Making a dvd

[PGD]

Right, I'm very new to the world of creating a dvd, so basically how do I do it?

 

I've done an animation which now I'm told needs to play via a dvd on a standard stand alone dvd player. I dont think the frame size is correct at 720/406, is it? fields - no idea the anim was intended for pc use and rendered out as jpegs, then composited with compustion.

 

I can output from combustion with different settings, just which settings should I use?

 

I'm experimenting now but any advice, thoughts would be greeeetly appreciated!

[Dave Buckley]

does it have to be a properly authored dvd, that contains menu's and buttons that can be controlled by the dvd player remote. or do you jus need to put the animation on disc so when you put it in the dvd player it plays automatically? the first is quite complicated and would take more than a brief description on here, if you don't need it professionally authored then it will just be a case of putting your rendered animation (.avi/.mov/.wmv) onto a dvd disc with nero or a similar application

[PGD]

It doesnt need all the professional menu's etc so that makes things easier.

 

I have burnt a dvd now with a couple of different files on, to see if anyone works better than the other (fingers crossed!)

 

My concern is in fields now, and if the dvd player wants to play it at all as I know some players (the more expensive ones) are very fussy

[Stephen Thomas]

If you want to play back on a TV then you must create a video dvd rather than just creating a data dvd with the file on it. This creates the standard dvd folder structure which will be recognised by your dvd player. You can do this with Nero Vision for example.

 

It sounds like you are rendering for widescreen output and to be honest you are better sticking with square pixels rather than messing about with pixel aspect ratios. 720x406 will give you the correct image aspect ratio for widescreen and most televisions will allow you to zoom this if you need to, using letterbox setting to fill the screen, just as you would when watching a movie. I have found that modern tvs will enlarge the footage to fit the screen anyway. I have played video files that have been 1/2 or even 1/4 D1 (720x576) before with no problem. Though obviously the quality was poor. Don't touch fields, this is for interlaced video which you don't need.

 

Anyway, sounds like you are on the right track. If you did want to add menus then there are a number of programs around. I use Adobe Encore DVD which is part of the Production Studio and find it quite easy to use.

[Stephen Thomas]

Sorry, just re-read the thread and noticed you using combustion. Set up your wokspace using PAL D1, no fields. Import your footage which should be 720x406 @ 25fps. Apply any colour correction or whatever you want. Render to avi DV or quicktime DV-PAL file, full frame size (720x576). The file should show your widescreen anim with black bars top and bottom. This will allow standard 3:2 televisions to play the file as well.

 

You will then need to use other software to do your encoding to DVD though. You cannot make a DVD movie disc through Combustion.

 

You could try a free converter like Any Video Converter to do the job. I think it just creates the dvd folder structure (VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS) which you can then place on your dvd. You'd need to check it out yourself, I haven't used it, but here's a download link.

 

http://www.download.com/Any-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-10731739.html?tag=lst-0-3

[PGD]

Thanks for that stef

 

So I'll set up combustion as you said then render out as instructed All good... Then I just need the converter software which creates the folder structure. Is that all the converter does?

 

The converter is downloaded, just need to mess about with it now

 

Thanks again

[Jim Mann]

Depending on how much you want to invest, you may benefit from taking a look at software like premiere pro which will allow you to build a DVD video from your edit. The key with DVD's is the encoding and a program like premiere will do that for you. Size is an issue. PAL must be 720x576 with pixel aspect ratio. You can create your animation with square pixels at 4:3 (768x576) or 16:9 (1024x576) and let your edit/encoding software do the rest. Frames per second is also important, you want 25fps for PAL.

 

Fields is basically referring to interlacing i.e. the frame is done in two slices 50 fps. If you ever bring footage in from a DV camera that explains the jaggy-sliced look you get with the footage. Better DV cameras will allow you to shoot in progressive mode which is basically no fields or a whole frame at 25fps. Much nicer for editing or composite work! Footage shot in progressive mode encodes quite happily to a DVD, whether it gets interlaced in the process I can't be sure, I think it does but the key point is if you have some half decent encoding software, you shouldn't need to worry about fields.

 

Your animation will look so much more impressive on a TV through a DVD player. Once you get the hang of it, there are programs like Encore which let you build screen menu's and get a much more professional looking result.

 

One other thing to bear in mind when preparing stuff for TV screens, pay attention to your action and title safe frames as the edges of evry frame disappear off the visible screen to an extent.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Jim

[JonRashid]

if you render out 720x576 with a pixel ratio of 1:422 and a frame ratio of 1:777...this will give you anamorphic 16:9 This allows your animation to work wide screen and standard

[Stephen Thomas]

if you render out 720x576 with a pixel ratio of 1:422 and a frame ratio of 1:777...this will give you anamorphic 16:9 This allows your animation to work wide screen and standard

You can do, but I really don't think it matters to be honest. Just render out square pixels, that way you only have to do one render for computer playback and tv playback. You can usually choose between widescreen and standard output at the encoding stage anyway.

 

Jim I agree, it does look so much more impressive on a tv than the computer. Colours look better and everything looks smoother and less pixelated. Also if you can afford the render increase definitely try and include motion blur, it really helps to smooth things out. You can render out a velocity pass and use the g-buffer builder in combustion to add the effect in post, but as with DOF, it always looks better when done at the rendering stage.

[PGD]

Well, the DVD is burnt and to be tested on a stand alone player at home.

 

I did everything stef said about combustion and the converter, not sure if the files run through the converter play at all yet, on the pc they just appear as a black screen which I can only see as a bad sign.

 

I also ran a file through Nero Vision and created basic dvd menu to test from later.

 

So I have one dvd with a menu to 3 files, One file (working on pc) is straight out of combustion, and two, one PAL one NTSC (appear black on pc screen). Lets see if any work later.

 

When playing the dvd on the pc, should the image have field like lines over the animation? Meaning you have to do different dvd's for tv and pc use?

[Jim Mann]

When playing the dvd on the pc, should the image have field like lines over the animation? Meaning you have to do different dvd's for tv and pc use?

 

No, and black screens suggests you might not have the right codecs.

 

Sounds like you are having no luck with this. With Encore, (and I mention it only as an example of how I understand the process to work) you encode either AVI or Quicktime files to the required format as you go to "build" the DVD i.e. burn it. Any files that are to be played as DVD Rom content need to be explicitly identified as such and generally wouldn't be accessible from your menu screens.

 

Have you tried doing just a PAL DVD video version of your animation? Dropping the ROM content and the NTSC version may help for the time being. In fact, I would guess that mixing PAL and NTSC versions on the same DVD would be problematic as the DVD would expect to only work in one or the other and truth be told, you will probably be able to play a PAL DVD on an NTSC setup and vice-versa without any problems so long as you don't have region coding (or have the region coding set to '0')

 

Why not try downloading the demo version of Premiere CS3 and building a DVD straight from your edit? I think that the demo does everything except HD and blu-ray so you should be able to make single animation, non-menu DVD videos to your hearts content for 30 days.

 

Jim

[PGD]

The file is a .mov and it does now work on the dvd player .

 

Only problem is it looks a little jagged where horizontal lines are concerned, like fields are being used. I will try different settings from combustion and play it on the dvd player tonight.

 

The menu's are working too and I used Nero Vision, its fairly basic and you you dont seem able to change too much but it'll do the job for now. Should we do much more of this I will look into Encore or similar

 

It was using the 'any video converter' files that just played black on my machine and the dvd player. So I'll be sticking with Nero for now

[PGD]

Actually no, I'm not having much luck with this

 

The dvd works fine, but I'm getting field like lines over all the animations when they have been converted to dvd.

 

When viewing the animations straight out of combustion they look great, no lines, good quality and all is good. Convert to dvd and lines appear. Is this Neros doing or my settings in Nero? I've tryed one Interlaced and one progressive (no other option available) and get the same result

[Jim Mann]

Difficult to comment without actually seeing it really. The jagginess could be due to a number of things ranging from the actual geometry in the file (lots of horizontals will look bad) to the compression in the file and how that manifests in playback.

 

I would expect it to look more jaggy and sliced on your PC than on your TV but if it looks really lame on your TV as well......

[PGD]

Jimm, you have pm

 

Well, all the files I did using the PAL combustion workspace look ok, then when they are burnt to dvd and played back they have the jagged lines on them. These are field lines.

 

Animations rendered out of combustion with the normal animation settings (custom 720/576 screen, compressed with H.264 at best) look fine before and after being burnt to dvd. So with that I'm trying those settings now. Fingers crossed they look good on the tv screen too