How to turn single pictures and an audio recording into a video

January 21, 2017 6:37 AM

Inspired by this post, I've decided to ask how to turn such images into a vid. If you were to transform the page into a video, wherein a single image would appear for quite a while, matching the lyrics as the song is progressing, what software would you use ?

This is something that's been on my mind for quite a long time : I've been wanting to do this with the scans of a Tintin album, along with its dramatization by the BBC, for my daughter's use. I gather one has to cut each image painstakingly in order to use it in the vid, but I don't know how to time the appearance of each image so that it matches the words as the audio segment is played. Actually, I don't even know what software to use (I'm a ubuntu user).

Thanks !

posted by nicolin to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

I'd use iMovie- there are lots of tutorials on YouTube to help you along and it is an easy program to learn. In fact, you can go to the Apple store and they will teach you the basics in about an hour.
posted by bkeene12 at 8:26 AM on January 21, 2017

This is pretty basic to do in most editing software, I think. Pretty sure you can do it online on YouTube editor (though that might be tricky if you're using audio that is someone else's copyright) It's sometimes a bit of a blunt intstrument - don't know how easy it is to do split-second timing for your photos ending, but worth a go, given it's free. Also iMovie, as bkeene suggests, and Adobe Premiere if you have a budget to pay for software.

In most of these, the basic trick is to either select 'add file', or drag and drop the image file you want, onto the timeline for your video, then click the handles at the right edge of the image you've just dropped in, and stretch it out to the point on the timeline (eg. 25 seconds) you want it to last to. It's not particularly painstaking or fiddly.
posted by penguin pie at 8:36 AM on January 21, 2017

Oh, and likewise, you can select file/drag and drop with an audio file, and it'll drop the audio onto the timeline too.
posted by penguin pie at 8:38 AM on January 21, 2017

Or, for a different approach, you can do it in PowerPoint, use 'Record Slide Show' so you can advance the pictures in line with the lyrics, then save the presentation as an MPEG4 using the File Save As dialog.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 8:43 AM on January 22, 2017