carol.gimp.org

GIMP 2.2

GIMP Animation Plug-in:Re-encode

This tutorial assumes you have a stack of video frames and an audio track all ready to be made into all sorts of readible file formats.

About formats: image animation formats are not like the regular image formats, they seem to be a long way from stabilizing. Perhaps the problem is patents, maybe the problem is that there are so many separate projects; pippin described mpeg to me as a "moving target", without completely understanding this analogy I continued to encode video and attempt to write tutorials about what I have learned. Akkana Peck has thoughtfully done some research into this and came up with this page about formats.

Video -->Encode -->Master Videoencoder is all you need to turn your image stack and WAV file back into the same sort of movie it came from.

Make an AVI

Simply make sure that all of the frames are shown in the From Frame: and To Frame: section. Use the fileselector to point Output Video: to a good name and something which will not overwrite your original.

Make an MPEG

You can use all of the frames or some of them. Read this rant and choose your frames and please do not use this software to hurt people.
To make an MPEG you will need to change the Parameters, as the default settings make AVI files.
Use Output Video so that the original file is not over-written.

mastervideoencoder-video-mpeg-parameters

Encoder Parameters

File Format:: This radio menu has a lot of different options. I chose [mpegts] MPEG2 transport stream format after chatting about it with a friend. This changed the suggested file name in the Master Encoder dialog to have the extension "ts", then I changed this to "mpg", then I typed this confession as I have no idea if any of these decisions were the best or the correct.
File Comment:: Touching the File Comment tab on the Master Encoder Dialog allows you to embed information into your video file. The space in this dialog is limited; I was unable to put my favorite Creative Commons license in it.

audio

Whether you are making an mpeg or an avi or even one of the other video files GAP is capable of making, you can use the Audio Options tab to encode a sound file along with your video frames. GAP uses WAV files and while the Audio portions of the Master Encoder dialog have many different options, I used other software to make my sound file match the length of my video. I needed only to show the Master Encoder to the WAV file and touch the [OK] button.

Unless things change, I will not be editing WAV files anymore. I am relatively certain that the GAP's inability to use to use audio files of any format other than WAV is the fault of ffmpeg. The reasons for this personal decision can be found in some ravings of me, a girl who did not have nightmares until she tried to donate a little of herself to promote free software.

Make an MPEG

Whether making the default AVI format or if you changed some of the parameters to a different format, at this point you only need to touch the [OK] button on the Master Encoder Dialog and GAP will make your video file. solarsystemiv1.avi and solarsystemiv1.mpg are the two videos I made for this tutorial.

Most all of my software is gnu. thanks!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.