Grab a still from video in final cut pro

[kostas11]

Hi, my first post and a simple( i think) first question for you guys.
Could you describe how to grab a still image from a video I have imported in final cut pro (original dimensions)? This must be very basic to you but I've just only started using fcp. Or Instead is there another way to grab stills from the apple dvd player? Anything will do.

Thank you

 

[hoop]

Hi - pause the video at the required place, then go to Modify > Make Freeze Frame or SHIFT + N. It'll then go into the viewer, and you can place it into a timeline and export that out if you wish.

 

[kostas11]

Thank you hoop. I appreciate your quick reply.

 

[TheFuzz]

you could also just stop the playhead on the desired frame, then file>export>Quicktime Conversion. select "still image" in the first dropdown menu and choose the file format of your still. done. a few less steps if you're not going to be needing the stills to edit.

 

[kostas11]

Thank you TheFuzz for your help. By the way I really enjoyed your video and portfolio. Nice work

 

[magicjames92]

ya the vid on his front page was cool, howd u do it? wat was it??...

 

[coil]

Realize that if you are needing this for print purposes the pixel resolution will be fairly small (assuming a DV codec). What looks good on a monitor does not always hold up in print. The image will also typically show the fields as de-interlaced, so you may want to take still image file into Photoshop and "reconstitute" the image.

 

[TheFuzz]

Thank you TheFuzz for your help. By the way I really enjoyed your video and portfolio. Nice work

ya the vid on his front page was cool, howd u do it? wat was it??...

thanks, guys/gals.

majicjames, it was part of an art installation. the video was displayed inside a large steel cube, similiar to the black cubes/cells in the video. the video itself was made using illustrator, photoshop, and after effects and then 151 hours of rendering .

 

[kostas11]

Hi guys

The captured image is always full of distortion. The method I am using in order to capture the still is very simple( I stop the playhead at the desired frame and file>export using quicktime conversion> export as still jpeg ) There must be a better way. Any ideas what causes the distortion in the image? The still must be of reasonable quality.
By the way there is no distortion in the preview window before capturing the image.
Any help or alternative method for capturing a still will be very much appreciated.

 

[heyisa]

If I have to do a number of still exports in fcp. I make a lot of freeze frames and drag them into a new folder. Then I select all the freeze frames and "batch export" them all as stills. Then I make a batch action in photoshop which deinterlaces all the files. If you need higher resolution than the source material quality look into the photoshop plug-in General Fractals Print Pro 5 http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=7
There is a free trial.

 

[kostas11]

Thank you heyisa for the quick reply and the info, this method seems to be much better. I'll try this today, lets hope it will eliminate the distortion.
Thank you

 

[coil]

What kind of distortion are you seeing? Are you talking about the image being stretched or squashed? If so that is the difference between square and rectangular pixels. Video having rectangular.

phil

 

[kostas11]

Hi Coil, thanks for your reply and letting me know that I should use rectangular pixels I appreciate it. Actually the image initially seemed squashed now is fine.
Thank you

 

[imageman]

my stills are squashed

Hi Coil,

My still grabs are squashed from my HD capture footage at 16:9 to what looks like 4:3. I don't know how to fix this problem.

Thanks for your help...

Imageman

 

[AviationFan]

My still grabs are squashed from my HD capture footage at 16:9 to what looks like 4:3. I don't know how to fix this problem.

I assume your original video is in HDV format? HDV has a non-square pixel aspect ratio. Pixels are wider than they are high. If you just take all the pixels and draw them square, your image will look too narrow (which I assume is what you meant with "squashed").

To fix it, use some graphics editing software to stretch the image horizontally, using a factor of 1.333 (going from 1,440 to 1,920 pixels), without changing the image in the vertical. Or, if you have Photoshop, you can tell it about the pixel aspect ratio and edit the original pixel data - Photoshop will stretch it only for viewing purposes.

Hope this helps!

- Martin

 

[imageman]

squashed stills

Thanks for the Photoshop tip Martin. I tried it and it works great but is there any way to save it so I can either print it out or e-mail it? If there is not, what type of software would you reccomend to achive this function? Does FCP have anything built in?

Steve

 

[AviationFan]

Thanks for the Photoshop tip Martin. I tried it and it works great but is there any way to save it so I can either print it out or e-mail it?

Sure. Create another empty Photoshop document with the desired settings (such as 1,920x1,080 square pixels), then drag the layer from the other document over to that new document. Done!

- Martin

 

[studio21]

Awesome! Thank you!

That was so simple! Thanks

 

[Tai Ding]

Edit > Add Freeze Frame (or press Option-F)

 

[campyguy]

Edit > Add Freeze Frame (or press Option-F)

Only 9 years late! Where were you then?!