I just spent the last 3 hours wrestling with YouTube’s .MP4 file download feature.  It turns out that these files are encoded in AVC1/H264 format with the audio in ISO/MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC).  This post is to show you how to download these files, view them in Windows Media Player or VLC, and edit them in Virtual  Dub.  Luckily, you don’t need a converter and you certainly don’t need to buy any programs.

What makes this so difficult is that the H.264 format is not natively supported in many places, so you need to take special steps in order to accommodate.

To Download YouTube .MP4 Files (AVC1)

Downloading MP4 Files From YouTube is Pretty Easy

In order to download these files, you just need to go to your My Videos section, and you’ll see the “Download MP4″ below each video.  Just click that and you’ll be prompted to save the file somewhere on your computer.  Note you can only download 2 of these every hour, so if the button disappears don’t worry.

If you’re looking to download videos that aren’t yours, you can do that too.  Visit GoogleSystem (the unofficial blog) and they’ll show you a few different ways of setting that up.  The short answer here is to just drag this link to your bookmarks bar, and click on it when you want to download the MP4 of a video from a YouTube page: Download as MP4.  When you click on it, a link will appear in the video info that allows you to download the MP4 file (tested and confirmed as of 11/14/2009).

To Watch YouTube .MP4 Files (AVC1)

Download the VLC Media Player

Things get only a little trickier here.  The short answer is to download and install the VLC player.  I personally certify that it’s one of the best written pieces of software I’ve ever come across.  Zero malware or spyware, it’s completely free, and it’s very powerful.  Basically if the file or disk can be played, this program can probably play it.  Music, videos, DVDs, you name it.  It also handles internet radio stations and saved a puppy from a burning building last week.

The long answer is to read the next section where you download the K-Lite pack of codecs (small files that enable your computer to read and write special video formats).

To Edit YouTube .MP4 Files (AVC1) in Virtual Dub

Download the K-Lite Codec Pack

So here’s where I got massively hung up.  It turns out that FFD show is not the solution, and neither is the Quicktime plug-in.  Your hope lies in two downloads:

1. Download and install the DirectShow plugin for VirtualDub (aka DShow or DS).  This will connect VirtualDub to the codecs that you’ll install next.
2. Download and install the K-Lite Codec Pack.  It contains everything you need.  You may need to uninstall any old versions of FFDShow.

Once you have these two installed and you’ve rebooted, you should be ready to go.

1. Fire up VirtualDub and select File>>Open Video File…
2. Under “Files of Type” (where you’d ordinarily filter the kinds of files to see in the file browser), select “Direct Show Input Driver”.
3. This will remove all the files from the browser, but don’t worry.
4. Type “*.*” or “*.mp4″.
5. This will show your YouTube file, which you can double-click and begin editing.

This may sound super convoluted and that’s because it is.  However, you can now open and edit your YouTube files without any trouble.

YouTube.com is the largest video portal in the world, bar none.  Over 10 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and if you want your videos to survive in that kind of environment you’ll need to upload in the highest quality possible.  In this post, I’ll show you how I get the highest quality uploads for my Monday Movie series using free software.  Once you know what the best YouTube upload format is, you’ll be good to go!

Read the Manual

I know this sounds silly, but the best thing you can do is read the YouTube Handbook.  It goes over lots of helpful techniques on everything from the best upload formats to executing a perfect timelapse shot.

Below you’ll find a copy of their upload specifications as of 9/12/2008

YouTube can accept almost any video format for upload, but for most users we have found the following settings give the best results.

Video Format: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 preferred
• Aspect Ratio: Native aspect ratio without letterboxing (examples: 4:3, 16:9)
• Resolution: 640×360 (16:9) or 480×360 (4:3) recommended
• Audio Format: MP3 or AAC preferred
• Frames per second: 30
• Maximum length: 10 minutes (we recommend 2-3 minutes)
• Maximum file size: 1 GB

You’ll notice that it’s pretty cut and dried, but they don’t give you much indication of how to go about reaching these requirements.

Getting the best YouTube upload quality basically stacks up into two big categories; resizing and encoding.  Briefly, you’ll want to upload at either of the recommended resolutions, and then alter your encoding quality.

Resizing

My Resize Settings

Once I’m done editing my footage, I use VirtualDub (a free software) to encode and resize my footage.  The resizing operation is a filter that you can apply (CTRL+F).  My videos start off much larger than the final 640×360.

Edit: I’ve since switched to HD formats as YouTube is now doing full-size encoding.  My uploads are now 1280×720 and YouTube handles the resizing from there.

Notice in this screenshot that I’m using the Lanczos resize filter.  This is an extremely important point- that’s why it’s in bold and has this accompanying statement.  Using the ordinary bicubic filter will massively shortchange the high-frequency detail in your footage.  By using this resizing filter, you’re keeping the tinest details and packing it into that 640×360 frame.

I also resize down to 640×360- the recommended widescreen size in the YouTube upload format specification.  I’ve had incredible success with it because YouTube doesn’t do any resizing when the resolution is correct coming in.  For nobodys like me, this is good because it keeps the control in my hands.

Edit: This has come a long way since Jan 2009.  Youtube’s resizing has been good for me.

Encoding

VirtualDub Compression Settings

I use H.264 for uploading to YouTube.  I’ve found a free encoding library called FFDShow that lets you get into this format from Premier, Virtual Dub, or any other software that can access your installed codecs.

You can find the compression dialogue under Ctrl+P in VirtualDub, and you’ll find that the settings for H264 are very robust.  I don’t mess with the defaults much, but since my videos are so short and don’t have much movement, I hike up the quality as high as it’ll go.  I’m pretty sure people more savvy than I could make fuller use of this codec- I just wanted to show you the basics.

Done!

That’s it!  Just upload the file and within a few minutes YouTube will have it encoded and ready for you to work with.  You’ll find that it’s really a lot simpler than you think, and your videos can get a massive quality boost when uploaded.

This week we’re looking at how you can create a reel-to-reel film material in 3dsMax. I’ll walk you through how to blend opacity mapped materials with translucent mental ray materials, and I’ll also give you a few pointers about how to animate the technique!

I’ll post the scene files for download in a little bit. Enjoy!

This week we’re looking at how you can use the default 3dsMax Ink & Paint material to create a simple sketch effect in your renders.  It works best for inorganic scenes like the thumbnail I’ve shown here.  It’s a natural extension of last week’s video where we looked at how you can really juice 3dsMax beyond simply creating scenes and rendering them.

This week I’m providing a quick tutorial on how you can use backgrounds in 3dsMax. I know that 90% of users already know how to add an image background to a scene. However, I’ll also be covering how you can display the background in the viewport as well as a few of the more robust uses for 3d Studio Max backgrounds. Many users don’t think outside the box when it comes to putting your scene into a context, so this’ll put you a little ahead of the curve.

This week I made an entry for 3dTotal’s Speed Modeling Challenge.  This week’s topic was creating a television, so I made a nice 1950′s wooden mini TV.  I recorded myself modeling and setting up the render, but CamStudio dropped it, so instead I did this overview.  I’ll walk you through the model in 3dsMax, including some tips on how I set up the render in mental ray.

Sorry about the delay this week; it’s a holiday in the USA, so I took it.  This week we’re looking at how you can easily replicate molding around the top of an old building in 3dsMax.  It’s a simple technique using splines, extrusion, and some cubes.  You’ll find that modeling molding is surprisingly easy!

I’ve been a little off the radar lately- just got done with a road trip. On the bright side, I’m refreshed after the vacation, and ready to bring you another Monday Movie! This week, we’re looking at 3 more techniques for reducing your render times in 3d Studio Max. These aren’t quite as universally applicable as last weeks, but they can still save you a lot of time when the circumstances are right. We’ll be addressing:

• polygon counts,
• precomputed lighting, and
• advanced material substitution.

You’d be surprised how much time you can save by reducing render times, so this movie will give you even more ways of speeding up your throughput!

This week’s Monday Movie is about how you can lower your render times in 3d Studio Max. Optimizing renders is a critical skill that hasn’t been very mainstream, even though it’s still important. We’re going to look at four of seven techniques:

1. Changing the render size,
2. Rendering areas,
3. Changing lighting parameters, and
4. Lowering render sampling.

We’ll be taking this render from 25 seconds down to 7 seconds without big changes in quality.  Knowing where you can shave time off of renders is crucial to your productivity and to speeding up your learning.

This week we’ll be looking at a common problem you’ll run into when modeling and animating in 3d Studio Max. When you apply a transformation to an object, a lot of the time 3dsMax won’t actually modify the object so much as add a “phantom” modifier to the stack. This can have some serious consequences when you change the pivot of your object (or worse, when an animation constraint does it for you).  It’s often called object skewing, or object slanting.  It’s where your model gets distorted when you move, rotate, or scale it.  In this Monday Movie, I’ll show you how to recognize the problem, fix it if it comes up, and prevent it from ever happening again.

Sorry for the incredible wait in getting this Monday Movie uploaded.  YouTube was down for a while, and my original encoding crashed so I had to do it twice.

This week we’re looking at how you can use 3d Studio Max Ambient Occlusion either on its own or as part of a mix map.  It’s a quick and easy way to add some shadowing directly to your model, and helps make your details pop.  I’ll cover some of the parameters of the Ambient Occlusion map (which I don’t think I’ve done in detail in the past).  I’ll also demonstrate how to use ambient occlusion as a mix controller to blend two other maps (or materials) together.

1. position them manually using the 3dsMax gizmos,
2. use the Normal Align tool,
3. use the Array tool, or
4. if the situation is really complicated, you can use the Spacing tool.

I go through all of these tools in this week’s Monday Movie.  As always, be sure to leave comments on the post.  Let me know if there’s anything that you’d like me to change about the format, or if you have questions that you’d like answered in the form of a video!

We’ve got a great episode for you this week.  We’ll be talking about procedural modeling, an old technique modelers used to use before the days of Zbrush and Mudbox.  Using the Vertex Paint Modifier in 3d Studio Max, we can paint masks directly onto the surface of an object, and then use that as a mix map for blending displacement maps.  This is an awesome technique for making small touchups to characters, or layering on complex displacement maps to create incredibly detailed modeling!

On a side note, I’ve finally mastered the art of a crisp upload to YouTube.  I should probably make a Monday Movie about making my Monday Movies!  How meta!

Sorry this Monday Movie is being uploaded at the end of the day.  I’ve been busy with work, and now another side project is eating up my time.  This week’s topic is about the ShapeMerge tool in 3dsMax.  ShapeMerge allows you to use a spline object to cut shapes out of mesh objects along the z axis.  While this might sound complex, it’s actually a powerful and robust tool that can compliment both an organic and inorganic pipeline.