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Disclaimer: All the how-to directions below are for information only. They are not intended to be sold or used for unlawful purposes. The author takes no responsibility if they cause the reader bodily harm, loss of life, or cause the damage of any property, person, dog, cat, or any other animal. They are presented for information only and all liability is on the part of the reader.
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Using Registax 4.0 to make Movies
By Larry Alvarez
Purpose:
The purpose of this how-to is to show the user how to use Registax 4.0 to make videos from their still images. This is a very simple task and can be used for various purposes. Whether making solar videos, cloud videos, or just time lapse videos we have to first start with a solid set of images. For the purpose of this how-to I will show how I make my cloud videos. This can be applied to all sorts of other videos including solar which I also make from time to time.
Understanding the basics:
Video is simply a set of still images played back at a specific frame rate. Frame rate is usually expressed in images per second or frames per second (fps). Old time cartoons were shown at a frame rate of 15 fps. This is ok for animation but for live video today we require 30 fps. At 30 fps there are 30 frames that get displayed every second. So in 2 seconds we have been exposed to 60 single images! At this speed the images nolonger look like still images they appear as smooth moving video. The average human eye cannot tell the images are still images when they are played back at a frame rate of 30 fps or faster. One image blurs into the next and the subjects in the images appear to move.
Resolution is important when making videos but due to the current limitations of computer hardware it is important to use images small enough that they do not tax your computer hardware such that it keeps the video from playing back at the correct frame rate. Typically a Pentium 3 cpu or equivalent processor with 64 meg ram should be able to play back a video made from images that are 640x480 in size. The smaller the resolution size the easier it will play. 320x240 is the resolution for video cd which was the forerunner to the DVD. The faster the cpu and the more ram you have, the larger size images you can use in your video. Just for reference, DVD resolution is 720x480 at a frame rate of 29.97 fps so 640x480 is really pretty good.
Setting up the images is also an important first step. If taking cloud videos its best to use a sturdy tripod and keep the camera stationary while taking the images. Images will be taken over a duration of time so powering the camera via A/C adapter may also come in handy or at least have a full battery charge before starting to take the shots. All image variables should be kept as close to the settings of the original first image as possible. Use the same shutter speed, ISO setting, focal length, and duration between shots. For this purpose its best to set the camera on Manual mode if it has one and set all the parameters yourself.
As you can probably tell, setting up the shots is much more important than the Registax information. Registax simply puts all the shots together at the end and is the final few steps of a long process.
How To Make a Cloud Video:
First setup a tripod outside and mount your camera facing the clouds. It’s best to find some good puffy clouds prior to a storm or after one. Regular clouds also work fine too.
Put the camera in manual mode and take a couple test shots of the clouds to make sure it has the proper shutter and iso settings. I typically set my DSLR to the infinity setting, use ISO 100, and put the shutter on around 1/500th of a second. Also make sure you have a fresh set of batteries and enough memory to hold at least 30 to 40 images. Resolution is not too important and a good 640x480 set of shots would be just as good as a 6 mega pixel set of shots. I recommend setting your camera to its smallest resolution size to make it easier to process later on. You can increase this as you get more experience.
Mount the camera on the tripod and point it toward an interesting cloud formation. Lock the tripod down so it doesn’t move in any direction.
If you have a remote cord that triggers the shutter it would be ideal to use for this purpose to avoid any camera shake. Take your first shot. Count to 15 and take another shot. Repeat this until you have generated 30 to 40 images. Each image should be taken about 15 seconds apart. You can increase or decrease this time as you get more experience but for now 15 seconds is pretty good. It will take around 8 to 9 minutes to capture all the images. After your done import the images to your computer and place them in a directory that you can find when your using Registax 4.0. I sometimes us a watch with a second hand to help keep track of the seconds that go by so that each shot is evenly spaced in time.
Using Registax 4.0:
Open up Registax and click on “Select” in the upper left of the window.
Navigate to the directory with the images in it. If the images are over 640x480 resolution you may want to resize all of them before proceeding. It will make things much easier. A simple way to see their resolution is to pass the mouse cursor over them and Windows will show you information about each file. After you open the directory with all the images select all of them and click on “Open”.
The images will load to Registax and bring up the screen below. Under the alignment box option, click on “32” then click on the center of the image. Also remove the checkmark next to “Auto processing” if there is one. I use the center of the image to set the alignment box on if there is no distinctive stationary point like a roof top or pole that can be seen in the image. For cloud videos the alignment box should be placed in the same spot in each frame because the camera was stationary on the tripod when taking the images.
Put a check mark in the box next to “Manual Alignment” and then click on “Align”. We will have to click in the same spot on each image as it comes up. For videos like the one below that have no stationary items in the image I usually just click in the center of the image. Make sure to click in the same spot as you did in the first image. Do not try to align the cloud features for this video because they change and eventually move off the image, just click in the center of the window or on a stationary point that stays the same in each image. After all the images have been clicked on move the lower slider that is directly under the image, to the right side as seen below in the image and then click on “Limit” at the upper left of the window.
This will bring you to the next screen which is the Optimize window. For our purposes we do not need to optimize the video so we can proceed to click on the “Stack” tab.
The Stack tab will bring up the final window we need. In this window click on “Save Register/Integrated AVI” which is the tab to the upper right of the image. Click on the button that says “Maximum Area” and then click on “Save”.
Name the file and then click on Save. Make note of the directory where the AVI is so you can find it after you save it. All the images should be in the video and what you will end up with is a full motion video of the clouds passing by.
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