Video Compression

[David Bearss]

I am fiddling with publishing to Video Movie files and am looking for advice on the advantages, differences on the abundance of options for video compression settings. I counted 10 different compressors but have not been able to find any discussion on any of them. Anybody have any advise / experience willing to shaer? Has this been discuss previously and I am just missing it? Just looking for some quick and clean animations to publish overnight and then drop on a CD or post to web. I want to use the internal rendering engines and will not export to any other andimation / rendering software.

[Anonymous]

You might try DivX. Until H.264 comes along, this is my favorite codec.

http://www.divx.com/


You can currently use H.263

Info about Apples next codec. QuickTime 7

http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/h264.html

Mark

[stefan]

Check www.videohelp.com for a good site on video and DVD and software.

If you plan to host the file on a website for streaming or realtime viewing, use Quicktime or Windows Media or Realplayer with low settings:
e.g. 160x120 or 320x240 pixels, 12 frames per second, highly compressed.

If you want to allow users to download it first and watch it later (for higher quality): DivX or Quicktime or MPEG-1 (but limit file sizes to about 10 MB at most).
e.g. 720x576 (PAL), 25 frames per second, full stereo sound etc...

If you want to make it into a full CD to watch at home, use DivX with high quality (full movie with almost DVD-quality on one Disc) or use MPEG format and use dedicated burning or DVD-software, so you can make a video-disc (VCD or SVCD), which can be played in most standalone DVD-players.

If you have a DVD-burner, you have more options.

You still need the right burning software and (for MPEG) conversion software, but on Mac you can use iDVD and on Windows XP you can use MS Movie Maker.

---

I personally never render out animations in ArchiCAD anymore, but do this in Cinema4D or 3ds max and then I use Sony Vegas Movie Studio to compose the movie and Sony DVD Architect or DVDIt to prepare a DVD.

But when I only had a CD-Writer, I made a few VCD and SVCD discs, using free software like VCDEasy and TMPGEnc to prepare a video-disc that was playable in any standalone or PC DVD player. For a license to make MPEG2-files (as used in SVCD and DVD discs) you have to pay. I'm not familiar with freeware MPEG2-enabled software. Even the freeware tools need a license to enable MPEG2-handling.

On a Mac, I think all software is included: iMovie and iDVD, but Final Cut Express is probably more powerfull.

---

Oh yes, you said you did not want to use any additional software, but I advise to find at least a simple workflow to make it a tiny bit more then un-professional. Certainly when you do this for clients.

It didn't cost me much and most DVD-writers (and Apples and Oranges) come with full software included (but usually more PC-oriented).

[David Bearss]

I plan on keeping things reeeaaal simple. I design resort homes for the retiring baby boomers and although they are able to retire and afford half mil $ plus homes they are often still baffled by "them new fangled gadgets like those comm-puu-ters and the inn-teer-net. " Seriously I plan on keeping animations short small and sweet and within the browser window. What I am mainly interested in is the difference between the video compression options within ArchiCAD. During some recent experimenting making a video movie file I could only get 3 of the compression options to even work. Seven of the 10 compressors returned an error - can't generate movie error code 16486. I am looking for advice on which codec to use with what settings and then some guidelines on setup for simple quicktime vr and avi movies.

[Anonymous]

It does not need to be extremely complicated, a simple animation tells a story. Then perhaps burn it to DVD. Hand it to them and they usually can handle that.


If it is on the web then I use WireFusion which allows the client to browse the 3D model as they wish. I have had 10 times more positive feedback with those models than any animation format I have tried in the past. It is much quicker to produce too. I spend 15 min. max. moving a model from ArchiCAD to WireFusion, it could be cut to 10 min. if GraphiSoft could give us a VRML2 exporter which works.


Samples:

Dear Baby Boomer Client with 1/2 million to spend:

Your model is ready for viewing at:

http://www.burginger.com/LOVAAS/LOVAAS_HOME.html

Place mouse on image, left button press and move to rotate - right button press to zoom in or zoom out.



Animated studies of a form I have created:

Interactive 3D art, left mouse to rotate - right mouse to zoom


http://www.burginger.com/WIREFUSION/POLYHEDRA.html

http://www.burginger.com/WIREFUSION/STAR.html

http://www.burginger.com/WIREFUSION/STAR_ASSEMBLE.html

[David Bearss]

Mark,
Just ran across your work assembling the free MAXON offer. As I am getting geeked up on this rendering thing the offer will probably help keep me awake at night fiddling more. Thanks a load!
Also had lunch with a neighbor today who has developed a video hardware product and he sat down with me and talked me through some video creation options. Quicktime is his choice and either way his advice mirrored other that I read here - save the file uncompressed and work with it in moviemaker, quicktime or other. I have the machine grinding away at some more test runs tonight.

[Anonymous]

A P4 3 GHz / 1 GB ram shouldn't be working so long. If you really get interested in animating, you will really enjoy C4D. the free version renders at NTSC 640x480. Typical home renders in C4D in about 15 - 20 sec. with your machine. That means an overnight render (2,160 frames) set to display at 15 fps would be about two and a half minutes long.

Of course we all look forward to seeing and hearing about the results.

Mark

[stefan]

And some Wirefusion example to play a simple movie right into a Java Applet (nothing to install for the user)

http://caad.asro.kuleuven.ac.be/downloads/SB_playmovie2.html

Be sure to check the size report! Nothing fancy.

The movie is MPEG-1 format, 225 kB, 160x120 pixels, 25 fps (MPEG-1 doesn't support lower framerates AFAIK), no audio.
Then I added a loop (about 30 seconds), which was converted to mono 8kHz by the Wirefusion software.

And I added some interface elements. Nothing difficult.

[Anonymous]

I see:

Download size:
277.1 kb
(531.2 kb incl. streamed resources)

The Model I posted was:
Download size:
189.2 KB
(189.2 KB incl. streamed resources)

The animation you show could be much longer and maybe smaller if you export the animation as a VRML2 from Cinema. Import into WireFusion. You could add the music to the overhead if needed, or a verbal description of what you are viewing could be informative.

Then the user could break away from the preset animation and view the model from any angle they choose.

Stefan, if you have the time I would enjoy seeing the same model animation exported as a VRML2 object to WireFusion.

WireFusion is really a useful tool, programming it is intuitive and graphical. Connect a Wire from A to B, set the variable. It is actually fun to work out a setup. Once it is done, you can drag and drop future models into the same template. If I were an alien I would give it three thumbs up!

[Anonymous]

David,

I find that when I am looking for information about on-line web movies, I download and view the work of professionals, then use the SHOW INFO requester in the QuickTime movie player.

For example, this link:

http://www.cgproshop.com/product/000010/

Delivers a 8.8Mb Quicktime file. If the Sorensen codec is good enough for the pros, it will probably be good enough for us.


Also the Apple QT web site :

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

Offers plenty of other examples, download view and then check out the INFO for codec used, frame rate, size, data size, etc.

Find the one you like best and then try to duplicate their efforts.