#combing flics
4 messages in this thread
i created two flics each at 640 x 480 using their own custom palattes.
the custom palattes were created by rendering the 10th frame of each flic.
one flic is 2M+ in size and the other is apprx. 1M+ in size.
flic 1 is about 160 frames and flic 2 is 300 frames
i used video post to combine them where the first frame of flic 2 started at
the last frame of flic1.
total frames set in video post was 460 frames.
i rendered using a low palette and was surprised that the final flic was
30M+ in size.
shouldn't the size be the same as the combined sizes of the two flics?
what's going on?
thx's
frank
Frank,
there are several different thing that could be going on.
rendering to a low pallete will cause 3DS to take the first frame of your
animation, create a pallete from it, and map every subsequent frame to that
pallete. This would probably produce good results for the first 160 frames of
the final flic, as that section already has one pallete. but it would map
everything in the 2nd flic to that pallete as well, wich would almost certainly
produce unwanted results. I'd suggest setting your pallete to medium or high.
the large file size could be attributed to sizing up your flics. for example,
if your original flics are 320×200 and you're compositing them at a resolution
of 640×480, 3DS will rescale the flics to that larger resolution and the
resultant flic would be much bigger just because here's more pixels. Large
flic sizes can happen when there is a lot of dithering patterns going on.
If you happen to have Animator Pro, you can load your first flic in, then
select Flics/Join from the pull down menu. then select your 2nd flic and
choose render, and it will join the nd onto the tail end of the first.
-Kyle
This discussion brings up a question I've had for a while, and can't find in
the books. When two flics are combined in Vpost, either splicing or
compositing, does the pallette setting in Vpost even matter? Does Vpost
re-calculate pallettes, or does it just use the original ones? If I render 2
flics, using custom palettes for both (those pallettes having been created by
rendering every 10th frame with high pallette), and then I decide to splice
them together in Vpost, should I set up the queue, and then render Another
custom pallette at every 10th frame and High, involving both flics in the
queue, and then finally render the combined flic, using the NEW custom
pallette? That's pretty involved, and I wouldn't want to go through it if it
wasn't going to have an effect.
Daniel,
Yes, the pallete setting in Vpost matters. Vpost treats the image data
in each frame as a truecolor image – any pallete-izing is done when it converts
your frames to a flic. If you're going to render two flics, then join them
together in VPOST with a custom pallete, you're better off rendering all your
frames to TGA's or JPG's, then making IFL's and creating ONE custom pallete and
ONE flic for ALL your truecolor image data. Basicly, if your FINAL OUTPUT is
going to be some sort of indexed color data (flics, gif's etc.) then work in
truecolor right up to the point where you're generating your final flic. If
you're creating custom palletes to keep all the colors in certain pallete
indexes, or to just allow for Windows static colors, the you're better off
editing your 3DS.SET file to change the "FLIC COLORS = " line to equeal 236 or
whatever. By doing this, you're letting 3DS create the best possible 236
colors from ALL your 24-bit images – which will produce better results for you.
-Kyle