Skewed frame grabs

[sgraham]

I am grabbing still images in VS11 from downconverted footage off my Canon XLH1. The still images are skewed and come in at 1440x1080. I need them WIDER to 1920x1080 pixels and have to convert these in another app. Is there a way to pull the stills at the correct size right from the film?

[Clevo]

It should be the same frame size as your video footage.

Having said that and tested it on my SD my images are coming in slight narrower than the video frame size on the preview panel even though in Propertises the frame sizes are the same.

EDIT: With the still image in the overlay track righ click the image in the preview pane and select "Original Size" If indeed the frame sizes are the same as from the original video file. (still image created using "save as still image"

[sgraham]

It should be the same frame size as your video footage.
----No it is not. The stills I shoot with the XLH1 arrive out of the card at 1920x1080 and look good.

EDIT: With the still image in the overlay track righ click the image in the preview pane and select "Original Size" If indeed the frame sizes are the same as from the original video file. (still image created using "save as still image"
----I'm not seeing where I get that selection on 'Original Size'. I don't put an image in the overlay track. I am going thru the content and selecting 'Save As Still Image' for about every 30 seconds of content. Can you direct me to this command or to an .ini setting. It would really help as I have to batch process all the framegrabs (about 300 per shoot) to stretch them back to normal.

[Ron P.]

Are you using the Plus version? With the Plus version you should see with an image/clip in an overlay track, when right-clicking on a video clip or image, in the Preview Window, the following options:

• Anchor at Top>
• Anchor at Center>
• Anchor at Bottom>
• Keep Aspect Ratio
• Default Size
• Original Size
• Fit to Screen
• Reset Distort

To get that menu for an image or clip in the main video track, you need to first check Distort clip found in the Attribute tab.

For example I dropped an image onto the main video track. The dimensions of the image are 2560px X 1920px. Right-clicking on the image clip in the time-line, selecting properties revealed the correct dimensions. With the Resampling Option set to Fit to project size, I get the entire image inside my frame (not title safe area) but frame.

I then checked the Distort Clip box, and instantly it seemed as though I zoomed in on my image. This same thing occurs when you place a large image on an overlay track, and select Original Size.

[sgraham]

I can't find help/about for versioning but it says Plus when I open. I found 'Distort Clip' in Attributes. Very interesting. That will be handy and help existing images I make in Cool 3-D where there is text look better but it has no effect (I tried Default Size, Original Size and Fit to Screen) on the stills that result from 'Save As Still Image'. They still come out at 1440 x 1080.

[Ron P.]

If you have more then 1 overlay track, you have the Plus version..

Your video clip must be 1440 x 1080 for the image created by the Save as Still Image to be those dimensions.

I dropped video clips having different frame sizes into the time-line (overlay or main), and selected Save as still image. No matter what I had my Project properties set at, the images saved from the video clips always matched that of the video clips frame sizes.

I used settings of 720 x 480, 640 x 480 and so on, with clips having a different frame size then that set in project properties. It did not make any difference, the Saved still image from the video clip was always the same frame size as that of the video clip.

Unless there is something different that etech may shed some light on regarding Hi-Def video, the saved still images you're getting are the actual frame size of your video clip.

[sgraham]

The camera has 1440 x 1080 pixels. If you take a still directly to the card the camera does the interpolation up to 1920 x 1080, converts that to JPEG and writes it to the card. The 'Save Still Image' pulls down at 1440 x 1080 and I've concluded I need to go to photoshop to stretch this to 1920 x 1080 as it is distorted. Not VS11 fault it sees 1440.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Graham

Make sure your project properties are set to 16x9 aspect.

When working with video the clip size from the camera is 1440 x 1080
VS stretches this to widescreen 16 x 9 (non square pixel rendering)
Your video pixels are not square unlike still images.

When you ¡¥grab¡¦ a still image using ¡¥clip¡¦ mode you capture the original video size as square pixels (1440 x 1080) this is not 16 x 9

You need to capture the ¡¥frame¡¦ as you see it in the preview screen (16 x 9) not the clip.

Do this
Select the clip/frame you need to grab
Select ¡¥Project playback¡¦
Select Tools-Save Current Frame as Image

This will save as you see it in the preview window (16 x 9)
The frame should be in proportion, not distorted and fill the preview screen.

Hope this helps

[sgraham]

Once I can't seem to find this selection to try and implement fix.

[sgraham]

I did find 'Project Playback' and then was able to 'Save Current Frame As Image' but need to pull hundreds of stills from the move so this won't fix. Thanks for trying Trevor.