Two Pictures on One Slide - Almost But not Quite ...

[Guest]

I am finishing a project to create a movie of a dinner party. As I final
segment, I want to add a photo of each dish and the recipe, in a single still.

There is no way that I can see to do it with any title/credit function, so
it looks like I have to build a single (combined) image and then import it
.... fine, but how?

My first thought was to use Powerpoint to create a single slide containing
both photo and text and then save the image as a jpg/gif/bmp/why .... that
works fine, the image even looks OK in the preview when you import it. But,
when you try to render for full screen playback ... the text part loses
clarity becoming smudged and blurred.

Is there a better/easier way that I just havent thought of yet please?

 

[Rehan]

But,
when you try to render for full screen playback ... the text part loses
clarity becoming smudged and blurred.

Is there a better/easier way that I just havent thought of yet please?

Your input image should be 640x480 size for 4:3 output.
See Dean Rowe's weblog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/deanro/archive/2005/04/19/409563.aspx

 

[Guest]

Thanx,

I tried just a simple 640 x 480 jpg/gif and there was a slight improvement.

Then I tried it Deans way, and ended up with a 0.04 sec .wmv file which
doesnt seem to be any better quality either.

Just hate to have to give up .....

 

[Wojo]

Rehan is correct even though you only experienced a slight improvement.
Try creating the 640x480 clip as a BMP file and see what that gets ya.

 

[Rehan]

I tried just a simple 640 x 480 jpg/gif and there was a slight

improvement.

Is your output also 640x480 ? It must be if you want to keep the input
untouched.

Here is something I made earlier:

The 640x480 PNG image with a lot of sharp text in it:
http://www.rehanfx.org/B.png

The 640x480 WMV movie made with above image:
http://www.rehanfx.org/B.wmv

Can you find any distortion whatsoever?

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

I'd make a high rez composite still image and then do creative
scanning/zooming of it in PhotoStory 3... then bring the clip into Movie
Maker to add to your movie...

starting with a really close-up of a tomato, zoom out and pan at the same
time to the pizza about ready to go into the oven.... then a little sideways
panning to the start of the recipe, followed by a smooth vertical pan/zoom
of the recipe... finished by either zooming back into the tomato or the
cooked pizza coming out of the oven.... all in one composite image and all
the panning/zooming done in PhotoStory 3 (all but the pizza pan)....
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
..

 

[Guest]

I use powerpoint also, to do things such as you are describing. I will use a
picture and then ascribe names, dates, descriptions etc. The pictures always
are very strikingly good for some reason, but you are right about the slight
smudging of the text. What I do in the case that the blur is obvious; is
to load
it into Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or Photosuite....usually photosuite
because it is
the easiest.....and then 'enlarge' the picture and actually paint in the
letters.....
then your fonts will be just as high def as your picture...that might be too
much
work with your full recipes though....the only other thing I would suggest
is to try
different fonts and to use the 'bold' format. Arial Narrow seems to work
good.

 

[Guest]

Thanx to all for their help and suggestions ... the Photoshop/Photosuite
solution had occurred to me too, but I was being lazy I guess ... however, as
it turns out, it looks like PapaJohn's suggested use of PhotoStory 3 may well
give me what I need.

Again, thanx all