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The hidden theme of Studio 14

Updated September 19, 2010


bijoux fantaisie

Our friends at Pinnacle are small jokers !
I have discovered an unsuspected hidden montage theme material in the delivery of Pinnacle Studio 14, which will enable us, with some work to create new original themes ...

topic


The huge size of the -Assets directory of the Album 2 serie caught my attention. There are indeed high definition images that are used for the 4 new skins created by Pinnacle for this extra series delivered with Studio 14.
In fact, when looking into more details, it is not 4 sets of images that are there, but 5 !
Though I re-count, there are a series of images that was not operated in this series of montage theme. I said "was" because you imagine that it is not still the case. . We'll see how I created these new themes ...
schema changes to the theme album/1 - Opening

another clue ...


Another detail caught my attention, showing that our friends at Pinnacle stopped in their tracks ...
If you look at the numbering of the themes, you'll realize that it is not continuous. We go from #4 to #9.
Album series have 4 montage themes (for now ), I conclude that it lacked a lost serie ...
Master of the container tracking camera

therefore let's start working !


After a quick reading of the Album 2 themes source code, and after spending a little time to change the theme of Opening Series Album provided with Pinnacle Studio 12, I quickly realizes that these 4 sets look quite identical. Only pictures of the scenery are different.
So I decided to copy (under another name), the 4 files of the first of four sets of themes in Album 2.
Each series has a name, I decided to assign the name Extra to this 5th series.

We will copy the following files:

  • " 01 - Opening Houndstooth.ixl" to "05 - Opening Extra.ixl"
  • " 02 - Segue A Houndstooth.ixl" to "06 - Segue A Extra.ixl"
  • " 03 - Segue B Houndstooth.ixl" to "07 - Segue B Extra.ixl"
  • " 04 - Ending Houndstooth.ixl" to "08 - Ending Extra.ixl"

Master of the container tracking camera

change internal references to files


Before going further, we need to change the headers of each file we just copied so that they no longer point to the original files, but on the files we have created ...
For that we should open these 4 files with Notepad and change their name in the 3 locations highlighted.
Master of the container tracking camera

Changing references to hidden theme


Our 4 themes are now functional, but they reproduce the same theme with the decorations "Houndstooth ". We'll change the file name pointing to these decoration files.
Still using Notepad, we will search for the string" \Album 2 \-Assets\" which is systematically before file names (because it is their directory name). Each time, we must change the name of the file found by the corresponding name in the new series.
usually just change Album2 in  Album3 in the filename, but a closer reading of the filenames in the directory shows that there are Exceptions:
  • Album2_background.png becomes Album3_BackgroundGradient.png
  • Album2-right-4way-withcover-mask.png becomes Album3-right-4photo -cover-withmask.png

Master of the container tracking camera

look what we get!


We open the theme editor and load series "Album 2 ", and 4 new themes appear with a question mark instead of thumbnails. (This is normal, we did not create associated thumbnails)
looking for Master camera Container

look what we get!


You click on the first of four subjects (opening Extra), and ... Miraculously, it works!
... well, almost ...
A little default appears in the 4th drop box, we must correct it ...
looking for Master camera Container

Indeed, our friends at Pinnacle have not taken care to position the various holes location exactly in the same place for each series of themes. It is therefore necessary to solve this faulty framing directly into the source code of the theme ...
First, we must find the object that handles this framing. Once again, the names of objects will be of great help. Looking quickly source code of the theme, we see an object named "Drop 4.Object ", followed in object Material pointing to object #6 which is the source image of the drop zone 4. So it is there that this happens.
The concern here is that the theme is in 3 dimensions, and it becomes quite complicated to understand where are the axes X, Y, and Z.
It will therefore need some experimental trials to make this change.
First, I zoom a little over the drop zone 4 in order to try to fill the hole on the right side. It is not enough. I decided to slightly shift the drop zone 4 on the right. The value modification is extremely sensitive.
After several attempts, I get a satisfactory result with the following parameters:
Master of the container tracking camera

Being a bit perfectionist, I notice that at the end of the theme, can still be seen some of the edge of the photo on the right and on top. To eliminate it, it will  change the camera movement in the group consisting of the page and its 4 photos. A minor adjustment of parameters PositionX and PositionY in object # 20 will solve the problem


and Other topics?


We have just set the opening theme of this series. What about other topics?
Just try them ...
  • so click on the second theme (Sequi A Extra), and Studio launches the viewer. Nothing to say, it works perfectly
  • For the third theme (Sequi Extra B), there is a problem of framing in the opening, the white borders appears largely in the bottom of the topic.
  • Same for the ending theme, it works fine ...

Master of the container tracking camera

thus see how to fix the theme Segue B Extra ...


As usual, there is only a problem of framing. The easiest way here is to change the starting point of camera motion.
With practice, I quickly identifies the Keyframer which manage this movement. This is the #15.
A priori, the theme is easier to modify than the opening one, there is no movement of page. We can therefore assume that it will suffice to act on the parameter PositionY to correct the default.
Again, we're going to explore to find the correct value. Every time we modify the program, we should drag again the theme on the timeline, and look what we get by running the visualization of the theme.

Our new themes are ready!


We must now create the appropriate thumbnails. To do this, place the themes one by one on the timeline and position the cursor at an instant time representative of the theme. Then make a screenshot (eg with the Windows Snipping Tool provided with Vista), and give it the same name as the theme (but with the extension. png) and place it in the folder "Album 2"

Here are the results:
Master of the container tracking camera

If you feel the soul of an artist, you understand that was quite possible to create your own album, simply by creating your page images and background, and then reproducing this tutorial.
In this case, please send me your creations to the share with other users ...
Meanwhile, here are the themes of editing you will get by following this tutorial ...

Themes" album Extra loaded time
Created September 19, 2010
download album-extra.exe. EXE self-installing


Note: To enjoy these themes, you'll need Studio 14! Indeed, the images 'hidden' are provided by Pinnacle under the Studio version 14 and are not my own creations. So I can not make on this site.



bijoux fantaisie


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Web site of the month !

Original motion backgrounds for your DVD menus and montage theme animation


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