I'm a few days late (December 31) on a video that I thought would only require about three nights' effort since it is under 90 seconds. Filming a short, relatively simple part of a mission lets me focus on making the sequence as good looking as I currently can without spending an even more ridiculous amount of time on the video.
If I ever put in the effort to learn how to make planets, moons, and asteroids in Blender and animate them better, I may stop using Orbiter for videos. I can find spacecraft models
online and expand my knowledge of animating in Blender. But
Cassini-Huygens and
Requiem for Galileo is the closest I am now to making full animations, only using Orbiter for planet models.
The detail of a Saturn V on the pad in AMSO is astounding. The effects used to made the add-ons look better were minor, slight color corrections and contrast, sharpening, glow to enhance the rocket flames and the moon, and masking to create a shallow depth of field. I've already released two tutorials on my channel that cover my most complicated effects (they just require masking); all enhancements I add follow the same process since Mars Spring Odyssey.
INTO the VACUUM is my highest quality video ever recorded and outputted, 1080p30 with a bit rate of 15 Mb/s (
Requiem for Galileo was 1080p24, 8 Mb/s). It produced a large file, just over 100 MB (before YouTube compression), but with an absurd 12 GB of uncompressed footage used. The frame rate is very smooth, with over 99% of the footage running at 30 FPS. Just film Orbiter at half speed (or less) and double the playback in editing for a smooth frame rate. I wish I thought of that when I started making videos. Audio levels are controlled so the sound doesn't become compressed any further. Here's what the project looks like:
