T454

Week 8 - Spring 2006

Agenda:

• View Homework
• FCP Refresher
• In-class FCP exercises

Announcements/Observations

Both the IDEAS Festival & MultiVisions are currently accepting applications. There is no entry fee so you should enter some work!

Don't forget to do the Sitter Readings: 7, 8 & 9 for this week, 4, 5 & 6 for next week. (See syllabus for more details)

FCP Refresher - It is assumed that students are skilled with capturing footage, importing clips and images, basic editing, using effects, and exporting clips.

In-Class Exercise:

Edit a short project in FCP. Make sure that it:

• Starts by fading up from black and ends by fading down to black
• Has two overlapping audio tracks (mixed nicely)
• Has a video effect
• Contains at least one video transition
• Has a graphic.

Output a small (320 x 240) movie using the animation codec and uncompressed audio. Call it fcp_practice.

Place it in your T454-Krause/week8/"your_name_folder"

Outputting from FCP

We will be using FCP frequently and exporting a number of different audio and video files. It's important that you understand how to export your project into various codecs and file formats. In FCP the easiest way to export elements from your timeline is to use File -> Export -> Using QuickTime Conversion.

Still Frame Export / Resize Exercise:

• Create a folder labeled with your user name on the Scratch volume inside the T358_Krause/week2 directory.
• Open up your Final Cut Pro tutorial.
• Export a single video frame as a PICT file
• Open it in Photoshop
• What does it look like? Note the image size.
• Resize the PICT file so that it can be viewed accurately on a 4:3 display. Make sure it's still 720 pixels wide. (Hint: In the image size window, you'll need to uncheck the "constrain proportions" box. Make sure it can be viewed correctly with square pixels)
• Rename it "4x3.pct"
• Save a copy into your folder.

Thursday--------------

Important note: The QuickTime encoder used in previous versions of DVDSP has been replaced with Compressor. While all of the information pertaining to MPEG compression is valid, please note that we will be using Compressor to encode MPEG, not QuickTime Pro.

MPEG - (Moving Picture Experts Group) uses interframe compression and can store audio, video, and data. The MPEG standard was originally divided into four different types, MPEG-1 through MPEG-4.

MPEG-1 produces medium quality video and audio streams at low data rates, which can be used for CD-ROM playback. You can use MPEG-1 in DVD Studio Pro - But why would you? The max resolution is 352 x 240 pixels. It could be good for archiving lots of low res video.

MPEG-2 is capable of high data rate and can support full broadcast quality files. MPEG-2 is the standard format for DVD-Video and many satellite dish systems. Standard MPEG-2 is full frame rate (25 - 30 fps) and full screen resolution (720x480 for NTSC, 720 x 576 for PAL).

Unlike M-JPEG which uses intraframe compression, MPEG uses interframe compression. It compresses temporally (over time) as well as spatially. It does this by dividing the video image into blocks of pixels called macroblocks. Because MPEG doesn't work with individual frames, is uses segments called GOPs or Groups of Pictures. In a GOP there are three types of frames:

• I-frames - Intraframes , or reference frames. These can be viewed as a complete image. I-frames are the only frames that can serve as markers.
• P-frames - Predicted frames
• B-frames - Bi-directional predicted frames.

Apple's default MPEG-2 exporter creates GOPs with 15 pictures. A closed GOP contains one I-frame followed by predicted frames and bi-directional predicted frames. An open GOP begins with B-frame and ends in a P-frame. (See illustrations on page 57 & 58)

Tips for better compression:

• Use a tripod
• Use a solid background

Encoding MPEG-2 files for DVDSP

DVDSP lets users import Quicktime movies before they are encoded to MPEG-2 video. However it's best to encode your files before importing into DVDSP. This way you won't be relying on background processing and you can clearly specify your encoding options, such as bit rate and whether you want VBR or CBR encoding.

Bit Rates

Before encoding, think about your maximum bit rate and create a bit budget.

Bit rate is the amount of digital data (bits) that can be processed.

The maximum bit rate for MPEG-2 is 9.8 Mbps (megabytes per second), just under the limits of DVD-Video, which is 10.08 Mps. This doesn't mean you should use this high a rate. You need to leave room for audio, and also many DVD players and computers with slower CPUs can't handle higher data rates.

Bit Budget- Determine what requirements your video and audio have. Surround sound uses a considerably higher bit rate than stereo.

You can export three types of streams:

CBR - Constant bit rate encoding. (one pass) The data rate never changes regardless of the video signal. As a result the quality can suffer. (fastest encoding option)

VBR - Variable bit rate encoding. (one pass) The picture quality remains constant but the bit rate varies. (This is better than CBR, but takes longer)

VBR - Variable bit rate encoding. (two pass) The video is examined on the first pass to calculate the desired compression. Again, the picture quality remains constant but the bit rate varies. (This is the best and most time-consuming option)

For VBR try setting a target of 4 Mbps and a maximum of 7

Motion Estimation

The Good, Better, Best motion estimation settings affect how the encoder decides how to move a block of pixels. If there is not much movement in the video don't set it good or better is fine. Dynamic, fast-moving video will benefit from the Best setting, but it will take much longer to encode.

Using Compressor (Sitter Chapter 5)

Installing DVD Studio Pro will also install Compressor, which is a multi-purpose transcoding tool that allows batch processing.

Quick tour of compressor

• Preview window
• Batch window (you can drag files in here)
• Inspector
• Presets - Can create droplets also known as presets

Be sure to check out the on-line manual that comes with Compressor. (You might want to save it to your portable firewire drive to peruse later.)

Using Compressor

There are many ways to use Compressor. Here are three useful ways:

• Export directly into Compressor from FCP
• Drag a QuickTime movie into the batch window
• Drag a QuickTime movie onto a droplet icon

Exporting from FCP: First render your timeline. Set an in and out point. Use Export - send to Compressor. Your job should appear in the batch window of Compressor.

In-class Compressor exercise:

In this exercise, you will encode the video you created in FCP, encode it and make observations as to the quality and length of time it took to encode.

Open your video in FCP. (Use the video from Tuesday's class.) Make sure you have set meaningful in and out points.

Start a document in text edit. Call it observations. Put your name on it and note:

• the name of the video
• duration of the selection (in to out)

Select File -> Export -> Using Compressor

Your video sequence should now appear in Compressor's Batch window.

Under the Settings category, choose "DVD fastest encode -150 minutes - 4x3."

• Note how long (how many seconds) it took to encode and how large the .m2v is.

In FCP, export your sequence again into Compressor, Make sure you've kept the same in and out points.

This time choose "DVD Best Quality - 90 minutes 4 x 3"

• Note how long (how many seconds) it took to encode and how large the .m2v is.

View both using Apple's Quicktime player. Note any difference you can see. Rename the first file "low.m2v" and the second file "high.m2v". Put both MPEG clips and your observations in your week 8 folder.

Elements of a DVD

• Startup action (What happens when you place a DVD in a player)
• Menus - There are two basic types: layer menus and highlight/motion menus. Menus are backdrops for buttons.
• Buttons - Allow the user to navigate and interact with the DVD.
• Tracks - The basic container of a DVD. It holds audio, video and slide shows. You can have up to 99 of them in a project.
• Slide shows
• Multiple angles - Each track can have up to 8 angles
• Multiple audio streams - You can have up to 8 different audio streams per track
• Subtitles - DVDSP supports up to 32 subtitle streams per track
• Scripts - Allow basic programming

DVD Studio Pro 4 Quick Tour

Start DVDSP

Choose a configuration

To choose another configuration press F1 (basic) F2 (extended) F3 (advanced)

Inspector (Option - Apple - I) toggle it on and off

Context-sensitive window

Palette - Allows quick access to the files on your computer. Media in the palette is not in your project until you drag them into DVDSP.

Outline View - displays elements of your DVD. Clicking once and selecting an item will let you modify it with the Inspector. Double-clicking an element will bring up the appropriate editor.

Workspace - You can slide the tabes around, resize windows, and further customize your workspace. If you like a particular workspace you can save it as a custom configuration. (Window - save configuration) Note you can use the function keys to toggle between different window configurations.

Homework:

• DVD Studio Pro Advanced Tutorial + mini tutorials (except for the DVD@CCESS) & 1-page critique. Turn in your project by copying the completed Video_TS folder into another folder with your user name in the Scratch/454_krause/week9 folder. For the critique: Describe your experience with the tutorial- what was easy, what was difficult, what didn't work as expected, etc.

  Important Note about All DVD projects assigned as homework:

  Before turning in any DVD project, test it using the Apple DVD Player. So after you create the Video_TS folder, open Apple DVD Player, then open your file. Pressing " play" should activate your DVD. Use the other buttons to see if your menus and other features work as well

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