Rendering means the process of sending all of the files and other elements included in your Mash (see just above) to a server that is setup (inside your Cloud Tab) to receive it and using an FFMPEG system setup on there to squish it all together and output a finished video file without you having to interact any further with it.
What is a Mash? Do I Need Potatoes?
Mash is simply a word that is used to represent all of the images, audio and video files along with any Effects, Themes and Transitions that you have used in a Timeline that is then all combined ready for Rendering to Video.
What Does Encoding Mean and Why Do I Have To Do It?
The MovieMasher system that we use for creating your videos needs to Encode, or re-encode, all of the File Assets to be able to use them in the Preview window and in the Timeline. So that is why it’s necessary to run a Micro Encoder Instance to do this.
All assets are encoded to create thumbnails for them (a thumbnail is a MUCH smaller image to represent the full sized image file) and then when you use them in the MovieMasher interface it only uses the thumbnails so the Previews are lightning fast.
What is an S3 Bucket? AWS Amazon Web Services
Bucket is the term used by Amazon Web Services for individuals storage “spaces” on their system. If you like you can think of them as folders similar to what you use on your own computers at home.
They have to have a unique name across the entire world though since AWS is a world girdling cloud and all their services and servers are linked globally. So when you select a bucket name in our system bear this in mind when choosing a name for any new buckets you might create. Our system checks and will tell you in red text if the bucket name you’re trying to create is already taken.
Important Update: 22 New Fonts & Symbols Added!
We have just added 22 new Fonts and Symbol Packs! Each is listed below, just click on each one to see their full character range as not all of them cover every character and some are all UPPERCASE only. The Team Spirit one also uses the ) symbol to close the cute little character at the end of a word. Use them for titles or full screens of text., it’s all down to your imagination.
We have also added a “XXX Small at 6 point” and a “XXXX Small at 4 point” as font sizing options in all text boxes as some fonts are HUGE and needed to be scaled down so they didn’t look gross.
So here they all are!…
Baby Blocks
Tips and Tricks #1: Text Alignment
By default all of the text that is entered into any of the text boxes in the MovieMasher interface editor, (Title Theme, Captions and the Textbox) are always Center aligned, like this…
Issue: Servers fail to boot
Bad news, everyone.
Yesterday we had a bit of a panic when we discovered server instances were not booting up properly.
Servers would partially boot but never enter a ‘ready for jobs’ state, and all you could do is terminate them again. That meant we couldn’t encode or render.
Update: AWS Quick Setup Added
- New AWS Quick Setup
- Instance Class “latest version” AMIs
- “Did you know…” tips
Good news, everyone!
Now that all the bugs are gone, we’re focused again on the User Interface and making things as simple to use as possible. Especially the AWS setup process, which had gotten a bit complicated after adding so many new features, such as classes and region support.
Update: Quiet Audio Bug fixed, Render Server 1.03
Good news, everyone.
We have finally tracked down and terminated (with extreme prejudice) our last outstanding bug! We have reached that rare state of grace known to Mozilla developers as ‘Zaro Boogs’. (Now we can concentrate on adding more features, and beginning the cycle anew)
Update: MovieMasher 3.1 and AWS Regions
Good news, everyone.
MovieMasher (the open source software we use to edit the video timelines) released a new version last week, and now we’re running it, so you are too. There isn’t much in the way of new functionality (apart from Quantizing now being user-selectable, you probably wouldn’t notice) but some annoying bugs have finally been put to rest.
We recommend upgrading your old mashes to the new version (though the asset manager) after making duplicates.