Final Edit and Output - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 339

Much simpler, though, is to use the FFMPEG
tools mentioned previously and encode the
audio and video directly into the fi le in one
step. Figure 16.23 shows the available options
for audio encoding. PCM is an uncompressed
format and will add substantially to the fi nal size
of the video. MP3 is the common music format
found around the web, and it is a good choice
for your direct downloads because it offers
decent quality with a reduced fi le size. Below
the format menu is a control to set the bit rate
of the audio.

Figure 16.23 The Audio panel for FFMPEG export

NOTE
Some Mac users have reported problems when using FFMPEG for export, especially when
including audio. If FFMPEG export does not work properly on your Mac system, you are always
welcome to pony up the $30 that Apple charges for QuickTime Pro, which will do the job nicely.

To embed the Sequencer audio directly into a video fi le, you just need to enable the Multiplex Audio button.

DVD

Another way you may want to distribute your animation is on DVD. The odds are that you have access to
a DVD burner in your computer system or know someone who has one. DVD burners usually come with
some kind of software for creating DVDs that are then capable of playing in most commercial DVD players.
This software will perform the necessary encoding for you to ensure that the video and audio are compli-
ant with the offi cial DVD specifi cation. Even though Blender has the capability to generate the fi les in the
proper format, it is really better to let the specialist software handle that fi nal step.

The one thing you do want to avoid, though, is having the DVD authoring software resample (resize) your
video. So while you should try to offer the DVD the highest quality that you can provide as far as bit rate,
you will want to hit the DVD specifi cation's resolution exactly. NTSC (U.S.) DVD resolution is 720

480

pixels at either 24 or 30 frames per second. PAL DVDs are 720 576 pixels. You should choose the DVD

format appropriate to your geographic region.

The simplest way to accomplish this size conversion is by just entering those numbers into the Format panel
in the Render buttons. Blender will resample the frames in the Sequence Editor, producing a presized fi le for
the DVD authoring software to work with. As long as the original images were rendered in either a 4:3 or
16:9 aspect ratio, the two that DVD supports, the resulting DVD will look fi ne. If you did not use one of the
standard aspect ratios, though, prepare to see your images oddly squashed. Figure 16.24 shows a frame from
The Beast resampled to DVD resolution.