D. Eric franks
Forum Replies Created
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I’m sold on using AVI using the Lagarith Lossless Video Codec as an intermediary, thanks to the smarties that hang out here.
The On2 VP6 is a great codec, but I’d only use it for transparent (alpha) Flash movies. In terms of best bang for your bit-budget (quality v. file size), I’d say use some flavor of H.264. My current preference is for MainConcept’s AVC, but Sony, Apple, Microsoft (in the form of WMV) have nice implementations as well (to name but three).
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I think that parents only get so offended by television because
they rely on it as a babysitter and the sole educator of their kids.
— Trey Parker, Matt Stone
https://videopia.org -
I can’t say that all double-byte fonts will work, but I can assure you at least some do.
(1) Which text generator are you using?
I know you were trying the Pro Titler thing, I can’t say anything about that, because I don’t use it, but the basic titler in Vegas works, even the legacy one from long ago.
(2) Name some fonts you are trying. I will try them out on my machine and let you know.
Here’s an example on my machine that is working fine (Chinese font SimSun):
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This is a very simple keyframe animation that can definitely be done in Vegas (but probably wasn’t). AE would be serious overkill for this, but it would certainly work and you could improve it in AE in ways you can’t in Vegas (e.g., AE’s motion blur is very nice – I’m not a fan of Vegas’ implementation at all).
I recreated the logo and here’s the project file (for version 9, sorry – but this animation could have been done in anything back to version 4, I believe):
371_mnecontractor.zip 150 KB
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https://videopia.org -
Any uncompressed format will do. For AVI, HuffyYUV or Lagarith (JR converted me to this format!). For QuickTime the Animation codec is more or less lossless at 100%. PNG is a good option too, but it takes longer and the files aren’t that much smaller (and are sometimes larger). Disc space is cheap, in any case, and you can delete the gigantic uncompressed intermediaries at the project’s conclusion, safe in the assumption that you can always rerender if necessary.
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Doesn’t it simply depend on the font? Are you referring to double-byte fonts? What font are you working with and maybe I can help (the tilde is showing up fine in my traditional Chinese fonts, for example – not sure if this is related to your issue).
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Another trick (and I can’t remember if they used it in 28 Days Later) is to shoot your fast zombies running backwards and then reverse the clip in Vegas (probably have to speed it up too): unsettlingly creepy and a super easy practical effect.
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What is your output codec? Something must be going on there. Try rendering a few frames to QuickTime using the Animation codec, just to check. Also, change the Preview window to Best (Full) – there are often changes between the a “Preview” render and a “Best” render, sometimes subtle, sometimes profound.
p.s., I’ll admit I’ve done light sabers over a scene in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” – fun stuff, but unbelievably tedious. Still, I guess I could have been watching TV instead, so time well spent!
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I’m not entirely sure I follow your workflow, but it sounds like you are (1) Rendering out an “HD-24p” (720p24? 1080p24?) intermediary and the (2) rendering your SD MPEG-2 file.
The first piece of advice (that I’m sure you already know) is that you should absolutely limit the number of renders to the minimum you can get away with. In this case, the least number is one, and you’d render your timeline straight to DVD-Video widescreen MPEG-2 and author your disc, making sure DVD Architect is not re-rendering that file (i.e., DVD Architect renders your menus and burns to disc and doesn’t take hours re-rendering).
Now that doesn’t mean you CAN’T render to an HD intermediary, in fact, I do this on pretty much every project, but you need to make sure you render to a high enough quality format. You could kick the data rate way up on an H.264 codec and my bet is the results would be very good, however, the best way is to render out to a lossless intermediary. For me, that’s always been QuickTime using the Animation codec. This will result in a humungous file, but disk space is cheap and I have a number of destinations (different Web resolutions, DVD, etc.), so this intermediary serves me well. Others here may suggest other lossless codecs: some will produce smaller files, some will be faster – as long as it’s lossless, I can endorse it!
As to specific DVD-Video MPEG-2 settings, other than 2-pass VBR with a fairly high data rate (say averaging ~7 Mbps)? My primary distribution is not DVD at this point, so others will have more to say about this I’m sure.
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“It’s a fact that more people watch television and
get their information that way than read books. I find
new technology and new ways of communication very exciting…”
– Stephen Covey
https://videopia.org -
I’d bet dollars to donuts John is right (of course) and once you tell us about your source, it’s likely someone can give you specific advice for your particular situation, but if it’s any consolation, I see interlacing artifacts on cable TV pretty much every night. We’re just in that transition phase right now where there’s a lot of interlaced video being shot and displayed on modern non-interlaced television monitors, with the result that video that used to look fine on a big glass CRT tube telly looks terrible on the new LCD panel. But there are solutions…
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A Lens Flare effect in Vegas might do what you want for the glint.
As to the “banner”, that is sometimes referred to as a “lower third.” As you’ll notice most of those have a large chunk of semi-transparent, solid or gradient color, which you can do in Vegas with a Media Generator – Solid Color (or gradient) and then slide the opacity down. Most lower thirds also have all kinds of crazy other animated stuff going on and there are plenty of stock media companies out there that sell eye-candy like that: art beats, digital hotcakes, digital juice, etc.