video into still shots

[vdubya]

Can anyone tell me how to take a frame from a video clip and copy it for pasting on a page of still shots? I'm using windows movie maker and media player on a vista equipped PC(clips saved are '.wmv.' ). I am able to edit video and click through each frame, but cannot find a way to copy/transfer the stills.

While not a baseball question per se, an answer would certainly help with the learning aspect.
Thanks!
VW

[Ursa Major]

This is so low tech, but it works for me given the size of the pictures/stills I usually use on this site:

Play the clip on Windows Media Player as you normally would, and then pause at the exact point you want to save. Simultaneously hit "ALT" and "PrtScrn" on your keyboard (or whatever the equivalent print screen key is on your keyboard). This copies an image of the active window onto your clipboard.

Open up dear old Paint -- you know, the clunky image editing program in Windows. Hit "CTRL-V" to paste that saved image into the active Paint window. Then, from you Paint Toolbox along the left edge (hit CTRL-T if the toolbox doesn't appear), hit the top right tool -- the rectanular "select" icon -- which allows you to go into the picture and select for cropping exactly the part of the image you want. After you block the part of the image you like (by dragging with the left mouse button pushed), hit CTRL-X to crop out that selection from your picture. Hit CTRL-N to open a new picture (say "no" to saving the old image), and then hit CTRL-V to post that selected part of the image into the new Paint canvas. Then save it as a .jpg file (resizing it first via the Image drop-down tab if you want to).

It sounds a little complicated, but once you get used to it, it takes no longer to edit than it took you to read my description.

[vdubya]

Ursa, your post was very helpful. I really appreciate the explanation and it worked for my application. One downside with 'paint' and photos that ate up a tremendous amount of my time was that there doesn't seem to be a way to work with multiple photos easily...as in taking a half dozen frames of still from a video and sizing/arranging or otherwise stringing them together. It would sure be nice if there was a curser in paint so I could place the photo where I wanted.

This has me looking for another place to paste that will save to .jpg. Something like wordpad, but wordpad won't save to .jpg.

Thanks again! Your post saved me literally hours and hours and jump-started my tinkering.
Vdub

[RobV]

There is also software called SnagIt that is pretty useful for doing this. If you google that you should be able to find it pretty easily. I think there is a free version you can use.

[callyjr]

Can anyone tell me how to take a frame from a video clip and copy it for pasting on a page of still shots? I'm using windows movie maker and media player on a vista equipped PC(clips saved are '.wmv.' ). I am able to edit video and click through each frame, but cannot find a way to copy/transfer the stills.

While not a baseball question per se, an answer would certainly help with the learning aspect.
Thanks!
VW

Windows movie maker has a spot that you can take snap shots as well. When your watching the movie in the small window hit pause and just to the right there is a toggle for splitting the clip and next to it is a spot to take pic.

[Ursa Major]

VDubya -- you can do it with Paint, but it's a little trickier. When you first go into Paint, hit CTRL-E to set the attributes, and set the final size of the image you'll want. Presumably it will be not very high but very wide (say, 1600 x 400 if you want to string together four 400 x 400 pictures to be displayed side by side). After you go through the above process to put one picture in the left end of your wide strip, go get the next screen capture that has inside it the 400 x 400 piece you want. Paste the whole screen capture into the Paint image, then go through the same cropping action and CTRL-X to get the piece you want out of the second screen capture.

Here's where it gets tricky. Hit CTRL-Z three times to undo your pasting of the whole second screen capture, and you're left with the Paint image just as you left it after the first screen capture. BUT, the second smaller image is now on your clipboard, right? So, in Paint, hit CTRL-V and that second image will drop onto of the first image on the left end of your wide strip. But, just left click and hold on that new small image and slide it to the right so that it's right next to the first image. Click on a blank spot on your Paint screen to lock it in place, and you've now got two pictures in your series side by side.

Go back and do the same thing for any other pictures you want to include on the series, and then save your image as a new .jpg with all the images side by side.

[vdubya]

Cally, the Windows movie maker on my (new) computer does not have any kind of picture key, just the split key.

After Ursa's tutorial, I was able to accomplish what I set out to do. (Thanks U.M.!) I do need more practice and to learn a little more to make the end result more polished, but I am happy with the initial results. Here is my first go at this:

[califangels72]

Frank robinson...cincinnati reds....homerun derby....saving it in paint easiest way to go....then use gimp to clean it up later...quick, easy....