Can your viewer do this?

The movie above shows nine images in the Aperture viewer chasing around in a square. I'll show you how it is done.

In the thumbnail viewer (grid) make sure you have at least twenty images. Make the viewer visible and set the viewer into Multi mode (option U). Scroll to the top of the thumbnails and mentally label the first nine images from 1 to 9.

Click on the first image (number 1), then command click on eight more in the order 2 3 8 9 4 7 6 5. Once you have done that you will have nine images in the viewer.

Now hit command right-arrow a few times. Images appear in the middle and disappear on the left! Command left-arrow will do the opposite. Command arrow is the Slide function. By clicking on the images in that special order you defined how they slide on the screen.

Here are some things you can do with four images (click image to download movie):

To slide two images up together, click in the order 1 2 3 4 and hit command-right twice in quick succession. To do a double down, the order is 4 3 2 1 and command-right twice. A double left is 1 3 2 4, and a double right is 4 2 3 1. So expressed in shorthand this is:

1 2 3 4 RR slides up
4 3 2 1 RR slides down
1 3 2 4 RR slides left
4 2 3 1 RR slides right

You can make four images rotate too. Try these. This time they use a single command-right key:

1 4 2 3 R clockwise, enter top right
3 2 4 1 R clockwise, enter bottom left
2 3 1 4 R counter, enter bottom right
4 3 1 2 R clockwise enter top left

This next one I call "the rocket" (click image to download movie):

Notice that you have to use seven images for this one.

1 4 5 7 R Rocket to top right
1 7 5 2 R Rocket to top left

It works with six images too, but this is different. Depending on the shape of the viewer six images can be arranged in either two rows or two columns. Here is a six image rotate for two rows (click image to download movie):

For two columns, these patterns work:

1 2 3 4 5 6 RR Double slide up
1 4 3 6 5 2 R Kisses, new middle right

The last one I call "kisses" because all the images kiss in the middle. With two rows you can do these:

1 3 5 2 4 6 RR Double slide left
1 3 5 4 6 2 R Kisses, new bottom middle
1 2 3 6 5 4 R Counter clockwise, bottom left

And here are some tricks with nine images. First a kiss (click image to download movie):

1 2 3 8 9 4 7 6 5 R Rotate counterclockwise new in the middle
1 3 5 8 9 7 6 4 2 R Kiss

The last one, another rocket, needs more than 18 images to work (click image to download movie):

1 4 8 5 9 12 16 13 18 R Rocket to top right

Now it's your turn.

Tags: Aperture, Fun, Workspace, Movies