garageCube

Hello everybody!

I want to create a slideshow from a folder containing 1’000+ images. I know I can do that by simply drag and drop the folder into my media set, but I also want to be able to control the transition between the images.
Basically I need something like the Slide Show module which let me control the slideshow quite nicely. But unfortunately, this module just uses the images stored in my media set, it ignores folders full of images.

What can I do?
Is there a module which can do this? I haven’t found anything yet, does anyone have any idea how to solve this?

Thank you very much!

It should be possible to either modify the existing Slide Show module to read from a folder or to write a new module that reads from a folder and matches the BPM (or not). When you say transition - what parameters do you want to control? You can control the timing between the images and match it to the BPM but you can't fade when you load an image from a folder. I just tired on a private module that does something similar and no dice.

Thanks for your reply!

If the Slide Show module could be modified to work with an image folder, that would be perfect. I want to control the fading between the images and the general speed of the slideshow.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any skill to modify these modules – guess I really have to learn this if I want to use Modul8 like a pro

So as I said, fading won't work when loading images from a folder but if you have use of a slide show module for folders I have a beta for you to try. PM me with your email address and I'll send it to you. Any one else interested can PM me for a beta too. My module works with movies too (will step frame by frame) and you have a timing option of x seconds or BPM.

Thanks a lot, I’ll send you my address right away.

You should have it in your email by now. I will probably release the module publicly within the next few days.

Thanks again for that wonderful module, works like a charm!

I just noticed that when I load a folder containing approximately 1’000 images, the slideshow needs a while to work properly.
Does the modul kind of preload the images first? Do you have any experience how I can improve my images so they might load faster? Right now they are more or less 200 kb each. Already too big?

Thanks a lot!

Save your images as jpegs if you are showing photos. You could elaborate with the quality settings and see how low quality you think you could get away with. I use "Save for Web" in Photoshop which gives small file sizes. I imagine that Fireworks would do the job as well and there are probably other programs. Don't make the image's dimensions bigger than the output size and the resolution should be 72 dpi maybe with exception if you are showing it on a Retina screen then you might consider 150 dpi.

As for the loading of the images, that is handled by Modul8 so it doesn't have to do with the coding of my module. You could try highlighting the image folder in the media set and and click the "i" icon in the upper left corner of the media set and click "preload". I'm not sure if it helps. But you should not use images bigger than you need, that's a waste of resources. I would use Photoshop to batch transform all your images to the right size and dpi. Just make sure to make a copy of the originals first.

Thank you, I guess, I’ll do some batch processing in photoshop …

The (tmt) Slide Frames module is now public, check this post: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8484#p25242

I just wanted to chime in here and say that I also have this need and I have found a way to kind of fake the fading and still use the slide show from folder function (which I need in my particular instance). What I do is setup two layers which reference a folder of images (can be the same images or different ones) then I stack those two layers in front of one another and use the BPM Router (layer) to control the opacity of each layer so that they fade in out. Of course, you still get the image swap that is inherent in the built in slideshow function, but if you play with the time a bit, you can usually hide that pretty effectively. Obviously, this technique kind of depends on what your application is (in my particular case, it doesn't have to look perfect because there are other things going on) but if you tweaked it enough, you could probably make it more or less seamless.

Great idea, thanks for sharing!

piero101 wrote:Great idea, thanks for sharing!

Not a problem, hope it's useful for you!

i've gotten a nice 'fading' effect between images in a folder by turning down the layer speed and turning up the trace a little bit. try it out to see if it fits your needs.

Fun to see alternative solutions to the fading problem. I'm looking into a smoother way of solving it with a real, programmed, interpolated fade between two layers. Were do you guys feel that the fade is most needed - with the time or the bpm method, or are both as important?