Hey everyone. I haven't been on the fourms since... Well.. About winter... And I'm guessing nobody remembers me, but I'm here for what I usuaully want when I dissapear and then come back... 6 months later. Information. I don't know if these fourms are as friendly as they used to be... So I'm not sure if I'll get yelled at for asking this or not, but I am trying to figure out what codec Rich encodes the Stupid Mario Bros. footage with in order to be able to edit it with Adobe after effects. (For things such as beamswords, Fireballs, ect..) Incase anyone's wondering.. I've got HD footage and AE... But I just can't get the whole encoding thing right.

Any help would be greatly appreciated... Especially in the movie rush that's sure to follow tomorrow. Who knows.. Maybe sence SMB is almost finised, Rich might let some people know how he does it. Well... I can dream.. Anyway.

-Thanks

This should be in the video/geek squad board ;D

BAD! VERY BAD!

Whoops.. Sorry about that. I wasn't sure between here and there... And I figured.. "Hey... It will get more views in general.. So..." Anyway.. I'll keep watching this... I hope somebody can help.

I think that it's MPEG4... Not really sure...

Good guess. I tried to convert some stuff to MPEG-4 yesterday.. And the files came out as .jts. I don't know if that's normal... But After Effects won't accept .jts files, So I'm eather setting it up wrong.. Or it's a different codec.

Mpeg4 does not have that extension.

I myself am a big fan of the DivX codec.

If It doesn't have that extension... What the heck is wrong with my program? >.< Sorry about that.. Self rant. Anyway... I looked at the DivX codec.. And found that it can really hurt HD video quality at times. Thanks for the advice... I'll keep it in mind just incase. Does anyone else have an idea?

I remembered asking Rich something ages ago regarding something to do with video editing. I tracked down the thread, and found this:

Richalvarez wrote:

When I upload a video it is usually over a GIG in size, due to the fact that I edit in pure 1080 HD from an HD camera. You could never hope to get a youtube down loader that will get you that original Quality size, siple fact is that youtube compresses.

The only way to see Stupid Mario in it's original HD glory is to be at my house watching with me lol.

--
Well... If what he says is true, then there must be some way to get AE to handle HD footage. Unless he doesn't consider special effects to be a part of the editing process... I really can't expect Rich to spill any of his hard earned editing secrets.. But it would be nice to figure this out.

Oh... You want to edit HD... No idea there...

Maybe try Xvid? I think that it's kinda like DivX but it might not hurt quality as much? IDK.

Haha... I mentioned that in the first post.. And it's not exactly the putting the film together part I'm having trouble with.. Just the after effects not working with HD part. That's the only reason I need to convert it. I'll give Xvid a try.

I found something else out.. There is a video editing program called Adobe Premier pro which saves projects in a unique filetype.. .prproj or something like that, and After effects can handle that file type. If that is what Rich uses... It would allow him to edit everything completely in HD without having to convert it. Other then that... There might also be some other editing programs with unique file type that AE can use. This is getting confusing.

Rich uses Pinnacle Studio, witch can export to a pleathora of formats.

I usually export mine to .mov

EDIT: .proproj or whatever it is is just what premiere useds to SAVE the file. The .proproj file is NOT A MOVIE

I know that it is not a movie file, but it still enables after effects to work with the footage without converting it.

OK. Whatev.

Well... I thought I would do a quick update of this while I'm here. I haven't been able to figure out exactly what codec or settings could have been used, BUT, I have learned what I would consider a good amount of information on the subject, And have found out several things. Unforchenetly...And I am well aware I spelled that wrong.. I am only going to release one of these bits of information on the forums because, if what I have learned is worth anything... People could start to roll out high quality videos filled with nothing but crap. (Speaking of witch... Who told Fred how to use a camera.)

Anyway.. To the point. If you can manage to get a converter which has the ability to "encode" you're footage with a codec labeled H.264 Blu-ray, the file comes out with near-identical quality as the original, with a fair size rate. (Especially for the High Def clips I was using, which also had special effects added in.) The downside: Apparently.. The Blu-Ray codec's settings remove you're video's sound. Now.. If you're going to make one of those silent movies where the sound effects burst on to the screen like tares in the film, Then you're good. But if you actually intend on getting views, You're going to have to find some way to first extract the audio of the video, (Which isn't all that hard) encode the video, and then add the audio later on. If you can manage that, then congratulations, you are smarter then a Canadian. (Eh.)

Now.. If anyone wants some of the information I have, you can go ahead and PM me. It would be nice also if someone could share some advice with a fellow beginner. (Or just throw some at the unworthy bum, if you're really that good.)

For the love of god Richard Michael Alvarez.. Help! (Please.)