Movie Cartoonizer

All editing techniques that were described in the Editing the First Frame section, can also be applied to the second and following frames. However, starting from the second frame, it is often essential to ensure consistency between the frames, and this has to be done before applying edits from the Editing the First Frame section.

Every frame except for the first one is build to resemble the preceding frame in order to avoid sharp transitions that create blinking effect in the result video or animation. The degree of this resemblance can be set by the Same as Preceding Frame - Not Based on Preceding Frame slider.

An automatic mask is build for each frame starting from the second one. This mask includes all pixels where the image is considered the same as the one on the previous frame, i.e., all still pixels. To see this mask, select either Mark Still or Unmark Still radio buttons or move the Same as Preceding Frame - Not Based on Preceding Frame slider. The automatically defined mask will show up in green semi-transparent color (unless the value of the slider is too low). The first image below shows a frame without a mask (the mask exists, but not shown) and the second one has mask displayed.

For most projects/frames the Same as Preceding Frame - Not Based on Preceding Frame slider has to be set to around 50%, somewhere in the middle. This way, those areas of the image that didn't change significantly from the previous frame are preserved and those that changed are rebuild.

When the slider is set to minimum value, i.e. to Not Based on Preceding Frame, the frame is converted independently and is not forced to resemble the preceding frame at all. When the slider is set to the maximum, the current frame is identical to the preceding one. This can be used to *skip* a frame if there is a defective frame in the input movie.

After changing the value of the slider, click in the Refresh button  to rebuild the frame according to the new setting. Same as Preceding Frame - Not Based on Preceding Frame slider and custom mask (see below) should be used before other edits to the current frame as refreshing a frame cancels any previous edits to this frame.

Aside from using the automatic mask, it is also possible to define custom mask. For example, if some objects in the movie are still, they can be marked as such to prevent small fluctuations in lightening conditions from showing up as small movements.

The custom mask is shown in red transparent color, as on the left in the image below

To define the custom mask, select Mark Still, select the desired Marker Width if needed, and draw the mask over the frame. To erase the mask or its portion, select Unmark Still and use the mask eraser. After the mask is ready, click in the Refresh button  to rebuild the frame according to the new mask. Pixels that are inside custom (red) mask and those that are inside automatic (green) mask are treated as still. Areas that are not covered by either of these two masks are allowed to move.

The custom (red) mask automatically transferred to each following frame until it is erased or modified. The green mask is rebuild for each frame according to the setting of the Same as Preceding Frame - Not Based on Preceding Frame slider.

To hide the masks, select either Split or Merge or ReColor radio buttons. The masks are still there and will propagate to the following frames, but they are not displayed. Once masks are hidden, it is possible to do edits discussed in the Editing the First Frame section if needed.