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WMV

4 (23.5%)

H.264

13 (76.5%)

Total Members Voted: 17

Voting closed: February 05, 2011, 04:50:52 pm

[Raxx]

Don't Forget

A tribute to Anim8or and its Community

This is a collaboration from all the members of the community that wanted to do something memorable. The first step is to see who's involved in this. At least 10 contributors are needed for us to pull it off successfully, so I hope you're interested! Just reply to this post if you wish to be involved.


The Idea
Basically it'd play the Don't Forget song by Demi Lovato. Kind of a sentimental animated montage thing from the users here.

Granted there aren't a whole lot of us anymore, but I know there're a lot of lurkers that still log in and browse around.

Assuming we have at least 10 people:

1. The contributor makes their own avatar of themselves in the form of a person, creature, robot, whatever entity they think best represents themselves, and has them dance, stand, play around, do whatever within a certain timeframe. Maybe each contributor should have the robin in there in some shape or form.
2. Each contributor makes a 10 second clip and a 2 second clip.
3. Each contributor's clip is played one after the other in sequence. The 10 second clips are played first, then some sort of tribute to Anim8or is done in a title screen, and then the 2 second clips are played afterwards. Each 10 second clip has their username and real-life photo that fade in and out along the bottom.
4. The positioning and fading of the names and photos will be done via post processing, so the contributor doesn't have to worry about that part of it (aside from providing the photo).
5. The scene can have whatever environment the contributor wants. Whether it interacts with their avatar or is static or even nonexistant.
6. Each contributor renders their own clip. To keep it all consistent, the settings will be predetermined. More than likely 1280x720, bicubic AA, and H.264/MPEG-4 codec with very low compression. Then each contributor can upload it to one of my websites and I'll combine them all together, add the names and photos, transitions, title screens, etc, and upload it to Youtube and Vimeo.
7. Anim8or will be the only program used for modeling, animation, and rendering, since this is a tribute to Anim8or. Yeah it's a pain to the guys who found other software to make it easier in certain areas, but that's what'll make it special.
8. Use whatever you want. Add stuff you've already made or make all-new stuff. It's your clip and yours alone.

NOTE: Depending on the number of contributors that sign up, the actual length of the clips will be determined.

This is the song that would be playing during the duration of the animation:

Video Settings
Resolution: 1280x720
Framerate: 30
Encoding: H.264/MPEG-4 (high bitrate/settings)
Format: AVI


Encoding Your Video

Download and Install:
XVid 1.3.1
Virtualdub Install only the 32-bit one!

For Image Sequences:
Open VirtualDub
Go to File->Open Video File...
Navigate to the folder containing your images rendered from Anim8or
Select the first one and select Open
All the images in that sequence should now have been imported
Go to File->Save as AVI...
Save the AVI file into a separate folder uncompressed
Continue on to your next Image Sequence and repeat the steps above
After all your image sequences have been saved, continue with the steps below.

For Video Files:
Open VirtualDub
Go to File->Open Video File...
Navigate to the folder containing your first video file
Select the video file and press Open to load it into the program

If you have more than one video clip you need to put together:
Go to File->Append AVI Segment
Select the next video file that needs to be added to the end of your project.
Keep performing that step until all your clips are imported.

To Encode It To H.264:
Install the XVid codec if you haven't already.
In Virtualdub with your project Open, go to Video->Compression...
In the list of codecs, select "Xvid MPEG-4 Codec" and press Configure
Set "Profile @ Level" to Highdef
Click on "Target Quantizer" (if "Target Bitrate" isn't there"), and set it to the highest bitrate (9708 kbps)
Click on the "more..." button next to Quality Preset.
In the options that come up, set Motion search precision to "6 - Ultra High" and VHQ mode to "4 - Wide Search"
Leave all the other settings as they were and OK out until you're back in Virtualdub
Go to File->Save as AVI and save it as an avi file
A progress window will pop up as it's processing the video.

And that's it! If you see any major blurring or artifacts, then chances are you'd have to tweak the settings a bit. Don't reduce the bitrate or quality settings if possible though!


Participants
Raxx
CoriDavis
ENSONIQ5
3Dgeek11
NickE
captaindrewi
Kreator
lynn22
Janro
Headwax
Bugtrooper

Anyone else?

[ENSONIQ5]

Officially in.

[captaindrewi]

so now its a homage to anim8or and steve.
i would like to contribute if plan b is still on
......errm can we change the song now to something with a bit more oomff!!......yuck!!

[CoriDavis]

Heh, i'm not old... but I'm not really into those disney people. (she's in the myley cyrus/Jonas brothers category isn't she?)  oh well.  but yeah, I'm joining!  is there going to be a deadline? I work really fast because I have a ton of time on my hands, but I still want to be sure I can finish.

[NickE]

I will contribute to this project.  Thanks for organizing it.

[lynn22]

I would like to contribute but for a few things ........

a) how do I know that the file is encoded "H.264/MPEG-4 codec with very low compression" i.e. into what should I convert the avi file ?

b) as a rough guess, how big could the final file be with the specifications from Raxx ?
I'm on dialup and cut-off after 2 hrs so if I can't upload the file within that time I might as well forget it

c) presuming all goes well and I can join in, a last point, I don't want my mug on the internet. Would a black and white shadow profile do as well ?

[Raxx]

Hah, well I won't argue about people's taste for music, because I'm not picky in that area. So if you guys want something else then by all means suggest it and I can put the songs up in a poll or something.

By the way, don't get too hung up on the music, we're not making a music video afterall. You'd have less than 20 seconds in your clip so it's not like you can really theme it around a song. It's a tribute to Anim8or with you (the community) as its base, so basically you do whatever you wish with your "avatar" except include the Robin in there somewhere in some shape or form.

lynn22,

A) There are a few h.264 encoders available on the internet. Basically you set the highest quality settings you can. I'll play with the encoder and post some suggested settings later, as well as the recommended FPS. For now though just render uncompressed first and then encode afterwards.

B) Even with a high bitrate, the file size shouldn't be more than 30 mb, probably around 20 mb or less. Since there won't be an audio stream and it'll be less than 20 seconds, I think you should be able to upload it on dialup within 2 hours without too much of a problem. If it does become a problem, then you can zip it into separate pieces and upload the pieces individually.

C) As for the photo thing, if no one wants to do it than we could just use a portrait of the avatar that's being animated. Let me know what you guys think.

Alright, added lynn22, NickE, captaindrewi, and Kreator (I assume) to the list.

[CoriDavis]

I'm fine with the pictures, but does it have to be AVI? because I might end up fixing some things in Windows Movie Maker (like putting clips together) and that'll turn it into WMV format by default and I don't know how to change it. (but a good thing about it will be a smaller file)

[Raxx]

All the submitted work should use the same standard, so should be all wmv or all h.264. Otherwise converting between the formats could make some clips lose noticeable quality, and it's always more hassle.

I'm not as impressed with wmv as I am with h.264, but if everyone wants to use windows movie maker to process their clips then I don't mind putting it up as a poll to make the final decision. Admittedly it's easier to just use windows movie maker for putting all the clips together anyway. Feel free to vote on it in the first post.

[lynn22]

Raxx

Thank you, that makes it all much clearer. I already have thought up a scenario for the 10 sec clip.

Additional question : the separate 3 sec clip can it be related to the 10 sec, sort of an epilogue or does it have to be totally different ?

kreator

Thank you for your offer to upload my file should it be too big to go over the wire, very much appreciated.
I still have your address 

In this area, broadband is available but on a half-baked performance and even satelite struggles. Overall I'm fine on dialup for what I do and this would only be the second time I might need help with large files in over 10 years online. So not too bad.

[3Dgeek11]

I love the song choice, and I don't think it's just one of those pieces of junk the music industry puts out nowadays. She has some real emotion in her songs.

But I am officially in. I'll post more later.

[Raxx]

Kreator, I feel that post processing should be kept at minimum. Such as tweaking colors, sharpening, etc. As for special effects, personally I think it'd be best to try getting it all done within Anim8or if possible. I know there are many cases where it'd make more sense to do it using prefabricated special effects, like explosions, smoke, and lens flare and such using 3rd party software, but that'd be a little hypocritical to make a tribute about a program using other programs, in the area that the original program should be doing it...ya know? If it was a video about anything else then I'd be all for it

Xvid is also a good choice, it follows the MPEG-4 standard so there shouldn't be (m)any extra artifacts when putting it all together and re-encoding. Just keep it at the highest setting and keep it in the .avi format.

Yeah 3Dgeek11, I thought it had good emotion too

lynn22, the 3 sec clip will be the "last dash" in the video, and it'll need the avatar or part of the original scene in there to connect it to its 10 second clip. So something totally different might just end up confusing the viewer.

I'm thinking maybe we should make the last clips 2 seconds each instead. 3 seconds is a little long. What do you guys think?

[ENSONIQ5]

I'm happy with whatever the consensus is regarding segment length, file format etc.  My initial idea works for around 10 to 15 seconds for the first bit, and anywhere between 2 and 4 seconds for the second part, but both can be adjusted no probs.  I have never actually built the Anim8or bird... if anybody else has could they perhaps post it as an attachment (for consistency reasons of course, not trying to get out of doing it myself.  Honest!).  I'm not fussed re the photo thing, probably prefer not to have it if pressed for a vote.

[Raxx]

Hm, you can make your own version, or just use an icon or graphic, make it a poster on a wall or a fire-breathing mega-Robin, ENSONIQ5 I'm thinking of either building a large thing based on the icon, or using an old design I had. But if you want to go classic, I believe the Robin tutorial has an entire pre-made Robin in it, on the Anim8or.com website

[headwax]

Hi Raxx, what time frame are you looking at ?