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

When making your movie, which avi/mpeg codec do you use and why?

Djinn.

Is it for web movies or movies that will be sent to a DVD or even cinema? when I make web movies I use either quicktime sorenson 3 or divX. If I am going to make a DVD I use quicktime mpeg4 or mpg2.

Message edited on: 11/20/2005 11:33

You mean when rendering, or making clips for the web, or...?

Jusr rendering your clips using poser 4, 5, or 6.

I never render to AVI or MPEG. I always render final shots to targa image sequence files (in Poser, you'd render to TIFF files), then compile them in the video editor or compositing software later. The reason being: should anything happen during the course of the render (a power failure, system error, etc.), at least everything up to that point is saved, and I don't have to start all over again due to a corrupted movie file. Targa and uncompressed TIFF files are lossless, so no worries about artifacts from using a compression codec, and alpha channels are saved as well.

Attached Link: http://kflach.home.comcast.net

I'm with Maxxxmodelz on this; I render to a sequence of stills. Of course, I also usually do some post in After Effects, and if there are poke-thru's I'll fix them frame by frame in Photoshop.

When I output for the web I'll try QuickTime Sorenson 3, MPG, and DivX AVI and see which gives me the best quality/filesize trade off. I only recently started messing with the DivX avi format because it's not as universal as QuickTime and MPG. I don't have anything on my website in DivX for that reason, but as it spreads, I can see myself using it more.

I hate Windows Media and Real Player formats.

Oh, the link is to my web site. It's under my real name instead of my online nick. My professional stuff is there as well as the fun stuff I've done that's shown here.

;-)

Message edited on: 11/20/2005 17:43

"I hate Windows Media and Real Player formats."

I hate Real Player too, but I like Windows Media for web display. File size vs. quality is excellent with .wmv 9 codecs, and I do think it reaches the broadest audience of online users. Quicktime is the next choice for me, because it also compresses very well with great quality, but I always seem to squeeze a longer vid down more with .wmv than with .mov. Maybe it's just the compression software I'm using. I'll never encode with DivX or Xvid unless I'm able to put a link to download the codec on the same page the movie is linked from. Too many folks just aren't able to view it yet.

"Of course, I also usually do some post in After Effects, and if there are poke-thru's I'll fix them frame by frame in Photoshop."

If you have AfterEffects, wouldn't something like this be easier done in there? I use Combustion for post, which has paint tools for painting across multiple frames of an animation/movie clip (same types of brushes photoshop has). It's still painstaking, but much easier than loading several hundred or thousands of frames into Photoshop and doing them one by one, no? Message edited on: 11/20/2005 18:11

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

I rendered stills for my first animation. For my second anim, I renderded to avi. I learned both had tradeoffs. I could make corrections easier on the stills but it took time. On the avis, since I dont have AE, I just changed the camera angle or texture and re-rendered to fix any noticeable problems.

Now I'm trying to save time while getting the best quality AND without having to do too much postwork. P6 has like 15 different codecs. So far the Intel 4.5 is it.

Poser doesn't always make it easy but its too late, I'm addicted.

Thanks,
Djinn.

You can use virtualdub to make videos from BMP sequences. There is also a link to jahshaka in another thread, which is a free video compositing software and it seems to be very powerful :)

If there are a whole lot of frames that have the poke-thru, I correct it in Poser and re-render it. Frame by frame Photoshopping is a quick-fix.