Insert still into video - do I need to convert TIF to AVI?

[Muse]

I'm doing my first video editing and using Nero 6 Ultra's NeroVision Espress 2.0. I don't see how I can insert a TIF image in my video. I scaned the page I want to exhibit, and I could shoot it with my camcorder, but I figure it's best to use the TIF. Do I need to use a utility to convert a TIF to an AVI file? If so, could I get a recommendation for a freeware utility? Thanks.

 

[bamacre]

Trial version of Macromedia Flash will do the job.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: bamacre
Trial version of Macromedia Flash will do the job.

Thanks.

I assume you're talking about either:

Flash MX 2004

or

Flash MX Professional 2004

Both can be installed as 30 day trial versions at Link.

Do you know which version does it? Is it really worth it to go this route. It might be simpler and easier for me to take a movie of my still, but I hate to be that kludgy. I read somewhere that there are public domain utilities that will do this but I don't know what they are.

Edit: I did some Googling and found Radtools.exe, which seems to have a lot of stuff. I mean a LOT! It's free (they ask for donations, but it's free for non-commercial use), and it does convert a Tif to an Avi file - I just did it! Link to Radtools.exe download

Problem is, the AVI only lasts a split second. I don't know how to make it, say, 6 seconds long.

Another edit: I had to create a sequence of files, sequentially numberd, all really the same one frame .AVI file to do this. That I did programmatically, 90 such files. Then ran Radtool.exe against the sequence and managed to create my 90 frame AVI of the single shot, which lasts 6 seconds. Whoopie!

 

[bamacre]

Not bad, and good find for the app, I'll have to take a look at it.

Although you could have done it pretty easily in Flash MX (both those apps would have worked, in fact, I don't know the difference in the two). Just make the single image stretch across 90 seconds on the timeline, and export. But I'm not a wiz with Flash myself, either.

I used to use Adobe's Live Motion 2 (now discontinued) for some Flash design, and it works pretty well for some small video editing. I used it to do some stunt vid's for GTA VC. Although it had some problems, it wouldn't import any kind of video format, so I had to use VirtualDub to export raw .avi's as bitmap sequeneces, which Adobe LM would import. It also would only export as .mov, so I used the trial version of Macromedia's Flash to convert the uncompressed .mov's to uncompressed .avi's (then used VirtualDub the encode the .avi's with Xvid.

But I loved the interface, and the ability work frame by frame. Since I had experience using it for Flash design, doing fade-in/out's, moving, resizing objects and even groups of objects, and adding special effects often by using "masks," were all simple.

My Last GTA Stunt Vid Using Live Motion 2

This vid turned out pretty well as far as editing, I loved the "twisty" transitions, and with the opacity changes, they were very smooth looking as well.

 

[vshah]

i don't know about nerovision, but premiere has a "hold frame" option where you can basically pause the video for x seconds, and it will generate the frames needed. nerovision might have something similar....

-Vivan

 

[Muse]

I got to the point where I actually wrote a program in Foxpro that lets you pick a TIF file, and asks you how many seconds you want it to show, and it creates the sequence of TIF images (all the same except for the filename) that Radtools.exe will make into an AVI file. It works fine, and I used it yesterday. The resulting AVI's look great in Windows Media Player or Nero Showtime.

I started using Nero VisionExpress 2.0 to do my video editing in preparations for producing my first video, and burning to DVD. However, I found it to be inscrutable, aggravating, and rather unstable - all to the point where I had to finally give up in complete disgust and use Ulead VideoStudio 6.02 SE instead (I had two versions: Version 5.0 DV, which came with my Canon Optura 20 camcorder, bought recently, and Version 6.0 SE, upgradable to 6.02 SE via downloadable patch, which came with my Winfast TV2000 XP Deluxe TV card). That program is not entirely great either, evidently, but I was able to figure out enough to edit and rearrange some clips with reasonable stability. Yes, I did have to quit the program a number of times, due to evident instability and probably some user error too, but I finally got my video close enough to acceptable where I said, "hey, that's it, that's good enough, let's burn."

However, I did discover that when I dropped those 6 second still-shot AVIs into Ulead VS, they got scrunched! They stretched to the sides of the screen for some wicked reason and I don't know what I could do to fix that. Maybe changing from 15 frames/sec. to 30 frames/sec. (assuming that's possible) would have fixed that, but before I went looking for a way to do that I discovered the obvious: I could (and did) drag and drop my TIF images right into the timeline and gave each one a duration, and that was that! Don't need those stupid 6 second AVIs at all. Maybe I did with Nero VisionExpress 2.0, but thankfully I'm not stuck using that! I suppose it's me to an extent, but I find that program impossible.