Photo montage software/plugins that you are using

Cooldraft wrote on 4/23/2010, 7:35 AM

I saw this slide show at a wedding with trasitions that were cleverly placed they sparingly used life changing cool (for the audience-not really for editors-but they have the money) a few that I can remember were walking baby transition/reveal, gradiation cap/reveal, etc. These weren't overused, but thought that I might ask here to see what the braintrust has to offer. Just stubled on to Microsoft Picture Story 3 and if that software is making it that easy for Kevin Burns' effects and transitions, I might have to watch out, or step up and do something better, or risk the clients doing the montages themselves (making them would-be clients) = failed humor attempt

Comments

gpsmikey wrote on 4/23/2010, 8:05 AM

Check out Photodex Prohow Producer - I will do basically everything you want with slides - multiple layers, keyframing effects/motion etc, styles (sort of like templates) and you can either create a DVD (or other media) direct from it or do like I do and create a number of different portions of "shows" as uncompressed avi files which I then bring into Vegas to assemble, create additional stuff then go to DVDA to create the DVD (or iso in my case). You can download/install trial versions and see how you like it. There is also a great support forum for Proshow out there too -- see these links

http://www.photodex.com/
http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/

One of the things that drives a number of the people in the Producer group nuts is learning to use keyframes -- everybody here should not have any problem with that area :-)

mikey

hackazoid wrote on 4/23/2010, 9:04 AM

Yes, the Pro Show is nice. Know some who have used it. I did a trial and found it very easy + there is a unoffical support group you can 'google' and read more there.

My issue was that I also had some video and it wasn't as easy as Vegas to temporarily lower the music to pick up the video sound track & then restore the music.

I ended up with the VASST Ultimate S as it has a photo montage tab that works nicely. You can save groups of your favorite transitions and then apply them & the 'Ken Burns effect' automatically such as in random. Then, I'll do some tweaks to adjust to the areas I want to emphasize.

But, if there are no video issues, then Pro Show could be a nice pick. Let's see what others who have actually used it say. I may have missed some tricks.

Good luck.

gpsmikey wrote on 4/23/2010, 10:01 AM

Probably the best "unofficial support group" is the one I listed - Proshowenthusiasts (it is not supported by Photodex - it is independent ) (there is also a Yahoo Producer group too). Granted, Proshow does not handle video well (but it does OK with it) - that is why I use both Producer and Vegas putting things together. If you have Vegas, it has an added benefit of being a good audio editor so you can put complicated audio tracks together if you want (proshow lets you put down a main audio track (and you can trim the audio there) as well as put an audio clip on each slide but having a decent audio editor is a definite plus). While Ultimate S and others can handle slides to a degree, they are way behind what you can do with something like Producer (for slides). For the video, use Vegas etc. I just finished a 28 minute show for my daughter's soccer team using about 600 slides (multiple layers and fast motion) - built each segment of the show in Producer then assembled the segments with transitions etc in Vegas. Turned out very well.

mikey

Editguy43 wrote on 4/23/2010, 11:37 AM

Photoshow is pretty cool.

I have found that for short simple shows, Memories on TV is pretty good http://codejam.com/slideshow/index.htm and it is inexpensive.

gpsmikey wrote on 4/23/2010, 12:53 PM

Another one you may want to experiment with is Picturestoexe - I have not used it for a while (purchased some time ago), but it also has some nice features and I believe is now able to output video formats you can use in Vegas for example.
http://www.wnsoft.com/

Be sure and check out the samples of some of these various utilities - you can get some great ideas as well as learn what some of the limitations are.

mikey

randy-stewart wrote on 4/23/2010, 1:03 PM

While I use Vegas and Ultimate S almost exclusively, I have used 3d Album in the past with pretty good results. It has a lot of canned templates for movement that you can mix together with lots of flexibility for pictures, video, music, etc. It outputs to .avi other formats also. Formats worked well with Vegas. See it at the below link:
http://www.3d-album.com/index.php
Randy

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 4/23/2010, 10:38 PM

VASST Ultimate S

The Kid wrote on 4/23/2010, 11:40 PM

They also have one in Heyroglyphs as well sometimes I use that

jetdv wrote on 4/24/2010, 8:15 AM

I have a new one that simplifies the Ken Burns process and makes the process SMART by detecting faces in the image and automatically panning/scanning around the faces. Check out Montage Magic.

jrazz wrote on 4/24/2010, 8:15 AM

I used to try and use 3d albums, but I gave up on it... well, actually I gave up on their nonconventional user interface. IT IS/WAS HORRIBLE!

Did they update it to a standard windows GUI?

j razz

randy-stewart wrote on 4/25/2010, 5:21 PM

"Did they update it to a standard windows GUI?"

jrazz,
Nope, still the same. Different to use but pretty easy once you learn it. It handles photos from files and displays them so you can easily rearange them very quickly. It edits/corrects photos easily also and you have a timeline option if you prefer to use that. There is definitely a learning curve for the interface. Also, you have to capture your show to the right format before you can use it in Vegas (or other programs). What appealed to me was the many animations that were available. Actually, my wife saw the story book running at a Wedding Expo and asked if I would get it. There are many templates. One that I liked was the photo's hanging on a clothes line and flapping in the wind like bed sheets while they traverse the screen in front of a garden backgrond.

Sorry for the long answer.

Randy

Jay Gladwell wrote on 4/25/2010, 6:26 PM

That's really slick, Edward. Looks like a real time saver!

Laurence wrote on 4/25/2010, 7:22 PM

I am so glad I read this thread! I've been using Ultimate-S for a few years now and love using it for photo montages except that I always spend a lot of time recentering the movement around the faces instead of the random centers that Ultimate-S chooses. I will definitely try (and probably buy) the new Montage Magic script. This is something I do a lot of.

dogwalker wrote on 4/26/2010, 4:17 PM

I've mainly used MemoriesOnTV and Vegas together - the former if I'm just building a slideshow (it's incredibly intuitive and powerful) or if building segments which I then want to combine in Vegas.

TeetimeNC wrote on 4/27/2010, 3:09 AM

>I've mainly used MemoriesOnTV and Vegas together - the former if I'm just building a slideshow (it's incredibly intuitive and powerful) or if building segments which I then want to combine in Vegas.

I just looked at their web site - nice looking product. I couldn't find anywhere where they mentioned output resolution. Can you produce HD slideshows with Memories OnTV?

/jerry

CClub wrote on 4/27/2010, 3:48 AM

For VERY specific projects, below is a fun little program... it's by the makers of Bluff Titler. It doesn't have a wide range of use, but for a particular, 3D photo album look, it's an inexpensive option: http://www.outerspace-software.com/bixphotobook.htmlPhoto Book[/link]

wwaag wrote on 4/27/2010, 8:52 AM

"I just looked at their web site - nice looking product. I couldn't find anywhere where they mentioned output resolution. Can you produce HD slideshows with Memories OnTV?"

Yes, there is an output option for custom resolution--I've used both 1280x720 and 1920x1080. You can create an avi file using whatever codec you choose--I've used both Huffy and Canopus HQ which can then be imported into Vegas.

Some years ago, I ran into the problem an output file size limitation--4GB. Don't know if that was fixed in a later version, but I rather doubt it. There doesn't seem to be a lot of ongoing development with this software. There's also a forum you might check out.

wwaag