render size

[petokosun]

last week i rendered a 5 mins work, i cant believe that i was 203mb, wat could have cause this and how can i reduced the seize of my rendered file

[robcat2075]

last week i rendered a 5 mins work, i cant believe that i was 203mb, wat could have cause this and how can i reduced the seize of my rendered file

 

the animation is 5 minutes long? that's 7200 frames. One uncompressed 640x480 frame takes almost a megabyte. So you got off easy.

 

you can load your movie into your images folder and do a "Save as Animation" to compress it with a smaller codec.

 

 

 

But you didn't say what codec you used to begin with. they're all different.

[Meowx]

If you're saving things as a Quicktime movie (I don't know if there's a different default for Windows), there's a lot of different codecs. Here's the ones you'll actually want to choose from.

 

1. None. This will create a MASSIVE file. Only use this if you absolutely cannot lose any quality.

2. Animation. This will create a pretty big file, but much smaller than "None." You will lose very little quality. For final renders, this is usually what you want to use.

3. Apple Pixlet Video. This is a newer codec; if you don't have the latest version of Quicktime, it may not be there. Update! This is a fantastic codec. Think of it like a .JPG img - you'll get some quality reduction, but especially at medium to medium high quality settings, it creates a very reasonable file size. Great for test renders. At higher quality settings, you can even use this for some final renders.

4. Sorenson Video 3. This is an older codec, it has been replaced by Apple Pixlet. If you don't have Pixlet and can't update, this codec is very similar. The files are slightly larger and the quality is slightly less, but it still works pretty good.

 

Oh, and 203mb for 5 minutes? That's tiny. To put it in perspective, here's the folder with all the raw movie data from a project I recently completed.

That 1 gig movie file at the top is only 1 minute and 38 seconds long.

[robcat2075]

Apparently Pixlet is a Mac-only codec. It sounds neat but it probably won't be playable on PCs.

[Meowx]

Really? Here, see if you can use this.

 

And I actually just found out that apparently I was lying - it looks like Sorenson Video 3 has been upgraded! At least in this quick test, it has noticeably better quality and noticeably smaller file size! So if you can't use Pixlet, who cares!

 

Of course, if you can't use SV3, then you're stuck with (shudder) Cinepak.

 

Animation

File Size: Very High

Quality: Very High

 

Apple Pixlet Video

File Size: Medium

Quality: Medium

 

Sorenson Video 3

File Size: Low

Quality: High

 

Cinepak

File Size: Medium

Quality: Low

can_animation.mov

can_pixlet.mov

can_sv3.mov

can_cinepak.mov

[Fuchur]

There is only one way for me to render stuff, you should think about doing the same thing:

- Render to an Imagesquenz -> TGA (or OpenEXR, if you need to change it afterwards)

- Create from the images an video-file. This can be done in A:M directly or for example in an editing-programm.

(Reimport the images as sequence, rightclick on it in the imagefolder and hit "Save Animation As...")

 

This is a much more secure workflow. Now you can easily try different codecs so you get the best for your circumstances.

For a final output I prefer an h264-codec. It gives you a great imagequality, although the codec needs a faster computer to play smoothly.

 

*Fuchur*

[petokosun]

thanks guy i will try then out

[photoman]

Try apples new H.264 Codec it is really good for quality and file size.

 

Photman

[petokosun]

what of a situation whereby i rendered my animation, saved it in avi and it transfred to my desktop how to i get it back to animation master for compression in seize

thank you

[Fuchur]

what of a situation whereby i rendered my animation, saved it in avi and it transfred to my desktop how to i get it back to animation master for compression in seize

thank you

 

AVI? With compression?

Bad workflow -> you will loose imagequality twice by that.

 

For the next time: ONLY use Imagesequences to render and after everything is finished (post-productionwork, etc.) compress it once with the codec that suits you best for the end-use.

 

Back to AVI:

I think it is possible to reimport it (I THINK).

-> Rightclick on "Image Folder" in the PWS

-> Choose "Open Image / Animation".

-> Get you file in the opening-browser.

-> After import, rightclick on the newly imported file and use "Save Animation As..."

 

*Fuchur*

[petokosun]

I saw a lot of codec, please which of these is the best with regards to quality and seize

[petokosun]

I followed the processed listed but my AM hanged all the times i tried to save animation dont know what to do now

[HomeSlice]

Download SUPER video encoder. http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

It will handle almost any codec you can imagine. The interface is confusing at first, but it is worth it to take the time to understand it.

Open your AVI file in SUPER and convert it to an image sequence (use TGA images). Do not use a lossy image format like JPG.

Create a new empty project in AM.

Import your TGA image sequence into AM. Import your audio files into AM.

Drag the image sequence onto a choreography camera so it is a camera rotoscope.

Add your audio file(s) to the chor and line up the audio with the video.

Save the project.

Render the choreography. (it will go much faster than the original render because you are only rendering images with audio.

 

-------------------------------------------

In the future, as Fuchur said, render your final frames straight out of AM as TGA files.

If your chor has audio in it, AM will also create a .sinfo file in the folder with your rendered frames. The .sinfo file tells AM how to sync the audio with the TGA frames.

Then create a new project and name it something like "MyProject_NLE.prj" (Non Linear Editor)

Import Audio and Images.

Drag your TGA frames and Audio into the choregraphy - AM should automatically sync the sound files with the rendered frames in the chor.

Render out to any format you want. (But don't delete the TGA frames!) You may need them again if you have to recompress your movie to a different codec/size/whatever.

[petokosun]

I know i made a mistakes somewhere.

I have tried to render my animitation i did directly to avi format, but the file seize was too big.

Please could some one give me an easy step by stem procedure i can take to render out my animation

thz.

[John Bigboote]

Peteko-

 

1- Render to file button

2- Click 'advanced' button (It's under OKAY and CANCEL)

3-Click on the 'Format' and choose Quicktime---Click arrow tab down for 'Format'

4-Click on the word 'Set' (Save options....Set)

5-A compression options box opens, Select Compression type---ANIMATION

6-Make sure the color depth is on 'Millions of Colors)

7-Slide the 'Quality' slider to 75 or 100 %

8- Hit OK

9- Set the other render options as you want them, Range-Resolution

10-Click the 'Options' tab to turn ON multipass, fields, fog,reflections, shadows etc as you want.

11-Hit 'Apply' so these settings 'stick' next time around, and 'OK' to start!

 

I advise the Animation compressor as that will give you a nice 'master' file...when it is done you can then import the new QT file back into A:M and then export it again with the H264 compressor which will give you a 'small' file for emailling or long term archiving. Quicktime is nice because it wraps the picture, sound and alpha channel (if wanted) all in a fast playback-able file. Some of us with 3rd-party compositing or editing software prefer to render out individual frame files as jpeg or targa, which is a safer way in that you can go back and re-render a 'glitched' frame or frames and you can salvage a lot of rendered frames if your render fails (ie power outtage, etc)

 

 

Compression is something that you need to experiment with to get the feel for what it does. I equate it to my students as 'folding a piece of paper'...in that the more you fold a paper- the smaller it gets, and the smaller of holes you can put it thru (like email) but when you unfold and look at it you will see artifacts from all the folds.

There are many considerations...compression type...frame rate...movie dimensions... movie length...color depth... alpha channels... and there is no such thing as a '1 size fits all' solution. You need to experiment by trial and error, and in the end look at your file size, file quality and recalculate from there. That's why I recommend rendering a 'master' file in the beginning, so you are not experimenting as you render- which could burn a lot of time.

 

Good Luck!

[Fuchur]

One of the best codecs is the H264 for Mov-files. It will give you a high-quality, quite small sized file. The bad thing about it: You need to have a modern computer to show it. (It is more resource-needing than others...).

 

Although this is a very good end-codec it shouldnt be used for editing/cutting, etc.

It is an endcodec, no inwork-codec!

 

*Fuchur*