Tips For Video Compression (spring?)

[Domarius]

I need some tips on how to get the vids so damn well compressed

 

I have been downloading the example vids made by MrDes and noticed the post where Spring said they were 3mb or something - now they're in the range of 1mb to 500kb, and I'm very impressed! It didn't take me very long at all to download them on my 56k.

 

Since I will soon be posting example vids of my animates, then I would appreciate any tips on how to compress this tightly, and what software to use (free?) - since I won't have the convenience of sending huge files out to spring for him to compress first.

[oDDity]

Get virtualdub, and a codec like divx. I'm not sure if divx is free, there are probably free compression codec on sourceforge as well no doubt.

In virtualdub, when you load your movie, go to the video tab-compression and choose you codec, and then go to file-save as avi.

[god_is_my_goldfish]

The full adjustable version of Divx is not free. I heavily recommend Xvid, which is what we used for our teaser trailer so long ago. It gets you all the quality of a Divx encoded file with only 2/3-1/3 the size. Just compare these two files one encoded with Xvid, the other Divx, both are the same exact quality, yet the Xvid one is less than 2/3 the size of the Divx one.

 

After video you really want to take a look at sound encoding, as with many improperly encoded files the sound encoding eats up more space than the video. I suggest compressing the sound to MP3 format, with a setting like 40 kBits/s, 22050 hz, stereo. That only eats up about 4KB per second of footage, and has a nice trade off of sound quality for file size. (Though once they make a way to tag on .ogg with video files, the size will drop even further)

 

If you have any further questions just PM me or post on it.

[oDDity]

He doesn't need sound to show animaitons.

[god_is_my_goldfish]

Meh. It's a good guideline in any case

[sparhawk]

I would like to see an animation sooner than later, een if it means that I have to download a big file.

[Domarius]

If you want sooner, then you will be downloading a small file... I'm on 56k, remember?? Did you really think I was trying to compress them to conserve YOUR bandwidth - hah!!

 

Yes the sound compressions are nice to know - thanks Man-with-a-big-stick, I'll be using that in the future on other things anyway

 

Thanks everyone. Gonna use XVid I guess. I assume once I have the codec, the Xvid compression option will be available in any video compression program of my choice, eg. when exporting animation as video from 3DSMax?

[god_is_my_goldfish]

It should, but if not, export it as a raw .avi, then use Virtual Dub to convert it to Xvid compression.

 

The only downside of xvid is that some programs take issue with it, and will crash if you try to export from them using Xvid (the most notable being Adobe Premeire, though After Effects handles it fine for some reason.)

[Domarius]

No probs - just downloaded virtual dub Thanks.

[sparhawk]

Did you really think I was trying to compress them to conserve YOUR bandwidth - hah!!

 

Oddity also wouldn't mind.

[Domarius]

It certainly didn't escape my notice that he creates very well compressed videos also. I download his very quickly.

[Domarius]

Every time I choose XVid as a compressor I get the same message when I try to export, wether I'm using MotionBuilder to save the video, or Virtual Dub to convert the uncompressed video;

 

Cannot start video compression:

An unknown error occourred (may be corrupt data).

(error code -100)

 

I've exported the video as Full frames uncompressed AVI, twice.

 

I've been looking on the net and it seems this is a generic error message that could mean anything because the programmer didn't put in any decent error message handling (can't expect much for free though...)

 

I've tried re-installing XVid as well.

 

It's a real shame because I have an anim ready for you guys to look at and I can't upload it because of this. I've tried other compressors and the filesize is too big.

[Springheel]

Mrdes compressed his own videos, not me. I don't know what he used.

[Domarius]

Oh well, oDDity compresses his own vids, and they are small. I'll wait till he gets back to me.

[oDDity]

I do get an error when trying to use xvid to render straight out of motionbuilder, but not when using it from virtualdub.

I just open the uncompressed avi, go to video-compression, choose xvid mpeg-4 codec, and then file-save as avi.

[Domarius]

That's what I did, I even "reset to default" in the Xvid compressor set up...

[god_is_my_goldfish]

Hmmm, you aren't exporting with any sound are you?

[Domarius]

Nope, disabled sound. In VirtualDub I specifically went to Audio and chose "no sound" or whatever it is.

 

The file I'm trying to compress is exported from MotionBuilder as "Full Frames (Uncompressed)" AVI file.

[Domarius]

Gah - figured it out - it has to be a standard resolutin - 320x200, 640x480, etc.