Masking tutorial series

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:31 am

Very nice work Selgin. I haven't even thought of using anywhere near that many images. Impressive.

Obviously you're well beyond basic masking.

rylleman · Post by **rylleman** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:08 am

Haven't had time to watch your tutorial yet but one thing you could do to reduce file-size is to reduce the image size. It is 1280x800pixels which is very large for a video tutorial. You could either just scale the video down to something like 720x576 or reduce the size of your AS-window and capture a smaller portion of the desktop.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:22 pm

Yeah,I did that and it reduced it by 10MB, but since I've posted it on Viddler(link in first post), I figure those who can't afford to download a quality video can just watch it there.

DarthFurby · Post by **DarthFurby** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:28 pm

I've tried encoding this a couple ways but can't get much better than what you already have. I'll give this another shot when I get home.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:34 am

Okay, this is probably as small as I can get it. I've reduced the resolution, bitrate, and fps. 36MB link added to the first post.

I've got to call that it so I can get my next tutorials done.

2ner · Post by **2ner** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 1:41 pm

Thank you for this tutorial synthsin75. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Please continue to produce the larger file size version. I know some people have issues with downloading large files, but there are a lot of tutorials out there on Youtube, etc. which are almost useless because of low resolution and overcompression.

Your smaller version is not too bad; I can read the blurry text if I strain my eyes. The large version however, is excellent quality, clear and easy to watch.

So if you can continue to provide both hi-res and lo-res versions I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again,
2ner

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 5:42 pm

I was recently watching some tutorials on Youtube.

The trick they used was to "zoom" in on the areas of interest. Rather than show the whole screen all the time they had a smaller window and panned to the menu or palette then panned out.

Another one I saw would enlarge in a bubble the menu or palette click. Obviously both of these would take more time and possibly more money for software....

... but maybe you could try one in a smaller screen size so the menu and text isn't tiny. Set the monitor resolution to a "smaller" size so the screen capture "looks bigger".

Just a thought.

-vern

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:16 pm

Please continue to produce the larger file size version. I know some people have issues with downloading large files, but there are a lot of tutorials out there on Youtube, etc. which are almost useless because of low resolution and overcompression.

Thanks for the encouragement 2ner. I will definitely keep posting hi-res versions (I prefer them myself).

Another one I saw would enlarge in a bubble the menu or palette click. Obviously both of these would take more time and possibly more money for software....

Yeah Vern, the free software I'm using has the option to have a custom size region capture that follows the cursor, but even at it's highest speed setting it kind of jumps to keep up. That would drive me nuts to watch 30 mins. of jumpy video. I don't even like that handheld camera stuff in movies.

Well, you can't please everyone all the time.

I think I'm going to start making my intermediate tuitorial tonight. Hopefully I can continue to keep them to a reasonable length. I thought 30 mins. was a good length, but the next ones may go a bit longer. I already have the next two planned out. There may end up being two advanced tutorials though.

I think I kept the basic tutorial within the capabilities of AS Standard, and the intermediate will continue this. But the two advanced tutorials will definitely require AS Pro features.

I would suggest anyone who hasn't done the LM Tutorial 2.6 to do that, because the intermediate tutorial is based on that example.

DarthFurby · Post by **DarthFurby** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:17 am

I prefer the higher quality video, but I think it's important to offer a bandwidth friendly version too, something I discovered the hard way when I made my videos. Ultimately I tried to strike a balance and encoded at 640x480, which kept the file size "somewhat" reasonable with better than YouTube quality resolution. You went the extra mile with three versions, basically making the video accessible to everyone. Big thumbs up on the tutorial, you seem to have a knack for this stuff, looking forward to the next one.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:34 am

Thanks Darth. I consider that high praise from a tutorial pro. I should have the next tutorial up by tomorrow.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:04 pm

Intermediate tutorial link in first post. It's only 15 min. Not sure why it's 60MB. I'll post a link to the hosted one when I get it uploaded.

Let me know if anyone is actually using the low-res version, or if the hosted one covers that need. No use doing it if no one uses it.

Edit:Hosted link posted.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 7:57 pm

http://www.viddler.com/explore/Synthsin75/videos/3/

Here's a sneak peek of the first advanced tutorial. While you can actually accomplish this using the methods of my intermediate tutorial, to do so requires putting the scenery layers in the character masking group or vice-versa.

For reusable characters that's not very practical, and you'd have to setup and reanimate the bones in the new group. So in the next tutorial I'll show you the 'easy' way to create this kind of scenery/character interaction.

From here on out requires Pro features.

toonertime · Post by **toonertime** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:23 am

A while ago I downloaded a program
called Camtasia, for free!

It seems like a good program to make
tutorials with. Right now I just use it
to convert AVI to MOV files.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 6:43 am

toonertime wrote:A while ago I downloaded a program
called Camtasia, for free!

So what are you trying to say? I looked into it. Camtasia is nolonger free.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 10:33 pm

Intermediate masking tutorial.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jhrmdzhnfpy
This one's only 15 min.

And the hosted video: http://www.viddler.com/explore/synthsin75/videos/2/

http://www.mediafire.com/?l0oio1itj0b
And the .anme files.

In case anyone missed it in the first post. Let me know if there is still enough interest to continue this series.

Masking tutorial series

tutorial software