# How do I print video frames so I can paint over them? > How to make a contact sheet from video that you can paint, scratch and collage on. Source: https://mixd.uninspired.app/blog/print-video-frames-to-paint-on Author: Uninspired Studio Published: 2026-09-19 --- We built our first sheet by hand in an editing app. It took the afternoon, and the scan took another one because every frame had to be cropped out in DaVinci. Now that we have built [MIXD](/) we use it for everything. This post is that workflow, step by step. Basically how it works: you take your video and print it as a contact sheet (which is just a page where all the frames of the video are on, so you can paint on it), then paint on it or do other stuff with it. Here is a post about other analog animation techniques. One tip for the contact sheet: do not try to be cheap and save on the size of the images on the sheet, because the more space (yes, you need to paint more) the better the quality becomes. ## Who this is for Difficult question to not just say "anyone" anymore. But let us try to check who this is for. I think this is for creative people, for people that like doing stuff with their hands, people that look for a last-minute gift (lol), artists that want to try something new. For all these people we want making to be the hard part, not the technical bullshit that comes with it, because before MIXD the whole process was just painful. Also, we can die on this: aligning can't change some sort of skill or part of the creative process. It has nothing to do with being creative, because there's no ownership or doing things or creative decisions in doing something like just aligning contact sheets, because the tools you were using are not that great. So this is not an option. ## What a printable video contact sheet needs It's not quite much. For MIXD there's this gold rule. Don't fuck up the registration mark. Don't fuck up the four corner markers. And the strip below the edge. Other than that, my tips are: make the frames big so you can actually paint on them. You can work on page three and then page one. Scan this in no particular order, because we're realigning stuff, so it doesn't matter. ## How to make a contact sheet from video, step by step First, you can cut the clip if you want. Then upload to MIXD. Pick a frame rate, 3, 4, 6 fps. 8 or 10 is okay. Every frame rate is okay, but then you need to have the patience to actually paint them. The default paper size is A4. If you want to change this, do it. Feel free. Then press print or download as PDF and then print. Work on the frames. Watch your corners. Don't fuck up the corner, and then scan them. And upload them to MIXD. I honestly, here at step six, is about 30 euros. All the others are free. The automatic alignment and the automatic video out of there is the thing that costs. ## Which frame rate Almost nobody animates at 24. It is painful by hand. Twelve is a lot. It took some time to actually draw them. Six fps is quite good. | Frame rate | Frames in a 5 s clip | A4 sheets at the default size | How it feels | | ---------- | -------------------- | ----------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | 6 fps | 30 | 1 | Deliberate, choppy, obviously handmade | | 8 fps | 40 | 2 | Still handmade, smoother on fast motion | | 10 fps | 50 | 2 | Close to picture, twice the painting | | 12 fps | 60 | 2 | Smooth, a lot of work per second | ## What not to cover Every MIXD page has four corner markers and a barcode strip between the two top ones. The barcode carries the page's layout. Paint over it and that page cannot be matched back to the video, no matter how good the scan is. The frames are yours to fill in. The margins have to stay clean. Tape, stickers, and washes that bleed to the edge are the usual killers. If you want a full-bleed look, do it on the frames and let the margin stay white. ## A worked example Five seconds of footage, printed at 6 fps on A4, painted, scanned, rebuilt. About 32 frames. One sheet. We cut a short clip, used the default paper size, and left the corner markers alone. The painting is whatever landed on the page that day. The scan went back into MIXD and this is the MP4 that came out. Same loop as the steps above, on a sheet you can hold. ## The manual way, for comparison You can do this without MIXD. Export an image sequence from your editor, drop the stills into a page-layout app one at a time, print, paint, scan, then straighten each scan, crop every frame by hand, and rebuild the sequence in the timeline. People do it. Everyone who has done it once tells the same story: days of layout for a minute of video, and the scan alignment is where it breaks. There is no glamour in lining up paper with your own hands. Nobody has ever felt creative doing it. It is data entry with a mouse. | | By hand | Free grid tool | MIXD | | --------------------- | ----------------- | -------------- | ----------- | | Extract frames | Export sequence | Upload | Upload | | Lay out sheet | Manual, per frame | Automatic | Automatic | | Registration marks | None | None | Every page | | Align crooked scans | Per page, by eye | Not covered | Automatic | | Crop frames from scan | Every frame | Not covered | Automatic | | Rebuild in order | Manual | Not covered | Automatic | | Install anything | Yes | Varies | No, browser | Free grid tools get you a grid and stop. The scan is where the time goes, and the scan is what they do not touch. ## Where to go next The full workflow, from upload to MP4, is in [How to turn a video into a hand-painted animation](/blog/video-to-hand-painted-animation). What to actually put on the paper, and how each material scans, is in [What can I paint on printed video frames?](/blog/analog-animation-techniques-on-paper). Or skip the reading. [Print a free sheet](/#pricing), paint one frame, and you will know in ten minutes whether this is for you.