Other Playblast Formats & Encoders without Quicktime (PC)

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Here is my issue:

I am currently a lecturer teaching 3D animation class in a PC lab using Windows 10. Due to the security issues with Quicktime, the University will not install it, even the Essential package. This means we are currently stuck with using the default playblasting formats and encoders. The default formats and encoders are very difficult to work with mainly due to their instability and huge file sizes. I am hoping to work with your support staff to resolve this issue. Is there a safe codec pack that we can use that'll work with Autodesk Maya?

I would prefer a format that works well with the H.264 encoder.  

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please let me know!

Thank you!

Note:  My students are using Maya 2018.4. I haven't been able to check out the NEW Maya 2019 yet.  Does it have better playblast formats & encoders?  I understand that the playback is now much better due to caching, but I still need my students to playblast and submit their animation work to the dropbox for critique and grading.

Thanks again!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

I believe my co-worker actually has a case with you as well but I can reiterate here.

I don't personally know of any other encoders aside from Quicktime but I can highly recommend 2019 to you and your class. I understand you haven't had a chance to look at it yet but it's honestly the perfect solution for your present issue.

Not much has changed in 2019 functionality wise but there have been a lot of stability and performance increases especially in the viewport.

This article has a quick 2 minute video breakdown on the new Cached Playback feature that I think will really work out well for you!

[Anonymous]

Even though the cached playback feature is a really nice feature for the future of animation in Maya, it still doesn't resolve the issue with playblasting animation for my students.  

My students still need to upload their animation for critiquing and grading.
Is there a safe codec pack that works with Autodesk Maya 2018.4?

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Unfortunately I don't believe there are other codec options.

Here's our list of Codec support but they all seem to be related to Quicktime in one way or another.

You could have your students render out the animation instead of a playblast for grading/critiquing or they could submit the file to you which you can then open on your machine. I know these aren't ideal workarounds but I believe they are your best bet since you aren't able to install the quicktime essentials.

[Anonymous]

For my students, rendering out their scenes would take way too long.

There has got to be something that'll work with Maya.
Does anyone know of a safe codec pack that'll work with Maya 2018?

[Anonymous]

Your best bet at this point is to playblast to an image sequence and use an external encoder, e.g. Handbrake, ffmpeg, Media Encoder, etc, to convert that sequence to the desired format. 

I’ll double check on my Windows machine, but I could have sworn my team was able to output H.264 playblasts without QT.

Cheers,

Mike

[sean.heasley]

Thanks for the input @Anonymous 

I haven't worked a ton with different encoders so I'm really interested to see if this works!

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I remembered incorrectly. macOS was the platform with proper H.264 support. On Windows you'll need to playblast to an image sequence, and make sure they save it out to an actual folder. By default it renders to a temporary location for fcheck to launch and preview from, but the moment fcheck is closed the playblast is wiped out.

Once you have the sequence you'll need to use a separate app (like the one's I've previously mentioned) to convert them to a proper video container.

I don't believe it is possible to hook other encoders into Maya. The application can only see what it was programmed to look for, and I don't think it's a dynamic list.

Cheers,

Mike

[Anonymous]

Mike and Sean, thank you so much for posting to the forum.

I want to keep this post open until we can find a proper solution.

I am going to see if I can contact someone from VLC and see if they or maybe someone they may know could help us develop a simple codec pack that'll work with Autodesk Maya.

If anyone has any contacts at VLC (or someplace similar), please let me know and we can contact them about our problem as well.

Thanks again!
Jesse

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

Please let me know if you manage to get in contact with VLC or another studio about this!

I don't have any contacts like that, but I have passed this thread a long to our development team to see if anyone has any insight or other options that may work for you.

I'll be sure to update here as soon as I have new information!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

One of our QA members reached out to me and recommended this tool for you!

While its not free maybe you can talk to the school and see if it works for your program?

[Anonymous]

I don't think this will work.  It'll add another step to convert the playblasts and it's expensive!

If I wanted my students to convert their playblast, I would have them use the Adobe Media Encoder.
But, if I have my students convert the AVI to another format, it's bad practice being that the video quality degrades every time it's converted.  
Now, I could have my students convert their image sequence playblasts, but it's just another step yet again.
It shouldn't be this hard to playblast using a modern format and encoder in Autodesk Maya!

Is there a safe codec pack that works with Autodesk Maya for playblasting?

Please forward this message to the Auotdesk Maya Team:
Please add more (better and modern) options for playblast formats and encoders in the next service pack!

Thank you!
Jesse Woodward

[Anonymous]

It's been a week since the last post.

Are there any updates on this situation?

Thank you!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

Aside from the few options I've linked I don't know of any other ways for you to playblast. At this point if none of the options provided work for you I believe your students best bet would be to either use AVI format or export image sequences and turn those into videos with whatever editing software they prefer.

I also recommend posting this on the Maya Idea Board!

This is a great place for the community to share ideas or feature they want to see in the future of Maya and this board is regularly checked by the dev team.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Your best bet at this point is to playblast to an image sequence and use an external encoder, e.g. Handbrake, ffmpeg, Media Encoder, etc, to convert that sequence to the desired format. 

---

I second this. I'm also teaching a class and I've instructed my students how to re-encode to h.264 using Adobe Media Encoder in order to create a more manageable file size for upload and sharing.

It's annoying, but there isn't a single simple thing that isn't annoying about Maya so might as well get used to it.

[Anonymous]

1.

Install VLC

2.

Download Quicktime 7

Select custom installation and uncheck Quicktime player

3.

Maya playblast options, select qt format

Select H.264 Encoding

Playblast - should open up the file in VLC

Saved playblasts will open in VLC

Credit: http://sebcastilho.com/blog/2017/4/2/how-to-playblast-h264-in-maya-without-quicktime-installed

[Anonymous]

Most, if not all, Universities and higher educational institutions are unable to install the Quicktime on PCs (Windows), even without the player because there are still security issues.
Autodesk should be using a new video format for playblast anyways.  AVI is so old and outdated, even Adobe is discontinuing AVI support.
Autodesk, please provide a MP4 format with H.264 for playblast in Maya!
 

[diana.yr]

@Anonymous if you were able to find the answer to your issue please let us know and mark any answers as accepted for a solution. 🙂 This will help anyone else coming to the forums with the same issue. Thanks! 

[Anonymous]

A solution has NOT been found for this issue!  Autodesk needs to implement a new format and encoder for playblasting in Maya.  There is nothing out there that gives us options for other formats and encoders without security issues.
Please give Autodesk Maya MP4 format support with H.264 encoding for playblasting!
Thank you!

[diana.yr]

Thanks @Anonymous  for the feedback, I'm sorry it's causing so much issue and trouble for you, I'd be super frustrated with it too!  I'll reach out to some of our Maya experts to see if they have any other feedback or suggestions to help with this.