NightWish: Dark Desires (Encoded and Shipping)

[Qyot27]

I'd recomend using YouSendIt, but it's probably too large for even that. They cap at a gig, but I've had smaller uploads cut-out on me. Still, might be worth a shot.

YouSendIt has gotten really unstable lately (don't know if they fixed it, but last semester it got to the point that anything I uploaded was immediately blocked).

Rapidshare has been working really well, and doesn't have the same stipulations (although they limit it to 100 MB, but do allow split archives). They also don't have a set expiration date (aside from if nobody downloads it within a 30-day window, which is more than enough for this kind of thing), and give you the control to delete the file yourself after it's been received by whoever you want it to go to. It was only giving me problems last night because I think maybe the servers went down, but hopefully they're back up now. Makes trying to upload my AMV Hell CE entry for this week difficult.

But anyway, yeah, the FTP would trump even Rapidshare, depending on the connection speed.

[OtakuForLife]

I've tryed exporting as a huffy from primere 80 ways to sunday
(all it dose is make a corrupt huffy and crash my computer),
the only way I can get of the whole thing is uncompressed but it
adds a weird glow to the footage or slight discoloration... BTW the
v-dub huffy of the uncompressed is still 10 gig in size (way to big for file
file transfer)... I could Use bit torrent to send you whole thing or send me
the ssa file and basically guide me through the subing process.
Up to you man..

[Qyot27]

I've tryed exporting as a huffy from primere 80 ways to sunday
(all it dose is make a corrupt huffy and crash my computer),
the only way I can get of the whole thing is uncompressed but it
adds a weird glow to the footage or slight discoloration... BTW the
v-dub huffy of the uncompressed is still 10 gig in size (way to big for file
file transfer)... I could Use bit torrent to send you whole thing or send me
the ssa file and basically guide me through the subing process.
Up to you man..

In the export dialog do you have 'Always recompress' checked? If it isn't checked, Premiere may try to pipe the data through unchanged, and that can cause it to corrupt. You may also need to increase the size of your virtual memory. Of course, you can just use that error-free export you were already talking about with what I'm about to say (assuming the error-free export is at 23.98fps like it was agreed upon before).

Write up a simple script that says:

Code: Select all

AVISource("whateverthefilenameis.avi").KillAudio().ConvertToYV12()

and then compress it with the newest version of Lagarith (the regular version, not the Windows64 version; make sure to leave everything in the codec settings at their defaults). Make sure that VDub is set on Fast recompress mode so it does the conversion the most efficiently. This should cut the filesize quite a bit and still be lossless (aside from the colorspace conversion, but that shouldn't be noticable - I'd be performing a colorspace conversion anyway, or XviD would when it goes to compress).

[OtakuForLife]

Should I also send a wav file of the complete mix becuase
that verison will have no audio..

WOOT I got the huffy to export!! Thanks man

[OtakuForLife]

<a href ="http://www.amvoffcenterproductions2.com ... S_TEST.avi">
250 meg Full Beta!... </a> Just making sure everybody's happy with the final project. Before I delete the individual huffy tracks and Q I think that I'm going to have to do the ssa encode cause its way to complicated to shrink it down to less then 3 gig from 7 gig and still have it look right. Don't worry in the final one I'll download lame and compress the audio.I just forgot, way to excited for my own good..

[Qyot27]

<a href ="http://www.amvoffcenterproductions2.com ... S_TEST.avi">
250 meg Full Beta!... </a> Just making sure everybody's happy with the final project. Before I delete the individual huffy tracks and Q I think that I'm going to have to do the ssa encode cause its way to complicated to shrink it down to less then 3 gig from 7 gig and still have it look right. Don't worry in the final one I'll download lame and compress the audio.I just forgot, way to excited for my own good..

Unfortunately, due to the way the subtitles are timed (and with the required fonts, although that's a minor issue), it would be best to have me do it. And no, I don't need the audio, I have the properly time-adjusted wav/mp3 that I made from the wav in the first post. I don't mind about the size of the file; I've got more than enough HD space to deal with it.

Currently downloading the test to see exactly what I'm dealing with here...

[Qyot27]

Okay, my assessment:

Thematically, the project works. I don't have any qualms about that. The part where it suffers, though, is in the technical area, and the problems that haven't been fixed in the individual segments. Thankfully, some are easier to correct than others, but if I get the final huffy (or lagarith) in the state it's in now, the end result won't compress as well and the things done to fix some segments may bleed over into the adjacent ones because of the presence of the some of the transitions, and if I use the Trim() command to isolate the individual segments to clean them there may be the noticable drop from filtered to non-filtered when the transitions hit if I want to avoid bleeding the filtering to a segment that doesn't need the same treatment.

Anyway, here is the list of things on the technical side that need to be fixed for each *individual* segment. Fixing these things may also greatly help to reduce the size of the final made from the fixed segments.

0:opening intro
interlacing artifacts

3:rahxephon
interlacing artifacts

4:castle in the sky
jagged edges; rainbowing; tops of subtitles appear at 3:19, 3:30 and 3:35; letterboxing not equal

7:fma
some interlacing artifacts

9:ah! my goddess the movie
improper aspect ratio, jagged edges

11:ai yori aoshi
jagged edges, interlacing artifacts

12:saikano
extreme black borders

13: noir
improper aspect ratio

16:elfen lied
improper aspect ratio

17:outro
interlacing artifacts

General things:
Most segments would probably benefit from light smoothing
Black borders haven't been cropped on some of the fullscreen segments
There seemed to be problems with noise and color splotchiness, but that could be a side-effect of the test encode.

See if you can use the White Alpha Matte transparency with the titles, which will eliminate some of those white borders that still hang around on the edges of the letters. If that fails, you might want to add a light radial or zoom blur to the titles in the Opening and Credits to simulate anti-aliasing if you can't anti-alias as it is (I don't often work with stuff like that so I can't remember if that's an option or not).

The credits have a few things that should be fixed as well:
Shamanic Princess has two S'es
It's Kino's Journey, not Journies, at least according to the ANN Encyclopedia.
My proper alias has an ö in it, even though my Org username doesn't. The command to use that character is to press down the Alt key and hit 0246 on the right-side number pad (make sure Num Lock is on)
I'd suggest changing it from saying 'Song Subtitles' to 'Credits Subtitles', since I didn't sub the entire project.


At the end of this post, I'll put the scripts to use for those particular segments so that you can fix them on your end (you can fool Premiere by naming the fixed segments exactly the same as the ones on the timeline they're meant to replace, and then putting the fixed segment in the folder where the old one was - don't do this while Premiere is running). For some of the scripts, you'll need to use filters that I've packaged up and put on rapidshare (here is the link: http://rapidshare.de/files/12865912/nec ... s.zip.html).

Let me know if that link doesn't work.

You'll just need to unpack them in your AviSynth plugins directory and then you'll be able to use the scripts that call for advanced filtering (such as the TIsophote commands I use to correct the jagged lines, or the derainbowing filters).

Of course, if you already have TIVTC, TIsophote, MaskTools, Msharpen, FluxSmooth, Deen, DFMDeRainbow, LUTDeRainbow, and RemoveGrainS.dll RepairS.dll and SSEToolsS.dll from the RemoveGrain package, then you don't need to download that package. You should already have Msharpen, FluxSmooth, and Deen, though, as they come with the AMVApp. I can't remember if RemoveGrain or MaskTools also come with the AMVApp or not. You need to check if you have TomsMoComp, though. I don't know if that comes with the AMVApp either.


Just copy and paste these scripts into separate files and run them through VirtualDub. Make sure that VDub is set on Fast Recompress mode. Then substitute the fixed ones for the originals like I described above and reexport the final. Also, if you can, make sure that the Opening and Ending segments are run through without the titles in place, as the filtering smudges text. Let me know if AviSynth throws you any errors when handling these scripts. I don't know whether I caught all the dependencies of the plugins or not.

0:Opening

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AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(6,0,-8,0).BilinearResize(720,480)
TomsMoComp(1,1,1).deen("w3d",3,4,6)

1:Witch Hunter Robin

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AVISource("filename.avi")
ConvertToRGB24().Crop(11,22,-8,-27)
LanczosResize(720,480).ConvertToYV12().deen("w3d",2,8,8)

2:Last Exile

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AVISource("filename.avi").deen("w3d",2,8,8)

3:RahXephon

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AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(6,0,-6,0).LanczosResize(720,480)
TomsMoComp(1,1,1).deen("w3d",2,8,8)

4:Castle In The Sky

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AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(0,68,0,-138).BilinearResize(720,272)
LUTDeRainbow().DFMDeRainbow()
TIsophote(iterations=15).deen("w3d",2,8,8)
AddBorders(0,104,0,104)

5:Kino's Journey

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AVISource("filename.avi").ConvertToRGB24()
Crop(7,0,-5,0).LanczosResize(720,480)
ConvertToYV12().deen("w3d",2,8,8)

6:Crest Of The Stars

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
ConvertToRGB24().Crop(5,0,-5,0).LanczosResize(720,480)

7:Fullmetal Alchemist

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
TomsMoComp(1,1,1).deen("w3d",2,8,8)

8:Shamanic Princess

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(10,4,-10,0).LanczosResize(720,480)
deen("w3d",2,8,8)

9:Ah! My Goddess

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(8,0,-6,0).LanczosResize(720,368)
TIsophote(iterations=10).deen("w3d",2,8,8)
AddBorders(0,56,0,56)

10:Chrono Crusade

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi").deen("w3d",2,8,8)

11:Ai Yori Aoshi

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(4,0,-8,0).LanczosResize(720,480)
TomsMoComp(1,1,1).TIsophote(iterations=15)
deen("w3d",2,8,8)

12:Saikano

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
ConvertToRGB24().Crop(35,59,-33,-59)
LanczosResize(720,368).ConvertToYV12()
deen("w3d",2,8,8).AddBorders(0,56,0,56)

13:Noir

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(4,0,-4,0).LanczosResize(720,368)
deen("w3d",2,8,8).AddBorders(0,56,0,56)

14:Princess Tutu

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(4,0,-4,0).LanczosResize(720,480)
deen("w3d",2,8,8)

15:Erementar Gerad

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi").deen("w3d",2,8,8)

16:Elfen Lied

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(4,0,4,0).LanczosResize(720,368)
deen("w3d",2,8,8).AddBorders(0,56,0,56)

17:Outro

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
Crop(8,0,-6,0).BilinearResize(720,480)
TomsMoComp(1,1,1).deen("w3d",3,4,6)

[Kalium]

6:Crest Of The Stars

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
ConvertToRGB24().Crop(5,0,-5,0).LanczosResize(720,480)
deen("w3d",2,8,8)

Ack! I cleaned it already. More deen will probably kill it!

Code: Select all

AVIsource("<blah>")
converttoYV12()
deen("a3d",4)
msmooth()

Oh, and isn't Lanczos4Resize preferable to Lanczos?

Also, for the record, I wound up using entirely Banner of the Stars II.

[Qyot27]

6:Crest Of The Stars

Code: Select all

AVISource("filename.avi")
ConvertToRGB24().Crop(5,0,-5,0).LanczosResize(720,480)
deen("w3d",2,8,8)

Ack! I cleaned it already. More deen will probably kill it!

Code: Select all

AVIsource("<blah>")
converttoYV12()
deen("a3d",4)
msmooth()

Okay. I wasn't entirely sure, and the compression artifacts from the test encode didn't really help much. Even with my own videos if I use deen on some portions I end up using the w3d mode 2,8,8 settings during postprocessing since that lightly does a once-over. Looking back over the scripts I did post, I can't believe the amount of times I used ConvertToRGB24() in order to correct uneven borders, and didn't call ConvertToYV12() so deen would be able to run. I'll edit that stuff now.

Oh, and isn't Lanczos4Resize preferable to Lanczos?

Also, for the record, I wound up using entirely Banner of the Stars II.

I'd judge it depending on the circumstances. LanczosResize and Lanczos4Resize perceptually don't look too dissimilar (if I can remember that part of Read <a href=http://www.a-m-v.org/guides/avtech31/>ErMaC & AbsoluteDestiny's Friendly AMV Guides</a> correctly), and I generally reserve Lanczos4 for especially clean sources, which some of the segments in here are, but others aren't. I used LanczosResize for all but the Opening and Ending (and the Castle In The Sky segment, due to it being the most filtered of all the tracks) to keep it consistent. Some of the segments I didn't really want to use something as sharp as Lanczos on because the quality was borderline if doing upsizing (the Saikano track, for instance, I contemplated using Bilinear on instead).

[OtakuForLife]

Wow Q your figging intense...
Glad I used this beta this before-hand, looks like most
of it can be fixed quicky with AVS filtering and switching
huffys with each other. As for the castle in the sky track
, sorry about the huge letterboxing. Friggin burned in subs are
a pain the ass to remove correctly. Even using clip, I need to
move up the bottom clipping anthor 2 pixels (becuase I can see
them at one point.) Btw the test screening for non-editors
(at my house) was given 2 thumbs up ... So, overall besides
a gitch here and there we're doing fairly well.. Oh if anyone
wants to make a release poster for this project, that would be
awsome... Also, I'm going to add Q to the credits as encoder
cuase he friggin deserves it for putting up with me

Anymore suggestions cuase I want everybody to be happy with the
final product?

Hopefully I'll get to most of this tonight been a little sick lately.
Btw those that want to tune into my radio show tonight, can do
so. I'll be talking/coughing about Nightwish Dark Desires plus
playing alot of good music... (you can tune in on www.ricradio.org
at 4-6pm EST) Now to take a nap inbetween my classes