Visions Of Chaos Tutorial 4 - Creating a DVD quality MPEG2 fractal zoom

If you do not have experince with creating movies in Visions Of Chaos, please refer to this tutorial before proceding.

Following these steps will allow you to create an MPEG2 format movie at DVD quality. A beginners tip; try the following steps using a short movie first. Then you know you will be able to create and play a larger movie. I have included several "Quick Test" Mandelbrot scripts with Visions Of Chaos for this purpose.

1. Free up some disk space (a 5 minute MPEG2 file requires a 9GB source AVI movie).

2. Create the source AVI movies in Visions Of Chaos.

a) Set your required DVD resolution under the Options -> Image Sizes -> DVD menu
b) To batch render a series of Visions Of Chaos script files select Scripts/Auto Proces Multiple Scripts
c) Wait for days on end as thousands of movie frames are created

3. Join all the AVI parts into one huge AVI movie.

a) Visit here and download VirtualDub. Excellent freeware application that has no troubles joining huge AVI files.
b) Start VirtualDub.
c) Select File -> Open video file...
d) Select the AVI file you want to be first in the movie
e) Select File -> Append video file...
f) Select the next AVI file you want to join
g) Repeat steps e and f until all parts have been appended
h) Select File -> Save AVI... and type a name for the combined AVI file
i) Have a break and come back when it finishes to find a huge single AVI file ready to be converted into a MPG movie

4. Converting the AVI file to MPEG2/DVD format.

a) Visit here and download the most excellent TMPGEnc application. Superb quality results and free.
b) Start TMPGEnc
c) Select File -> New Project to ensure all settings are at their defaults
d) Select the source AVI file for the Video source
e) If you want a soundtrack to the MPG movie, select a 48kHz WAV file for the Audio Source
f) Click the Settings button.
g) Change the Stream Type to MPEG-2 on the Video tab
h) Change the Bit Rate to 9000 on the Video tab
j) Click the Start button and have another cigarette or two
k) Try and talk your better half into allowing you to buy a $5000 PC for the purpose of rendering Visions Of Chaos movies faster
l) Come back when TMPGEnc is finished encoding the MPG file

5. Watching the movie.

a) For an MPG2 movie to play in Windows Media Player, you need either DVD software or an MPG2 Codec installed. For best playback speed it is recommended you play the MPG movie directly from your hard drive. CD-ROMs don't have the transfer rate to handle these movies.
b) Double-click the MPG and watch it (full screen is recommended)
c) If you own PowerDVD or WinDVD you can play MPEG2 format MPG files through them. Results are usually better than Windows Media Player with an MPEG2 codec installed.
d) If you do not own a DVD player application and find the playback is choppy or pauses occasionaly, try the following steps
e) Defrag the hard drive the MPG is on to make the playback smoother
f) Have a few VBs while the defrag runs
g) Try and remember the last time you waited for a full defrag to finish
h) Come back when it finishes
i) Watch the movie again and notice the smooth playback