Movie from Images

[ibpete]

Hi,

This is my first post to the forum. I've been using VS 2018 since it came out. It seems much more powerful than I am. Decades back I was doing linear editing with nothing more than A/B roll and some wipes. What a difference with non-linear and powerful digital tools.

I'm just doing this for my personal use. So far I've just been working on my video tape collection trying to make hours and hours into short clips that my family might actually watch.
Next up is the 8mm from the 50's and S8mm films from the 70's.

I try to answer my questions by doing my due diligence (a habit from my Cisco years where asking dumb questions would get your ostracized) but haven't been able to find any help so far (search on this forum leaves a lot to be desired).

I'm getting the film professionally digitized and will get the following files:

• 2048x1536 image scans PNG format

• 1920x1080p MOV

• 1920x1080p MP4

I know how to work with the MOV and MP4 but I'd like to start with a lossless format.

How do I take the PNG files (one per frame) and get them into VS with the right timing?
I'm assuming since these were 18 FPS I'll need to adjust for 30FPS.

Thanks for the ear and forgive me if this was answered and I just couldn't find it.

Mike (ibpete)

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forum

How do I take the PNG files (one per frame) and get them into VS with the right timing? I'm assuming since these were 18 FPS I'll need to adjust for 30FPS.

I am a little confused here. PNG is a format associated with still images, and your statement that they are "one per frame" is consistent with that. But has the company digitizing your collection somehow made the PNG images into a moving video, or are they still just individual images?

If the latter, and you want to make them into a video using Video Studio, that is easy enough. In Preferences > Edit, change the "Default photo/color duration" to what length you want. I usually choose 5 seconds but you can choose whatever length you want. You can change the duration once the image is in the timeline by right clicking on it and selecting "Change Photo Duration" or, if you select the image by left clicking on it, you can simply use your mouse by left clicking on the bright yellow bar at the end of the image and dragging it to the right to lengthen the duration, or to the left to shorten the duration.

And if you are producing an NTSC mp4, then the default fps will probably be 29.97 (or 30) fps. You should change the Field Order from the default Upper Field First to Frame Based (as the PNGs are full, single frames).

You may also want, in Preferences, to select the automatic insertion of transitions between images. I normally use Crossfades set to 1 second, but again you can choose whatever transition(s) and length you prefer.

One thing you should be aware of. The frame size of your PNGs is 2048 x 1536 is not a standard video frame size. These include sizes like 720 x 480, 1280 x 720 and 1920 x 1080. Cropping your PNGs to one of those sizes would be a lengthy task and some of the crops might not be what you want. So leave them alone -- but you will need to accept the fact that the images are likely to have black bars either above and below, or to either side of, the image. You can lessen the effect by inserting color panels in the overlay track which will replace the black bars by bars the color of the overlay panel. Or you can use patterned panels or even photos with neutral subjects (e.g. flowers, trees, grass) just to relieve the boredom of the black bars.

[asik1]

ibpete, you should import the png's as a sequence.
It's done in as "capture > stop motion > import " there you select your images.
You should open the folder and CTRL-A
Try setting your project at 15fps as AVI.

[lata]

Hi

Your images are 2048x1536 this calculates to 4:3, so you could use the images in a 4:3 video or drop them into a 16:9 widescreen video
I would use the latter at 16:9, at 30fps, 1920 x1080
The format of your choice depending on what you wish to create Mpeg4 being a good choice for pc and internet playback, and of course you may wish to mix with your other videos
Set the project properties correct before importing the images.

how.....
Right click the timelines for “Insert Photo for Timelapse/Strobe”
This opens the browser window to select your images when the Time-Lapse panel opens

I would set the panel to:-
Keep 1
Drop 0
“Frame Duration” to 2 frames
This will add the images to the timeline each images using 2 frames
this will keep the playback the same speed as the original 15fps video even though playing at 30fps

[ibpete]

Trevor,

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!
Yes, the aspect ratio is 4:3.
I too was confused by the 2048x1536 and had to do some homework to figure it out. Obviously, film taken 40 to 70 years ago was 4:3. The 2048x1536 is 2k for that aspect ratio. This whole resolution business looks to be very confusing. It looks like one needs to be careful that what is produced will be reasonably displayed on devices that don't have the native resolution of the video production.
I'll be getting MP4 and MOV files from my service and will likely be doing all of my editing with those files. I asked for the lossless image files for two reasons: 1) I wanted an archive in lossless format, 2) in case I find some valuable footage that I'd like to have high resolution on.

Again, thanks for the info. Next time I'll ask after spending 2 hours of due diligence instead of 12

best,
Mike (ibpete)

[Trishamane]

Thank you for the information it was very useful.