MacroMind Director files can contain transitions that the computer plays in real-time from its memory. They may also contain QuickTime movies that play in a window of an animation.
If an output service receives MacroMind Director files containing real-time transitions and/or QuickTime movies, they must prepare the file for recording by inserting script commands to tell the frame-by-frame controller what to do. For example, one command puts the recording device in frame-by-frame mode at the beginning of the animation. At frame 100, another command tells the device to stop frame-by-frame recording and begin real-time recording so the computer can play a transition from its memory. At the end of the transition, a command tells the recorder to stop real-time recording and begin again with frame-by-frame recording.
Special scripts must be inserted for frame-by-frame recording of QuickTime movies in MacroMind Director animations. QuickTime movies in MacroMind Director animations are recorded frame-by-frame.
The time an output service uses to prepare your animation and insert the scripts should be considered as set-up time and you should not pay the same rate as for the actual output (recording of the animation).
 
Programs like Adobe Premier, DIVA VideoShop, MORPH, and VideoFusion are great production tools.
If you intend to use them for professional video production, you have to be aware of the following. Do not use QuickTime movies which are captured with cards like the VideoSpigot. If these cards capture at a resolution of 160 x 120 pixels, no more than 10 to 15 frames per second are captured in many cases. As we all know, video resolution is much lower quality than computer generated images. In this case, you would be enlarging an already inferior picture to twice its size or greater. When rendering at 30 frames per second, you are asking the program to insert frames that are not there. As the program interpolates frames, your movie would appear jerky.
Whenever possible, work with PICT or PICS files captured frame-by-frame, at 640 x 480 pixels, 30 frames per second in Premier, DIVA or VideoFusion. Render the files with minimal or no compression. The results are awesome and the output looks as if a top of the line effects processor was used.
FreezeByte Graphics offers the service of capturing (digitizing) video footage. We can provide you with PICT, PICS, or QuickTime files of frame-by-frame captures at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels.
We recommend that you not use video footage captured at 320 x 240 pixels in Adobe Premier, DIVA VideoShop, VideoFusion, etc. if you intend to re-output it to full screen video. Enlarging a rendering or computer generated painting from 320 x 240 pixels to full screen video looks great. This is not the case with video captures. They contain much less detail which is clearly visible when they are enlarged during output. We recommend video footage captured at 640 x 480 pixels.
