Overlay still images on existing video, temporarily

[paros]

Okay, I only want to do something simple here. I have been beating my head against the wall for 6 hours trying to get multiple softwares to perform a very simple edit. All I want to do is this:

I have recorded a video for youtube. I want to display a STILL IMAGE for several seconds, while the audio (my narration) continues behind it. This is very very simple and there is no reason I should not be able to do it with free software.


Just to give you an idea of the frustrations I have been experiencing for the last 6 hours......,

1. Virtualdub cannot do this. There are no plugins to do this, and no filters out there for this. I was quite SHOCKED to find this out after several hours of googling and trying different filters. Avery's subtitler works fine for TEXT, but does not display images even if they are mentioned in the ssa file! The ironic part about this is that Virtualdub comes packaged with a LOGO filter, which displays an image with a user-defined opacity, but this "logo" exists through your entire video from start to finish. A slight modification on this would give me EXACTLY what I need, alas such a filter does not exist.

2. The free "Windows Movie Maker" packaged with XP cannot do this.

3. Jahshaka loaded just fine on my computer, but crashed immediately any time I tried to load an AVI file. I uninstalled it.

4. I tried ZS4. But ZS4 has NO DOCUMENTATION (im totally serious) and the tutorials are innaccesible and do not explain how to mix two videos togethor! (ZS4 is really only useful for creating graphics vids from scratch. It is more like a flash animation editor than a video editor, seriously) On top of this, it DOES NOT WORK the way the tutorials say. The very first tutorial was supposed to fade text in and out, but simply did not work
Hey! By all means, if you know how to get ZS4 to overlay an image for a few seconds on a video that already exists, please point me to a tut or something, because as God as my witness, none of them covered this.

I know Avid can do this, and so do you. I know Adobe Premiere can do this, and so do you. But I don't have that software, and the edit im trying to do is so simple there is no reason I should have to resort to such bloated expensive commercial packages.[/b]

[manono]

Hi-

I'm not entirely sure what you're up to, but showing a still image for as long as you want is the easiest thing in the world, using AviSynth. I get the feeling you want to join it with a video or do something else with it in relation to the video, but neither the title nor the post is entirely clear about exactly what. Anyway, as an example, End=150 frames, the FPS is 30, so it shows for 5 seconds:

ImageSource("C:\Path\To\Picture.jpg",FPS=30,End=15 0)

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/ImageReader

You can join it with the video using Aligned or Unaligned Splice:

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/UnalignedSplice

You can overlay it on the video or the video on it using the Overlay command:

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Overlay

You can put the picture on top of the video on any part of the video, beginning and ending whereever you like. It's all basic AviSynth stuff.

[gll99]

Are you sure virtualdub won't do this?

I would have to look it up since it's been a long time but as I recall you can add a logo image and set the duration. The logo (your pic) will display over the video. I believe you can make it as large as the existing frame if you want to cover the whole thing. You can make the image partially transparent etc..

There are a couple of logo filters so you have to test both. One is called logo 1.1 beta2

I know it works because I did it a long time ago.

[Richard_G]

As you say, this is a very simple thing that you want to do but I'm not sure what free software is capable of doing it. I would do it in Ulead Mediastudio Pro (as that's what I use) by putting the video on the timeline on track Va and the still on timeline track Vb. Adjust duration you want the still to be displayed for and hit Create Video file. That's it. Download the free trial of Ulead Mediastudio Pro from www.ulead.com and use that.

[gll99]

I just checked virtualdub and like I said Logo 1.1 beta 2 is the version I tried and it lets you set the duration by number of frames. If it's smaller than full frame you can locate it where you want and it has an option to choose colour transparency with preview mode.

I even did a short test and it previewed perfectly.

If this is the same one I have it may be up to v1.7 beta2 now:

http://neuron2.net/logo/logo.html

EDIT:
Yes it's the same just newer

[guns1inger]

Wax2 can also do it

[paros]

Are you sure virtualdub won't do this?

I would have to look it up since it's been a long time but as I recall you can add a logo image and set the duration. The logo (your pic) will display over the video. I believe you can make it as large as the existing frame if you want to cover the whole thing. You can make the image partially transparent etc..

There are a couple of logo filters so you have to test both. One is called logo 1.1 beta2

I know it works because I did it a long time ago.

The LOGO filter that is packaged with Virtualdub cannot set the the duration nor the time in which the logo first appears.
I googled for "virtualdub logo 1.1 beta2" and it did not bring anything up specific to that. Perhaps a link would be better?
[/b]

[paros]

I just checked virtualdub and like I said Logo 1.1 beta 2 is the version I tried and it lets you set the duration by number of frames. If it's smaller than full frame you can locate it where you want and it has an option to choose colour transparency with preview mode.

I even did a short test and it previewed perfectly.

If this is the same one I have it may be up to v1.7 beta2 now:

http://neuron2.net/logo/logo.html

EDIT:
Yes it's the same just newer

Okay I see the link now. I will try this. Thanks.

[paros]

Hi-

I'm not entirely sure what you're up to, but showing a still image for as long as you want is the easiest thing in the world, using AviSynth. I get the feeling you want to join it with a video or do something else with it in relation to the video, but neither the title nor the post is entirely clear about exactly what. Anyway, as an example, End=150 frames, the FPS is 30, so it shows for 5 seconds:
You can put the picture on top of the video on any part of the video, beginning and ending whereever you like. It's all basic AviSynth stuff.

I have never understood AVIsynth. I downloaded it and its a bunch of scripts and no executable. And then the documentation calls it a "frameserver". Well what serves the frames, and serves them to what? Am I supposed to open these scripts using some other piece of software? I'm sorry I just don't get it.

[paros]

I just checked virtualdub and like I said Logo 1.1 beta 2 is the version I tried and it lets you set the duration by number of frames. If it's smaller than full frame you can locate it where you want and it has an option to choose colour transparency with preview mode.

I even did a short test and it previewed perfectly.

If this is the same one I have it may be up to v1.7 beta2 now:

http://neuron2.net/logo/logo.html

EDIT:
Yes it's the same just newer

Ah yes. This works like a charm.
Can I give you "kudos" for this post? (looking for Kudo buttonss) 8)

[manono]

I'm sorry I just don't get it.

Just to give you an idea of the frustrations I have been experiencing for the last 6 hours......,

If you had spent the same 6 hours learning some AviSynth, it would pay huge dividends in better quality output (not that quality and YouTube are exactly synonymous) and in faster encoding:

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page#New_to_AviSynth_-_start_here
http://www.neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/QuickStart.html

[gll99]

@paros Glad it helped.

One more tip. Maybe you already know this but for those who read this later.

This is a good time saver if the video is very large and you don't plan on applying filters to the largest part of the video.

You can encode only the part you want to overlay by selecting that part of the video only and saving it as part1 in full processing mode using the same compression settings as the original file. Then cut that portion from the timeline and resave the rest of the video in direct stream copy as part2. After that reload part1 and append part 2 and save the complete file in direct stream copy mode.