http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories An entire Lightstalkers thread via RSS/XML. en-us OK, this is a sidebar to the two main threads on pricing and software: I am working in iMovie. Music and voiceover narration are nicely synched, sequence of images is just right -- but the images on the screen all look rather pixelated along all the diagonal edges. So how does one optimize the JPG for the multimedia story? I am using low res files -- 100 dpi -- sized roughly at 8 by 10 or larger. I tried a smaller file, roughly 6 by 4, and that looked terrible. The bigger files definitely look better. But I have played with high res, low res, different parameters, and they all have the same jagged edges and even though I gave them some sharpening in PS, they still look a little soft. So what does one do to get nice sharp looking images on these things without jagged edges? Or does all that work itself out once you export to Quicktime or Flash or any of the other options? I know that when you export the files are fitted into the standard video frame, but is there a step I am missing? Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:55:05 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories hmm.. cant say for sure.. but certainly images look worse in video editing programs...final cut is better.. the images will look better when exported though... imovie is pretty whack all around definely dont develop anythign of significant length.. (im sure your working on someting short..but....) as it will be a bitch to get exported... not sure what you mean by diagonal edges.. but yeah.. things will be better in final cut.. which is less user friendly but not so bad.. things will look better exported.. Sun, 22 Oct 2006 23:05:30 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45194 bump Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:16:20 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45238 Hey, any clues on softwares for PC users? Jon, I did PM you today, please have a check. Cheers, Pupo Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:21:53 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45240 Pupo, yes I caught it, sorry not to respond; i will when I wake up tomorrow. I have been working on one of these multimedia things, and it kept me busy all day and night. Very hard to record yourself and try to say something meaningful! Anyway, I will write you tomorrow. Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:26:19 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45242 ok, I have been a little bussy on the site stuff and other things. It seems to be there are not too many usefull tools fot PC users anyhow. Am I right? Cheers, Pupo Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:41:44 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45244 Hey Jon, <p> I guess since I've been called out twice, it's time to chime in. ;-) <p> As I mentioned to you via email, I'm accessing my Aperture library through iMovie so I don't have to worry about optimizing images beforehand. That doesn't help you much, but I did have a thought... is there a "media" window in your version of iMovie? I'm wondering if your issues have something to do with double image compression. (you compress to jpeg then it gets crunched again when it's rendered?) Also, what version of iMovie are you using? Can you upgrade? That could help your text issues. <p> How's your current piece coming? <p> -Art Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:37:53 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45282 Well the text issue is apparently a matter of Font Rasterization, and in these video-based programs there is apparently little you can do about it. I tried creating JPG frames with text, but for me, somehow, it just didnt work. Dont know why. However I discovered if you use Arial Regular, the text actually comes out looking pretty OK. If I work with more text in the future,however, I will have to come up with a solution, </p><p> The voiceovers also proved to be difficult: first of all, in order to avoid picking up any ambient sound I had to wait until midnight to start recording! Then I had some problems with a weird scratchy sound that sometimes turned up -- maybe the battery on my mike is going? But I just redid the track whenever . . . The real problem was just trying to find something to say without sounding like a jackass! The magnum in motion voiceovers have my complete respect now. </p><p> As far as sequencing images and synchronizing sound -- well, that is really the fun part, and I have got that under control. But I am not sure the images look right. They just dont look like my jpgs do on the web. I am accessing my images through iPhoto. Where and what is this "media" window and what should I do about it? Should I use only 10 or 12 compression? (I am using 8,I figured it would help with the overall size.) I have to say that overall the images dont look bad, but sizing seems to be the key somehow. I took two versions of the same image to compare the results: one sized roughly at 4 by 6 (after all, how big do we need them to be if these things are run on small boxes on the web?), one sized around 10 or 12 by whatever. Well the smaller image looked terrible. As for high or low res, I cannot see any real difference, so the images are all 100dpi. Let me say this: on the images I zoom into, as I zoom in, the edges and so on all look as they should. It seems the problem I am having with jagged pixelation along diagonal lines has something to do with the fact that the images are being seen at a smaller size than the actual parameters. When blown up to actual pixel size on the screen they look fine. </p><p> Pupo, i thought all the programs available for Mac were also available for PC -- perhaps not iMovie, of course, but you could use soundslides instead. Or of course Final Cut. Eventually I know I am going to work in Final Cut. Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:57:31 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45285 Well, I'm not exactly sure about the media window. The reason I mentioned it, is because some of the other iLife/iWork apps have them. What I'm thinking is... Is there a way for you to work with non-compressed images in iMovie to avoid double crunching. If it's not a big issue for you, then no worries. The text thing is bugging me though. When you look at the text in my stuff, would you say that looks good or bad? I'm not doing anything different and I wouldn't think you'd see that much difference because of a version issue. At least, I'd hope not. (?) Mon, 23 Oct 2006 12:10:27 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45290 Pupo, <p> For more advanced work, you can check out Adobe Premiere (Premiere Elements for the cheaper version) and you may have some success with Window Movie Maker. I'm not sure on that one, but I have heard it compared to iMovie. It's at least worth a look at the demo. <p> Hope that helps! <p> -Art Mon, 23 Oct 2006 12:15:24 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45291 Pupo, Soundslides is available for PC as well as Macs, so if you haven't tried it, its not a bad place to start. LS member Martin Fuchs has a very useful tutorial about it on his blog. You could also investigate Photo to Movie www.lqgraphics.com/phototomovie.php which is PC/Mac Or Swf 'n' Slide: http://www.verticalmoon.com/products/swfnslidepro/swfnslidepro.htm#overview which is PC/Mac also. Mon, 23 Oct 2006 12:24:06 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45292 I have the same problem with jagged edges in Flash. Most photos look quite good, but if there are long straight lines, they become messy. (If you look at the first photo of "The Long Shadow of the Holocaust" on "my site":http://www.danieletter.com , you'll notice it.)I avoid down scaling in Flash, but the problem still persists. Any ideas? Mon, 23 Oct 2006 12:31:08 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45295 Well, ok, I think I`ll try eitheer on soundslides or adobe premiere. Art, I got movie maker and I do not know, (maybe there is a minimum requirement and I should optimized images) but as far as I have tryied it, I do not look quite well, neither images, and text even worth. Thanks, I would give a try on the others you gave me. Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:28:54 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45311 I just noticed that on my iMovie version, which is the old one (4.0.1), there is an option for sharpening. If you opt for the QT export function, you get some choices: you choose QT movie and get a .mov file to which you can apply certain filters. The shapening goes from minimal (1) to Maximum (7). Has anyone tried this? I am tempted to boost the sharpening a little bit. Also you can choose the size of the exported file: so you can opt for the type of compression the default for which is "H.264" giving you a High Quality file which can be boosted to Optimal. The other compression options all seem to give you Medium Quality. Then there is also an option for Sizing, and this would seem to be important. The QT .mov file has a default setting of 720 by 480, and I forget if this is geared for 35mm photo frames or not. The other size options give you, among many others, VGA 640 by 480, NTSC 720 by 480 4:3 and also 16:9 -- both of which then intiate a new option where you choose to letterbox or crop (recortar -- mine speaks spanish), why I dont know since 720 by 480 is the same as the default, right? I dont understand any of this, except of course the basic idea: these are different video formats (US, European, etc). I assume I can safely ignore all of this, since my object is to create a web presentation. Should I just leave the default setting at 720 by 480 or should I change it? </p><p> Which brings me to the big question: what is the best option for the Web? I am limited it seems by the fact that my version of iMovie does not appear to have a Flash (.flv) option. Flash is advantageous because it is universal and creates a smaller file. But since I am informed that the Flash option on later iMovie versions sucks anyway and creates a pixelated and choppy "film", there is no need to bemoan the lack. So maybe I should go ahead and create a .dv file, as Art Rothfuss suggests, and then import that to Flash, create the Flash "film" there. Or if I cannot get my Flash up and running, I can go ahead and create either a .dv file or .mov file and then have someone else do the conversion? But if I stick with the QT option, which renders a High Quality file, maybe that is all I need to do. I am perplexed, but that is par for the course when you learn these things. Any ideas? Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:25:00 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45331 So, just to be clear - Final cut is a good way to make the multi-media show, right? Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:28:53 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45332 <p>to be brief, yes. </p><p> But the other options such as iMovie give you pretty much all you need for most such slideshows. The manipulation of sound is quite good, you can work with different tracks, fade in and out, control volume, synch etc. And as a video guy pointed out to me recently, video presentations are all about good sound. The only problem I really have with iMovie is the quality of the images. I think the Magnum people opt for Final Cut because you get the best look for your images, aside from the greater control it gives you over the various elements of the movie. Final Cut is a real filmmaker's editing tool. Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:37:03 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45333 You could use Final Cut Express instead of Final Cut Pro. Its a cheaper system and I believe you can upgrade it to the Pro version later. It should give you more than enough for what ya need. Ive started using FCP and have usually outputted files for the web as Quicktime or WMV files for the web. I have yet to create Flash movie files which is something I'll be looking into, because as you say, its universal. Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:46:09 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45336 Got a copy of Final Cut Pro here, but havent uploaded it yet. I am waiting until I get this simpler "film" done and then I will tackle that baby. Looks like Jason is going to do the final conversions for me, so I am just going to output a .mov file, but I would still like to know about things like sharpening and sizing. I imagine that just like the web, one has to optimize these images somehow for the video software. Mon, 23 Oct 2006 17:05:57 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45337 Jon,<p> I just read this post and realized what you may be looking at. If you're pixelation issues are while within iMovie don't worry about it. That's the preview view of your show. Once you export it to the appropriate destination resolution, it should all look fine.<p> I recently produced one intended for a standard TV and on my computer screen it looked like crap but on the TV it look great. Then outputted one for upload to the web and it looked much crisper than the version within iMovie. Scott Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:30:31 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45403 Thanks Scott for reassuring me, I suspected that might be the case. I especially notice deterioration in the verticals, they just fall apart, but I figure once I export it the sequence will look fine. The rest is falling together nicely, but the hardest thing is coming up with adequate sound bites for the narration. Truth is, these things are fun to put together, but they really require a lot of work. Tue, 24 Oct 2006 00:08:39 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45408 Amen. As I was recently reminded, as Mark Twain said, more or less, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead" Tue, 24 Oct 2006 00:28:48 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45411 From my experience at Magnum: Frankly, we just save photographs as JPGs in the highest possible quality. When importing them into our CMS they are automatically compressed to a reasonable size without loosing too much quality. I've never worked with iPhoto but after one of our photographers recently sent us his project done in iPhoto I noticed that the quality of the images was really, really bad. The images where not only compressed way too much but they also lost a significant amount of contrast compared to the original files. Don't know if this is a general iPhoto problem or if this has to do with settings... Tue, 24 Oct 2006 00:46:13 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45412 yesterday i edited with a friend my slideshow with the programe Avix: the result was awful: all the images were deformed, the resolution very bad: what is it due to? the images too big? need to resize them to 72dpp and change the width and height too? when i export the slide from ivew to a quicktime, it is perfect, but i wish the soundtrack could fit better to it so that's why i was trying to edit it; what would you suggest? thanks, dana Wed, 25 Oct 2006 05:37:10 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45616 Using Garageband with iMovie is a pretty unbeatable combo Dana, I will have a brief tutorial on them soon. Meanwhile, Garageband gives you incredible control if you want to record voiceover narrative, you can edit the sound very precisely. Then you export to iTunes and access the "song" via iMovie. iMovie is good becuase it gives you more control over sequencing your images, panning and zooming, as well as transitioning and synchronizing the sound with the imagery. It is pretty formidable. The problem comes when you export. I had a terrible time getting the Quicktime .mov files to run, they just stuttered and froze up. I think it has something to do with compression. Anyway, you can export as a .dv file and then import that file into any other program, like Flash to create a Flash show, or perhaps Final Cut from whcih you can export again as a Quicktime movie that actually works. Jason was somehow able to get my stuttering file working and up on the web (I will give the URL when it is ready). you dont need 72dpi, you can go with 100dpi, which is the new standard for monitors i am told. I also found that if you downsize the width and length of theimage, you will sacrifice quality. I dont know Avix so I cannot help you there. Wed, 25 Oct 2006 06:16:47 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45621 Sorry to bother with a rather basic question. Do you prepare the pictures you use for a multimedia slideshow, like the pics for website use, changing them to sRGB and so on? How do you have to optimize them for that? Anything special??? Regrds Heinrich Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:08:15 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45639 sorry! the software is named AVI and is for pc window Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:06:29 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45642 Heinrich the images are the very same JPGs I use for the web, so yes they are optimized accordingly. Easy. That is not really where the problem lies. The problem lies in determining the proper size (not resolution, that can be 100 or 72 dpi) of teh images. This is what the guy from the iMovie FAQ page has to say: "When using the Ken Burns Effect at maximum zoom (5.00x), using an original image at least 2560x1920 produced the highest quality zoomed-in image." Now I am having a problem exporting the file as a QT .mov file because the transitions and the zooms dont work, the thing halts and freezes up. Why? is the compression the key? Because the uncompressed .dv file plays correctly,while the heavily compressed QT file doesnt. Is resolution the key? Dunno. Jason at Anarchy is fiddling with my file and fixing it. He thinks resolution is a problem, but as he points out the whole thing revolves around compromising between file size and speed for the web presentations. For other applications you can simply spit out the full copy and it runs great. Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:44:39 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#45649 Someone know what software can turn a .mov archive to flash? Sun, 29 Oct 2006 00:47:22 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#46283 Hernan, iMovie can do that for you, if you have a recent version, but it doesnt do it well. Art Rothfuss's solution was to output the iMovie file as a dv sequence first and then import that into Flash Pro 8 and make the conversion there. I saw the results, works fine. </p><p> Update: it may be that iMovie simply cannot handle what I want it to do. Yes, once you are inside the software, all the basic film techniques are there as options: you can mix tracks, blend sound, adopt different transitions between images, and so on. When you are done and you play it in the preview screen, it all works. But when you export it, you run into problems. Video people are telling me it's a problem with codec, the coding for video. I dont know video, dont understand codec at all. So I cannot yet tell you what the problem is or whether we will fix it. We are working on it. We got it to stream on the web as a QT movie, though I would prefer Flash (as it is more universal), and it worked except that the transitions were rendered not as dissolves really -- it was more like they just fragmented and pixelated. If it works we will run it; if not, maybe I will rework it in Final Cut. It is all trial and error. Sun, 29 Oct 2006 01:08:22 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#46288 Thank you a lot Jon. Sun, 29 Oct 2006 02:46:59 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#46297 For PC users there is Photostory3 free from Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx A sample I was playing with can be found here http://www.gary-austin.co.uk/html/audio_images.html low and high res available I must say that at the moment i have been using sound slides, but Photo story does have different output for quality that may be valuable for some. it can also be uploaded to video google which you can now set fees to download or watch! Photo story is relay easy to use, has different transitions and title slides and outputs .wmv file there is the option of adding your own narration (with a little text helper so you can remember what you want to say) but, its hard to mix narration with ambient sound it is one or the other. there may be ways of working around this though. At the moment as i said, I am playing with sound slides but i did drag the .wmv into adobe premire pro and turned it into a quicktime movie, but some of the zooming and sweeping functions, failed to work and it was just still images. Hope this helps Gary PS the website is very out of date and is used more for storage! Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:46:20 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/optimizing_imagery_for_multimedia_stories#46938