I have a very wide image that I am panning from the left to the right and takes 30 seconds to complete. Rather than starting all over again when it is complete, I want it to “follow its’ tail” so to speak. As if I took that image and wrapped it around a tin can and slowly spun it.
Is there a means to do this, or would that be a request for a new feature?
Having not tried this before, it sounded intriguing, so I tried to figure out a way to do it – as easily as possible, of course! I couldn’t come up with anything that worked well. I tried importing the same image on a different layer, but getting the right edge of the second layer to line up with the left edge of the first layer (the “tail”) and the timing correct was pretty much impossible.
I did think of a wonky method of doing it, though. But I guess it depends also on how many times you need this repetition to occur, and how large your file is. And, it requires a 3rd party app to do it (I’m suggesting Photoshop). Open your image, then expand your canvas in the width as many times as you want the original image to follow itself. So, for an easy example, assume your file is 1000 pixels across. If you want the image to pass twice, expand the canvas to 2000 pixels, then copy the image and paste it adjacent to itself (left edge of one to the right edge of the other – you get the idea). If you want it to pass 3 times, then you’d have to increase the canvas to 3000 pixels wide, and paste the image twice. Save your result, then import THAT into FM and pan it from right to left.
It’s NOT really circular, but it will “appear” that way to the audience. I’m also not sure how it will affect timing, especially if the file is extremely large and needs to get loaded into memory to get displayed (at least for real-time presentations).
If anybody can come up with a method to do this all from within FM in its current version, I’d sure like to hear about it.
It DOES sound like an interesting feature. You might suggest it in the Feature Requests area for FotoMagico.
Stantastic, thanks for the reply. For the project I’m currently working on the original image has been reduced to 2800 pixels across and this is going to be something ending up on the net. So file size needs to be kept as low as I possibly can keep it. This is one reason why, if I were to use FotoMagico for this project, it would need to export out as GIF. The reason that it needs to be an animated GIF is because it will be the “outside” background image for a website and as an image, there’s only GIF that animates itself on the web.
But as for a feature to FotoMagico, it is odd that this hasn’t been requested for way before of me just asking. I will ask now. Thanks.
@Rgator: FotoMagico don’t have a feature to loop an image that way you will need it. I think from your description of your endproduct you will need a special GIF builder app to do this. Animated GIFs are complicated to generate, this is nothing you “just export” from any slideshow (e.g. you just have a selection of 256 colors for it).
My suggestion is, that you expand your image once with the procedure @stantastic suggested, so that you have at least one loop. You can use FotoMagico to do a linear pan over the image and export it as a QuickTime movie. Use a 3rd party app to trimm the movie exactly that way that it will loop forever. In the end use a Movie-to-GIF converter app to create your GIF.