On 31/07/2013 10:57 PM, Bald Eagle wrote:
> It took a while to write, then fix, then go around and around in total n00b math
> circles, etc.
>
> I was very happy to get the belts to work nicely using cones to mimic a v-belt,
> to have one gray cone to give the eye something to follow and perhaps enhance
> the sense of motion, and to get the belt to sag somewhat and not look so
> perfectly CG.

A good idea. But you can split your animation into parts. For instance 
this short clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urX5kI-5e4E

is repeated several times in this animation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3ez6FIgdNs

Well the short code loops in the longer animation code. because of the 
symmetry you don't need to have a full life cycle of the belt completing 
a full revolution.

> In the event I have time, I might try to add some psudo-random shaking and
> wiggling to the belt, and maybe the frame.
>

It would be good but no shortcuts I think.

> Though maybe I ought to work on learning layered textures and synching up the
> normal with the texture.

That is a good idea to do early on or you end up like me, never getting 
round to doing it. :-(

> Considering using isowood.
>

I've never used it, myself.

> I followed Friederich Lohmueller's animation tutorial.

An excellent site.

> DTA is what he
> recommended on his site, it seemed trivial (it was! Yay! :) ) and I figured it
> was good for a first animation to use what obviously worked, and then perhaps
> proceed from there.
>

I cannot fault your logic.

> Is there a reason to use png vs bmp for animation?
>

File size. No matter how big your HDD, it will fill up as you make 
version after version, getting things right.


> I tried the other program - seems to get rid of most of that artefact dross.
> Do you think it's just a function of DTA, or the AVI encoding format?
> TMPGEnc is outputting it to m1v format, so I have no reference.
>

TMPGEnc will also output to mpg, which is the favoured format here. Or 
so I was told. It does default to m1v, though. Select stream type - 
system. Then go into settings. I am no expert and others may give better 
advice. I use Automatic VBR and change the max and min bit rate from 
high settings to the lowest that will give good results. (This is where 
a lower file size comes in useful as I make lots of tests.)


> Thanks so much for the help.
>
It is a pleasure.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

Post a reply to this message