Cutting and Pasting of video frames. What tool to use?

[3_2_DVD]

Can anyone recommend what tool to use to cut and paste video frames in an .AVI sequence? The goal is to replace horribly bad frames in a video sequence with adjacent frames without touching the sound track. Technically this can be done within AVIsynth (other wise my favourite frameserving tool) but in this case I am looking for something more interactive since there are many frames to cut and paste. It appears as if I can do the cutting part within VirtualDub but I cannot get the paste (or insert) part to work (I also have not determined what happens to the sound track). Any ideas?

[adyga]

this is interesting, I searched the forum and found your thread, I guess I was going to ask nearly the same thing, my goal is to shoot a video and then decompile few frames and process them with a special effects (maybe adding some laser or scary UFO) then returning those frames where they belong to.
I am familiar with image processing but I need your help guys as the person before me ^
thanks

[daamon]

@ 3_2_DVD - You can use VirtualDub to scan for bad frames and have it remove them. This will remove the audio too. As long as there aren't loads next to each other it won't adversely affect the video sequence or the audio.

I know it's not exactly what you were asking, but it may be the answer to your problem.

If you have got a lot of frames, you more need a more powerful video editing tool. I use Adobe Premiere for all my editing (and it'll do what you want to do), so I'm kinda spoilt and don't have much intricate experience with VirtualDub - just the basics.

@ adyga - The above is of no use to you. However, you could use VirtualDub to split the original into 3 parts. Keep the original.

Part 1 - The "before".
Part 2 - The clips that'll be jazzed up.
Part 3 - The "after".

Once you've jazzed up part2.avi you can then use the append function in VitrualDub to get back to one AVI made of all three parts.

A word of warning - The append function in VirtualDub requires that the framerate for AVIs to be appended is exactly identical - quite literally. So, when exporting your jazzed up AVI make sure you get the right framerate.

Example: I once tried to append to AVIs that were both 25fps (according to AVICodec). I turns out that one was 24.9996 and one was 24.9993 and it would append them - Yes, it was that picky.

[adyga]

ok daamon,, now I got a piece of the puzzle.
1*I splited the movie
2*extracted the "to be jazzed up".avi into images
3*retouched the images ....
4* ?
5*rejoined the parts 1.avi & "to be jazzed up".avi & 3.avi
-----------------------------------
can u tell me how to >> 4*? << convert this series of images into "to be jazzed up".avi again ?
I am desperate to find the answer

[daamon]

can u tell me how to >> 4*? << convert this series of images into "to be jazzed up".avi again ?

And there is the $64 million dollar question...

No, sorry, I don't - I was kinda hoping / thinking that you'd know how to do images->AVI given that you can do AVI->images. What software are you using to do the first part?

I know that Adobe Premiere can export from AVI to images, and believe that it can then import images in a special format to create an AVI - but that's a pricey solution (not to mention steep learning curve) .

I'd say some more hunting is on the cards...

[gll99]

3_2_DVD
I don't think this info will help you but it could help adyga:

You could use the overlay feature built into many commercial editing programs. I use MGI/Roxio videowave but Ulead and many other progs will do. I tested stuff like this with blue screen but it should also work with modified duplicate frames overlayed onto an original. Just choose the amount of visibility. The original audio will not be affected so you just use a video overlay.
If you can write a bit of vb there's a site that shows you how to convert an avi to bmp and back to avi again. Just cut the part you want with virtualdub and then convert to bmp. Make the changes with a bmp editor and then convert back to avi and then overlay the new video over the other. I'm sure that this part could also be done with avisynth.

http://www.shrinkwrapvb.com/avihelp/avihelp.htm

[anubis13]

The use of premiere or vegas is really the best way to go in this case. They may be a bit pricey and have a learning curve but in the end you will save time and money compared to trying to find a way around them.
I assume that if you are interested in doing video work on this kind of level, you are probably more than just an enthusiast, in wich case the purchase of a good video editor and some learning will only benefit you in the end.