Photos to video?

[Cygnus111]

Not sure if this is the proper place, but... I have scanned thousands of frames of 8MM film to a series of still photos. I now want to turn it back into digital video. Can anyone suggest software that will allow you to convert still frames into video? I guess this is sort of "time lapse" video, because 8MM was shot at 20FPS and I need to turn it into 30FPS so it's NTSC standard. Any help is appreciated!

[Cornucopia]

Most decent NLEs, as well as Virtualdub & AVISynth will allow you to use "picture sequences" as input. They usually have to be labelled the same with a sequentially numbered ending (sometimes starting at 000, sometimes at 001).

For example, PICTURE_0001.png, PICTURE_0002.png, PICTURE_0003.png...PICTURE_2393.png, PICTURE_2394.png put into a single folder, and adding the first item in the list, will usually be all you need to do for the NLE, etc to recognize the sequence and load the whole series as one piece of footage. You may or may not have the ability to pre-determine the framerate (depends on the app).



In Virtualdub, you would do it this way:

1. [File | Open Video file], navigate to pic sequence folder (should ONLY have sequence in there)
2. Highlight/select first item in sequence, click [Open]
3. Go to [Video | Framerate], and in SourceRateAdjustment section, use the "Change Frame rate to (fps)" option.

If you want the clip to play at normal speed but run at 29.97 fps instead of 20fps, you will need to do this in 2 passes.

• First import the sequence & export to losslessly-compressed video, using Source Framerate Adjustment to change framerate to 20fps.
• Then, import the losslessly-compressed video and do a frame rate conversion to 29.97fps.

You could have tried pre-adding Telecine 2:3 Drop-down frames into your sequence (by duplicating certain pictures), but you'd have to have done a renumber (probably via script) and that might get messy. Easier to just do a frame-rate convert that includes telecine.

Note that while smooth, the Framerate Conversion option in Vdub does NOT apply pulldown, instead it uses interpolation. If you want pulldown, you may have to try different methods.




If you are going to go to MPEG2/DVD, you could also bypass the problem & CHEAT a little and:

1. Create 20fps video & Encode to MPEG2 at 20fps
2. Use DGPulldown to apply the appropriate pulldown flags to get it up to the standard 29.97.

Scott

edit: BTW, since you scanned these images in, I have to STRONGLY suggest you apply some kind of image stabilization filter to the video unless you are absolutely sure than the scans had exact, correct framing registration on every frame.

[Cygnus111]

Sweet Jesus, that was more info than I hoped for. Thanks!!

[Cornucopia]

Sorry, I tend to do that at times.

Scott

[classfour]

Cornucopia - what a tutorial!

I don't know how long it took for Cygnus to capture the 8mm shots, but you certainly gifted him with knowledge.

Kudos: I applaud you!

Well done, for a senior member of videohelp (or was it DVDhelp when you joined???? - as for me???)

Good work!

[Cornucopia]

It was VCDHelp.

Scott