Is this possible ? I’d like to have say 10 slides at 2.1-ish seconds each… changing in the background, while a 21 second video plays in the upper left corner…
I tried chopping the video up so it was a new video on top of each new slide, but getting the timing right is next to impossible…
Am I missing something ?
At the moment, I can’t think of a way to solve THAT specific problem. One of the issues is that FM is currently limited to 6 layers (I think). What you would really want to do, because you have the 21 second video playing, is place the video on the TOP layer. Then place all of your other images (your 10 slides) below it. THEN, you control the visibility of each layer independently in the Options pane – the top layer (the video) stays visible the whole time. The bottom layer (the first image) would display for 2.1 seconds then disappear, the next layer appears at 2.1 seconds and disappears at 4.2 seconds, and so on for each layer. Unfortunately, you are currently only limited to 6 layers, so it can’t be done. And I don’t think there’s currently an effective way of trimming the video to stop at the end of say half your slides (using the technique I described), then go to the next slide and have the video pick up exactly where it left off (and then displaying the rest of the slides). You might try playing with it as an experiment. Oops, I guess you already tried that. Yeah, that’s hard to do…
what am i doing wrong with trying to make things on different layers different lengths ? I’m pretty sure I tried what you said too… Video as the top layer, but every time I tried to click the edge and drag either to a different length it would move both, am I just being mouse challenged ? hahaha…
appreciate the response, at least it sounds like I’m on the right track/not missing anything (new to the software, and under time pressure… so… yea… thanks !!!)
This still won’t work with what you wrote before – that is, you can’t do 10 image layers and one video layer. The max you could do is FIVE images and the ONE video. Regardless, I’m not sure exactly “where” you’re clicking the “edge” and dragging to a different length. Not in the Timeline, I hope. It’s easier to show than to explain, but I’ll give it a try.
Make sure you’re in the Timeline mode and you can see each of the images stacked one on top of the other within a single slide. You static images would be stacked on the bottom (the first one you want to display on the very bottom, then each succeeding slide above it), and your single video would be on top. Select the FIRST (bottom) layer, then go to the Options pane. Under the Image section (FM 4.6.3) or the Layer section (FM 5.0b32), you’ll see a Visibility adjustment box, with two triangles on the left underneath, and two on the right underneath. On the left set, click the left (outer) triangle and drag to the right. On the right set, click the right (outer) triangle and drag to the left (the inner triangles adjust the fade in/fade out duration if you want to do that, otherwise leave the triangles touching and the images will just “appear” without a fade). You have now adjusted WHEN that layer appears and disappears while the entire slide is being shown. It should look like a “square wave” (hope you know what that is). So to make it simple, assume you want 5 images to show in the time it takes to play the video. You’d drag the start and end points of the first image (bottom layer) to play 1/5 of the entire duration of the slide. Now go to the SECOND LAYER (second from bottom). Do the same thing – adjust the starting time to correspond to the ending time of the first layer. Then adjust the end time to be at the 2/5 point of the duration of the slide. Keep doing that for each layer, one at a time. One starts where the one before it ends. Use the little hash marks as a guide. Or, to be precise, just click on the Settings wheel to the right of the Visibility adjustment section and enter the exact percentages of your in and out timing. When you’re done, the slide will play and each layer will appear for 1/5 of the slide duration, one after another until the duration has elapsed. Gosh, it’s so easy to SHOW it – really tough to describe it easily.
got it !! thank you !!