Images in Templates

I'm using the "Filmstrip Index" template. Graphically, the filmstrips are skewed on the page (slants upwards from left to right). That's fine but when I add images to the the drop zones, the images remain "straight and level". I am unable to rotate the images to match the film strips angle. I can resize but not rotate. Help?

- Dick Swanson

This is a style issue. When you create the shape object and convert it to a drop zone, it should have been created as a straight and level shape, then converted to a drop zone and then tilted and saved tilted as a drop zone style.

What happened here is, it was created to appear slanted in the first place without actually being slanted from within a stylized drop zone object inside SP2.

You can slant the image by slanting the drop zone with the drop zones property inspector using the rotate selection at the bottom left of the zones property, but your added image will never match the slant of the drop zone perfectly. This is why at some point, you'll want to start to create your own shape objects and convert them to drop zones or use them as button shapes.

Once you have converted a shape to a drop zone, take a look at the drop zone property inspector and you will notice it has a rotate option. If you rotate that drop zone, then drop an image or .m2v file into the zone, it will also be slanted.

You can also control-click or right-mouse click on the slanted drop zone and select save drop zone style from the options menu that appears. If you do so, your new stylized drop zone will appear in the palette for future use under Styles tab > Custom > Styles. It is still a drop zone, but it will be classified as a style and are held there rather than being held in drop zones or shapes.

It's me again. The only "rotate selection" I can bring up in the Inspector allows me to rotate the "button text" but not the template or drop zones inside the film strip templates.

- Dick

OK..duh!...As you said, when asset is dragged and dropped as a "drop zone" then the "rotate selection" works. Now I have to figure out how to get rid of the "jaggies" on the rotated image.

- Dick

The button object cannot be slanted that I know of. What they are doing here is creating a mask that looks slanted but it not slanted. On the outer area of the film strip, they are indeed using drop zones, which are slanted. The inner 6 buttons however, were specifically designed to appear to be slanted, but they are not. This is done with the mask layer of the shape object. The mask dictates what you see and how. So if I create a mask in the shape of a star with 5 points for example, you will see your image or movie as a star. Remember, the mask his hiding part of the image to do this. If you truly want a button and the contents of that button slanted, you'll need to composite that video or use photoshop to create a slanted image that matches the slant of the backdrop you are using.

Its pretty complicated until you start creating your own shapes. Once you do that, you really start to understand the whole process a lot more.

I have two tutorials you can read to help you get started with creating shapes or just better understanding them here:

[www.kenstone.net]
[www.kenstone.net]