3D-Album Home

Bill Smith · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 8:35 pm Post subject:

If a person (like KatN and I) already have 3d-album installed, then they can view your web page without downloading the vaectrl exe file/program. A person who doesn't have 3d-album installed would need to download the file, and as you've discovered they must use IE as it's the only browser which supports the plug-in.

I don't own your verson of 3d-album, so I can't say for sure about a short cut. When you create a WMV file, you are running the CAPTURE step which allows you to use any previously built album as input. So, you should be able to create the WMV file using the album you already created.
_________________
Bill

How to Videos & Tutorial PDF: www.northwestpages.com/3dalbum_tutorial/
Bill on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/northwestpages

thais · Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 6:36 am Post subject:

Thanks, Bill

Thais

KatN · Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 5:00 am Post subject:

Hi Thais

You can capture your current builds as .avi or .mpeg2. Then pull those videos into a video editing program such as Pinnacle, Roxio, Sony, etc. I wait to add music to the video editing program. If you decided to do that, you would have to rerun your 'builds' without music and then capture in 3d album.

Good luck!

thais · Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 6:09 pm Post subject:

I rebuilt the album and am thinking I will capture it as a wmv file and then just attach it to e-mails. Hope that will work.
Thanks
Thais

KatN · Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 4:03 am Post subject:

I've never tried that. It can take a long time to load .wmv's to the web with a high speed connection - if you have friends on dial-up, that could be a problem. Some of the video editing software packages offer sites to show your videos. I don't know if there is a charge for them. I think Premier Elements walks you through loading to You Tube.

Bill Smith · Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:44 am Post subject:

Rather then attach the WMV video file to a series of emails, I would suggest uploading the WMV file to your web site (the one you put the HTML files on).

Then, you can simply email your friends with the URL link. They can click on the link and view the video. Or, you upload the WMV file to your web site and create a HTML web page that automatically runs it. (The tutorial that I sell has information on this, and I also posted some information about this on the forum http://www.3d-album.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=403&highlight=wmv. The forum information may have a few items that need updating, but it will get you started. If you own my tutorial, it is up to date.)

Why upload instead of emailing? Uploading the WMV file has some advantages over emailing it to everyone. If the WMV file is very large, some email services won't accept the email. (WMV files are usually the smallest in size, AVI and MPEG's are bigger).
_________________
Bill

How to Videos & Tutorial PDF: www.northwestpages.com/3dalbum_tutorial/
Bill on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/northwestpages

thais · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 11:17 am Post subject:

I know you folks must think I am really dense but I keep running into things I don't know what to do about.

I have rebuilt my album and put it in
My Documents\My Photo Shows\Xmas08(2) folder. This folder now contains the normal persistent, etc. folders and start.vexe and Xmas08(2).vexe files

In trying to capture this Xmas08(2).vexe file to a wmv file, when I browse and select the file name for the Source input, it won't stay selected. I select it, say ok and exit and when I try to preview the file, it says it can't find it and when I look, it is, indeed, unselected again. Was wondering if there is something wrong with the file name or just what the problem might be.

While I'm at it, another thing I don't understand is - when I am selecting where to put the completed wav file in the Movie input space (I want to put it in the same ...\My Photo Shows\Xmas08(2) folder), when I browse to...My Photo Shows\Xmas08(2) folder, it does NOT show the two .vexe files. How come?

I'm afraid I am wearing out everybody's patience here but I don't know anybody else to ask. I really appreciate your time.

Thais

PS: Bill, I am going to do as you suggested about uploading this to my web site - that is if I EVER get it done

thais · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 1:33 pm Post subject:

Never mind, never mind - it's working ok now. Don't know what I had done wrong before but I was able to capture it as a .wmv file. It doesn't look as good as the original album, though (more jerky and fuzzier). Think I'm going to play around with frame rates and see if that makes any difference.

I am embarrassed at seeming such a ditz but I guess I'll get over it.

Thais

Bill Smith · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 8:40 pm Post subject:

If you want a high quality video, then create either AVI or MPEG2. WMV is much more compressed then either of these. The more compressed, the lower the quality of the final video. AVI is uncompressed. I find it way too big for me to use, so I usually go with MPEG2 for creating DVDs. For web pages, I would be more likely to experiment with WMV and try to find a happy medium between quality and size.

Play with the MOVIE QUALITY settings. The larger the number, the better the quality will be (but the overall size will also increase).

I usually play with frame size as well, though Michael Young once told me that the frame size wouldn't have any noticeable impact (not his exact words - but what I understood him to mean).
_________________
Bill

How to Videos & Tutorial PDF: www.northwestpages.com/3dalbum_tutorial/
Bill on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/northwestpages

thais · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:33 am Post subject:

Thanks so much for your advice, Bill. I will play around with the movie quality and frame size and see what I can do.
Thais

thais · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:14 pm Post subject:

Well, I increased the quality from 256K to 384K and it is considerably better(and hugely bigger - from 2.6MB to 6.0MB) but nowhere as nice as the .exe file shows it.

In attempting to try other frame sizes (it was already set at 720 x 480 and I left it there), I am confused by the choices. The far right down arrow gives choices such as NTSC, PAL, Square Pix, etc, all of which I do not understand at all. Nothing is suggested for .wav files. If I change the frame sizes, what is it going to do to the final appearance?

What about the frame rate? If I increased it so that there were more frames per minute, wouldn't that make it smoother-looking? Would that make it a bigger file?

I have been reading the User's Guide and the boards here and don't find a lot explaining what those features do. I guess an experienced user would KNOW what they do but I have trouble understanding how one change affects something else.

Thanks again
Thais

Bill Smith · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 3:07 pm Post subject:

The exe file will always be the absolute best looking media for viewing your album. But when you want to create a video file (either to share via a CD, email, web page, or on a DVD) then you have to choose the optimum format. I already said that DV AVI and AVI are the best, but they are usually way too big. DVD's (not HD DVD) can get by with a DVD NTSC, PAL NTSC, or MPEG-2 format which are the next best. WMV really depends on the settings you choose to use. The only answer is to experiment with the different settings and then choose the one you want to use.

NTSC and PAL are different formats used for DVDs. The NTSC format is used here in the United States, along with some other countries. When you choose them, the program will grey out selections for frame size, frame rate, and movie quality and will use the standard setting for the format you chose. To see what they are, select one of them and look at the resulting settings. SVCD, VCD, and DVD reflect different media formats as well. You can safely ignore the SVCD and VCD settings, as almost everyone has a standard DVD player now days.

Other settings, such as AVI, MPEG-2, MPEG, and WMV allow you to choose whatever size and frame rate you want.

I would not personally create a video with a 720x480 size for uploading to a web page (or emailing). I would create a smaller frame size. People that do this a lot might want to jump in and share their personal favorite settings.

A faster frame rate would be smoother and bigger size as well. But I think you can stick to something between 25 and 30 fps.

And yes, the frame size will affect how your album looks on the screen when viewed. You would want to make sure that your web page code reflects the correct frame size or it will look distorted. When you are in the CREATE step, you can change screen dimensions in the preview area to such things as 4:3, 16:9, and 1:1. Those ratios pretty much reflect normal PC screens, widescreens, and square images. You may view your album in one setting and the video you create can use another setting. There is no dependency - but it does give you an idea. The best thing is to experiment with different settings and then see how the final image looks.

By the way, don't you wish you could choose a SWF format for your video? I'd love to see that option, but it doesn't exist as of yet.
_________________
Bill

How to Videos & Tutorial PDF: www.northwestpages.com/3dalbum_tutorial/
Bill on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/northwestpages

thais · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:45 pm Post subject:

Still playing around with this. When I increased the quality from 256K to 364K, the size also increased - from 2.6MB to 5.9MB. It didn't look great, but tolerable. So I thought if I decreased the frame size from 720x480 to 320x240, it would substantially reduce the size but it barely budged - from 5.9MB to 5.8MB. If it is only half the frame size, shouldn't it reduce the total size more than that?

I've tried jiggling the frame rate a bit but it hardly makes any difference in quality OR size. I have gotten .wmv files from people as attachments to e-mails and most of them are 2-3MB and 320x240 and look much better than what I have.

Any more hints or suggestions? Bill, I have a notebook full of your tutorials and print-outs of replies you have given on this board and little stickey notes saying "Bill said so and so" or "Bill said:....." I think you are the lone ray of light on this board. Where is everybody anyway?

Thanks, as always.............Thais

Bill Smith · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:00 pm Post subject:

Michael Young once told me that a WMV was compressed as a 320x240 and when you displayed it as a 720x480 it simply used larger blocks. This would explain why the file size doesn't change much. There is a posting on this subject (do a search for "fps" and "frog*" as author). You'll find me asking some very dumb questions and Michael giving detailed explanations. I always liked to get input from Michael. I don't know where he found his information - whether from personal experience or from internet surfing - but I appreciated his gathering and sharing the information.

Nan is another one who seems to have a real handle on this stuff.

Me - I just experiment some myself, and read what Michael, Nan, etc. wrote. Many people have come and gone from this board. Some still check in occasionally. Most of them were/are really good people.

I have no idea why some applications create really efficient wmv files, and why 3D-Album's are bigger. I have a theory - but I'm pretty sure that I am totally off (wrong), so I'll let someone with real knowledge jump in and explain it to all of us.
_________________
Bill

How to Videos & Tutorial PDF: www.northwestpages.com/3dalbum_tutorial/
Bill on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/northwestpages