Video Studio 11 - Adding Still Images to the video track

[trevorwhittington]

p.53 of the user guide states that this is the same as when adding video clips. Only problem is when I have a imported a image in this case a picture of a map it does not show up in the clip. I can understand why as its a single frame so aside from overlaying it into another clip how do you get it to become part of the clip. One way would as hinted at on page 51 be to lengthen the clip duration but again its a single frame.

I am obviously missing something basic here.

Cheers

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums,

Are saying that you can not see the images at all?

While you're technically correct that an image is a single frame, they are 25 or 29.97 frames when played a minimum of 1 second long. That is unless you have changed the duration from the default to something less than 1 second. So the image is a minimum of 25 frames for PAL and 29.97 frames for NTSC.

Most video you view is comprised of 2 fields, an upper and a lower. It takes both of these fields to make up a single frame. For the video clip to appear clear and smooth, these fields need to be displayed in the proper order. However images are not comprised of these fields, they are a complete frame. After they are included in a video that would use the field order, the image then becomes part of that video and it too would take on the field order of that video. Unless the field order is set to Frame based, meaning No Fields. You would only use Frame based for video to be viewed on a PC.

Ok, I think that's straying from what is troubling you...

When you drop an image clip into the timeline, and you have the default duration set at 1 second, that image clip will now have either 25 frames or 29.97 frames. Increasing the duration of the image, will increase the number of frames in multiples of 25 or 29.97. To better illustrate this, go to the Preferences dialog by either pressing F6 on your keyboard, or File menu>Preferences.

In the Preferences dialog, on the General tab located the Clip Display Mode. It may currently be set to Thumbnail and File name. Change it to Thumbnail Only, and close the Preferences dialog. Now if you do not have an image in the timeline, drag and drop one there. Look at the image clip now. (In Timeline view) It should have several frames. Zoom in on the timeline to single frame, by sliding the zoom slider fully to the right. Each little "thumbnail" is a single frame, and each mark on the timeline represent a single frame. The following image illustrates this..


The timeline is zoomed to 1 Frame. Both are images, not video clips. The image in the overlay track has a duration of 3 frames.

If that's not what you're inquiring, could you please clarify? To lengthen the duration, just drag the yellow handle to the right. By doing this you can increase the duration of the image(s) to however long you need it to be displayed.

[woodchuck]

Is it possible you inserted it into the library instead of the timeline? I have accidently done this by selecting File > Insert media to Library when I meant to choose Insert media to Timeline.

If that is what happened, your image should be in the image library.

Just a thought because this has happened to me.

[trevorwhittington]

Vidoman

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I am with you on the No of frames explanation.

Cheers.

Have now made the changes to F6 to thumbnail only. But the image (a map) is still loading only 1 single frame unless I drag it down again a second time.

I cant drag the time line to the right as a single frame. And when I click playback speed it tells me I cannot change the speed of the clip when it only has one frame. Which is logical.

You mentioned (That is unless you have changed the duration from the default to something less than 1 second. So the image is a minimum of 25 frames for PAL and 29.97 frames for NTSC.) Maybe I have done this.

So next question how do I change the defult back ? And could this be the only possible cause ?

TW

[Ron P.]

Ok I think I now know why you're getting this "1 Frame" response....

Is your map image by chance an "animated gif"? If so VS will interpret this to be a video clip, not an image clip. Animated GIF's general have more than 1 frame. Inserting an animated gif as a video file, will allow all the frames in the gif file to be read. Inserting an animated gif as an image will only allow the first frame to be viewed..

Any other image, jpeg, bmp, png, ect., can have the duration changed simply by dragging the yellow handles..

I'm not sure on what "default black" you're asking about? The black background for the preview window? If so in the preferences dialog at the top of the General tab, click on that small black square. A color picker will open for you to select what color you want to change it to.

[trevorwhittington]

Many thanks

The Gif is the problem. Much hair pulling !!

That would explain it. For some reason I had problems downloading a jpeg file so used the gif. I will have a second attempt.

Default back ..(not Black) I was referring to returning it to the original default setting as a possible solution. But appreciate the colour info.

Cheers
TW

[sjj1805]

When you add a still image to the video or overlay track - yes it is one picture, but it is not one frame, the software repeats the picture the required number of times for it to be displayed the required number of seconds.

So if you are using PAL - 25 frames per second and you want your still image to appear for 3 seconds, the software takes care of that by repeating that single image 25 (frames) x 3 (seconds) = 75 pictures.

If you decide to make the picture remain on the screen for longer - perhaps 10 seconds the software repeats that single image 25 x 10 = 250 pictures.
You only need to concentrate on what you want displayed and for how long, the software does all the hard work.

[Ron P.]

Sorry about the misreading for back..

I wasn't 100% correct on the gif. I just inserted an animated gif, as an image as was able to stretch the duration to however long I wanted. Inserting the gif as a video though you can not alter the duration, without using the speed adjustment (holding [Shift] key and dragging.

GIF images generally are of low quality and not well suited for video. They're better for internet viewing. The best quality format would be a bitmap.