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Hi David, good stuff to know so thanks! I didn't know about a nesting limit and assumed it was a standard way of doing things to avoid a messy 100 plus track list on screen. I've been double-clicking the nested projects while still within the master mix to apply edits to them then closing them again. Seems like this is the cause of all my issues. That, along with saving any edits under the same project name - which is where I suspect the double-ups are arising from?
As I am only working with still images (scanned photos) at this stage, I haven't been able to activate the SRVT thing at all (it remains greyed out) so I'm not sure that rendering is even working on my projects.
I will definitely look into saving my nested projects as mpgs and then doing no further work on them while nested in the master mix.
As a final vow to myself and all who have kindly offered me help, I will Read The Friggin' Manual before attempting anything new.
Cheers and thanks again, Graham
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I will get right onto this! I have no idea how I managed to get two versions of the same project into my master project but I will follow the steps you outlined and rebuild from scratch. I really had no idea what files I was editing or changing due to the duplications but a good cleanout from scratch is what I suspected was required.
Sorry for not pointing this out sooner as it would have saved us both a lot of time I guess. In any case, you have armed with with the necessary know-how to start fixing my issues so you have my eternal gratitude. I'll let you know how it all ends up. I still intend getting a better video card though.
Cheers, Graham
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In the DxDiag.txt that you posted on another thread, someone updated your PD18 with the latest update patch 2725 on your pc already. This means that it is already patched.
Hmmm, that someone must have been my computer which is set to automatically install updates I think. All good and thanks.
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Thanks again. Did the cache thing and seems to have mostly worked although it told me that it couldn't delete all the files because some were in use, even though I'd selected 'New Project' which brought up a blank screen. Having said that, after closing and opening PD again then checking, all temp files were gone.
When I went to open the project I am currently working on however......still takes forever to open while it Updates Timeline Data. Perhaps its because it is trying to open up so much data? I have created 8 separate projects which I insert as nested projects into a 'master' project called 'Final Mix'.
I notice from the timeline info that two different mixes of the same nested projects appear - an older version and an updated version - and not always in sequence. I have deleted the older versions (by clicking the X next to the names) then resaved the master mix but when I re-open it, the older versions still appear in the timeline. Perhaps this has something to do with all my problems?
Graham
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Now its telling me I need an 'elevated command prompt' to run the dism. Kept trying until ended up at a prompt relating to something called 'Powershell'.
Did the dsim scan thing and got a response saying "No component store corruption detected".
Seems like my system is running OK (?) so I guess my video card is the source of all my problems so will look into a new card.
I'm thinking maybe the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti/1660 Super OC 6GB-GV-N1660SOC-6GD as this is about the limit of my budget.
One last thing, how do I clear the cache you mentioned in that other post?
Sorry to pester you with all this but I am forever grateful for all your assistance.
kind regards, Grahm
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Thanks for your feedback, appreciate it.
"Once they're patched" - not sure what this means?
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Hi again, have had a look at what you suggested and found the following;
- SFC/scannow result: "Windows Resource Protection found no integrity violations".
- dism/online/cleanup-image/scanhealth: "Option is unknown"
So seems like no joy with either of those scans although not sure why the dism scan didn't work? In any case, I think I need to get my video card updated. This may be an unethical question to ask so don't feel obliged to answer but but do you have any recommendations in this regard as there are quite a plethora of choices in the green shaded areas shown on that chart and I have no knowledge of this area at all.
Thanks again for your help.
Kind regards, Graham
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Many many thanks for looking into this for me. I so appreciate it! I now have a path forward to start trying to fix things.
- Seems like I may need a new video card to get the best out of PD so I'll definitely be looking into that.
- I will follow the steps you recommend to see if windows can repair any damage to he core files.
- With regard to the file locations, I want to eliminate all multiple copies and have the one source location which will probably be on my external F drive. I'm hoping that if I delete the other copies on C and D drives and any projects have files still linked to those areas, then I will be able to use the 'replace' function in PD to reset the file source to F drive only.
- I'm surprised to learn that PD will access media files faster if they're on another drive? That's why I made copies on C drive in the hope of reducing lag times by having the media files on the same drive as the PD software. Not being a techie, I guess I was completely wrong thinking this.
Thanks again for your time and advice, it is greatly appreciated and I will respond once I have treid your suggestions to let you know how I went.
kind regards, Graham
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I have read about possible diagnoses being made by posting a dxdiag file on this forum. I am posting mine in the hope that someone can tell me why my PD software is slowly getting worse to the point of almost requiring an uninstall and re-install to make it run properly again (and I'm not even sure that will fix it). I know its due to something I'm doing wrong but I just don't know what. I suspect it is to do with file locations because I have made mulitple copies of media files in different locations in an attempt to stop the lock-ups during saving and loading of projects (not to mention other glitches here and there). Initially my media files were located on an external drive while PD was on my 'C' drive. Projects I make are sent to my 'D' drive. I have copies of all files on all drives and wonder if this is making PD confused?
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I'm with you! I subscribe to Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom/Bridge for the cost of a cup of coffee per week and get free updates for life. If priced right, subsciptions are the best way to go for sure and I'm sure this is what PD are trying to make us do by pricing updates ridiculously high. Trouble is, for those of us who may only use PD infrequently, the subscription model is not really suitable. I guess we aren't their target market but as you say, they lose money ultimately because in the wash up we don't buy anything at all.
After buying PowerDirector18 the first project I worked on was a breeze but since then I have had so much trouble with glitches that it has become almost unusable. Hours of work undone constantly. I suspect that most of the issues are due to me not doing things properly but who wants to spend hours and hours trying to absorb a 400-odd page user manual after buying a new toy? Now when I open up PD to work on a project, it takes about 5 minutes to load up (and I'm only working with photos - not videos) and always hits a brick wall at 80% loaded. I have a good computer with 32Gb of RAM, top of the range video card, lots of drive space etc but still PD can't seem to cope.
When I produce an MP4 video, edits I have made to files don't appear on the produced DVD. I have never known such creative frustration before. I am tempted to uninstall the program and reinstall it (I bought a hard copy backup at the time) but because I have moved files and copied files here there and everywhere in an attempt to fix my problems, I am worried that all my work will be undone because I no longer know which copies of which files PD is using in my projects. Even packing my projects has no benefit.
Definitely won't be updating or subscribing at least until I can iron out the headaches I currently suffer through - and that will be a very long way away I think.
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This is where I am falling down because my image clearly has a transparent BG - I can see the chequered squares in the photoshop png image before I import it (see screen shot below). Got me stumped.
FINALLY! I've worked out what I needed to do to guarantee the BG was transparent. You were right Jeff, even though my image appeared with a transparent BG in photoshop, when I saved it as a png file, it was saving it with a white BG. Don't know why it did this but I thought I would try a different way.
I opened up a new file with the BG set to transparent first and then colour-selected the blue logo and pasted it onto this already transparent BG. When I imported it into PD.....miracle of miracles, the BG was black! Thank goodness this saga is resolved and I can now move forward.
Thanks again to you and Tony for your help. If you hadn't been adamant that my BG wasn't transparent I would have just put up with a masked version to make it work. All's well that ends well.
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Nothing in PD, your logo image for me does not have a transparent background, I made it transparent. Create a proper png with a true transparent background and I don't think you will have an issue. Tony's image works as does mine as they have a true transparent background.
Jeff
This is where I am falling down because my image clearly has a transparent BG - I can see the chequered squares in the photoshop png image before I import it (see screen shot below). Got me stumped.
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Does the image I uploaded not work either? Tony's pack project has a proper transparent image too of your logo. It too has a PD project file, namely, "Mask Overlay.pds", give it a try.
Jeff
The issue seems to be centred around the transparency of BG when I import the png image. In Tony's library it is clearly a black BG which is PD's default representation of a transparency. When I import my png image with a transparent BG, it does not appear with a black BG. I've looked for a setting in preferences which may affect this default setting but can't find one.
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Does not look like your "logo in PS.png" is really on a transparent background. Try the attached. If on a transparent background you should not need a mask, it simply lays on top.
Jeff
Hi Jeff, yeah I think I'm doing something wrong somewhere but can't work out what and where. Basically, I need to get the logo into the PD project library with a black BG if I understand correctly? I can easily make this happen in photoshop and then import it into PD rather than making a transparent BG image. Would this method work?
As I explained earlier, when I import the transparent BG version into PD, it doesn't appear with a black BG in my library but retains the transparent pixels which then also appear in my project preview. Only when I applied the mask did the transparent pixels disappear. Grrrrr!
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Hi Diri -
I was preparing a reply while Jeff was answering.
I don't think there should be any need for masking in your case, if all you wish to do is place your logo image on a background. Masking is best used when you want an image or video to appear "through" another image/video.
If you download this packed project (using your logo) you'll see the difference.
Cheers - Tony
Hi Tony and thanks for helping me. I tried downloading your packed project but got stuck when I unzipped the file. It just showed me four image files but no pds file. You probably worked out by now that I'm clueless and on a steep learning curve with PD. I have learned however that I when I import the png logo file into the PD image library, it should appear with a black BG which it currently doesn't. It appears with what is either a white BG or is actually transparent but just looks white because of the small thumbnail size.
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I am obviously missing something Jeff so I thought I'd post a step by step of what I'm doing. The ultimate goal is to do what you have done and have the logo appear against a background (which is simply a swirling cloud from PD's library.
- Create logo with transparent BG in photoshop, save as .png file.
- Import logo.png file into PD library.
- Drag logo.png file onto project time line with cloud as BG on another track above it.
After this process, I just see the logo.png file (with transparency pixels) with the BG cloud hidden below it. The cloud looks like a grey colour board in this screen capture but it is actually a swirling cloud. I have applied no masks at all. Any ideas where I'm going wrong? Really appreciate your taking the time to help me.
I think I might have solved it. I just tried applying a mask to the logo within the project timeline and it removed the transparency pixels. Didn't think a mask was required though?
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I'm not sure what you are trying to do with the mask. If you put a transparent background to your logo and save as png you can use over any timeline content and it will be transparent as shown. Black is the default background color in editing.
Jeff
I am obviously missing something Jeff so I thought I'd post a step by step of what I'm doing. The ultimate goal is to do what you have done and have the logo appear against a background (which is simply a swirling cloud from PD's library.
- Create logo with transparent BG in photoshop, save as .png file.
- Import logo.png file into PD library.
- Drag logo.png file onto project time line with cloud as BG on another track above it.
After this process, I just see the logo.png file (with transparency pixels) with the BG cloud hidden below it. The cloud looks like a grey colour board in this screen capture but it is actually a swirling cloud. I have applied no masks at all. Any ideas where I'm going wrong? Really appreciate your taking the time to help me.
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Eureka! Thanks Jeff for this. I'll give it a go.
Well I failed again. I imported a png file with the transparent BG, applied a mask which only turned the BG to black. I know I'm doing something wrong, just don't know what? Here's a screen shot from my masking page, can you see where I've gone wrong from this I wonder?
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jpeg does not support transparency, export out as png for use in PD.
Jeff
Eureka! Thanks Jeff for this. I'll give it a go.
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I have a logo in jpeg format which I want to either import with a transparent background or mask it out once imported.
When I make the BG transparent in Photoshop and then import it into PD, I lose that transparency and it appears with a white BG.
I have also tried to make a mask within PD but have failed so far. Everything I try in PD leaves me with a black BG. I can't find any instructions in the help menu, only where to locate the masking tool.
Here is the logo I want to use but without the white BG. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Thanks for providing all the detailed screenshots and preview capture.
That's some really nice work, and tomasc's original suggestion of producing the entire loop of only the rotating balls would work.
There are other ways of doing this, like using a black color board below the balls with the opacity set to 0 and then bringing it up to 100 to block all content above it, but that would interfere with the Columbia 2 clip if you wanted to include its visual content.
Probably the easiest way to do tomasc's approach would be to save the project, then draw a selection rectangle around just the ball clips and copy or cut them. Use File | New Workspace to create a clean timeline then paste the ball clips.
Go to the Produce page and set the output profile to the same one you're going to use for your finished project. Make sure you know where the clip is being saved to so you can import it back into your original project when you reopen it. You can change the folder location and name before producing if needed, then click Start.
Reopen your original project (no need to save this temporary workspace) then import the new clip. Remove the ball clips and place the produced clip on the timeline. Trim it to where the first ball has finished the second loop, then add a 1 or 2 second fade transition at the end so they'd all disappear at the same time.
You may want to right click on the timeline and choose Remove Empty Tracks to better match the workspace to your new content.
Thanks Optodata. I'll have a go at both yours and tomasc's suggestions. As a complete novice who is learning by trial and error I was unaware of the layering heirarchy in PD. If I understand correctly, the lower layers have priority over the layers above? Sort of the opposite to Photoshop where the top layers dominate the lower layers. I look forward to exploring this new information.
I'm quite happy with my project which starts with a spoof on the Columbia Pictures intro scene mixed with the Paramount intro scene of rotating stars. Using Photoshop, I have replaced the lady holding the flaming torch with our club mascot 'Gumby'. This latest screen shot shows what I'm trying to achieve. I want all the background to remain while the rotating balls fade away.
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