Which Codec to use?

[Valentine]

I have put together some 3d works(using 3ds max) to be distributed with a particular book.
Will anyone please tell which 'CODEC' to use while rendering the animation. Which codec is common in most computers? (and also the one which is less in output size and good in quality).
I also want to know which output size (eg: 640*480) to use for an interactive CD?
Please help me...Its Urgent!
THANX

well....u should use quicktime h.264, but if all can fit in a CD then use MJPG for maximum quality

WMV is mostly used, & can be played anywhere, mpg is lossy...& divX well i don't prefer it for animation, it looses the sampling somehow

[dIgItaL_BrAt]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

well....u should use quicktime h.264, but if all can fit in a CD then use MJPG for maximum quality

WMV is mostly used, & can be played anywhere, mpg is lossy...& divX well i don't prefer it for animation, it looses the sampling somehow

but keep in mind that h.264 decoding uses up quite a lot of cpu resources.

a H.264 video of 480p doesn't eat that much CPU power, & can be played on any computer with 1 GHz or above CPU

[rajasekharan]

@Valentine.....dont use the 3dmax to create video...always save the output as TIFF files or TARGA files and then use premere or such software to render...the reason behind this is that when you render as movie using the 3ds max itself you may encounter some error to the file itself .
which is notatall desirable ....
as a rule of practice pls feel free to restrain away from it...
and only use it for testing purpose or for extremely small clips ...and NOT for professional works...

[shovik]

u could use Xvid codec as its the most kind on the system resources keeping a good video quality.

[Valentine]

THaNX 4 all the replys...

I have got around 200 animation clips to be added to the CD,so it will be time consuming to save each files as TIFF (sequence) from 3dsmax and then render it using Premiere; and also it needs a lot of hard disk space..i guess.

I can't find the Xvid codec in the compressor list (is this codec playable on most pcs?)

I also want to know which output size (eg: 640*480) is usually used to render the animation clips for computer viewing? (i want this CD to be interactive and the video clips should fit the entire screen area keeping the size low).

Please reply...

[JGuru]

Yeah 640 * 480 will do fine to render animation clips in a smooth manner. If you
choose higher resolutions , the file size will be big. So stick to 640 * 480 that gives
decent picture quality & motion rendering.

why r u going for sequenced TIFF?

For animations i render the files as TGA which are uncompressed, then i simply open the sequence in quicktime encode from there.....to whatever format i need, i make an uncompressed AVI if i have to make a DivX, cos i can convert later

rendering an avi directly is never recomended

[rajasekharan]

@gxsaurav....i use TIFF for later Photoshop works once the project is done in max, for rendering as i mentioned early amd as you rightly said TAGA ...

and render in 320/240 for home use, use 640 for professional use ...640 could do away in homes use...but i will not recomend that ... its a waist of rendering time..and u can see the effect in 320 ...which is just needed for home.

dont go for any thing higher its not needed...unless you are going to broadcast in to the local movie theater.....

you can go for inteo video codec 5.10 too... or cine pack.

and regarding the TIFF thing i think it speeds up the network rendering time...if you are rendering using the home network. it did for me though ..or it may be my personal exp...or machine fooled me..., i dont believe comp. these days


and for the other part....DO NOT fit the video full screen....not at all recomended...why do u want to mess up your work ...rather put your presentation in such a manner that the 3rd person can preview it in a media player or so...which opens in a new window.....that will be better, you can also open the video in a diff page or window...keeping the 320 size....or 640 if u like it....but i usually prefer 320...the person on the other side only looks at the animation , and not the picture quality , if he needs quality then he will be looking at the stills,

[arijit basu]

try the VP7 codec from www.on2.com
It gives good quality.