Hi John,

I'd guessed you'd recommend Xara!

Your alternative would fade in the ring instead of draw it quickly.

My ideas so far are:

1. Continue my so far unsuccessful googling for a free (and no strings attached) video that does what I want or is easily modified.

2. Similar to your method but rotate an appropriately designed mask, so that a white circle is drawn, with a width roughly 5-10% of the radius. (I suspect two steps may be needed, and the two results combined.)

3. Revisit the 'Echo' approach which I vaguely recall can draw a circle.

4. In Google Earth, select a snow and ice terrain near North or South Pole, where a visually perfect latitude circle is shown. Or find a perfect circle elsewhere on a plain solid background. (Or add the background as a GE Overlay.) Fill the screen by zooming. Add a Path. Manually draw it as series of short black lines, tracing the circle. (When eventually the video is used as a very small pop-up it should seem a smooth circle.) Animate the path using the Time Slider and capture with FRAPS. Edit if necessary in MEP.

5. In Excel, create say a hundred pairs of x,y values, representing latitude and longitude, using the equation for a circle, (x^2) + (y^2) = r^2. In a text editor, incorporate these carefully into a GPX file. Add arbitrary time stamps. Import the GPX into Google Earth. Animate the path using the Time Slider and capture with FRAPS. Edit if necessary in MEP.

Tight lines!

Terry, Mousehole, Cornwall

Hi Terry

MEP has all you need, apart from the circle image(s).

Example: -

Two circle images, one white the other red and an existing transition - Movements Basic, Clock.

Apply transition to white image only and then use as transition to red image, with a little cropping to end of the white image to achieve a smooth transition to red as shown below

Exported as MXV and the used speeded up in the example above.

You can extend this further as shown below

Mousehole - one of our favourite places, especially for cycling 😰

HTH

John EB

Hi John,

Excellent, thanks a bunch! So looks like I'll be firing up MEPP 2017, instead of my currently used 2016, as I don't think I've seen those very interesting templates before.

Walk to Mousehole from Porthcurno, 9 miles, was the hardest of this holiday by far. Rocky path, boulders, scrambling, mud, repeated steep ascents and descents. Tremble to think what it would have been like in the rain instead of sunshine. Tomorrow an easy one, to Marazion via Penzance - but forecast rain throughout.

Look forward to trying your method next week. Of course, feel free to make one meanwhile and upload it! 🙂

Terry, Mousehole, Cornwall

Hi Gentlemen,

John EB, thanks for finding the solution.

The clock transition, along with many others is not in VPX. I downloaded the 2016 transitions and now have it, so, Terry, it should also be in 2016.

Are the thumbnail images the same in 2017 as in 2016, or did Magix change them?

I did not succeed in animating the ring properly in Xara. There must be a way. There is a new split ring smart shape that would be perfect, but animating it did not work well at all. Here is what the smart shape looks like:

The handles change the width of the line, inner radius, ends of the split ring.

As you have seen in my tutorials, I have an animated brush circle that I use that was created in Xara. This is what I was trying to do with a circle, unsuccessfully.

What I want next is the animated arrow that Magix uses in their videos, or is there one with MEP that I have not seen?

Hi

@browj2

. . . . Are the thumbnail images the same in 2017 as in 2016, or did Magix change them? . . . .

They have been changed slightly:-

MEP 2016 and earlier

MEP 2017

Odd that it did not make into VPX, most of the other transitions are there, as I said the Clock transition/fade has been in every version of MEP from at least MX, just cheked MEP 17 and it has 2 clock transition/fades - one clockwise and the other anticlockwise.

. . . . What I want next is the animated arrow that Magix uses in their videos . . .

Can you point me to one and the time it appears, thanks.

HTH

John EB

Hi both,

Duh, of course - I've been using many of those transitions for years. Including the clock, but didn't think of it for making my 'continuous ring'. Nor recognise those 2017 templates.

John CB: I have a couple of animated arrows but not sure of their source without my PC at hand. I'll upload them for you on Tuesday if you still need one.

Aaargh! Just lost another message by getting logged out.

@johnebaker

Thanks for the info on 2017 icons. I guess that we have to wait until Magix updates VPX.

There were several transitions under movement that did not make it into VPX. I haven't checked everywhere, but I know that there are many more effects that did not make it. I copied many on my desktop. My Surface Pro has a clean install of VPX, but only limited install of MEP2015 and 2016 Premium, VPX6 and 7, just to have the third party plugins.

The animated arrow is at about 40s in this German tutorial on Sequoia.

I tried making one, but I'm not happy with it. If any exist, I would prefer to use them.

@terrypin

Thanks for the offer. No hurry. John EB may come back and show me that I already have them in an older version.

We'll be home on Tuesday as well, but going camping again on Friday or Saturday.

With a little practice and patience, I'm getting better at some of the animations in Xara. The ring still has me stumped.

Hi John CB

Do you mean something like this:-

If so I will upload 2 versions of the projects - a basic one using 2 images only, and an advanced one using masks and mxv file.

HTH

John EB

Hi John EB,

Yes, that is it! Would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you kindly,

John CB

Hi John CB

Zip file is here.

HTH

John EB

Hi Terry

Zipped project for circle wipe is here

HTH

John EB

Hi John,

Many thanks, downloaded on iPad while awaiting Penzance-Paddington train. Will install tomorrow.