AV News Magazine | Page 6

AV News 194 - November 2013 Objects and Animations (part 2) Howard Bagshaw ARPS When you are making AVs, one of the things that you learn early on (or are told) is not to mix portrait and landscape format pictures. The most common solution, when you really must include a portrait format image is to overlay it over a landscape format image. So is there a quick way of doing this? Yes, of course, using Objects & Animation (O&A) in PTE, this can be quickly achieved. Adding a second image to a slide Let's assume that you have a sequence of horizontal format images on the timeline of PTE and you decide the point where you want to add a vertical format image. What seems to work nicely is to overlay the vertical image over an existing horizontal image. Chose the image you want to use as the background and copy this image on the timeline. The easiest way, I'm sure that you know is, in 'slide view', to select the chosen slide and then 'copy' and then 'paste' (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V). Do this without deselecting the original and the copy appears immediately after the original. Select the copied slide and go into O&A. Now you need to add your second image on top of this image. · Make sure the base image is not selected, i.e. in the right hand bottom pane (the 'Object Panel') the name of your base image is not highlighted in blue or grey. If it is, click on a blank area of that panel until nothing is selected. · There are a series of icons at the top left of your O&A screen which represent types of objects that can be added. Click on the 'Add Image' icon and a panel opens which will allow you to search to locate your chosen second image. · This will come into O&A to fill the height of the frame. You will also see in the 'Objects panel' (bottom right) that your second image is listed above the original image. Think of this as a stack, viewing from the top. Page 4