huge file size, codec?

[Mylenium]

hi all!

with your help i overcame most of the AE problems i've been having over the past couple of days. now, in the final render process i might need your advice one more time.

aim: 40minute animation plays via pc on three displays (hw has been tested an works)

question1:
how can i render this baby (2160x576px) without having my hds explode. the lossless video for windows uses way more than 100gigs. even with the huffyuff codec the render exceeds the capacity of my hds.
ps: the mpeg2-dvd would do the job - the problem here is that for obvious reasons this format reduces my animation to standard DVD pal 16:9 format. so mpeg2-dvd is not the choice for 2160x576px

any ideas how i can get the render out under 70gigs ???

question2:

the animation will run on a pc. so is it better to finally make it a standard video dvd or should i go for xvid or the like?

thanks everyone

markus

www.humanchaos.net (http://www.humanchaos.net)

Render it out in managable chunks and use the playlist feature of your playback software to "re-assemble" the snippets once you've converted them to Xvid/ DivX/ WMV or whatever you are going to use. This way it doesn't matter where the parts end up and overall compression may be better in general.

Mylenium

[beaker]

h264 all the way. It gives far superior file sizes and the quality is great. I suggest you use x264 instead of Apple's h.264. The quality is a lot nicer and it compresses a heck of a lot faster.

[scrimski]

Always render a lossles master first.
H.264 is included in QuickTime, x264 you might have to install
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=10&t=534735

[mm149047]

you made me very curious ... :)
is the h264 supposed to run within AE? i mean should the codec show up? or do i have to render lossless first and the use the h264 GU ?
as to x264 - any hints how to get this one to run?

thanx
markus

[mm149047]

i am almost where i wanna go :)
the h264 does a great job - the only problem is the washed out look it produces. the colors are rather pale and not as saturated as eg the "animation" codec in the quicktime dropdown.

so here's the problem:
h264 works great but lacks saturation
animation codec produces better color but eats up way too much space.

my animation is supposed to run for 45 minutes. so with the animation codec option this would be way beyond 100gigs!!

i am pretty desperate already -- the client's clock won't stop ticking :(

any ideas? i mean splitting the job in junks does not reduce the file size -

i was wondering how 2 hd movies fit on a dvd and my 45 min job explodes way beyond anything .

again - the animation is not necessarily supposed to run on video dvd since it will be launched on pc.

looking desperately forward to your expertise

markus

www.humanchaos.net (http://www.humanchaos.net)

[scrimski]

That h.264 wasehd out look has been discussed a few times already, so do a search and you will find something.

[beaker]

so here's the problem:
h264 works great but lacks saturation
animation codec produces better color but eats up way too much space.Which h.264 are you using to compress with?

Doesn't really matter anyways, just color correct the final output on the way out to fix the color and gamma issues. Lossy compression is an art, it never gives you perfect output that matches the source.

First, don't do your final compression from your main project in After Effects. Take the animation codec version and recompress that to h.264. Many lossy codecs like to look at the frames before and after the current frame your working on in order to make a quality file. Take a small section of that animation codec and add little color corrections till it matches the source just right.

[mm149047]

Which h.264 are you using to compress with?

Doesn't really matter anyways, just color correct the final output on the way out to fix the color and gamma issues. Lossy compression is an art, it never gives you perfect output that matches the source.

First, don't do your final compression from your main project in After Effects. Take the animation codec version and recompress that to h.264. Many lossy codecs like to look at the frames before and after the current frame your working on in order to make a quality file. Take a small section of that animation codec and add little color corrections till it matches the source just right.

beaker! thanks for your help.

as to h.264 -> i use v2.1.0
so with the animation version you're saying that i should render out managable junks and then do the compression outside AE? would quicktime be the choice to compress? but ... hmmm - how can i put the junks together again?

markus

[beaker]

as to h.264 -> i use v2.1.0
I mean what h.264 codec are you using? There are 20 different ones. x.264, Xvid 264, the Apple version, etc....?

so with the animation version you're saying that i should render out managable junks and then do the compression outside AE? would quicktime be the choice to compress? but ... hmmm - how can i put the junks together again?No, I'm saying you should just test render a small section of the file to get the proper post color correction settings in order to apply it to the entire thing so it matches your source.

Yes do the compression outside AE. Quicktime works, also there is Cleaner, Sorenson Squeeze, Compressor, FFmpeg, etc...

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