How to output a quality video ( hardware and raytracing) ?

[MarionLandry]

I have decided to publish these email exchange between me and Alfredo - an Autodesk reseller out of Miami - in hope it can help other users.

Dear Marion:

I have become a fairly skilled Showcase user (or so I think!) thanks to your YouTube channel.  What I (and the guys in the office) cannot figure out is to make a high quality video.   We have not even doing ray tracing (yet).   We are doing just hardware rendering.  We have played with different frame per second.  We tried 24, 60, 80, 120.  We have tried all the formats, we have configured it for maximum quality etc…  We have very high end workstations………………..the video looks good but always looks jumpy when the parts rotate, orthe camera rotates around the parts.  When a 30 sec’s (slide) is saved in .AVI format is about 3GB!   This is too much for 30 sec video.

What else can we do to make a  nice and smooth video for marketing material?  Or are we pushing Showcase to areas that it does not belong?  Any tips will be highly appreciated.  By the way……….we are VAR for you guys in South Florida.  If I should refer this question to tech help, then please let me know.  I really appreciate it.  And keep your videos coming they are great!

Regards,

Alfredo Blumenthal

Dear Alfredo,

I am glad to see that my videos are helping somebody… J

It’s really hard to suggest anything without seeing the videos.. Any chance you can share either the scene or the videos? I can share a dropbox if you need.

There are two possibilities

1. You need to make your animation smoother.. Instead of 3 sec moves, increase the length of the camera animation so the rotation is slower
2. I would render at either 24 or 30 frames per second. I normally use uncompressed .mov as it gives me the best quality. It will give you a large file.. but you can upload it to quick time pro and reduce it.
3. Mp4 will give you good quality movie and will be reasonably small in size (for presentation or youtube it’s best.)

Let me know if that helps at all…

Marion

[MarionLandry · Accepted solution]

Reply from Alfredo: Well it looks that .MOV with 30 frs is all I needed. I will send you the file anyway. I'm proud of it! Thank you much'

[MarionLandry · Accepted solution]

Dear Marion:

This is Alfredo again.  All the tips you gave me a couple of weeks were all good!  30 frames/MOV format/uncompressed etc.  All great for non-ray traced videos.   Thank you, thank you thank you!  I can also produce decent ray-traced still renderings.  By experimenting with different set-ups, I think I found the sweet spot for stills. I also experimented with 3-5 seconds ray-traced video clips and they (per my standards) look fairly good.  When I used the same set-up on the same scene for a longer ray-traced video, they just do not come right.

I have attached three files for you:

• The original Showcase file
• Five second video clip (it looks good to me)
• Fifty Four second video clip (it looks terrible), this is the fourth attempt!

Same set-up for both (5 and 54 sec’s):(Refer to image#1 and #2)

I have rendered the five second movies many times until I found the above renderings to work for me.  I used the same set-up for the 54 sec’s clip and it just does not work.  It is jumpy, and grainy.   What am I doing wrong?  When I start the rendering I don’t even touch the computer until it is done ~36 hrs!  By the way.  I think I have a decent computer to do the task:(refer to image #3)

I would love to  produce a 60 sec ray-traced video once!  Do you have any suggestions?

I really look forward to your help.

[MarionLandry · Accepted solution]

Here is one of the video shared by Alfredo: click here

My immediate response was: 

Ok, let me look into it.. but from your settings, I would refrain from using Lanczo type of filter for movie.

For movie, you definitely need to use “Gaussian filter”

But let me look into the stuff you send first and I will send more comments. 

Then after watching the video I replied: 

Dear Alfredo,

I looked at your video, here are some comments:

At the beginning.. I can see that the "singular" letters are jumpy- that might be due to the camera clipping plane being to small. Click here to learn more about that

Between second 12 and 13- there is a jump. That has nothing to do with the Ray tracing but the transition between two shot. We go from a perspective angle to some sort of orthographic view.. So the transition there is not really smooth.

I would suggest you either start from the previous camera angle to start your new shot or use “fade to black” between shots.

Same thing happen between sec 42-43

During the animation, the glass part -you might be thinking that it is jumpy- but it’s not. It’s showing the reflection of the background. To fix that, try a different background or reduce the reflection of the glass. 

There is a mega flash around second 47. That is a badly rendered frame that is really hard to see but makes the video jumps. That is the exact reason why I suggest to render the video as an images sequence. That way, you can remove the bad frame… Or re-render only that one.. That happens a lot in Showcase between the transition unfortunately. Nothing you can do about that other than render image sequence and remove the bad frame.

Other wise.. everything else is perfect.. I don’t know why you are saying that it’s grainy…

Yes.. ray tracing give a grainy looking render.. that’s just the nature of the render..You have to let each image render for a really long time to loose the graininess. That's why I always suggest to use hardware rendering for animation. Nobody has 50 hours of rendering to wait for.. If you do, great, then go ahead and render with ray tracing..   it’s nice, I personally like the grainy look... Try to use a “Gaussian” filter rather then "Lanczos"as it will blur the graininess between frames at rendering and it might help with the “graininess” effect that you don’t like.

I think you are a bit harsh on yourself.. That video looks really good. There is only few fine tuning to do, which by the way, is normal. If you are expecting perfection and no little tweeking.. well.. you know.. there is no such things as perfection..

Marion

[MarionLandry · Accepted solution]

Then I received a final email from Alfredo after my request to post the thread on the forum...

"THX! Feel free to post the thread. We are Autodesk VAR in Miami"

Thanks Alfredo.. it was a pleasure helping you. 

To learn more about Alfredo, please visit his web site.. 

www.wb-3d.com

[Anonymous]

Dear Marion:

As always thank you very much for taking the time to respond this great comunity postings. I'm sure I'm not the only one that really benefit for all your tips.

To get back to you on your feedback.............

All the shots were combined in a storyboard using "Previous Shot", so when we "PlayAll" in "D" or hadrware mode rendering, it plays very smooth.  That is way I cannot understand the jump from one "shot" to another, when doind ray-tracing movies.

The reazon I selected "Lanczos" for the ray-traced video is beacuse it was the best result for the "Still" shost, therefore I assumed that whatever works for Still/Picture should work for Movie Ray-Traced movies.  I will try another redering using "Gaussian" filter.  For the sake of it I will also check the camera clippling to make sure it is not too close to the object.  I'm assuming 5 cm wooul be fine, as the object is about 10x7x5 cm.

I think the only thing left is to render the movie as a series of images.  (?????) I didnot know this could be done.  I will find out how to do it, and will implement.

I will follow all your tips i.e:

Gaussian

Camara Clipping

Image rendering

I will report back................perhaps in a couple of days (40 - 50 hrs to render).   Thank you!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Dear Marion:

By taking a send look at your response you wrote: ..........."I also think that the ambient shadow look more natural when they are rendered as part of ray-tracing and not baked".

Honestly, I do not understand.  I baked all the objects thinking it would help me with having a better look (at least) in hardware rendering (or least that’s what I think).  I did not know this has a reverse effect for ray-tracing movies?  So, what you are telling is that I should “un-bake” all the objects before doing a ray-traced movie?

Any comments?  

[MarionLandry]

Hi,

No, you don't need to "un-bake"

You are right with the way you are thinking and working. Baked ambient shadows will look better and give higher quality results when using hardware rendering, which is most of the time in Showcase.

I am assuming that you are working with hardware rendering mode and maybe presenting live with that mode as well. So your model will look awesome in those situations.

I am assuming that you are using Ray tracing to output some final images and videos... and what I am saying is that, since you are already going to wait for your image to be renderer with Ray tracing mode, might as well get the ambient shadow calculated under that mode. Now, you don't need to undo what you did previously. By Default, if you have baked shadow mode turned on, Ray tracing will used these shadows, unless you uncheck that box under the advanced settings of ray tracing. (refer to the image I have previously sent you)
 Because Ray tracing is an accurate calculation of Reflection, refraction, ect... might as well get it to calculate the ambient shadow in a more accurate way.

That's all I am saying.. But one doesn't stop the other... and yes, I always bake my ambient shadow too, because at the end of the day, I spend a lot more time in hardware rendering mode and I want my model to look at best in that condition. But If I am going to use ray tracing, then I let the ambient shadow render in that mode.

I hope this answers the question and that I am not making it sound to complicated.. You are doing the right thing.. Don't let me confuse you.. 🙂

Marion