Auto Image Adjust


	Auto Image Adjust in Stop MotionMaker Advance V2.2

In this tutorial we will make a simple auto moving movie from single live captured image on the trial version of Stop MotionMaker Advance V2.2 (limited to 50 frames). The completed movie is shown below. More complex scenes can be produced by introducing more stop motion frames and sub-movement. Longer than 50 frames scenes can of course be produced on the full version.

Click HERE to Show Movie Note. The watermarks are only on the trail version of the software.

Spaceship Image. First download the required 640 x 480 image shown below or you can use your own.

50 frame AVI Starfield background. Right click HERE and select ‘Save Target As’ to download Starfield AVI Note: 45Mb or use your own background AVI.

Step 1 - Setup. Open Stop MotionMaker Advance (Trial or full version). The tutorial will be carrried out on the trial version which is limited to 50 captured or imported frames and no video camera connected. You can of course connect a video camera and load your image from there.

Set frame rate to 15

Set image size to 640 x 480 to match the video and image.

Select ‘Set Image Size’ to save the image size (this will not appear if you have a video camera connected.

close the set image size and video source panels.

Step 2 - Load Image. Select ‘Import/JPEG’ to select the image to load.

Select the ‘SpaceshipFrame1’ image from where ever you have saved it and then select ‘Open. You can also import another image. Note. For best results the image should be of a similar height/width ratio in size.

Select the ‘Yes’ to load the image as ‘Frame 1’

The image is now displayed as frame 1

Step 3 - Generate frames. Select ‘FUNCTIONS/Cut/Paste’.

From the Copy and Paste Frames window - Select ‘Copy Frame’ this will Copy the displayed frame as stored frame 1.

The image is now copied and available for pasting. Set the paste frame edit box to 49. This will paste 49 copies of the image into the main video window.

Select ‘Paste Frame’

Select yes to now paste 49 copies of the selected image into the main video window.

49 copies of the image are now added to the main video window.

Step 4 - Load Chromakey Video. Select ‘FUNCTION/B/Chromakey’ to open the Background Chromkey Window.

Select ‘Open Video’ to load the video (Starfield50) from where it was saved, or load in your own video AVI. Note: The size of the video does not have to exactly match the image size, but for best results it should be of a similar height/width ratio.

Step 5 Setup Chromakey. The first frame of the video should now be shown within the main video window as long as ‘Green Screen’ has been selected. Also carry out the following:

Ensure a green ‘Spill’ is selected.

In the Chromakey Controls tab, set ‘Feather Outer Edge’ to zero (not required).

Adjust ‘Initial Range’ to ensure good coverage of the model and chromakey background.

The chromakey is now setup


	- right click on image and select ‘Save As’ to save to your computer.


		Step 6 - Setup Chromakey Adjust Main Image. Select the ‘Adjust Main Image’ tab and carry out the following: Set the ‘Reduce’ setting to 300. (the selected frame will reduce in size). Set the ‘Reduce Increment’ to ‘-3’. This will subtract 3 from the 300 for each processed frame. Set the ‘Main Screen Image Frame Start’ to ‘1’. Ie the first frame. Set the ‘Main Screen Frame Finish’ to ‘51’. Set the ‘Video Frame Increment by’ to ‘1’ Ie what frame is used for each image.



			Step 7 - Start Automatic Sequence. Select ’Start Batch’ to automatically increment each frame and overlay the required video chromakey background and save for each frame. This will display as a one second flash of the original greenscreen image before it is reduced and chromakey/saved. After this is completed the screen will look as shown below.


	Step 8 - Test Playback and make movie Select Select ‘Play’ to play back the sequence of images at the required frame rate. Select ‘BMP to AVI’ to then make a avi movie of the image sequence.


			Setup the Bitmap to AVI Window as follows: FPS to 15. Fill the AVI File Name edit box with a suitable name (shown as ‘Spaceship2). Note that the movie will be saved in this case to ‘D:\\Movies’ but could be whatever has be setup in the ‘DIR Setup’ panel.



		if you have loaded too many images then the trial version will not allow you to create a move. Just delete the last image to keep it under 50 frames.


	In this case we have used the the ‘UNDO’ to delete the last frame but ‘DELETE’ the selected frame of ‘BATCH’ delete could also be used.


	ISelect open BMP to AVI again and select ‘Movie’ and as shown ‘Yes’ to generate the AVI movie file.


	IThis AVI file can now be imported into your favorite video editor (XPs Windows Movie Maker can be used for simple movies) and edited with other video and sound files.


	[Stop MotionMaker] [Stop MotionMaker Adv] [Feature List/Price] [Download Trial] [Tutorials]