Hi, Just got Mimic today and tested it out using posette and the stun wave file provided. Saved the first one using cinepak for compression. The image came out banded big time. Did the next one uncompressed and it came out fine, but the 3.3 second animation was 37 meg. My question is which compression codec, of the ones available, is best to use regarding quality or is it best to render uncompressed with the bigger file size. I appreciate the help. Thanks Bill

You might want to look at Bink!, from http://www.RadGameTools.com . It does a fantastic job of compression, and it's free, as long as you don't mind the Rad Game Tools logo popping up at the end.

I havent tried Bink yet. (my childhood nickname) but I've been using the DIVX codex from www.divx.com... it's free too, but, you have to put up with annoying "GAIN" popups. www.divx.com

Get the regular version of DivX 5, instead of the Pro versions; it doesn't have the GAIN spyware. The only difference from the pro versions are a few less encoding options. Or buy the commercial version of DivX 5 Pro; it doesn't have GAIN either.

Cinepak is horrible. A better alternative would be Indeo 5.11 (formerly by Intel, but now available from Ligos.

Bink is actually quite good. The RAD Game Tools include some rudimentary editing functions (cropping, resizing, frame-rate adjustment, etc.). You can even compile videos into self-running executables, so viewers won't need to install the software. Versions are available for both PC and Macintosh.

It's usually best to render your animation uncompressed, do whatever editing is necessary, and then compress as the final step in the process, using a utility like VirtualDub (freeware) or Adobe Premiere (most definitely not free).

Thanks for all the help I appreciate it. I wish I was at Dragoncon. They must be having a blast. Bill