Huge amount of photo's on a site ???

OK ive had a look through previous posts but the trouble is i dont even know what im looking for so im not getting anywhere.

The point of my site is to teach newbies how to do a certain type of object manipulation. Its a study of the movement involved. Thing is i want to give them a few options of viewing the demonstrated moves as i remember when i was a beginner, looking at a demo, thinking "i wish i could stop it and move it frame by frame."

This would be a godsend to interested newbies believe me.

So... what i want to do is take one of my lesson mpegs, run it through animation shop to filter out identical and unecessary shots. Then turn each photo from the animation into its own jpeg and store them all in a folder which the viewer can then download and view with windows picture and fax viewer or whatever it is.

The question is... :

How do i get a folder of piccys to go on my site as a downloadable file (heh heh, they are great)

Any suggestions about this and better ways of obtaining the photo's from my mpegs would be very very welcome indeed.

Much appreciated.


General Spin.

p.s. on my homepage there is a link to a vid, if you view it you need to refresh to use the site nav afterwards. Mystifys me. Anyone ???

You could put the folder into a zip file that your users could download and extract. If you open winzip and drag the folder on the open winzip window it will prompt you for an archive name for the saved file (at least the version 8 I'm using does). It won't compress them very much, but it will give you a single file containing the folder and it's contents.

Much appreciated RichB,

Hmmm, the file size is going to be a problem i think, ive only got a 100meg and ive already got video on there. Will set to work and post what i find out here. Could always shrink the photo's by half i spose.

Nice Threads BTW

OK, had a problem with animation shop opening a .wmv file so converted it back to an mpeg and got the photo's using animation shop.

Keyboard shortcuts were a godsend on that one. ALT + f... m... s... then right arrow saves frame on animation shop to chosen folder and moves onto the next frame for the next ALT + f...m...s...

The whole thing without compression is only 443 kb and its just the best teaching aid ive ever seen for this art !!!!!

Will need to put some clear english instructions about unzipping files for the computer illiterate like me but thats np.

Thanks ever so much.

The Supreme Allied Commander of Spin

Glad it worked out for you.

Is there any other way of doing this do you think?

Zipped files confuse people, javascript album viewers would need to be filled manually with about 5000 pics (or would they?) and so would a new page for each set of pics.

Would also appreciate any constructive criticism towards the site if anyone feels like it.

Happy New Year Folks

Gen Spin

Does your site allow php? A good work around to ZIP files is to make them self extracting and let people know what to do with the file they just downloaded.

If you have php, I *should* be able to whip something up pretty easy.

Ahem... Time to earn my Newbie Assistants tag...

I dont actually know if my site supports php. How do I find out ?

Ive stuck the zips on there anyway for now and have just finished a page which explains how to unzip. This is it :

The "pictures" links on this site are all linked to zipped files. This is a way of getting lots of files into one link, otherwise we would have had to have put thousands of links on the website for each individual picture or the actual picture itself. This would look rubbish and would be virtually unusable in practicle terms we think, so zipped files it is.

Instructions for the opening and viewing of zipped files :

When you click a "pictures" link on this site you will be asked whether you would like to "open" "save" "cancel" or get "more info" It would probably be best if you just clicked "open."

This will generate a download box with a green line going from right to left. This represents the information coming from this site to your computer, it may take a minute or so, it depends on the speed of your internet connection. Just let the green line finish.

The next thing you will see is a window which contains the file that you are trying to unzip. Click it once then go to the top and press the "extract to" button.

This will then generate another box called "extraction path and options" which is asking you where to put the opened files contents to on your computer. This bit is upto you, pick a folder from the list by clicking a folder (that you will remember) and by clicking "OK"

A little box will appear and disappear very quickly. The pictures are now on your computer. To view them, go to the folder (that you remebered) and open it. Double click the first one and it will appear on your screen. To go to the next one simply press your right arrow key.

Enjoy.

..................

What do you think ? Where do I find out what php is ?

Many thanks for the help b_heyer

General Spin

Go to your host's page and see if it says anything about PHP. The php website is: http://www.php.net .

I'd say if the zip's are working for you, stick with it.

Yeh your probably right, Ill just leave it as it is. The explanation is enough anyway i think, i don't know it could do with a small tweak here and there to make it utterly no brainer proof.

Im going to use some javascript as well i think (a photogallery) just for the few crucial pics which explain the move. This shouldnt be too laborious but its still at the end of a long list of to do's so it wont be there for a bit.

Thanks for indulging me

General Spin

by the way, yes it does support .php

if you wanted to make things really easy I would use a prog like AlbumDIY ( http://www.visimon.com/ ) (freeware) to compile the photos into an EXE album. (Normally I wouldn't use theirs, i'd write my own photo viewer in VB so that I get more control over exactly what the users see. I'll write one for you if you want, but AlbumDIY should do everything you need)

Thanks for the suggestion, am going to check it out asap. Will get back to you.
How much work would it be to write one ? It may seem like a stupid question but wouldnt you want paying for it ?



General Spin

I am currently charging very little for my programming services - get them while they are cheap. One hour job, US$25 an hour. I'll do it for $25 But AlbumDIY should do everything you need.