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I will agree that it might be something to do with my computer's hardware but yet I wonder. My other computer (which died) did have an Nvidea card. Some of the animations I did back then ran so smooth and yet there were others that stuttered occasionally. I am thinking it might be something in the background running processes of my computer's system that is causing a random interruption of the video player. I might trying making the video player have a very high priority. Funny though, I have never been able to get a smooth running chrome spheres animation with any computer or compiler with the exception of an old dos program called Povray. You mentioned playback in the browser. Did you mean with an internet browser? My video will have a thumbnail in the tray and getting a separate player for each video - I'm a bit confused with what you are trying to explain to me. Would you care to clarify it for me?
I haven't done rotating chrome spheres as in your example, but I have done many Carrara videos, and the output worked as expected. Playback within Carrara can be a bit jerky for me depending on the resolution, but opened in an external viewer like Quicktime, or in my video editors is smooth.
Explain this one. I tried setting the priority to high in QuickTime Pro. No difference noticed. I tried a player that comes with Windows 8 simply called "Video". I right click on the file name and select open with "Video". I ran it in a windowed mode while in desktop mode. I ran my chrome spheres and it was extremely smooth. The video quality was such that it almost looks real enough to touch the spheres as they pass by. So now what could be happening? The desktop viewing has stuttering and vibrating movement but the Windows 8 mode viewing is really smooth.
I assume that would be windows media player
maybe your quicktime has codec issues?
I avoid quicktime myself as it never plays well for me, I assumed because on Windows, I actually use irfanview to play mov files and something else for qtvr ones.
Good to hear from you again.
When I stop the video in the "Video" window, it goes to something like X-Box and has offers to buy or rent movies and such. I've tried the desktop windows media player and it is like the others. It has stuttering and vibrating movements.
I just tried Ifanview and sometimes the animation runs acceptably smooth and other times it jerks around. It's like a millisecond of fast-forward every once in a bit while playing.
QuickTime gives you the choice of forcing every frame to be played, which typically makes the movie play a bit longer (slower) that its actual length. The stuttering can be indication of dropping frames, where the media player is trying to play it in the time specified, and is throwing out data to accomplish that.
There are codecs which can be set for variable bit rate or constant bit rate when the animation is compressed. It can be complicated to figure out which is best for your situation, or even if it is relevant to the problem.
If you have a choice, try using a constant bit rate in your codec if it has been set for variable bit rate.. You may have to reduce the quality and bit rate somewhat to keep the size down. The constant bit rate is feeding the same amount of data all the time, so it can help to reduced dropped frames (if that is the problem).
I will agree that it might be something to do with my computer's hardware but yet I wonder. My other computer (which died) did have an Nvidea card. Some of the animations I did back then ran so smooth and yet there were others that stuttered occasionally. I am thinking it might be something in the background running processes of my computer's system that is causing a random interruption of the video player. I might trying making the video player have a very high priority. Funny though, I have never been able to get a smooth running chrome spheres animation with any computer or compiler with the exception of an old dos program called Povray.
You mentioned playback in the browser. Did you mean with an internet browser? My video will have a thumbnail in the tray and getting a separate player for each video - I'm a bit confused with what you are trying to explain to me. Would you care to clarify it for me?
I mean the Carrara Browser - the one at the bottom of the Carrara Interface with tabs for scenes,objects,shaders etc -
There is a tab for Artwork.. Click on the "artwork" tab to open it . On the same line as the tabs and on the extreme right is an icon that will open a menu to manage folders - click on the ADD Folder button and navigate to where your ( uncompressed Carrara avi ) videos are stored. This folder will then show on the left browser panel and any videos saved will appear in the main panel as a thumbnail.
Click on the thumbnail and the video will play with the Carrara player ie the one that replays your render in the Render Room.
So this just gives you a quick way to replay saved videos without opening other software but I thik it only works with uncompressed AVI - not sure about that.
As for my preferred video player I have been using JetAudio for several years - try it see if you like it Supposed to play quicktime .mov with proper codec installed
http://www.jetaudio.com/products/jetaudio/
I hope this helps
I now see what you mean. Thanks for explaining it. But anyway I did add my animations folder like you said and they all showed up. However, not one of them had individual icons portraying what the video was. They are all boxes with two peaks in them. When I click on any one it displays "Unable To Decode Frame".
I attempted to download that JetAudio and my computer AV program blocked it and Chrome blocked it. I am guessing it contains more than just the JetAudio software.
I am thinking and hoping I have found a way to make very silky smooth HD animations now. I worked around with Virtual Dub 64-bit and came out with a crystal clear large animation without a single stutter or defect. I compiled it from a sequenced TGA format. I remember from Povray that their best images were TGA format. With Virtual Dub I did run into an issue that saving as AVI was creating a file that Virtual Dub could only open and play. I had to save it under old AVI format before I could open and play it in anything else. Not sure about that one.
I did my chrome spheres this time with the sequenced TGA format at 60 fps. The frames were done at 800x450 (16:9) size. The finished and saved file is kinda big though - 494 meg. It is an eight second video. Considering all that info it runs so smooth in media player.
I will work with this more to be sure I can render animations that run very smooth every time. I will let all of you know how it goes. I really appreciate the efforts each one of you put forth. I've learned a lot from all the suggestions. It helps when pro's step up and offer ideas as each of you have.
it honestly should not be this complicated.
I render hundreds of animations with no such issues
even before on my old laptop
I do find things play smoother second time though, this is any video, webcam or render
guess it comes down to what you want the render for
on youtube it plays fine and would on facebook or anywhere else online you wished to use it
you could try burning various attempts inc original to DVD too and trying on your TV,
I know mine look much better on a 42" plasma on a DVD
I agree with Wendy - it seems you have to go to a lot of trouble to get a result.
By the way what resolution do you render out in Carrara - 1920x1080 1600x900 etc ?????
Regarding Jet Audio - Yes, the thumbnail will not show a frame from the video because one wasn't made/saved by Carrara when it rendered - Its not the reason you couldn't get it to play back.I did say that it will play "uncompressed AVI " - I don't know about other formats. I save all my renders that way - you could say it is my master file- from there I may edit and save in other formats but having access from the browser to review what I have is a handy thing for me.
Finally, suggest you let JetAudio through the firewall if you want to try it. It's safe and I've used it for 6 / 7 years - Turn off your antivirus if its stopping the download. It's very comprehensive. Creates play lists, Catalogues your Audio and Video,Rips DVD ,has an equalizer for sound and heaps more. I also run it on a spare laptop connected to my TV to play dvd's and video files.
Well, I have always been known to make the simplest things so complicated for myself and others. Something to do with the way my brain ticks I suppose.
As for now I will stick with Virtual Dub. It worked for me once I found how to set the frame rate and using every frame to make the video as suggested by persons that know what they are doing. I did a few more quick animations and they are running well.
Here's the one that showed me I could do it. http://youtu.be/Adhi7rjkAHw
The DVD idea sounds interesting. I will try that soon.
Oh, normally I do my renders at 800 x 450. I do my test renders at 640 x 480. I've done several at 800 x 600. I may try some really big stuff like 1920 x 1080 in the future. It takes a long time to do the larger animations because I do use reflective surfaces a lot. I also use the higher quality settings to try to get animations to look like real items.
As to the AA settings, for an animation at the resolutions you mention using, the Good setting at a .5 or 1 pixel accuracy should be a nice compromise for quality vs. time. If there are no real fine details such as hair, I would use the 1 pixel setting. Shadow settings could be a bit lower quality, such as 2 pixels. If you get sparkles or flickering, try setting the pixel and shadow accuracy to the same level.
Each scene is different, and each artist has their own level of tolerance for imperfections, so my settings are just suggestions for a finished render. For test renders, I use the Fast setting and lower object and shadow accuracy. Sometimes I find that the lower settings look just fine. Your mileage may vary.
I always go 1920 x 1080 but make the pixel accuracy 4
it still renders quicker as a bigger image more detailed anyway, just not so much for closeups on textures
that said I am not sure how high a quality you need for rotating spheres
and anything over 5 mins a frame is too long for me!!!!!
most things I go for 15 secs :P
I expect 5 mins on a Howie Farkes scene for example
well actually with exceedingly low settings and losing the fake GI using 2 bulbs instead I can even get this down to under a minute a frame
Patience is a virtue but impatience is human. :coolsmile:
I usually set mine up with test renders until I am satisfied. Then I will do my final in the settings I want but do them overnight. General scenes do not require reflections and such details and I can render those in a few seconds a frame. My high detailed realistic frames or scenes can take much longer.
I just graduated from Carrara 1.1 recently. I am still on my figurin' this thang out stage with Carrrara 8.5. It is mostly a winter season past time for me and boy I can pass the hours before I realize it.
Just for fun I thought I'd try reproduce your video so you could compare.
I used the Carrara "Chrome " shader on the spheres and rendered two versions. First with all default settings [ambient and one distant light brightness turned down. Second with another plane set above the spheres and a bulb in the centre with soft shadows.
I've given some render times on youtube.
http://youtu.be/1kGpxhFoJ0I
I should add I composited in Magix Video Edit Pro and uploaded at 720p
Yikes ! Wendy 5 mins / frame - I am so impatient any more than 10 seconds and I throw it out !
[ however usually if my scene is that complex Carrara throws a wobbly and its the old control /alt /del !!! ]
My system Intel I7 2.7ghz 16gb ddr5 memory 4g nvidea GTX540M cuda graphics - a recent purchase which I thought would satisfy Carrara ???
The second part of the render you did is an interesting effect. The first half was kinda bland but the second seemed to take on a better 3D appearance.
I have to agree that a 5 minutes per frame render is a bit too much. What in the world were you trying to do? At that rate it would take days to make a short animation.
For the time my computer seems to have enough horsepower to handle the renderings I do. The chrome sphere animation I did takes 9 seconds per frame to render. I noticed today while rendering the sphere animation at 1920x1080 I get a line on the left side of the image. It's about 2 or 3 pixels wide. It reaches from top to bottom. It is about 1/3 the way across the render screen. It is in the rendered frames and not on the computer screen. It shows up even when rendering at 1024 widith. In any width less than 1024 the line does not show up. I remember long ago seeing that in large screens I did with Carrara 1.1 but I don't remember what I did to fix it. Either one of you two know how to remove that line?
I have seen that problem but cant remember when or under what circumstances and as it hasn't happened recently I cant offer advice except to say it appears it is a Carrara thing and not just you .
EDIT by the way render time for the animated spheres in my video was 0.22 second per frame and for the second part 0.49 sec per frame - the extra light and softshadows with reflection of the plane more above doubled the time
When I look at your render speeds and my render speeds, I begin to see that my computer is not so fast after all. For the most part it does ok for me but when I do the higher settings even with an 800x600 size, it takes several seconds to do it. I aim for HD quality renderings in hopes to obtain photographic quality images. When I got this computer last Christmas I thought it would be a rather fast computer since it was a new design. I know they list the minimal hardware to run Carrara 8 but what is optimal? I just downloaded the Woodsman Environment package. I should have never done that because I don't have enough horsepower to render any of the scenes even in the assembler window.
As a follow-up, my animations are doing well now. They are so smooth and very realistic. Thanks to all that helped. I learned something from each of you.
I just upgraded from DVI to HDMI. I had no idea how much better and clearer the screen would be. Now watching my better animations is like watching a live scene through a window. It seems that my render speed increased a little also.
Just as an FYI, if you intend to edit your clips together, the least amount of compression is best. Preferably none, but in reality there is usually some sort of compression. If possible, try and use the video editor's native CODEC, for instance, my older version of Final Cut Pro uses DVC Pro, iMovie uses DV Stream. Both can import and use other CODECs and export to them as well, but the native files work best. iMovie and FCP should also handle h.264 very nicely as well.
If I render clips with alpha that get layered and composited with other clips, I usually render using QTs Animation CODEC, or if an image sequence, .png as both can use alpha channels.
I tried putting some of my animations on DVD like you said. It is odd that they run better from the DVD than they do from the hard drive. I did notice that the colors on the TV are a bit plastic or brilliant. The red squares in the chrome spheres animation had a touch of glowing orange to them. Is that something to be expected?
I changed over from DVI to HDMI. I've not seen that vertical line show up since then.
I tried putting some of my animations on DVD like you said. It is odd that they run better from the DVD than they do from the hard drive. I did notice that the colors on the TV are a bit plastic or brilliant. The red squares in the chrome spheres animation had a touch of glowing orange to them. Is that something to be expected?
probably a difference in your tv screen calibration to your monitor.
Most tv's have a test screen to adjust this. Things like hue, Contrast warmth etc.
I know this is a step from the subject but I look up to y'all because of your immense experience in all the works. I am doing a stunt flying airplane animation. The plane is fairly accurate in resemblance of the real plane. How do I generate a small town to have as a view from the plane's cockpit? I'd like it reasonably detailed so it can be seen briefly in a low altitude fly over. However, I don't want to bog the computer down to render it. I am currently rendering this animation so fast that the progress can't tell me how fast each frame is rendered. It's rendered in 800 x 600. It is like watching it play while it is being rendered.
Replicators are your friend
do your video in parts so the town is only there when in view.
Using surface or a grid replicator a few simple buildings can be many
Thanks for telling me about that Wendy. It's very intriguing. I hope I don't blow up my mind trying to figure this out. I've watched a couple YouTube videos on the subject but I am still as confused as ever. T'would be nice if they had classes on this somewhere near.
As far as my stunt plane animation goes, I have it viewed from a location on the ground for about three minutes. I plan to duplicate the whole flight again but having a camera in the cockpit of the plane. The land and dwellings would be visible only in banked turns or inverted flight. Now that's my plans. If it all works out I may add a take-off and landing to complete the flight. At the moment it just simply starts in mid-air.
What type of terrain is it supposed to be? What are you doing for the sky? Are adverse to compositing? Does the camera point at the plane and follow the movement from the ground as it would if it were mounted on a tripod, or does it move along as if it is carried or mounted on a vehicle or dolly?