Ever since the early days of my first animations in POV, I would create 
these great scenes with stunning effects, but I was always limited by 
two things.

1. the animation files were huge, even for a few seconds of playtime at 
the size of a postage stamp
2. only my friends with computers could enjoy them.

I started posting questions in these very newsgroups about finding a way 
to record animations to VHS tape one frame at a time.  The answer was 
sure, but the equipment will cost big $.

Now I hear that there are DVD-W drives and Movie Composition Software. 
 I supposedly can create a storyboard and just import any video source 
to create my movies.  

Jadies and Lentlemen, our time has come.

I know the DVD-W drives are still pretty expensive, but it is now 
feasible for us to do entire movies with (gasp) sound and everything, 
and make it playable to ANYONE with a DVD player, not just on computers. 
 I am going to devote some amount of time and money to making this 
happen, and I know some of you will soon do the same.  

In the course of this, it is likely that there will be questions that 
need answering, like what studio software works the best for us POVers, 
and what resolution(s) should we render at for the TV format... What 
video hardware works well and even what flavor of Windows/Linux/Beos, 
whatever makes the job easy.

Just for grins, who can I get a show of hands - who agrees, and how 
should we keep each other informed about this stuff?  Or am I the only 
one who wants to do DVD movies using POV?

BV

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"Bryan Valencia" <bry### [at] 209softwarecom> wrote in message
news:3C0### [at] 209softwarecom...

> Just for grins, who can I get a show of hands - who agrees, and how
> should we keep each other informed about this stuff?  Or am I the only
> one who wants to do DVD movies using POV?
>
Sounds like a good idea :) how long before Pov animations start to elbow in
on movies like Final Fantasy & Shrek? Shouldn't be long, after what I've
seen since I subscribed to this news server. Though I don't see my work as
good enough, I'd say that the talent in here is more than up to it if they
wanted to do it.

Post a reply to this message

I'm currently experimenting with such an idea, but not using DVD... using
Video CD! I think *all* DVD players will play them, and best of all, you
don't need to spend vast amounts on a DVD-W. Ok, so the resolution's not up
the quality of DVD (about similar to VHS), but there are benefits in terms
of the animations will take less time to render, and consume less HD space.

Check out www.flexion.org for in-depth info on how to (rip DVD's) and write
Video CD's using FREE software.

All the best,

Andy Cocker

"Bryan Valencia" <bry### [at] 209softwarecom> wrote in message
news:3C0### [at] 209softwarecom...
> Ever since the early days of my first animations in POV, I would create
> these great scenes with stunning effects, but I was always limited by
> two things.
>
> 1. the animation files were huge, even for a few seconds of playtime at
> the size of a postage stamp
> 2. only my friends with computers could enjoy them.
>
> I started posting questions in these very newsgroups about finding a way
> to record animations to VHS tape one frame at a time.  The answer was
> sure, but the equipment will cost big $.
>
> Now I hear that there are DVD-W drives and Movie Composition Software.
>  I supposedly can create a storyboard and just import any video source
> to create my movies.
>
> Jadies and Lentlemen, our time has come.
>
> I know the DVD-W drives are still pretty expensive, but it is now
> feasible for us to do entire movies with (gasp) sound and everything,
> and make it playable to ANYONE with a DVD player, not just on computers.
>  I am going to devote some amount of time and money to making this
> happen, and I know some of you will soon do the same.
>
> In the course of this, it is likely that there will be questions that
> need answering, like what studio software works the best for us POVers,
> and what resolution(s) should we render at for the TV format... What
> video hardware works well and even what flavor of Windows/Linux/Beos,
> whatever makes the job easy.
>
> Just for grins, who can I get a show of hands - who agrees, and how
> should we keep each other informed about this stuff?  Or am I the only
> one who wants to do DVD movies using POV?
>
> BV
>

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I've been making DVDs of my POV animations at home for several months now
using the Pioneer A03 on a Dell Precision Workstation 420 - I replaced the
existing CD drive with the DVD, that was the easy part. Keep in mind that
making a DVD involves three steps AFTER the animation is finished:
1. transcoding, which is converting your AVI file to MPEG2
2. Authoring, which is setting up buttons, play order, chapter points, or
what have you and creating the burn-ready VOB files
3. Burning to disk

There are programs that do all three of these, though it is most likely that
you will need software for each. I found the reasonably priced tools to be
very inflexible and unintuitive - I can't list all the tools I used as I am
an editor at a magazine and have an article pending (among other reasons).
But this is not trivial.
You can look at lower-end tools that make the job easier, though they limit
your options in some cases (adding chapter points, camera angles, etc.)
 Ultimately, I got this all working, but it was nothing less than a royal
pain.
Oh ya, the DVD-Rs you make at home are no more than 70% compatible with the
players out there; that's a fact. Some of my disks play in computer drives
but not set-tops, some the opposite, and some don't play at all - you will
never know until you try them.And DVD compression ratios (30:1) are
certainly better than videotape quality, but certainly a long way from
"perfect." I prefer miniDV (5:1) by a long shot, but of course the players
are far less common.
D.



"Bryan Valencia" <bry### [at] 209softwarecom> wrote in message
news:3C0### [at] 209softwarecom...
> Ever since the early days of my first animations in POV, I would create
> these great scenes with stunning effects, but I was always limited by
> two things.
>
> 1. the animation files were huge, even for a few seconds of playtime at
> the size of a postage stamp
> 2. only my friends with computers could enjoy them.
>
> I started posting questions in these very newsgroups about finding a way
> to record animations to VHS tape one frame at a time.  The answer was
> sure, but the equipment will cost big $.
>
> Now I hear that there are DVD-W drives and Movie Composition Software.
>  I supposedly can create a storyboard and just import any video source
> to create my movies.
>
> Jadies and Lentlemen, our time has come.
>
> I know the DVD-W drives are still pretty expensive, but it is now
> feasible for us to do entire movies with (gasp) sound and everything,
> and make it playable to ANYONE with a DVD player, not just on computers.
>  I am going to devote some amount of time and money to making this
> happen, and I know some of you will soon do the same.
>
> In the course of this, it is likely that there will be questions that
> need answering, like what studio software works the best for us POVers,
> and what resolution(s) should we render at for the TV format... What
> video hardware works well and even what flavor of Windows/Linux/Beos,
> whatever makes the job easy.
>
> Just for grins, who can I get a show of hands - who agrees, and how
> should we keep each other informed about this stuff?  Or am I the only
> one who wants to do DVD movies using POV?
>
> BV
>

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You can create a VCD (playable in most DVD players) using a normal CD-RW.

Goto www.vcdhelp.com for the details.

I have created some VCD presentations from POV-Ray animations very recently.

If you want them on VHS, just create the VCD, then dub.

Hope this helps some.

Tom

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Data wrote:
> 
> Sounds like a good idea :) how long before Pov animations start to
> elbow in on movies like Final Fantasy & Shrek? Shouldn't be long,
> after what I've seen since I subscribed to this news server.

The POV-Ray community is still a long way from doing Shrek-quality
work.  It took them *years* to make that film.

> Though I don't see my work as good enough, I'd say that the talent in
> here is more than up to it if they wanted to do it.

The real constraint is time.  It would take me about a dozen years,
working full-time, to create a feature-length animation.  That's based
on the time I spend doing a typical IRTC entry.

-- 
ICQ: 46085459

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> > Sounds like a good idea :) how long before Pov animations start to
> > elbow in on movies like Final Fantasy & Shrek? Shouldn't be long,
> > after what I've seen since I subscribed to this news server.
>
> The POV-Ray community is still a long way from doing Shrek-quality
> work.  It took them *years* to make that film.
>
I know, I know. But still, much of the work here, while on a smaller time
scale, at least compare in terms of quality. Wouldn't you agree?

> > Though I don't see my work as good enough, I'd say that the talent in
> > here is more than up to it if they wanted to do it.
>
> The real constraint is time.  It would take me about a dozen years,
> working full-time, to create a feature-length animation.  That's based
> on the time I spend doing a typical IRTC entry.
>
Yes, it most likely would. Time is always the constraint in any project.
Worse when you have other commitments. It'd still be interesting. Perhaps
something of a compilation would work?

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