making an lj icon with a mini-movie in it?

[tzikeh]

I've made mini-movie icons a few times by trial and error (see icon), but I know it can be done better, with less choppiness, and with a longer clip without losing resolution. There must be a good number of tutorials out there for making one of those mini-movie icons. I've looked around, but I'm hoping someone who *makes* them can point me to the best tutorial(s).

I'm sure part of the problem is that I'm exporting the bit of the video clip I want as individual frames from QuickTime Pro. I know there are programs out there that have some kind of frame-capture tool, but I can't find any for Mac. If you know of one (or a few) that's free, please let me know.

I'm on OS X, and I have Photoshop CS4 and Image Ready - can anyone help?

Comments

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

VLC — videolan.org — does screencaps!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

ILU!

Now I just have to find a website that tells me how. :D Shouldn't be difficult.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

You can do it automatically or via a hot key for individual caps - you configure the hot key in the options - choose "advanced"

http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=66735
http://hubpages.com/hub/making-screencaps-with-vlc
http://community.livejournal.com/good_tutorial/26479.html