Codec and best resolution

Doc986 · Post by **Doc986** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:02 pm

What is the best codec (and resolution) for best quality (as a professional work)?

alxqs · Post by **alxqs** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:37 pm

There's no single answer to this question, it all depends on what you're using the video for.

Best quality is lossless compression, which means literally that no data is lost and the video looks as good as it possibly can. The Quicktime Animation codec is often used for this. This is rarely what you show to people, though, since lossless video usually means HUGE file sizes.

If you're uploading to the internet, then you'll need to use a lossy compression, which you may have to experiment with to figure out a good quality vs. file size. MP4/H.264 compression is usually ideal for this.

Doc986 · Post by **Doc986** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:40 pm

I'had created a cartoon of 2-3 minutes. (resolution 1280x720) and i try export it with Xvid codec. The renderending durated 10 hours and, finally, the AVI was corrupt.
I try export animation with Quicktime (i using Pc, i can find quicktime animation codec?) but... it has been two hours and not even half.

Is possible?
how long, usually, a renderending?

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:52 pm

Depends on: how fast is your machine, how clean is your OS, how full is your HD, how much is going on in the animation.

Doc986 · Post by **Doc986** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:47 pm

Machine is fast (i used it for making wedding movie and short film. Dual core 2ghz and 2 gb ram).
Using Windows 7 and HD is empty.
The animation has many particular but, ten hours for export animation of 2 minutes, are too many..
It's impossibile

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:54 pm

Many particle layers? This could be the reason.

rylleman · Post by **rylleman** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:04 pm

Render to an image sequence (png), then convert this into a movie. 10 hour render is a lot to redo if render crashes or output is broken.
With image sequences you can continue where render crashed without loosing any already rendered frames.

I use Ffmpeg for conversions, it exists for windows also. There is programs with a graphical frontend for this if you prefer that, google and you'll find some.

Doc986 · Post by **Doc986** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:15 pm

Yes.. there are many layers..
but, repeat.. for me, 10 hours are too many for a software for professional cartoon.

@Rylleman, i can't use your way because the my cartoon have also music and lyp sync.

ps: With export Quicktime codec, audio is not present?
ps2: looking around in the forum "your animation" I have only seen short animation and very simple. Do you know someone who has created a real cartoon with anime studio?

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:44 pm

@Rylleman, i can't use your way because the my cartoon have also music and lyp sync.

You can export the audio with a very low resolution animation and them import the audio to a video editor when compositing the PNG sequence.

You mentioned about 2-3 minutes animation @ 1280x720 took about 10 hours to render...
3 minutes is 4500 frames @ 25 fps
10 hours is 36000 seconds
It gives 8 seconds per frame that is used in:
1) Render the image sequence (yes, Anime Studio does the frame render first before pass to the codec library)
2) Render the audio composition
3) By the codec library composite the image sequence and the audio into a video stream
4) Write to disc

I think that if the composition is a bit complex (blurs, masking and particles) 8 seconds for a 1280x720 image is not that much.
-G

Doc986 · Post by **Doc986** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:51 pm

Genete wrote:
@Rylleman, i can't use your way because the my cartoon have also music and lyp sync.
You can export the audio with a very low resolution animation and them import the audio to a video editor when compositing the PNG sequence.

You mentioned about 2-3 minutes animation @ 1280x720 took about 10 hours to render...
3 minutes is 4500 frames @ 25 fps
10 hours is 36000 seconds
It gives 8 seconds per frame that is used in:
1) Render the image sequence (yes, Anime Studio does the frame render first before pass to the codec library)
2) Render the audio composition
3) By the codec library composite the image sequence and the audio into a video stream
4) Write to disc

I think that if the composition is a bit complex (blurs, masking and particles) 8 seconds for a 1280x720 image is not that much.
-G

.. and the camera movement?

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:55 pm

8 sec per image? That's totally normal. As for "professional" software (like CGI): they tend to need minutes per frame, if not hours.

Of course there's ways to speed up AS a bit. Most important: switch off visibility of everything which is not visible in the frame. If you have some particle layer which is on screen just the first 10 secs, it will still be calculated for the remaining time although coverd by other layers. Analyse your file and switch off (and on again wghen needed) whatever is possible.

rylleman · Post by **rylleman** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:52 am

Doc986 wrote:...
ps2: looking around in the forum "your animation" I have only seen short animation and very simple. Do you know someone who has created a real cartoon with anime studio?

Well, thank you. Right now I'm doing a trilogy of short films, 3x12 minutes, in anime studio. Before that I did a 30 minute award winning short. As well as many commercials. So yes, I do professional work. And I do know how to render.

By the way, did you miss the big red "Make a cartoon for me" button? It's just next to the "draw me a pretty manga character" button. (the blue one).
It's great! I use it all the time!

edit: rereading your post I see now that you didn't specifically meant me, so sorry for the bantering tone.