10 Replies Latest reply: Oct 13, 2010 8:06 AM by av8ercfi RSS

    Using stills in PPRO 2

    av8ercfi Community Member

      Hi,

       

      I am still using Premiere Pro 2 and I am trying to add some stills in the time line. Whenever I add a still shot, PPRO requires a render. Some of these can take up to three minutes to render, and I have several hunderd stills to add. As you can see that would take weeks to render them all. Also I have a Matrox RT.X100 system installed. The stills are in JPEG format from my digital camera. I have tried Photo Shop PSD files and TIFF and BMP files to no avail.

       

      What is the best format and size for the stills so they don't need to render every time?

       

      TIA,

       

      Joe

        • 1. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
          Community Member

          HI,

          generally they are usually the same dimensions as your project ( eg. 720x480 ) unless you're going to use motion / scale on them...

           

          as far as byte count I try to keep stills down to around 72ppi but video really doesnt care about ppi ...(it could even be 1 ppi) -- but just so I dont have a big byte count ( say 300ppi at 720x480) using more storage space on my HD I usually use 72ppi...

           

          the limit I think is around 4000 for dimensions ( 4000x4000 ) and as noted above, I don't use large dimensions unless I have to do motion / scale stuff...and make them the same size as my project dimensions.

           

          psd, tif are nice formats...some people like png...and generally when you "export" a frame from PPro it will give you choices... like tif or bmp I think...so those are good...

           

          I use 8 bit stills usually...

           

          I use photoshop to batch process these things...like you make a folder with all your horizontal images, another for vertical, and make an "action" ...and "save as" to a different folder ....so I keep the original ... ( the action does all the steps you want to change your images to the smaller size and so on , including saving the file to a new folder and closing the file usually ) and then do a batch process using that action.   since resizing will depend on horizontal / vertical orientation I do one action for horizontal folder and one for vertical..

           

           

          • 2. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
            Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

            Joe,

             

            First, Render is for smoothest playback only, and is usually not necessary.

             

            Second, when one creates Video from stills, there will be a red line above the Clips. See above for the need to Render.

             

            Now, if you have Scaled your images, prior to Import, things will be much easier. This ARTICLE will be useful to you.

             

            Good luck,

             

            Hunt

            • 3. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
              av8ercfi Community Member

              I didn't think about batch processing. I'll have to look into that.

               

              I am working in HD so I am looking at wide screen. I'll check the frame dimensions and make sure I am setting the stills to the same frame size.

               

              I will look into your other suggestions as well.

               

              Thanks for the reply.

               

              Joe

              • 4. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
                av8ercfi Community Member

                I agree about the render for playback, however, since I have the Matrox RT.X100 system, when ever I scrub the still in the timeline, all I see is the Matrox splash screen. I recently had a hard disk crash and had to reload all of the software. Perhaps I didn't get something right.

                 

                Thanks for you help. I will check out the srticle.

                 

                Joe

                • 5. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
                  av8ercfi Community Member

                  I tried the suggestions that were given and the stills are working okay now. No red bar and they scrub great. Many thanks to all that replied.

                   

                  It turns out that I didn't set the PAR to 1.2, since I am working in HD wide screen. Now I resize the images to 720x480 and set the PAR to 1.2 and save them as a PSD and they are working fine.

                   

                  Now I need to study up on how to set up actions. I have  LOT more stills to process.

                   

                   

                  Thanks again.

                   

                  Joe

                  • 6. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
                    Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                    I would verify that you have the proper, and latest, Matrox drivers.

                     

                    Good luck,

                     

                    Hunt

                    • 7. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
                      Bill Hunt CommunityMVP
                      Now I need to study up on how to set up actions. I have  LOT more stills to process.

                       

                      Once one gets the concept of Actions down, writing them is very easy - basically a recording of some keystrokes. Once you have written your Action, it's as simple as File>Automate>Batch (exact syntax might differ by version), set the Source Folder, the Destination Folder. check that your Action is chosen, and then hitting OK. On my workstation, I can process several hundred large images in moments.

                       

                      Note: never overwrite your originals! Always set a different Destination Folder.

                       

                      Good luck,

                       

                      Hunt

                      • 8. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
                        Community Member

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

                        I am working in HD so I am looking at wide screen. I'll check the frame dimensions and make sure I am setting the stills to the same frame size.

                         

                        It turns out that I didn't set the PAR to 1.2, since I am working in HD  wide screen. Now I resize the images to 720x480 and set the PAR to 1.2  and save them as a PSD and they are working fine.

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

                         

                        ??????

                         

                        I dont really understand ..

                         

                        What is your project size ?  If you have an hd project  ( say 1280x720p 24 ) ....then the still images ideally would be 1280x720px ...and the stills will have square pixels...as does the project setting...

                         

                        If you are using 720x480 that is NTSC ( standard ...or SD )...and neither the 4:3 or 16:9 is a square pixel but it doesnt matter to the stills ...you would ideally export a frame of the project video ( like 720x480 16:9 ) and bring into photoshop and look at what the actual pixel dimension is...( will now be in photoshop which is based on square pixels )...and the dimension will be wider than 720x480...

                         

                        sooo, you would match your still images to THAT dimension...maybe add a few pixels as I've found that there is sometimes a little quirky black line on edge of stills done that way....

                         

                        Basically images from photoshop will be square pixels and thats perfectly OK going into the editor that way...and the dimensions of the stills should match your editor project FRAME dimensions...

                        Because of the non-square thing with some project settings ( like 720x480i --whether 4:3 or 16:9 )...its sorta OK to export a frame from the project ( tif or bmp ) and open in photshop and MATCH that image size with your still images..

                         

                        as noted earlier, if you want to you can save storage space by making images like 72ppi and I use 8 bit....

                        ----------

                         

                        as for the "actions" thing...that's real easy..you go out of button mode and start a new action ( name it ) and then click "record" and every single thing you do after that is recorded...until you click 'stop recording"....then go into button mode and you can click on the button ( named whatever you called it )...and it will DO what you did...to every "active" image...

                         

                        If you do batch stuff you can apply that particular 'ACTION" to the entire folder !....but that is why its important to ( in your action when you record it ) ..to use "save as" to another folder ....so you keep your originals !!!!!!  Then you'll use the new "saved as" files from that new folder to import to your editor...

                         

                         

                        • 9. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
                          Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                          Rod,

                           

                          That is correct. With stills only, one would Scale to the desired Project. If one has Video, then the Preset must match that, and then the stills would be Scaled to match that Preset.

                           

                          Hunt

                          • 10. Re: Using stills in PPRO 2
                            av8ercfi Community Member

                            I am working in HD, the video was shot on a DVCAM camera. It is 16x9, 1080i.

                             

                            I exported a frame of video and put it in Photo Shop and it read as 720x480, 1.2 PAR, so that is what I am setting the stills to. They look good on the HD monitor and I don't have to render them. I appreciate all the help on that subject. Now I don't have to buy another hard disk just to hold all the preview files.

                             

                            Still trying to get the ACTIONS thing to work. I found the AUTOMATE function in the file menu and I am playing with that. Don't know what it means to go out of button mode. I admit I am not that familiar with PS but I am learning as I go.

                             

                            Thanks again for all the help.

                             

                            Joe