Autodesk 64006-051108-9001 User Guide - Page 21

Shooting Video for Streaming 13 Shooting Video for Streaming Carefully shooting and editing video for streaming can substantially improve the final quality of the video. The general tips that follow are aimed at creating video that encodes and streams well. For details on choosing encoding parameters and using video and audio processing to improve encoding, see "Encoding" on page 141 and "Pre-processing" on page 61. The overall goal in producing video that encodes well is to create the highest-quality video signal with the least amount of noise, camera movement and fine detail. This helps the source encode as efficiently as possible and look good at smaller image sizes. In order to create a good video source, you should use a high-quality camera, light the subjects well, and stabilize the camera with a tripod when possible. When editing material for streaming, you can improve encoding by avoiding certain types of transitions and keeping scene changes to a minimum. For the best results, shoot tests of the source material and run it through the entire production process before you shoot the whole project. It is important to view the final results on the desktop as they will appear in the final project. Your image may look great when filmed and edited, but might look less optimal after resizing and encoding. Early and thorough testing can help spare you painful and expensive reshoots. Shooting Techniques Just as the camera makes a difference to the quality of the final stream, so does the way in which you shoot the source material. Below are some of the more important things you can do to produce higher-quality material. Reduce Movement Using a tripod makes a dramatic impact in the quality of the final movie. Tripods keep the camera steady, which reduces the differences between frames and therefore improves the compression of the video. Be sure to use a sufficiently heavy tripod for the camera. If you plan to pan the camera during filming, use a high-quality fluid-head tripod and keep the pan smooth and slow. Irregular or jerky camera motion is hard to encode. Avoid zooms whenever possible - these are hard to encode because they introduce a high level of change over the entire image. Avoid hand-held shooting if possible. If you need to film a hand-held shot, a motion stabilizer, such as a Steadicam® or gyro, can improve the results. If the camera has an image-stabilization option (either optical or electronic), you should generally use this feature to reduce subtle changes between frames from camera motion.