Importing series of images into frames

[Andre Andreev]

Hi, Vegas Borg!

Amidst the news tempest today (Vegas6, DVDA3 etc. NAB goodies) I have a simple quiestion:

1. Intention: import a series of 400+ still images (jpg) into a vegas timeline, having each image occupy exactly one frame. The images are scans of drawn animation sequence.

2. Steps taken: open the folder containing the images in Vegas' explorer, select all, drag onto the timeline.

3. Result:
- desired part: all the images are imported, in the correct order
- undesired part: each image occupies about 2 seconds instead of 1 frame.

Touching 400+ events on the timeline in order to reduce them to 1 frame each is out of the question. Any ideas on how to import the images so that each imported image is exactly one frame long?

Maybe a setting in Vegas which defines the default length of imported images?

Thank you in advance!

-- Andre

[Glenn Chan]

Quicktime Pro (you have to pay a little for it) can import image sequences and change them into a movie.

RAD Video Tools (shareware) may be able to convert image sequences into a video. I haven't tested this out because QT Pro works.

[Patrick King]

Andre, I think what you are wanting done is actually performed easily by the "Duration Wizard" in Excalibur 4 (Excalibur 4

I think that VASST might have put a similar capability in the Ultimate S, though I'm not as familiar with it. (Ultimate S

[Andre Andreev]

Thank you both for the swift replies.

I will continue searching for a Vegas-only solution though.

Both solutions involve $$ and I would like to be sure that there's no possible approach in Vegas before I go and spend the cash - even on something as cheap and valuable as Quicktime pro.

I also believe that the community will benefit from the answer if we find a solution within the functionality of Vegas.

Regards
-- Andre

[Patrick King]

Originally Posted by Andre Andreev

I will continue searching for a Vegas-only solution though.-- Andre

Andre,

Open V5, select the Options menu and then Preferences.
Select the Editing tab of the Preferences dialog box.
Sixth item from the top is "New still image length (seconds):"
Type 0.034 into the settings box and tab out of the box.
Your new still image length should be posted on the other side of the settings box as "1 frames at 29.97fps".
Now find all your still images and move them to the timeline.

No third party plugin required.
Is this what you were looking for?

[Edward Troxel]

Andre, to import your images, just go to File - Open (or File - Import; both should work), browse and select the FIRST file. On that dialog, choose that this is an image sequence, and the click on OPEN. That will bring them all in as "one clip" each image exactly ONE frame long.

[Patrick King]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

Andre, to import your images, just go to File - Open (or File - Import; both should work), browse and select the FIRST file. On that dialog, choose that this is an image sequence, and the click on OPEN. That will bring them all in as "one clip" each image exactly ONE frame long.

Edward,
When I tried to do that, the "Open still image sequence" checkbox was greyed out and I couldn't select it. Why? The "range:" box was also greyed out.

[Edward Troxel]

Are the images numbered correctly? All you need to do is select the first one of the sequence (i.e. image0001.png) and those boxes should automatically become enabled.

[Rob Lohman]

Just as a side note: I think (hand drawn) animation is often imported at 2
frames per "scan", to reduce some work. Just so you know...

[Patrick King]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

Are the images numbered correctly? All you need to do is select the first one of the sequence (i.e. image0001.png) and those boxes should automatically become enabled.

Ahhhh...they have to be sequentially numbered. Perfect. Always learning here! Thanks Edward, and thanks for the great effort on the latest newsletter. Great as always.

[Rob Lohman]

There are lots of (free) little tools out there to renumber batches of files etc.,
just so you know...

[Edward Troxel]

Yes, they have to be sequentially numbered for that feature to work. Once you rename them, give it a try and you'll see that the entire series of images ends up as ONE event.

[Patrick King]

Originally Posted by Rob Lohman

There are lots of (free) little tools out there to renumber batches of files etc.,
just so you know...

Rob,
Half the fun in doing the renumber manually is looking through the pics and making subjective judgements about where they should go in the sequence. But sometimes it truly doesn't matter what order they are in, so could you divulge a name or two concerning the "(free) little tools out there to renumber batches of files".

[Rob Lohman]

I'm using a "weird" little utility called "Rename Master", get it here:

http://www.joejoesoft.com/rm.php

The reason I'm using is that it can rename files on EXIF (jpeg) properties,
which is great because I let it rename files I shot with my digicam to date +
time, which is in RM scripting:

?x_dt:Fyyyymmdd hhmmss?

(Under replace name with).

It can do all sort of file renaming/renumbering etc.

p.s. I'm using an older version of RM at the moment, so I don't know for
sure if the above script still works with the current version, but it shouldn't
be too hard to use the wizard (as I did originally) to build such a rename
script.

x_dt stands for EXIF DATE/TIME and the lowercase letters should be easy
to follow *grin*