QuickTime Export and AE CS3?

[areyouguystwins]

My ASPro version is 5.5. I'm going to try uninstalling After Effects. I'm not sure if AE setup modified any QT files, but I uninstalled and re-installed QT several times since then. I had to uninstall QT for now as it was also causing my browser (Opera 9.23) to crash when a webpage tried to load QT content.

Logically uninstalling After Effects is the way to go to try to solve the crashing problem -- if the crashing of rendered mov files out of Anime started after you installed After Effects.

Any news on the uninstall? Did it fix the problem?

Software can do weird things to other software and drivers, especially cpu/hard drive hungry video software. I installed VideoWave on my Vista computer a month ago and I lost my DVD drive because of certain keys the VideoWave software installed in the Windows registry. I had to go into the registry and remove the two keys. Needless to say I won't be using VideoWave anymore.

BTW, I use Vista with Anime Pro (5.5) and I also render Quicktime files. [knock on wood] I haven't had any problems rendering mov files -- yet. I have Quicktime 7.2 installed.

I did notice on my XP system and Vista system that playing mov files in Quicktime resulted in jerky video quality. I did some research and found out that I needed to tweak some preferences in Quicktime to stop the herky jerky video playback.

I doubt editing preferences in Quicktime will solve the crashing problem, but hey you never know with software. Here is what I changed:

In Quicktime go to EDIT menu
QUICKTIME PREFERENCES
ADVANCED TAB
VIDEO
click the DIRECTX button
check the first two boxes (Enable DirectDraw Acceleration - Enable DirectDraw on Secondary Monitors)
uncheck the last box (Enable Direct3D Video acceleration)

I also use Opera 9.23 and found Quicktime doesn't like to work inside the browser. I set up "Media Player Classic" as my mov file player inside Opera.

To answer someone else who mentioned Apple's constant bugging to upgrade Quicktime and Itunes, I tried to upgrade iTunes and Quicktime a couple weeks ago, thinking it would solve the "iTunes is not properly installed. If you wish to import or burn cds, you need to reinstall iTunes" error message -- but no luck. I couldn't even install the latest version of either program on Vista off of Apple's site, the install kept crashing.

(I know I can solve the iTunes problem by getting the correct driver and DLLS for 64 bit Vista, but I don't have the energy right now to fiddle with it)

So I will stick with Quicktime 7.2 and iTunes 7.4.3.1.

[areyouguystwins]

I think that after the 3rd try, downloading from here http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ ,I can safely rule out the upgrade as a solution (unless apple decides to upload a brand new upgrade with an actual "FIX"). The culprit is obviously the QT upgrade. slowtiger, of course your not experiencing the problem, you are on a Mac. different Operating System. and no, I do not use either After effects or Vista. so no, the problem can't be there either. It all happened after I upgraded QT. and to top it all off, I'm unable to downgrade.

What version of QT are you using on Windows? I use 7.1.5.120 on my XP computer and 7.2 on my Vista computer.

Do you save the older versions of software on your computer just in case you have to downgrade in the future? I do that because I don't trust a lot of "new" upgrades these days.

BTW, did you install QT by itself or with the iTunes package? On both my systems I installed QT with the iTunes package. I don't know if that makes a difference (it shouldn't).

I read somewhere that you can try to "repair" the Quicktime on your system by going into the Windows "PROGRAMS" option (in Control Panel) and clicking Quicktime and choose the REPAIR option. I don't know if it will work, although I did repair QT 7.2 on my Vista system after I had several crashes when I tried to upgrade Quicktime a few weeks ago.
(just making sure the attempted upgrade didn't corrupt the 7.2 files)

If you have XP you need to go into "ADD REMOVE PROGRAMS" -- choose Quicktime -- click the "CLICK HERE FOR SUPPORT INFO" and then choose REPAIR.

Probably won't help, but it's something to look at.

[slowtiger]

Yes, the unability to downgrade is the worst - had that experience some months ago when I tried to remove an Apple 10.4.8 which had a faulty firewire driver. Had to reinstall 10.4.3 from DVD again, and then find all 3rd party drivers again ...

[Nucleus]

Do you save the older versions of software on your computer just in case you have to downgrade in the future? I do that because I don't trust a lot of "new" upgrades these days.

that would be great and all, if only you could downgrade. sadly, you cant. something gets written in the systems registry that detects whether your installing a new copy or old. It will then reject the old and prompt you to exit. I will look into a way to wipe this new QT crap off my system in order to install the old (working copy) of quicktime. I will share my findings as they become available.

[areyouguystwins]

that would be great and all, if only you could downgrade. sadly, you cant. something gets written in the systems registry that detects whether your installing a new copy or old. It will then reject the old and prompt you to exit. I will look into a way to wipe this new QT crap off my system in order to install the old (working copy) of quicktime. I will share my findings as they become available.

Oh crap. You are correct. I forgot about Apple's software.

You may find some answers here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=943

Thank God the upgrade to 7.3 Quicktime didn't work on my system a few weeks ago, or I would be one unhappy camper right now if I could not render mov files out of Anime.

If you do find the solution to wiping out newer versions of Quicktime and iTunes on Windows systems (XP and Vista) please let the forum know, as it is vital info in order to fix crap like this.

It seems from the Apple forum even Mac users are pissed off with Quicktime 7.3. I guess the "new and the latest" does not always mean the best when it comes to software (that's an understatement to say the least seeing as I am using Vista).

[Nucleus]

I'm currently trying previous versions of quicktime found here http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=quicktime. I was able to wipe all the QT crap that is left behind with unistallations using CCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/. although I can now downgrade, still no success eliminating the crash. I have similar problems with my divx and xvid codecs in conjunction with AS. the AS upgrade may have been badly written since it only happens on the render side of things. on every renderer that uses a compression scheme. anyone know if AS supports WMV encoder as an alternative?

[areyouguystwins]

I'm currently trying previous versions of quicktime found here http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=quicktime. I was able to wipe all the QT crap that is left behind with unistallations using CCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/. although I can now downgrade, still no success eliminating the crash. I have similar problems with my divx and xvid codecs in conjunction with AS. the AS upgrade may have been badly written since it only happens on the render side of things. on every renderer that uses a compression scheme. anyone know if AS supports WMV encoder as an alternative?

Good to hear you uninstalled the newest version of Quicktime, however it looks like it didn't solve your crashing problem.

I know this is going to sound stupid or perhaps you may already have done it -- but have you uninstalled Anime and reinstalled it without the latest upgrade (5.5?). Or do you only have 5.5? When I was having my daily Anime crashes (not on rendering) I reinstalled Anime in a new directory and that seemed to cut down a bit on the crashes. But of course, come to find out it is a main switch layer issue that I have found a work around (I still have crashes but not as many - knock on wood).

As to Anime supporting WMV, not as far as I know. I use Windows, and the only video options I have for exporting are:

avi uncompressed
avi compressed (a few crappy compression codecs)
Quicktime mov

I wish Anime supported a wmv compression codec, but alas it seems to have been written mainly for mac users. I don't have divx and xvid codecs on my system so I don't know how they work rendering out of Anime. I know people wag their fingers at me when I state that I use Sorenson 3 compression out of Anime for my mov files, but for the project I am doing that compression works fine. So I can understand your frustration not being able to render a compressed file out of Anime.

Unfortunately, it looks like any future Anime fixes for bugs and upgrades doesn't look too promising. Therefore I don't know if Lost Marble, E Frontier, whomever will be able to help you.

That kind of sucks in my opinion. Anime is a good program, but it seems a bit outdated and there are bugs and improvements that should be addressed if it is going to stay afloat. I think whoever is currently "developing" Anime, they should take it on themselves to read this forum and see what issues are being brought up about the software.

Not everyone who has crashing problems with Anime are computer illiterates.

Sorry to go off on a rant, but I just don't understand why software seems to be getitng crappier and crappier every year. Maybe it's just my age.

[toonertime]

Just an impression

I have been enjoying anime studio for about a year
now, and I find myself with a great animation
hobby to express myself with.

But more and more I get the feeling that this program
has been put out to sea, and all you great folks
who have been contributing to this forum are like
voices on a life raft, saying "maybe someday there
will be an upgrade".

It is a real shame, because this program has had such
great promise, but unless some energy is put into this
program this coming year, I think it will go down into
those dark, chilly waters of abandoned software!

[heyvern]

I am an eternal optimist.

Did you ever see the movie "Joe versus the Volcano"? I would be the Meg Ryan character at the very end when everything seems to be hopeless and she just ignores it.

When has ANY software updgrade changed anything so dramatically? Would the upgrade suddenly give you the ability to produce something you can't now? Before the efrontier purchase "Moho" would have been in more danger of "vanishing" than it is now. There was only Mike doing everything including what tiny little bit of marketing there was.

A new company has invested in AS, it would not be in their best interest to let a gem like that die. I hope they have the smarts to see that.

"Wherever we go, whatever we do...we're gonna take this luggage with us."
- Joe Banks
Joe Versus the Volcano

[toonertime]

Thanks for the input, vern! I will check out your reference
to Joe and the Volcano.

You are totally right about the software not affecting any
ability to create an animation. I have come to enjoy this
program's vectoring tools, which I never really employed
in other programs. I guess all we can do is wait and see
what happens. I still haven't upgraded to Pro, because I
am waiting to see what this new company has planned.

[jwlane]

Maybe you have specific reasons for rendering pre-composited elements in QT. However, a lot of people render sequential frames to avoid a total redo if only a section of a render needs a fix. I render .png files from ASP batch renderer. When coming from overtly commercial broadcast and advertising work to trying my own short project, I picked up a copy of Mark Christiansen's After Effects Studio Techniques. He makes a great pitch for working this way. PNG is a great transition format. And, maybe your AE app. won't have the same troubles if you need QT for final output.

[slice11217]

Maybe you have specific reasons for rendering pre-composited elements in QT. However, a lot of people render sequential frames to avoid a total redo if only a section of a render needs a fix. I render .png files from ASP batch renderer. When coming from overtly commercial broadcast and advertising work to trying my own short project, I picked up a copy of Mark Christiansen's After Effects Studio Techniques. He makes a great pitch for working this way. PNG is a great transition format. And, maybe your AE app. won't have the same troubles if you need QT for final output.

Along the same lines... I believe AE CS3 now imports .swf files. Since ASP can export to .swf, you might even be better served by taking advantage of this, since you'll be able to scale up and down in AE without losing resolution.

There's usually a workaround for these kind of things. -It may not always be convenient, but there's usually a workaround.