Creating 16:9 PAL Files for Final Cut Pro

[Adam Trachtenberg]

I get pretty good results with QT mpeg 4 codec, using medium or low quality for drafts and best quality for finals.

[Greg Paterson]

Thanks Adam,

I have tried this but it is the same as earlier attempts.
I am thinking that there maybe something about the animation itself that is causing this.
Is this a feasible postulation?
Do some animations render more smoothly than others?
If so what features in an animation cause it to render as a jerky and not smooth video.??
PS this should not be a fields (interlace)issue as the output format is frames and played back on a computer.

Thanks
Greg

http://www.teliocide.com
http://www.3D_Icthyomania.com
http://www.croc_swamp_fishing.com
http://www.tropical_carp.com

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Hello, Greg (and Adam, of course).
Here’s the thing: The best way to produce a delivery (not a production) version for web distribution, etc is to first make a production quality master and then derive the different distribution versions from that. This is because delivery codecs are interframe/temporal technologies that produce much better results when they are able to “study” (2 pass compression) an already finished source (ideally with no or little compression). Good applications to do this are Apple Compressor, Sorenson Squeeze, etc.

From Cinema 4D you could export a 720×480 file with 16:9 pixel aspect, or a 864×480 file with square pixels (and make FCP force it to fit). If your main concern is being practical, you should use the Quicktime codec that matches your FCP sequence settings. This means, if your FCP sequence is DV, exporting a Quicktime DV file will play in real time in FCP.
If your major concern is quality, then using the Apple uncompressed codecs are the best option, given you have the proper video hardware to use or take advantage of them. Of course if that’s the case, those files will also play in real time inside FCP.

TGA/TIFF sequences are a good intermediate step. Because they allow you to stop a long render and resume it later from the last rendered frame. After that, you could use Quicktime player to import the still image sequence and export a suitable Quicktime file.

Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com

[Greg Paterson]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Here is the URL:

https://www.geocities.com/teliocide/Cry_for_Help.avi

File Size = 1.5 meg

The render settings are:
1024 x 768 16:9 HDTV frames producing 1024 x 576 @ 25 fps.

Codec is DiVx 5.1 HD (1024 x 576) default preset 25 fps data rate 50% (4 megabits per sec) progressive.

Suggestions please.

http://www.teliocide.com
http://www.3D_Icthyomania.com
http://www.croc_swamp_fishing.com
http://www.tropical_carp.com

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Greg: During the last few years, it became quite clear that Divx has little technological relevance outside of its’ specific user base (movie bootlegs). It’s a propietary derivative of MPEG-4 technology, which isn’t supported by any of the big multimedia architectures (Windows Media, Quicktime and Flash).

The H-264 codec (also known as Advance Video Codec, also known as MPEG-4 Advanced Profile) is so much better and it can be enjoyed by anyone who has Quicktime 7.0 or later installed.

1024×768 or 1024×576 are completely outisde of the PAL standard sizes (or any other, for that matter). For the web, you’ll be fine (some sort of non compliant, semi HD size). But you also wanted it for broadcast TV, right?

Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com

[Greg Paterson]

Hi Adolfo,

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply in detail.
My question has progressed since my first post of this problem.
I am quite aware of what you have written but now I feel my problem is with the animation itself and not with the encoding.

The client wants a Targa file sequence 1024 x 576 from this they will create the output format they desire. I was using divx 1024 x 576 because with a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1 I get to see what the Targa file sequence will look like …. easily.

I have also created the animation using the Targa Cine YUV codec which I believe is a common format for FCP.

But even with this the video I have created is jerky.

So now I feel that there is something not right with the way I have constructed the animation in C4D.

Initially I thought there may not have been enough frames in the animation for the X and Y movement of the objects ( ie too much diplacement of objects from frame to frame) so I double the number of frames but the jerkiness remained.

I am now at a loss as to what aspect of the project I need to modify to get a smooth output.

I hope you have some suggestions.

Many thanks

Greg Paterson

http://www.teliocide.com
http://www.3D_Icthyomania.com
http://www.croc_swamp_fishing.com
http://www.tropical_carp.com