The slate

[fluffy]

So, I had to make a 30 second animation this week...and i'm reading about putting in a 5 second slate and a second of black before the animation. How does one go about doing this?
thanks

[BuddyB309]

you need:

Your highschool name,
team name
team number
how many seconds the animation is
and if it is stereo or mono

[fluffy]

how do i add it to the animation though?

[BuddyB309]

add it in a 3rd party program, or have a plane with the picture of text on it and switch it out with a plane of black

[fluffy]

which would be easier? Can you add frames into the beginning of the animation without messing it up? Im a total newb at this.

[adamrw91]

well if it depends on wether you have a video editor or not.
if you arent you could just add a plane with a texture on it with the info straight on it.
thats the lamemans way
lol

[fluffy]

But I'll need another 180 frames in 3ds max to do that at the beginning...
That would screw me up, unless there is any easy way to shift the frames that I have. What video editor would you suggest thats free and easy to download?

[adamrw91]

ok i got a free video editor.
virtualdub.org
this is a freeware video editor not to fancy but works fine.
i havent used it but ive heard it woorks half decent.

[fluffy]

thanks. I just downloaded the combustion software as well...hopefully I can get something out of this...uggg

[adamrw91]

heres another 1 if that 1 dosent work. this 1 hase a little more resources it might be better but i dont know how good it is.
http://jahshaka.org/

[fluffy]

thanks, well, I'm trying to render it now, wish me luck

[fluffy]

alright...well I got it all done, in 4 hours, and the file size is 160 megs over the 250 meg limit. Any way to decrease that?

[adamrw91]

are us sure u compressed it with a ntsc-DV1 compresser?
is it 29,97 frames per second?
otherwise im not totally sure what settings are wrong

[dario]

To add time at the beginning of the animation:
Click on the time configuration at the bottom right of your screen. You can choose to have the scene start at negative time. This will allow you to put 180 frames in front of your animation while keeping all other keys where they are.

[rastermon]

I think the best way is to add it in an editor.
Such as Video post that comes with 3DSMax - render menu -- video post
Or with Combustion that is also from Autodesk.
Make your slate and credits images - can even use powerpoint and save as a jpeg.
then import those images into the video post timeline.
Piece together your 5 sec title, 1 second black, then your animation (whether its a series of tif images or an already compressed QT mov)
Add 1 second of black to the end.
The render the edit. (this takes much less time than the original 3D render).
Make sure its NTSC-DV Quicktime 720 x480
The only prob with 3DS Video Post is no audio capability.

Good luck!