Do anime require different treatment than normal movies ?

[iparout]

Hi.

Well, since I am starting to encode anime now (I have previously encoded 100's of movies) I am wondering if this kind of material requires any *MAJORLY* different treatment compared to the encoding of normal movies.

I am using GKnot 0.26 + DivX 5.02 Pro.

Thanks in advance.

[DJ Bobo]

a higher bitrate

you'll have to IVTC much more often :D

[Neo Neko]

Film sources vary somewhat. Almost no two Animes are the same. They are some of the hardest and most fun things to encode! I myself am doing the first 7 Episodes of Fruits Basket right now.

[iparout]

Well, since I am in a PAL area (Region 2), I guess I won't have to IVTC.

I am doing Final Fantasy right now (52% compr. check) and then I'll be doing Transformers and Simpsons...

Any special treatment with those ?

[DJ Bobo]

Oh well, with PAL titles, you've got to live with the blends resulting of Deinterlacing.
Just use BlendFields() in your avs script.

PAL anime titles that are progressive or field shifted (progressive but look interlaced) are quite rare.
For those, if it's progressive, you're (too :D) lucky, if it's field shifted, just use Telecide() from Decomb.

[ZeroKnight]

Hi guys

Im also an wanna be anime encoder
using pal anime dvds with around 60 of them, but i cant get good results and still cant find that magic pill to transform me into an l33t encoder. Ive tried many things with none working and no one to help.

Dont really know what im looking at and how to make it better, what that thing is called and how to fix it and stuff like that.

Got any ideas for help let me know

[Skip Around]

I think that you have to handle anime much differently if you want good results and reasonably portable files. I have been encoding a lot of anime from DVD and this seems to work most of the time for me.
I am using tools from G knot .021 and the CLI version of DVD2AVI from from the DVD2SVD package. The first problem I have is to figure out what is on the disk before I start ripping. It helps to know how many eps are on there and how long they play, most are ~24 min. So I start with Smart Ripper and decide if I am going to rip by chapter, VOB, or program stream. I want to end up with an output that I can make nice neat one ep avi files from. Usually end up with a bunch of vob files that have to be treated in some unique way. The next step is with DVD2AVI, check out what I have and figure out if aspect ratio is correct, do I want to end up with 4:3 or 16:9. Seems like most titles are somewher in between. which means I will need to crop or add borders to make it come out right. Also plan for subtitles if needed.
Since there are usually several eps to process and I do not want to do each one by hand, i use the CLI version of DVD2AVI with a batch file to extract audio and create the .d2v file. Almost always use 'Force Film' with this. A line from the batch file would look something like this:

**********
Start /w dvd2avi -ia=1 -FO=1 -Cs=2 -YR=1 -TN=1 -IF=[D:\rip\Slayers DVD\04\vts_02_4.vob] -CF=4 -DD=3 -DSD=1 -NO=100 -OF=[D:\rip\Slayers DVD\04\Slayers24] -exit
**********

When this is finished I will have a 48k stereo wave file and .d2v file for each episode. Since this one is in english, and that is what I want, I can skip subtitles. So next comes a Avisynth script to get the video modified to my liking. The following is modified from a Gknot script.

*********
#
# Created with Gordian Knot
#
# http://thewef.nav.to
#
# PLUGINS
# get them from http://users.win.be/dividee
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\mpeg2dec.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\InverseTelecine.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\Avisynth_Spatial.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\GreedyHMA.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vobsub.dll")
#
# SOURCE
mpeg2source("D:\Rip\Slayers DVD\05\Slayer29.d2v")
#
# TRIM
#trim(startframe,endframe)
#
# IVTC
#InverseTelecine(40,10,15)
# or use
#GreedyHMA(1,0,4,0,0,0,0,0)
#
# CROPPING
crop(0,36,720,408) #I like wide screen format
#
# DEINTERLACING
#SmartDeinterlace(2,15,true,true,true)
# or use
#VerticalReduceBy2
# or maybe
GreedyHMA(1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0) #Seems to do a good job most of the time.
#
# DENOISING: choose one combination (or none)
# 1) little noise (fast)
#TemporalSmoother(2,1)
#
# 2) medium noise (slow)
#SpatialSoftenMMX(1,4,6,false,false,4,4,6,8)
#TemporalSmoother(2)
#
# 3) heavy noise (very slow, you have been warned)
#SpatialSoftenMMX(2,4,6,false,false,4,4,6,8)
#TemporalSmoother(3)
#SpatialSoftenMMX(1,4,6,false,false,4,4,6,8)
#
# BORDERS
#AddBorders(left,top,right,bottom)
#AddBorders(0,30,0,30)
#AddBorders(0,0,0,60) #If I want subs in the border at the bottom for 4:3
#
# SUBTITLES
#VobSub("") # Offset vertical position (when creating) of subs by -30 for border display.
#
# RESIZING
# for NTSC-VCD
# BiLinearResize(640,360) #To soften it up if needed. 16:9
# BiLinearResize(640,480) #To soften it up if needed. 4:3
#
# COMPRESSIBILITY CHECK
# !Snip Size has to be 13 for use in GKnot!
#SelectRangeEvery(260,13)
#
# FOOL CCEnc
#ResampleAudio(44100)
#ConvertToYUY2()
*************

The next step is to load the .avs and .wav file ito VirtualDub and process them both at the same time. I usually pick mp3 96-128bit 48k for sound and decimate the video frame rate by 2. Video compression with divx 5.02 at standard settings, one pass. End up with about 100meg per episode at "pretty good" quality. Just an example of one way to get there. Have fun.

[ZeroKnight]

Hi Guys

Well what i do is open up Smart Ripper after playing the dvd. Go to stream processing and rip them all, i only want the video, audio japanese and english subtitles but i do the others cause i have space to spare. Once in dvd2avi i set the audio to go to wave file.

I use lame on quality settings for audio, i usally always use 128kbs but ive tried 96 and 112 and cant really tell the difference so i stick with around 112 to take off some of those megs. But im worried people might see 96 bitrate and complain.

Now here is where i go a little astray, in dvd2avi i dont put on force flim or swap field order. I just use None because mine is pal, 25fps and interlaced with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

I usally load the project into dvd2avi, do the subs and dont worrie about loading the audio yet. I go and do cropping and resize with is 512x384. I try Smart Deinterlacing becuase sometimes in Virtual Dub if i use the fliter in there i still get the interlaced lines.

But my problem is when i encode it, i get like little static things in the picture, not noise and around subtitles. Im not to sure what this is but i think it might be becuase im not using a high enough bitrate. I want to encode with divx 4.12 final and get good results. Here is my avs file.

#
# Created with Gordian Knot
#
# http://thewef.nav.to
#
# PLUGINS
# get them from http://users.win.be/dividee
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\mpeg2dec.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\InverseTelecine.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\Avisynth_Spatial.dll")
#LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\GreedyHMA.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\WINDOWS\System32\vobsub.dll")
#
# SOURCE
mpeg2source("C:\Encoding\Cowboy\Cowboy.d2v")
#
# TRIM
#trim(startframe,endframe)
#
# IVTC
#InverseTelecine(40,10,15)
# or use
#GreedyHMA(1,0,4,0,0,0,0,0)
#
# CROPPING
crop(14,4,692,567)
#
# DEINTERLACING
SmartDeinterlace(2,15,true,true,true)
# or use
#VerticalReduceBy2
# or maybe
#GreedyHMA(1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0)
#
# DENOISING: choose one combination (or none)
# 1) little noise (fast)
#TemporalSmoother(2,1)
#
# 2) medium noise (slow)
#SpatialSoftenMMX(1,4,6,false,false,4,4,6,8)
#TemporalSmoother(2)
#
# 3) heavy noise (very slow, you have been warned)
#SpatialSoftenMMX(2,4,6,false,false,4,4,6,8)
#TemporalSmoother(3)
#SpatialSoftenMMX(1,4,6,false,false,4,4,6,8)
#
# SUBTITLES
VobSub("C:\Encoding\Cowboy\vts_04_0")
#
# RESIZING
BilinearResize(512,384)
#
# BORDERS
#AddBorders(left,top,right,bottom)
#
# COMPRESSIBILITY CHECK
# !Snip Size has to be 13 for use in GKnot!
#SelectRangeEvery(260,13)
#
# FOOL CCEnc
#ResampleAudio(44100)

Its the same with my dvds, episodes are around 24 minutes, i want to average around 200megs an episode. Well other fliters can i use to get better picture quality and that.