Simple pleasures

Sometimes there are simple pleasures in life, like cantilevered balconies.

H.264 encoding for Vimeo

This article describes how to encode videos to be hosted on Vimeo using Windows applications. Vimeo is a video hosting service targeted to filmmakers and video artists. It has the advantage of offering a high picture quality and clear requirements regarding media to be uploaded to the site.

All tests were done to comply with the specifications of the Vimeo site for 4:3 SD material. I used the following workflow:

1. Edit, de-interlace and scale to 640x480 with Adobe Premiere. Export as PhotoJPEG Best Quality to a Quicktime file.
   
2. Transcode to H.264 / AAC with Handbrake or SuperC to a mov,mp4 or avi container.
3. Test with Quicktime Player 7.6 , VideoLAN VLC 0.9.9 and upload to Vimeo

Here are the test results / compatibility matrix:

With Handbrake, I used the Quicktime Preset and changed the Audio options

SuperC is a GUI for ffmpeg and mencoder. The interface can be confusing, and their website certainly brings as much confusion.

Conclusion:

1. VLC seems to be a very good platform to test material before uploading it to Vimeo.
2. Quicktime Player has many issues with H.264/AAC material: the audio is out-of-sync in many cases, images are displayed with incorrect gamma and look slightly washed-out.
3. SuperC is not taking advantage of the 2 cores of my Athlon X2 processor.
   
4. Handbrake is easier to use. The files playback properly with VLC and Vimeo but not with Quicktime Player.
   

Hyperboloid Ruby Script

This is the result of my first Ruby Script for Sketchup. I had never used Ruby before, it is very easy to pick up. Getting a hang of the Sketchup API was quite a challenge. I was going nowhere for a few days, then, something clicked and everything started to work.

Ruby is quite loose on data types and that led me to serious problems with the API. The API accepts triplets (arrays) for 3d points and vectors, but if you haven't declared a variable with a Geom::Point3d.new method, you will run into trouble! Another obvious newbie mistake is to ignore type definition within a formula, Ruby assumes the variable is an integer, you may think otherwise...

The shape generated is an Hyperboloid of Revolution. It is a ruled surface, which means it can be generated from straight lines. This property makes these surfaces easy to produce in real life. They are used in civil engineering, for instance for cooling towers of power stations.

You can download the script here. After installing, the script will create a "Hyperboloid" entry in the Plugins menu.

Sketchup Animation.

Compared to usual 3D animation programs, Sketchup animation options are quite limited. This may be sufficient to create simple walkthroughs.

Sketchup Visualization

My first Sketchup job is a visualization for an event in France. Marly-la-Ville is to host a bi-annual Travel Book Fair. My contractor's proposal was based on oversized book sculptures dotted around the entrance of the building hosting the event. Quite a nice homage to pop-artist Claes Oldenburg.

This job is not demanding in terms of modelling - the client knows the site very well and detailing is not the point. The difficulty was that I had to work from a single frontal photograph, without plans, CAD drawings or survey, which makes it quite a challenge.