained in the zoom values box, we're stuck with the results and ramifications of Photodex's zoom implementation.

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Last edited by im42n8 on Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby BarbaraC » Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:38 pm

Really, Dale? Whining and foot stomping? :P :lol:

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby im42n8 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:14 pm

Maybe the foot stomping comment was bit much. I'm not exactly feeling up to snuff these past two days and maybe it's affected me more than I thought.

However, the ProShow features provided are what they are and if we want to use them effectively, we need to discover how we can work with them. Some people, however, prefer to not do that, for whatever reason, often for valid and pragmatic reasons. However, there are those who don't even try and then complain about the features not doing what they want, how they want, the way they want, and when they want them to work.

Zoom modifiers work in accordance with how Photodex implemented the zoom feature. Just because a zoom modifier is constructed differently than other feature following modifiers does not mean that zoom modifiers don't work. If you don't know how to create a zoom modifier, ask. If, after getting the answer, you still don't know how to create a zoom modifier, it still doesn't mean that zoom modifiers don't work. It means you don't know how to get them to work and/or you don't understand them, that's all.

Some people have a hard time understanding keyframes, or masks, or how to effectively use rotation center changes. Once you understand them, however, it's usually pretty easy. That's the nature of the beast.

Dale
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby VidQueen » Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:12 pm

Man, I leave to pick my kids up from school and I miss all the fun :lol:

im42n8 wrote:You need to work with what we were given.


It's that little word "need" in there that's got my eyes itching. What I need to do is create products that my customers can use. Creating products that only I can use would put me out of business. Thankfully, which tools I use to create those products is entirely up to me 8)

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby Davy » Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:34 pm

Thanks for that Jennifer. Great tutorial.

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby im42n8 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:14 pm

Jennifer, just because you have absolutely no idea how to put zoom following to use doesn't mean it's not possible to create products that use zoom following or that your customers can use.

I have.

Dale

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Last edited by im42n8 on Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby VidQueen » Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:47 pm

*sigh*

....and with that, I'm outta here :|

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Re: Swinging Text Layer Tutorial for Proshow 6

Postby im42n8 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:50 pm

With all due respect to Jennifer for creating an excellent tutorial that introduces you to certain concepts that help you take advantage of ProShow's new Text Layer feature, I feel it very important to add a few comments that should aid in transferring what you learn in the tutorial to the real world. This is not to, in any way, minimize what she's presented. However, a few very important concepts were glossed over that could have profound effect upon your implementation if you don't understand what you have done. In particular: Phase and Frequency of a wave form and text positioning of a text layer's text.

1. Zoom modifiers work, just not like other function follower modifiers. That’s because of how Photodex implemented the zoom feature. There are too many examples out there of zoom following techniques actually working to say that they don’t work.

2. Phase works only from 0 to 1, where 1 = 100%. It represents a percent of a rotation. 1 hertz (HZ) is equivalent to a frequency of 1 cycle/second which is the same as 1 rotation of 360 degrees. So a phase of 0.25 is the same as a 90 degree change.

3. The position of text layer text is best set using the position settings in the text settings tab. This allows you to use the rotation center changes with fewer problems than simply moving the text layer itself. That is because moving the text layer itself makes it harder to actually use the text layer’s rotation center easily (if you want to move it in tune with another layer using tilt or rotation).

4. The length of your slide has an effect upon how Frequency works with your layers. The same frequency with a shorter slide time can radically change how your layer reacts. For instance, on a 10 second slide, a layer using a frequency of 0.2 hz (cycles/second) will have 2 cycles. That is, it will swing out and in two full times. If you change that slide time to 6 seconds, the in and out movement will be 6 seconds x 0.2 cycles/second 1.2 cycles ... 1 full in and out movement and 2 tenths of another. It might not look like you expect or want. Typically, a whole cycle change is what you are looking for.


Dale
Last edited by im42n8 on Sat Jan 11, 2014 7:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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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