Virtual AVI in Leitch dpsVelocity : Leitch dpsVelocity Tutorial

Creativecow.net Leitch dpsVelocity Tutorial

John David Hutton
mYth productions
Kansas City, Kansas, USA

©2004 John David Hutton and Creativecow.net. All rights are reserved.

Article Focus:
Virtual AVI: It sounds kind of cryptic but it's a very cool thing Leitch provides to VelocityQ users for free. In this article, John David Hutton tells us why and how to use it.

It sounds kind of cryptic but it's a very cool thing Leitch provides to VelocityQ users for free.
Think of it as a translator - it's the middle-man between your AVI-loving apps and your proprietary video format (files with extension .dps). It does 2 things, it lets you render OUT dps files from programs that wouldn't normally allow this and it lets you bring in dps files into programs that wouldn't normally allow it. For example, I use a popular 3D behemoth called Maya. Maya's never heard of the "dps" format nor does it care what it is. If I tried to bring in a dps file for use as a texture map for example I would get a polite but brief error message stating that I'm smoking crack and to please stop it. However, making a "virtual AVI" of the desired dps file allows Maya to read the AVI file and understand my "real" file just fine.

So what? What's the advantage to using this over just re-rendering my desired file into a format my program likes?

Speed, baby. Rendering .AVI files can be VERY slow. Plus it's a pain to house that huge AVI file on your drive just so you can take it into Maya for use as a texture map or Adobe Encore to (once again) render it into a format that can go on a DVD. Just to give you an idea on how fast it is to use the virtual AVI, click a key on your keyboard - that's about how fast it is ... literally. What's better, the resulting AVI file is a sliver of the original size. For example a 30 second clip of b-roll (no audio) costs me 250-300 KB. That's right, the "under a meg" kind of file sizes. The AVI does store sound though so it will be larger if you use the virtual AVI for a clip with audio, but no larger than you'd expect for a file with audio stored inside (like a .wav file).

Let's take a step-by-step below and see how this works, then I'll show you how to install it.

Converting dps to .AVI

First we take an existing dps file on your hard drive and turn it into an .AVI for Encore.

1. Open your file explorer window (windows E or right-click on start and explore, or start > Programs > Accessories > windows explorer).

2. Right-click on a dps file (doesn't matter which one) and choose Convert To AVI File(s).

3. Choose between 24-bit and 32-bit, decide whether to use 486 or 480 lines of resolution and click "Start Conversion."

4. The next window that pops up will be a browser window asking where you'd like your .AVI file to show up. I placed mine on the desktop.

5. Hit OK. A file is immediately created.

That's it! That .AVI file can now be imported into programs that like AVI files, such as Adobe Encore, After Effects, Alias Maya, etc.

Rendering to dps

Now, let's take a file that you need rendered to the dps format. An example of this is the Juicer, a program that converts Digital Juice Jumpbacks (a popular set of graphic backgrounds) into files usable by you. This also works for Editor's toolkit footage made by the same folks.

1. Open the juicer program (available for free on Digital Juice's website, it's also on their accompanying DVDs).

2. Drag the desired footage item into your "batch window" inside the juicer.

3. Set the desired settings (I always choose 720 x 486 NTSC and 29.97 FPS) and click on the output tab.

4. Drop down the "save as" option down to "AVI" and click on "settings." For the compressor, choose "DPS AVI Codec" and click Configure.

5. Set your video / alpha quality and the destination for your resulting dps file. Click OK twice and you're back at the Juicer. The "Save Location" is the place where your .AVI file will end up.

6. Render.

Two files result. An AVI file to be used in any application, and a dps file to be used within velocity.

Download and Install

This is a very handy feature Leitch provides for its users for free. Here's how to install:

1. Go to www.leitch.com

2. Choose Products > Non-linear editing

3. Choose VelocityQ

4. Click download

5. This is the step that usually trips users up. You need two different downloads for this to work and they're both located under the "Cool Tools" section:
- DPS Software Player
- DPS AVI Codec

6. Download both of these and install (in that order).

While you're on their homepage, check out the other tools available for download.

Have fun!

- mYthprod
(John David Hutton)

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