Creating picture sequences

A show or parts of a show can be exported as a number of consecutive pictures. This function is very useful for lossless editing in other programs or for producing "screen shots" of certain project scenes.

This is how you proceed:

Timeline

1. Open your show and, if applicable, highlight the show portion you want to output. See also Highlighting a portion.

2. In the main menu, click Output - Picture Sequence...

3. For normal shows the default settings for Timeline and Screen as well as Display can remain as they are. You only need to choose the corresponding screens or timelines, when you are using several screens and timelines for your project. For multidisplay projects you can either select one individual display for output or All active displays, which allows creation of all picture sequences for all active displays in one go. Option Display Splitting is used for distributed and simultaneous rendering via client computers and can only be used by specialists for very special applications.

4. is a feature that is only interesting for multidisplay productions with networked PCs.

4. For Multidisplay projects using a number of networked computers, you can have the softedge mask additionally rendered into the picture. If applicable, place a checkmark next to this option.

5. Option Allow usage of intermediate video data can be enabled if you encounter problems, e.g. if H.264 videos cannot be rendered on the basis of original data. When this option is checked, intermediate video data are used for rendering, provided they are available for the videos in question.

6. Option Adjust picture display data manually should only be checked if you have important reasons to do so. It deactivates automatic creation of suitable display data for the chosen output size. A manual reduction of the display data size may, for instance, be necessary when there is not enough graphics memory for rendering the picture sequence and certain media are not displayed in the picture sequence.

7. If you want to output the picture sequence as a video at a later time, you should consider TV-specific features.

   When the screen aspect ratio and the video output size differ, the picture is provided with a black border, so as to maintain the proportions of the picture. If you want to avoid black borders, you can stretch the picture to full size. To do so, check checkbox for Fill Output Frame. In this case the picture may be distorted as the full output format is forced. If you would like to present the video on a TV monitor, you should add a black border. Otherwise the picture is cropped. Under Black border enter a value of 5 % (... corresponds to 2.5 % along the periphery) which should be suitable for most TV sets.

8. Select the portion to be output as picture sequence. The following options are available:

• Complete timeline from 0:00 seconds  ... Just like the timeline, the show starts at zero seconds, so that a possible trailer up to the first object is also included. It finishes after the last object.

• Complete timeline starting with first object  ...The show starts before the first and finishes after the last object. (... recommended for standard videos)

• Only selected portion of timeline  ...Only the portion  marked in  the timeline is considered. When no portion is marked, this option is not available....Marking a portion.

9. The target directory is your project folder, the preset filename is "Video 001". For picture sequence output you should select an empty folder. After all, it's usually a large number of pictures that is output.  Click on and create a new folder, if applicable. Finally, click Next.

If you want to output one picture as Screen Shot only, you need to highlight the corresponding portion in the timeline (via track marker) and place a checkmark next to Save the first frame only as single picture. In this case, the screen content visible on the screen at the track marker beginning will be output.  

Picture sequence

1. Click on the arrow and select the corresponding File format. You may have to alter the compression for JPEG.

2. For Width and Height enter the corresponding picture size for the picture sequence. If you have entered a screen output size in the Wizard for Mixed Media Projects you can transfer the values by clicking on Assign standard screen output size.

When the aspect ratios of screen and picture sequence output size differ, black borders are created. If, in this case, the output frame is to be filled by distorting the picture, you click checkbox Fill Output Frame on page Timeline.

3. Enter the number of frames to be output per second.

4. Under Field order you should choose Progressive (full pictures) for normal applications. If you want to further edit the pictures in a video system it may be useful to select a particular way the lines of the interlaced pictures are to be created. For interlaced pictures choose Interlaced, bottom field first. A setting of Interlaced, top field first is only necessary when the device evaluates the interlaced pictures in a different order.

5. Under Anti-flicker filter choose zero, i.e. deactivate it, to achieve a high image quality. If, however, you want to optimise the pictures for playback on a TV screen you can reduce interline flicker via the anti-flicker filter. It usually affects horizontal, high-contrast image details. According to the image content, choose 100 % or less. Please bear in mind that this may result in reduced sharpness, which means that you may have to compromise.

6. Click Next.

Further actions

1. You can plan actions to be carried out directly after video rendering.

2. No further actions ...nothing happens, the picture files are stored on the hard disk for further use.

3. Show Options dialog ...will show you the Options dialog again at a later time and provides information about settings.

2. Click on Start to start creation of the picture sequence. This may take up to a few hours, depending on picture size, show length and computer performance. Progress and cumulative speed at x-times real time can be recognized in the progress dialog.

Please note that powerful modern graphics cards can only process images and picture sequences up to a maximum width and height of 16,000 pixels. The limit for older graphics cards is 8,000 pixels. If an image is too large, it can’t be rendered and will not be included in the video.

See also

Adding a sequence of pictures to a video track