A mix: powerpoint, stage lights, sharkstooth etc.

[Ella]

One effect, so many issues.

I've got two projectors, showing rapid sequences of still images in blackouts and a single still each during scenes.

Would embedding a film in powerpoint be the best way to do this? Bearing in mind I can't time exactly how long each scene would take, I was thinking to play the film (consisting of the rapid sequences) as one slide, leaving the last image of the film to run throughout the scene, and going to the next slide in the next blackout. And what is the best film software to do this with? Ive got a choice of Pinnacle and AfterEffects at the moment.

Next issue, I would probably project onto sharkstooth, but reading other posts this might not be too effective. I need something that is transparent if lit from behind.... any advice? Another consideration is how the stage lights would affect the projections during scenes.

Cheers

[svincent]

I have come across this problem befor and got round it useing a dvd and powerpoint and running through a cheap vision mixer from ebay and if you want the last frame from the films just freeze the frame and save it as a jpeg and put it in your power point

 

if not then you could put it on a dvd and freeze it on time which is risky but I imagin would be effective

 

or as you say put it in a powerpoint

 

my suggestion is if you have enough time test a few different ways out and see whats best

 

hope this was some help

svincent

[Tomo]

Avoid embedding video into Powerpoint if at all possible!

 

When I was in Corporate-Land, the bane of my life was "We've got this Powerpoint... there's a video segment..."

 

- Not all hardware displays it all the time.

- It's impossible to put anything on top of the video - so no titles except those embedded in the video.

- Codecs, codecs, codecs... There are so many to choose from!

- Powerpoint also tends to have choppy playback with noticable delays in starting the video, and is often ugly as it starts the playback.

 

It's not designed to do this!

 

My suggestion would be Video Lan Client (VLC) for general video playback. It does automated playlists, and is open-source under the GPL.

(It actually plays many things better than Windows Media player - I've got a load of .AVIs that WMP fails to download a codec for, while VLC just works)

 

If you want live control, Arkaos is very good, controlled either from the keyboard, MIDI, DMX or DMX-over-ethernet.

 

For showing a series of still images, Powerpoint works - but it might be better to use a proper slideshow application.

[Ella]

I think you're right - I'll experiment. Time's a bit pushed, so I'll probs go for something simple and boring, but thanks for your help! ;) (check out the shades...)

[beware]

I'll add a second vote for VLC. Full screen it with a double click, and then use space bar to stop and start videos. If you set up a playlist, you can then use Left and Right to move between cues.

[Guest minisrule192]

VLC might be good for having all the correct codecs but whilst moving it to the second monitor output it wouldn't display video.

[Olie]

VLC might be good for having all the correct codecs but whilst moving it to the second monitor output it wouldn't display video.

 

This probably means your graphics card either does not support overlay on your second monitor or does not have it enabled. You may be able to disable overlay mode in VLC or change your graphics card settings.

[Tomo]

VLC might be good for having all the correct codecs but whilst moving it to the second monitor output it wouldn't display video.

Try stopping playback and then re-starting it.

 

One of the bugs in VLC is that it may not regenerate the video overlay if you drag the window onto the second monitor - if you drag slowly it usually manages, but if you drag quickly it often fails.

Hitting 'Stop' and then 'Play' forces it to re-create the overlay.