rapid fire slideshow sequence

commedimus wrote on 2/28/2004, 4:36 AM
I have a video project that I want to integrate some still photos into. The idea is to have a bunch of photos go by in a very rapid sequence (where you almost can''t make out what is on the photos due to the speed), and then stop on one for a second or two and then rapid again, and on like that. The manual doesn't mention anything about doing this. It would appear that 1 second between photos is the shortest you can do a slide show. I tried messing around with time compression, but it didn't really seem to do anything. I also tried a velocity envelope, which helped, though it didn't really get the photos up to an adequate speed. I can scrub through the photos and more or less get what I want, but I need to be able to translate that into my project.If anyone knows of a way to do this with Vegas, or point me in the direction of a program that will do this, I would greatly appreciate it. I may have missed something in my experimenting as this is a new area for me.

Comments

LarryinTN wrote on 2/28/2004, 5:00 AM
You can resize each picture down to as little as one frame. A couple of ways to do this is to split [S] the event or to drag the left or right of the event to shorten it.
Electromen wrote on 2/28/2004, 5:16 AM
I just tried it, it worked. On the time line, zoom in on the photo, zoom it a lot. I click on the photo and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Grab the edge & drag it down to as little as one frame.
swarrine wrote on 2/28/2004, 5:16 AM
Go to Options>Preferences>Editing and set new Image to any length you like.

If your images are in order and in a single folder you can select all and drag to the timeline. The randome pics you want to extend can be done by dragging the pic you want to a greater length.
farss wrote on 2/28/2004, 5:33 AM
Making it happen on the TL is one thing but Ithink you'll find trying to get it to look OK on the average tele might be a bit trickier.

Some of them get a bit upset if you've got very rapid changes it program video levels happening very quickly so try to keep things of like brightness together.

Wouldn't be a problem with plasma and LCD displays but some CRT based teles have poor HT regulation so as the brightness jumps so does the horizontal deflection and it can look rather yucky. Not your fault of course but it can help to know the real world limitations and that the avergae viewer just tends to think "crappy program" not "cheap TV"!
commedimus wrote on 2/29/2004, 5:23 AM
I was able to get the effect to work. I wasn't getting anywhere adjusting the time between photos in preferences, so I just started opening up each jpeg on the timeline and started pulling each photo to the left to shorten each one. It took quite a while to do a 1 minute sequence but I was able to achieve what I wanted. I know there is likely a much easier and quicker way, but this got the job done. I have had Vegas for a few months but I am still quite new to all this so I am sure I often take the lengthier road to get where I need to go. I will have to see how it all looks on a reugular tv, though, I will have to trust that it will more or less turn out.
stormstereo wrote on 2/29/2004, 6:55 AM
If you put all images in one folder and have a consecutive (spelled right?) name order* you can import the stills as an image sequence by choosing "Import Media", find the first picture in the folder, check the "Open still image sequence" and click ok. All your stills will now act as a video event where each still equals one frame. This video event you can split with "S" and then insert any longer still in between.

*picture001.jpg (or png, tga)
picture002.jpg
picture003.jpg
picture004.jpg
picture005.jpg
et cetera.

BTW - To batch rename still pictures you can use Photoshops internal browser.

Best/Tommy
GaryKleiner wrote on 2/29/2004, 8:35 AM
>I just started opening up each jpeg on the timeline and started pulling each photo to the left to shorten each one. It took quite a while to do <

Just FYI, with Duration Wizard in Excalibur, you could have adjusted any number of images in a couple of seconds .
Gary
Grazie wrote on 3/1/2004, 1:07 AM
Excalibur for this . . every time .. every time . . every time .. . ;-)

I reeeeeeally don't like messing about in Vegas if there is a quicker smarter and sexier way of doing stuff . . Just 'cos we can "Do-It" in Vegas AND there is a package that does it INconjunction with my beloved Vegas faster and slicker .. that's for me! . . Vegas IS my NLE of choice . . I'm starting to come around to the idea this is the starting place for my workflow .. it aint necessarily the full story .. yeah?

Grazie
commedimus wrote on 3/1/2004, 5:00 AM
Hey, thanks for the great tip to make things quicker and easier. I went through the process of doing it to make sure I understood your instructions, just incase I want to do the effect in the future. I couldn't find the "open still image sequence" box for a little bit. It wasn't highlighted because there was a folder in my folder, as well as, all the pictures had different titles. I assume that is the reason I wasn't able to make use of this feature. I will hopefully remember in the future to do this. It was way too much work to do the way I had been doing it.
Haw1144 wrote on 3/1/2004, 11:10 AM
I would think you would be able to do that by first placing all the you want in "rapid-fire" mode..then hold CNTRL and "compress" that section?
stormstereo wrote on 3/1/2004, 8:39 PM
Yes, the reason "open still image sequence" was not highlighted was because of the different still titles. If you have a bunch correctly named and mark the still you want the sequence to start with, the "open still image sequence" box will become active.

Note that upon import, the sequence will end with the last consecutive still. If you want to import 100 stills from a folder, named X001 to X100, but still number X038 is missing, then the video sequence on the timeline will only go from X001 to X037 and then finish. It will not jump over the missing frame and continue to the end. You have to make a new import from X039 which will give you a second video sequence on the timeline.

Or, you could batch rename them all in Photoshops image browser.

Do I make any sense?

Best/Tommy
TVCmike wrote on 3/1/2004, 9:11 PM
Be careful of doing this if you're going to DVD. The MPEG-2 encoder will have a baby without an extremely high bitrate and extremely tweaked GOP skewed towards more I-frames. In other words, the results will probably not look good. If you're going to DV tape, you should be fine.