QuickTime 4 uses the Sorenson 2 codec. You have to have QT 4 to play it. ALSO, you have to flatten it before anyone on a PC can view it. I think it's Save As/ internet someting-or-other. Chris

Then by all means GO BUY IT!!! (I could use some money right about now...) :') I'll tell ya, it's a lot easier animating birds by hand! Folding the wings was tough, since they were never meant to be folded. I hope you all like the next batch of scenes as well. Chris

So what did you guys think of the eagle animation? Is it the kind of thing that you were looking for? Chris

Cool! I can't wait to start integrating it into my site! I'm SICK of animated Gifs!!!!

I believe that it's the same as rendering it as an uncompressed avi except that you made more work for yourself. Of course, an uncompressed avi is huge and unweildy; that's why they invented compression! Sequential files are best for post processing in Painter since some avi's don't import too well into Painter. Also, if you screw up one frame too badly, you can replace it easily. Chris

I used Smacker for the past few years to compres pencil drawn animation to send to clients over the internet for approval. It worked a charm! Bink is revolutionary! The problem is that it's still buggy. It doesnt play back on my NT system at all but it compresses perfectly. It plays great on the Win95 system though. Go get bink, then you can download the newest version of the PoseAmation trailer in Bink format. It looks like the uncompressed version, but its 3.6 MB as opposed to 784 MB. Not a bad little compressor, eh? Chris

In order for people to be able to watch your movies, they must have the same codec on their computer that you used to compress the movie. Discussions about "which is the best compression codec" are futile if you want a lot of people to be able to see your stuff. Unfortunately, you'll have to use the older, less efficient codecs in order to have the widest audience. The two best options for quality WITH the most compatibility would be AVI with cinepak compression or Quicktime with cinepak. Sorenson, the comression method for Quicktime 3 and soronson 2 for Quicktime 4 are much better, but less people will be able to see it; you have to have Quicktime 3 or 4 installed. The best compressors of all are Mpeg2 and Bink. To use Mpeg to (and to view it) you have to go out and buy a software compressor. I have DVMPEG which plugs into Premiere and certain 3D apps and allows you to save a file as an MPEG1 or MPEG2 instead of AVI. Bink (www.radgametools.com) is free and extremely good. It is perceptively lossless (It looks damn amazing actually!) yet it compresses the hell out of a file! I took a 1.3 GIG uncompressed avi and turned it into a 7 mg Bink file. It plays smoothly on my computer and it looks as good as the uncompressed version. Bink is an application (windows only so far)so you just open it, pick an avi to compress, and hit the big button that says, "Bink it!" Several hours later, you've got a movie. Yeah, that's the trade off; it takes forever for it to do all of it's math. Hope this helps, Chris

Compression technology keeps improving all the time. Try some of the newer ones like Bink (www.radgametools.com) or indeo 5 or Sorenson for Quicktime. They all make very small files that play well with excellent quality, especially Bink, which is in a class of it's own! Chris

Cool idea, I like the fact that you didn't over-do the camera work! One thing that I think could be changed: the whole story point is that the guy gets away from the monster by pushing himself up the tunnel, right? Well, it's not clear enough. You need to draw the audiences attentio to it so firmly that they can't mis it. two ways that you can do that: 1) Intercut a shot of the guy preparing to push (anticipation) with a shot of the monster making a lunge for him, then a two shot of the guy actually pushing off as the monster narrowly misses him. You then need the payoff, you see him disappear into the tunnel and the monster crashes into a wall or falls into an airlock or something. 2) Keep it as one master shot but dolly in closer to the guy as he gets ready to push off so that he is taking up most of the shot; once he shoves off, the monster can fall into the camera. Also, he needs to push much harder; there is no gravity, but inertia is still an issue, it still takes force to get the mass to move. Good luck. Chris

It depends on what else is in your scene. If there's only the one character with no props, then you would still need about 256 MB of ram to play it real-time at about 640x480. Chris

GREAT! I have been spending progressively less time on the forum due to time constraints and the lack of animation related posts. The flames and bitching drove me off for a while as well. Let's try to keep this forum on track, shall we? Chris

There will be all sorts of horse animation on PoseAmation 3; it's my Animals volume! Chris

These books have been standard issue to all animators from the dawn of time! Everyone uses them! Yep, I've got 'em too! Chris

It also depends on the hardware that you're using to output to videotape. Most have their own prefered ratios. My Miro DC20 likes 640x480 for NTSC but my Perception board uses a more standard 720x480. If you wanted to shoot in a widescreen format, pick your ratio and just make sure that the width stays at 480. Chris

Hey, Thanks Jeff! Cool new forum ,BTW! Guess where I'll be hanging out from now on? :') Chris