So we thought all was good, we've moved from wrapping the FFDS encoder to using a native 64bit version of Xvid in playblasts and all is good.... or so we thought. It turns out that the default Xvid Encoder settings DO NOT maintain frame counts correctly, randomly inserting padding frames into the Avi. So if you load an avi with baked in FrameCounter from Maya into Virtual Dub and step through it you'll see the frame counters get out of sync. We're only talking 2 or 3 frames but that's enough to completely stuff facial lip sync up and cause anybody using these avi's as master guides to have problems.
The cure is simple, launch the Configure Encoder settingsUI from your Start>Programs>Xvid folder and make sure you turn OFF the B-VOP's (b-frames) under the Profiles@level>more>profile UI. All of a sudden all is in sync and happy. God damned all the time we've wasted getting these working!
Mark
Showing posts with label Playblast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Playblast. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Maya Playblast Fixes
Playblast Management in Maya
Possible Issues:
Playblast issues have shown up in Maya since 2011 and / or Maya under Windows7 and a lot of people on many forums, and indeed at our studio, have been moaning about this for a while, I thought it was about time to put a few answers out there....
Codecs:
The first problem is that most of the codecs that you're used to seeing in XP/Vista won't be there in Win7, so if you're used to playblasting Xvid/DivX then you need to do a little bit extra to get these back.The fix is to hook Maya up with the FFDShow encoder, usually distributed via codec packs like K-Lite or Cole2K. Once you've installed one of these you'll see a new compressor show up in Maya, 'FFDS', this is the ffdshow video encoder.
In Maya2011 they also missed out the button that lets you setup compression settings like you could in Maya2010, you can choose the codec, but not set any options! You can by-pass this issue though, if you enter the following in the script editor:
playblast -compression ""
Now the standard Windows compression UI will pop up, letting you set the compression options (for FFDS this'll actually pop up the ffdsVFW encoder UI. If you don't do this then you can set the encoder up by opening the FFDSVFW window which you'll find under your windows Start>K-Lite>ffdsVFW
Here you can once again get access to most of your standard codecs like Xvid,DivX etc. We tend to set ours up to something like the following:
Skewed Avi's or Unable to Generate errors:
These 2 symptoms are both linked, and not actually Maya's fault. If you try and compress an Xvid then the compressor is expecting the AVI to be on height and width bounds that are of multiples of 4 (if memory serves me correctly!).
So if you try and blast 640*480 all is good, if you do 641*480 you'll get the 'unable to generate' error, if you do 642*480 you get a skewed movie...so movie sizes under xvid/divx and ffds can give either a skewed avi, or the dreaded 'Unable to create video track' message. This basically means that the codec couldn't make the avi at the given size. The best thing to do is to use a Custom window size (or render settings) and stick to it.
Anyway, enough, hope that helps a few folk.
Mark
Possible Issues:
- Missing codecs, or very limited selection
- Missing Compression setting button in Maya
- Skewed AVI's once generated
- Maya error message 'Unable to create video track. Check format.'
Playblast issues have shown up in Maya since 2011 and / or Maya under Windows7 and a lot of people on many forums, and indeed at our studio, have been moaning about this for a while, I thought it was about time to put a few answers out there....
Codecs:
The first problem is that most of the codecs that you're used to seeing in XP/Vista won't be there in Win7, so if you're used to playblasting Xvid/DivX then you need to do a little bit extra to get these back.The fix is to hook Maya up with the FFDShow encoder, usually distributed via codec packs like K-Lite or Cole2K. Once you've installed one of these you'll see a new compressor show up in Maya, 'FFDS', this is the ffdshow video encoder.
In Maya2011 they also missed out the button that lets you setup compression settings like you could in Maya2010, you can choose the codec, but not set any options! You can by-pass this issue though, if you enter the following in the script editor:
playblast -compression ""
Now the standard Windows compression UI will pop up, letting you set the compression options (for FFDS this'll actually pop up the ffdsVFW encoder UI. If you don't do this then you can set the encoder up by opening the FFDSVFW window which you'll find under your windows Start>K-Lite>ffdsVFW
Here you can once again get access to most of your standard codecs like Xvid,DivX etc. We tend to set ours up to something like the following:
Skewed Avi's or Unable to Generate errors:
These 2 symptoms are both linked, and not actually Maya's fault. If you try and compress an Xvid then the compressor is expecting the AVI to be on height and width bounds that are of multiples of 4 (if memory serves me correctly!).
So if you try and blast 640*480 all is good, if you do 641*480 you'll get the 'unable to generate' error, if you do 642*480 you get a skewed movie...so movie sizes under xvid/divx and ffds can give either a skewed avi, or the dreaded 'Unable to create video track' message. This basically means that the codec couldn't make the avi at the given size. The best thing to do is to use a Custom window size (or render settings) and stick to it.
Anyway, enough, hope that helps a few folk.
Mark
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