Playblast codec for Maya 2010 64-bit

[Fredrik Averpil]

Hey again,

Lots of questions from me in just two days, but here goes another one :)

We've got a project that kind of has forced us to playblast a lot and it would help a great deal to be able to output these playblasts directly to a movie file. AVI is fine but Quicktime would have even better. Now, on Mac OS X I believe this is not an issue at all but on Windows 7, it seems 64-bit Maya won't read any 64-bit codecs. Why is this?

Shouldn't it work since the codecs themselves are 64-bit?

// F

[Alan Fregtman]

I think you're mistaken. Quicktime is not available for 64bit in
Windows and there's hardly any 64bit codecs at all in fact. The 64bit
codecs will show up. The rest won't.

It's the same issue in Softimage and I bet 3dsmax too. 64bit software
can't see or interact with 32bit libraries, and vice-versa.

[Fredrik Averpil]

Well, I know Quicktime won't work inside of Maya on Windows ...but isn't there a single 64-bit video encoder out there that will work inside of Maya for playblasting purposes – producing .avi files or such?

// F

[Deke Kincaid]

are you referring to avi codecs? I'm guessing like maya 2010 and
below, they only implemented directshow codecs so many avi codecs are
implemented a different way and don't show up in maya (avid dnxhd for
example).

-deke

[stephenkmann]

you may want to do what we do, which is to just playblast as frames and run a bg proc to convert to qt.

btw, what is the reason for avi over qt, if its the player ( doubtful) you can just trick windows into thinking avi should be opened by qt player by changing the file extension settings.

hth
-=s

[Deke Kincaid]

Its stupid that none of the players out there can step frame by frame
or show the frame number except the quicktime player. Unless of
course your using something like framecycler or rv.

-deke

[Steve Davy]

THe codecs issue aside, not sure why you can't playblast direct to QT -- we do it all the time on Windows x64. QT definitely runs on that OS, though not sure about the other 64-bit flavors.

Like Steve said you simply have to associate the AVI file type with Quicktime inside QT.

The codec is another issue and so far as I'm aware you are unfortunately stuck with just the two or three that show up. It's a bit of a pain, but if you need better compression just run the playblast uncompressed and then export with compression using QT.

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Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:35:40 -0400
Subject: Re: [maya_he3d] Playblast codec for Maya 2010 64-bit
From: stephe...@gmail.com
To: maya...@googlegroups.com

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[Deke Kincaid]

Yea, too bad Perian doesn't run under windows. That allows all the
avi codecs to play under quicktime for windows.

-deke

[Fredrik Averpil]

Thing is, I used to use the TSCC/Ensharpen codec by Techsmith for playblasts, but that one isn't 64-bit. So that clearly won't work. And I can't find one single 64-codec which will also show up in the playblast preferences.

AVI will work just fine, as long as you can frame step using any decent player, as has been mentioned.

Steve, any chance you can just check and see what codec you are using for Maya playblasts on Windows x64 (should be visible in the playblast prefs)?

But yeah, having a QT (or stepable avi) conversion happening after playblasting an image sequence will be the last resort...

// F

[Sid]

I'm a massive fan of djv_view as an alternative media player for artists, it's such a fantastic tool. We use it here at the mill and it's great.. It can handle most video formats and sequences of stills, too.

Runs under windows, mac and linux. The only think I'm not sure about is audio support...

Sid

[Phinnaeus OConnor]

I agree,djv_view rocks. Wish it was implimented into Nuke though, framecycler is to damn clunky.

Phin

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From: Sid <sur...@gmail.com>
To: "maya...@googlegroups.com" <maya...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "maya...@googlegroups.com" <maya...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wed, June 30, 2010 8:59:11 PM

[Deke Kincaid]

There are many scripts on Creative crash to get Nuke working with DJV.
Does anyone have a script to get it working at Maya's default player?

-deke

[Stefan Andersson]

Some audio works if you use the test_audio binary. It's a very basic player, but works pretty well.

regards
stefan

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Mad Crew Roddargatan 8,S-116 20 Stockholm,SWEDEN

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[Steve Davy]

The only options I've ever seen on an x64 system are:

Microsoft Video 1
Microsoft RLE
Intel IYUV codec
Uncompressed

For "good enough" playblasts I usually use Microsoft Video 1 with quality set to 100. It does result in some banding still, but is usually OK, at least if you're using default shading.

If I need better control, as I mentioned I'll render uncompressed to QT then do an export using the codec of my choice.

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From: fredrik...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:26:23 +0200

Subject: Re: [maya_he3d] Playblast codec for Maya 2010 64-bit

To: maya...@googlegroups.com

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[Kiernan May]

I stumbled upon this before (I use the 32bit version so it plays any video). But it may be of use to someone:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K-Lite_Codec_Pack_64-bit.htm

KM

[Matt Bernadat]

Do you redefine the playbast proc or is it on a custom button/shortcut/
whatever (the playblast to frames + compile + whatever else like db
entry)?

[mgw]

hi everyone,

I'm having weird problems at the moment and I'm not totally sure what it
is but maybe someone can verify this.

following situation:
I have a scene with a 3D fluid in there and I'm caching out density, vel
and texture coordinates. if I delete the cache and attach it again with
the attach existing cache file menu then I'll get an error that maya
can't find the cached out channels although the cache data is there. if
I scrub through the time line and do some test renderings everything is
working except the texture coordinates.
if I use the cache directly (without deleting and reattaching it)
everything works. I even checked in the hypergraph but couldn't find
anything unnatural.

so is this a bug? maybe already known?

I'm using maya 2010 64bit linux.

thanks for your help.

michael

[Alan Fregtman]

Yeah, but are you playblasting with Maya 32bit? Or 64bit? The OS
flavour isn't the problem.

I'm fairly positive Maya 64bit is completely incapable of playblasting
to .mov directly.

[Steve Davy]

Not the case, 64-bit can playblast to .mov just fine.

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[Alan Fregtman]

That's great! :) I stand corrected.

[Fredrik Averpil]

I'm confused :) That's on OS X?