freezing a frame

[dchip]

I want to make a movie in which the last clip freezes into a still shot of the final frame so I can scroll credits over it. I am still using Avid Cinema (yeah, I know I know) but it fades to black at the end of a clip. I have tried clipping a bitmap or jpg still of the last frame and inserting it at the end of the final clip. It almost makes the last frame appear to freeze but it's almost impossible to make it look smooth and the picture quality difference from the clip itself is easy to see. Is there a way to do this in the simplistic Avid Cinema? Can Ulead Videostudio do this? Thanks for any help.

(btw, my whole setup is analog. Marvel G200 TV, analog camcorder, etc.)

[Dayspring]

Hrm... Honestly, I don't much use Avid Cinema... or I should say I haven't ever used it. =) I'm a big fan of Ulead and even (gasp!) Premiere...

However, assuming that you can do basic transitions and such in Avid, can you take the final frame of the video that you want to freeze, make it into its own clip, and then take that clip and change it's duration to the length of the credits?

Then either just tack that picture onto the end, and hopefully there won't be any visible change, OR, you might try a basic crossfade between the original clip and the new still clip. This might help cover up the change between the images by making it look like it's just part of the video.

One of my favorite simple transitions that is sort of like this, is to take a color clip, freeze the last frame, and then crossfade into a black and white version of that frame (well, grayscale, really...). I've used it for a few 'memory' slide show videos, and it's really made a nice impact. Plus, I don't know about anybody else, but I have a lot of trouble finding a nice font color sometimes that doesn't blend into the background. This clears up that problem quite nicely to put color over black and white.

Hope this helps a bit...

Matt

[dchip]

Thanks Dayspring. I hadn't thought about capturing a clip that is just one frame long and then stretching it out. I have no idea if it will work but I will see. If I can successfully capture such a tiny clip, the crossfade between it and the identical frame in the longer clip can be made to look real smooth. That might just do it. I'm sorta stuck with Avid Cinema and analog stuff for now. Actually enjoy making little movies with Avid but I am getting more and more creative so it's about reached it's limit. When I can afford to I will definately get MSP6 and DV camera. Thanks again.