Animating a sequence of still images

I wonder if you happen to know a quick way to do this in Final Cut Pro:
I've got 750 (or some other fairly large number of) still images I want to animate.
1) I want to drop all 750 into a sequence, ordered by name (so the 1st image is called (something like) image000, the second image is called image001, etc);
2) I want to drop them in so that each image is to be displayed for 1 frame, every 10 (or some other number of) frames (so image000 is displayed from 00:00:05;00 to 00:00:05;01. image001 is displayed from 00:00:05;10 to 00:00:05;11, image002 is displayed from 00:00:05;20 to 00:00:05;21, image003 is displayed from 00:00:06;00 to 00:00:06;01, etc.);
3) Now I want to make all 750 (or however many) into keyframes;
4) And then I want to cause in-between frames to be generated in between all of them, to fill those 9 (or however many) empty frames I've left between each
with images whose pixel values are smoothly interpolated between the keyframes.
I can figure out how to do a lot of this one at a time by hand (like setting keyframes, putting images every 10 frames, etc.), but it sure would be handy to do them as
batch jobs with single (or just a few) commands. Is Final Cut Pro even the right tool for doing this? Any help you can offer would be deeply appreciated. Thanks.
-Steve
Mac 4 x 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 4GB DDR2 SDRAM

what your taliking about is called an animatic
and in fcp alot has to be done by hand so to speak .
i have to do these a few times a month for the show i work on .
and fading with such short frames doesnt not work well and why would you want fades for animation?its just more work .
the other thing your bringing up is a animation term called tweening (in betweeing frames)to smooth action.
scripts can be made for things like this but thats the fun of learning ,
i have spent time doing my scripts for this process and it can be a process.
welcome to the world of animatic storyboarding.

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Animating sequences of still images

Dear Final Cut Pro Users,
Please forgive this totally ignorant question. I really don't know where else to turn!!!
I am interested in animating sequences of graphics images. I generate these images programatically, and they usually are of PDF or PNG format. What I would like to do is make a "super-movie" of these custom-generated movies. These little movies can be flying around on the screen, etc.
My eventual goal is to get these into Keynote for presentations. It is necessary that the movies maintain high resolution (up to the point that the computer can handle).
I called Apple, and they suggested that FCP was the program that I need. However, I also can think of Final Cut express, Flash (chokes on my files), After Effects, Motion (only comes with FCP?) etc.
Is FCP the tool to use? Is FCP "overkill" for what I am trying to do? Also, I am trying to balance capability, ease of use, price, and it's gotta run on an Intel iMac.
Unfortunately the complexity of all of these programs is so great that I would spend a year trying to figure them out from their trial versions. Would love to hear your opinions!!!
Thanks,
Eric
P.S. In case you are interested, I have a page posted:
http://homepage.mac.com/eric.c.brown/alpha/
I just can't get these through Quicktime with any high-quality success, and I posted there the "primary data" -- eventually I would like to do much larger images.
ecb

Eric, I was afraid of that. Happens to me all the time. Our geospatial and chemistry crews use these HUGE applications that generate endless gigs of the coolest and totally useless images.
Highly technical animation (that they do not want altered for valid protection of the rigor) requires that I run their stuff through a compression system. They give me 800 horizontal lines and expect it look good when their WMV comes at at less than 200 lines so it can play on their laptops.
I'm going to suggest we work backwards.
1. Tell us what your playback platform and movie formats should be to keep your boss happy.
2. Tell us what the output of your animation programs is: Image size, resoltuion, format (QT, WMP, Real, AVI, etc.)
Then, if no one else has yet, we'll try to hook you up with a pipeline that makes sense. I'm thinking you are going to output from your applications as QT/AVI or WMP and encode/compress using Windows Media tools (free form those rats at Microsoft). You're not going to be enjoying the use of your Macintosh at all.
bogiesan
Having said that, I have a very long pipeline. Starting with my quantum chemistry calculations (Fortran), I go to VTK for isosurfaces and meshes, then to Blender for "painting" of the meshes. Along side that, I have 2D plots in DISLIN. (All Fortran and python) But I could have gone the Povray path, another issue. From Blender and DISLIN, I need to arrange these into some kind of movie that will actually play on bosses' PC laptop and will let me make quick changes without having to re-render. Each of these programs are extremely complex. Even doing one small thing makes me wade through thousands of pages of manuals and out-of-date web pages. And, when it comes to making movies, there is so much choice!!!! Flash or Motion or After Effects or the extremely power FCP.... I guess that I have run out of gas in the exploration department. <</div>

Adding animated gif to a still image, how do I do this?

I used to know how to do it, but I've forgotten.
Example: The person who told me how to do it had taken an animated gif (butterfly) and placed it on her breast in a still photo of herself. I know that she used Image Ready and as I recall, she created the same number of frames of the still image as the animated butterfly and then she somehow merged the two together. Can someone help, is there a tutorial somewhere? I'm using 7.0 by the way.
Thanks,
Ray
P.S. I also remember that it had something to do with linking the layers so that you just needed to place the first frame in the sequence and link all the other layers to it, but I'm totally lost now!

I don't believe that PS 7.0 supports animation, 'least I don't know how to use this function if it does. That is why I remember using Image Ready to do it. In Image Ready you can use any animated gif file to do what I want, I just can't remember how I did it. I do remember that I had to take my background image and duplicate it to get the same number of frames as the animated gif file, but I don't remember how I merged the two together. It had something to do with placing the first frame of the animated gif where I wanted it on my background and then using the link tool in the layer box to link them together, that way I didn't have to place each individual frame of the animation on to the background and avoid an alignment nightmare. I sure wish I would've taken notes!
Thank you for your suggestions.
Ray

Export sequence of still images (JPGs, TIFFs) from FCP timeline into DVD without interlaced issues using Compressor

Hi,
How to export a sequence with stills (jpg) into a DVD format by using Compressor without having the interlaced issue on the outcome? The stills in the Canvas look crisp but once exported to DVD format, the outcome images look interlaced. How can I best match the crisp look of the high resolution JPGs in time line when exported to DVD?
My Sequence settings match the image settings:
Frame Size: 1024 x 768
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square
Field Dominance: None
Compressor: Photo JPG
I tried to export the sequence of img as an independent QT movie file by using Apple ProRes 422 output settings. The video file looks great. I then imported it back to time line into new sequence and exported into DVD format trying both: deinterlace and "same as source" setting. Both output DVD files still have the interlaced issue.
I also tried to work with JPGs converted to TIFFs on a different sequence with same as Tiff settings and the issue still persists.
I will appreciate any advices.
Thank you,
Izabela

Dear Nick,
Thank you, I understand now it is the aspect ratio issue.
Are you suggesting that I should use Photoshop or Graphic Converter to convert the 1024 x 768 to 720 x 480 prior to importing them into FCP seqence?
> Give the DVD authoring software the correct size:
I am using FCP 7.0.3 to create the sequence of images (there has to be specific timing and transitions), which I then export to DVD format by using Compressor.
Do you mean that I should set the FCP timeline sequnece settings to 720 x 480?
Please let me know. Thank you,
Izabela

Correcting camera shake in a sequence of still images

What is the best way to change registration of one image in a sequence of images that will become a timelapse movie? I am hoping to do it before rendering the stills into a movie in order to retain the best image quality. I am currently using Lightroom 3.6 and Photoshop CS5 Extended, on both Windows 7 (Home Premium Sp1) and Mac OSX (10.6.8)

what your taliking about is called an animatic
and in fcp alot has to be done by hand so to speak .
i have to do these a few times a month for the show i work on .
and fading with such short frames doesnt not work well and why would you want fades for animation?its just more work .
the other thing your bringing up is a animation term called tweening (in betweeing frames)to smooth action.
scripts can be made for things like this but thats the fun of learning ,
i have spent time doing my scripts for this process and it can be a process.
welcome to the world of animatic storyboarding.

Still Images & Need to 'Scale to Sequence'-Vertical vs. Horizontal Picture

I make sequences from still images only. I need to start editing with all images at a Scale (in the Basic Motion section) of 100. When the original image is 720 width x 540 height (a picture taken horizontally), it appears in the timeline at a Basic Motion:Scale of 100 (this is what I want). However, when the original image is 405 width x 540 height (a picture taken vertically), it appears in the timeline at a Basic Motion:Scale of 112.5 and overflows the top and bottom of screen.
For these vertical images, I can then set the Scale manually, or use "Scale to Sequence" and get it to start at 100, but would like to avoid that extra step. Any ideas on how to have all imported images start at a Basic Motion:Scale of 100, whether taken vertically or horizontally?
Thanks, in advance, for giving this problem any thoughts.

I think that your best bet would be to
1) make the images all the same size - adding black to the edges if necessary. You could add an alpha channel on the ones that you had to add black to the edges.
or
2) copy the motion settings from a still that is scaled correctly.
or
3) grin and bear it.
I created a file earlier this morning that FCP didn't scale, but now I can't duplicate it. All the files are getting scaled. According to the manual, FCP isn't supposed to scale past 100%, but they might have changed that with a revised version.
Good luck!
Leigh

Change duration of multiple still images in one operation

Hello Folks.
I am trying to change the duration of each image in a sequence of still images.
Program: Adobe Premiere Elements 7
Mode: Standard Definition 4/3 ratio
File types in use: MOD, AVI, PNG
Problem: The product manual states: "To apply the new default length to all still images in your project, delete them from Project view and reimport them into your project."
Question: Is there a way to select a group of still images and then apply a new duration value to all of them in one operation? An Adobe salesperson told me that this is possble before I purchased the program, but I cannot figure out how this is done. I switched to Adobe from another product in order to get this feature. Now that I need it, I cannot figure a way to get it to work. Time Stretch is not available when I select multiple images.
Thank you,
Brian

Brian,
Unfortunately not. PrPro CS4.2 has just added a way to change the Duration of previously Imported stills, but so far PrE does not allow for this, unless it is new to PrE 8, but I have not read of this.
As noted, the method is to set the Edit>Preferences>General>Default Stills, and choose the Duration in Frames. Then Import the stills. If they are in the Project, that setting has already been applied, so one must delete them from the Project Panel and re-Import them with the new Duration.
Now, one can obviously change the Duration on a one-by-one basis in the Timeline, but that can be tedious, if there are many stills. If I were doing this, I would make sure to have the Info Panel open and nearby, Window>Info.
Good luck,
Hunt
PS - if PrE 8 HAS added the post-Import Duration change, I hope someone steps up with that info.

Burning a disc of still images to be able to print

Hi, I made a sequence of still images in FCP and then put them into Photoshop and de-interlaced them and resized (1920x1080) and saved as JPEGs. Is it possible to go through DVD Studio Pro and burn a disc, so the client can have a disc and be able to print photos from the images (in any computer)? Any suggestions would be appreciated and what settings etc (PAL).
Thank you in advance, J

DVD Studio Pro would be the wrong tool for what you want to do. DVD-SP is for creating DVD videos - what you need to do is create a "data DVD," otherwise known as a generic DVD-ROM. Simply create a "burn" folder for the images and burn them to disc - no need to author a DVD video.
Furthermore, if the image files are to be printed, there would be absolutely no need to resize them prior to handing them off to your client. If the still images originated from interlaced video, then and only then would they benefit from deinterlacing. If they originated as still images in the first place, deinterlacing would essentially throw out half of the vertical resolution - thereby reducing the quality.
-DH

Still images blurred when playing

I am editing a sequence of still images in FCE. The images are sharp when playhead is stopped, but show a slight blur when playhead is moving...what's causing this? How do you eliminate. The color of render line is green, btw. (i.e. doesn't need rendering).

You know...my husband and I are doing this on an 5-yr-old machine. Once we rendered it looked weird at first, then resolved itself. The exported stuff looks fine to me...so I'm not going to obsess on this. Thanks...

Animation. How do I import still images in final cut pro x (from dragon frame) duration 3 frames pr. image?

Animation. How do I import still images in final cut pro x (from dragon frame) duration 3 frames pr. image? We have allready tried to set stillimages duration in preferences to 0,08 sek, but it does not have any effect!

You can drag your images to the timeline, select all, ctrl-d and set the duration to 3 frames by typing 3 and enter.
Or you can use Quicktime 7 to "open image sequence", select the desired duration, export your animation to quicktime and import that into FCP X for further editing.

Animation sent as a group of still images, import as a movie file?

Hi
I have been sent an animation to use in a edit, but it has been delivered as a large group of still images, instead of a QT file. I was wondering if there was a way that the images can be imported so that they become a movie file that can be treated as such on the timeline, or if I have to spend the time assembling them back together on a sequence and then use that as a segmented file on another sequence?
I guess I am just trying to save time and the hassle of doing a lot of boring work. Any help will be much appreciated.
neil

Hi...
If you have QT pro you can import the image sequence and then export as mov.

Can Media Encoder append a still image to EVERY sequence run through it?

Hi!
We are trying to streamline our video publishing process and I was wondering if ME can automatically add a clip or still image to every sequence it exports?
For example, at the end of every video we have our company logo / social media call to actions. Is there a way to have these added in ME as opposed to doing in the Premiere timeline? The way that they SHOULD be put together is fairly subtle and at the frame by frame level.
It would be a huge timesaver if we could automatically place these and avoid the inevitable mistakes that come with re placing each time through.
Thanks so much!

Hi action_packed,
This is from the documentation: http://helpx.adobe.com/media-encoder/using/add-items-encoding-queue.html
Still Image Sequences are not supported as source footage through Watch Folders. If a set of still images is placed in the folder being watched, each individual still file will be added as a separate item to the Queue rather than than the entire sequence as a single piece of footage.
Make a feature request for that here: http://adobe.ly/feature_request
Thanks,
Kevin

Exporting Still Image Sequence in Quicktime 10?

I've been spoiled by the feast of 'export as' options in every quicktime I've used before, especially exporting as a still image sequence. Just got a new macbook pro (os 10.7) that came loaded with quicktime 10, and now there are virtually no options for exporting. I also need to be able to import the still image sequence again back into quicktime. Is it possible to run an older version of quicktime? Or is there another way to do it in the new version? OR is there some free program out there that will let me do the same thing?
Thanks
Nate

Is it possible to run an older version of quicktime? Or is there another way to do it in the new version? OR is there some free program out there that will let me do the same thing?
You can run the QT 7.6.6 Player Pro app under either Snow Leopard or Lion. Both QT 7 and QT X players can be installed simultaneously. The QT X.1 Player app does not have this feature. MPEG Streamclip will open a sequence of images but has a fixed frame rate unlike QT 7 Pro which offers user selectable frame rate options when opening image sequences.

Can't stop still images from scaling in the sequence.********

I've tried everything at this point.
Baffled.
If anyone can help me figure this out.
please do.
I cannot get any image to come into the sequence without scaling down to 28%.
images are 4368 x 2912 and being brought into a sequence that is 1920x816. (cinemascope)
Help!

FCP will automatically scale your images down to fit the dimensions of your sequence.
You could either scale the images to sequence size before importing, (you could export using QT conversion to a form of still image, but probably better off doing it in Photoshop or wherever the images originated from)
If you want to do any pan/scan with the images, you'd be best served to resize them to slightly larger than your sequence settings, so you've got room to move them around and scale them a bit.
Or you could change your sequence settings to match the image dimensions (but that would affect what I'm guessing your intended output is to be)
Hope that helps,
K

I want to import still images to make a stop motion animation, but when I try to change the duration of still images, it isn't reflected in the timeline. How can I do this?

I want to import still images to make a stop motion animation, but when I try to change the duration of still images, it isn't reflected in the timeline. How can I do this?

Tonaw,
If you import your still images using iPhoto, then the time you set for each still, using FCPX Perferences works.
You can set the durantion from 1 frame to as long as you want them view.
If you do not use iPhoto to import your stills, the default is 10 sec's.
FYI: This issue was brought up within a month after FCPX was released. They found out by using iPhoto, you had better control of the amount of time your still was viewed.

Animating a sequence of still images

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