video settings for youtube

[thestudentisready]

I'm at the point in a music video where I need to start comitting elements to a timeline, and I need to get a few things straight.

I intend for the video to be seen worldwide, but if I have to give up some ground in a compromise somewhere, I'd like to do so in favor of USA as it is where I am and where I anticipate the largest viewing audience for the particular video.

I have not yet set project settings. First question is the framerate. I am syncing many things to a beat, and the beat is not divisible by the frame rate, so I need to go through, and find the keyframe for each beat, and do it that way... therefore, I want to be sure now that I have the framerate correct as it could screw things up later to have to change it.

So... I'm under the assumption that I'd like to do dvd type settings which I am under the impression are at 30 drop. I don't see anywhere to notate a drop frame, though.

Should I just use 30 fps? 29.97? Something else? It's mainly going to be for viewing on youube, but I may well want to include it on a dvd later.

Also, as for other settings... I've been assuming I should just do it at 720p, and can then dumb it down later if necessary. I'm not really sure, though. This will be my first time posting on youtube, and I'd like it to be very easy for people.... with a few sizes to choose from depending on their bandwidth, etc. It's important to me that the counter for number of views catch everyone in a single video post, so I want to get it right to begin with, so it counts as the same video, and people can just click for a different resolution.

So... should I set at 720p, and then dumb it down somehow? Burn 3 times at 3 different resolutions?

Also trying to figure out definitively how to deal with aspect ratio. I would like to make sure it plays at 16x9 regardless... so it fills the screen properly on any 16x9 lcd using youtube's video player, and automatically letterboxes the top and bottom to fill horizontally at the correct aspect if played on a squarer screen.

Not sure exactly what I need to do to ensure that.






Also... how important are the video safe zones these days? If I can get it to aspect and letterbox correctly, is that only going to be an issue if someone watches it on an old crt? I feel comfortable enough assuming people are using some sort of lcd or similar these days.

thx.


oh, and I anticipate that most people who will see this video will be doing so via a youtube video embedded on a facebook page or similar if that matters... so they may or may not maximize the view.

[slowtiger]

Youtube has a page with all information about framerate and formats. I'd use 1280 x 720px at 30fps which is good enough for TV and youtube HD. You may need experimentation with mp4 codec, choosing a good bitrate, but that's stuff you only touch when everything else is finished and editing is done. You don't use any lossy codec for intermediate files: PNG is recommended, it's the best format for video files out of AS and into a video editor.

The "safe" zones stem from a time when TV sets still had those big tubes ... it's not that important anymore, but it only matters for positioning text anyway.

Forget about aspect ratio switching. This is totally dependent on the player at the user end. You only may have some control when burning a DVD.

[thestudentisready]

ok, thx

so I'm assuming 16x9 is probably best for covering both dvd viewing and youtube viewing? I'm having some difficulty squeezing in much tighter, but will do if there's a better option for computer embedded view playing which is primary intended playback.

Also... do you mean just 30 with no adjustment anywhere for drop frame?

And if I understand... using mp4 because of bitrate issues with high res... then just burn a lower res version with no lossy codec?

I notice many vids have 3 resolution choices... want them all to be on same viewer so you can just switch via viewer options.

[slowtiger]

Don't bother with any end user choices right now. You always can do that in the end - if you still have time and nerve.

First you have to produce your video. During production you only use the largest format and the best codec (PNG) for files which still go into other programs. You will assemble your scenes in a video editor, will you? So that's where the "master" of your video will be created. Anything you do in AS is intermediary - so don't even think about youtube and crappy codecs. All you concentrate on is good animation.

"Drop frame" is an old concept for terrestrial US TV. Forget about it. It's nearly 2011 and TV is completely digital.

[patricia3d]

Hi SlowTiger

Is the default setting of ASP 1280x720 24 FPS is not good?
we have to change to 1280x720 30 fps?

[slowtiger]

Youtube converts everything to 15 fps (last time I checked). So a 30 fps master video file will maintain good enough quality for TV broadcast or DVD, but will also smoothly degrade down on youtube.

If you start with 24 fps, a 15 fps conversion will result in very choppy animation.

[patricia3d]

Thanks for information. One more information please

When I create Mov with PNG Codec, file size becomes too big and when with Sorenson video, then the file size is little less?
what to do?

[Qasim]

We've used www.socialkik.com to buy a few thousands of Youtube views and channel subscribers for multiple channels and they always over-delivered on the number of views or subscribers that we purchased by up to 30% of extra views. Now that Socialkik campaigns are over, newer visitors to our channel are more willing to become a subscriber than before, because they see that we have over 10,000 of other subscribers.

[thestudentisready]

Sorry for my ignorance here, but like I said, this will be my first time posting on youtube, and I've been reading up on their intellecutual property stuff, etc as well, so knee deep in it right now.

What exactly would be the purpose of purchasing something for views there?

I don't want to advertise for now... I want the quickest, easiest way for as many people as possible to see it.

Also, is there any benefit in me just burning a 15fps version then? Do I avoid a conversion step?

What about the audio? Is there a way to burn it so that it does not get touched by their conversion or compression at all?

I want quality for dvd version, of course, but will burn at whatever specs give the cleanest Youtube performance... and I'm wondering if that means digging into audio codecs to beat their conversion system.

[slowtiger]

Audio and video are processed seperately, so you're on the safe side.

Before I dive into more technical stuff here: do you have a video editor?

[thestudentisready]

By "video editor", do you mean something like Final Cut Pro?

I have a friend that has it in his video editing setup at his house.

I read up today on Youtube about their video stuff... they basically say to just load the highest quality at 16x9.

If they actually tell you it goes to 15fps, then I missed that.

They also say you can load at 1080p, though I'm not sure I want to do that. extra load times and all... and I don't really think I'm LOSING any audience by having 720 as best option.

I still don't see either how to setup multiple lower resolutions unless they do that for you... just saw how if you load 1080p, it will automatcally put 720 option,so maybe rest is like that?

As far as audio, the mastering guy is doing it in anaog, then digitizing back... I want 44.1 at 16 bit for the cd, and at 24 it for personal already, but I could also have him burn something at 48k and whatever bitrate I want if it will help with the video stuff.

Just not sure if I should be using a particular audio codec and/or compression. It is a MUSIC video, so audio quality is quite important. However, if they're gonna touch it somehow, I'd prefer to do best I can on my end if their end is able to then be bypassed.

[slowtiger]

Basic production knowledge:

You don't do any music video or any other film completely in AS or any other animation program. They're not made for that.

You produce all your assets (that will be single shots) in AS, then render them to top quality video files, then assemble those in a video editing program. This is the place where you do transitions and add the music etc. From there you will render all the different output formats, if necessary.

If you want to do all this in As, be prepared for a lot of tedious and unnecessary work, and you will miss a lot of controls for the final rendering, especially any sophisticated sound quality and bitrate settings.

It's no sense to talk about formats and codecs and sound quality if you don't have the appropriate tools available.

[dm]

I believe YouTube supports 24,25,30 fps. I just downloaded a video to check, and it was 24 fps.

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/b ... wer=132460

http://www.youtube.com/t/yt_handbook_produce#

And, ultimately, what difference does it make what frame rate it's at if it's on YouTube? Computers don't really care-other than being able to stream it. YouTube encodes different resolutions for you. Just upload the hi-res version and you're done with it-all the lower-res versions are automatic.

Do it at 24 or 30FPS, 720P.

30 Drop only deals with time code numbers, not actual frames. Ignore that-it's not something that happens in ASP at all.

For the DVD, do you care if there's a PAL version? If so, go for 24FPS. Doesn't really matter though. If you use Compressor (part of the Final Cut package), you can enable 'frame controls' to do the standards conversion for you. 24>25 is cleaner than 29.97/30>25, but they'll probably both be fine.

Letterbox comes with the DVD authoring. Letterboxed with SD, full frame with HD. It's a simple setting in DVD Studio (which is part of the Final Cut package). YouTube should NOT be letterboxed. They deal with all of that for you.

I wouldn't export .mov's at all. I'd stick to targa or png image sequences and assemble them into a movie in the editor. (Sorenson is a compression scheme-avoid that)

With all that, I agree with Slowtiger. Just make the video.

[thestudentisready]

Basic production knowledge:

You don't do any music video or any other film completely in AS or any other animation program. They're not made for that.

You produce all your assets (that will be single shots) in AS, then render them to top quality video files, then assemble those in a video editing program. This is the place where you do transitions and add the music etc. From there you will render all the different output formats, if necessary.

If you want to do all this in As, be prepared for a lot of tedious and unnecessary work, and you will miss a lot of controls for the final rendering, especially any sophisticated sound quality and bitrate settings.

It's no sense to talk about formats and codecs and sound quality if you don't have the appropriate tools available.

What tools don't I have available? My best friend for 15 years is a videographer with a video editing suite in his house with FCP and every other program I could ever need. He has no experience with animation, though.


Only reason I was looking at compositing in AS is to do some interesting transitions, but there is one technical aspect.

Most of the video is composed of actors on a greescreen (not shot yet) over animated scenes. My first thought would be to jus drop the actors in with another program except they are not always the top layer.

For instance, closeup of person holding cartoon phone over animated background. Background and closest object come from AS, and chromakeyed actor is in between. For this reason, I had considered dropping the actors into AS and compiling each scene there... as I can just drop them in at the appropriate layer. Otherwise, I'd think it would make more sense to drom them in using another program (fcp?)

Thoughts?

[dm]

Only reason I was looking at compositing in AS is to do some interesting transitions, but there is one technical aspect.

Most of the video is composed of actors on a greescreen (not shot yet) over animated scenes. My first thought would be to jus drop the actors in with another program except they are not always the top layer.

You should use a compositor, if available. Shake, Nuke, Combustion, Toxic, After Effects, etc. You could probably pull it off in Motion or Final Cut, but you're better off using the 'real' tools.

Since you're concerned with quality, hopefully you have a decent camera for the green screen stuff. Clean keys from compressed video is trying, at best.