Rendering Codecs

dont know about your second question but Xvid is a good codec for high quaility and minimal file size, its about the middle of codecs though so you can get ones which will churn out a lower file size but Xvid will give you better quality then those, so as i said, it sits in the middle

if file size is really a problem, id personally just go with DivX (divx comes out lower then Xvid dosent it?)

Bink free and nice.

Pantmonger

just to clarify pants' comment

http://www.radgametools.com/

Bink really does kick ass.

DivX - Originally a rip of the stollen Microsoft MPEG-4 codec (versions 1-3). Version for was re-written from scratch and sucked hard. Version 5.00 wasn't that great. Version 5.01 and up are better. Nice quality. Very fast to encode. Really easy to encode. Really good file sizes.

XviD - A project that ex DivX guys went to work on as DivX is starting to become a pay project. XviD has much better quality than DivX. Slightly slower than DivX to encode. A bit of a prick to encode as the options are fairly in-depth and not to 'artist' friendly :) Still has problems with certain parts of the movie having area pixelisation. Due to the increase in quality, the file sizes are much larger, but not too much larger (than DivX). It is still in it's version 1 betas, so it isn't really completed yet. Notice how XviD is the reverse spelling of DivX.

MPEG-1 - The original form of Mpeg. Plays on any computer. Can give nice quality movies with higher bit rates. Easy to use. Pretty quick to encode. File sizes are the main problem with Mpegs. They are fairly large. Mpeg-1's (and 2's) have a problem where the quality of the encoder depends on the quality of the final product. Most free Mpeg encoders aren't that great. VCDs are just Mpeg-1's with it's bitrate locked. At VCD quality. it is 10mb a minute.

MPEG-2 - The better version of Mpeg-1. This is the format that is used for SVCDs (locked again) and DVD (lots of options available). Awesome quality at higher bit rates. A lot of encoding options and freedom. Very large file sizes (almost worth the quality though). Very few free Mpeg-2 encoders available (and all of them aren't that great). Needs to have an Mpeg-2 decoding program on your computer. This means a software based DVD player (PowerDVD, WinDVD, Xing). I sitll really love Mpeg-2, but if you want to distribute the movie via the net, the file size will become a big issue.

All Mpeg-4 codecs (DivX, XviD, etc) all have their own encoders, so you can use any app to encode them. Mpeg-1 and 2 are dependant on app you use to encode. The best is TMPEGenc Plus 2.5 (http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/index.html). It is cheap, easy to use and kicks arse. There is a free version available, but you can only use it for 14 days.

Also, all of those encoders need a seperate audio encoder. VBR MP3s are very nice to use (and small), but 5.1 ACC becoming very popular.

Bink was a really good codec a few years back, but it is starting to show it's age. Fantastic as it's codecs are included in the file (it will play on any computer). Can't skip through files and the viewer can't change if the movie is full screen or windowed. It is still a good codec though as it is free :)

If you are really serious and interested, then I recomend going here.
http://www.doom9.org/

Just a few questions:
1. How long will your showreel go for?
2. How are you going to transport it? E.g DVD, SVCD, etc.

Reason for this will depend on what codec is more suitable with what you are hoping to achieve. For long film (e.g 30 mins), I'd suggest Mpeg-2 as you will have high quality video and you'll be able to play it on most stand-alone DVD players. For approx. 5 mins, I'd suggest either Xvid or DivX, I'd prefer DivX, but everyone has their opinion on quality. DivX definitely good for video that isn't fast moving.

Hope that helps. [8D]

Hazard, I gather from your post that you already have some rendered out clips and are wondering whether to just slap these into Premiere or whether you should render them all out again as .tga sequences or something? Provided the already rendered clips are of a reasonable size and quality then it would probably be of little benefit to do the latter, but yes, there will be some drop in quality.

On the codec front, when I recently compiled my first showreel I ended up rendering a 2min half PAL clip out of Premiere as a .wmv that ended up being about 4.5 MB in size, which I was very happy with, so I would recommend that, but be aware that the person recieving the file must have Media Player installed, but it's a safe bet they do. Give it a go, see how you like it, I'm yet to have any complaints of 'can't play your showreel'.

And for those that are interested (shameless plug time!)here's a link to it, you can check the quality yourself.

http://www.Antissa.com/Rhys/RW_showreel2004.wmv

Hey WoldMan ive got a couple points to raise regarding your showreel:

how come none of your models are textured, ie i mean painted with uvw's not just slapped on a max generated bump & or diffuse colour with spec highlights?

your title fade in / outs are really nice - but dont seem to work all that good with simple 360 rotations of models.

The very last walk cycle in your reel is REALLY good and stands out so much more than anything else in the reel - but it only goes on for like just over 1 second, i reckon you should have kept that one going for a bit longer.

Thanks everyone for your oppinions on this BTW - ive got something thats hit my level of standards, im probably going to bink it too ;) but my showreel currently sits at 98 meg ( cd version ) and 6.4 meg ( net version ) ... ill be posting links as soon as i unveil my secret.....

Hazard, I know what you mean about the models, texturing is something that doesn't come naturally to me and because of the projects they were intended for(short animations, not games, I was trained in an animation course so Unwrapping was only touched on lightly) I just went with what looked the best for the time allowed. I am, however, working on my texturing skills all the time, and they are improving (the head model is fully unwrapped and textured). Also I'll be removing the grey man model soon and probably replace him with 'sheepman' or something else I'm working on.

What do you suggest would work well with 360 rotations? I'm not sure in what way you mean that they don't work well.

As for that final walk cycle, there's a reason it's at the end because that's the 'rigging' category, I didn't actually do the walk cycle myself. I think I'm going to have to alter my reel because other people have had similar comments to yours without realising that I'm just illustrating my rigging skills :/

Thanks a lot for taking the time to download it and give me some genuinely constructive crits Hazard, much appreciated. Let us know when we can get a squiz at yours and I'll return the favour.

Hey W : ( note the name abreviationg getting smaller and smaller ;) )

This is my oppinion only, but firstly what is your demo reel trying to portray you as ??
I get an allrounder kind of feeling from yours, kinds says " i can model, rig, and make short animations " if your going for that - then by all means fill in the gaps and get your best of everything in there - but if you want to be an animator - then show some of that in your reel, less selction - more quality / and by that i mean 1 or 2 pieces - that focus on facial animation really closely or something like that. Same goes for any other area your trying to break into.

For me my demo is going to be soley based on modelling / texturing from a concept. - as thats what i enjoy most doing. and even though id like to animate and concept as well - they definetly arent my strengths - they may appear in my reel somwhere but i definately wont portray them as a feature.

also my oppinion, a demo reel should contain no work but your own ( soundtracks etc aside ). I think if you got cut down to be in the last 3 - 5 potential employers and they asked you the question that i just did regards that last walk cycle - and you replied " oh i actually didnt do that someone else did, but i rigged it " i think youd just have blown your chances...( of course depending on the nature of work you applied for ) if that means youll have a rather bare show reel, then it looks like youve got some work ahead of you ;)

and lastly regards the segment headings thing - i just meant when i saw your headings - instantly i thought, " nice...clear consise nothing too fancy just straight to the point " followed closely by " ohhh..... 360 rotations,... TOO straight to the point [;)] " all im saying is show some different shots of your models or flash the wireframe over the top of the rotation for a few frames, and for most of them id slow down the rotation a fraction. just something that varies from the norm of 360 rotations. I hope that helps some man, once again, this is my oppinion only, and yeah - youl get a chance to crit my showreel soon enough :D

I thought it was pretty cool, but are all show reels that short. It only went for like 2 mins. No offense. I'm just curious. The music was pretty painful though. I'm sure they won't be paying attention to that anyway.

all show reels -better- be that short. I'm not going to sit and watch a pile of reels that go for any more than that.

edit: Just one more note - for the love of all that is holy, make sure if you're doing a cd reel that it can be played from the cd.

Seems like the majority feel that the ideal reel to sit and watch is a cd which contains 2 files in the root directory - name_reel.avi and name_cv.doc. Bung in the cd, look at the reel (and NO DAMN COPYING because they're too big to stream from cd), and check out the resume'.

yup as far as i know - 2 minutes is pretty damn long for a showreel.

Remembering that its a showcase of your BEST work - whats your take on how many pieces should be in a video showreel ji ? for mine im having 4 or 5 models - showing Mesh/wire shots, textured shots. but with the cd version of my reel im including an html portoflio that has still shots of the models, uvw flats, concept images, and wires for all the models - all up im thinking around the 60 - 80 seconds mark for the video - and if anyone wants to see more - they can flip through the html portfolio.

I'd just like to point out if you use a codec like divx or whatever.. chances are that whoever views your demo will have to install the codec.. this could be really annoying and might even blow your chances of getting it viewed in the first place... use mpg for good universal support. Also I really recommend using Soronsen 3 codec within Quicktime.
Yes quicktime! I feel that it beats divx handsdown as far as quality is concerned.... plus quicktime lets your portfolio get viewed on both PC's and Mac's.. there's not many machines out there that dosent have quicktime player installed

Thanks again Hazard, following your suggestions I'm going to ditch the grey male model, probably the car (diverts too much from what I'm trying to sell myself as), the whole 'rigging' section (neither of the anims are mine) and some of the other average pieces. However, I assure you that everything else on the reel is mine :) This should bring the time down to around 1min 30.

no worries wiz... i wouldnt mind seeing it once your done, im almost finished mine - just a few more edits etc and its all done :) ill post a link when it is.