Converting Image Sequences into Bink! Format

Bink! is written by RAD Gametools and is in no way connected to Terragen.

Once you have created an animation in Terragen, it isn't much good unless you can convert it into some sort of movie file. There are already loads of tools to make AVI and MPEG files, and perhaps a couple for making Quicktime files, but more recently Bink! has come onto the scene. Bink! creates high-quality animations that are also very small in size (I've managed to get animations of 400+ frames to around 1Mb). However, Bink! is more for the technically minded and is quite hard to use for optimum results. This guide is intended to cut through the jargon and help you create animation files more easily.

Although Bink! can convert AVI and Quicktime to BIK format, you get higher quality results from converting a sequence of images directly. Terragen script sequences are perfectly suited to this. To convert a sequence, click on the first image in the sequence and then click on "Bink It!". Bink will detect that the image is part of a sequence.

If you want to convert an existing movie file, simply click on the movie file and then click on "Bink It!".

Things get a little more complicated from here. As Bink! is primarily for developers, there are a lot of options you can use to fine-tune your animation, mix in audio, etc.

Firstly, make sure that the "Frame Range" is set correctly, or only part of your animation will be converted to Bink! format. Of course, you may want this to happen.

Next, set the data rate for your animation. This allows you to set the approximate size of the resulting animation.

You can use a Percentage of Original File Size, which is easier but not quite so exact. When dealing with sequences of images, "Original File Size" refers to the total size of all images, or when dealing with existing movie files, it refers to the original size of the movie.

Using "Data Rate" is slightly more complicated (because it involves some math!) but you can fine-tune the size of your movie better, which is very useful if you want to create a movie of a specific size. To calculate data rate:

data_rate = (desired_movie_size / (number_of_frames / frames_per_second))

where the desired movie size is in bytes.

For greater precision, it is better to use more Preview Frames (I generally use 16 or 32) as this lets Bink work out how "compressible" the frames are.

With sequences of images, you should always use the "Force Frame Rate" to set the frame rate of your animation.

I never use keyframes, as they tend to make the resulting movie larger and more jerky.

Once the settings are to your satisfaction, click on "Bink" to start the conversion.

 



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