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Video from a Still Image
As a filmmaker I’d be so glad if someone could help me understand why a still photo, or one frame of digital video, when “stretched out” on a timeline never looks like video (even when the subject is a totally motionless still life). Is there really no way to make a still photo into a convincing video clip? I don’t want to animate it; I just want to make it look like video rather than a frozen photo.
It would obviously be a tremendous help for an editor to be able to use a still photo as an establishing shot, or to lengthen a precious fragment of a close-up ruined by blinks, for example. Impossible?
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9 Replies
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it could be that you introduce some animated noise/grain to the ‘clip’ and that may help. Add some pan and scan and maybe itll work
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The way I always handled this issue is to do a slow push or pull on the image. I always make the movement linear so that it does not appear to stop or start at the beginning or the end of the movement. That, combined with noise or grain will give the viewer the sense of movement that you are looking to achieve.
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Good ideas from Andy; usually what I do. Also – if you have a clip that has objectionable events but you can still slice a usable segment out – I’ve often simply lengthened the clip a few frames or percentage points.
Back to the photos for a minute. If you can put the photo between two other shots that are radically different… say lighting, contrast, color, movement, it might also help fool the brain of the viewer, which will be processing the radical change before it starts to process any thought that it doesn’t quite look like video.
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Hey Robert,
Can only add the great advice already given;, coming from the old days of video-tape editing, that you could use a “camera shake” effect, with a minimum of shake to give the impression of movement.
Alternatively, if you have time on your hand, you may want to consider creating a parallax effect. There are plenty of them, including some where you can do most, if not all the work in Photoshop.
I just watched this tutorial using After Effects. If you follow that there should be nothing stopping you:
https://youtu.be/LBip1k30YNwEnjoy
Atb
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adding to Mads, you can easily create a depth map in PS (neural filter things) then use displacement in AE to create a very subtle but easy bit of parallax. Not sure this actually helps with the original question but there you are!
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Thank you very much, Andy!
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Thank you very much, Mark!
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Thank you very much, Dennis!
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Thank you very much, Mads!
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