=====Movie- Mustang Rhapsody II: Fighter Sweep=====

[dtango]

very nice  
 was wondering what movie maker you used?
i really like that the planes are crisp and clean,
i have alot of trouble getting that quality of product so far!
   again    thanx   jeff

Editing and rendering done in Sony Vegas but the movie editing tool isn't really a key factor in image quality.  Here are some that make a difference.

1) The raw footage must be of a high quality to begin with.  You can't work with quality you don't have.   That means start with a high resolution and frame rate footage.  My AH settings are at 1280 x 1024.  Anti-aliasing for my video card is turned on.  This carries through the actual capture of the video as well.  I use fraps and capture full screen.  Because of nuances my fraps video converts my 1280x1024 to 1112x607 or something like that.

2) The rendering process is the next huge factor in affecting video quality.  You want to produce something that is of good resolution, frame rate, and actual video bitrate.  You'll have to optimize resolution, frame rate, and bit rate to produce something of high quality but not end up with too large of a file.  For MR2 I chose 720x392, 30 fps, 3Mbps bit rate.  Generally the higher the combination of resolution and bit rate, the higher the quality of the video.

3) When rendering use a good codec that compresses well.  In the past I used the Divx or Xvid codecs.  The Windows Media WMV codec has gotten really good so I just used the WMV codec this time.

These are the keys.  With Sony Vegas there are some additional things you can do.  A) make sure the capture video isn't resampled.  Resampling automatically puts in a motion blur in it which greatly reduces the quality.  B) I use a little artistic filter to sharpen up the images just a tad.  This isn't necessary but I find that it brings out details like panel lines which adds to the detail.

Hope that helps!

Tango, XO
412th FS Braunco Mustangs

[68valu]

Outstanding film.
The only problem I have with it is that I was probably one of the spits that got shot down!!

Excellent job.
I will probably use the film to recruit some new players.

[68valu]

Which version of sony vegas do you use?
Do you record from aces high record mode during flight or can a key be mapped to sony vegas during flight?
I would like to make a film, but don,t know where to start.

Matt

[WWhiskey]

Editing and rendering done in Sony Vegas but the movie editing tool isn't really a key factor in image quality.  Here are some that make a difference.

1) The raw footage must be of a high quality to begin with.  You can't work with quality you don't have.   That means start with a high resolution and frame rate footage.  My AH settings are at 1280 x 1024.  Anti-aliasing for my video card is turned on.  This carries through the actual capture of the video as well.  I use fraps and capture full screen.  Because of nuances my fraps video converts my 1280x1024 to 1112x607 or something like that.

2) The rendering process is the next huge factor in affecting video quality.  You want to produce something that is of good resolution, frame rate, and actual video bitrate.  You'll have to optimize resolution, frame rate, and bit rate to produce something of high quality but not end up with too large of a file.  For MR2 I chose 720x392, 30 fps, 3Mbps bit rate.  Generally the higher the combination of resolution and bit rate, the higher the quality of the video.

3) When rendering use a good codec that compresses well.  In the past I used the Divx or Xvid codecs.  The Windows Media WMV codec has gotten really good so I just used the WMV codec this time.

These are the keys.  With Sony Vegas there are some additional things you can do.  A) make sure the capture video isn't resampled.  Resampling automatically puts in a motion blur in it which greatly reduces the quality.  B) I use a little artistic filter to sharpen up the images just a tad.  This isn't necessary but I find that it brings out details like panel lines which adds to the detail.

Hope that helps!

Tango, XO
412th FS Braunco Mustangs

i have been using the snoy vegas stuff for awhile now, but i have to run it thru wmm after it is finnished so as to reduce the size, as i am new at this stuff, but i am learning, soon maybe i will figure out the sony,
is there a place on it to set the size like there is on wmm?(as far as amount of mg), i have never been able to make anything on sony that was less than 100!  i also use fraps, and get very high quality capture, but as soon as i move it to wmm it gets a little fuzzy

anyway i am at work for now, and my big computer is at home, i will try out the new settings on my next project, if i ever get time to fly again!!
 thanx for all the help and info!!

[dtango]

Which version of sony vegas do you use?
Do you record from aces high record mode during flight or can a key be mapped to sony vegas during flight?
I would like to make a film, but don,t know where to start.

Matt

Sony Vegas 5.  There are other editors out there.  Windows Movie Maker (free) is one example.  A good free rendering s/w is VirtualDub.  Movie editors aren't what you record from however.

I did a couple of searches in the forums but couldn't find anything quickly.  I'm sure others have posted about how to create a movie before here somewhere .  I can't find them.  Maybe Fulmar or Kermit have something they've posted they can recall.  Generally speaking the process goes like this...

(1) Record the raw footage.  Two ways to do this.  
(A) use the AH Alt+R command to record an AH film.  This creates an .AHS file that you can then use the AHfilmviewer to watch the film with.  I use this actually primarily to study a fight to either learn or teach BFM/ACM with but of course now you have footage you can also use to make cool movies with .  

Once you've captured the movie you then use the AHfilmviewer to play it, setup camera shots, etc. and then replay your shots in AHfilmviewer and record the footage with a screen capture program like Fraps.

(B) use a screen capture program like Fraps to capture footage in game.  You skip the step of creating an .AHS file that you then have to record again from but it also limits you in other ways.  There are pluses and minuses of this method.  If you check out 33vortex's latest squad movie he primarily relied on footage captured directly in game via a 3rd party tool like Fraps.

The result of both of these steps results in a number of uncompressed .AVI files for each "capture" you do.  Be prepared for large files!!!

(2) Use a movie editor to assemble your project
I use Vegas.  There are other tools out there that will do the job just fine.  Usually you assemble various uncompressed .AVI clips and do with what you want with them, add music, additional sounds, etc. etc.  The fancier the editor, the more features: e.g. video effects and filters etc (e.g. camera shakes, lens flares, transitions, blah blah blah), .

(3) Render your movie!
Usually this involves compressing it.  You're not going to deal with an uncompressed .AVI.  For example a 30 sec segment at moderate resolutions will be Gigabytes worth of data.  I mentioned rendering above already.

That's it in a nutshell.  Of course the hardest part I think is really not the technical part of it but the art meaning the planning, directing, and editing of it all!

Tango, XO
412th FS Braunco Mustangs

[dtango]

i have been using the snoy vegas stuff for awhile now, but i have to run it thru wmm after it is finnished so as to reduce the size, as i am new at this stuff, but i am learning, soon maybe i will figure out the sony,
is there a place on it to set the size like there is on wmm?(as far as amount of mg), i have never been able to make anything on sony that was less than 100!  i also use fraps, and get very high quality capture, but as soon as i move it to wmm it gets a little fuzzy

anyway i am at work for now, and my big computer is at home, i will try out the new settings on my next project, if i ever get time to fly again!!
 thanx for all the help and info!!

Not sure what version of the Sony product you have but I think they are generally the same.  The "File->Render As" menu is where you want to go.  In the render menu:

(1) Choose what type of format you are going to render the file to.  
This is done under "Save as type" option. The two options that I use mostly are:

A) Movie for Windows - which lets me create an .AVI file usually compressed using a Divx or Xvid codec
B) Windows Media Video V9 - which creates a .WMV file just like what the Windows Movie Maker creates.

To create a .WMV file you obviously you want to choose Windows Media Video 9.

(2) Choose a "template" to use.
This is a key part.  You don't usually want to go with the default.  The Template dropdown gives you more options to choose from.  Instead of using the dropdown I usually push the "Custom" button to set my own settings.

This is where you can adjust your resolution, frame rate, and bit rate variables.  Remember the greater the resolution (assuming you aren't exceeding the resolution of the raw data) and the greater the bit rate, the higher the video quality.

Beware, setting the bitrate option resets the resolution to some presets.  I go back to the resolution and set it to what I want it to be after I change the bitrate.  3 Mbps bitrate is what I've been using lately for the bit rate.

Hope that helps!

Tango, XO
412th FS Braunco Mustangs

[68valu]

Sony Vegas 5.  There are other editors out there.  Windows Movie Maker (free) is one example.  A good free rendering s/w is VirtualDub.  Movie editors aren't what you record from however.

I did a couple of searches in the forums but couldn't find anything quickly.  I'm sure others have posted about how to create a movie before here somewhere .  I can't find them.  Maybe Fulmar or Kermit have something they've posted they can recall.  Generally speaking the process goes like this...

(1) Record the raw footage.  Two ways to do this.  
(A) use the AH Alt+R command to record an AH film.  This creates an .AHS file that you can then use the AHfilmviewer to watch the film with.  I use this actually primarily to study a fight to either learn or teach BFM/ACM with but of course now you have footage you can also use to make cool movies with .  

Once you've captured the movie you then use the AHfilmviewer to play it, setup camera shots, etc. and then replay your shots in AHfilmviewer and record the footage with a screen capture program like Fraps.

(B) use a screen capture program like Fraps to capture footage in game.  You skip the step of creating an .AHS file that you then have to record again from but it also limits you in other ways.  There are pluses and minuses of this method.  If you check out 33vortex's latest squad movie he primarily relied on footage captured directly in game via a 3rd party tool like Fraps.

The result of both of these steps results in a number of uncompressed .AVI files for each "capture" you do.  Be prepared for large files!!!

(2) Use a movie editor to assemble your project
I use Vegas.  There are other tools out there that will do the job just fine.  Usually you assemble various uncompressed .AVI clips and do with what you want with them, add music, additional sounds, etc. etc.  The fancier the editor, the more features: e.g. video effects and filters etc (e.g. camera shakes, lens flares, transitions, blah blah blah), .

(3) Render your movie!
Usually this involves compressing it.  You're not going to deal with an uncompressed .AVI.  For example a 30 sec segment at moderate resolutions will be Gigabytes worth of data.  I mentioned rendering above already.

That's it in a nutshell.  Of course the hardest part I think is really not the technical part of it but the art meaning the planning, directing, and editing of it all!

Tango, XO
412th FS Braunco Mustangs

Thanks Tango.
I'll start experimenting.

Once again, Outstanding film.