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prepare 3ds max animation for a website?


guppy
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I completed my work in 3ds max and would like to know what steps I should follow to make my animation work smoothly on a website?( I know flash should be used, but there must be a way with 3ds max).

I heard something about a plug-in to convert your files but have not done any research yet. Hopefully someone here could help me and save me the time and from learning flash:) Many thanks!

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I don't need actually to learn flash. Flash is ideal because the quality it provides versus the size that the file takes once compressed to .flv. You can use a bunch of softwares to compress your CGI to the web. Quicktime Pro, Camtasia Studio, premiere pro among others.

If your using Adobe CS4, you have a great tool that is called Adobe Media Encoder. You have tons of presets for every kind of output icluding web. I would personally recommend Sorenson Squeeze. It's absolutely beautiful and the presets are quite smart if you don't have the time to learn it properly. Hope it helps. Good luck.

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Thanks for the input Nelpiper

 

 

What file format and size of images will be best to save the animation in 3ds Max before I render and take it to Sorenzo squeeze? Usually I save my frames as Targas.

I would think that the file type would not really matter as it gets converted while being exported to web in the end (and what format does the CS4 export to web create)?

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Well Billy, the size of your rendering is totally up to you. Just remember if you want to reach as most users as possible, the output should be in Flash. One of the best reasons for this is that Adobe Flash doesn't require the user to restard the computer and it can be done in a matter of seconds. Other reason (that is my opinion) is that not everyone has a 20+ inch monitor, so you have to think the resolution of your output (I think 1024 wide would be good). Hope it helps. Good luck.

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You are smart for saving frames as Targa. Basically, you want to keep any artifacting and noise to the bare minumum befor ethe final compression. Extra noise and artifacting will increase the final size of your compressed animation. The more noise, the larger the file, the longer the download. This will be true regardless of final format.

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  • 1 month later...

have you considered using youtube to host the animation and then embedding the link into your website?

One advantage is that the size of the file is not so much of a problem then, because the video will be streamed to the user via youtube.

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yep point taken sandman....

i tried converting a video to flash and the quality was just shite, so youtube seemed a more immediate solution rather than trying to find out how to host the vid myself at an acceptable quality.

But yes if you can host the vid yourself and have it streaming nicely then I agree that's the best option.

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....actually unless you have super fast hosting I would host with Vimeo and embed that into your site, rather than a hosting a flash player or quciktime.

 

Vimeo loads fast, looks good, does HD (720p) and is easy to use.

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....actually unless you have super fast hosting I would host with Vimeo and embed that into your site, rather than a hosting a flash player or quciktime.

 

Vimeo loads fast, looks good, does HD (720p) and is easy to use.

 

 

...except for the fact that they can kick your account at any time: http://vimeo.com/help/faq#commercial_use. And they do it to 3D companies all the time. Although YouTube is less quality, you can still view in HD + it's a lot safer + gets more traffic to your site.

 

There are many other video sharing sites out there, but they come and go quickly. Here is a list of semi-accurate video sharing sites with comparisons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_services.

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