topic Re: Fly through quality in Visualization

Fly through quality

Anonymous — Thu, 11 May 2023 12:13:28 GMT

I just finished creating two fly throughs to present to a client but I'm concerned about the quality of the playback. These are the first fly throughs I have created so please bear with me. The presentation of these movies is via the internet as a streamed video since the client is currently on vacation, traveling the world. Because of the delivery method, I resized them down by 50% to save on space. I also compressed them as MPEG4-Video to get the file size down, but they are very pixelated and just crappy looking overall. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get a good quality fly through that plays for 30 seconds and is under 2 megs in size? Thanks.

Re: Fly through quality

TomWaltz — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 02:49:35 GMT

what resolution/size are they (to begin with and your reduced), what compression software are you using, and what are your compression settings?

Re: Fly through quality

Link — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:01:15 GMT

Check out the discussion and comparison chart posted here.

Under 2MB?? You may have the best luck with Photo JPEG.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Fly through quality

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:24:07 GMT

Thanks Link. I checked it out and used the Sorenson compression like was suggessted, but it shot my file size up to 35MB. Currently I'm using MPEG-4 Video because I can get the smallest file size, but the quality is lacking. If it didn't have to be online I wouldn't worry about it, but I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Oh well. Thanks for your help.

Re: Fly through quality

TomWaltz — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:54:15 GMT

Are you rendering straight from Archicad to MOV file? That might be part of your problem.

Most professional animation jobs are done frame by frame to a folder full of JPGs, allowing you to render the entire job at once, re-render small parts of it, pick up where you left off from a crash, or even run different frame ranges on multiple machines.

Once you have that series of images, use something like Quicktime Pro ($30) to assemble into a movie. The animation quality is much higher (no pixelation from Archicad's image compression). The downside of Quick Time is that its built-in compression is not great when making this kind of "series of images".

It's a shame, since the new H.264 compression is stunning when it works.... (I reduced a 4.3 GB MOV file to 115 MB with no visible loss of quality)

Re: Fly through quality

Thomas Holm — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 22:34:15 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
It's a shame, since the new H.264 compression is stunning when it works.... (I reduced a 4.3 GB MOV file to 115 MB with no visible loss of quality)

Then how did you do that?

Re: Fly through quality

TomWaltz — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:17:58 GMT

I did it on a compiled video with combined CAD animation, live video, animation, and motion grapics assembled in Final Cut Pro, then used Quick Time Pro to reduce the file size.

Re: Fly through quality

Thomas Holm — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:37:59 GMT

Nice, but an expensive tool set. Is it possible to just join the jpgs to a video stream in some cheap ware that does just that, and THEN compress it using QTPro?

Re: Fly through quality

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 09:42:19 GMT

Could iMovie do the job? Or, for the less fortunate among us, Windows movie maker?

I know you can use both to assemble bunches of jpegs, but not sure how well they compress...

Re: Fly through quality

TomWaltz — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 11:20:50 GMT

Thomas wrote:
Nice, but an expensive tool set. Is it possible to just join the jpgs to a video stream in some cheap ware that does just that, and THEN compress it using QTPro?

When I tried that, it did not work (I tried it with iMovie and QTPro)... that's when I had to spring for FCP (in the middle of a project, no less....)

Re: Fly through quality

Thomas Holm — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 11:38:33 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
that's when I had to spring for FCP (in the middle of a project, no less....)

I don't envy you that situation!

Re: Fly through quality

TomWaltz — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 14:27:27 GMT

Thomas wrote:
TomWaltz wrote:
that's when I had to spring for FCP (in the middle of a project, no less....)
I don't envy you that situation!

I lucked out. It was the first of three animation projects in a row... It was funny because FCP came FedEx on the exact day that I had to start video editing! (after learning that Final Cut Express did not do what I needed, no less)

Re: Fly through quality

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 21:09:44 GMT

I have dealt with this situation before and the truly best solution is to upload the file in a high resolution format to one of the video sites like U-Tube there site will automatically recompress the file for optimum playback over the internet. then all you have to do is send the link for the file to your client. You can also link to or insert the file into your firms website and use the videos as a PR tool. The other benefit is the length of the video can be as long or short as you wish. Using free online resources in the current digital age is essential to providing your clients with above par experience. They will also enjoy the ability to share the video with there friends, family especally if it is in an easily accessible internet format.

Re: Fly through quality

TomWaltz — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 21:29:40 GMT

chriszolezzi wrote:
I have dealt with this situation before and the truly best solution is to upload the file in a high resolution format to one of the video sites like U-Tube there site will automatically recompress the file for optimum playback over the internet. then all you have to do is send the link for the file to your client. You can also link to or insert the file into your firms website and use the videos as a PR tool. The other benefit is the length of the video can be as long or short as you wish. Using free online resources in the current digital age is essential to providing your clients with above par experience. They will also enjoy the ability to share the video with there friends, family especally if it is in an easily accessible internet format.

That sounds like it would work as long as confidentiality is not an issue. Not every client wants to release their promotional movies to the public that way.