Snapshot from time line bad quality

Aje wrote on 11/11/2002, 10:34 AM
I often use stills taken from time line in editing when ending a scene which is to short fading the stills to black to get a soft ending.
The problem is that picture quality is not as good as the original frame it is taken from.
I have tested all possibilities in the properity window but nothing helps.
I think that the snapshot should have the same quality as the original frame.
Shouldn´t it ?
anyone who can help me ?
Regards Anders L Sweden

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/11/2002, 10:49 AM
It's never going to be quite as perfect as the original, but it should be very close. Are you checking "display at project size"? If you don't check this, then the image will be saved at whatever size the preview window is set for rather than the size of the source. Having the image be full size will go a long way towards making it look a lot better.
jetdv wrote on 11/11/2002, 11:27 AM
Why not just change the velocity to 0% at the "freeze" point? Then you don't have to worry about pictures - you'll be using the original clip!
vonhosen wrote on 11/11/2002, 12:20 PM
For screen capture stills

Right-click on the Video Preview and pick "Display at project size" . Also set preview quality to best.

Set your project property "Interlace" format to "progressive" and the (advanced property) "Deinterlace method" to "Interpolate" so you won't get any interlace artifacts in your images. Make sure to set the interlace property back before you render your project, you only want progressive for the still capture step.

Use "Save Timeline snapshot to file" because it deals with pixel aspect ratio, while "Copy Snapshot" does not.
FadeToBlack wrote on 11/11/2002, 5:21 PM
Erk wrote on 11/12/2002, 2:52 PM
Chienworks,

I'm curious, why would a snapshot (actually "saved timeline") not be identical in quality to the video frame? I use the steps outlined by Vonhosen above, and my still images to my eyes look identical; I've put the still adjancent to the frame I copied and I can't tell the difference. Setting the project to Progressive, Interpolate is crucial here.

Perhaps there's a technical difference I'm not aware of. But I'm assuming that done properly, we're actually exporting a frame, and not doing anything else to it that would reduce its quality in any way.

G
watson wrote on 11/12/2002, 3:33 PM
"Why not just change the velocity to 0% at the "freeze" point? Then you don't have to worry about pictures - you'll be using the original clip"!

I like this idea, I think. Could you explain the procedure so I am sure what you mean.

Thank you,
W
jetdv wrote on 11/13/2002, 10:04 AM
I just insert a velocity envelope to the clip. Add two key frames, the first one at 100% the second one at 0%. If these are set on top of each other, it will come to a sudden stop. If you separate them slightly, it will "slow down" to a stop. I usually don't split as GG suggests even though that will certainly work for a sudden stop. I usually "slow down" to a stop (unless I want the entire clip frozen - in which case there IS a split at the beginning already).