How To Make Video From Image Sequence

Original 2012-11-16, Updated 2016-04-05: cleanup and information about overlaying images.

This functionality facilitates making time-lapse movies or stop-motion animations. Nothing is faster or more solid for turning an image sequence into a video.

When using ffmpeg to compress a video, I recommend using the libx264 codec, from experience it has given me excellent quality for small video sizes. I have noticed that different versions of ffmpeg will produce different output file sizes, so your mileage may vary.

To take a list of images that are padded with zeros (pic0001.png, pic0002.png…. etc) use the following command:

where the %04d means that zeros will be padded until the length of the string is 4 i.e 0001…0020…0030…2000 and so on. If no padding is needed use something similar to pic%d.png or %d.png.

• -r is the framerate (fps)
• -crf is the quality, lower means better quality, 15-25 is usually good
• -s is the resolution
• -pix_fmt yuv420p specifies the pixel format, change this as needed

the file will be output (in this case) to: test.mp4

Specifying start and end frames

• -start_number specifies what image to start at
• -vframes 1000 specifies the number frames/images in the video

Overlaying image on video

Assuming that you have an overlay image that is the same size as the video, you can use the following command to add it during the ffmpeg compression process.

• ~/path_to_overlay.png is the full/relative path to the overlay image
• [0:v][1:v] joins the two video streams together, stream 1 is the set of images, stream 2 is the overlay file
• overlay=0:0 specifies the position of the overlay, in this case the overlay image is assumed to be the same size as the video so no offset is needed. The offset is specified as overlay=x:y where x is the x offset in pixels and y is the y offset in pixels

You can use this technique to overlay multiple files on top of each other, or even have a dynamic overlay. -filter_complex is a really flexible command and can do much much more than is shown here. See the ffmpeg filters documentation for more information.

Adding a mp3 to a video

Adding sound to a video is straightforward

• -i MP3FILE.mp3 The audio filename
• -acodec copy Copies the audio from the input stream to the output stream

Converting a video to mp4 from a different format

If the video has already been compressed the following can be used to change the codmpression to h264:

Playback Issues for Quicktime/Other Codecs

Quicktime and some other codecs have trouble playing certain pixel formats such as 4:4:4 Planar and 4:2:2 Planar while 4:2:0 seems to work fine

Add the following flag to force the pixel format:

Finer Bitrate control (to control size and quality)

you can use the -b flag to specify the target bitrate, in this case it is 4 megabits per second

Sometimes you have to suspend your disbelief for the sake of gameplay, and in this case it would be worth it. Originally posted by:Definitely not heavy weapons like the minigun or fatman; but as for combat/hunting rifles and shotguns (especially short ones), sure it might seem impractical, but I don't see why it can't be an option.The Sniper Rifle and Hunting Rifle are bolt action. Fallout 4 knife mods. I could see dual wielding perhaps being a feature for pistols, or melee, but for bolt-action weapons? Unless you have four arms, then there is really no effective way to rechamber another round once you've fired.

Using -vpre with a setting file

-vpre is the quality setting, better quality takes longer to encode, some alternatives are: default, normal, hq, max. Note that the -vpre command only works if the corresponding setting file is available.

Up until now I had always used Premiere Pro to assemble image sequences of a rendered animation.

I’m still using Premiere Pro CS 5.5 and I’m not currently subscribing to the whole Creative Cloud package. As such, my version of Premiere is stuck somewhere in the past, when 4K was barely an idea, and 1080p was the highest result you would ever need.

The trouble is, I was working on an animation whose resolution was larger than 1920×1080. While Premiere Pro CS 5.5 can handle this and higher resolutions for editing, there doesn’t seem a way to export it at anything above 1920×1080.

My editing needs were moderate at best: assemble 250 frames, repeat those several times, and add a fade to black either end. Which application would be capable of doing this swiftly and efficiently, I wondered?

Photoshop CC can do it! Would you believe it? Here’s how.

Importing your Image Sequence

It’s as easy as selecting File – Open, then selecting the first image of your sequence. I believe any image in the sequence will do. Make sure to expand the Options box and select Image Sequence. Make sure to select a single frame only. The sequence must be sequentially numbered for Photoshop to understand it as such.

You’ll be asked to set the frame rate of your project. Now Photoshop will go ahead and assemble your sequence as a Video Layer. You’ll see a new Video Group in your document.

Basic Video Editing in Photoshop

At the bottom of the screen you’ll see a (possibly collapsed) Timeline Tab. Double-click it to open it, and you’ll see something like this:

Doesn’t look all that different from your average video editing software. Let’s duplicate our image sequence a few times. This is done by duplicating the actual video layer in our Layers Palette, because we don’t have “video clips” as such that we could drag into our timeline.

Either right-click on the layer and select Duplicate Layer (or choose the same option from the Layers menu), or simply drag the layer to an empty space while holding down the ALT key in the Layers Palette. Make sure that the layer stays in the same Video Group so the sequence is repeated on the same video track.

You’ll end up with a timeline like this:

Should the copied clip end up underneath the current one, or not in the place you had expected it, simply drag it behind the first clip in the timeline.

Adding Fade-in and Fade-out

In the timeline, click on the little square black/white icon and it will show a menu of the available transitions. There aren’t many, but they do what we need. I’ll choose the “Fade with Black”.

Once selected, drag that icon over the top of your first clip, much like we’d slide a transition onto the timeline in Premiere Pro. Do the same for the end of the last clip in the sequence, and you’ve built yourself a fade-in and a fade-out.

Nicely done, Photoshop!

Changing the video dimensions

Just in case you need it: To change the dimensions or aspect ratio of your video, we need to change the image size like we would normally would in Photoshop. Edit – Image Size and Edit – Canvas Size will do the trick. If all your renders are already in the correct aspect ratio and size, this step isn’t necessary – but for lower or higher resolution outputs, this is the way to go.

While we’re here, now’s the time to add anything like titles or watermarks to the video before we head to the final step.

Exporting our Image Sequence as a video file

File – Export – Render Video will do the trick.

This will bring up a dialogue for setting the codec and file name, as well as a few other goodies such as pixel aspect ratio (leave them at 1.0 to avoid trouble, or change this setting if you know what you’re doing).

Hit Render and Photoshop will compile a nice video for us. Who would have thought it had this hidden capability?

Thank you, Adobe!