rendered .avi problems

[Gunslinger]

So i just rendered a 500 frame, 30 fps .avi video using max's preset stuff, but when i went to watch it the video would pause slightly after every few seconds. what's up with that? also i had an object with a basic color on it and in the video it kept looking like the object's color was changing in certain areas where an omni light shined on it, this is something i've seen before, how do i keep it from happening again?

[Sunny Thaper]

If you render the avi in too high a resolution/quality, it will most certainly slow your pc down. What you can do is download a low overhead codec like www.divx.com or render out in quicktime, both provide very good means of low overhead videos. Also, about your weird lighting thing, it could be because of the quality of the avi itself too. Lots of weird artifacts can appear in low quality avis.

[stevek]

Even a QT will play bad if you don't apply a compressor to it. You need to add a CODEC and not render an UNCOMPRESSED file. There are very few computers that can handle an uncompressed file playing back in any player- DIVX is compressed AVI and QT could be either way depending on your settings.

DIVX as Sunny mentioned is good

For QT: you can run animation or preferably Sorenson (go to Sorenson.com and see if there are newer versions you can download for free)

For AVI/WMV: you can run the MPEG4 V3 codecs that will play in media player 6.4 and above

The codecs are mostly determined by what players are installed in you system.

If you have any kind of editing system- Find out what codecs it uses and render with them- this way its all compatible.

Testing can be done in any compressed format you want- but You want your final renders to be uncompressed until you compile it to create you final Output. This was mentioned in another tread and was great advice. If you render an compressed file and then compile it in an edit system then output another compressed file- you will loose quality because you create a compression of a compression. Ive even seen bad color hellation and cuttoff frames and wired pixelation from this situation.

I use a great CODEC that is high quality and will playback on most systems(with the codec- which I installed). Go to Avid.com and look for the meridien CODEC and install. Then render a QT with the MERIDIEN Compressed compressor and select 2:1 NTSC. (Note: I think the frame needs to be 720x486 D1 non-square pixels- which you can set in the render options)- I'm trying to find out from Autodesk what system they use (if any) to compile these animations- if they use an avid they it should be OK to deliver this way even though its not 640x480- I HAVEN'T HEARD BACK FROM MY EMAIL A FEW DAYS AGO SO I'M STILL WAITING TO SEE.

[Jeremy_Mc]

FYI: autodesk requires you to use the cinepak codec (according to last year's rules...)

also try changing how frequent the keys are (default is 15). that might help a little bit...

*jeremy

[stevek]

This year they said ANYTHING GOES- Which will get some people in trouble- I know from experience.

[Jeremy_Mc]

really? sweet...

divX here we come

*jeremy

[Gunslinger]

Question for Stevek, what's QT? Quicktime?

[Banchan]

I'm obviously not who u r talking to but yes, QT = quicktime.

[AJ Quick]

Compress it a little bit more.

I have also seen that it is very important to put key frames in every 15 - 30 in order for it to keep track better.