Single keypress for still capture?, need to grab 1200 stills!

Hi All,

I need to grab the first and last frame of every shot in a documentary which makes 1248 stills.

The normal FCP method of Export using QuickTime Conversion, select Still Image is pretty cumbersome for this many.

I am considering setting the still frame preset to 1 frame then using Make Still Frame and pasting into a second timeline and finally exporting as an Image Sequence.

Any other ideas ?

Jonathan

i'd try convincing the people who are asking for this that what they really need is a contact sheet representing 1 shot every 3 or 4 seconds, regardless of where in any particular shot that falls .. they'd get a better overall picture of the pace and flow of the material, plus you could do that relatively easily using the qt_proofsheet command in qt tools: [www.subservientastronaut.com]

alternatively, Digital Heaven's new FinalPrint application could be used to put create what you're after. you'd just need to put a marker on the first and last frame of each clip in the timeline.

hope it helps
Andy

And if you can't sell those ideas, try Apple+shift+3 for screen grabs which appear on your desktop as Picture 1, 2, 3, etc. or Apple+shift+4 which turns the pointer into crosshairs with which you can select a portion of the screen, so you don't have the dock, browser, viewer, etc.

You could do an entire screen grab then in Photoshop do a batch crop and save action to cut out all the FCP and mac interface.

I have used this many times - just set your canvas window to 100% then select your clips then Apple+shift+3 although as Tim said they'll all appear on the Desktop and 1200+ files would be messy


Ben



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

You can also use some modifiers when doing the screen capture:
ctrl-cmd-shift-4 will capture to the clipboard. Pressing space after that allows to select a window for capture (moving the mouse over the windows will create a blue overlay on the window and shows a camera) then click.
In Preview press cmd-n and you got a new document with your screenshot.
After done all you can do the batch crop as Ben suggested.

You can also use XML and some QT scripts do it.

Regards
Andreas

first frame of every shot is a piece of cake:

park at head of timeline,
select all shots,
drag to new bin,
BATCH EXPORT as still frames.

first and last needs a little more work,
but here's how i;d do it:

copy the sequence,
make it as streamlined as possible:
delete all audio,
collapse video tracks to one track,
remove all transitions,
remove all thru edits.

use down arrow to move through your cuts,
then left arrow to move back one frame
control v to blade.

down, down,
back,
control v

down, down,
back,
control v

etc

now the last frame of each shot is it;s own clip.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

only problame with both these is there's no real control over naming the shots, so the stills all get jumbled up.
your image sequence idea is good.

i needed to do exactly what you;re doing on the film i was recently working on.
we started with 1st & last, then reduced it to 1st frame only which was a little easier

i had QuicKeys scripts to automate the process, so both were pretty easy.

there are may approaches.
ours was to go thru and blade the fist & last frames, and bump the remainder of the shot up to V2.
this meant we could do a check after the fact that all the frames were indeed there.

you can use a freeze frame if you wish, of just as simple (as it's only one frame) would be to match frame, mark an in and an out and cut that one frame shot back into the timeline on a new clean track.

then do a check.

then what we did was to select all the left overs that were on V2 and delete them.
if you cut your single frames on to V2 or whatever, you'd select all the full shots on V1, presumably, and delete those.

this leaves you with a whole bunch of frames with gaps.
to tidy that up,
park playhead at the head of the timeline,
select all drag to the canvas, and drop in the overwrite window.

all frames will be cut back into the timeline with no gaps.
cool
you then just have to tidy up the rest of the timeline.
that's easy.
your playhead will now be at the end of your collection of frames,
so mark in, delete.

ready for exporting as an image seq.
we didn't need that, we just exported as a quicktime move, and the people who received it went thru it frame by frame.

hope there's some ideas in there for you.

cheers,
nick

Hi All,

Thanks for all the ideas, good thread

I am going to go with Digital Heaven's Final Print as I have already placed markers on the guide with comments for the VFX shots and adding markers and comments is easy with a double press of the M Key.

Final Print produces as nice report with a thumbnail with the comments alongside like a storyboard.

Funny thing I was talking to Martin at Digital Heaven only yesterday.


Jonathan.

Just a quick add

If you want to specify a screenshot folder rather than straight to your desktop you can use utility apps like OnyX that will allow you to set many variables including the destination of screen captures.

[www.versiontracker.com]

Or SnapZ Pro

[www.ambrosiasw.com]

Ben



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]