In some ways, a flipbook is like a very simple slideshow without any transitions, audio, or fancy panning and zooming. After slogging through the last section, you may be thinking you’ve had enough of Elements slideshow options, thank you very much. But all that’s different about a flipbook is the speed at which the images appear. A flipbook’s frame rate (how long each image appears onscreen) is very fast. So if you put a stack of photos you took using your camera’s burst mode into a flipbook, you can create an animation where the images change so fast it appears that your subject is moving.
Tip
Flipbooks are great for creating a time-lapse effect. For instance, if you take a photo of the building progress of your new house each day from the exact same spot, you can combine all the photos and watch the house go from an empty lot to finished structure in just a few seconds.
The flipbook effect is similar to an animated GIF (Creating Animated GIFs), but you can use JPEGs in a flipbook, so the image quality is much higher than with GIFs. The downside is that you can’t easily post a flipbook on a web page. Your completed flipbook is a Windows Media file, so all you or your friends can do is watch it like a movie or regular slideshow. That said, Elements does give you several different output sizes, so you can pick one that’s suitable for watching on a regular TV (although you need Adobe’s Premiere Elements or some other video-editing program to make a version that your TV understands).
You may also want to create a flipbook to use as a plain old slideshow, since they’re quick to produce and easy to email. Regardless of how you plan to use your flipbook, here’s how to get started:
In the Organizer, select the photos you want to include.
You have to choose at least two photos, or you’ll see a warning (instead of the Elements Organizer Flipbook window) when you try to continue. You can’t add or delete photos once you start creating a flipbook, so be sure you’ve selected all the photos you want before you start. You may want to make an album (Albums and Smart Albums) to help you keep track.
Note
The flipbook displays your photos in order based on their filenames or numbering. For example, files with names like img_0617.jpg, img_0618.jpg, and so on, appear in numerical order. The only control the Elements Organizer Flipbook window gives you is that you can reverse the order of the whole group of images. (See Changing Image Size and File Type for advice on renaming a batch of photos using a sequential number scheme.)
Go to Create→More Options→Flipbook.
Elements displays the window shown in Figure 18-9. You can preview your flipbook by clicking the Play button below the image area.
You have only a limited number of options in the flipbook window. Because the images change so fast, flipbooks don’t let you add transitions between slides. All you can adjust is:
Playback Speed. This controls the number of frames per second (each photo is one frame). One frame per second is the slowest option, and even that’s pretty zippy for a regular slideshow. The more frames per second, the faster and smoother the animation effect, and the shorter the total playback time.
Reverse Order. If you want to see your slides from last to first, instead of first to last, then turn on this checkbox.
Output Settings. These settings determine the size of your flipbook file. You get a variety of formats to choose from. Computer Monitor is a good medium size that gives you a convenient balance between file size and image size. Web is a good format to use on a web page (assuming your viewers have broadband Internet connections). E-mail creates a tiny show that you can send to people with dial-up connections. You can also choose to create a flipbook in DVD-NTSC, DVD-PAL, VCD-NTSC, or VCD-PAL. NTSC is for video players in the United States and most other areas, and PAL is used in Europe and China. (If you choose any of these settings, then you need a program like Premiere Elements to create the final DVD for TV viewing. That’s because, although you can create a flipbook in a format for use on a DVD player, Elements can’t create the menus and extra files the DVD player needs to play the file.) Unfortunately, the VCD choices are subject to the quality limitations discussed on Saving and sharing your slideshow. Figure 18-10 has more advice on choosing a setting.
Loop Preview. Turn on this checkbox and, once you click the Play button, your preview plays endlessly until you stop it by clicking the Pause button.
Create your flipbook.
When you’re happy with how the flipbook performs, click Output. If you want to make big changes, like adding or removing photos, or if you decide you don’t want to make a flipbook after all, then click Cancel. (You have to start from scratch to change which photos are included.)
When you click Output, Elements opens a new window where you can name and save your flipbook, which automatically gets added to the Organizer. Then you’re all done.
