What would be the best way to capture still frames from a video (essentially to make "photographs" from a video)? I have Articulate 360 and Camtasia available to use.
Hi Laurel - Thanks for posting your question here! There's probably a ton of various ways to do exactly what you need... but here's my suggestion: Play the video in the biggest size possible (so you get a nice, big image), and then pause it at the exact moment where you need the screenshot, while it's paused, hit PrintScreen or use SnagIt or somethnig similar to grab a screenshot of your screen and then crop out your image. :) Hope this helps!
Thanks Nicole. A colleague told me that SnagIt has the feature of grabbing still frames from video, but I actually don't have Snagit.
The problem with pausing the video is that it's still blurry when I pause it. These videos in particular are of people dancing, so they're quite prone to blurriness! I was hoping that one of the 360 products would feature a still-frame capture option like what I've heard Snagit has.
Hi Laurel - Hmmm I can't think of anything in 360 that allows to grab screenshots/ still images... but I've been wrong many times before so maybe someone will correct me haha. Hopefully someone else might offer up another solution! Best of luck :)
Ok another chance to plug for my favorite low-priced toolset.... AVS4You
It's a great swiss-army knife approach to a multi media toolset for about $30? Lifetime might be like $60 now, not sure.
Anyways... one of the many tools in the kit a great basic little NLE (non linear editor) that can grab still frames from your videos (amongst many other features). That way it's coming right from the native resolution and not through a screen capture.
And of course you also get tools for image retouching, audio editing, document conversion. media compression/conversion, and more.
Standard Disclaimer - No vested interest or association other than as a highly satisfied customer.
If you have Camtasia, you can place the play head on the scrub bar to the video frame that you want, then choose File/Export/ToGraphicFile. The app will export that as (usually) a PNG file...
6 Replies
Hi Laurel - Thanks for posting your question here! There's probably a ton of various ways to do exactly what you need... but here's my suggestion: Play the video in the biggest size possible (so you get a nice, big image), and then pause it at the exact moment where you need the screenshot, while it's paused, hit PrintScreen or use SnagIt or somethnig similar to grab a screenshot of your screen and then crop out your image. :) Hope this helps!
Thanks Nicole. A colleague told me that SnagIt has the feature of grabbing still frames from video, but I actually don't have Snagit.
The problem with pausing the video is that it's still blurry when I pause it. These videos in particular are of people dancing, so they're quite prone to blurriness! I was hoping that one of the 360 products would feature a still-frame capture option like what I've heard Snagit has.
Hi Laurel - Hmmm I can't think of anything in 360 that allows to grab screenshots/ still images... but I've been wrong many times before so maybe someone will correct me haha. Hopefully someone else might offer up another solution! Best of luck :)
Ok another chance to plug for my favorite low-priced toolset.... AVS4You
It's a great swiss-army knife approach to a multi media toolset for about $30? Lifetime might be like $60 now, not sure.
Anyways... one of the many tools in the kit a great basic little NLE (non linear editor) that can grab still frames from your videos (amongst many other features). That way it's coming right from the native resolution and not through a screen capture.
And of course you also get tools for image retouching, audio editing, document conversion. media compression/conversion, and more.
Standard Disclaimer - No vested interest or association other than as a highly satisfied customer.
Hi Laurel,
If you have Camtasia, you can place the play head on the scrub bar to the video frame that you want, then choose File/Export/ToGraphicFile. The app will export that as (usually) a PNG file...
Wonderful! Thank you for the tip.
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