Another way of doing it is to move in 1 frame from the end of the clip (Alt left and right arrows move a frame at a time), split the event and then drag the single frame out as long as you want. It's no better than JMES' method - just different.

Ian G.

Ian, if you do that, the video is going to start to loop from the begining of the clip. I already tried that approach. JMES

Can't you turn off looping for a clip?

I'm not at a computer with VMS installed, so this could be TOTALLY wrong, but I think you can right click on the event, select switches, and uncheck "Loop". Then, if you stretch out a clip, I think it just stays frozen on the last frame? (i.e. if you stretch it out longer than the original clip)

Again, I could be totally wrong, but it's worth a try...

Tim L

No, Tim you are right, I forgot that. And by the way ,I think ,this approach is a little faster than copy/paste.

>Ian, if you do that, the video is going to start to loop from the begining of the clip.

I must have looping disabled by default - I didn't even know it was possible! Thanks for the pointer!

Ian G.

Dragging the clip out with looping turned off only works if the last frame of the video file is the frame you want to use. If you've trimmed your event to end at an earlier point, then doing this will show the rest of the video clip from that point on, then freeze at the last frame in the file. In this case, using the snapshot method is probably the easiest.

Ahhhh -- good point Chienworks...

Yeah, if the clip you captured from the camcorder ends exactly where you want it to, my suggestion would work. But I guess that seems somewhat unlikely, doesn't it.

Chances are you probably adjusted the end of the event on the timeline so it stops just where you want it to freeze. If you take my suggestion, then stretching out the clip (whether looping is on or off) will just add back the video hiding at the end of the clip.

Oh well. I guess the "shapshot" (save to JPEG or PNG) method is probably the most reliable way to do it. However, keep in mind that when you save a snapshot of the preview window, it is saved just as seen on the screen. Make sure you undock the window and set it to full size, best quality, before saving the frame.

Tim L

The other problem is that when you save a preview window snapshot (even that the highest resolution), it is saved as a jpg file which has compression. So your picture doesn't have the same quality as the last frame of the video which makes for a sort of flash when the picture is first displayed.

There has to be a better way to do this.

If you're not going to hold it for too long, you could split the last frame as a separate event, copy it, and paste it repeatedly. If you need it for a longer time you could paste a few, then copy all of them together and paste in bunches.

In the full version of Vegas one can use a Velocity envelope to accomplish this task easily with just a few clicks.

Re stevec5375: "...it is saved as a jpg file which has compression. So your picture doesn't have the same quality..."

With the current version (6.0) of VMS, we have the option to save the frame as a PNG file (Portable Network Graphics). (I don't know if that was true with ver 4.) I'm no expert here, but I believe PNG is supposed to be a "lossless" format -- the reconstructed image should be exactly the same as the original.

A quick search found this link, which states "The Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format provides a portable, legally unencumbered, well-compressed, well-specified standard for lossless bitmapped image files."

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/spec/1.2/PNG-Introduction.html

Also, PNG supports transparency (alpha channel), which doesn't have any benefit for frame grabs, but makes it a good file type to use when importing graphics or titles or whatever that you might want to overlay on your video. (from Photoshop, etc.)

Tim L

Okay, not to keep dragging this on... (but I do love these threads that make me think, and maybe learn something new...)

While the PNG format I described above should be lossless, I guess there still is a very small chance of the still frame not exactly matching the source because the source is 720x480 rectangular-shaped pixels (tall and skinny), while the saved PNG image file will be 654x480 (or 655x480?) square pixels. I presume some slight discontinuity would be possible, but I doubt it would be obvious.

However, another approach -- probably the surest, safest approach (though I haven't tried it out) -- would be to trim the event on the timeline or in the trimmer just as you want it, then selectively render it out as it's own little AVI. Then, pull the rendered AVI into the project, turn off looping for that event, and stretch out the end as desired. This avoids any possible discontinuity that could occur, since the freeze at the end is actually referencing the original DV image, not a frame grab converted to PNG.

If I was doing it, I think the "frame grab" PNG would be the easiest, but if I wasn't happy with those results, the "selective render to AVI" approach would be my next choice. I guess it depends on whether the event is a little one minute clip or a one hour clip that would have to be rendered to its own file.

Tim L