Here are two links to a test animation that will later be finalized for my demo reel. I need feedback. The movie file is a bit pixelated. Downloading the one with sound would help better because you get a better feel. Let me know what you think. Thanks with sound 5mb---> www.geocities.com/raa2001/planetPan_sound.avi without sound-----> www.geocities.com/raa2001/planetPan5.avi

I finally was able to download it... It was some good work... Was it completely done in Poser? I really liked the use of your camera.... The only thing that was kinda off was the quality of video... CAT

No, everything was done in 3d Studio Max except for the opacity maps in the sky. I made those in Photoshop

I have no complaint about the modeling, textures, soundtrack, animation, camera work, etc. It's a good start, and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

The pixelation, however ....

Please, do not use the Cinepak codec. It's been obsolete for years, and you can see what it's done to your video quality.

Try DivX, instead. The basic version of the codec is free, and will provide you with good results; no need for the Pro versions unless you really want to fiddle with options.

Or if you absolutely must use an older codec, go with Indeo 5.1. Most of us still have either the Intel or Ligos versions, and it'll give you better compression ratios and image quality than Cinepak.

The audio can be compressed, also. Currently, your audio stream takes up over a third of the file size. If you don't want to mess with the MPEG Layer 3 (MP3) audio codec, which not everyone has, you can use ADPCM. It'll easily shave 1.5MB off your file.

Alternatively, you can output to uncompressed video, and then convert to MPEG-1, using a free utility like TMPG Encoder.

I think it was great, personally. cinepak blows. I vote for Indeo, or mpeg2

I loved the concept and the camera work. I liked the contrast between the blue figure and the background. It grabbed your attention and made you ask "who is this guy." If your goal was to create tension, however, your character was probably a little to "bright. " My only concern was the overall darkness. Some of it, now doubt, was due to the compression artifacts. Also, it could be my monitor...

Attached Link: Soto's Digital Ltd.

I agree on the fact that the blue figure "pops out" from the composite. Nevertheless, I have a few pointers. First of all, I believe that the chatacter should be the center of interest in the last part. It gets out of the field of view twice and it doesn't look good to me. Second, there are no shadows. Third, maybe if you could add some distance fog and/or dust on the ground it would look nice. Just an idea. Fourth, the character looks too flat, as if it was "cel-shaded".