Hi Everybody.
I'm trying to work up an animation to be entered into a festival. I'm doing the animation in Flash and I was after advice from anybody who has entered work into festivals before, the animation is at the max 15minutes long. Is Flash an OK program to use in festivals, what screen screen size should I be working to and what file format is best.
Any advice would be great. Also does anyone use ToonBoom? Whats it like. :)
Thank you!
For converting flash files to video I use Flash to Video Encoder:
http://www.geovid.com/Flash_To_Video_Encoder/
Cheers!
I think I can help, remind me if I forget about anything :)
1 - The tool you use is nobody's problem, as long as the movie is good :) I've seen beautiful movies done in Flash and horrible movies done in Maya. The technique doesn't make the movie good. May make it BETTER if it has something to do with its story, but that's another subject...
2 - The final video format you will render your movie to is probably 640 x 480, which is NTSC. If you want to send your movie to a festival that requires PAL video (i.e. most european festivals) you may convert your NTSC video to it. Making video larger or smaller than that is usually a loss of time :)
3 - The file format depends on the final format of the video. If you're going to send a DVD, for example, the final format will be an MPEG 2. If you have enough disk space (and you better have, if you want to work with video...) I recommend you export your final movie in an Uncompressed Quicktime or AVI file, and then use this video to create the other ones: web versions, DVD, SVCD, whatever. Always keep the uncompressed one and make your copies out of it, this will avoid you making copy over copy and loosing quality over time.
4 - ToonBoom is intended for converting traditional 2d animation drawn by hand into vector graphics that can be colored and mounted with frame duping and other techniques from the old film frame capture days :~)
I guess that's about it, if I forgot anything, just let me know.
danielpoeira.org
I thought the resolution is supposed to be NTSC 720x486.
I've always been confused about resolutions though.
Does anyone have some clarifying comments?
NTSC mainly for U.S. broadcast?
PAL mainly for European broadcast?
720x480 is DV NTSC. It is created with a 0.9 pixel aspect ratio, which results in a final image that is 640x480 - because 720 / 0.9 = 640
PAL is a little larger tho.
Some modern DVD players can read both NTSC and PAL, but it's always better to see something without conversion, so if the person's TV is PAL, it's better to make a PAL DVD, even if the person's DVD can read NTSC.
I forgot what's the PAL resolution, but most video programs that create video have presets for it :)
danielpoeira.org
I make my shorts at 1024 x 576. Then I export them either from flash animo or After Effects as 720 X 576 (standard PAL). Then edit in Final Cut pro which tells the picture to pop back out to 1024 x 576 when played.
This way the shorts are digital tv ready and also have a widescreen look when viewed on bigger screens.
The Brothers McLeod
[SIZE=2]brothersmcleod.co.uk[/SIZE]
Man, that gets confusing.
Let me ask....I'm producing 7 shorts for a DVD and 2 of them are already finished at 720x486. I'll be outputing them to mini DV from iMovie or Final Cut. What res. should I do the remainder of them in?
will the 720x486's look crappy?
I already put them on VHS and they look fine.
any thoughts?
Is there some type of 'master resolution chart' or something that helps make sense of all this? for some reason I can't wrap my brain around it.
Thank you guys so much, I was beginning to worry that Flash wasn't the best program to be using.
I really appreciate all your help/advice. When it's finish, I'll pop a link up.
Thanks Again!!
If you're exporting to mini DV, they'll end up in 720x480 0.9 anyway, so I guess you're fine :) keep doing them like you did the others and you should be OK
In the end, it will always be the same thing: if the TV is NTSC, it's going to be 640x480 1.0 29,97 fps.
Just keep in mind what the final format will be. If you want to make a DVD in the end, whatever you make you'll end up with 720x480, 29,97 fps, and the audio will be 48000 Hz, 2 channels, 16 bit. Whatever you do, the final MPEG2 video that will become the DVD will be like this.
danielpoeira.org
This was pretty helpful for me...
http://www.flickerlab.com/flashtovideo/
thanks Daniel P. and Motion Malitia!
This text is from that website....
"DV- This is 720X480 rectangular pixels. Start with a 720X540 movie, squish it down to 720X486, then crop off the top 2 and bottom 4 pixels. DV uses lower field first for field rendering."
But at which stage in the pipeline do you 'squish' it?
My workflow is from FLASH 720x486, export as uncompressed video, composite in A.E. or Final Cut, then export as 720x486.
Should I set it up in flash as 720x540?, but export it as 720x486 for use in A.E., then render out as 720x486?
sorry to ask so many questions on someone elses post, but I have to get a grip on this stuff quick to complete my shorts on time. Thanks for all your help!
I know how you feel, I'm racing to finish mine.
Goodluck with it. Will you be posting a link when its finished? :)
...I may even post one early so I can get comments on the rough animation.