Hi all,

Given a series of jpg, what simple tools (free or affordable) could be used to create an avi file?

Thanks in advance

Quote - Hi all,

Given a series of jpg, what simple tools (free or affordable) could be used to create an avi file?

Thanks in advance

Hi try this FREE program
**
VIRTUALDUB**

Cheers

And don't freak out if the quality is lacking. If you want to do frame animation, you need to use a lossless scheme. Jpeg is a lossy format, even uncompressed. So there could easily be artifacts that show up when you run the animation. And if they are compressed jpegs, expect them. Bmp, tiff, targa, png, are some of the more popular formats for frame animation, as they are lossless, and the latter 3 support the alpha channel. Or if you work in layers and your system can hack it, psd.

 Got Windows XP or Vista? If so then you already have a program tht will do this for you: Windows Movie Maker. It's actually not bad and you can do titles ect with a click.

You MAY have to fiddle with the speed thogh. I imported my pictures and set the highest speed (lowest time each pic will show.. not sure if that's high or low framerate) and still it was slowmotion. So I threw a "double speed" effect on the finished version and then it looked as it should.

Example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0jJDtZBsHM This was made from png renders and assembled in Windows MovieMaker.

Thank you for your tips, wolf359, Dale B and TrekkieGrrl.
:)

RAD Video Tools is also another good option. A very handy set of tools all around.

Thank you, TikiGawd.
I installed it and found that it requires files to be converted to bik file first. What is the advantages of using this file format? Is it royality-free?

Actually, you don't need to convert to bik first.

In RAD Tools, browse to the location of your image files. If they're numbered sequentially (img_0001-360, etc), select the first image and click the 'List Files' button. You'll get a popup asking if you want to treat the sequence as a single animation, click yes. A list editor will pop up, check to make sure the list is in the correct order (an auto generated sequential list will look like 'img_????.ext*1-360'), save the list in the same folder as your image files (the lst file will appear in RAD Tools browse window).

Select the lst file, click the 'Convert a file' button. The converter has a ton of options. If you just want to make a simple avi, all you need to do is tell it the frame rate you want (in the 'Force (no adding or removing) to:' box), select the output type, give it a name and click the convert button. Another popup will appear allowing you to choose from among the codecs that are installed on your machine. Select the one you want, click ok.

However, my personal suggestion would be to use virtualdub, wolf359 as mentioned above. It's very powerful and not TOO hard on newbies.

Thank you, Tikigawd