Need emergency render assistance

[Gerry]

I've been working on a three minute short for our booth at a trade show next week. My attempts at rendering have all failed, both rendering a QT movie and Targa files. I'm open to suggestions at least in theory but time is extremely short.

 

I'm going to set up a render to an .avi file and let it run overnight. Tomorrow morning I'll know if it's been successful. But I need a backup plan.

 

My back is seriously to the wall and if anyone with rendering facilities can help out a fellow hasher in his time of need, this is the time!

 

I'm flying out of Charlotte NC Sunday night the 11th but I need to have it in time to finish up the sound.

 

It's now 10pm Tuesday in Charlotte. I can overnight files on a cd tomorrow.

 

Let me know gang!

 

Gerry

[ddustin]

Gerry,

My render farm is available and I'm willing to help you out.

 

I have an engagement on Thursday all day.

 

1. What are the render issues you're having.

2. How large are the files and can you zip them into one file for uploading or email?

 

Email me at ddustin@dustinproductions.com if you like.

 

David

[Gerry]

Hi David- I just responded to your email. I can stretch the deadline till saturday if need be.

 

This is a two-minute movie, 24fps. It will be shown on two 42" plasma screens, screen res of 852-480. For time savings I've been rendering half size, 452x240. If you're capable of rendering full size in this time frame that would just be gravy!

 

Here's what's happened so far: I've tried rendering sections of the movie as .mov files in about 700 frame chunks. For that size I get an est. render time of, say, 8 hours. They chug along just great for six hours or so, then crap out. Apparently the app just quits. (This seems to happen when I stop watching the render, not that I'm superstitious!) Of course nothing's left of the .mov file.

 

I did render a full set of targa's, then realized I had nothing powerful enough to compile them beyond QuickTime Pro, which is not really adequate. In any case I've tweaked the animation since, so the targa's are outdated.

 

I also tried, just before I left the office this evening, to render an .avi file. About three frames in I got an error message that an .avi codec couldn't utilize a 24 bit image in one of my decals, then the app quit.

 

I've been using the OpenGL driver. The last thing I tried before I left the office was to try a render using the Direct3D V8 driver, so that's running overnight.

 

I'm attaching a still of the movie. It's basically a fly-around of a series of slot machines showing our games playing.

 

thanks David!

[Guest jandals]

I did render a full set of targa's, then realized I had nothing powerful enough to compile them beyond QuickTime Pro, which is not really adequate.

Why's it not adequate? Do you need to do more than make a .mov out of the image sequence? Could you break that job into 3 or 4 parts? Import 10 seconds or so at a time and then paste the fesulting movies together for the final, complete file?

[ddustin]

Gerry,

I replied via your earthlink email.

 

David

[Gerry]

Jandals - I tried that exact thing and when I assembled the finished mov it was about 14 seconds short! Don't ask me why.

[heyvern]

I have used QT Pro for some very heavy duty editing... size and length.

 

The fractured film project I did some years ago was almost entirely assembled from TGA files into QT Pro. The resolution was 640 X 480 if I recall correctly.

 

edit: I then imported these clips into iMovie for DVD and web export.

 

With the pro version there are so many output options... plus you can even paste in the sound track...

 

I feel your pain! I hope it works out for you!

 

p.s. Prayers and support for Katrina victims? This guy REALLY needs our support!

 

I would gladly live on my roof without food or clean water for 5 days than have to explain to a client why I missed a deadline... they usually suggest that as punishment anyway.

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

Edited September 7, 2005 by heyvern

[Gerry]

Well David is doing a great job on the render. It should be done sometime tomorrow.

 

I posted my desperate request about 10:30 Tuesday night before leaving the office. I got home within about 15 minutes, and David's email response was waiting for me! Hashers and the Hash Forums rock!

 

The one thing I still need to do is add the soundtrack. I know QT can be a workhorse I'm just a little nervous that a file this size might choke it.

 

One alternative I've considered would be to import the .mov file into a Flash movie and put the sound on a separate layer.

 

Unfortunately we don't have the kind of software at work this kind of project requires. I am definitely open to suggestions.

 

Gerry

[Pengy]

would virtualdub do this? does video not sure how well it handles audio. http://www.virtualdub.org/index

[Gerry]

That's an interesting link, Pengy. but you're right, it doesn't really say much about audio. Will look at it a bit further.

 

Also could use recommendations on the laptop that will be feeding this to the plasmas. Is speed strictly a question of raw processor speed? Any video gizmos that would make a difference?

[Gerry]

I've just returned from our trade show and the animation was very well received. Some compression info for those interested:

 

I started out with the movie in three separate .mov segments, each about 250megs. David had rendered these with Sorensen 3 compression.

 

I had earlier installed the Windows version of QuickTime 7 (just released days ago) because of some unrelated errors I was getting trying to export from Flash, and I have to say the Windows version still needs work. Both trying to consolidate the three sections either as a self-contained file or as a reference file choked QT, and trying to export with additional compression did the same. Version 7 just didn't seem up to handling such large files.

 

I found and downloaded QT version 6 which worked way better. I was able to export the files using Video compression at medium quality, and got the 250meg files down to between 70 and 100 megs. Some loss of quality but not what you would expect given the file sizes.

 

There was some sign of "pixel crunching" on the plasma screens (I'm sure there's a technical term for this effect where about every twenty lines or so there's a break in say, a diagonal line on screen where a pixel is interpolated out. I'm not explaining this very well, but it's like where a website image is forced into a space smaller than itself.) but it was the sort of thing that only I would notice.

 

I was still tweaking the movie Sunday morning, and we flew out Sunday afternoon.

 

David's help was invaluable and I highly recommend his services. I've also promised that next time I'll give him more than twenty minutes' notice.