Re: For OSX users a tip on playing tutorials
[QUOTE]Hello all you mac maya users,
Greetings Sebastian! Thanks for joining SM!
Before I begin, let me say that NONE of the following comments are DIRECTED at you personally, so if any seem to sound offensive or argumentative, please don't hate me
hehe...
Since a lot of the tutorials are in wmv or divX encoded this will give you a lot of trouble on the mac.
Not true, and this issue has been covered at length on this site
The wmv is supported through windows media player but the used soundcodec in some of the tuts. is not.
I have no problems with them on my macs here. (?)
(OSX jag release, dual proc, gig o' ram, cheap ati vid card, basic mac)
Since there is no really workaround here it's a pain in the ass.
Actually, there are plenty of workarounds, and many have been discussed on this site at length.
•• However the workaround is: Let someone with a PC convert the movie through moviemaker into a .mov or .mpeg
Windows Moviemaker v2 only outputs to the wmv or DV-avi NTSC formats, not mpeg.
And sadly, the DV-avi NTSC output changes the aspect ratio to 720x480 and, more importantly for our movie tutorials, the frame rate will be changed to 30 fps which is 3 times the frame rate of our movies, so there could be potential problems with the final movie such as:
-the movie playing back at 3 times the speed.
-the movie not playing at all.
-the audio not syncing with the video.
-improper frame/audio interpolation/interleaving.
-the movie might end up larger in file size.
Regardless, from what i understand, the rules of the site state that duplication/distribution of the SM video tutorials in whole or part without written consent of SM is a violation of membership and copyright I believe.
Kevin, am I wrong about that?
If so, feel free to boot me about the head, and deny me my next pint hehe...
On the divX the following. Downloading the divX plug for quicktime does not garantee a smooth playback.
Is your hardware up to the task?
Runs fine here on my macs using the divx plug. (?)
However there is a freeware player called 'Mplayer' that does the trick. With this player you don't need any codec to play .avi with divX encoded.
That's a good alternative media player, but since we are no longer making divx movies, it's kind of a mute point....
Currently, the wmv codec is FAR better for our needs in overall quality,, price (free), and final filesize which is a MAJOR consern for a large majority of our users that are still on modem dial-up connections.
...I hope that the makers of the tutorials will keep in mind that there are some of us that work on a mac and also use MAYA.
No problem And, I/we will, are, and always do.
...and I also use Maya on a mac.
So please if you make a video in .wmv, please use standard compression tools and don't use the ACELP.NET audio codec. It's already a pain that most of the mel script and plugins don't work under OSX.
The Window Media codec IS a standard compression codec which is one of the reasons we use it
Also, the ACELP.NET audio codec used in combination with the wmv vid codec is, and has been, very much a standard on the web.
And personnaly, I still don't understand why some macs have problems with it, yet other macs with the same hardware/software configuration don't? Boggles my mind...
And out of curiosity, where are you finding Mac-specific melscripts? Just wondering...as I would like to know, so we can post the links to them in the future.
Also, every melscript I use and write on my pc work just fine on my macs.
There are, however, a few melscripts that only work on a pc, but that leads me to your plugin comment:
It's already a pain that most of the ..plugins don't work under OSX.
As has been said elsewhere in the 3d community that, "maybe if there was more of a demand for mac-compatable-plugins, the maya-on-a-mac plugin developer community would make an effort to make them"
Again, this was not intended as some kind of personal attack.
I just wanted to clear the air of possible rumors.
Thanks again!
Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com