Attached Link: http://www.ajvelez.com

it and the previous 3 episodes here:

Windows Media:

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?videos=321632&T=4350

Quicktime:

I have started a website where you can watch all 4 episodes plus other videos in quicktime

format. The address is http://www.ajvelez.com.

How I did it.
I started out writing a funny story. I then recorded all the character voices into Sony

Acid Pro 5. I then exported all the .WAV files and created a .TXT file to correspond with

the words I was saying. I imported each file and corresponding .TXT into DAZ3d Mimic 3 and

created the .PZ3 files for Curious Labs' Poser 4 Pro Pack. I posed my characters and

exported .AVI files. I imported all that into Adobe Premiere Pro and added all the sound

efects and music and mixed it. I also used Adobe Photoshop to prepare a cloud layer and

imported that into Adobe After Effects. In Adobe After Effects I created the title and

credit screens. I also used Daz3d Bryce 5 to make the planet and flyover scenes.

Hello, I hope you had a nice christmas? The file size of the quicktime files is very large for such small animations, there must be a better way to compress them.

I expected a car in the animation. I wouldn`t use alpha romeo as the name for the character, because it sounds to much like alfa romeo.

Your work is continuing to improve!

I loved the part where you were talking about the music and the impromptu music that was given by AlphaRomeo!

As far as suggestions:

Regarding the QuickTime format:
I checked and your video had both a 5 Mb "Hinted Movie" track and a 463k "HInted Sound" track. As far as I can tell the functionality of those tracks isn't being used in the movie so they could be deleted to reduce file size.

You might also try Sorenson 3 compression instead of simple Sorenson compression - it's a bit of an improvement in quality and file size.

Finally, in your Compression Options dialog box (I'm not sure what it's called in Premiere) you are usually given an option for "key frames." This option specifically refers to Key Frames within the compression (a very simplified description). Usually you can set it for one key frame per second of material - so if the video is 15 FPS you'd set it to one key frame per 15 frames. Sorenson allows you to use what it calles 'Natural Keyframes' but you might try this instead and see if it allows you to reduce your file size - or at least increase image size while maintaining the same file size.

I also recommend you to do your original renders as an image sequence - or at the very least as an uncompressed .AVI. Keep everything as pure as possible all the way through the process until the very end. Then try several variations of compression on the final animation and upload the one that gives you the best quality/size trade off. Different compression schemes work better with different source material so sometimes there's an element of trial and error required even within the same overall format.

Regarding Content:
In this piece you had the space ships flying against the white background. Without any points of reference I couldn't always tell if the ship was spinning on my screen because of a camera move or because the ship itself was spinning/turning. In this scenario I recommend adding distant planets or something like that so that the viewer has a frame of reference for what's going on visually.

I really am enjoying watching your growth. I hope you're enjoying doing these!

Message edited on: 12/28/2004 09:27

Thenk you both very much for your comments, they really are appreciated! I was hoping to take care of the first two issues this morning (before going to work) so I re-rendered the file with the other sorenson codec and it knocked about 10 megs off the size, to around 19.5 M. I am still learning about the 2 Sorenson codecs that come with Premiere. As for the second comment, how about if I name it "Alpha Team"? It would just take a few tweaks to set that straight. As for the third comment, I really appreciate the fact that you enjoy these little cartoons. I would like to respond more fully to that so I'll check in later, right now I'm at work so I can't stay online too long. However, I just got a couple funny ideas about this weeks episode. Either "The Diner" about a restaurant or "Sir Spandex" about mideivel knights in shining armor. I'm already crackin' myself up! Thank you very much once again. AJ Velez

"Sir Spandex" sounds like an excellent idea! There's plenty of potential merriment with that name.

I would call the alpha romeo pilots gold leader and gold one and gold two, they could probably mix these names up well. These names are vaguely from star wars.

Sir Spandex it is! Ok I almost understand the sorenson codec. I am going to look for a sorenson 3. My keyframe options are set for a default 5 and I haven't messed with them yet. I have been using the default Microsoft 1 video codec from Poser. I will experiment with image files and uncompressed .avi. I agree, looking back some of the scenes would have a geater impact with a background, I am working on that. The Bryce backgrounds I used in this cartoon were each about 10 seconds long and took around 5 hours each to render. I then imported those as avi into poser and rendered as a sketch. As far as changing the name, I was going to hustle home and work on that tonite but I got caught up in this upload frenzy, I hate that, I feel all bug eyed. So, with that it's on to this weeks episode, "Sir Spandex"! AJ

Remember, if the animations are going to be so small the bryce backgrounds can be rendered quite small, too. I would render the backgrounds just using the default antialiasing too, to speed up your renders. You could do the poser trick of rendering the backgrounds twice the size without antialiasing and scale them down which makes them appear antialiased. The poser animations could be rendered small too.

That's a killer idea! What I have been doing is this. I have been rendering everything at 720x480 so that I can burn a DVD with the final products. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm still kinda new at this so I don't have all the bugs worked out. So, if I know I want a sorenson 3 at 160x120 with a keyframe every 15 frames, I could render everything that size! WHOO HOOO!!! AJ

Wait! Stop! Poser and Bryce render out using square pixels - the kind that are used on computer screens. TV's use rectangular pixels - their height is .9 of the width. Although the DVD specs are 720 x 480, that figure is only correct when you use rectangular pixels. Square ones will be messed up vertically. When I use a square pixel based app to create for video/DVD, I create my source material at 720 x 540. Then I use my video software (in your case Premiere) to resize for final output. That way all the correct vertical proportions are maintained. Also TV/DVDs use a "safe" area (90% of the image) to accomodate the fact that TV screens shift. That way the shot goes edge to edge even with picture shift. If DVD is your ultimate goal and you forget to accomodate this, things near the edge will get cut off when you play the DVD on a TV. If you do use safe areas, they can be cropped out if you choose to create a smaller version of the animation for use on computers/the Internet. ===== Compression schemes (Sorenson, Cinepak etc.) work better when they have more material to process. If I was going to create an animation, purely for computer use, that's final dimensions were 320 x 240, then I'd try to do my original render at 480 x 360 and then let my compression software reduce it to 320 x 240. If it was going to be 15 fps, I'd render it at 15 fps, but still at the larger size. Compression schemes also are able to make things smaller when there is less change onscreen from frame to frame. Dissolves, camera moves and full screen action will make it harder to get a smaller file size. Obviously it's sometimes worth it for artistic reasons but that is a trade off you have to consider. ===== If Bryce is taking forever to render, one of the things you can do is render just one over-sized still out of Bryce and then apply it as a texture onto a plane in Poser that's set up as a background. ===== Sorry if these comments appear a little fragmented. I'm doing the "stream of consciousness" thing right now.

I have rendered video for dvd using the default poser and other 3d apps rendering and found no visible difference in the tv output.

Merry Christmas Adam! I will have to chck out your latest animation when I am home from the holidays. Just got a quick jump on the internet with a family member's PC. Looking forward to your latest, Jay

The animations should have backgrounds but they don`t have to be too elaborate, for something like the alpha romeo one some kind of sky backgrounds would do for most scenes.

Good morning, fellow renderer! I appreciate the comments so much I can't tell you! I just bought the castle ruins and michaels changing suit to make some authentic backgrounds and costumes for this cartoon, something new! I am trying to digest all this information. I still haven't written the script so if you have any funny ideas there I still have time to integrate them. I have tomorrow off from work so I'll spend most my time working on this. I will also put a short description so people don't expect one thing and get another. I am looking forward to making this one! AJ

ps i think i'll print this page out for future reference

Actually there's no description required. You can surprise us - unless you're wanting to write it out to help clarify it in your own mind.

I had an idea about a site where people could make animations and others could comment on the animations and help even writing some of the jokes or scenes a bit like these posts but going into more details. Someone would post an animation they made, then others would watch it and comment on it then the maker of the animation could redo the animation using some of the tips to make a finished version.

Message edited on: 12/30/2004 19:46