MS: Using a Photo Editor with a Video File

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MS: Using a Photo Editor with a Video File

Post by Administrator » Sun Dec 17, 2006 3:09 am

Using a photo editor with a Video File

An often overlooked or unknown method exists that enables you to make very powerful modifications to a video. This method is suitable for short clips of a few seconds at a time. It is not as time consuming as you may think because most Photo Editors such as PhotoImpact or Adobe PhotoShop allow you to create macros.

In PhotoImpact macros are termed 'tasks'
in Photoshop macros are termed 'actions'
different words but have the same meaning - you record a sequence of events such as mouse movements, keystrokes, resizing, cropping and so on.
All that changes is the image/picture that you are working on.

There is an option in MediaStudio 8 that enables you to output a piece of video as several individual pictures.
Take for example a PAL format video lasting 5 seconds. PAL has 25 frames per second and so 25 x 5 = 125 frames. You output 125 individual images which you can then open with your photo editor.
You then use the powerful functions of your photo editor to make any necessary tweaks or alterations to each (or any) of those individual images and then you convert them back into a video.

The possibilities are endless. You can do things which would otherwise be at best difficult and at worst impossible using a Video Editor Program such as MediaStudio or VideoStudio.

For example:
Blurring an individuals face.
Blurring a number plate on a moving vehicle.
Placing an arrow on screen to follow an object such as a golf ball.
Placing a highlight circle around someone or something as it moves about the screen.

A recent post on the forum asked how it would be possible to reveal a video from behind a set of opening curtains. The sample video in VideoStudio 9 did not have a solid black background due to the effect of some moving spotlights - this made use of chroma key style methods impossible. What was required was to replace that background with a solid colour - and a colour that lent itself to the chroma key process taking into account the remainder of the image that we would wish to keep.

Image

Step 1.
Open MediaStudio and start a new project using avi - for best possible quality and also select frame based - because we are going to output to individual images rather than using an interlaced (field based) format.
Image

Step 2.
Place your video on your timeline
Image

Step 3.
File | Create | Video File
Image

select Ulead Image Sequence file from the file type drop down list:
Image

Step 4.
Click the OPTIONS tab
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Video Editor Tab - Select non square pixel rendering
Image

General Tab - Frame Based
Image

Format Tab - Windows Bitmap RGB 24 bit True Color.
Image

Step 5.
If you now check the directory where you save the image sequence file to, you will see that MediaStudio has created bitmap images for each frame.
Image

You will also see one extra file with a uis extension, as I have saved my image file as curtains the filename is curtains.uis

Step 6.
You now use your photo editor program (PhotoImpact, Photoshop, Paintshop pro etc) to enhance or alter your images.

Step 7. - Converting back into a video.
This is the easy one. Using the MediaStudio insert video command simply point to that uis file where your images are located!
Obviously it is image only - you will have to use the sound from your original video - or add something of your own.

You can even make up your own images from scratch - perhaps to make a cartoon or similar! just create all of your images in a single directory - make sure they are the correct size e.g. for PAL 720x576 pixels.
I would also suggest you name them in the same way as the files created by the above method which have 4 numbers on the end of the common file name.
curtains0000.bmp
curtains0001.bmp
curtains0002.bmp
curtains0003.bmp

A handy utility for naming your files is
The Rename
THE Rename is a program designed to help you to rename files and folders en masse with a number of possibilities and options.
This is a freeware program. You can use it in any situation (professional and personal use)

To convert images into a video
File | Convert | Image Sequence File.
Image

What this will do is create that uis file for you, you then proceed as per step 7 above.[/img]

Here is a sample image from the curtains sequence after alteration with a photo editor:
Image

Here is a sample video file as a result of this process:
http://media5.filewind.com/g.php?filepath=1098

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