@browj2 @johnebaker

Hi Johns.

J EB.

I reloaded the video using HEVC and now that portion of the video is fine. Skies look better but now further in I get blocks appear across the image at 2:43 and 2:56 towards the end.

I may do one more try with MP4 and larger bit rates.

J CB

I used Xara at the end to make a button just to show you I have tried using it. Easy to use but simple designs. Any way of adding more textures?

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

. . . . Maximum bitrate shows as 120Mb/s. Should I up it? . . . .

I doubt there would be very little improvement.

As you have seen HEVC is better - probably due to it being a better compression algorithm which works its 'magic' using 2 'transformation' algorithms where as AVC/h.264 uses one. I would not recommend going there, it is the deepest rabbit hole I have looked into, the maths is horrendous 😱.

John EB

@johnebaker

Hi John.

Well I've tried MP4 again this morning. The file is uploading to YouTube as I speak.

The file size is roughly the same as for the HEVC upload which I didn't expect as I now have a minimum bit rate of 92Mb/s and a maximum of 130Mb/s.

I will see what the YouTube transcoders make of it as both files played flawlessly on my PC.

That could take a couple of hours yet though.

Is it my imagination or does VPX do a better encode to HEVC than MEP?

Ray.

@browj2 @johnebaker

Hi Guys.

I have only just noticed an extra project setup requirement over MEP.

Colour spacing.

Which one should I be considering? My main uses are web uploads and playback on my PC.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi

. . . . Is it my imagination or does VPX do a better encode to HEVC than MEP? . . .

Good question, I don't usually use HEVC much, I have had a couple if issues with it a while ago, which, funnily enough, I cannot reproduce now, this may be down to the newer Intel DCH drivers.

Without the proper analytical tools we are are relying on 'perceived quality', if there is a significant difference visually we recognise it, however where the perceived quality is close, I am very wary of comparing visually as there is the psychological/subconscious wish for it to be better that clouds the issue - I think Freud covered it in 'wish fulfilment'.

John EB

@johnebaker

Hi John.

That's a reasonable assumption but I really wasn't expecting to see any difference on exports beyond export times.

Could it be linked to my last question of my last post?

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

Missed the question -

. . . . Which one should I be considering? . . . .

BT.709 for most videos.

BT.2020 for 4K UHD TV s with wide colour gamut - sometimes mistakenly called HDR which is 10 bit colour depth minimum.

HTH

John EB

@browj2 @johnebaker

Thank you John.

Interestingly It was set to BT.709 but I changed it to BT.2020 for my last upload of that video using a higher bit rate in MP4.

MediaInfo is reporting a maximum bit rate of 132Mb/s and minimum of 90.4Mb/s and surprisingly is the same size as the HEVC one I tried earlier (1.9GBs) that only reported one bit rate of 90.2Mb/s.

It has taken nearly 7 hours for YouTube to fully render up to 4K but the results are much closer to the file I have sitting on the PC. Not much banding of the sky but instead I can actually make out faint clouds. No longer any unwanted artefacts in any part of the video. There might be the odd 'micro jump' on some sudden cutaways but hard to notice them.

So apart from the insane render and upload times I'm quite pleased with the results.

All other versions have now been pulled.

Ray.

Thanks for the video! Lots of Santa's there of all ages! Even a Santa dad carrying a little one on his neck!

What is your upload speed? I have 300Mbps download and 35Mbps upload speed. I've uploaded 4K to youtube and it's never taken that long. But as long as it takes to get it done!

@Reyfox

Hi.

It didn't take that long to upload although the upload speed depends on the speed at their end and varies, it took that long for YouTube to then re-render the file to play at their chosen resolutions once it had fully uploaded.

My rated upload speed is the same as yours but again that's server dependent. Average real life use here tends to be around 2.2Mbps upload depending on how it's routed and the final destination of the server.

I managed to download VPX in under 15 mins.

Last year was a test Santa Fun Run using the Dockyard instead of shutting down major roads around Rochester, so it was by invite only and around 500 'Santa's'.

I don't yet know the plans for this year because of Covid but in the past, the area event normally attracted 5000 + Santa's. My guess, assuming it can go ahead would be around 2,000 this year with about 300 support staff. My 'job' is to get still images of the Dockyards events / tours / concerts / conferences / outdoor film studio shoots, for their website and publicity material. I do that in my spare time as a volunteer along with another five photographers as we get allocations on what to shoot. I'm lucky as I can schedule most of my 'real' work around their requirements 90% of the time.

The video footage shot is between the photo taking. 😉

Only the largest events sees more than one of us turn up at one time. This year, because of the lockdown I've missed out on a few private evening functions and planned conferences. All the large scale events had to be cancelled. This will probably be the only largish event for them this year.

I hope it goes ahead.

Ray.

It looks like a fun time for everyone!

I am usually a "one man band", so use a hybrid camera. Sometimes, wife is second camera person.

J CB

I used Xara at the end to make a button just to show you I have tried using it. Easy to use but simple designs. Any way of adding more textures?

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray,

Nice video!

Does that mean that 3D Maker actually opened for you to make/adjust/fully edit, the button?

Please do not use Xara by itself; that is the company name. Use the product name. When you say Xara, my assumption was that you used Xara Photo & Graphics Designer or Xara Designer Pro X.

John CB

@browj2

Hi John.

Due to me not paying attention as usual I had no idea it was called 3D Maker. I know now, and will try to remember for future reference.

As for the other programs, I've never heard of them, but then again there must be more software I've never heard of than have heard of.

As I started off using the 3D text graphic 'Android' I would have to say yes to that.

It took me less than four minutes to play around with. Not overly keen with the textures offered, hence my earlier question. I think better textures would make it more attractive to use. Or if you could provide your own. It's certainly simple to use and could be effective but currently the looks are a bit dated. Similar to Win 98 in looks.

Ray.

@browj2

Hi John

. . . . Does that mean that 3D Maker actually opened for you to make/adjust/fully edit, the button? . . . .

Works fully for me as well.

John EB

@CubeAce

You finally got it. 660 textures come with it. Nothing there of interest? Add your own folder or navigate to where you want.

Download the pdf manual for VPX11 and do a search for Xara.

Please watch these tutorials:

John CB

@CubeAce

I think you can wrap a text with a jpeg which can look quite cool.

I use 3D maker quite a bit because it is relatively simple but I agree that it feels/looks kinda clunky by modern standards. I sometimes add some bling with Vitascene effects once the basic animated title has been created on the timeline.

Peter

@Scenestealer, @CubeAce

Hi

. . . . it feels/looks kinda clunky by modern standards . . . . .

The program interface has changed little since its original release. I had the original version many years ago (1995 ?), then it was mainly used for creating animated graphics for websites.

It's a classic case of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'.

John EB

@johnebaker @browj2 @Scenestealer @Reyfox

Hi John CB.

The example WARSHIP you give is actually one I do like a lot but there are not that many. Most of them look like early Microsoft samples from Win98. Just not enough texture to look realistic.

Believe it of not I have watched most of your videos including those two in the past. I will continue to play with the program over a period of time as sometimes I can think of reasons why I would use more simplified graphics. Presentations come to mind for one use.

Hi Peter.

If I could do that,it would be brilliant and just the thing I'm looking for. I will look into that further.

Hi John EB.

I never look any gift horse in the mouth but I don't necessarily feed it afterwards 😆.

On the plus side it is very resource light and responsive, very easy to use and intuitive, stable, and in the program.

The fact it looks retro is also a bit endearing. I haven't written it off yet as potentially useful.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray,

The WARSHIP was not an example. I was just showing you that you have to press on the Load Texture button to get more textures. There are 660 textures that you can use, or navigate to whatever you want. As Peter indicated, you can use a photo as a texture.

Once you open 3D Maker, you can do whatever you want - completely change everything! When done, save the file to X3D and you will be able to load it again. Also, in 3D Maker, even though you've opened it by selecting one of the templates, you do File, Open and open your own templates.

In the video below, I call this thing my logo. The outer shape was just a simple shape made in Xara Designer Pro X and pasted in 3D Maker. Of course, I had to play around with the spacing to get the text inside the shape. I could also make the shape rotate. The glow that moves left to right is just an effect done in VPX on the 3D text object using Knoll Light Factory. The second title just shows using different textures - clash of the tartans.

There may be a bug with using 3D Maker, the same as with the Xara (XAR) bug. Today, the contents of the first X3D object was emptied and replace by the default X3D text.

We've gone way off-topic here. The goal was to advise people about the HumbleBundle package, not to discuss the features of VPX. I suggest that any further discussion about details go in new threads with appropriate titles to help other users.

John CB

@johnebaker

Hi John.

While I appreciate it's off topic from the initial post I never really appreciated how large a difference there was between MEP and VPX.

Half or more of what is available in VPX compared to MEP is never mentioned in the publicity blurb even missing the third party effects available in this offer.

I haven't even seen many topics on the forum about the various advantages beyond how some find it renders faster and its comparative smoother playback over what is mentioned in the advertising.

Had I realised some of the other advantages VPX has over MEP (some of which I think I've still to possibly find) I would have jumped on this offer with no qualms whatsoever. Even if the offer had only been for VPX.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray,

For anyone who want to see most of the differences between VPX and MEP Premium, here is the comparison chart. Open each section. For the HB offering, ignore the third party plugins and apps.

There are more features in VPX that are not listed. A couple of them are:

• Multi-language tracks for use in DVD/BR's (can be used for other things like with and without narration)
• Export/import of Burn setup (Movies, chapters, titles, buttons) to psd files for detailed modification of the elements in Xara Designer Pro X or Photo & Graphics Designer and PhotoShop.

John CB

@browj2 can you point me to a BPM Wizard tutorial?

Thanks!