Just wondering what video editors people here use that they would reccomend. I'm also wondering what the most important features are in an editor that I should be looking for. Also, in making animations is there any difference in the quality of the animation if you use quicktime vs. Microsoft AVI vs. realplayer?

Hey, that's strange. I never come to this forum, but I did now, to ask more or less the same question as you just did. I was wondering about video software that will assemble image files as .AVI and .MOV. Really, I don't see much inherent difference between AVI and MOV, but it seems generally that MOV is smaller, file-wise. although it all depends on how you go about it. I personally HATE Real Player, in spite of the fact that I blew 150 bucks on Real Studio. One good thing about Real though, is that although a person can save the link to the uploaded Real movie, there doesn't seem to be a way to save the movie itself to your HD. Also, Real seems to stream faster than AVI or MOV. But I personally view the whole Real deal as being one massive advertisement. Plus, with Windows, evry damn time you open Real Player up, it sticks itself back in your Startup menu, meaning that it'll load itself at reboot. It makes Windows take slightly more time to load, and you have to close it out manually. It uses system resources in the background. Anything that does that, I'm going to despise with a passion.....

Is that right that if you post a movie on your web page using real that people can't download it? What if you compressed the Real file using Winzip or some other application, would that make it downloadable, have you tried that? Also, forgive me for sounding like an ignoramous but whats the difference between a MOV file and and AVI file?

.Mov is the file type for apples quicktime movie format
Avi is the file type for the windows video format.

as for editing i use , and higly recommend, adobe premeire for all of the post production of my animation work

Well, yeah, the Real format can of course be downloaded and viewed, but the thing is, it's only a link. It doesn't store the re-viewing data necessary even in your WindowsTemp folder. It's internal copyright protection, I suppose. shrug

Oh what I meant to add, is even when you "save" a Real movie, all you're really saving is the link to the actual file on the 'net somewhere.

Attached Link: http://www.softlab-nsk.com/ddclipro/free.html

Dave :-)

Hey, thanks, Dave. :)

Fits my price range nicely.

Attached Link: http://odin.prohosting.com/~doozy/otannenbaum/index.html

Comparison of compression types: I did some tests for a Poser animation--see the link, "Notes on Compression" below the video links. Of course, each situation could be different.

If you're looking for a serious video editor with all the bells and whistles... go for Adobe After effects, or Discreet's Combustion. These applications have it all, but they are in a professional price range.