Need help with animation output to VHS

[archiver]

Posted by Peter Zobel at 03/09/2001 12:40 PM EST


Engineer on team #557, Alpha C.R.T., from Detroit Cooley and Ford Motor Company.



We need help on how to output an animation to VHS tape. The student working on the animation portion of this has pretty much finished, but now realized he does not have TV out capability.

Two questions:
1) What is the best method to send an animation to VHS? I figure render to AVI or other format, then play it through TV-Out to a VCR.

2) Is there a minimum video resolution or other requirements needed for this to work?
I have an HP laptop that supports 800x600with, but will only send 640x480 out the composite video port.
Laptop specs: 550 Mhz Celeron, 64 MB RAM, 4 GB HD, about 2.5 GB free.
This PC would only be used for the playing, not the rendering.

[archiver]

Posted by Kevin Sevcik at 03/11/2001 9:30 AM EST


Other on team #57, Leopards, from BT Washington and the High School for Engineering Professions and Exxon, Kellog Brown & Root, Powell Electrical.


In Reply to: Need help with animation output to VHS
Posted by Peter Zobel on 03/09/2001 12:40 PM EST:



That's your best bet, given the amount of time you have left to finish the animation. As for a specific resolution, it doesn't really matter. If your TV out only works at 640 x 480, then I suggest you render at that. I'm not entirely certain the computer will be able to handle playing the animation, however. Sometimes, the stupid computer will just skip. If that happens, you'll have to compress the AVI.

Good Luck,
Kevin (Hurriedly finishing his own animation)

[archiver]

Posted by Peter Zobel at 03/11/2001 10:33 AM EST


Engineer on team #557, Alpha C.R.T., from Detroit Cooley and Ford Motor Company.


In Reply to: Re: Need help with animation output to VHS
Posted by Kevin Sevcik on 03/11/2001 9:30 AM EST:



Ummm....how do I compress the AVI? Is that part of Studio Max or do you have a suggested utility? (gee can you tell I haven't done this before. We're lucky we have a sharp student handling this!)

My real concern is if its part of 3ds max we're in trouble because the rendering is taking forever and we likely would not have time to do it all over.

:Sometimes, the stupid computer will just skip. If that happens, you'll have to compress the AVI.
: Good Luck,
: Kevin (Hurriedly finishing his own animation)

[archiver]

Posted by Kevin Sevcik at 03/12/2001 2:32 AM EST


Other on team #57, Leopards, from BT Washington and the High School for Engineering Professions and Exxon, Kellog Brown & Root, Powell Electrical.


In Reply to: Re: Need help with animation output to VHS
Posted by Peter Zobel on 03/11/2001 10:33 AM EST:



well... either you can use adobe premier to compress the avi, or you can do it in 3ds after you've rendered it the first time.
Here's how you can do it in 3ds max after you've rendered it once. Pass this along to your sharp kid, if he's doing the whole thing in 3ds and doesn't have premiere, then he'll understand.
You start a new file and set the animation length to however many frames your whole animation is.
then, you go into Video Post, and add a File In event. You make that your old rendering AVI (uncompressed if it actually is uncompressed). Then you add a File Output event after that. Set the options so it saves to a compressed AVI format. Finally, make sure both of the events run for the entire animation. Then you just hit Execute Video post, have it run for the entire animation, and in minutes, you'll have a new, compressed AVI.