I am having difficulty understanding how to best render an animation.Would one render out the individual frames as a batch render and compile them in another program, if so, please desccribe in more detail,
or would one batch render the file as a quicktime file directly and edit the quicktime files in another program?
Or is there another more efficient method.
Thank you for your responses.
Robert
Typically, animations are rendered as individual frames for several reasons:
1. If a render dies, not everything is lost--only that frame needs to be re-rendered.
2. Renders can be split up among multiple computers on a farm.
3. If re-rendering, only some of the frames may need to be re-rendered.
Also, rendering 3D can take much longer per frame that just putting all the images together at the end.
Jason,
Thank you for your reply. Being new to animation there are many very basic issues that I have a hard time understanding.
Can you suggest which type of program the individual frames might then be compiled into a finished animation in and, if possible, sketch a workflow so I can better understand the process?
Thanks!
Robert
www.robertellisonimaging.com
Any editing program should be able to do that (Premiere, Final Cut, etc.), as well as a variety of compositing programs (Shake, After Effects, Digital Fusion, Combustion, etc.).
As for a workflow, I discussed a lot of it here on a thread about Madagascar:
http://forums.awn.com/showthread.php?t=2919
Let me know if you have other questions.
Thanks for the information Jason. I'll check out the thread you mentioned.
Also, thanks for the offer to answer other questions, which I'm sure I'll have.
Robert
www.robertellisonimaging.com
Depending on the complexity of your scene, you may also want to render different elements in different passes. Background in one pass, characters in a second, effects in a third, for example. The per-frame rate rendering this way can end up being less than if you render everything at one shot (lower poly counts and interactions), and it gives you some flexibility in how you treat each element (you can adjust color in one part and not another, for example).
DSB,
Thank you for the information. I'm sure I will focus on learning this method soon as the ability to have defined control over all elements is very appealing. Right now I've got my hands full just figuring out how to begin!
The amount of render time for a 1024x768 image at production resolution is quite high. I timed an average frame at around 3 minutes. I can do 640x480 in about a minute.
I like the idea of a larger format but wonder if I can increase the frame size after the render to save render time?
Any input?
Thanks again!
Robert
www.robertellisonimaging.com
Not really; you'll lose resolution, and it won't be very good, especially when you're starting at so low of a resolution to begin with (640x480).