"Everyman" a slowly cross fading series of montaged figurative images

Anonymous

Solved by

Dec 05, 2015 06:34

Hello all,

I do hope this is the right place to post a link to a video, I bought PD14 Ultra a couple of weeks ago after trying as many free programs as I could find and doing the same with lots of the ones that ask for money, to be honest few were better than WMM 6.0 and some were a lot worse. I didn't like the way some of them wanted a lot More money for not very much in the way of 'upgrades. I must admit I didn't look at the very expensive ones because my videos are quite simple.

Coming across the Cyberlink family was a revelation and the reviews I read were very enthusiastic, it was from those that I realised that the Ultra version would be fine for me and downloading the trial version proved them right.

After many years of single image photography I decided to teach myself digital art montage. I'd prevaricated for thirteen years thinking it to be a mountain of expertise I couldn't possibly climb. Eventually I became so angry at my failure I put everything else to one side and plunged into it.

This led me to the before and the after of montage making, I was delighted to find some CSS code that would cross fade two images. From there I found that cross fading single images could be made into videos. Once again I had to climb another mountain and learn how to use even more software and how to make and edit sound recordings. Having started with one idea in mind I have reappeared at the other end with something which is to me entirely different and opening up a whole realm of possibilities.

I began making montages with the idea of making figurative images and started by using unrelated background images and merging them in different ways. As I progressed the idea of the anonymous 'Everyman' emerged, so I posed for the figurative images wearing a coverall body suit.

This video is from some of my earliest montages with background images taken from areas local to my home. The first one from a local quarry and the woodland above it and the last from the site of an old mine dating back to Roman times.

The sound is a combination of a recording made with the microphone placed outside our house and one made from a drone synthesiser which I constructed myself.

What I enjoyed most about making this and similar videos is the long crossfades they reveal my thoughts and technique as they slowly unfold.

Here's the link;

Cheers - Jem

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Dec 05, 2015 09:43

Hello Jem,

That YT video is very artistic with those long fades. Glad that you find that PD14 meet your needs. I enjoyed that 8 minute video.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 05. 2015 21:31

Anonymous

Dec 05, 2015 10:46

Hello Tomasc,

Thank you for your kind comments, I really appreciate them.

Cheers - Jem

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Dec 05, 2015 19:17

Great photography! You have access to some interesting areas and scenery. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Anonymous

Dec 06, 2015 04:58

Hello Carl,

Thanks for your comments that's very nice of you. We are fortunate in having such places not too far away I admit but I do think though that everyone lives close to somewhere interesting it's just that they see it everyday and others don't.

There's a vast 'backyard' archive here put together by Levi Wedel http://imagesfound.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/in-beginning.html I often spend some time going through it.

Cheers - Jem

Anonymous

Dec 06, 2015 08:19

Helo, JemRa1d!

Congratulations! Brilliant, simply brilliant! The audio added a spooky feel to it and you appeared like a ghost into several of the shots.

Well done!

Cheers!

Neil

Anonymous

Dec 06, 2015 11:12

Hello Neil,

Many thanks for your comments, I hadn't thought of it in that way at all and it's lovely to hear of your experience as you watched, I am grateful to you.

Kind regards - Jem

Anonymous

Dec 06, 2015 21:18

Quote: Hello Neil,

Many thanks for your comments, I hadn't thought of it in that way at all and it's lovely to hear of your experience as you watched, I am grateful to you.

Kind regards - Jem

G'day Jem!

Just thought I'd offer a suggestion for a transition, try giving Threshold 1 or 2 a whirl in one of your montage projects. I found it to give a brilliant intro or exit effect if coming in from, or exiting to a colour board(CB), the only thing here is that going out to CB, Threshold 1 is best used and Threshold 2 for coming in from CB. You may well find other uses for this transition effect. It's certainly worth the time for experimentation.

Cheers!

Neil.

Anonymous

Dec 07, 2015 06:02

Hello Neil,

Thanks a million for the guide to that transition, I only have one called Threshold in Ultra. Looking at it though gave me the solution for an image in the next project I am working on. More montages but with all the background images made at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I'd found a tree trunk cut because it had fallen over a footpath and took a pic of the end of it, looking at it at 100% I noticed the light and some patterns in part of it, I decided to use this small piece of it as a background image.

Seeing the Threshold transition made me think, could I make a zoom transition and eventually I found the PiP editor thingy and with a bit of fiddling was able to do one, with the bonus that at the start the zooming image is transparent.

I've put it here it's only about 20 secs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kj5QyZAsXc

Seems to me that PD14 is like Ps anything you want to do you can do, the code writers have given us something where the only limitation is our imagination.

Cheers - Jem

Anonymous

Dec 07, 2015 17:46

Hello Jem,

To get to the two different types of "Threshold", first, pull the transition in between the two clips where you want to apply it, then click on "Modify", you then have the option of transition behaviour, overlap or cross. Below the Overlap option you'll see the option for Type(of Threshold), that's where you can select between Threshold 1 or 2, just click on "Type" and you'll find them.

Cheers!

Neil.

Anonymous

Dec 08, 2015 05:09

Hello Neil,

D'you know I'd never noticed that Modify and Duration box I'd found out that if I put a transition between two images it would cross them over beautifully. I'd been magnifying the timeline and using the mouse to make them longer.

This is what you find!

Cheers and thanks for that - Jem

Anonymous

Dec 08, 2015 14:56

Hi, Jem!

PD14 has proved a bit of a learning curve for me. I jumped from PD8 Ultra, right up to PD14 Ultra, and several of the practices are markedly different between using either of the two Power Director versions. What I was easily able to do in Version 8 is not allowed in Version 14, particularly with transitions. In Version 8, I'd set a simple "Fade" transition in place at a set duration(usually 5 seconds) in the first spot where required, then copy the fade trans into my clipboard, pasting in repeatedly as required further along the timeline until all transitions were in place. The "Fade" transition served only as a "seatwarmer" as I intended to use other more leaborate effects in each spot, the fade effect simply marked where the more elaborate effect would go. In PD14, by contrast, that was not possible as I could not copy a transition(any transition) into clipboard and paste to other spots.

In PD8 the ability to copy/paste a transition was a useful timesaving measure, in PD14 the inability to do so was/is a bit of a nuisance as I now have to go through and insert each effect at each point where it's required, and set the amount of time(5 seconds, usually). The upside of this is the ability to crossfade the transition as well as overlap, as against only having overlap in the older version. The difference there is that, in overlap, each insertion of a transition shortens the overall length of the finished video(e.g. five transitions at 5 seconds each = a loss of 25 seconds overall length) while the crossfade option retains the overal length of the video. Hmmm... Just had a thought, maybe I should request the ability to copy/paste transitions in the "Suggerstions For PD15" thread. I daresay, that if you've used earlier versions of Power Director, there'd be some routine practices you had to alter when it came to using PD14.

Cheers!

Neil.

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Dec 08, 2015 18:51

Neil,

I deleted the comment about copy and paste transitions, I was incorrect.

You can copy and paste effects (FX).

Copy and Paste works for modified effects as well. If I am doing censoring, I just create the Blur effect and adjust the parameters, then I can just copy and Paste that effect in other places on the timeline. You can modify the pasted effect in modify to make needed changes. Paste goes where the Scrubber is on the timeline.

Duration of effects and transitions can be set to a default value in Preferences > Editing.

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Filename	Default durations for most everything (my settings).PNG	Download
Description	My default durations.
Filesize	6 Kbytes
Downloaded:	109 time(s)

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Dec 11. 2015 09:30

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Anonymous

Dec 09, 2015 11:16

Quote: Neil, you can copy and paste transitions in PD 14, you must use the keyboard command Ctrl+C (copy) and Ctrl+V (paste).

You can copy and paste effects (FX) also.

Copy and Paste works for modified effects as well. If I am doing censoring, I just create the Blur effect and adjust the parameters, then I can just copy and Paste that effect in other places on the timeline. You can modify the pasted effect in modify to make needed changes. Paste goes where the Scrubber is on the timeline.

Duration of effects and transitions can be set to a default value in Preferences > Editing.

.

Carl, I'm fully aware of Keyboard shortcuts for cutting, copying and pasting. While I can do it with ease in PD8, I found, through my own experience that I wasn't able to do the same thing in PD14. This is mainly due(I think) to the way in which the transitions can now be manipulated(crossfade now available as well as overlap, plus the ability to adjust some of the effects, as well as create one's own custom effects, which I warmly welcome). I have actually tried the Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V copy/paste for the transition effect in PD14 Ultra, found it not to work so had to find another way around the use of transitions, but if you reckon it does work, I will, at a future date, attempt it again.

Cheers!

Nei.

P.S. As I write this, it's close to half-past 3 on Thursday morning 10th December, 2015, 10 days into Summer and we'recopping a nasty thunderstorm.... Ouch!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 09. 2015 11:28

Anonymous

Dec 09, 2015 19:16

Just a little something on the lighter side;

Artists Statement

My work explores the relationship between the body and football chants. With influences as diverse as Caravaggio and Buckminster Fuller, new combinations are crafted from both opaque and transparent narratives.

Ever since I was a pre-adolescent I have been fascinated by the traditional understanding of the moment. What starts out as yearning soon becomes corrupted into a carnival of temptation, leaving only a sense of dread and the unlikelihood of a new beginning.

As subtle replicas become clarified through diligent and diverse practice, the viewer is left with an insight into the possibilities of our condition.

Let ArtyBollocks write YOUR AS

(pithy tweets a speciality)

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Dec 10, 2015 13:08

Quote: Just a little something on the lighter side

All that creative visualisation AND a sense of humour!

Your video makes very engaging viewing Jem. It's a credit to you. You're right - those things are all around us... it's just that not "everyman" sees them. That's the artist's eye at work.

Neil - you're right too. Transitions cannot be copied and pasted, except as part of a sequence - e.g. image/transition/clip/transition/image can be copied and pasted but NOT a single transition.

Cheers - Tony
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Anonymous

Dec 10, 2015 14:06

Hi, Tony!

Yep! I confirmed that for myslf again yesterday("Transitions cannot be copied and pasted") in a brief experiment. It can be done in PD8 but not in PD14. So Carl312, sorry, mate, but you were wrong on that count. That's why I put it in as a suggestion for PD15 on another thread.

Cheers!

Neil.

Anonymous

Dec 11, 2015 04:22

Hello Tony,

Thanks for the lovely comment I'm grateful to you, your words remind me of those of Rembrandt, "There is more beauty in your own village than can be appreciated in a lifetime".

Cheers - Jem

Anonymous

Dec 12, 2015 04:49

Neil - you're right too. Transitions cannot be copied and pasted, except as part of a sequence - e.g. image/transition/clip/transition/image can be copied and pasted but NOT a single transition.

Cheers - Tony

Hi, Tony!

As I said, I experimented, trying to do in PD14 Ultra, what I'd always been able to do in PD8 Ultra and PD7 Delux, copy and paste a transition effect on its own. In the earlier Power Directors, PIECE OF CAKE!(Chocolate, of course! Ha-Ha), but in PD14 Ultra... No way, Jose! I just put it down to being "all part of the learning curve"!

Cheers!

Neil.