Digital Commons at Penn State

This tutorial will show you how to import a number of sequential image files so you can create animations at various frame rates.

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Video normally plays back at 30 fps (frames per second). This means that 1 minute of video consists of 1800 individual frames (30 x 60 sec). For this workshop, we are going to create an animated image sequence at 10 fps. 1 minute at this rate will need 600 images.

1. Final Cut Pro lets you set a default video size for imported images. We need to set things so that an image is imported to play as 3 individual video frames. This will give us a playback frame rate of 10fps.
To set this import size go to the top menu and select user preferences from the Final Cut Pro menu.

2. Select the editing tab (second item) in the user preferences and change Still/Freeze Duration to 00:00:00:03. Click OK.

3. Import the folder of images. These should be sequentially named and 720X480.

Sequences of still images can be imported by QuickTime Player and turned into movies. This can be used for assembling stop-motion animation projects.

1. In the File Menue of QuickTime Player, Select Open Image Sequence.

2.Select the first image in you image sequence.

3.Choose a framerate. 10 Frames Per Second will play an image 3 times and move to the next one in the sequence. A one minute movie at this rate will require 600 still images.

4. Once the movie has been imported, it will have to be resized to 640 X 480. Select Show Movie Properties from the QuickTime Player Window Menu Items.

5. Select the Video Track and Visual Settings. Change the scaled size to 640 X 480. You may need to uncheck "Preserve Aspect Ratio" if your images are not in a 4:3 aspect ratio. You also need to click the checkbox for High Quality.

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