A cool theater logo... print, project or animate. [Text View] - Page 7

thefreeauction

04-03-06, 11:42 PM

Hey everyone this is SO cool. One problem I'm having is that I've downloaded a "GenericHT.blend" file and a "blackhole.blend" file and on either one of them I can't get the background to show up - its just "white". I have a pic of what shows up in Blender but it won't let me link to it 'till I get 5 posts.

Has anyone else had this problem? Do I have the background disabled? I've clicked on "view -- background image -- use background image" and put one in also, that didn't work either. Any help would be appreciated.

I also got a "import site" failed: use -v for traceback" show up when I load Blender, I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not.

Thanks, Dan

reaper

04-04-06, 04:02 AM

Teece3

04-04-06, 11:20 AM

This is really awesome Reaper! I also want in on this

Top: Welcome To The (Medium/Large)
Middle: Cunningham (Medium)
Bottom: Grand Theater(Small)
Request: Still Image and video @ 16:9

My email is in the PM I sent you.

Please send me your paypal email!

Thanks,
- Tyler

rlu929s

04-04-06, 05:23 PM

Reaper....thank you so much! That looks awesome!!

Do you usually send the blender file via email. The email I gave hasn't received it as of this morning. I'll check again when I get home.

reaper

04-04-06, 05:54 PM

Reaper....thank you so much! That looks awesome!!

Do you usually send the blender file via email. The email I gave hasn't received it as of this morning. I'll check again when I get home.

Sent...

shahedz

04-05-06, 08:37 AM

Hi reaper , real nice of you doing this for everyone!
can i also have it in

Top: Welcome To The (Medium/Large)
Middle: Zaman (Medium)
Bottom: Grand Theater(Small)
Request: Still Image and video @ 16:9

i will PM you email address

thank you agian

shahed

rlu929s

04-05-06, 09:21 AM

Reaper: Received email and the blender file has been rendering since last night. Will post how it looks when it's done.

Thanks again!

Now I just need to virtual dub it with the fox audio and i'm ready to go to DVD:)

MikeFalz

04-05-06, 11:25 AM

Hi Reaper,

Sent you a PM the other day, I've got Blender installed and found the generic blend file, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to edit the text (and I'm usually pretty good at this stuff). Can you send me a blender file with the text I requested?

Thanks!

Falzon
Family
Theater

thefreeauction

04-07-06, 04:48 PM

Did you try to change the background? It sounds like the files you downloaded may not have been packed properly (which would be surprising since I think other have used them). Or possibly that you mucked it up :P

Thanks for the response. I tried it again a few days later and for some reason everything worked like it's supposed to. This is so cool.

MikeFalz

04-10-06, 09:42 AM

Reaper,

Thanks anyway, I was able to figure out blender. Rendered the file over the weekend and it looks great. Just wanted to let you know before you spent any time on it...

Mike

MacGP

04-11-06, 05:12 AM

WoW Reaper!!!

I'm a new member and stumbled across this thread by accident. When I saw the extent of the replies, and after reading through a few random pages, I just decided to go for it and download the generic intro along with Blender (v2.37a). The learning curve to edit the text and move it around really isn't that hard, and by now I'm rendering my first avi.

Thank you for coming up with this and letting all the AVS members have a professional looking intro. Outstanding work! :)

MacGP

04-12-06, 02:49 PM

OK, It would seem I do need some help here.
I downloaded the genericHT intro (blender file) from the Stargate link posted in the thread and am having a problem with some flickering effect that seems to be coming of the light that shines on the main building and letters.

After rendering my edited intro on 2 different machines, and trying different output resolutions, I decided to try rendering the clean downloaded file to see if I was messing things up. Turns out the original also has the flickering I'm experiencing.
BTW I have tried on both Intel and AMD machines and with blender v2.37a and 2.41. Also tried to get the Fox download posted on the 2nd page of the thread, but the link is dead.

Could someone be kind enough as to point me to the right direction for a clean download of the blender file?

Thanks.

reaper

04-12-06, 03:05 PM

That's odd. I was under the impression that no one had experienced the flickering issue when using version 2.37a.

MacGP

04-12-06, 03:31 PM

Maybe it's just the version of the blend file hosted at Stargate? I was looking at the Gouger avi posted in the beginning of the thread and don't see the issue on it. Maybe somewhere along the sharing path the file got a setting changed that is causing the flickering.

I know it's not the system because I have tried it on different machines with different processors, different WinXP versions and different blender versions.

BTW my mail is maurogp@gmail.com

And here is an upload of the result I got with the flickering issue:
http://s38.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1UOR34E962BNI0LON4IP6VR0ZL

I was looking to make
1st: GARCIA
2nd: FAMILY
3rd: HOME THEATER

reaper

04-12-06, 04:52 PM

Well, I am not sure what the problem is, actually. Just to confirm, I downloaded the generic file from the website that you refer to. Then I rendered over 400 frames at 25% size and saw no flickering. I wish I could help but I can't debug a problem I can't see. Does anyone else on the forum have any advice for MacGP?

Chris112

05-02-06, 09:06 PM

Hey Reaper.. Sorry for haunting you with this again..

I was looking to see if I can get

Welcome to the
Medeiros
Home Theater!!!

I sent you a PM an my email. I am looking to get the video blender file.

I was wondering how everyone put the AC3 5.1 fox sound into the video? VirtualDub doesnt seem to play that type of file. I think it only likes WMV.

Any ideas on what people have done?

rlu929s

05-03-06, 09:43 AM

You should be able to just use the AC3 file when making your DVD as that a Dolby Digital feed. No conversion necassary.

Chris112

05-03-06, 10:03 AM

You should be able to just use the AC3 file when making your DVD as that a Dolby Digital feed. No conversion necassary.

even while using virtualdub to put the video and sound together?

MisterG12

05-04-06, 07:36 AM

Reaper
I've finally got around to building my first dedicated HT and this would be
the perfect crowning touch. Your work is truly amazing sir! Please when you have time I am looking for.

Welcome to the
ROUNDTUIT
Theatre

Please choose the text size you would feel most appropriate
Still image
16:9 video

Again Thank you Reaper

mattyg12 at comcast.net

Matt

reaper

05-04-06, 09:14 AM

I've received a few requests lately and I just wanted to say that I am hoping to get to them soon. I told one gentleman that I planned to do it early this week and here it is Thursday already. Ack, where did the week go? Perhaps tomorrow. Sorry for the delay, guys.

Joe (reaper)

Chris112

05-04-06, 09:28 AM

Hey no problem.. I appreciate you taking the time to do it..

reaper

05-05-06, 06:22 PM

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/6845/med5yu.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=med5yu.jpg)

reaper

05-05-06, 06:23 PM

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/5403/round0lh.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=round0lh.jpg)

reaper

05-05-06, 06:23 PM

these look ok?

MisterG12

05-05-06, 07:18 PM

Holy Moly
Thats perfect reaper
Thank you so much!

Matt

bbaskin

05-05-06, 08:47 PM

Reaper I just want say that people like you and many others is what makes this such a great forum. I just found this thread today and read two pages and skipped to the last page. Looks like you have been busy for a whole year at this. TOTALY AMAZING!!
Thanks again to you and everyone else.

Chris112

05-08-06, 09:22 AM

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/6845/med5yu.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=med5yu.jpg)

Hey thanks alot!! I appreciate it, except you spelled my last name incorrectly on this and the video.. :p

Its Medeiros

Thanks again and it looks great!

reaper

05-08-06, 09:27 AM

Ahh man! My second spelling error. Are you fixing it or would you like me to. So sorry about that.

Chris112

05-08-06, 09:31 AM

Ahh man! My second spelling error. Are you fixing it or would you like me to. So sorry about that.

hahaha dont worry about it.. If you can give me a quick how to, i will gladly change it. I would like to learn how to use blender (assuming thats how you change it).. If you dont feel like writing a quick how to, then i would appreciate it if you did the changes.

Thanks again

Mark Booth

05-09-06, 12:54 PM

Reaper,

I hope you've still got enough steam to do one more. I've been watching this thread for a little while but wasn't firm on which theater name to use. Finally committed. If you please:

Top: WELCOME TO THE (medium)
Middle: BOOTH (large)
Bottom: BIJOU (large)
Request: Still Image and Video @ 16:9 format

I'm on a Mac but I'm going to talk a friend into installing blender and running the animation for me. He's got 4 PCs around the house so I'm sure he'll be able to find one to tie up for a day. :)

My E-mail is: markbooth at cox dot net

I will PM you too.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

Mark

vondarius

05-12-06, 10:28 AM

Reaper, how do I render this in a greater resolution size?

Chris112

05-12-06, 10:56 AM

Was a fix ever found for the skipping problem? I animated mine and put sound in it and it skips and hesitates for most of it. I know its the video, because the video without the sound does it. I used 2.37a to animate also.

All I did was open the video and press animate.

reaper

05-12-06, 11:03 AM

Are you trying to play the raw avi that comes out of blender? That will not play smoothly for most anyone on this board. You need to compress it when you burn it to a DVD. Your PC cannot handle that large of a file. The skipping is not in the file... it's that your PC is not powerful enough to handle it.

reaper

05-12-06, 11:05 AM

Reaper, how do I render this in a greater resolution size?

You can tweak the resolution on the right side of the screen. Your file might say 720 and 480. You can place the cursor above those numbers and either click or shift click those numbers to change them to what you want.

Chris112

05-12-06, 11:08 AM

I used the raw file from blender and added sound into it.. So I guess I am still trying to play an uncrompessed version of it. Is there a good way to compress it? I was probably going to use SHRINK to put it on DVD.

reaper

05-12-06, 11:20 AM

I think using SHRINK would work or you can use that freeware program mentioned in the first few pages of this thread.

Chris112

05-12-06, 11:40 AM

Well I got it on to DVD using avi2DVD (i couldnt find the program you said was listed in the first few pages). And then I used Shrink to put it onto the DVD using the files that avi2dvd created.

It plays, but the volume is pretty low and the music stops at 16 secs during the playback of the dvd. Any ideas?

GPowers

05-12-06, 05:04 PM

Man Reqaper I can not belive it has been almost a year ago that you started with an idea to give a cool intro to Alan Gouger. And now how many hunders of these intros have you created?

Thanks for creating somthing so cool.........

Mark Booth

05-15-06, 01:47 AM

Reaper,

Just wondering if you missed my request posted on the 9th? I completely understand if you've not had the time. But since you have visited the thread since then I am wondering if you might have missed it.

Thanks!

Mark

reaper

05-15-06, 07:58 AM

I do have a few requests pending. I am just slower these days than at the beginning of this thread. :) Especially this week as I am preparing for a business trip which will take me out of town for 3 days and battling some odd sickness. Sorry for the delay. I haven't forgot you.

Mark Booth

05-15-06, 11:47 AM

Reaper,

Understood!! Thank you for taking the time to post a reply!

Mark

looney01

05-15-06, 11:57 AM

Reaper,

What you have done is amazing. And the fact that you are willing to help everyone out is also great. If you can send me the file that would be great.

looney01

05-15-06, 12:14 PM

Top: Welcome to (Medium)
Middle: Looney Theatre (Large)
Bottom: Enjoy The Show(Small)
Request: Still Image @ 1920x1080, and video @ 16:9

e-mail: clooney01@gmail.com

kktx

05-15-06, 12:42 PM

Reaper,

This is really a wonderful thing you're doing. We're completing a dedicated HT this week, and I would love to have an intro animation. If you have a chance, ours could read:

Welcome to the
Komanduri
Rosebud Theater

Not sure if all that will fit, but would be great if possible. If not, "Rosebud" could become "Home"

Thanks again for your assistance. I didn't read about your rendering services until after my theater construction was underway--will definitely consider it next time (and I'm sure there will be another theater, eventually)

reaper

05-15-06, 01:18 PM

OK, guys. I will try to get to these as soon as I can. But it will pobably be the weekend at the earliest given my travel this week. Congrats on the new theater kktx! :)

kktx

05-15-06, 02:37 PM

Thank you!!!

blazer003

05-17-06, 07:40 AM

Hi, my name is Matt Hoecker, original modeller of this FOX blender file, and I must ask that you stop immediately, delete all of your video and project files, and destroy any copies of this opening or I will sue...

Had you going for a second didn't I? I must say that it is a great thing that Reaper is doing, and I'm just glad that so many people are getting such enjoyment out of my little project. I actually was searching for my name on google to find a site that another of my works was supposedly posted on, and came across this when someone mentioned the watermark of my name I left visible. I didn't actually mean to leave it visible, btw. My name is actually inserted throughout the geometry of the model, mainly so I don't see people selling the model itself someday, but I meant to delete that one that I was copying and pasting :o .

Anyway, I PM'd Reaper, and it is totally fine to pay him for the time he is taking to render these openings. Like I said, I'm happy to see people getting enjoyment out of this, and he really is doing a great service that I wouldn't have the time to do.

If you want to see a small sample of my other work, you can go to my gallery (go to my profile to find it, it won't let me post a link cause I'm too new. :p ). I suggest you take a look at ROTJ, Planet Approach and X-Wing Run. You can also watch the FOX Logo animation to see how it all began. Also if you're willing to pay a little, I could create just about any opening you could dream of (well maybe not quite ANYthing you could dream of.) You can go to my profile and find my email address if you have any requests. Once you get to the gallery, just click on the images of the movie cameras to play the movies. All are under 3 mb.

Continue to enjoy the images and renders and maybe someday I can actually come back and talk about my own home theater once I can afford it, or better yet, the premiere of some great movie I'm making. Thanks again Reaper.

-Matt

Iceblade

05-17-06, 10:26 AM

Matt,

All I have to say is "WOW". Your stuff is pretty darn fantastic.

Joe,
Dude... long time no see. Glad to see things have really been going well for you on the 3d front. Been ages since we talked. Hope all is well at the new job and hope you feel better soon.

Regs,
Jeff@TI

Mark Booth

05-17-06, 12:59 PM

Hi, my name is Matt Hoecker, original modeller of this FOX blender file, and I must ask that you stop immediately, delete all of your video and project files, and destroy any copies of this opening or I will sue...

Had you going for a second didn't I?

Matt,

Well, you sure had ME going for a second! Particularly since I only recently requested my own home theater intro from Reaper so I didn't yet have anything to delete or destroy! :)

Thank you SO MUCH for creating that Fox model in the first place! It is absolutely FANTASTIC!!

I suspect a few of us might feel inclined to send a few PayPal dollars your way in addition to what we send to Reaper. Is your PayPal ID the same as your E-mail address?

Thanks again!

Mark

P.S. to Reaper... I asked for your PayPal ID in a PM. I'll send some dollars once I get the ID. Thanks!

GPowers

05-17-06, 01:24 PM

Hi, my name is Matt Hoecker, original modeller of this FOX blender file, ...

-Matt

Thanks Matt for sharing such a great intro. We all here have had a lot of fun with it.

DanNay

05-17-06, 02:33 PM

Reaper,

I have read with amazement the thread on the Fox Spotlight based home theater thread. The work you have done is amazing. Could you please send me a blender file and a 1280X720 still image with the following details?

Top: NAY FAMILY
Middle: HOME THEATER
Bottom: WELCOME

I am in no hurry- get to it whenever you can. Thanks for this amazing service you have provided to the members of this forum. My email address is included in the PM I sent you.

Dan Nay

EchoBaseGeek

05-17-06, 04:46 PM

What to say that has not been said allready both to Matt and Reaper, so I will toss in my request if available to do

Top - WELCOME TO THE
Middle - MOUSE HD
Bottom - THEATER

Request: Still Image @ 1920x1080, and video @ 16:9

Email - darthmouse@gmail.com

BritInVA

05-17-06, 06:38 PM

Awesome work your doing!

I sent a PM but just in case this is correct method of request:

If/when you have time can you please create one for me?

Top: WELCOME TO THE
Middle: WRIGHT FAMILY
Bottom: THEATRE
Request: Still and Video, 16:9

My HT is at least 2 months off completion so no rush.....also is it possible to burn to DVD? (not got a burner yet). PM me cost.

Thanks,
Mark

ridetheducati

05-17-06, 11:21 PM

Excellent work.

If your still providing this service I would appreciate the following:

Top - WELCOME TO THE
Middle - GOLDEN FAMILY
Bottom - THEATER

Request: Still Image @ 1280X720, and video @ 16:9

Email: tony.golden@gmail.com

I can send a donation to your paypal account also.

shproductions03

05-17-06, 11:25 PM

I don't know if your still offering your great art and help with rendering this for people but if you are I would love to have a copy of it. Forgive my ignorance but do you make this into a video file and a JPEG. and if so what resolution is the JPEG can it be poster or larger size 300 dpi. and what format is the video in.

Top - WELCOME TO THE
Middle - HOLCHIN
Bottom - THEATER

shproductions03@aol.com

blazer003

05-18-06, 03:38 AM

If you wanted to send a little money my way, I certainly wouldn't mind. My paypal is the same as my email address, which it won't let me post, but it's in my profile.

Again, I'm glad you are all putting it to good use!

sapro

05-18-06, 04:11 PM

Can someone explain how to set this image as the default on your DVD player? I looked through the manual but can't find it, maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing?

Anyway, if that's possible I'd love a still image:

Top - WELCOME TO THE
Middle - SIMMONS FAMILY
Bottom - THEATER

Iceblade

05-18-06, 04:17 PM

Sapro,

It's entirely dependent on what player you have. Some players have the ability to change it... some don't. Perhaps if you tell us what you have we can fill in the gaps... or direct you somewhere that can.

Regs,
Jeff

BritInVA

05-18-06, 04:37 PM

Does the Oppo 971H or Denon DVD-1920 or 2910 have ability to change the default image?

Iceblade

05-18-06, 04:58 PM

The Oppo can for certain. Check out the Oppo brain dump thread for info.

Or you could just check the thread that talk about doing just this:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=669815

The search engine... gotta love it. ;)

Later,
Jeff

sapro

05-18-06, 05:15 PM

Yamaha DV-C6660

Iceblade

05-18-06, 05:48 PM

Sincerely doubt it on a Yamaha.

Regs,
Jeff

tartag

05-19-06, 11:22 AM

Once again I sit jaw on the desk truly amazed at the creativity and ingunity displayed on this site!

Reaper, I anxiously take my place in line:

Top - WELCOME TO THE
Middle - GatRat
Bottom - THEATER

Request: Still Image @ 1280X720, and video @ 16:9

Cheers,
-tartag

affeking

05-19-06, 07:08 PM

I sent this as a PM, but I realize maybe I was supposed to post it.

Top: SERENITY
Middle: HOME THEATER
Bottom: WELCOME
Request: Still Image (1280X720) & Video model (16:9)

Again, I think its really cool you are helping everyone out with this - especially after such a long time. Thanks!

reaper

05-20-06, 10:33 AM

http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/770/zaman2ux.th.jpg (http://img92.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zaman2ux.jpg)

reaper

05-20-06, 10:50 AM

http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/5683/porter8ci.th.jpg (http://img483.imageshack.us/my.php?image=porter8ci.jpg)

roar

05-20-06, 10:51 AM

Just a thanks to reaper and blazer003 for their work on this animation... thanks to reapers instructions.... way... back on pg 2 or 3 I believe :) I was able to download the generic blender file and modify it for my own purposes.

A reminder for anyone trying to do the same I was using version 2.41 of blender and noticing an annoying flicker... a quick search here revealed that we should go back to blender version 2.37a to get rid of the flicker... I've got that rendering now and I'm sure it will fix my flicker problem.

Once you get the hang of the 's' and 'g' along with your 'x', 'y' and 'z's (Sounds like Seasme Street :) ) No reason most people shouldn't be able to make up their own renders and give poor reaper a rest after all his hard work :)

Now to search this thread to see if there is a 5.1 mp3 of the fox music rather then the 2.0 I found on an earlier thread... so many pages to get caught up.

Thanks again reaper!

Edit: Naturally this thread has it all... there was .ac3 file for it, popped it into my dvd authoring software and there you have it... sounds wayyyy better then the mp3 file did found much earlier.

reaper

05-20-06, 11:02 AM

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/5251/bijou4tc.th.jpg (http://img520.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bijou4tc.jpg)

tartag

05-20-06, 11:17 AM

Roar- I'd be happy to remix it to dolbydigital. do you want an mpeg or the AC3 file?

-tartag

reaper

05-20-06, 11:29 AM

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/4205/spector3ly.th.jpg (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spector3ly.jpg)

roar

05-20-06, 11:30 AM

tartag,

the file I found in this thread was an ac3 file and dvd-lab pro reconized it as dolby 5.1, would remixing it to 'digital' dolby result in a better quality file?

roar

shahedz

05-20-06, 04:09 PM

Hi reaper , many thanks, on the case now for rendering, but i coudlnt find a blender version of 2.37a i could only find the latest version of 2.41 , will that be ok?

reaper

05-20-06, 04:38 PM

http://download.blender.org/release/

reaper

05-20-06, 04:47 PM

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/471/wright3ej.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wright3ej.jpg)

reaper

05-20-06, 04:55 PM

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/699/nico9vd.th.jpg (http://img255.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nico9vd.jpg)

reaper

05-20-06, 05:07 PM

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/1169/orme5lf.th.jpg (http://img370.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orme5lf.jpg)

tartag

05-20-06, 06:34 PM

Okay word of caution (though I may be alone in my stupidy). I took roar's advice and messed with blender. pretty easy to make the needed changes (not that it reflects an ounce of the skill and effort displayed by reaper and blazer003) and now the 'Flattend Crank Award': While adjusting settings to save the single image I did not realize that I changed THE render settings to apparently render JPG's so 19 hours and 650 frames later I was left with a directory of 650 individual JPG's... DOH!

Now at Frame 95 of the currently compiling AVI...

hope no one replicates my blender blunder.

Cheers,
-tartag

tartag

05-20-06, 06:38 PM

roar-

doubtful me's thinks digital be digital... though shows my haste in reading the thread as I found the 2 channel mp3. I did play around with the 5.1 mixer in Sony Vegas and started with the intro cadence out of the FL/FR then the Center mixed with the rear and duplicated the bass drum on the LFE.

roar

05-20-06, 10:25 PM

Okay word of caution (though I may be alone in my stupidy). I took roar's advice and messed with blender...

Now at Frame 95 of the currently compiling AVI...

hope no one replicates my blender blunder.

Oops... sorry about the wasted time :) I've 'blundered' through a couple of things in blender already too, on my 4th render already, I keep thinking of ways to make it look cooler (Nothing reaper hasn't already done, I'm just figureing out how he did it!)

doubtful me's thinks digital be digital...

Cool... I was thinking there may be a difference between 'Dolby 5.1' and 'Digital Dolby 5.1' but I guess the .ac3 file grabbed from another thread must be 'Digital Dolby 5.1' and DVD-Lab Pro is only calling it 'Dolby 5.1'

Come on render... here up and finish so I can make my next version!

reaper

05-21-06, 03:54 PM

http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/1629/nay2yl.th.jpg (http://img482.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nay2yl.jpg)

shahedz

05-21-06, 05:11 PM

cheers reaper all sorted now bar one thing, can anyone recommend a free avi to mpeg converter? or if possible post or pm a link pls :)

reaper

05-21-06, 06:10 PM

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9535/serentiy2wd.th.jpg (http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=serentiy2wd.jpg)

reaper

05-21-06, 06:24 PM

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/4509/golden8xc.th.jpg (http://img114.imageshack.us/my.php?image=golden8xc.jpg)

roar

05-21-06, 09:35 PM

cheers reaper all sorted now bar one thing, can anyone recommend a free avi to mpeg converter? or if possible post or pm a link pls :)

Posted much earlier in this thread... there was a 'step-by-step' using 'trial' software on how to do this... orignally posted by latntekky. I stll can't post links :) So go to page 4 of this thread, msg 105!

Edit: Now I can...

Post #105 by latntekky (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5630895&&#post5630895)

Mark Booth

05-22-06, 12:35 PM

OK, I just figured out that there is a Mac OS X version of blender. I don't know how I missed that in the thread, but I did. (Insert Homer Simpson "DOH" here.) Anyway, I downloaded the 2.37a version for Mac OS X 10.3, opened up the blend file that reaper sent me (THANK YOU reaper!) and clicked the big ANIM button and watched it start building the first frame. Woops... too square. It didn't look like it was widescreen. That's when I figured out that 720x480 is a 1.5 aspect, not a 1.78 (16.9) aspect.

A little digging in the thread found message number 356 by psycho:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5695406&&#post5695406

Sure enough, when I input psycho's suggested x (117) and y (100) figures, the dotted white line squares over the wire frame image changes shape to being closer to what appears to be a 16:9 aspect. However... when I then click on ANIM, the window that opens showing the frame rendering process is exactly the same size (approx. 1.5:1) as the original attempt (with repear's default x, y settings). Perhaps the MPEG encoder settings that psycho refers to are what will eventually stretch the image to the correct aspect??

I plan to run this from a home theater PC (Mac Mini), not from DVD. The Mac Mini is driving my JVC at 1920x1080 (16:9). And, since the Mac version offers a Quicktime output option, I'd like to use that if possible.

So.. my questions are:

What settings do I use to render a 16:9 aspect version right out of blender?

Is it OK to output it as a Quicktime file instead of an AVI RAW file?

Any and all responses are greatly appreciated!

Mark

Mark Booth

05-22-06, 01:12 PM

Here are a couple of images to show the differences I am seeing between reaper's default settings and psycho's "widescreen" settings.

repear's default:
http://members.cox.net/markbooth/RepearDefault.jpg

psycho's recommended settings:
http://members.cox.net/markbooth/PsychoSettings.jpg

As you can see, the dotted white lines on psycho's settings have a much wider aspect. But when I attempt to animate with those settings, the window that opens for the frame rendering is EXACTLY the same size as with repear's settings. Granted, I only let it go for a few frames before stopping it but I don't think the window will magically get wider at some point.

Also, if you look at the image for reaper's settings, the innermost white dash rectangle is, apparently, the area that will be framed. With psycho's settings, the innermost rectangle is cropped too tightly while the second largest rectangle seems to exactly match the image size of the still (1280x720 jpg) that repear provided. Which white dash rectangle gets used? Or, do both (all) of them get used? And, more importantly, why does blender open up a 1.5 aspect window for psycho's settings too?

To experiment a bit, I did try setting the size to 1280x720 and setting the x and y both to 1. That resulted in white dash lines exactly matching the framing that psycho's settings displayed. And, when I click ANIM, the frame window that opens appears to be 16:9. But, at that size, it wasn't exactly hauling butt to build each frame. :)

If these things only took a couple of hours to render, I'd experiment away with glee. But given the extensive rendering time, I'd sure like to better understand what the final output might look like before I get started.

Again, any and all help is appreciated. I think it will be interesting to see just how fast I can get it done on my PowerMac. I've got a dual processor G5 running at 2.7GHz. I sure hope blender takes advantage of both processors. :)

Mark

reaper

05-22-06, 04:30 PM

Going forward, I would like to ask that requests just go into my PM box. I tend to lose track of them here in the thread. I cleaned out the inbox this weekend but have found these in the thread. I don't think I have done any work on these requests yet. If I missed more, let me know. Right now, this is my to do list. If you are not on here and want me to edit the file for you, please PM me with your request and e-mail address...

Top: Welcome to (Medium)
Middle: Looney Theatre (Large)
Bottom: Enjoy The Show(Small)
Request: Still Image @ 1920x1080, and video @ 16:9
e-mail: clooney01@gmail.com

Welcome to the
Komanduri
Rosebud Theater

Top - WELCOME TO THE
Middle - HOLCHIN
Bottom - THEATER
shproductions03@aol.com

Top - WELCOME TO THE
Middle - SIMMONS FAMILY
Bottom - THEATER

Mark Booth

05-23-06, 03:21 AM

Well, I decided to just "go for it" and set up my G5 to render the blend file at 1280x720 (leaving the x, y at 10 and 11). I started it just after noon and, approx. 12 hours later, it is on frame 325. So, it's looking like this is going to take right at about 25 hours or so. Not too bad considering the higher resolution (and true 16:9 aspect).

So far, it's looking good. I just hope that it works as it is supposed to, particuarly since I also chose to output it as a QuickTime file. I'll report back tomorrow evening.

Mark

king_arthur

05-23-06, 02:55 PM

Reaper,

Just a note of thanks for all the nice work that you do. It certainly makes the little touches easier with your assistance. My rendering only took about 8 hours, but I had a little help from dual-processors and large memory. ;)

Thanks again,

Ken Orme

tartag

05-23-06, 03:28 PM

Reaper;

Appologies for not replying sooner. (I will follow this up with a PM) I have had much success using the generic blender file and it has turned out wicked cool. Thanks for supplyling it and you can take me off your to-do list!

-tartag

hey_cameron

05-23-06, 04:24 PM

A big thanks to Reaper for my Image and Blender files and for the many (hundreds?) of files he must have done by now. Reaper, I am sending a token of my appreciation to your PayPal account. I would also like to offer to help with some discounts on equipment for your own Home Theater if I can. I’ll send you more info via a PM, so I don’t break any posting rules.

Thanks again Reaper! :)

reaper

05-23-06, 04:39 PM

Mark... glad your 1280x720 render is coming along. That is the only advice I would have provided. I have rendered them at 1280x720, 1x1 and it has worked out pretty well. I hope it does for you as well.

reaper

05-23-06, 04:42 PM

Thanks guys for your kind words and support. Much appreciated. Just doing what I can to help out around here. It's cool to imagine all the theaters that have this intro running across the country...

affeking

05-23-06, 11:48 PM

Well, I was able to render the file. It took something like 40 hours on my 2.2ghz machine. I think I need to reinstall windows sometime soon :) Thanks again Reaper for your generious contribution of time in helping others. This thing looks amazing!

I'm having some trouble getting it to play smothly for some reason. The best I got was to compress it with Indeo in VirtualDub. Its still a little choppy, but the music at least plays clearly. I saw several people mention they used ffdshow codec. I have that installed, but its not a compression option for me in VirtuaDub. Do I have to import it somehow? Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks again reaper,
Jeff

Mark Booth

05-24-06, 12:19 AM

My PowerMac G5 rendered the blender file in just under 25 hours. I'm VERY happy with that speed considering the fact that I rendered it at 1280x720 (1.78 aspect), not a "tiny" little 720x480 (1.5 aspect). :D

Since I set the output as a QuickTime file, when it was finished I located the file (a .mov file) and opened it in QuickTime. I was disappointed to watch it hang and stutter as QuickTime attempted to play it. Further investigation revealed that the file was... get this... 1.7 GIGabytes in size! Even VLC couldn't handle it.

Fortunately, it opens in iMovie HD and plays just fine. I will be able to add the sound and then output as a compressed MPEG of reasonable size for use on the HTPC.

As far as the framing of the animation goes, everything looks just fine. A true 16:9 aspect and plenty of clearances at the edges to allow for the overscan of the TV.

reaper, again, THANK YOU for helping us out with this!! Much appreciated!!!

Mark

Iceblade

05-25-06, 11:43 PM

ARGH! P4 2.4Ghz with 1GB ram... projected to take 54 friggin HOURS!!! This is beyond stupid. Explain to me again why I thought this was a good idea?

Oh yeah... cuz it's friggin cool. :)

Of course, looking at each frame, I realize things that I want to change, so I'll need to do this at least one more time. I think I may cry.

Since I'm just two days into using Blender. Is there a way to select the camera if you can't see where the hell the camera IS? The camera appears to travel along that curved ray path coming out of the top letters... but I'll be damned if I can find the camera icon itself to select it and use Ctrl-A to preview the animation. Am I just blind, retarded or both? :)

Thanks,
Jeff

reaper

05-26-06, 10:42 AM

Wish I knew how to help ya with the camera issue. I admit it can be a bit tricky to find it but I am so familiar with the interface, I can just swing the view around until it is visible. You might try clicking the number keys on your keypad to get different views of the design. Maybe you'll notice it as you do this.

Iceblade

05-26-06, 10:52 AM

Joe,

Yeah, I've played "happy fingers" punching on the number pad... thus far no luck. I swung the view around until I was dizzy and still couldn't find the damn camera. Clearly I must be blind. No worries. There's still at least another 30 hours I can't use the damn PC while it finishes rendering. You'd think I was using my Little Professor Calculator to do this it's going so slow. :)

Have a good weekend,
Jeff

reaper

05-26-06, 11:02 AM

I was hoping to fulfill the latest request list this weekend but it might be delayed. I just wanted to let you guys know that. Here's the story.

Last night, I got home in a rain storm around 6pm. It was pouring down and about soaked me on my way into the garage... just a few steps. I sat down to eat dinner with my wife and kids. Shortly thereafter it started lightning and thundering. Then, lighting struck with immediate accompaniment from thunder so loud we actually ducked at the table. We could hear some tinkling sound after it occurred. I can only guess it was crackling in the air after it had been ionized?

I got up to look outside from the windows and didn't notice anything. Then I checked the theater and noticed my equipment was not powered on. I resolved to finish my dinner before continuing the inspection.

A few more bites and a neighbor was knocking on the door. He says, "I think the tree between our houses was struck by lightning and is burning underground. The ground is actually boiling. Come have a look."

I head outside and am immediately overwhelmed by the smell. My wife follows and quikly reports that she smells gas. My neighbor is still trying to get me to go near the tree but we both informed him that there was a serious gas leak over there and we were not getting close. We started backing away with the kids and asked him to call 911.

I told the neighbors what had happened and asked them not to light up any cigarettes. Twenty minutes later, the whole street was outside and 4 fire trucks, two police cars, and an ambulance were present.

We were evacuated for 3 hours. I had no car, no money, no diapers for the kids, nothing. I had no way to get to a hotel. We waited and waited uncertain when we could get back in. Finally, around 9:30pm we got back into the house. The firemen got sick of waiting for the gas company and crimped the pipe to stop the leak. The gas company finally showed around 10pm and worked to replace the broken pipe until midnight.

So far, I have identified a broken phone, broken router and a broken modem. I am still unable to power up my equipment rack in the theater. I think the GFCI outlet has been destroyed and needs to be replaced.

So, as you can see, I have some things to deal with and hope to get back onto this next week. Maybe I will find some time this weekend but I am not making any promises. Just wanted to let you know my story and explain the delay.

Joe

chinadog

05-26-06, 11:13 AM

Geez, Joe, that sucks! Hope all is well in the basement with all the work you put into it. Man!

Bud

Iceblade

05-26-06, 11:22 AM

Good Lord, Joe! Glad to hear you and the family are ok. Hopefully all of the house stuff gets resolved quickly and cheaply. Good luck with everything and thanks for all the hard work in putting these things together for people.

On an unrelated note, for those of you getting 25 hour and lower render times.... can I ask what the specs are on your machine? Also, do you know what the biggest gating item is as far as render time? Is it the vid card, PC CPU or Internal RAM?

Thanks,
Jeff

kktx

05-26-06, 11:39 AM

Joe,

What a story--we have plenty of electrical storms here in Houston, so your story is particularly scary. While the damage to electronics equipment pales in relation to the threat to life and property, it's still aggravating at the end. Within a year of moving to our current house, we looked out our bedroom window during a "dark and stormy" night to see a house in flames. Fortunately, it was a house being constructed that was struck by lightning, and the flames (despite being blown nearly horizontally for a while) didn't spread, as the two lots immediately adjacent were still vacant.

I wish you and your family peace as you recover from this close call. Certainly things like waits for HT intros seem very irrelevant in this context, so don't worry about my request. I will also be happy to make a PP donation when you do get finished, and I would suggest that others also do the same. If nothing else, a bunch of these donations could get you one of these:

http://www.smarthome.com/4860.HTML

KK

cardioman

05-26-06, 12:39 PM

Joe, thats terrible. I hope this is resolved quickly for you. You have a real heart to make this intro available and to lead this thread. You certainly dont deserve this treatment from mother nature. You helped me with Intro sometime ago, will send a donation to ease the pain. Thanks for your dedication!!

Gary Lightfoot

05-26-06, 12:54 PM

Wow, that was scary!

I hope you get everything back up and running with little expense to yourself.

Gary

reaper

05-26-06, 12:56 PM

Ah man, you guys are too kind. You don't have to send donations. I really appreciate your thoughts and support at this time. In the end, I am thinking this will not be much more than an inconvenience for a few days. I'll keep you up to date on the casualty list just for fun though. :)

reaper

05-26-06, 10:59 PM

I did confirm tonight that the Xbox, Xbox 360 and PC are all damaged. The ethernet portion of these devices is not functional anymore. So, here's the casualty list:

Cable Modem
Linksys WRT54G wireless router
PC Ethernet card
GFCI outlet
Xbox ethernet portion
Xbox 360 ethernet portion
HDTV Tuner in the basement
Telephone with answering machine and remote handset

Of course, it looks like my damage total ends up being right around the deductible amount. So, no point in claiming anything. I guess I will repair stuff on the cheap and maybe take the opportunity to send my projector in for a lense shft adjustment while the 360 is being repaired...

Here's a news article about it:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Lightning Strikes Again… and Again… and Again
Fishers, IN – Fishers Firefighters, assisted by neighboring departments, kept busy Thursday evening dealing with the aftermath of storms.
The first round of storms produced a lightning bolt at approximately 6:35pm that hit a tree in the 10600 block of Tarragon Court, which in turn ruptured a nearby buried gas line. Firefighters evacuated houses next to the leak and waited nearly three hours for equally busy gas company representatives to arrive and stop the leak. The leaking gas did not catch fire.
The second line of storms brought lightning that hit homes in the 9900 block of Rainbow Falls Lane, causing electrical problems, and the 11300 block of Proper Pass, resulting in a fire.
At around 7:20pm, Doug Morrow was on a rear porch with his son when lightning hit their home on Proper Pass, and both reported feeling an electric tingle when it struck. Shortly afterward they discovered smoke, then fire in the basement. The family and their pets were able to safely evacuate.

The Fishers Fire Department arrived to find smoke coming from the residence, and were able to quickly stop the fire’s spread. Fire damage to the home was contained to an area of the basement ceiling and a first floor wall, but the rest of the home sustained varying degrees of smoke damage.
The Morrow family had only lived in the new home for about a month. No dollar loss was immediately available.

Iceblade

05-27-06, 09:26 AM

Uh oh... I wonder if I actually did send you the file without the proper mods. Can you verify that that the render resolution is 480x720? You're not rendering it at 1280x720 are you? That would make it take very long.

I just want to submit an official apology to anyone to whom I sent a bad model. So far I don't know that it's happened. But I am extremely scatterbrained and probably forgot to set someone's model up for video properly.

LOL! And NOW, my friends, you know why it took 60+ hours to render my friggin AVI vs. all of you guys getting around 20 hours!!! ARGH! See... THIS is why you should read all 30 pages of a thread before jumping in with both feet. :) I created the JPG at 1280x720 first. Then switched the type to AVI from JPG, but FORGOT to switch to NTSC 720x480. Millions of years later, I am kicking myself. DUH!

Oh well... I need to tweak the file anyway, and at least this should give me something to play with for dubbing with the ac3 file.

Thanks again to whomever provided the ac3 file... and Joe... have fun at Best Buy or whatever replacing all the gear you lost in the storm.

Also, I may have missed this fact too somewhere in the thread, but is there a way to "compress" the text horizontally as opposed to just scaling it? To make things look right and "stack" on the platforms and each other in the Fox logo, I need to not only "shrink" the "to" and "the" on the top row... but I need to "smush" them horizontally. Same goes with my text on the second line to have all the letters be on the platform and not hanging in space. Did I just miss the magic hotkey to do that? Time to head back to the blender docs I guess.

Regs,
Jeff

reaper

05-27-06, 09:59 AM

After pressing s to scale, you can press x, y or z to constrain the scaling to any axis.

Iceblade

05-27-06, 10:04 AM

After pressing s to scale, you can press x, y or z to constrain the scaling to any axis.

DOH! Thanks, Joe! I was under the impression that the x,y,z constraints applied to movement only. Duh. Thanks for the tip. Too bad I'm stuck attacking the "honey do" list for the weekend now. Little to no time to tinker with my new pet project. :)

Thanks again!

Regs,
Jeff

Psylocke

05-28-06, 01:30 AM

Could anybody find it in their heart to possibly do an avi of my logo that reaper created. I just do not have the time or processor power (or dedicted pc to be tied up for that long) to get it to work.

I would love to make an intro dvd to show off my theatre including sound.

If no one can do it their will be no hard feelings. I just thought it would not hurt to ask.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

JLuna

05-28-06, 10:23 AM

Hey Reaper,

What program di you use to make the welcome home theater pages. I love them and would like to learn for myself. Would look great on my panels.

Thanx,
~J~

Iceblade

05-28-06, 11:10 AM

J,

Welcome to the forum. Just an FYI, it's pretty much frowned upon here at AVS to come in to the 28th page of a thread and ask a question about something that was answered on page 1. You might try reading a little before asking a question. Not trying to be a jerk, but alot of other forum members tend to get hot under the collar when this happens.

The answer to your question is Blender. www.blender.org

Regs,
Jeff

ashmufc

05-29-06, 03:52 AM

Mark Booth

05-29-06, 12:25 PM

reaper,

Sorry to read about the lightning!! Scary stuff! But, thankfully, nobody was hurt!

An update on my 1280x720 QuickTime render...

As mentioned, when I first finished that one I couldn't get it to play in QuickTime, even on my dual-processor PowerMac G5. It was 1.7GB in size and QuickTime chocked on it. So, I brought it into iMove HD, added a fade-in, fade-out and the Fox Fanfare music, and then saved it as a h.264 compressed .mov file. That final file is 86MB and it looks and sounds great. Plays fine on my PowerMac G5 but, after repeated plays, I discovered that it sometimes hesitates a bit on my Mac Mini (Dual-Core Intel) and it won't play at all on my slower PowerBook G4.

So, I decided to re-render the blend in 854x480 (1.78 aspect). The PowerMac dual-G5 did it in 7 hours 32 minutes. Again, very happy with that speed! :) It seems the folks at blender.org are definitely using both processors in any dual-processor machines. The resulting file is 814MB in size and is the same aspect as the larger version I did. As with the first, I did not change the X, Y values. Left them at 10, 11. Works great.

Today, I'll pull the smaller render into iMovie HD and do the same fades and music as the original. It will be interesting to see if it will then play on my PowerBook G4 (and eliminate the ocassional pausing on my Mac Mini). I suspect it will solve the problems.

Mark

Lindahl

05-30-06, 04:57 PM

Sorry to hear about all your gear, Joe. Hope everything goes well with the replacing. Did you not have surge protection for your phone lines and your Xboxs?

Here is a link to download the AC3 file:

http://bucketfoot.com/temp/Foxac3.htm

This link seems broken. Anyone know where to get the AC3 DD 5.1 FOX file?

Samtronic10

05-31-06, 01:32 PM

This is really awesome Reaper! You can do this

Top: Welcome To The (Medium/Large)
Middle: Steven (Medium)
Bottom: Home Theater(Small)
Request: Still Image and video @ 16:9

FoeHammer865

05-31-06, 02:30 PM

Wow...that lightning sounds like it caused a lot of headaches. I had lightning strike the field next to my house (about 50 yards away) last September. I was looking out the nearest window (was open) at the time with my face up against the screen when it struck. I was thrown back by it/myself onto the bed behind me. it was pretty horrific, because the thunder was immediate and very loud and took out my main breaker (made it pitch black). Needless to say the wife was freak'n out a bit. :eek: :eek:

It fried my amps on my powered tower PSBs, Denon receiver, DISH receiver, TV tuner, Xbox, Fridge, subwoofer, sound card and network card in PC, garage door opener, phone and a couple different radios. It was pretty thorough. :mad:

But I do have to say that no gas lines were ruptured or anything that dangerous.

Make sure you contact your insurance company in case something pops up in a couple days as bad, or goes out after a little bit. Also, when I actually started adding up what it would cost to replace things, it went up really fast and was above my deductable.

My insurance company (state Farm) didn't require me to turn in any of the damaged equipment :) and elected to replace most of it rather than having a technician repair it. Yes they would pay for the repairs as well. One reason the costs quickly were above my $1000 deductable. Trust me, it's worth it to contact them. In a many cases, I told them the item worked at about 75% and they STILL wanted to replace the item, like my TV where the other video inputs worked, but the tuner was gone(I don't even use it). I was very clear with them about it and they still wanted to replace it because repairing the unit would have cost them more. :) I didn't want any fraud charges being placed on me. I still use my TV and just took the check to replace other items that were more important, like the Xbox that had no working parts.

I wish you the best and our prayers are with you.

TREVOR :)

JosephF

05-31-06, 08:54 PM

This link seems broken. Anyone know where to get the AC3 DD 5.1 FOX file?

The link worked fine when I just tried it. You can also try right-clicking. Originally it did not work (don't know why), but it does for me now.

BritInVA

05-31-06, 09:59 PM

Joe,

Man - that sounds bad! Always sucks when these things happen and insurance does not cover it. No rush for my request......be a while before I can use it.

Cheers,
Mark

ashmufc

06-01-06, 02:21 AM

Sorry to hear about all your gear, Joe. Hope everything goes well with the replacing. Did you not have surge protection for your phone lines and your Xboxs?

This link seems broken. Anyone know where to get the AC3 DD 5.1 FOX file?
PM me your emial address if you can't download that file.

reaper

06-01-06, 07:37 AM

Just to update you guys, I definitely have to foot the bill for the damage myself. Not only do I have the $1000 deductible, I found out yesterday that the insurance company will raise my rates $100/yr for 5 years if I make a claim. Grr.

Anyways, my blender computer works fine and I would be creating these logos right now. But the problem is my wife's computer is still down and she has claimed my computer until I fix it. I hope to replace the ethernet card and get it working (fingers crossed) in the coming days.

Keep chillin' guys.

Later

Joe/Reap

Lindahl

06-01-06, 12:30 PM

The link worked fine when I just tried it. You can also try right-clicking. Originally it did not work (don't know why), but it does for me now.

Odd, it works now. Thanks! (whatever you did)

karimko

06-01-06, 05:57 PM

Dear Joe,
It's my first time to read this topic and even the whole forum, i'm new to all this.
Tomorrow my 120" screen along with the Hitachi PJ-TX200 will be installed.
I liked the Idea of the welcome to my home theater logo and movie clip, please can you make mine?
my name is written like that: Nabil Khanafer
I will leave it up to you to chose the format.

thx and wish you luck, I'm very sorry for your loss.

reaper

06-02-06, 10:55 PM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/9180/looney1hf.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=looney1hf.jpg)

reaper

06-02-06, 11:11 PM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/4845/kom9zo.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kom9zo.jpg)

Need an e-mail if you want the model.

reaper

06-02-06, 11:19 PM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/372/holchin2ep.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=holchin2ep.jpg)

reaper

06-02-06, 11:29 PM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/7172/simmons3ul.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=simmons3ul.jpg)

Need an address for the model if you want it.

reaper

06-02-06, 11:52 PM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/8874/steven3nb.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=steven3nb.jpg)

e-mail?

reaper

06-03-06, 12:04 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/2153/nabil8du.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nabil8du.jpg)

Need e-mail. Goodnight guys.

reaper

06-03-06, 07:58 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/3959/oak2gv.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oak2gv.jpg)

reaper

06-03-06, 08:27 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/306/ellis4dx.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ellis4dx.jpg)

reaper

06-03-06, 05:36 PM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/4144/inno0da.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=inno0da.jpg)

Does this look right? Sorry, I don't speak the language...

JBAM

06-03-06, 06:14 PM

Hi there Reaper. These are absolutely amazing!! Could you please help me with one?

Here is my information.

Top: Welcome to the
Middle: McKibben Cinema
Bottom: Enjoy The Show!

Or if that is too much then:

Top: Welcome to the
Middle: McKibben
Bottom: Cinema

Request: Still Image @ 1920x1080, and video @ 16:9
My email address is jodibam and it is at gmail with the extension of com.
(Sorry I seem to be unable to post the full email address directly, so I hope that this makes sense.)

Thanks so much and good luck with getting everything back on track.

Jodi

reaper

06-03-06, 06:44 PM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/8113/king8uo.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=king8uo.jpg)

reaper

06-04-06, 08:35 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/7649/anderson0hm.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=anderson0hm.jpg)

need an e-mail address if you want the model.

reaper

06-04-06, 08:44 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/8847/ke3mo.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ke3mo.jpg)

reaper

06-04-06, 09:32 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/4948/night1ns.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=night1ns.jpg)

Nightlites13

06-04-06, 01:19 PM

Wow Joe,

That was fast. Thank you so much. I'll post my rendering time FYI if anybody is curious.

It looks awesome :cool: !!

Really appreciate it :)

sapro

06-06-06, 02:36 PM

Thank you! that is awesome...

JBAM

06-08-06, 11:16 PM

Reaper,

Just wanted to say thank you very much for your help with my HT logo!! I sent a token of my thanks via PayPal as well.

I rendered at 1280x720 and a mere 45 hours later I had a nice 1.75 GB file. I am now going to attempt to add in the ac3 audio.

Has anyone successfully used Virtualdub Mod with the ac3 file without having the low volume issue? If so, could you share what you did?

Thanks,
JBAM :)

reaper

06-09-06, 07:55 AM

Your welcome. Glad you got it to work well. Good luck with the audio. I wish I could help on that one but a friend of mine adds the audio with pay software when I need it.

mncbank

06-09-06, 09:08 AM

Reaper,

Just checking that you got my pm the other day. Not hurrying you, just checking.

Thanks,

reaper

06-09-06, 09:24 AM

Yes. I have your request and a few others to do in the next few days.

Nightlites13

06-09-06, 10:28 AM

Just wondering what most people are using for the X and Y when rendering. I started mine and after 10 hours and the frame count I was on realized it was going to be over 60 hours. That was about when the computer was acting strange anyway but I read back through the thread and saw that there was mention of changing to 720 x 480. I ended up losing the hard drive and starting over with it so when I start again to try and render I wanted input on that setting. Is that the resolution but the size and aspect are wide either way ?

Joe, thanks again. The loss of all my emails and such is why I have not left a thank you at PayPal for you. I hope to be able to restore my emails this weekend.

reaper

06-09-06, 01:00 PM

The 720x480 setting results when you press the NTSC button. I asked several times in this thread for someone to tell me the NTSC DVD Widescreen resolution but never got an answer. The NTSC resolution related to the button appears to be broadcast 4x3 resolution. When you burn that to DVD, many people select DVD Widescreen resolution. The result is that it takes the 4x3 signal and stretches it a bit to make it 16x9. I think it still looks great but some people prefer to render in true 16x9 format. They typically do this by setting the model to 1280x720 and then scaling the result down to whatever the DVD NTSC widescreen resolution is. Obviously, this takes much longer to render.

For a time, I was setting all the models to the NTSC resolution. Those who wanted something different either requested it or changed it themselves. Now, almost every request I get seems to specift 16x9. So, I take that to mean that they want the model to be set at 1280x720. So, now that is my default unless otherwise specified.

I still wish I knew what DVD 16x9 widescreen resolution was. Perhaps it is 720x480 but the aspect ratio is just forced wide somehow or pixels are not square. I don't know.

No problem on the paypal issue. I'll keep my eye out for it. :)

John Martin

06-09-06, 01:03 PM

I like this image. I have been reading the thread and it seems like the render times are through the roof for everyone (I saw one for 45 hours). What software are you all using to render? Reaper, I'd like to take a shot at rendering the file using 3DS Max 8 if you don't mind. It can be a generic file (3ds) and I will load it up and see why it is taking so long for so many people, especially at 1280 x 720. Are you using radiosity calculations for your lighting or using propietary rendering software as part of your package, i.e. Mental Ray if using Viz or Max?

You can e-mail the file to me at jmartin@zapeng.com or my home e-mail at john_deanna@comporium.net. I do not plan on using this file for anythihg as I am going to make my own intro using Max, I just want to take a look at it and see if I can help you all bring the render times down. I can use a generic background of you like so youn do not have to send the background image.

John

Gary Lightfoot

06-09-06, 01:10 PM

I think widescreen NTSC will be 854 x 480, and PAL WS is 1024 x 576.

Gary.

reaper

06-09-06, 01:31 PM

reaper

06-09-06, 01:32 PM

I think widescreen NTSC will be 854 x 480, and PAL WS is 1024 x 576.

Gary.

Thanks. If people want this resolution, I can set future models up in this manner.

Nightlites13

06-09-06, 04:01 PM

So would it be OK to just change the x and y on the blender screen to the 854 x 480 ?

reaper

06-09-06, 04:37 PM

I would give it a try but make sure the AspX and AspY are both set to 1.

mhe4

06-09-06, 04:45 PM

Joe,

I'm not an expert and I only sort of understand widescreen DVD, but it depends on how you author the DVD. If you want anamorphic wide screen (which is what most DVDs are)...that is 720x480 just like 4x3, but the pixel shape is different (1.2 anamorphic widescreen VS 0.9 full frame) so the DVD player knows to re-strech out the image to be 16x9. You can accomplish this by changing the pixel ratio rather than the resolution in Blender. I use: X=720, Y=480, AspX=12, AspY=10. I *think* that gives you an anamorphic 16x9 which will show a proper widescreen image (round things being round) on a wide screen display when authored to DVD with the widescreen flag set true.

sy278

06-10-06, 05:58 AM

Hi Reaper,

I PM'ed you yesterday to ask for a couple of models, I forgot to ask if you can set them up for PAL Widescreen.

Many thanks dude.

reaper

06-10-06, 06:41 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/6877/eastbay1uq.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=eastbay1uq.jpg)

reaper

06-10-06, 06:58 AM

This look OK?

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/8638/ground0uo.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ground0uo.jpg)

reaper

06-10-06, 08:31 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/2950/starlight4jd.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=starlight4jd.jpg)

reaper

06-10-06, 08:36 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/4813/glasgow8ou.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=glasgow8ou.jpg)

reaper

06-10-06, 08:49 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/1805/669fl.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=669fl.jpg)

reaper

06-10-06, 08:49 AM

Hi Reaper,

I PM'ed you yesterday to ask for a couple of models, I forgot to ask if you can set them up for PAL Widescreen.

Many thanks dude.

Whoops... forgot... which one was yours again? Glasgow and Starlight?

reaper

06-10-06, 08:56 AM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/7679/cav3qv.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cav3qv.jpg)

Need an e-mail if you want the model.

sy278

06-11-06, 03:41 PM

Whoops... forgot... which one was yours again? Glasgow and Starlight?

Yeah mate thats the ones, I received your models, but they are both for Starlight, any chance when you fix them for widescreen you could make a small change to the Glasgow one??

can you make the th after 167 smaller like in the real fox one?

Here is a pic of it so you can see it:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/16/TCFT.jpg

cheers

Scott

reaper

06-11-06, 04:26 PM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/3984/glasgow1hc.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=glasgow1hc.jpg)

reaper

06-11-06, 04:27 PM

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/6524/starlight1pj.th.jpg (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=starlight1pj.jpg)

sy278

06-12-06, 05:55 AM

Many many thanks for these reaper, awsome work your doing.

Look out for a donation in the near future.

BritInVA

06-12-06, 02:21 PM

Just received my rendering from Reaper - absolutely brilliant.

Thanks Reaper!

reaper

06-12-06, 02:23 PM

Hey great! That was fast. Glad it worked out well for you. It always makes me nervous to render and burn them myself but so far everyone has been happy.

BritInVA

06-12-06, 03:02 PM

Kids just got in from school and loved it - all goes towards personalizing and the overall movie experience. Recommend this to everyone!

Just need to work out now how to get it to run as default before every movie.

In the HT room going to be getting the Oppo DV971H and for the Yard I got the Phillips HTS3450 (HTIB).

If anyone has this info or what term to search forum on I'd appreciate a PM.

reaper

06-12-06, 03:11 PM

PM me your thoughts on the Oppo once you start using it. I am interested in getting an Oppo instead of using my Xbox 360 in the theater. Not sure if it'll be worth the $ though.

Glad your kids liked it. I bet they thought you were pretty cool to get your own custom logo made like that :)

BritInVA

06-12-06, 06:42 PM

For those that have the animated theatre logo how are you running it?

From what I've been able to find out you can only get the DVD to display the static logo in replace of the vendors logo (if at all).

So be interested in how are you doing it as I'm sure playing the animated disc and then swapping for a movie disc will take away some of the movie room experience.

Iceblade

06-12-06, 06:48 PM

Gary Lightfoot

06-12-06, 06:57 PM

If you render the avi as NTSC or PAL resolution, convert to MPG2 and author it as a mini DVD, you can use DVD shrink to merge it with a film and even replace the original Fox logo. Should look pretty cool going from your own inrto straight into Star Wars etc.

It'll work better on an HTPC since you won't have to compress the original DVD, but some movies are less than a single layer so you could even burn it to a single DVD that will go straight into the intro/movie with no menus etc.

Gary.

Nightlites13

06-12-06, 08:09 PM

OK, Render time was 21.5 hours. I tried the 854x480 and made sure the Asp x and y were at 1. The animation looks and plays great in Blender but if I open it in my DVD editing/burning software or media player to play it then it is distorted and split like an old tv out of tune. Do I need to change the X and y to the 1280 x 720 or 720 x 480 or is there some other thing I missed ? Any ideas ? Seeing it play in Blender however has only inspired me to get it right and the kids are excited to see it. Thanks :)

reaper

06-12-06, 08:38 PM

Did you actually use the software to convert it to DVD format or just view the original file in your DVD software.

Nightlites13

06-12-06, 08:47 PM

Just viewing the file before burning to DVD but I have not worked with an AVI file before. Normally if the file type is supported then what you see in the preview panel is what you will get for an output. Maybe not in this case ? It looks incredible in the blender window when I play it.

BritInVA

06-12-06, 10:10 PM

Britt,

There are two de facto methods.

1.) Use two different DVD players... one has the intro on a disc, the other has your "feature film " in it. Play one then the other.

2.) Use an HTPC with all content resident on the hard drives utilizing a front end like TheaterTek.

Other than that... it's get up off the couch and pop in a different disk depending on what you want to show. :)

Regs,
Jeff ( a get up off the couch guy until DVD player #2 is ordered)

Thanks Jeff - these are same conclusions I was coming to. #2 is out for time being. #1 is doable as can buy a cheapo DVD player just for that function.

With a two DVD player set up I'm guessing using a macro on the remote that switches the two sources at the appropriate time is required and pre-preparation on the Movie DVD to be able to go straight into play mode (i.e. without trailors if required)

Be interested to hear if others have accomplished this.

Cheers,
Mark

reaper

06-13-06, 06:25 AM

Nightlites13

06-13-06, 07:55 AM

I am trying a new render. Selected NSTC and it changed it to the 720x480. Just thought I would try that.

The file I have now does run smooth in the three different apps I opened it in to view it. It's not "jerky" or anything but it is distorted, tipped to the left and 2/3 of the way across there is a diagonal line and the image starts again.

I'll let you know what happens with the next one. Did anybody else see anything like this with the completed render?

Gary Lightfoot

06-13-06, 09:45 AM

I just tried the avi in TMPenc and it converted it to NTSC 480 straight off, so it looks like you don't need to re-render it to 720 x 480 with that program. You can use the demux and mux tool that come with it to add the audio (though I haven't tried that yet myself with TMPenc, though other programs like Premier will do it).

Gary

red5908

06-13-06, 10:50 AM

Here's what I've been able to figure out so far. Note: I have not burned to a DVD yet.

Standard definition DVD must use 720x480 resolution. If you try to use any other resolution it will either not work or will be scaled to 720x480 by your DVD authoring tool so you should just render to this resolution to start with and save the extra rendering time and the rescaling time.

Since the resolution is fixed the difference between 4:3 full screen DVD and 16:9 anamorphic wide screen DVD is the aspect ratio. Since we're starting with the model which is designed at a 1:1 aspect (i.e. squares are square, circles are round) then 720x480 give us a 3:2 aspect ratio frame that must be stretched or squeezed to fit the format of the display.

So when displaying on a 4:3 display the original frame will be squeezed horizontally by a ratio 4:3 / 3:2 = 8:9. This is about the same (8:9 = 10:11.25) as 10:11 which is what blender does when you click on NTSC. Another check is 720*8/9 = 640 which matches standard 640x480 1:1 aspect ratio for NTSC. I've rendered using 8:9 and this plays back well in my PC software player at 4:3.

For display on 16:9 the original frame must be stretched to horizontally by a ratio of 16:9 / 3:2 = 32:27. Again the check of 720*32/27 = 853.33 which is what Nightlites13 was trying to get to. This will give you the exact same picture on your display that you see when reaper renders your jpeg at 1280x720 at 1:1 aspect only scaled down to 720x480. Note: it will look squished while rendering, but when stretched onto the display it will look right. Again I've rendered this way and played back on my PC software player at 16:9 and it looks great.

The problem I'm trying to solve now is that blender doesn't maintain the camera field-of- view. When you change aspect ratios the 16:9 render is "zoomed in" more than the 4:3. I would prefer that the 4:3 look just like we cut the middle out of the 16:9. Does anyone know how to make the camera "zoom in/out" in blender?

Also does anyone know if you can change the preset buttons like "NTSC" or "PAL" so I could create buttons for my own aspect ratios?

mhe4

06-13-06, 12:37 PM

Does anyone know how to make the camera "zoom in/out" in blender?
Select the camera object. Go to the "Editing (F9)" tool box, in the second panel is a box labled "Lens". Change this to change the focal length (effectively zoom) of the camera view. You will not get exactly the same view as the original 4:3 picture, but you can find a view you like.

As I posted earlier, I use: X=720, Y=480, AspX=12, AspY=10 for NTSC Widescreen 16:9 DVD.

Nightlites13

06-13-06, 07:29 PM

Thanks to Reaper, Gary, Red5908, and Mark for the feedback. I had started re-rendering last night. I had selected the NTSC button in blender and went with whatever it changed to which was X=720, Y=480, AspX=10, AspY=11. (this was before reading the last post from Mark which I still want to try with the different Asp settings) Anyway it rendered in about 17 hours and works perfectly. It plays in MediaPlayer and my burning software although a bit "jerky" in mediapayer. Googled the audio and got an mp3 for sound which edited in perfectly. Still hope to try the ac3 someday.

Burning went smooth. Just played successfully on my big screen :D and as Reaper had said earlier in the thread the PJ just stretched it through HDMI and fit it to screen. Looks great and actually sounds good with just the mp3 sound file which the burning software converted to an ac3 file so it does play out of all speakers.

Thanks Reaper for the patience, feedback and follow up. It looks GREAT ! and really makes the theater feel special. My wife and son loved it and it is especially cool because you don't realize it right away until the camera swings around to reveal the custom coolness. :cool:

Thanks again :)

Gary Lightfoot

06-13-06, 07:44 PM

I finished mine today.

I would have finished it earlier, but Blender kept crashing randomly on my other PC (I didn't want to tie up my main machine) so I did it in 100 frame intervals, with a few 50 frame segments at the end. That way I ended up with some usuable avi's piece by piece that I could stitch together with VirtualDub.

I added a fade-out right at the end using VirtualDubs fader filter, so it fades out right after the last drum beat and goes to black (about 80 frames from the end). I used TMPenc 2.5 to render it to mpg2. In order to use the AC3 Fox Fanfair file, I had to use TMPenc DVD Author with AC3 utility to add it to the mpg video file so that I ended up with a 5.1 DVD (with no menu, so it plays straight into the intro). I also used DVDShrink to add it to a DVD I'd put onto my HTPC so that the fanfare will play and the movie will follow along immediatley after (it's a movie we'll be watching at the weekend). If you have a DVD burner and dual layer disks you could do this with any DVD that has a movie that is bigger than a single layer (and impress your friends?).

Gary

Gary Lightfoot

06-13-06, 08:16 PM

Just thought I'd mention - there are a few variations on the Fox Fanfare - the AC3 file that was posted via the earlier link is one of my favourites, and has a more notible 'wobble' to the bass drum, but the version on Star Wars (ANH) is different, and the one on The Empire Striles Back is different again, so there are a few to choose from! :)

Gary

Gary Lightfoot

06-13-06, 08:21 PM

Does anyone know where to get a HD encoder for WMV, ts or Quick Time formats? As we have 720 versions it would be better to be able to convert it to a 1280 x 720 HD format for those of us with HTPCs.

Gary

reaper

06-14-06, 05:28 AM

dan marquardt

06-16-06, 12:46 AM

I'm having an odd issue after I render the blnder scene:

some of the facing and underneath are strobing. like a light source is vanishing every few frames or something.

anyone else have this issue?

I'll search the thread now to see if it's come up before.

reaper

06-16-06, 05:48 AM

dan marquardt

06-16-06, 11:14 AM

ahh... at least it's an easy fix!

Iceblade

06-18-06, 10:22 AM

Well crud. It seems I still haven't figured out the magical steps to transfer the Blender render to DVD and have it fill up the whole 16:9 screen on the DLP. I rendered it in Blender as 720x480 with aspect set to 32:27. Maybe that's the part that's wrong? Anyway, I imported the AVI into Sony Vegas and used the MainConcept MPEG2 encoder to render as DVD NTSC two ways, both with the "Strectch video to fill output frame size (do not letterbox)" box checked and with it unchecked. I then added the AC-3 file for audio with Sony DVD Architect 3.0 and burned both versions to DVD with a menu to choose between the versions. Now the weird part is that the menu screen itself appears to be 16:9 and fill the full DLP screen. Once I select one of the versions to play, it has small letterbox bars above and below the image, regardless of whether I play the "stretch to fit" or unstretched version. Anyway... got lots more playing around to do, I guess. I'd love for someone to post a definitive method to get DVD playback of the Blender output shown in correct AR for 16:9 widescreen displays. If I do find out the magic method with Blender/Vegas/DVDA, I'll be happy to post the steps.

Regs,
Jeff

red5908

06-19-06, 01:07 AM

Iceblade,
How are you playing the DVD? With a DVD player or with a PC? I rendered mine at 32:27, added the AC3 audio with VirtualDubMod, and burned to DVD with Roxio DVD Builder. The video plays fine and fills the screen on my Sony DVD changer.

Ron

Iceblade

06-19-06, 07:49 AM

Played back with Denon 1910 DVD player, Oppo H971 DVD player, WMP10 and Vegas Video's Preview player. Burned to DVD from DVD Architect 3.0.

To be completely honest, I find it hard to tell even in Blender if it's being rendered as 16:9 or 4:3 or in some weirdo non-round pixel format. And for the life of me I can't find which program I was using that gave me a file output type of "720x480 NTSC Widescreen", but I know I saw that and used it at some point in the conversion process from AVI to DVD.

I guess I can try it with those shareware tools you used and see if the output is any different. Probably won't get to that for a few days though.

Thanks,
Jeff

lawnboy33

06-19-06, 09:03 PM

Im new to this forum so this is my first post. A huge thanks to REAPER. Thanks for starting this thread. I used everything you supplied and created my own. It turned out great! It was very easily actually if you follow the directions. Took about 16 hrs but well worth it. Im now messing around with blender. I would like to create a new intro like someone in an earlier thread was talking about, with a helicopter flyover with some thx thing. Im sure if I keep messing around with this program I wil figure it out. So maybe some of us can work on that..

Iceblade

06-21-06, 10:26 AM

Hey guys,

Just an update. I found the issue with my "not filling the full widescreen frame" once I burned the MPEG2 encoded rendering to DVD. I will be posting a complete tutorial here once I get a chance to walk through it one more time. I need to score the ac-3 decode utility so I can increase the volume on that Fox AC-3 file and then re-encode it to ac-3. Once I get that done and make my DVD, I will then document the whole process and post it, hopefully with screen shots.

FWIW, the mistake I had made was that once I opened the rendered mpeg2 clip in DVD Architect 3.0, I didn't right click the file and specify that it was 0.9 ratio NTSC 4:3. IT defaulted to 1:1 pixel size, so that's why the output wasn't quite right. Setting it to 0.9 makes it fill the full widescreen frame. DUH. :)

Thanks,
Jeff

mncbank

07-18-06, 05:44 PM

Is this thread dead?

Robert_S

07-18-06, 09:44 PM

Another humble request....

top: WELCOME TO THE
middle: SHAFFER FAMILY'S
bottom: HOME THEATER
request: still & video

Thanks a bunch!!

reaper

07-23-06, 07:41 AM

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4343/shafferfa8.th.jpg (http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shafferfa8.jpg)

If you want the file, I need an e-mail address.

reaper

07-23-06, 08:02 AM

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2443/holtzww1.th.jpg (http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=holtzww1.jpg)

model sent.

reaper

07-23-06, 09:25 AM

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8370/cinemamzb8.th.jpg (http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cinemamzb8.jpg)

reaper

07-23-06, 09:43 AM

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/3115/gregcj7.th.jpg (http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gregcj7.jpg)

model sent.

reaper

07-23-06, 02:56 PM

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/956/ginosn4.th.jpg (http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ginosn4.jpg)
How's this look Gino?

Robert_S

07-24-06, 09:34 PM

Excellent work reaper!!

I sent you a PM with an update.

Robbo

07-24-06, 09:46 PM

This is just too cool-- I don't know how I missed this thread for so long. Thanks Reaper!!

To help out people not sure what to do (even after reading 29 pages of this thread), here are step by step instructions as to what I ended up doing after receiving the blender file from Reaper and downloading the Blender (http://download.blender.org/release/)
software:

1. Make a poster

- Open up Reaper's .blend file (launches Blender)
- Under Format Change SizeX to 2560 and Size Y to 1440 (to double the resolution) and Change the output setting from AVI Raw to JPeg
- Under Change the Start frame to 650 (same as the end frame) -- you only need to render a single frame
- Click ANIM and it will render the frame (Took about 2 1/2 minutes on my PC)
- The JPEG frame will be in the c:\render directory
- Go to Winkflash (http://www.winkflash.com/content/poster.asp) and order your poster. Use coupon code MD82HG92 for 40% off all poster prints!!
- I ordered my poster last night and got an email that it shipped out today. I will repost when it arrives to give my impressions.

2. Burn a DVD of the custom intro trailer

- Open up Reaper's .blend file (launches Blender)
- Under Format Change SizeX to 720, Size Y to 480, AspX to 12 and AspY to 10. Make sure the Output setting is AVI Raw
- Click ANIM.
- Go to Sleep -- it took my PC (P4-3.2Ghz) about 13 hours to render the Video
- Go to c:\render and double click on the AVI. Marvel at how cool it looks in Windows Media Player.
- Add audio to the AVI. Get the Fox Fanfare AC3 file from the link in this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7378486&highlight=ac3#post7378486) on page 26 of the thread. Add the audio to the AVI by using muxing software. I used AVIMuxGui (http://www.alexander-noe.com/video/amg/). Launch AVIMuxGUI, drag and drop the rendered AVI and the Fox ac3 file into the top box, double click on the AVI file in the top box and click start. When I played this newly created AVI file in Media Player, it sounded awful. Don't know why but it will sound fine when you make the DVD (I wasted about an hour finding an MP3 of the fanfare and then converting it into an AC3 and muxing it and the end result was worse than the AC3 fanfare you already downloaded).
- Create a DVD file -- I used AVI2DVD (http://www.trustfm.net/divx/SoftwareAvi2Dvd.html) . Step 1- click on load AVI and load the AVI with audio you just created. Go to Tab 2 and select Make ISO. Go to tab 3 and select QuEnc (FreeEnc wouldn't work). Click Add Job and Go.
- Burn the DVD. I used DVD Decryptor (http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_rippers/dvd_decrypter.cfm) to burn the ISO image created above onto a DVD.
- Amaze your friends and family.

3. Thank Reaper profusely and send him a paypal donation for the time he spent in creating your custom logo.

R_Willis

07-25-06, 12:03 AM

Didn't have the time to read through this thread and just looked at it for the first time.

Does anyone have a video uploaded of their actual video to view?

tjambro

07-25-06, 11:57 PM

Reaper,

I cannot believe I'm just finding this offer. I appreciate your generosity!

Could I possibly get:

TOP: WELCOME TO
MIDDLE: AMBROSIO'S
BOTTOM: UNAPLEX
Still and blender file if not too much trouble.
tjambroATsigecom.net

Yes, I know unaplex should be uniplex but this is what I have been calling it for 3 years now. The name was picked by my sister as a joke and it has stuck ever since. :D

-Tom A.

DenW

07-26-06, 01:10 AM

R_Willis,

I have a low-quality video of the final render on my site.
See:
http://members.home.nl/walterfang/art/blackhole/BlackHoleFoxWeb.wmv

Robbo\Others:
You can add a nice touch by editing the AVI after rendering (before adding the AC3) and at the and add a fade to black. This prevents the logo from stopping suddenly, instead stopping on a black screen which IMO makes it look just a little bit more slick and polished.
The other thing i would recommend is rendering the AVI in HD resolution (1280 x 720, or 1980 x 1080), and work from there to make the DVD. This adds to rendering time, but also adds to quality of the final DVD and also saves you from having to re-render if you should start using a computer based setup in the future.

Angelone

07-26-06, 12:11 PM

Hi Reaper,
I found your thread only today, congratulation for your work!
Can I add my request?

TOP: WELCOME TO THE
MIDDLE: CINE AGNUL
BOTTOM: HOME THEATER
Still and video 16:9, if possible.

Many thanks in advance!!!
Best regards

Angelo

P.S. PM sent

Nightlites13

07-26-06, 02:57 PM

R_Willis,

Robbo\Others:
You can add a nice touch by editing the AVI after rendering (before adding the AC3) and at the and add a fade to black. This prevents the logo from stopping suddenly, instead stopping on a black screen which IMO makes it look just a little bit more slick and polished.

That's a nice touch.

When I burned mine to DVD I used Media Creator and they have a filmstrip movie fade that takes the final still image and puts it into the individual frames of the film as they fly off the screen and then I put a fade in to a dark blue background with "Enjoy the Show" which then fades out.

Thanks again Reaper :cool:

reaper

07-26-06, 04:33 PM

I have a number of requests pending and hope to get to them in the next few days. Just wanted to let you guys know that I am not ignoring you :)

Angelone

07-26-06, 04:48 PM

Thanks for your message, Reaper... I think we all know that you've lot of requests, should be not a problem waiting few days in order to receive those files! :)
Thanks again for your fantastic work!!!!
Ciao

Angelo

tjambro

07-26-06, 06:04 PM

Hi Reaper, I'm with Angelo...I can wait as long as you need me to. Thanks again!

-Tom A.

Robbo

07-26-06, 08:59 PM

- Go to Winkflash (http://www.winkflash.com/content/poster.asp) and order your poster. Use coupon code MD82HG92 for 40% off all poster prints!!
- I ordered my poster last night and got an email that it shipped out today. I will repost when it arrives to give my impressions.

As a follow up, I am very pleased with the quality of the poster I received from Winkflash. It looks great. Delivery was amazingly fast-- I ordered online Sunday night at 8PM and it was delivered on Tuesday by noon. It came well-protected in a cardboard tube.

I ordered the 18x24 size and it came to $11 shipped with the 40% off coupon.

This is the first time I ever used winkflash; I wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

DenW

07-27-06, 03:36 AM

That's a nice touch.

When I burned mine to DVD I used Media Creator and they have a filmstrip movie fade that takes the final still image and puts it into the individual frames of the film as they fly off the screen and then I put a fade in to a dark blue background with "Enjoy the Show" which then fades out.

Thanks again Reaper :cool:

Sounds like a cool effect. Wish i could see that!

Nightlites13

07-27-06, 10:23 AM

Thanks, If I can find a way to post it low res or something like that I will.

MoG

07-27-06, 12:49 PM

Why AspX of 12 and AspY of 10?
Thanks!
[QUOTE=Robbo]
2. Burn a DVD of the custom intro trailer
- Under Format Change SizeX to 720, Size Y to 480, AspX to 12 and AspY to 10.

MoG

07-27-06, 12:50 PM

Is everyone here still using Blender 2.39? I just installed v2.42a and was going to give it a whirl since I need to create another intro avi. Not sure if the output from 2.42a has issues or not.

reaper

07-27-06, 01:28 PM

Most everyone has discovered that if they render the video with anything other than 2.37a, they will have issues. I don't believe there ever was a version called 2.9. I think Blender jumped from 2.37a to 2.41 if I remember due to the inclusion of a huge number of improvements.

Joe

jovie

07-27-06, 03:01 PM

Reaper, can I bother you for the following:

TOP: Welcome To The
MIDDLE: MIJestic
BOTTOM: Home Theater
Still and video 16:9, if possible.

Thank you

qthai99

07-27-06, 03:56 PM

I blended (2.37a) the avi in 1280X720 and added the AC3 into it. But I have a problem playing the video at 30fps on my htpc. I get like 10fps. Any suggestions to get it playing at 30fps? Other 720 trailers and such work fine.

reaper

07-27-06, 04:28 PM

Compress it using a compression algorithm in VirtualDub. Try a few to get results with which you are satisfied. Your computer is having trouble dealing with the large file size associated with the completely uncompressed AVI.

Robbo

07-27-06, 11:38 PM

Why AspX of 12 and AspY of 10?

Thats what mhe4 said in this earlier post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7823579&&#post7823579).

dalamode

07-28-06, 08:00 AM

Thanks Jeff - these are same conclusions I was coming to. #2 is out for time being. #1 is doable as can buy a cheapo DVD player just for that function.

With a two DVD player set up I'm guessing using a macro on the remote that switches the two sources at the appropriate time is required and pre-preparation on the Movie DVD to be able to go straight into play mode (i.e. without trailors if required)

Be interested to hear if others have accomplished this.

Cheers,
Mark

I don't have an intro yet, but I am putting the cart before the horse so when I get a horse I'll be hitting the ground running, lol.

I burned a typical Fox intro to dvd. I bought a cheap wal-mart dvd player and played it about 10 times (from a full stop mode/laoding mode). I timed it to see how long it took to start play. I then programed my "play DVD" macro on my remote to play the intro on the cheap dvd player and then switch to my usual dvd player. In the macro I started the intro, started the normal player (to save me from loading time), inserted a huge time delay (exactly the time it took to load and play the intro) before switching inputs on the Denon receiver. I have an RF to IR remote so I dont have to hold the remote at anything the whole time the intro plays, I can just sit it in my lap. Worked pretty darn good. The cheapie way of course until I start using my pc to play movies on the projector.