Creating cartoon video from JPG image

[richnz]

Hi there,

Completely new to the world of video and would like some help please. Did some diggin around the site but could not find a solution.

I have been playing around with creating dvd photo albums of our photos. I have been using proshow gold to create the albums which is going OK.

I have a dvd of some travel photos that I would like to add a little cartoon type intro showing a map with a line (and little car/truck/plane) that slowly extends across the map showing where we have been (bit like the flying scene on indiana jones whith the map and plane ). I would also like to add small moving or still images along the route to highlight special spots. Not sure whether I would include this into the dvd menu somehow.

The only way I can think of doing this is basically creating a large series of individual images with the line slowly extending across, like a flip cartoon. Then using proshow to run the images into a cartoon. No idea how I would add the other things in. THere's got to be a better way of doing this? Idea's and recommendations on how to best do this would be great (or where to look online), and software worth looking at to make the job as painless as possible.

Thanks for your help.
Rich

[Des]

You should be able to add the other elements using Proshow Gold's layers. For example: once the base cartoon is done you can add a small photo or video as a layer in Proshow Gold and then resize it as you need.

Proshow Producer has more options for this, but Gold has enough basic funtionality where it should be fairly easy to do.

Another idea might be to set up the cartoon in Proshow of the line extending first, then save the sequence out as an Mpeg or Avi file. Bring the carwoon back in and place your layers over it.
Not sure how well that will work though as the gold version doesn't allow much control of the layers with in one frame. The producer version allows layers to do more things on a frame, fade elements in and out individually, etc.

--dES

[M Bruner]

If you want to submit an itinerary, I can do it in After Effects.