Wanted: Video Expert

[Kiralynn]

So, I have this halfway okay video about racing in LOTRO that I made awhile back. The full version looks pretty good. Unfortunately, when it was squashed down for YouTube, it got very jerky. Apparently, I didn't record it in the proper aspect ratio. So, here's my question. Is there a way to compress this so it still looks good, maintains the same ratio, but isn't 70.4mb huge? Or perhaps is there a way to add black bars to make it the right ratio, so it doesn't look awful when it shrinks? I know we have a few talented folks out there, so one of you probably knows how to make the video look good when it's smaller. Any assistance you can offer is appreciated. Thanks!

http://roll3d6.com/banders/war/warracing.mp4

[Cennwyn]

Questions:

What aspect ratio did you record in?

What video editing software are you using?

[Aegthil of Gondor]

The video looks good in the 70 MB .mpg file. I'm not sure why you want to compress even further. 70 MB for a movie of that length is quite small, actually. Normally, I would compress a movie of that length to, say, 100 MB, and then upload that to YouTube. (The movie is 2.5 minutes long, which, in raw avi like Fraps gives, would be about a GB in size, maybe a bit more.)

The aspect ratio should be able to be fixed by the software you use, but it'll be software dependent. I use Premiere Pro (on a Mac) and that would do it automatically, just by setting the aspect ratio of the new project.

The Fool

[Beorbrand]

I have to agree that it doesn't need compressed further.

However, if you're using Sony Vegas, you can go to... Project>Render As and there will be several templates available for Internet Video toward the bottom of the scroll list.

[Floradine]

I think Aegthil said it all. For what it is it's quite perfect.

The problem might lie in what it is and how Youtube's servers process the video for their streaming.

The video has a size of 864 x 540 pixels, that is an aspect ratio of 16:10 which differs from the common ratio of contemporary HD video which is 16:9 (1280 x 720 pixels = HD video, or 1920 x 1080 = Full HD video). And then there is a lot of interlacing going on ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlaced_video ). I think all those factors lead to wrong settings of the Youtube rendering process and to the problems you described. It may also be the codec you used in Vegas to make the mp4 file.

Maybe running it once through "Handbrake" ( www.handbrake.fr ) helps. I am not sure if it really does but I would try it at least once. If it helps, fine, if not not much time is lost. In the case of your video it seems to not do much but maybe just store the images in the video in a way Youtube can handle better.

For future projects I'd suggest to go to 1280 x 720 pixels resolution. And I would recommend to process your video in progressive mode ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_scan ) from the beginning. Movements in your videos are much clearer then.

[Kiralynn]

That's exactly the problem I'm having. It looks great in the 70mb size, but when it uploads to YouTube it squashes it into a different aspect ratio and it looks terrible. I'll use the proper ratio in the future, I just didn't know the first time around. Also, because the saddle bounce bug is even worse than when I filmed that, I doubt I'll be able to film it again unless we use war steeds.

Which really wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Would anyone be interested in making or helping to make a racing video for the upcoming Spring Racing Carnival? Or even just remaking that one better than before, which might be easier?

[Burrberry Farflight]

I'll take a look at it, I do a little video editing and my husband is a pro so he can talk me through it to get it looking good for YouTube.

ETA: Here you go :) I did a couple of edits for you. The first is just a straight aspect ratio fix and some frame blending to help with the slight jutter. The second I did a little colour balancing and added a subtle vignette as well just for fun.

Straight fix - http://youtu.be/LAck0C75Hb0

Vignette - http://youtu.be/-TfNu9L8ouA

I used Premier to fix the aspect ratio issue. I'll upload the files to Box for you (I'll update this post when I've done that upload, might be tomorrow because I'm passing out right now ), so you can upload them in your youtube account, I can delete them from mine.

[Kiralynn]

Wow, that's really cool! What is Vignette?

[Burrberry Farflight]

Vignette is basically the shadow border you often see around really old movies from the 30's or in instagram photo's. I did a very faint one just to soften the edges a little and give a little more of that "fantasy" feel. To make sure that didn't darken and dull the colours, I did some colour balancing to make them more vibrant. The nice thing about Adobe Premier is that you can tweak the individual red/green/blue tones in shadows, midtones and highlights all separately.

I also applied some frame blending to get rid of the slight jutter probably caused by a tiny amount of game lag when you took your original video. It was barely noticeable but I figured YouTube might be accentuating it just because of how it plays videos while you're still loading them.

By the way I loved your editing, you did a great job! I wouldn't have wanted to touch any of that :) Anytime you want to get your end video manipulated, I'd be happy to help. I can actually do a lot of manipulation in Premier to a fully rendered film clip. I can also do animation, overlays, text... you name it.

Just uploading the individual files to box for you now!

ETA - Box links!

V1 - https://www.box.com/s/3rxlcazb8ays2c5nc41n
V2 - https://www.box.com/s/7jt2d04llzyuam4rfj4f

[Kiralynn]

Thank you! I have these downloaded, in case you need to make space in your box. :)

[Burrberry Farflight]

Happy to help anytime :) That goes for anyone else who wants final fixes on their videos, just shoot me a message! I'm currently flat colouring a comic book, but I can usually squeeze things in.

[`Tinki`]

I just watched the Vignette video. The music, the timing all fit so well! I got goosebumps and was reminded how cool the members of this kinship are.