The Frame grabber tool

Pinnacle Studio 223 video tool icon   frame grabber The Frame grabber toolUse the Frame grabber tool in conjunction with the Player. To access it, open the Toolbox and click the Frame grabber button.

Scrub or play through your movie or source video until the frame you want is displayed in the Player, then click the Grab button. The grabbed frame appears in the tool’s preview area, ready to be added to your movie or saved as a file on disk.

Pinnacle Studio image002 The Frame grabber tool

The Frame grabber tool after grabbing a frame from the movie. The grabbed frame can now be added as a still image to your movie or saved as a picture file.

Reduce flicker: If the source video of the frame grab contains a large amount of motion, the grabbed frame may show flickering, which can be reduced or eliminated by checking the Reduce flicker option. Because Reduce flicker also reduces resolution somewhat, you should not use the option if the overall result is undesirable for a particular image.

Grab: Click the Grab button when you have located the frame you want to grab in the Player and configured the Reduce flicker option. The grabbed frame is displayed in the tool’s preview area, and the two output buttons (Add to Movie and Save to Disk) are enabled.

Add to movie: This button inserts the grabbed frame into the Movie Window video track ahead of the currently-selected clip.

Save to disk: This button opens a Save As dialog so that you can select a folder, file name and image format for the file in which the grabbed frame will be stored. The dialog also provides controls that let you set the resolution of the saved image to any of several standard sizes, to the original size of the grabbed frame, or to a custom size that you enter.

If the “aspect ratio” (the ratio of the width to the height) of the size you choose is different from that of the grabbed frame, the image is stretched as necessary. This can introduce visible distortion of shapes; for instance, people may appear either unnaturally thin or unnaturally squat.

The Frame grabber tool