Compositing/rendering for demo reel

[beenyweenies]

Hi people!
...
What next, I wanna prepare my reel for both systems: NTSC and PAL. My source frames are 24fps so I now that for NTSC animation will be little faster, that's no problem. I don't know what settigns should I use for NTSC and PAL, U know all this issues with TVs resolutions. The resolution of my animations is: 1024x576, should I in example scale it by 70%???
Please help

In my opinion (and some will disagree I'm sure) you shouldn't have ever output your animation at 1024x576 (PAL HD Widescreen?). and you aren't outputing to HD so why add so much render time from both the 3D app AND After Effects?

If you wanted the letterboxed "cinematic" look, you should have just rendered out anamorphic versions for both PAL and D1 sizes from your 3D app, chopping off a LOT of render time and eliminating your current headache, since the files would drop right into after effects and render out nicely with no conversions.

THAT SAID, here's some ideas:


1.how render out all these stuff to look the same as source targas(the same great quality)?
2.how to preserve 1024x576 'cinematic style' format on both ntsc and pal?
3.how set After Effect for render stuff out to ntsc and pal? There r many presets and pixel aspect ratios in AE.
4.what about dvd bandwitch settings?
5.what authoring tool do U suggest? Premiere?
Please help

1. Do not try to output your final DVD files from After Effects. Render out a high quality version (Quicktime, animation codec or similar) and let the DVD Authoring App do the transcoding to MPEG2.
2. Create a 720x486 composition, drag your animation sequence into it, and scale it down until it fits perfectly horizontally. This will leave black bands at the top and bottom, aka Letterboxing. Do the same for your PAL version, creating a 720x576 composition instead.
3. You will be outputing standard D1 (720x486) and PAL (720x576) files. No need for anamorphic or other settings, these are standard renders since your animation was already output to widescreen dimensions and nested into a regular comp rather than using anamorphic squeeze. Just use the basic D1 and PAL settings. I would suggest outputting either Quicktime files in the animation codec OR uncompressed AVIs. Your DVD authoring program should have no problem transcoding either format.
4. For DVD bandwidth, set this in the DVD app. I would suggest around 8000Kbps or lower, but you have to test and be careful because some DVD players cannot keep up with higher bitrate files and will skip and distort. Bad news.
5. Premiere does not author DVDs that I know of. Sony's got a good DVD authoring program (DVD Architect), and Sonic Solutions is widely regarded as the leader in DVD authoring apps. If you have access to a Mac, DVD Studio pro is the better of all these options IMO. That said, all of these options cost good money, and the cheaper ones have really crappy transcoding software.

Good Luck!

[Baq]

hey beenyweenies,
many, many thanks for answer and infos. Now I can start to work.

[dbates]

5. Premiere does not author DVDs that I know of. Sony's got a good DVD authoring program (DVD Architect), and Sonic Solutions is widely regarded as the leader in DVD authoring apps. If you have access to a Mac, DVD Studio pro is the better of all these options IMO. That said, all of these options cost good money, and the cheaper ones have really crappy transcoding software.

According to http://www.manifest-tech.com/media_pc/premiere_65.htm,
On Windows, Premiere includes the Adobe MPEG Encoder for exporting, and Sonic DVDit! LE for DVD authoring. The MPEG Encoder, powered by Main Concept (www.mainconcept.com (http://www.mainconcept.com/)), includes presets to export to common DVD and Video CD formats, NTSC and PAL, as well as advanced options to set encoding options down to the subtlest detail. You then can import these files into the included Sonic DVDit! LE (www.dvdit.com (http://www.dvdit.com/)), and author great-looking DVDs with interactive menus and custom titles and graphics.

That's for version 6.5 though.

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Edit: Hey, 500 posts! I've been spending far too much time on CGtalk. . . :D

[beenyweenies]

According to
That's for version 6.5 though.

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Edit: Hey, 500 posts! I've been spending far too much time on CGtalk. . . :D

Oh, well that's cool. Never use Premiere myself - still doesn't sound like you can author DVDs with it though, which is what I thought the poster meant.

Thanks for the info!

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