Shane Davison, daviso@cs.uregina.ca
There are a couple of utils that will convert from RAW to DXF. Check ftp.povray.org/pub/povray/utilities for dxf2raw.
Editor's Note:
Compression is a topic that becomes very important to computer animators. Choosing the right compression format and settings is best accomplished by knowing a little bit about how compression works and how the various parameters affect the final product. I will eventually write my own contribution to the compression discussion, but what I know of compression I learned mostly from a book called Video Compression for Multimedia by Jan Ozen. I highly recommend it. The book includes a layman's discussion of compression principles, techniques and considerations. Its good at presenting this information without overburdening you in technical mumbo-jumbo that makes your eyes glaze over. It also includes a great comparison of the most widely used codecs, explaining which ones are best for particular applications. Check it out....
Presented below are various responses from the TS mailing list to a query regarding codecs. Clearly, most of the animators prefer Cinepak. And for good reason: it has good image quality, reasonably speedy encoding, and decent compression rates. It is not, however, the best choice in all situations. This is where the above-mentioned book is quite handy. (By the way, if I'm starting to sound like ad copy, let me state for the record that I have no affiliation with the book, the author or the publisher, other than being a satisfied reader.)
1. Which provides the smoothest playback?
2. Which provides the best compression?
3. Any particular settings you prefer?
4. Any bugs you've notice using any particular compression method?
Shane Davison, daviso@cs.uregina.ca
Bjorn-Kare Nilssen, bjoernk@oslonett.no
Michael Mills, Michael.Mills@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
I'd really like to see TS be able to render direct to Quicktime/Cinepak since I'm attempting to render to Broadcast NTSC and Premiere keeps choking on the Targas.
Marshall, MARSHALL@ids.net
Ian Firth, IanFirthDS@aol.com
I use Indeo V3.24.01.01 for all CD stuff, CinePak compresses way too slow for the tons of animations I do. And I find Indeo to playback much better (set keyframing at 4). The only problem is color bleeding with intense reds. The Indeo fixed palette is also decent, since most of my work incorporates AVI's overlayed on background art, I don't need to worry about nasty palette flash. The colors in the palette map very nice to existing artwork. Indeo 4.0 should be out by summer (640x480 @30fps from the info I've gathered), and should be something to see.
Ian Firth, IanFirthDS@aol.com
Don't render from trueSpace compressed. Render uncompressed, then compress after with VidEdit or Premiere or RAZOR, etc. The results will amaze you, and hey!, 1 gig drives are under $400 now.
[Ed. Note: The reason the image quality is better when you compress after rendering is that most compression schemes use at least some measure of "interframe" compression, which basically discards image information that doesn't change between subsequent frames. This interframe compression reduces file sizes tremendously and is theoretically lossless. In fact, image degradation occurs mainly or entirely during "intraframe" compression -- that part of video compression which discards redundant or "unnecessary" image information within a single frame. Anyway, compressing while rendering hampers the codec's ability to utilize interframe compression most effectively. This results in poorer image quality and often lower compression ratios.]
Shane Davison, daviso@cs.uregina.ca
Use the 'object info' panel to make the Z-scale negative (eg. change
a value of 2 to -2).