Walkthrough Export to AVI

[craig.80659]

I have been having problems exporting a walkthrough to an AVI file. When I try to open the file in windows media player it often cannot open the file saying it is corrupt or does not support the compression codec.... I am not using any compression. if the AVI file does open it appears with each frame split into 4 parts .... not aligned .... very strange.

Does anyone have any fool proof suggestions about export settings, resolution etc?

[luigi]

I have been having problems exporting a walkthrough to an AVI file. When I try to open the file in windows media player it often cannot open the file saying it is corrupt or does not support the compression codec.... I am not using any compression. if the AVI file does open it appears with each frame split into 4 parts .... not aligned .... very strange.

Does anyone have any fool proof suggestions about export settings, resolution etc?
Well, I have been very unsuccessful to get a good rendered walkthrough as an avi....I have used the save to *.jpg feature rather than avi then use a free software to make them all into an avi (one that doesn't need to be installed...just run).....

What this also allows you to do is that in case something goes wrong in the middle (like a crash, power failure, etc.) you don't have to re-render the whole thing...just find out the latest jpg rendered and re-render a frame range, rather than the whole thing...

That's my suggestion...

the free movie program (to make the jpg to an avi) is found at http://virtualdub.org/download, I think it was Jeffery that had suggested them a while back...

Take care,

[craig.80659]

ThanksLuigi,

I will try that. However, I am only using a shaded view. I have given up on renderred views they take way to long. When you talking several hours for a single image . 3000 frames is a joke.

Craig

[Max Lloyd]

if it is several hours per image, I would suggest you have the render settings way too high for an animation, or that you have excessive lighting within the scene that is slowing it down. Personally, when I do a rendered walkthrough I like each frame to take no more than 5 minutes. That means a weekend rendering should get me an animation by the time I return monday morning.

Either way, exporting to an avi is pretty simple really, whether it be shaded views or rendered images.

When doing a shaded view walkthrough, I would expect the export of that to be less than 5 minutes if it is the standard 300 frames (unless you are using shadows, in which case it will slow it down.)

Personally I do compress, using the cinepack codec. I have never had any problems with this.

I hear what Luigi is saying, but I wouldn't break it down into jpgs. If you are worried about it, break it down into 2 or 3 separate sections by limiting how many frames you export each time ie: if its a 300 frame walkthrough, do one section as frames 1-99, the second section frames 100-199 etc) Less of a disappointment if it goes wrong!

The advantage of doing it that way is you can for instance, make the first sequence in hidden line, the second in shaded view, then say the third sequence as a rendered walkthrough. Can look pretty cool when stitched together and saves time over rendering the whole thing whilst giving a flavour of the rendered appearance.

One other important thing. When you have finished the walkthrough, whether compressed, rendered or shaded, you will have one big mother of an avi file on your hands. I think its best to take it straight into something like windows movie maker and reduce its file size right down. Its way easier to handle and you will hardly notice the difference in quality! All of the animations I have done here have been taken through windows movie maker as you can even reduce them to say 1mb if you wish.....they can even look kinda cool and sketchy when done like this!

So much to say, so little time!

Check out these threads where I have posted before and it may give you some ideas or tips.

Good luck!

Max.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=32267&highlight=animation
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=13510&highlight=animation
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=36822&highlight=animation
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=22698&highlight=walkthrough
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=12925&highlight=video

[Mr Spot]

I have been having problems exporting a walkthrough to an AVI file. When I try to open the file in windows media player it often cannot open the file saying it is corrupt or does not support the compression codec.... I am not using any compression. if the AVI file does open it appears with each frame split into 4 parts .... not aligned .... very strange.

Does anyone have any fool proof suggestions about export settings, resolution etc?
How large is the exported AVI file? Media player has issues with opening an AVI file larger than 1 gig (i think..., can't remember the exact number)