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joe509

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Makin' movies from stills

Hey!
I need to find some way of making either a movie either as an avi, mpeg or .mov file -not a slideshow, out of still images.
Photostation Pro alowes you to save image sequences as .mov, but its very limiting. I want to make a short film using stills what prograom can I use?

Any fancy techniques you can impart also?

joe
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weed
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joe509

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Well thats not strictly true y'know, slideshow is a cached file of images with an execution protocol attached, but a movie is an animated timeline which can be edited linearly. The difference is that the transition between images is morphed in a movie but in a slideshow the images are still seperate. A movie works better as 24fps motion on a TV screen unlike a slideshow.
Anyway this gets me no closer to my goal I need a program to make my images into a movie any ideas?
QuickTime Pro still stands but "morphing" between frames isnt something any program is going to do unless you get into morphing programs and you have to set up the morph manually. Any movie is made up of frames and the individual frames will always be separate.
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Yeah morphing is the wrong word, but if you have a vcr and watch say a tv advert or something that has been cut rapidly without effects between edits youll notice a period of about 3-5 frames it itakes for an edit to transform from one screen to the next fully -that what I mean by "morphing".
Quicktime Pro yeah itll do the trick of assembling but its manual and each image has to be imported one at a time -I have hundreds of thousands of images...
The images dont have to be imported one at a time. QT Pro has a batch import function which will automatically import a folder of images in sequence.

That 3-5 frames youre talking about is in fact an "effect" between edits. If they didnt add that transition it would be a hard cut and would jump right from one clip to another. If you need to add that type of effect you need something like iMovie.
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Is iMovie only for Mac? or is there aversion for whingedoze?
No its Mac only but im sure theres something out for windows too. Probably not as easy to use but that's how it goes.
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points goto ya if you can find it!
I dont get into the video thing on PCs at all. Perhaps someone else will know.
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Sure.
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Weed likes to give Mac-specific answers - it's his way.  I could wax psychological, but I'll remain kind instead.  

Why not use Premier?  I've used it to insert credits (preprared stills with lettering) into a movie - no reason the whole thing couldn't be made of stills...

Cheers,
-Jon

u can use flash for the movie
Gonna spend $500 to make a movie out of a few stills? Then Premier is your answer...heh. I've got a nifty 1/2 million dollar whitehouse toilet seat for sale too.

joe: all you need is a simple video editor (which you can find as freeware or shareware) that has the ability to do transitions. Check www.versiontracker.com for "video,Edit" and if you want to be more specific add "transitions" to your search.
If you're doing much digital editing, you can either waste time with mickey mouse freeware solutions, or you can bite the bullet and get premier.  Yeah, it's a waste if this is all you will ever do wrt digital editing - on the other hand, I've found most folks that got it are glad they did.

-Jon
Shoot, if yer gonna bite the bullet and really do anything big, you get FinalCut Pro and a beastie system, but you joe doesnt need that. It's all relative. Compared to FCP, Premier is "mickey mouse" and compared to an Avid system FCP is a toy. You pick the tool that gets the job done with the least cost and the lowest learning curve. By far the easiest program to use on any platform is iMovie but unless you have a system it shipped with you have to pay $30 something bucks for it. There are equivalent programs for PC, though not as easy to use or as comprehensive that cost less or are free. If it gets the job done, use it.
weed - point well taken - indeed, every user must decide what best fits their needs...  I didn't mean to come off as suggesting that premier was the ultimate solution - there are superior products...  I just think that premiere is generally considered one of the higher-end tools for the amateur user, and has generally been a fairly good value (although I must admit to not having checked the pricing on comparable software lately)

>If it gets the job done, use it.

I couldn't agree more.  

Cheers,
-Jon

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Oooh boys (or girls!), fightin' already cheesus c'mon. I am actually using a PC.

Now heres something for both of you, recently Adobe asked me would I be interested in comming along to a seminar they were holding near me to checkout the new photoshop. I did and its great, but they had new beefy Macs there those fancy ones with dual chips. This PC (I built it myself) is also dual chip P111 wait for it- only 500mHz chips (because its 5yo), Ive got 4gb of 133 SDRAM on a 100mHz Tyan Board (I couldnt get 100mHz Ram when I was buying last year). Now my point? My point is that the working speed using 3dsmax and photoshop on those macs was weepingly slow in comparison to this machine and this is no joke. I was very surprised by those Macs and how badly they were put together for the components that were inside those cases. I run a bog standard 64mb DDR Radeon vga, these macs had been fitted with real fancy cards 128mb DDR monsters and still there was a marked difference.
I spoke the the rep from the shop who supplied the Macs and he arranged a Mac guy to phone me later in the week who actually had the cop-on to come over to my office and see me to put to the test what I was saying -he left my office scratching his head!
I had intended to buy a Mac to compliment this old dinosaur but with knowledge as this I have decided to stay with PC and build another one at a later date.
However I do think that FCP is one hell of a stunning program -I used to use AVID years ago and Lightworks also when they were first or second generation -when they were based on emulating tape based systems. I also love the Super drive as standard thats just about the coolest thing -I think htat mac should have included some kind of a modified superdrive for their notebooks though.

I intend to buy the Adobe Digital Video Collection within the next 6 months or so, but I have to produce some short films first and all I have is my beloved Eos1nRS for a film camera, its done me for the last 10 years  for photography and I lent it to a friend who made a film with it and now I want to do the same but I -right now cant afford to spend much money on software upgrading QT5 to pro sounds like its the best option but I want to be sure that there are other options before I spend anything. So please if anyone knows any other program that can make movies from stills -please tell me.

j
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ps Im not talking about "benchmarking" speeds or other forms of false or academic clinical speed tests -Im talking real world "working" or "production" speeds, -how fast it takes it takes me to start a project and get it finished and out the door to the client.
j
Your results with the PC are not at all surprising - without wanting to start a holy war, I should point out that any solution that uses open standards will be more configurable, cheaper to maintain/upgrade, and will generally work better as a result.  Companies that try to sell you on proprietary solutions are usually out to bilk the consumer (or do you *really* think that the folks who make proprietary solutions are that much smarter than the rest of the computing world?  Only with regard to their business sense, really).

Cheers,
-Jon

Ironically Apple is now the one selling the open standard solutions. May come as a surprise but Apple is the #1 supplier of unix based systems in the world and is sucking in developers from the *nix world left and right because of it.

Secondly, those dual proc macs were probably running 9.2.2 and not OS X which makes a difference in multitasking and taking advantage of those dual processors. Those machines were designed for the purpose of running OS X, not 9.2.2. That also means that things like launch times etc under 9.2.2 seem slow compared to a windows system, but performing tasks once the programs are launched are markedly faster. You only need to export one clip from Cleaner 5 to see the difference.

The problem with including a SuperDrive in the powerbooks is that the drive itself is THICK. In order to keep the 1" thick box they have now they simply cant include it....yet. As technology gets better you can bet itll be included.
holy war blah blah - told you I wasn't getting started...

-Jon

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The were running OSX - I hate the cartoon like gui, but I like osx too -because its unix based big cheers for mac there, they are the only big player to utilise it, pity Microsoft dont do the same.

Holywar yeah haha I kind of knew that regardless of your pre-emtive waring of not wanting to start a war someone would come in and start one anyway!!! It seems to me that Mac people are very insecure about it and just love to get their mits into the muck and have a good ole bash out on the PC people. Eitherway I like Mac and Ill stick with my pc background whenever and wherever I can. I have to buy a laptop soon and Im looking at a few options the iBook has tons to offer, but IBM T series or panasonic Toughbooks are closer to where Im at. Anyone know where I can get a nice cheap (secondhand mabey..?) IBM or whatever Notebook?

Yeah I suspected that the superdrives were kept out of the portable option because of its physical limitations. However as soon as the tech is there ofr it and mac release a portable version pc companies will follow suit but with a miriad of formats and then therel be another format war...

Anyway im straying off the point, Ill go with the QT Pro option if its the only option for me as its the cheapest so far -I just need someone to tell me that there is something else out there thats better or free...
captain: when you fire the first shot, you have to expect someone to return fire.
And its not that were insecure about out platform, it's that we find it a real shame that PC users know so very little about it, and yet continue to bash it. I guess you have to use it for a while before you can appreciate the benefits. Windows users dont tend to like change either so it becomes a vicious circle. In either case, whether folks will admit it or not, youll find that most of the technology you end up using on your PC will have had its start on a Mac so you get some of the benefits that way.
Trying to troll me into a holy war - not gonna happen...
Whatever. I hate these kinds of discussions. Inevitably it turns into a jeuvenile "mac users are stupid" argument with no supporting evidence, experience, or facts. Go back and read your first comment...THAT'S trolling. You cant blame me for being a little sick of hearing it. If you want to use windows, great. You wont see me fault you for it in discussion despite how i feel about windows or PC hardware. I expect the same from you.
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Now now boys no need for this tit-for-tat arguing on who said what about this or that.
I think that mac users do tend to get over zealous in arguments to prove the ability of their hardware over PC's, its an unfortunate and inevitable boring trend of mac users to ram their beliefs down PC peoples throats. The Captain simply said "any solution that uses open standards will be more configurable, cheaper to maintain/upgrade, and will generally work better as a result", and from this I would take that he means any format rather than hitting on Mac alone. However as I say its rather annoying that Mac people tend to get so frustrated at the possibility that someone would challenge the ivory tower style infatuation mac users have for the platform.
Afterall it is only harware, my experience with Mac may be only an isolated one, but it does beg questions about proprietary solutions, -I include ALL proprietary solutions not mentioning any names in particuler.

Since there have been no further #constructive# replies here regarding the question I originally asked I assume that there is no alternative solution within the conatraints of my needs, and I will have to opt for the Quicktime Pro option.

Weed dispite your obtuse behaviour regarding your choice of hardware in the ensuing argument, your comment is the option I have chosen, and therefore you get the points.

Cheers to both for the comments and for the enlightening and entertaining holywar.

j
All i can say is that if you dont see the extraordinary irony in your own comments, i cant help you. I know that you both need to do some research before making comments about "proprietary solutions" etc. It only exposes your lack of knowledge about the platform and yet when it's explained to you, we are accused of "ramming beliefs" down throats. No, we're just trying to educate you. If you listen, you just might learn something. You'll find that Mac users are pretty low key, at least until a windows user says something silly and unfounded. Stop saying silly, unfounded things and youll stop being corrected..;)

Im not going to respond to the rest of the nonsense because its not worth responding to though im sure ill be accused of something silly because of it. Now, when either of you have the knowledge ive accumulated over the years, come back and we'll have a real discussion about platforms off the EE forums.
If you really want to foam at the mouth, confuse one person's comments for another's, and generally look stupid, that is what the lounge is for (OK, well maybe looking stupid is what EOTW is for) - if you must carry on your rant (in which I have long since refrained from participating), please troll it over there...
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My god! What an arrogant son of a *itch you are. You know nothing about me or my level of knowledge or experience etc so dont attempt to even elude to tell me to do some research or dont patronise me about educating me about this or that.
You really esperatly need a change of atitude my friend rapidly.
I feel you are agressive and ignorant on a culpable level. I have never in my life met a low key Mac user.
I think youll find that you were the first person here to mention anything that was remotly elitist when you said "I dont get into the video thing on PCs at all" the at all being the crucial point here which rings of exclusion and elitism like the buff looking down the end of his nose at the prolitariate. So knowing that its you who put yourself in the firing line for a rebounding comment from the captain, then I think its rich comming from the notion of education and listening.

j
Again, the irony speaks volumes. I highly suggest that in the future you dont insult folks that can help you.
I agreee with weed completely - then again, whenever I give a homeless guy 50 cents, I make sure to kick him in the balls before I go - funny thing is, most of them wanna bitch about that kick in the balls - go figure.
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END THIS NOW