Animation in progress (Monkey Framers Update)

Artwork Works in Progress
1

I need some input on how this looks so far. I just have the keyboard, mouse and the top half of the body showing, it is about 4 seconds long.
http://ohiofamilies.dynu.com/blender/monkeyframers.html or
http://ohiofamilies.dynu.com/blender/animation1.avi

For the first link a windows media player should show on the page, just press the play button.

This is my first ‘real’ animation, so ANY comments are welcome.

2

1st - > 3Mb for 4 sec is too much, use a better codec (DivX rules)
2nd - It crashes my WMP

Stefano

3

Strange that it would crash the wmp. The size is blenders fault, all I did was animate it, setting the output to avi jpeg. I’m not sure how to make it smaller. I’ll try converting it to something with MovieXone, but I’m not sure how to make it smaller.

4

OK…

that’s the problem, AVI JPG s**s…

Get VirtualDUB from the net, can’t recall the address… great software.

Get DivX 5.0.2 or something from www.divx.com or the like.

Install both.

Use AVI RAW (better initial quality)

then open it in virtualdub and re-save using DivX codec for compression…

Good luck

Stefano

5

Ok a tried it using moviexone, and endedup with a divxmgp4 v3 file. It is alot smaller, but the quality sucks. Guess I’ll try rendering it in blender again with avi raw, then convert it to the divx mpeg4 again. Thanks

6

ok s68 I downloaded virtualdub… and have divx installed… but now how do I save my .avi as a divx avi??? I don’t see the option???

7

Ok I have something now, this one has sound. However the sound is longer then the animation at the moment. I figured out how to stop the jumpy picture I got before. And I rendered it in blender as AVI RAW, you were right about the quality. Only thing now is the when I compress it the quality gets crappy again. How can I fix this?

http://ohiofamilies.dynu.com/blender/animation1.avi small file, but crappy quality

http://www.ohiofamilies.dynu.com/blenderanimation2.avi small file, but crappy quality, unless you make the output window small

http://ohiofamilies.dynu.com/blender/animation3.avi large file, but good quality

What can I do? I even tried using different types of compression.

8

I would like to point out that the Monkeyframers contest
doesn’t accept animations encoded with the divX codec
(neither do the IRTC or the 10 Second Club animation
contest). MPEG 1 only is allowed – this is so that the
animation can be viewed by the largest audience possible
(including Irix users).

Without a doubt the best MPEG 1 encoder out there
for windows is TMPGEnc (and I also run it under linux
using wine). Get it here:

http://www.tmpgenc.net/

Play with the bitrate until you get a good balance of
filesize and quality (usually somewhere between 800
and 1200).

Chris

9

Thanks for the input on that, I’m just trying to get it to work right. And not to big of a file size. :o

What file would you download from the website to listed, or mainly what version?

And what is the best program to take the avi files from blender and mix them with sound, and still get the same quality that was rendered in blender? I downloaded MovieXone, and it seems to preserve the quality, that is until I compress it.

10

I would get the latest free one:

http://www.tmpgenc.net/files/TMPGEnc-2.58.44.152-Free.zip

This encoder lets you add sound.

Chris