Making fast slideshow from thousands of pictures.

[server]

Hello,
I'm new here but I'm not a newbie.
I want to make fast video slide show of thousands of frames with frame rate 10-15fps so it should look like brainwash material we can see sometimes in the movies. I got a LOT of pictures of different resolution and orientation and here is my biggest problem. No way to import them to VirtualDub (I remeber it worked a long time ago with TGA sequence) but now it doesn't. I've tried to put it into the Ulead Gif Animator but it takes only 100frames at once, besides it doesn't automatically center portrait-oriented pictures and setting it all manually would take ages. So I decided to convert all of the photos to 640x480 but I got another problem - I need them all to be the same resolution and there is no way to batch resize them to the desired resolution with the proportions keeped. Smaller images should be enlarged to 640x480 with proportions intact and the gaps should be filled with black (image centered in the frame), bigger images should be reduced to 640x480 and the rest stays the same as for enlarging. Tried some programs to mass convertion of images but there is no a single one that can do that right, any idea what should I use for that?
Another question is how can I put it all together into video stream, frame order doesn't matter in this case, I prefer AVI cause it's easier to edit than WMV, MOV etc...


--> OK I found out that avidemux can take standalone frames and put it together but there is one condition - all must have one resolution and here we are again with converting images:/ HELPP!!

[Baldrick]

I'm pretty sure irfanview should be able to batch resize and also keep aspect ratio, add borders. Google for tips.

[Cornucopia]

Virtualdub CAN still work with images. Go to: [File | Open Video file], and in the "files of type" box, change it to Image Sequence. This allows you to use PNG, BMP, TGA, JPG...
However, no matter which app you choose to do this with, you will ALWAYS need to resize to a COMMON size first. Normally, I've done this with Photoshop scripts. If you don't have Ps, I would suggest a scriptable batch photo converter such as Phatch. The most common problem with doing this for all the various sizes and shapes is when encountering some photos that are portrait mode (higher than wide) and others that are landscape mode (wider than high). In Ps, and not relying on a plugin, I've resorted to manually sorting into 2 folders and running different actions on each folder. With Phatch (and a "conditional" extension), you should be able to do a forked script (phatch looks interesting, but I'm married to Ps for many reasons).

Scott

[smrpix]

Irfanview for free as Baldrick says, or create a custom action in Photoshop for not free. (edit: as cornucopia says)


Sony Vegas or Premiere can be set to match the raster on import, you can also customize the import duration though I can't say for sure whether 3 frames is permissible in either.

[server]

I'm pretty sure irfanview should be able to batch resize and also keep aspect ratio, add borders. Google for tips.

Yes it would be great so easy but IV do not add borders to keep the res intact

[server]

Virtualdub CAN still work with images. Go to: [File | Open Video file], and in the "files of type" box, change it to Image Sequence. This allows you to use PNG, BMP, TGA, JPG...
However, no matter which app you choose to do this with, you will ALWAYS need to resize to a COMMON size first. Normally, I've done this with Photoshop scripts. If you don't have Ps, I would suggest a scriptable batch photo converter such as Phatch. The most common problem with doing this for all the various sizes and shapes is when encountering some photos that are portrait mode (higher than wide) and others that are landscape mode (wider than high). In Ps, and not relying on a plugin, I've resorted to manually sorting into 2 folders and running different actions on each folder. With Phatch (and a "conditional" extension), you should be able to do a forked script (phatch looks interesting, but I'm married to Ps for many reasons).

Scott

Yes, this is the biggest problem there are a lot of portrait oriented pictures. I can use photoshop but I've never tried the scripts stuff and don't know anything about it.. Anyway I checked for the scripts and it seems that I will have to put the commands manually (image file name f.e.) there is no way I write it in manually, forget it I can batch rename them like Image00000.jpg-Image99999.jpg and make the list of names with ms excel and umm... lost the point I think my only way to do this is to do as you said - separate protrait oriented images from landscapes and do both into 2 avis, then merge them together.... Picking the files will take at least few hours if not a whole day... Is there a software that can scan through the images and choose the landscape/portrait ones?

[server]

Irfanview for free as Baldrick says, or create a custom action in Photoshop for not free. (edit: as cornucopia says)


Sony Vegas or Premiere can be set to match the raster on import, you can also customize the import duration though I can't say for sure whether 3 frames is permissible in either.

Think I have the Adobe Premiere somewhere on my old cd's...
Even tought of making one hella huge gif animation of of it using UnFreezz but it doesn't center the images by itself so every new frame starts from 0px x 0px (top left corner of the frame) having them already converted to single resolution would alread close the topic cause there is no problem to convert gif to avi, save as uncompressed stream and keep editing with virtualdub...

[server]

Just tried the PremierePro 1.5 (finally found it), it works fine and fast but sadly it doesn't automatically fit portrait images, it fits them to their width and crop them at the top and bottom There is more, the only video encoder I can use to save the stream is DV-AVI and when I export the animation I can see transitions between some frames and it makes the video to run "smoother" which I do not need or want! I know the codec applies some compression but what about the transitions? It occures only between some of the frames, not after each one...

[smrpix]

Premiere Pro 1.5 is really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really old.

You've noticed some of the limitations the newer versions improved. Sorry to be the bearer.

[server]

Ok guys I have found the final answer for my (and not only mine problem) hell yea!!
We can pick any picture we have, it doesn't matter if it's landscape or portrait oriented, big or small all we need is to make ALL our images take the same resolution without loosing any areas of the picture (without cropping them).
There is a tool called FastStone Photo Resizer 3.1, it can convert most of the formats we can meet but the best thing is that it can resize a picture basing on one of it's sides so if we need to have everything in 800x600 we must set only the height to 600 (this will prevent from cropping portraits) and in the same time set canvas size to 800x600. This way all the pictures will be resized to exactly 800x600px no matter if they are portraits or landscapes cause the program will add missing space to the picture to meet the 800px width and keep the aspect ratio intact!! This is exactly what we need to set in the batch conversion advanced settings tab. The program is free for use.
Next step is to batch rename all files so that they fit to the sequence (like Img00000-Img99999) so the VirtualDub can recognize what we are importing and where to put which frame. Everything is up to us cause we can finally create our video stream in VD only

Hope this help the others struggled with similar problem and save them from installing tons of video editing/slideshow creating programs.
Thank everyone for their good will, I believe we can close the topic now

[Cornucopia]

Here is a link to a photoshop site where they discuss the very problem you're having, and a solution in the form of a javascript that does 2 different resizes depending on dimensions: http://www.dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&FORUM_THREAD_ID=875046. Seems to work with many of the CS series.

Follow the guide info (including plugin folder, filenaming), make the adjustments to match your needs, and go!

Scott

[smrpix]

Nice find, server. But Irfanview can do it too -- see first reply, post #2. Kudos Baldrick.

[server]

Nice find, server. But Irfanview can do it too -- see first reply, post #2. Kudos Baldrick.

Nope it doesn't
IrfanView cannot apply desired resolution trough canvas size, it can only add the space you want to have at the borders, but every image is different so it won't do the trick. Using specified resolution will result in stretching the image which is also not what we need here
Anyway I got my problem solved

[smrpix]

Sure it does.




I bet this is where FastStone ripped it off from.

[server]

umm... I got IV 4.10 there is no such thing there as Method 2;p seems like my bad I never updated IV cause never had a need to What version you use?

[smrpix]

Looks like 4.35.

Full disclosure: I downloaded it yesterday after trying that software you found -- there was something in their terminology that struck me as really "irfanview-like."

I used and loved irfanview a number of years ago, but photoshop suits most of my needs now and obviously has features irfanview can't match. Your good find led me to this good find, so thanks.