Greetings.
My life would be complete (as I am already married with 1 kid and 1 on the way) if I could get droplets to make a .jpg into an x second self-contained QT movie. I could have different droplets to make different movies into different durations (i.e. a droplet for 3 second movies, one for four second movies etc.) Here’s what I have to do now.
(Photoshop) make a .jpg and save it (this isn’t the problem)
(QT Movie player (QTMP))Open Image sequence (it’s ALWAYS only 1 image)
QTMP)Choose the file
(QTMP)Choose rate (now if I want an 8 second movie I’m screwed cause it’s a pain in the butt i.e. cutting and pasting using
get movie info
time
Save As
click self-contained
then I have to retype the filename (what a pain).
Why not replace the .jpg with .mov?? Also, it can be saved in the same folder from which the .jpg came from.
Please help if you can.
I’ve tried running the script editor and it does not recognize “Open Image Sequence”. Also I’ve tried the droplets that came with the 4.2 QT Applescripts. I even opened them up and found none to have the duration in any part whatsoever.
It seems to me this could be somewhat easy, but I’m not an advanced scripter.
Thanks in advance
Off the top o’my head, this is what I would do if I had the time to write a similar script (which I am going to do anyway):
First off there could be a better way, but…in a nutshell:
When making movies of a set time length in QT Player, it is easiest to have a ‘stationery’ movie (movie 1) that is preset to the time you want, then open your .jpg (movie 2) and
select all
copy to clipboard
(while holding shift and option keys and choosing edit menu) paste (‘add scaled’) clipboard data to movie 1.
You now have a x second movie of your .jpg which you then just export or save as QT movie. Close all movies and start again.
- Create stationery QT movies for each x seconds needed.
there are a variety of ways of doing this with QT.
- Start your droplet with activating QT and bringing in movie 1.
- Open movie 2 and select all and copy to clipboard.
- Bring movie 2 to front. Select all.
- Paste (add scaled) clipboard data
This is the tricky part as you’ll need a menu selection scripting addition to select paste while holding shift and option. Sigma, AutoType, or Sandi’s additions should work. I did not find a simple way in the QT dictionary. There are example scripts provided with QT that take selections and make a new movie with them, but I don’t think they add scaled. Though this might be an alternative to making various x second movies (i.e. just select the time you want (inputted through dialog box) from a long enough stationery movie, then make new movie).
- Create new file in your directory of choice with movie 1’s name minus jpg, plus mov extensions. Could do this first.
- Export (write to newly created file) movie 1. You can’t just export, you have to write to the new file.
- Clean up (close without saving) movies in QT.
- Repeat per dragged on movie.
Display Dialogs, if you want to set properties for a droplet (i.e. on run double-clicking):
- Choose stationery movie (movie 1).
- Optional select time (for alternative stationery movie, movie 1 creation)
You should be able to deduce any output directories from dragged on movies info. Check out my droplet QT export to jpg posted on bbs for syntax on exporting. There is of course more to it than this, but let me know how it’s going. I too need a similar script in my toolbox. Just don’t have the time to debug! Yet.
The following micro-script works for the guts of what you need. Outputting the QT movie with saving results in the ‘time’ track (one pixel jpg track that’s been extracted from another movie of proper or greater duration works well) that you paste the pict into in addition to the pict track. But, the resulting picture track has the same jpeg compression as the orignal (give or take). Exporting as QT Movie leaves just one video track but, at the current scriptability of QTPlayer, you can’t set the video options specifically enough, so you choose either default (video - yuck) or the unuseful (in this case) streaming presets. I don’t know what your end goal is, so you should be able to copy-paste-modify the rest of the script to fit your needs from Apple example scripts. If not let me know. Have fun!
--this is the guts of the script using Sigma's Addition for menu item activation
set a_pict to choose file with prompt "Choose pict..." --choose picture for pasting
set time_templ to choose file with prompt "Choose template..." --choose the duration template
set new_movie to (((path to desktop) & "new movie.mov") as string)
tell application "QuickTime Player"
activate
open a_pict
select all
type text "c" holding down command
open time_templ
select all
type text "v" holding down {shift, option, command}
save front movie in new_movie as self contained
--export front movie to new_movie ¬
-- as QuickTime movie using default settings
close every movie without saving
end tell