Re: [tlug] Method/tools to create a video from images, but with control of when the images and for how long they show.

[Tod McQuillin <devin@example.com>]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009, zev wrote:

> I am looking into methods to create a video from a set of images.
> The catch is that I want to show the images at specific times.
>
> Such as show image 1 at start (0) until 2.5 seconds
> Then show image 2 at 2.5 seconds until 4 seconds.
> Next show image 3 at 4 seconds until 9 seconds.
> And so on.
>
> I see that both ImageMagick's convert and ffmpeg/mencoder have the 
> ability create a video (avi,mpeg, etc) from a group of images, but it 
> appears that the images are all show for a uniform set of time.

One low-rent way to do it is to use the tools you have:  convert or 
ffmpeg/mencoder.

Yes, they can only make movies by using a separate image for each frame at 
fixed time intervals, but there is nothing stopping you from making many 
identical frames very cheaply by hard-linking files.  The OS is even smart 
about caching so you will read the same frame out of the file cache each 
time you encode it.

If you want image 1 to appear for 2.5 seconds, make 300 hard links to it 
(assuming 30 frames/sec), etc.  You could even write your own domain 
specific language and write a little program to read your language and 
make the links for you, e.g.:


2.5s image1.jpg
1.5s image2.jpg
5s   image3.jpg

or however you like.

There are probably much better tools out there to do what you want, but 
for some people, a chance to invent a language for this and write a script 
to parse and implement it would be a fun project, and you can't deny that 
it gives you total control.
--
Tod