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Monthly animation contest question
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These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Monthly animation contest question // Roundtable
Post by rotcorp // Mar 14, 2009, 12:30pm
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rotcorp
Total Posts: 73
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Hey, this might be one for Tom G. Just curious... it seems that the monthly animation contest is not accepting anything from previous versions of TS... exclusively 7.6 now. Did I misread or is that correct? I'm working between 6.6 and 7.6, mainly because some of my work needs motion studio (yes, I am missing hdri in a lot of those renders... I know there's a work around but I usually don't have the time). Wanted to throw something in there so I was just wondering if I misunderstood.
~Brad |
Post by mrbones // Mar 14, 2009, 1:46pm
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mrbones
Total Posts: 1280
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And wasnnt there any winners this month? |
Post by frootee // Mar 14, 2009, 3:09pm
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frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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no winners this month it appears, though I thought any released version of truespace could be used for the contest. |
Post by spacekdet // Mar 14, 2009, 3:36pm
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spacekdet
Total Posts: 1360
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The Fine Print. (http://www.caligari.com/Gallery/Contest.asp) |
Post by Steinie // Mar 14, 2009, 3:39pm
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Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
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I think the wording is confusing and the tS7.6 refers to Virtual Earth.
"Create a still image, an animation or a Virtual Earth 3D collection using trueSpace7.6 as your primary tool (you may use other programs to create texture maps, crop, and scale your rendered images, and assemble animation clips into one animation, and you may also use trueSpace plug-ins). If submitting an animation, please specify the codec used. When submitting a Virtual Earth 3D collection, please send the link to view the collection in Virtual Earth."
Yes there was no Winner in Animation or Virtual Earth.
I entered THREE renderings in one Month and I'm as idle as pond scum. So come on Artist show us what you got!
I just can't believe you all want to be worse than pond scum...:p |
Post by marcel // Mar 14, 2009, 11:56pm
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marcel
Total Posts: 569
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The team simply did not receive a video of sufficient quality to be selected as a winner. This is not the first time this has happened. But when you are busy doing real time, we do not as animation as ever. This explains (may be) that there is no winner. |
Post by TomG // Mar 16, 2009, 5:00am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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The gallery does accept entries made in any version of tS, but you'll need tS7.6 to export to VE.
There were no winners in the VE and animation categories for February, this is correct (the pages are waiting on an update to go live, this will make it more clear that there were no winners for those months as its not entirely apparent right now). Good categories to enter if you want a better chance of winning, less competition there at present than in the Images category ;)
HTH!
Tom |
Post by rotcorp // Mar 16, 2009, 4:35pm
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rotcorp
Total Posts: 73
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Cool. Thanks folks. I want to get something together, and it's good to know that any TS version still counts. I'm not doing a VE entry just yet (too busy building rocks, robots and spaceships right now), but that's also good to know for the future.
Thanks again.:) |
Post by rotcorp // Mar 26, 2009, 4:24pm
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rotcorp
Total Posts: 73
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OK, need a little help here... I'm trying to get my animation under the 15 Mb limit, and I managed to do so, finally, using realmedia for output. Well, D'oh, it's not supported.
OK, I suck at compression. The vid is only about a minute and a half long, but using any other codec I'm either looking at a decent vid with a 35-50 MB range or I'm looking at graphics more appropriate on a commodore 64. Anyone keen on compression? I would love some suggestions. Output program: Premiere 6.6
Thanks in advance.
~Brad |
Post by Breech Block // Mar 26, 2009, 4:34pm
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Breech Block
Total Posts: 844
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I think you will find the submission size for the animation contest has been raised to 30 Megabytes. |
Post by TomG // Mar 26, 2009, 5:00pm
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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WMV we find works best these days. We've used it for some years now as our format of choice for courses, after much experimenting.
We use Windows Media Video 9 and Windows Media Audio 9.2 to make the WMVs.
For AVIs you could try DivX or Xvid, both work well. AVIs don't stream, of course, and we do find the file sizes tend to be larger than the WMVs.
HTH!
Tom |
Post by Jack Edwards // Mar 26, 2009, 7:40pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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If you're using AVI, an h264 codec might produce better results. x264 is good and free:
http://www.x264.nl/ |
Post by mrbones // Mar 26, 2009, 7:49pm
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mrbones
Total Posts: 1280
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They will accept a little larger for flash .swf if its really good streaming only |
Post by TomG // Mar 27, 2009, 2:06am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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Have to admit we abandoned swf - it gave great results sometimes, but other times it was awful and way too large. It was dependent on how much movement there was, I believe. There were also occasional issues with playback and controls. It's use was fairly short lived as our standard. It's also less easy to save and watch offline, since you have to grab a whole web page with associated files, rather than just one file.
So personally, based on our tests and experiences, I wouldn't recommend swf for animations. Of course the choice is up to you, and maybe you have one of those where swf works great and gives good compression! So it's "your mileage may vary" :)
HTH!
Tom |
Post by marcel // Mar 27, 2009, 7:18am
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marcel
Total Posts: 569
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I just tried an animation hd (720 or 1080) with divx 7 and the result is superb for a very good compression. Recommended especially if there is a very detailed background. Still images between two movements are less damaged as the mepg4. I did not see any degradation in relation to the original image.
the only problem is that the media player change the color (more blue) when i play the animation (not with the divx player).
For my "future project" i use an uncompressed file to render and convert it with this codec after the post production. uncompressed file is the best way to keep the original (you can use a zip file to reduce the size of an uncompressed file for your archives without change the quality). |
Post by mrbones // Mar 27, 2009, 8:07am
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mrbones
Total Posts: 1280
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Hi TOmG,
I have abandoment issues now,:confused:
If you have abandoned flash .swf is there a possibility you could locate the source code files and let someone else continue wwith?
I loved the Flash Output~! even though it was a little clunky, It allowed me to win my first first place finish in the contest 6 years ago.
http://www.caligari.com/Gallery/Animations/2003/sep03/anim/Winner.htm
I want to use flash in TrueSPace because it allows me to create things that no one else can!
Have to admit we abandoned swf - it gave great results sometimes, but other times it was awful and way too large. It was dependent on how much movement there was, I believe. There were also occasional issues with playback and controls. It's use was fairly short lived as our standard. It's also less easy to save and watch offline, since you have to grab a whole web page with associated files, rather than just one file.
So personally, based on our tests and experiences, I wouldn't recommend swf for animations. Of course the choice is up to you, and maybe you have one of those where swf works great and gives good compression! So it's "your mileage may vary" :)
HTH!
Tom |
Post by TomG // Mar 27, 2009, 8:21am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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We abandoned Flash as a good format for our courses, I mean. Here we are discussing codecs in which to deliver animations, and we do testing to determine which gives best quality with least file size in the most consistent way for our video courses.
We briefly used Flash some years back, but discovered it was not consistent - some courses its compression was really bad, and the playback of those was inconsistent also, so we no longer use Flash for our courses, or demo videos, etc. Our chosen final format for a video is WMV.
This has nothing to do with the Flash export from inside tS however and it being abandoned or changed or discontinued. Just a statement in answer to "what codec would you recommend for my video" - we wouldn't recommend swf / Flash :)
HTH!
Tom |
Post by mrbones // Mar 27, 2009, 8:28am
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mrbones
Total Posts: 1280
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Oh Good,:o
Just a mis communication then,
Thanks all is well now!:)
We abandoned Flash as a good format for our courses, I mean. Here we are discussing codecs in which to deliver animations, and we do testing to determine which gives best quality with least file size in the most consistent way for our video courses.
We briefly used Flash some years back, but discovered it was not consistent - some courses its compression was really bad, and the playback of those was inconsistent also, so we no longer use Flash for our courses, or demo videos, etc. Our chosen final format for a video is WMV.
This has nothing to do with the Flash export from inside tS however and it being abandoned or changed or discontinued. Just a statement in answer to "what codec would you recommend for my video" - we wouldn't recommend swf / Flash :)
HTH!
Tom |
Post by jamesmc // Mar 27, 2009, 8:32am
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jamesmc
Total Posts: 2566
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Flash has issues with transparency. i.e. Some things, especially complex textures just won't show up as transparent.
Quicktime is the most recommended among the applications I use (Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro)
The advantages of flash are, however, numerous in education - scripting for one. Look at the interactive menus in Camtasia Studio for example. One can index their video with interactive built-in menus, captions and title selection menus.
However, same can do with other programs, but not without a lot of overhead. |
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