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Happy New Year, TVP! WOW, 2012, the Mayans call it the year for enlightenment according to the interpretation that I like!

I am using Windows 7 Home 64-bit with a HP Pavillion Elite -180t with an Intel i-7 920 CPU 8 GB RAM NVIDIA GTX 260 AND 3 TB Storage that I bought one year ago.

I 've been trying to figure out if there is a one setting for all in output. Such as: DVD for festivals, big screens, digital projectors, TV and media storage.
(I wish that I could afford outputting to 16mm, 35mm, 70mm movie film.)
Plus, play on the internet. Use all the output mediums. I want to configure correctly before drawing.

Now then, with this one production, I would like to be able to show it on the internet too. I know that the image size or aspect ratio would have to be really down sized and I am hoping that you can tell me what would be the best way to do that. I've been reading about video and internet settings and I have learned that it is possible to shrink images better than enlarge them, right?

The TVPP 10 setting for the internet is the, Web banner common horizontal, with the 468x60 and 12 fps would give me such a tiny project window to draw in that it doesn't make sense to me. Unless, it's used to import already drawn images or captured video into it, right? And, if I imported some graphic images of 720x480 that I made in Corel Painter would they automatically convert to the smaller 468x60 size?

What are the best web players and convert to web programs?

1) I want to have HD scenes to burn onto a DVD with an aspect ratio of 16:9. In configuring TVPP 10 set up, I see that HDTV would give me the 1920x1080p at 24 fps with a 1080p. But, aren't 24 fps meant to be only for mm film? Would the 24 fps even work on television, doesn't it need to be 29.97 fps?

Whereas, for here in USA, NTSC DV 16:9 and NTSC D1 16:9 Progressive both end up with 720x480 at 29fps. Wouldn't HDTV be the best one to use since it's the only one with 1080p and that should be enough pixels to stretch onto the bigger festival screens? So, here is where I am clearly confused, between having 24 fps when I am not going to convert to mm film and I think that only 29.97 fps would work for dvd output. But, I want the 1080p size.
So, maybe I should be asking, would the 720 x 480 stretch across a big festival screen?

And, what about the H-264 codec? If I understand that codec correctly then, it seems to be that All-In-ONE that is not too hard to convert and playable in the various mediums. I could make my super big images 1080p then transfer the rendered files to a convertible program to output as DVD or internet, right?

2) For the internet, could I use the HDTV setting and then output to some program to convert it to be internet playable? What programs would you recommend? I do have an old copy of Flash MX, Premiere Pro 2 and regular Quicktime free updated version, Vegas Pro 11 and DVD Architect 5.

3) Do I really need to import my rendered drawings into another program for these output options? Could TVPP 10 be an ALL-IN-ONE program for that one file?

4) And, how would I make a short animated E-Card and which player to use that would work the best with Email, Facebook or Youtube or online in general?

Thank you so much for your help. I've been thinking about this for quite awhile and I hope that these questions are easy to understand.

Hello, happy new year !

gardenflower wrote:I've been reading about video and internet settings and I have learned that it is possible to shrink images better than enlarge them, right?

Right ! =)

For your project, if you plan to work in 16/9, I advise you to work in something like 2880 x 1620 (or 5760 X 3240, if you really want to do something in very very Full HD).
Pixel ratio = 1
Field = Progressive
FPS = 24

From that project, you will be free to convert it in the different formats, following the support (TV USA, TV Europe, Blu-ray, Theater, Internet...).
Working with export is not as easy as it seems and there is no "magic" format.

Unless you're related to Spielberg or Cameron or get a really big funding I'd say forget about 70mm. The biggest delivery formats right now would be 35mm and HDTV 1080p, which means something around 2K horizontally. If your equipment allows for it, you could go for 4K. That would be 3840 x 2160 in 16:9 ratio.

The common workflow would be: biggest format in TVP, lossless export to a video editor, from there rendering different versions in different sizes and compressions for different delivery channels. You are right that it's best to convert a big format into a small one. Don't even dare to use h.264 or any other lossy codec as long as your video files still need to get edited. Use a lossless codec which works on your system (with alpha!).

There's often confusion about frame rates. Quantel recommends 25fps because this can be converted easily for both cinema and american TV. Other sources may differ from this. You don't have to do any of those frame rate conversions yourself, in fact it's recommended to have a special post production facility do it because they have specialised equipment and knowledge. They also know best about codecs and compression, so you will deliver a master in best quality without compression to them.

1080p exported with Uncompressed AVI is all I have ever needed and I've converted to 35mm film projected on very large projectors as well as small Web sizes at varying frame rates which TVP converts very well during export, so 1080p is for all practical purposes my one fits all format. By the way I draw in TVP at 12fps and export at 24, with exceptions, when it is best to draw and export at 24fps (usually involving KeyFramer moves). When I draw for NTSC I draw at 16fps just because the animation math of using any multiples of 4 is intuitive to me, and then export at the required 29.970 fps rate. For the Internet I stick to 24fps.

BTW, major film festivals have digital projectors these days that beat 35 mm film and all major theaters have those projectors as well. With our feature film that has been distributed to many major film festivals and theaters world over we never needed to use our 35 mm print with the exception of Annecy (a requirement for feature films only) but I don't consider Annecy a major festival anymore for personal reasons which I have well vented around these forums. In short, planning for a 35 mm film release just for film festivals is a waste of money these days. For whatever this is worth, a filmout for our feature film came to $50,000 and was wasted money.

Thank you, Elodie, Slow Tiger and Paul for your help. I see that I would have to make separate copies for DVD, TV and Internet only.

I can not afford film. But it does sound like making a DVD for a digital projector is the device to plan for with festivals.

So, could I use the 16:9 1080p 24 FPS and put it on a SD or would it be BD only to play it on a digital projector for festivals?

And for TV, would it have to be NTSC 16:9 720p 29.97 fps only?

I am looking for shortcuts and in TVPP 10 isn't it possible to make 1 finished copy made with the settings for HD DVD? Save in file # 1 for the digital projector.

Then, take that same copy while it's open, sitting on the timeline, and reset the settings for NTSC output, render it, then save it in file # 2 for TV?

And, do the same for web horizontal settings and save it to file # 3 for the internet?

Could I use the AVI codec as uncompressed files for everything?

Or am I dreaming?

That's what I've always done -- draw in 1080p and later render to any format a particular venue prefers. Think of it this way: Live action people wouldn't shoot variable formats to satisfy variable needs would they? So there is no difference here, basically 1080p is what you want and will fit all. Besides, how soon are you expecting to be in the position of making these decisions? months or years from now? Technology is in constant change. BTW Blu-Ray looks fabulous on a large screen; absolutely stunning as does beta or digi tape. If you have such ambitious aspirations, you should decide upon an NLE to edit your TVP clips and sound tracks and NLEs have a lot to offer in the way of completion. I use Vegas which comes with DVDArchitect which is a solid DVD compiler and I can burn a Blu-Ray directly from the editing timeline with about 3 clicks. These are the apps that are more involved with what you are thinking of. As long as you make your animation files as 1080p uncompressed avi's you have nothing to worry about except getting the job done. How long is your film going to be and when do you think it'll be ready?

I'm planning ahead. I know that I have to set up the configuarations before I even draw out the images, right?

I already have my title, plot, somewhat of a storyboard and I know what I want to do with it.
I'm thinking that it'll be about 5 min or so with no time limits so far and I don't know when it'll be done.

Meanwhile, I'm studying the tutorial and I'm on page 100. But, I also get these questions in my mind that distract me and I need to know.

But, right now, I do have Vegas Pro 11 and DVD Architect Pro 5. Are all or most of the festivals using Blu-Ray only?

So, I believe that I'll plan on doing it your way Paul. Thank you so much for your clear answer.

By the way, I love your movie, Tulip! Is that the $50,000 film?

What's a $500,000 film; I've never heard that phrase? Tulip's budget was 1.3 million. I think most festivals will take Blu-Ray; I'd even go so far as to say any festival that doesn't isn't worth entering. Many art theaters have satellite download today so they never have to deal with the source hardware.

BTW, I don't edit in Vegas with 1080 files but render two sets; each time I render out of TVP an avi for Vegas I do this twice; once into a folder I name 720p and the second time into a folder called 1080p but in both cases I take care to use the exact same names for the files. For production editing I grab the 720 files into Vegas but once the film is done I mask the 720 folder by renaming it temporarily and when Vegas asks where to look for the files, I point it to my 1080 folder. From here I create a DVD, or a Blu-Ray, or a PNG image sequence. I do this because Vegas doesn't playback 1080p files too well and I don't need those huge files just for editing anyway.

Thank you Paul, for your help. I was too confused to answer any sooner and I'm not sure if I am interpreting your answer correctly even now.
My imagination might be soaring.

I was thinking that I can leave project # 1 (1080p) on the timeline and save a copy (1080p folder) of project # 1 by itself in an outside TVPP 10 folder unrelated to TVPP 10 to be authored into a blu-ray DVD disk using Vegas or DVD Architect.

Then with that same project # 1 that is still on the timeline go to PROJECT/MODIFY PROJECT settings in TVPP 10 and change the current configuration of 1080p to NTSC DV 16:9 (480) and let TVPP 10 add, maybe, blank frames that the extra desired images could be copied or added to. Like when going from 24 FPS to 29.97 FPS.
Then,make another folder and this would be the second outside TVPP folder(480 NTSC folder) that also would be authored in Vegas or DVD Architect to be made into a standard DVD disk.

Wouldn't that be a great feature to add to TVPP if it isn't possible now?

But then, I think what you mean is that project # 1 is finished in TVPP 10, saved in outside separate files that are named for each desired output.
Then using Vegas or DVD Architect author the output, blu-ray disk or standard disk. Right?
Once, I'm ready to output then I'll learn more about these 2 softwares.

I have had a hard time thinking about how to even start TVPP because you really need to know what output you need first.

Now, another confused question is what is: BTW? I always thought that was the abbreviation for the word, "between."

And, in answering your $50,000 question, you mentioned it in an earlier reply to this thread of questions and replies.

BTW stands for by the way; AFAIK as far as I know; IMO in my opinion, unless you want to act humble and say IMHO etc. I use only the common ones and avoid the show0ffy ones such as EOBD; end of business day. I notice now that I draw the line in the right place because my spell checker wants to correct only the EOBD (to OBED and what the hell does THAT mean!?)

Anyway, the second part of your reply is closer to the way this needs to be done, but I agree with you that this is something you can figure out as you get there. The best way to learn is to just start animating something instead of doodling tiny sketches. BTW have you done any animation before? If you have any questions about Vegas, go ahead and ask me on my PM so as not to be off topic here. The couple of Vegas forums I visit seem to ignore beginner questions, which says nothing about the software but a lot about video editor insecurities.

Happy Sunday Paul!
Yes, I have made one traditional 16 MM film that I showed in small festivals and showings back in 1996. I couldn't work on the next one till now.

This is my second project but, will be the first being done digitally. I have 2 stories to be made into short short movies (each 5 min approx.) and 2 for super short clips (each maybe 1 min approx.).

After my last posting, I fooled around in TVPP 10 and I see where aspect ratios can be changed using the modify project settings in TVPP 10. Luckily, the original file is always saved to keep around for more changes or to start over with. Thumbnail frames are stretched or really are added for the changes in FPS and they are not blank. Great to see that! Woo Hoo!

And, on a forum for Vegas I read that aspect ratio settings can be changed in the settings menu.

So for now, thanks again for helping me through the confusion. Now, I see how to start! I do have another question that I'll be posting separately on gradients.
Bye for now!