Can anyone point me to some tips and tricks to speed up Poser's render times for movies?  I am trying to render a relatively simple scene, and Poser is taking 25+ seconds per 640x480 frame.

Also, what is the best movie compression system to use?  my 640x480 is turning out to be over 5 meg per second.  I know with MAX that size would take less than 2 meg for he whole AVI

Thanks in advance!

25 seconds per frame is very short. Some of mine run more like 30 -50 minutes per frame.  I use an mp4 codec I got somewhere, others swear by xvid.

the html4 (90s tech) video standard was flv (swf).  the html5 standard (to replace flash security probs) is h264. 25 sec per frame is fast (no shadows, no IDL, low samples, hi-shade-rate, lo IC).  user joster here swears by preview-rendered movies.  he's posted sevl on u-tube. 3d snobs don't like preview renders, but mass audience doesn't care.

25 Sec per frame is very good render times for animation.

Cheers

25 sec per frame is quick. 

Try xvid as codec, it's free and works good. You can control the size by changing the bit rate. Just ask if you need help.

Question...

Will a codec actually decrease render times...or do they only affect compression and playback?

Tom

render time - it won't but it will speed up (or slow down) the final process of putting frames together - with higher settings it will take longer - let's say within 1000 frames you can gain/loose 40sec.

I'd like to posit a related question, if I may. What codecs do you prefer for HD quality animation renders? What's a good render rate for that particular method of compression @ 640x480?

Quote - Question... Will a codec actually decrease render times...or do they only affect compression and playback?

It will increase the overall time (due to the need to process the frames) assuming that Poser doesn't crash part way through the sequence (it's always been troublesome when rendering direct to movies, hence the usual advice to render to images and assemble externally).

Wow! Thanks again everyone for your comments and suggestions!  This helps me a lot

codec wont touch render times, it adds to the actual time to generate the anim , but saves you that last step of pulling all the frames together.  If you do render as seperate frames , dont use jpg , use png or you will get a double compression thing.

Render as images, not as video in Poser.  If there's a crash - with images you pick up after the last rendered image but with video you have to start from the beginning.

Usually, rendering to seperate frames is better if you have the hard disk space. More versatile, and you don't need to restart everything if something goes wrong while rendering.

Quote - I'd like to posit a related question, if I may. What codecs do you prefer for HD quality animation renders? What's a good render rate for that particular method of compression @ 640x480?

I would still use XVID. There are some better codecs around, but most of them aren't free. 

If you ask for the bitrate to use, that would depend on how much change is in the scene and how much loss of quality you are willing to accept. Always use a two pass compression, if your codec allows this. 

"I would still use XVID. There are some better codecs around, but most of them aren't free. "....bantha

Thanks, bantha. Which of the commercial codecs would you recommend?

first try ffdshow - it's FREE

It's not 25 seconds per frame. It is 25 frames per second!

25 FPS is the standard norm for PAL TV.

29,9 FPS is the standard norm for NTSC.

So 25 FPS is NOT quick or short, it's normal.

Quote - It's not 25 seconds per frame. It is 25 frames per second!

 

25 FPS is the standard norm for PAL TV.

29,9 FPS is the standard norm for NTSC.

 

So 25 FPS is NOT quick or short, it's normal.

what they are talking about is the time poser takes for rendering 1 frame - thing that numbers are the same (25 s/fr and 25 fr/s) is just pure  coincidence:)

Quote - "I would still use XVID. There are some better codecs around, but most of them aren't free. "....bantha

Thanks, bantha. Which of the commercial codecs would you recommend?

 

As I said, I stick to the free ones. You can easily spend more money on a good encoder than on Poser itself. Adobe's encoder isn't bad from what I've heared, and Sony's BlueCode is even better. But these are professional products, prices aren't consumer friendly.   

Is a really smal file size that important to you? What do you want to do with your movies? You can get the same visual quality with xvid too, just the files will be bigger.  

Thanks for the tips! I've tried several different codecs with my Poser animations, but have never been satisfied with the results as far as achieving true HD quality is concerned. I think what I need is to do is more reading and experimentation instead of simply depending on the software to do it all for me.

you can always keep your animation (made from separate images) as uncompressed.

Make sure that images are saved as for example bmp (do not use jpg or other (?)not-lossles(?) formats) and then using virtualDub (this program can make it) save them as uncompressed - file will be very big but now you can experiment with different codecs and compare to this one.

Quote - you can always keep your animation (made from separate images) as uncompressed.

Make sure that images are saved as for example bmp (do not use jpg or other (?)not-lossles(?) formats) and then using virtualDub (this program can make it) save them as uncompressed - file will be very big but now you can experiment with different codecs and compare to this one.

Makes good sense. Thanks.

Rendering as still sequences using .png (which preserves transparency) can help you speed up renders, if you have a video editor capable of using layers, you can use stills in the background as recomenended by Skuts another user here. Link to one his excellent vids here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4eJNbxLjEk

Rendering in layers is also the best solution for rendering multiple figures that I've found, other than lo-res figures

Quote - Thanks for the tips! I've tried several different codecs with my Poser animations, but have never been satisfied with the results as far as achieving true HD quality is concerned. I think what I need is to do is more reading and experimentation instead of simply depending on the software to do it all for me.

HD is not 640x480, it's 1920x1080 (or 1280x720 for those with only 720i :oP), so if you're complaining about a 640x480 taking over 25 seconds to render each frame, have fun rending true HD. Not trying to be a smart a$$, just letting you know that I have a quad core, and when I render HD sized pics, the quality ones take a few hours to render. Keep in mind I am still using Poser 7 tho, so it don't make the most out of my CPU power.

Edit: If you are posting these to the web, I have used SwishVideo for converting videos to .swf videos (Flash) and it does a great job at preserving quality, has many different control styles to choose from, and a lot of options for frame rate / bit rate / quality.