Vidcaps: How do you make 'em?

[MayDay1]

Does anyone know how to make a vidcap? What kind of software to use, or a tutorial, all that jazz. Any info would be appreciated. THX.

 

[MistressValerie1]

If you have Windows Media Player 9 or higher, you can make a frame grab from any windows-media format except .wmv by clicking Control+I while the video is playing. Then simply open your favourite photo editor (even MS Paint will do) and paste it into a blank document with Control+V, then edit it as needed and save it in the format of your choice.

For more sophisticated vidcap making, you can use Virtual Dub, free from http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net (but complicated to use) or any of several commercial video editing tools.

 

[BigNorm]

oh! that's how you do it?

one question though. how do you make a .gif file frop a vid clip? i always wanted to make a moving avatar from a clip i have, but have no clue. can someone help?

 

[MistressValerie1]

You would need to save the vidcaps as .gifs and then assemble them with a .gif animator. There is a free program that creates animations here, http://www.snapfiles.com/get/unfreez.html but I haven't tried it so I don't know how well it works.

 

[BigNorm]

is there some sort of video player that i can play frame by frame? cause i can't do it with windows media player, or i'll have 2 seconds between frames.

 

[MistressValerie1]

To extract individual frames, you would need video capture software such as the free QE Super Resolution or Video2Photo. I don't think that QE can export to .gifs and I don't know if V2P can either, but you could convert small .jpegs to .gifs with various results depending on your photo editing software.

 

[MayDay1]

This sounds like a lot of work.

 

[MistressValerie1]

It would be tedious work using only free software. To do it properly would require something like Adobe Premiere Elements + Adobe Photoshop Elements, which would cost around $100 bundled.

 

[BigNorm]

that control + i thing doesn't work on dvd's played in windows media player. i was gonna try and save some sole shots of Charisma Carpenter from Angel, but it won't capture it. and taking a desktop screenshot won't work, either.

 

[MistressValerie1]

I think DVD's are copy-protected in some way so you can't get a screenshot 🙁

 

[Kalamos]

Well... DVD Shrink comes handy with those; VirtualDub/Media Player Classic handle most of the rest.

 

[BigNorm]

Well... DVD Shrink comes handy with those; VirtualDub/Media Player Classic handle most of the rest.

can't figure out how to work dvd shrink and virtuadub to get the screencap.

 

[Kalamos]

I did it a while ago, so I don't remember well; I recall extracting the full dvd to a dvix file. Then getting shots from the dvix clip.

...

Probably there *is* a quicker way, but I should check it out before suggesting it.
I'll be trying things out and telling you the ins and outs should anything good come out of it.

 

[BigNorm]

You would need to save the vidcaps as .gifs and then assemble them with a .gif animator. There is a free program that creates animations here, http://www.snapfiles.com/get/unfreez.html but I haven't tried it so I don't know how well it works.

i tried using unfreeze program you suggested, but it says: not a gif file or incorrect version number when i try to make one, when i use .gif files. any tips on getting it to work or another program that will work.

 

[MistressValerie1]

Normie, the only other free program I know that can create animated .gifs is the complicated but feature-rich Gimp 2.2 (a/k/a "the poor man's Photoshop"), available at http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net You would need to install the GTK+ component first, then install the Gimp (total download about 12 MB).

 

[cosquillero1]

Well, in my instance i only hit Prt-Scr key in the keyboard and presto, i have a vidcap from any video format in the clipboard.