Create a thumbnail gallery from a video file

[budz45]

Ah the French...

I would use that, how did you create it - it is so simple and nice. I like the way you added option to add time stamps, and location of frame

btw my friend (clo), if the author should use this exact and perfect design that intergrates with the 'extract movie frames' also add the few following too -

*number of collumns - (number box - with limit of say 12 collumns)
*add shadow to each frame - (tick box)
*background colour - (colour picker)

*add file information to generated thumb gallery - (tick box) _this would simply add information in the corner of the entire pic which would specify the program used, the video resolution, the name of the file, the file type and duration

also the: created by xnview (with xnview logo can be there either as a logo or as say a faint background) _well authors dont want all the credit going to the user do they LOL >similar to this again> http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5489 ... pl8rw0.jpg

anoter typical pic found on google - http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/6079/magi15ok.jpg

------------
WHAT DO YOU THINK? BUDZ45 & CLO --COMMING TOGETHER WITH IDEAS. As further suggested we can still stick with the 'extract movie frames' just intergrate this feature
------------
Going to very nice feature, xnview is already impressing me vastly with simplicty on my machine

[Clo]

—> budz45

Hello !

• Glad to hear that you like this mock-up…

• No mystery : Simply a capture of the original box >> Paste in M$-Paint, set the BG-colour, enlarge the canvas…
draw showing a grid…and all by hand then.
- Copy¦paste the items from some pics I've stored (a lot)…
- XnView to crop (if needed) and convert into PNG - 24 BPP, because it produces much better images for such boxes,
JPG might be avoided, it's always more or less fuzzy for texts.

• I didn't forget your other options, but I guess that could be done by steps, let's say :
A minimum like shown to get the basic pictures -so feasible with a reasonable work-time for the Author-
and use other existing features for the “nice to have” (i.e. add shade as a batch operation) etc. temporarily…
• I'm always in favour of good ideas to improve the programme… I attempt to show them as mock-ups,
sometimes adding my own improvements…
- But we can't forget that Pierre is the only programmer, and has important features to add too
(that one hopes for ages), which could lighten his workflow a lot… Then…

[OT] About “Strip of Images”, the other thread I quoted is THERE
See also HERE, mainly about the wording, but not useless to read…;)

KR
Claude
Clo

[Danny]

Looks like i skipped the part with the "each n-th frame". That, of course, is a good idea, which has already been suggested at least 2 years ago.

I agree on adding this particular feature. Other than that, my opinion remains: we already have it.

[budz45]

Thanks Xnview for originally agreeing to add it in a furture/next version - I just am anticipating it now

[kufuto]

The 2 free programs I know which can create videocaps or thumbnail-/contactsheets (however you call this), Media Player Classic and
Image Grabber II, lacks in the ability to do this in batch mode.

So if you implement this feature in XNView, please make it work for all videofiles in a directory. Maybe for a first issue the resulting picture could have the same name as the original file.

I search the whole web for that kind of solution with no success.

XNView is my favorite, thank you for a great work!

[Dreamer]

I'm not sure what exactly do you need, but what about this (similar to WhereIsIt?, but free):

Disk Explorer Professional - freeware - http://www.tjelinek.com/

You can create any number of thumbnails with custom size and position. Export is great, since you can export in DED (program format), EXE (program is not needed, anyone can open it), txt, xml - and HTML - thumbnails in JPG format are created in subfolder.

[kufuto]

@Dreamer: This is exactly what I'm searching for, thank you for the link! These kind of functions are not easy to find througout the web.

There are a few limitations in Disk Explorer Pro for this special task: The thumbnail-sheets for videos are only for one row of pictures, there is no additional information (name, size, lentgh etc.) in the pic and you have to press return for each pic while saving all marked. But this is OK, the program is very fast creating the video-thumbs and gives a good overview about all files! And the exportfacilities are cool!

Yesterday I wrote a small script with AutoHotkey for batch processing Image Grabber II, doing the task too for all videos in one folder. Not a big deal, but seems to work. If someone is interested in this little script, I can post it here. I can compile it, too, but never testet if the resulting exe works without autohotkey.

[budz45]

So if you implement this feature in XNView, please make it work for all videofiles in a directory. Maybe for a first issue the resulting picture could have the same name as the original file.

I too support this and also make it for multiple video files

I am still awaiting this feature along with other bug fixes and new features for next version of Xnview [/quote]

[steens]

@Dreamer: This is exactly what I'm searching for, thank you for the link! These kind of functions are not easy to find througout the web.

There are a few limitations in Disk Explorer Pro for this special task: The thumbnail-sheets for videos are only for one row of pictures, there is no additional information (name, size, lentgh etc.) in the pic and you have to press return for each pic while saving all marked. But this is OK, the program is very fast creating the video-thumbs and gives a good overview about all files! And the exportfacilities are cool!

Yesterday I wrote a small script with AutoHotkey for batch processing Image Grabber II, doing the task too for all videos in one folder. Not a big deal, but seems to work. If someone is interested in this little script, I can post it here. I can compile it, too, but never testet if the resulting exe works without autohotkey.

Hello kufuto, I am exactly looking for this kind of script.
Could you please post it here or explain how to create one ?

Thanks for your help,

[budz45]

The French again, a guy over at VLC forums has put something together relating to this, perhaps Xnview (author) can see if he can use this feature as like a base and expand on it, if it is on sourceforge doesn';t it mean it is 'open-source'

see quote below

Hello,

I create a tool : Contact Sheet From Video (planche contact à partir d'une vidéo)
Projet sourceforge : http://contactsheetvid.sourceforge.net
Final image dimensions or number of thumbnails are configurable.

I use the QuickTime for java API for V1.x version but i have another solution with Java Videolan.
No public version because i have trouble to set position in the video file.
When java Videolan will be more stable, i 'll publish a version.

Vincent D.

[xnview]

The French again, a guy over at VLC forums has put something together relating to this, perhaps Xnview (author) can see if he can use this feature as like a base and expand on it, if it is on sourceforge doesn';t it mean it is 'open-source'

see quote below

With 1.91.2, you can create contact sheet from videos

[vdaburon]

Hello,

I'm Vincent Daburon the contactsheetfromvideo project creator (http://contactsheetvid.sourceforge.net)

I suggested by email to Pierre-e Gougelet (xnview creator) adding this functionality to Xnview on February 26, 2007 before created the public contactsheetfromvideo projet in sourceforge (june 2007).

I will happy to see this functionnality in xnview

May be user interface (contactsheetfromvideo) could be reuse in the xnview tools.

http://contactsheetvid.sourceforge.net/ ... meters.png
and
http://contactsheetvid.sourceforge.net/ ... o_file.png

I like specials characters to link video file name with contact sheet image (%d = directory, %f file = name no extension, %r = nb rows, ...)

Actually, i use quicktime for java but i'm working on java videolan version.

Vincent DABURON

The French again, a guy over at VLC forums has put something together relating to this, perhaps Xnview (author) can see if he can use this feature as like a base and expand on it, if it is on sourceforge doesn';t it mean it is 'open-source'

see quote below

Hello,

I create a tool : Contact Sheet From Video (planche contact à partir d'une vidéo)
Projet sourceforge : http://contactsheetvid.sourceforge.net
Final image dimensions or number of thumbnails are configurable.

I use the QuickTime for java API for V1.x version but i have another solution with Java Videolan.
No public version because i have trouble to set position in the video file.
When java Videolan will be more stable, i 'll publish a version.

Vincent D.

[budz45]

With 1.91.2, you can create contact sheet from videos

I have tested it with some flv, wmv and mpg files - contact sheet now works with video good

But there is still none of the other areas of this features I originally requested:

*intervals (eg. every 10 seconds of a video or user specified)

*where is file size, date, custom comment, video resolution (only on files that shoiw resolution), duration, author - please can these fields be added

* there is no option to add filename (in big at the top) so the contact sheet feature is still not complete - should be like the way media player classic and imagegraber II generate it

Remember like the way this pic does it:- http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5489 ... pl8rw0.jpg

[xnview]

With 1.91.2, you can create contact sheet from videos

I have tested it with some flv, wmv and mpg files - contact sheet now works with video good

But there is still none of the other areas of this features I originally requested:

*intervals (eg. every 10 seconds of a video or user specified)

*where is file size, date, custom comment, video resolution (only on files that shoiw resolution), duration, author - please can these fields be added

* there is no option to add filename (in big at the top) so the contact sheet feature is still not complete - should be like the way media player classic and imagegraber II generate it

Remember like the way this pic does it:- http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5489 ... pl8rw0.jpg

Yes, the contact sheet must have more settings...

[kufuto]

Hello kufuto, I am exactly looking for this kind of script.
Could you please post it here or explain how to create one ?

@Mohaa, @steens: Here the AutoHotKey-script for batch-creating contactsheets with Image Grabber II

1) You need to install AutoHotKey first http://www.autohotkey.com
2) Change 2 captions in the script ("Open" and "Save as") to the language of your system, if not english
3) Save the script as ahk-file, i.e. "CreateContactsheet.ahk"
4) Start Image Grabber II and set your layout-options for the contact sheet
5) Start the script
6) The script asks first for the folder with the movies
7) While executing, don't do anything, no mousemove or keyboard action

The script automates Image Grabber II to convert all videos. The resulting filename of the contactsheet corresponds to the video-filename an is saved to the same folder. Unfortunately it is not possible to use Image Grabber without mouse, so you cannot use your computer while executing the script (because of the mouse-events). Use the script as it is or change it to your purpose, there is no error handling implemented. If your operating system isn't english, you have to change the captions for identifying the two filedialogs as explained in the script. If Image Grabber cannot access a video-file, it results in a contactsheet from the previous file. The script is not a big deal, but it works for all files Image Grabber II can access (wmv, mpg, avi and most of the ram or rm files)

Code: Select all

;select folder
FileSelectFolder, OutputVar,
Loop,%OutputVar%\*.*
{
;dest.filename with no extension
StringLeft, SaveFilename, A_LoopFileFullPath, StrLen(A_LoopFileFullPath) - 4
WinActivate, Image Grabber II,
WinWaitActive, Image Grabber II, 
;open file
Send, {ALTDOWN}fo{ALTUP}
;change "Open" to the caption of your open-filedialog
WinWaitActive, Open, 
Send, %A_LoopFileFullPath%
Sleep, 500
Send, {ENTER}
Sleep, 2000
;stop video
WinActivate, Image Grabber II,
WinWaitActive, Image Grabber II, 
MouseClick, left,  62,  58
Sleep, 500
;delete previous pictures
MouseClick, right,  71,  502
Sleep, 200
Send, dd{ENTER}
Sleep, 500
;create pictures
MouseClick, left,  90,  56
Sleep, 500
Send, {ENTER}
Sleep, 2000
Send, {ALTDOWN}fs{ALTUP}
;save-options
WinWaitActive, Save, 
Send, {TAB}{TAB}{ENTER}
;change "Save as" to the caption of your save-filedialog
WinWaitActive, Save as, 
Sleep, 200
;insert destination filename
Send, %SaveFilename%
Sleep, 200
Send, {ENTER}
Sleep, 2000
}