Hi Edelberto -

What Pinnacle refers to as "Montage" is a set of templates which can be applied to sets of clips & images.

PD, though not the same obviously, has similar features. For stills only, there are slideshow templates. For multimedia the are "Magic Styles" & "Magic Movie Wizard"

Here are a couple of tutorials about those things...

http://www.youtube.com/user/PDtoots#p/u/0/J6PDeatLY1Q

http://www.youtube.com/user/ynotfish77#p/u/35/IL-tNxKDgsE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S15WCMukblQ (made with PD7, but same principles apply)

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

PD has several slideshow functions, and you can make really fancy ones yourself, too, but...

1.Place a few images in a timeline.
2. Highlight the bunch of them.
3. Now click the Slideshow button.

There was a thread here, too, where
several of us "donated" different themes for certain slideshows that were, for lack of a better term, USER-modifiable.

HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Thanks for the help. I believe that the slide shows are close to some of the montages in AVID, but not too close to the looks of some. I am sure that with enough manipilation of slide shows one could come up to some of the AVID montages, but that will involve a lot of additional work. I still think that when you wieght the pros and cons of the softwares the overall winner is PD9. But let's face it Avid does better at some things.

Once again, thanks you were a lot of help and the video tutorials were very well done and very informative.

Ed Saludos

Computer: HPm3530
Processor: AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-core, 2.2GHz
Memory(RAM): 8 GB
System: 64-bit
Video: nVidia GeForce 9300 GE

Tony,
I've tried several of the slideshows offered by PD9. Good, but I know there is more in the montage themes of other softwares. I hope that PD9 in its next reincarnation can come closer to Avid's montages. For now I will keep doing what I've been doing in the past, using both softwares.

The least that PD9 could do with the slideshows is to gives us a much more leaway on the customized side of the slidshow windows.

Thanks for the help
Ed Saludos

Computer: HPm3530
Processor: AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-core, 2.2GHz
Memory(RAM): 8 GB
System: 64-bit
Video: nVidia GeForce 9300 GE

I was hoping for a DirectorZone add-on, it's not too difficult to place your own theme-altering backgrounds into a few of the slideshow choices, so if we could customize a few themes and pass them around, that would be very cool.
That being said, is there not enough styles for you?
Don't forget, GREAT PHOTOS are what really make the slideshows POP! HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Hi Barry
I must be missing something. There are not too many styles, but that is not a problem if they were fully customizable! I just tried some styles on a group of stills and although I have 7 photos, this particular 3D style (Gallery) adds just two (that show up well) and then... THE END. Is there a way to have this style work with more stills? It's frustrating, but challenging!

Thanks
Ed Saludos

Computer: HPm3530
Processor: AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-core, 2.2GHz
Memory(RAM): 8 GB
System: 64-bit
Video: nVidia GeForce 9300 GE

See image.
You've missed the entire module! HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Barry
I think you are missing my point. I can work with what's available in the slideshow styles, but unfortunatly there is not enough leaway in working with these styles. Except for the Highlight you can not even change the background. Even in Highlight the "background" has to be one of the stills.

I believe that I am correct in saying that there is not a lot of freedom with these styles. I'll learn to live with it until PD9 comes up with something.

Thanks

Ed :

PS By the way, I agree with you that great photos and videos make the project, but the proper tools are a must. I just finished a 1.5 hour video on a trip we took to Puerto Plata. In this video I used all 3 of the softwares that I have plus BluffTitler. I think it turned ou pretty good.
Saludos

Computer: HPm3530
Processor: AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-core, 2.2GHz
Memory(RAM): 8 GB
System: 64-bit
Video: nVidia GeForce 9300 GE

I don't deny that multiple applications provide variety, I have another NLE that accepts Plug-ins, but I only use it for those plug-ins. HELLO CL!
9 styles in PD is a good amount, no?
On the forum we have managed to alter the 3D template with new frames and backgrounds.
Also the Camera template with new frames and backgrounds.
You'll have to search here, but I think the links and downloads are still good.
HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Here are the links, Barry & Edelberto -

Camera View thread http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/17146.page

PDtoots subscribers have access to a package of backgrounds & frames for the 3D slideshow... so...

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Tony,
Excellent! Now I can try to do some of my own backgrounds. I also was not to thrilled about the frilley frame around the first picture in Camera. Your files help with that. I have one question, the 4x4 of the main picture for the background is not an easy job in the regular photo softwares that have cropping, do you have a good way to do this?

Thanks for the great help.... I still would like PD9 to allow these changes from within the program!

Ed Saludos

Computer: HPm3530
Processor: AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-core, 2.2GHz
Memory(RAM): 8 GB
System: 64-bit
Video: nVidia GeForce 9300 GE

I found a quicker way to prepare the 4x4 matrix. In Photoshop CS5 with the "slice" tool one can slice a photo into any number of slices and then save the individual slices. One problem that I seem to have is that the background transition from the first to second pict goes white screen first. The rest of the transitions is very smooth.

Ed Saludos

Computer: HPm3530
Processor: AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-core, 2.2GHz
Memory(RAM): 8 GB
System: 64-bit
Video: nVidia GeForce 9300 GE

Hi Ed -

Glad that helped.

Yes - that first transition to white is built into the template. If you'd prefer not to have it, just produce the slideshow & trim that part off in the produced video.

When you're slicing your images, make sure you begin with a high res photo.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Tony
I am glad that you mentioned the high resolution of the original picture. Because I was not sure of this and I wanted a semi-blurred background, I blurred the original high resolution image. The final product was bit too blurry. I'll keep working on it.

Thanks

Ed Saludos

Computer: HPm3530
Processor: AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-core, 2.2GHz
Memory(RAM): 8 GB
System: 64-bit
Video: nVidia GeForce 9300 GE