New Contest Coming Soon!

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J. Baker
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Post by J. Baker »

Touched wrote:What program would people recommend for converting an AVI file to .divx, though?
I bought divx awhile back which is only $20. I believe on there site somewhere if you take a survey you get a discount. They also have a trial version if you don't plan to purchase.
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

I hope the codec can be kept to a FREE one? And something available bundled in QT 6?

QT 7 was getting some bad press for a while and I kept putting off upgrading, plus I don't have any spare money to speak of so I don't want to have to buy another copy of QT or DIVX for exporting for this one contest right now.

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

p.s. January 6th, it is like, 70 degrees here. It should be much colder than that in Delaware in January. Is anyone besides me frightened by this? ;)

My heating bill is going to be wonderful this winter. Maybe I will be able to afford DIVX in the spring.

-vern
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Touched
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Post by Touched »

Are you saying to convert to .divx you need DivX Pro? I can create DivX AVIs with the free codec, but I'm assuming an AVI with the DivX codec is not the same as a .divx file...

Vern, since the other option is "Quicktime" without any further specifications, the basic AS Quicktime exports that most of us have been using should work; you wouldn't need to buy anything to enter the contest.
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J. Baker
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Post by J. Baker »

Touched wrote:...but I'm assuming an AVI with the DivX codec is not the same as a .divx file...
Save thing just different extension. :wink:
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

I guess my point is that there are bunches of codecs that work fine without any problem with all types of old and new systems. It would be great to just "keep it simple".

I can do QT no problem. I have the pro version of v6. I just don't have what it takes to do DIVX. I would need to upgrade QT and most likely my OS according the recommended system requirements as apposed to the minimum.

-vern
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J. Baker
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Post by J. Baker »

heyvern wrote:I guess my point is that there are bunches of codecs that work fine without any problem with all types of old and new systems. It would be great to just "keep it simple".

I can do QT no problem. I have the pro version of v6. I just don't have what it takes to do DIVX. I would need to upgrade QT and most likely my OS according the recommended system requirements as apposed to the minimum.

-vern
If you can QT6 then there shouldn't be a problem. As for viewing divx, go to there website and download the divx webplayer. It's free and available for MacOS.
http://www.divx.com/divx/webplayer/

Or for downloaded divx files use...
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=VLC_media_player
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rylleman
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Post by rylleman »

Why put limitations in what codecs people are allowed to use? Tell them to use common sense and that should be enough. Most people are able to watch QT with,let's say, sorenson compression, or an flv, mpeg is also a bit of a standard in most peoples computers, fewer can watch div-x, . If someone posts posts an entry in some format that people are having trouble viewing, kindly ask them to upload a version in some different format.
Put the limitation in content, not format.
Just my 2 pieces of smaller money* worth of thought.

*cents, pennies, centimes, ören etc.
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

Thanks rylleman,

That was my main point. The codecs around for years, that work for everyone make more sense to me.

I often have to jump through hoops to watch some things and when I'm tired or don't feel like jumping I just skip it.

p.s. I've been using Flip4Mac to watch WMV in QT. I love that baby. Some WMV won't play in the Mac version of the WMV player but will work with Flip4Mac plus you get all the QT features that WMP doesn't have. If you pay money it will convert WMV to QT. I haven't purchased it though.

-vern
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bupaje
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Post by bupaje »

Hiya. On the issue of time, if the contest is popular enough then maybe next time we can post a poll to chose between different options for length and theme etc. CGTalk has a theme suggestion thread for their "Sketch A Day" challenges so maybe we can do that as well.

As for format my though was that if everyone posts as divx or agreed format I can post all the entries on one page, with instructions on where to get the codec if they have problems, rather than having some viewable, some not, some 3mb some 30 mb, and perhaps have to change links a few times as they change versions or using free hosting services that may disappear. I can host the files, or can talk to Fahim or Mike - just in case I go AWOL some day- but figure it would be best to handle the files once. I'm open to whatever makes the most sense.
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

I suggest QT mpg-4.

-vern
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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

I hate to be a pain in the arse but those prop files are really... kind of... well...

I opened up the gun file and Moho is slower than molasses in January from all the points. I mean there are a ton of points... good Lord there are a ton of points.

Are we permitted to, clean up those files? I could redraw them very quickly with a fraction of the points thus speeding up my work.

p.s. Did I mention there are a lot of points? I think that ray gun has more points than my entire Happy Bear character.

-vern
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J. Baker
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Post by J. Baker »

Please tell me if I'm wrong as I could be. I'm just trying to knock this down to a codec that can be viewed and created on all OS's.

QuickTime
Can be viewed on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Can be created on Windows and Mac.

Divx
Can be viewed on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Can be created on Windows, Mac and Linux.

FLV
Can be viewed on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Can be created on Windows and Mac.

MPEG 1 <--- ugly results
Can be viewed on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Can be created on Windows, Mac and Linux.

WMV
Can be viewed on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Can be created on Windows.
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bupaje
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Post by bupaje »

heyvern wrote:I opened up the gun file and Moho is slower than molasses in January from all the points. ...
Are we permitted to, clean up those files? I could redraw them very quickly with a fraction of the points thus speeding up my work.
Sure. Ryan didn't have the prop pack converted and basically in one day he finished up one more character and converted those props for the contest so he may have missed optimizing some I guess. I'll post it as a reduced point version for anyone having a problem with the other. I'll let Ryan know as well.
Last edited by bupaje on Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
IsraelRN
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Post by IsraelRN »

bupaje wrote:
heyvern wrote:I opened up the gun file and Moho is slower than molasses in January from all the points. ...
Are we permitted to, clean up those files? I could redraw them very quickly with a fraction of the points thus speeding up my work.
Sure. Ryan didn't have the prop pack converted and basically in one day he finished up one more character and converted those props for the contest so he may have missed optimizing some I guess. I'll post it as a reduced point version for anyone having a problem with the other. I'll let Ryan know as well.
I wonder if that ammount of points is result of the conversion from an AI file or something.

Any clue here?

Regards,
Israel RN
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bupaje
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Post by bupaje »

I'm pretty sure that is exactly it as he offers them in .ai format. He's been slowly converting and cleaning the stuff up but I wanted to knock out the contest this weekend so he did me a favor and rushed those few props - not sure I did him a favor. :/
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