Finding Similar Frames

[PhoenixAZ]

Hi,

 

I'm trying to find an easy way to take videos which are long, and shorten them to 1 or 2 minutes. I'm trying to seek duplicate or very similar frames that match - the first being near the beginning of the video, matching a frame towards the end of the video - then delete everything in between them. I don't want to show cuts or transitions; just a seamless blend. But apart from stepping through frame by frame, is there a plugin or a method I can use to select a keyframe, then highlight all frames in the sequence which are similar?

 

I've tried overlaying the same clip, making it semi-transparent, then moving it over a little bit at a time until something matches up, but I can't seem to move the overlay one frame at a time. I have to hold shift and drag it, which makes it hard to control which frame I am on... if you know how to move an overlay one frame at a time, that may be useful as well! But I'd prefer to see matching/duplicate frames in the sequence if possible...

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

 

There is no automatic way to do this.

Obviously you will know if there are similar frames in your sequence so I would suggest you might try this...

Place your clip on the timeline (Video Track 1) and find what you think is a suitable frame at the end of the clip. Put the cursor line at this point and split the clip.

Drag the right hand portion of the clip up to the overlay track (Video Track 2) and make it 50% transparent.

Move the red cursor line back to the start of Video Track 1 and find the frame you think is similar at this point.

Drag the overlay clip to the left so it starts at the cursor line.Overlap it if necessary.

Zoom in.

You can grab the overlay track and move it a frame at a time if you are zoomed in enough. Both clips will/should be visible in the sequence preview and you can check for a match as you do this.

 

Alternatively you can fix the overlap by a frame and move the cursor line by a frame (Next frame button under the preview screen) to check for a match. If you don't see one as you step along you can then move the overtlay another frame and start again.

When you find a suitable match split the Tracks at the cursor line and delete the right hand section from Video Track 1 and the left hand section from Video Track 2

Restore the transparency to 0% (remove the effect) from Video Track 2 and then drag the clip down to the main track. Provided the frames you selected were very similar it should play reasonably smoothly.

 

Nat

[PhoenixAZ]

I will give that a shot, thank you! I was hoping there was maybe VirtualDub plugin somewhere to find matching frames, but no luck yet finding one.