 jeaknieSend em fast.. real fastPremium
join:2001-08-01
Amity
| Extracting Movies for an Avatar Tutorial on extracting images out of movie files.
I have seen where people have come to see if there was a way to extract images out of movie files. I had done it before, and it is not easy to explain without going into great detail. I have changed my avatar into a shark. I just love them to death. So when I decided to change I consulted with another very gifted graphics guru here in Avatar Help, Wafen. He sent me the following movie of the shark I will use to demonstrate the process. It is a MPEG file, which on my machine the default player is Windows media Player.
Movie File
I use Animation Shop 3 by Jasc and win98se.
1.
Download the file you wish to use. (pic1a) When it is downloaded then highlight it. While it is highlighted hold the shift key and right click on the file.(pic1b) Choose the option Open With. (pic1c) Then a box will drop showing you the available programs on your machine. Before selecting one your options, make sure the always open these files with this program is unchecked. Then click on the anima program. It will have the same icon as your Animation Shop animated gifs have.(pic1d) There will be another box that pops up and asks you how many frames you want to open. I chose all for this one. If there is one in the middle of the movie you like, then you can choose it to open just a range of images without opening up the whole movie.
Pic1a
Pic1b
Pic1c
Pic1d
At this point your Animation shop will go nuts. I mean nuts. You are using a very big file with a lot of frames to open. Don't worry if it seems to take a long time to open. The Shark movie has 191 frames.
2.
(pic2a and 2b) When it did open up, I immediately went to view and zoomed out by 1 to make it easier to see. (pic2c and 2d) I then used the cropping tool to focus in on the center. This process take a little time too so just hang in there. I tried to make a rectangle out of it, so that later when re-sizing it, it will fit to 40x50 a little easier.
Pic2a
Pic2b
Pic2c
Pic2d
3.
(pic3a)I then used edit to select all frames. I went to animation and used cull to remove every 2 frames leaving you with 96 frames. This is getting a little easier on your program by now. Up to this point you will think your program is not responding. It is just extremely busy! So now you have half of what you started with. Once again I used the cull to remove every 2 frames leaving 48 frames now. Then down to 24 and then finally to 12.
Pic3a
Pic3b
Pic3c
4.
So now you have a 12 frame movie. View animation now to see how fast it is going. (pic4a) I went back to edit and made sure select all was checked and then went to animation and chose the animation properties. (pic4b) This is where you change the speed of the frames. The original for the movie was 4 and I bumped it up to 20. This will create the more smooth swimming motion that all 191 frames had created at the speed of 4. I have the one I finished prior to these final steps labeled and posted as sharkswim.gif. I then took out the first 2 frames of the animation to help optimize the gif to avatar size. So now you have 10 frames. I changed the new first frame speed to 100 so there would be a pause in the action.
Pic4a
Pic4b
5.
Now you must re-size it to avatar size.(pic5a) Go to animation in the tool bar and choose re-size animation. (pic5b) Check the pixel size box. Then make the width 40 and the height 50. Your frames will get really small, so don't forget to go back to view and check normal viewing instead of zoom out by 1.
Pic5a
Pic5b
(pic: cautionA and cautionB) Remember when you have got it down to avatar size to use save as under file of the program tool bar. Save as a gif file. I forgot on one and it it would not support the file for saving.
CautionA
CautionB
When closing your finished avatar, you will have to reduce the optimization. It will reduce the colors some and you can see with this one, it wasn't too bad of a transition. Sometimes this does not have a good result.
The Shark Swim Avatar
I WILL BE USING THIS ONE SO IT IS NOT UP FOR GRABS 
[text was edited by author 2002-02-16 17:39:47] |
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Host:
Team Discovery
Avatar/Graphics Help
| Did you know that you can open mpg's directly into Animation Shop? Of course this is way too big for an avatar, but this is an mpg movie that I opened in AS and resized and coverted to a gif.
I just realized that I probably didn't make myself very clear....what I meant, was that you could skip the first step, and just open the file in AS the same as you would an animated gif. 
--
4 cams, 5 cats, 7 days a week.
[text was edited by author 2002-02-16 17:56:11] |
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jeaknieSend em fast.. real fastPremium
join:2001-08-01
Amity | Oh... by opening the AS and then clicking on open then selecting the file? That did not even cross my mind... hehehehe.. have to do things the hard way...lol.. Thanks TT!!
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Be Kind to Animals. Kiss a shark. |
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 wafenMr woogiePremium,Mod
join:2001-02-01
Maplewood MN
kudos:1
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| reply to jeaknie
I just took out the manual when jeaknie told me about this.
I should read that thing one of these days.
Thanks jeaknie!
Thumb Upper for you!:D
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Help us find a cure! Join Team Helix! |
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 ZupePremium,MVM
join:2001-11-29
New York, NY | reply to jeaknie
Discovered that this works in photoshop too by accident this morning, was trying to open a gif and clicked the wrong file and got a popup for importing an avi file instead. Good to know and thanks for the tutorial.
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Pinky: I think so Brain but if you replace the P with an O, my name would be Oinky wouldn't it? |
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| reply to jeaknie
Nice to lurk around here and learn stuff from the experts. |
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 CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL | reply to Zupe
Just in case a PhotoShop user wants to try this, you must have QuickTime installed if you are using Windows. |
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 jeffsulPremium
join:2001-05-15
Mobile, AL | reply to jeaknie
Another tutorial to bookmark!! Thanks Jeaknie!! 
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Have bacon - will run! |
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Host:
Team Discovery
Avatar/Graphics Help
| I just added it to the tutorials links at the top of the forum.
...and I'm pretty sure I didn't screw it up.
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4 cams, 5 cats, 7 days a week. |
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 JoeyPremium,MVM
join:2001-09-18
Tallahassee, FL | reply to jeaknie
KILLER KITTY!! lol, I find it really hard to get these under 5k |
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JoeyPremium,MVM
join:2001-09-18
Tallahassee, FL | reply to jeaknie
there gettin a little better... |
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JoeyPremium,MVM
join:2001-09-18
Tallahassee, FL | reply to jeaknie
here is a few more ocean ones (dont worry this is the last i'm postin on this topic) |
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| Those are gorgeous! The detail is really nice. |
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| reply to jeaknie
Wow! What a nice tutorial!!! :):) |
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JoeyPremium,MVM
join:2001-09-18
Tallahassee, FL | reply to jeaknie
(there goes my promise for no more posts, oh well) thanks, told ya I was going to get better at it, just needed a little practice. Oh and by the way those are all up for grabs if anyone wants them. |
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 mikekyPremium
join:2001-12-07
Kentucky | reply to CyberRage
said by CyberRage:
Just in case a PhotoShop user wants to try this, you must have QuickTime installed if you are using Windows.
Thanks for pointing that out! I had tried to import an AVI but didn't let ImageReady grab Quicktime so it didn't work. When I tried it again with Quicktime it worked!
As usual, you guys are amazing.
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"My hindsight is 50-50." |
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CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL
| Same thing happened to me. I had to read for the second time. I don't like that. The ImageReady docs have had more use here than any other product in a very long time.
BTW, from that reading I'm under the impression you can create QuickTime videos from scratch using ImageReady if you ever have a need for that.
[text was edited by author 2002-02-17 23:18:48] |
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 Ook9Live From Amsterdam
join:2001-05-20
Netherlands | HI!
Thanks for that info.. Nice piece of work!
What tool could I use to capture a certain scene from a full sized movie..?? Do you use VCDgear or other programs video editing programs..??
I guess loading up a full 650 MB mpg would cause animation shop to keep my pc busy for a week...;) |
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jeaknieSend em fast.. real fastPremium
join:2001-08-01
Amity | Thanks Everyone!
Ook,
It would keep it extremely busy.:) When you choose to open the movie or file with the Animation Shop, there is the option to open which number of frames Pic1d. I am unfamiliar with the VCDgear Software and those like it. It seems I understand that they do capture a picture for printing, and therefore should be a way to number the frames. And in that case, just enter the numbers of the part you want captured. IE: #'s 1853-1963. Then your animation program would only use those 110 frames and not the 650MB mpg. I really do hope you have access to a program like you are referring to so you can check it out for us and let us know. A lot of those small mpegs running all over had to come from a bigger strip of film.
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Be Kind to Animals. Kiss a shark. |
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JoeyPremium,MVM
join:2001-09-18
Tallahassee, FL | reply to jeaknie
ok well i tried, but its gonna bug me now cause I cant figure it out. |
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