Forum Moderators: not2easy
I'm wondering if anyone here could recommend the best way to do this:
I need to take video of a horse in motion. These are "gaited" horses, and as such, they move in a specific way.
I would then like to capture the movement, frame by frame if you will, into a slow motion sequence, or perhaps a slide show of some sort, to demonstrate to the viewer what is happening with the horse's gait.
Eventually, I'd like to put it on a website.
If anyone has any tips, ideas, or suggestions on how I might go about this, and any special equipment or software I might need, I would greatly appreciate them.
Thank You,
Sharon
I hope if you can clarify the question more.
Is your question about which hardware that you have to use to capture the horse's movement or you're already have the film and you want to transfer it to be shown at a your website
If you already has the film so I think Flash will be good to give the user the ability to watch the film frame by frame or 3 frame by three frame (you can have a full control over the film frames by converting the film frames to a flash keys)
You can take the file and drop it into VirtualDub (Google it) and there's an option there under the "Video" tab to "Copy the source frame to clipboard". So just find the frame you want to copy and copy it to your clipboard then paste it into Photoshop, Photoimpact, or MS Paint. Do that as often as you need to then either (a) create an animaged .gif showing the motion or (b) create individual images. Oh, and, (c) you could use Flash. :D
If you don't know how to get from video to a video file, let us know and we'll tell ya.
First of all, I have NOT shot the footage yet. In fact, that is part of what I am pondering. I do not own a video camera, but I'll borrow, rent or buy one for this project. Don't know if a regular camera or digital would be better.
There's a road that runs in front of my house with a riding trail that runs beside it, straight as an arrow. These horses can travel 17 or 18 miles per hour in "gait" so I thought I'd shoot from a vehicle, staying directly opposite the horse as he moves. This way I can keep the same perspective as he accelerates into his different gaits. (Plus there's virtually nothing in the background, no trees, houses, just sky and mountains)
The more I think about it, I think I really need to display the frames side by side, so the viewer can compare from one to the next. It would be nice if the viewer could see the frames as stills, and then have the option to click and run it like a movie.
So I guess I really need to know if a digital video camera would be better, and what kind of software I would need to capture the appropriate frames.
I really don't know squat about any of this, but I can visualize what I want to do.
I found a really cheap, entry level, digital video camera that I might consider buying as an experiment. Not sure if I can post a link to it here. Comes with Video Studio SE.
Again, thanks for your responses. I really appreciate it.
I'm open to any ideas or suggestions.
Sharon
I also found this site with videos on it: http://members.lycos.co.uk/goodgofarmridingclub/The%20Gaits%20of%20the%20Horse.htm
Surely you could find more.
The problem with doing it yourself is that not only would you need a camera, you'll also need a video capture card ($) and software. If this is a one-off project, that's a LOT of money invested for a little return.
[edited by: engine at 8:34 pm (utc) on Feb. 21, 2004]
[edit reason] delinked [/edit]
If however you want your own custom video hire a company specialising in video production – if interested I’ll tell you how to go about choosing a company to produce your video. They will have all the equipment and skills and can provide the video in a variety of formats and advise on using it. They could also produce the stills.
If however you want to do it yourself it is very satisfying. There is a steep learning curve but you will find a lot of help on the internet. You will need to have a fast PC, good video editing software [poweroid-video-editing.co.uk] and a video editing or capture card [poweroid-video-editing.co.uk].
I really don't know squat about any of this
In which case my advice is roll your sleeves up to have a lot of fun learning (provided you have the time) or get a professional – or even an experienced amateur friend to help. Local video clubs and colleges with media studies courses may be a good place to turn to for free advice. You may even be able to persuade them to get involved at no cost.
Larger towns also have video editing suites you could hire. They'll come with all the hardware and software you'll need to get professional results. They are expensive though and if you don't have editing skills yourself you'll need to pay for the expertise too. Not something I think is cost efective for what you want to do. If you have a friend with a reasonably modern computer check out the Windows Movie Maker (2) software that comes with Windows XP. It would be a good start to getting the feel for working with videos - and it creates the stills for you :-)
My advice would be to get a digital camcorder rather than an analog one as it's best to have the original footage in DV. You can always lower the quality of your clips to SVHS or VHS if you need to later but if your original footage is poor quality footage you are stuck with it. Also, bear in mind that when you take stills from video they will be lower in quality than what you will achieve with a good digital camera. However, for what you are planning you'll have to take stills from the video unless you get a still camera that can take 24 photos per second (the normal "speed" of video). For what you are planning stills from the video should be fine.
On an aside there are also software packages that can take a series of stills and convert them into a video clip.
I thought I'd shoot from a vehicle
