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Multi-media presentation: help!

David Collins
Advocate
I need to put together a fairly sophisticated multi-media presentation and I'm wondering if anyone can suggest the appropriate software:

* It's basically a glorified slide show. Still images, no movies
* Final file should be executable. No readers or media players.
* Mac and PC. Unix would be a bonus.
* Soundtrack, coordinated with the slides
* Full screen, with very minimal controls for pause, forward and reverse
* Ability to program fades, pans, zooms and multiple images

Any ideas?
Thanks
David Collins

Win10 64bit Intel i7 6700 3.40 Ghz, 32 Gb RAM, GeForce RTX 3070
AC 27.0 (4001 INT FULL)
7 REPLIES 7
Dwight
Newcomer
There are several options, including a self-contained powerpoint presentation, but my experience with that is older computers can't switch slides frequently and maintain the sound track - the slides lag, specially when using cross-fade transitions.


My recommendation would be an authored DVD:

Advantages:
combines all media
plays everywhere there's a DVD player (and where is that not? Yodaspeaking as I am.)
basic controls
full screen

imovie and idvd are your best bets.....
Dwight Atkinson
Anonymous
Not applicable
Take a quick look at Pro Show Gold
Very easy to use for slides (stills), transitions and music
Can handle an .exe file as well as all VCD DVD authoring
Even handles movies I think
If you want to keep the process simple this might work

Alternatively most video editors handle slides well
Adobe Premiere
Vegas
I'm sure many other simple ones as well
David Collins
Advocate
Thanks for the input, gentlemen.
The clients originally asked for a movie.
I quoted Dwight to them:
"Animation - waste people's time and look like an idiot, too."
We'll see how the slide show goes.
There's more than one way to look like an idiot.
David Collins

Win10 64bit Intel i7 6700 3.40 Ghz, 32 Gb RAM, GeForce RTX 3070
AC 27.0 (4001 INT FULL)
Dwight
Newcomer
And to remind our faithful readers, I said that because a fly-thru almost certainly doesn't tell the story of a design. And fly-thrus are EXPENSIVE! They take a long time to set up, ArchiCAD's camera tool is rudimentary, and the computer runs a long time to generate the product. I advocate a cheaper solution that speaks better for your design work.

Countless clients have this fly-thru kid-stuff foisted on them because of an adolescent fantasy and the production effort is wasted because the producer wasn't careful about:

-- being inclusive - addressing the needs of non-visual clients, with notes and diagrams as a part of the presentation. Especially those who are queasy when moving.

-- editing to make a point rather than aimlessly move through space ( like down halls of a hotel - always hideous)

-- delivering serenity and detail - like the space is REMEMBERED rather than as it swooshes by.

Even real Hollywood movies are mostly static shots - altho lately, with the advent of the programmed crane, we are seeing a lot more dynamic camera shifts than edits - but this doesn't mean that you can do a "First person shooter" kind of forward-moving dolly shot and make the audience comfortable.

The audience wonders: "The door to the church is opening…when does he pull out his ArchiCAD shotgun object and murder everyone in the chapel?"

My point is that a design presentation on a screen is ALWAYS a slide show - an essay with outline points - that should have all the important spaces in the best quality lighting and detail, and helpful notes, sort of like:

"twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us." (Alice's Restaurant lyrics)

With the Ken Burns effect and cross dissolving slides, dynamic movement can be implied with greater satisfaction and more client serenity that any fly-thru can on its own.

You might start with a fly-thru as an approach shot, like they did for the establishing shot to Dolores Claiborne where the camera flies through the air above the seaside town, through the forest and into the grand house just as the madam falls down the stairs to begin the story arc. But after that, only stills, text and cross-fades.

Powerpoint and Keynote do this inexpensively.

Think story telling. Read Robert McKee's "Story." He's the screen writer instructor who is parodied in "Adaptation."
Dwight Atkinson
David Pacifico
Booster
For what it is worth.
The following was done using ArchiCAD some Piranesi and Adobe Premiere Elements, which was able to go onto a DVD.
http://www.parch.com/images/video/St_Thomas_wMedia.wmv
(you may have to save it after clicking, and then open with windows media player. Also the size is small for the web)

It's trying to tell the story of a proposed church expansion featuring a multipurpose room.
st_thomas_worship.jpg
David Pacifico, RA

AC27 iMac i9, 32 gig Ram, 8 gig video Ram
TomWaltz
Participant
It's pretty easy to light & render one shot... it's the 250 other frames around it that take time.... shadows move, you cannot use billboards, lights reflect in odd ways...

I love doing walk-throughs, but it's always funny that while I'm saying "We can edit here, fade there, transition to that location" my clients are saying "let's make less edits".

What is it with architects who want the 2 minute walkthrough with 30 seconds of interesting shots??
Tom Waltz
Dwight
Newcomer
Even though the technology exists, architects don't have the time or the training to tell the story of architecture in a movie.
Dwight Atkinson