Cymro

If you get desperate, you can get a USB caddy for about £5.

Thanks man, I'm really happy this thing's come together so well, and I've really enjoyed doing it. I'll be tweaking the surface properties over the next few days and then hopefully I can post the final build.

__________________
"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

Brikar

Explain this "USB caddy" to me. What is that?

So on the subject of editing the movie - You guys think I should get a standard-def DVD rip or see if there's an HD one from the recent blu-ray releases? It'd make things easier to render out of LW at standard def (take less time) but having it in HD might be cool...

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

Closet Racist

Multi-port USB hub?

Sam Cogley

I believe he's talking about an external hard drive enclosure that uses a USB connection. They're bloody wonderful - you can get a Western Digital 1T drive in an external case for $120 or less.

Cymro

Yeah, but you can buy the enclosure without a hard drive for next to nothing and put one you already have in there. I got one for an old laptop hard drive and now I can carry it around in my pocket.

__________________
"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

Brikar

Oh, so you mean like, plug it into my laptop via USB? Hadn't thought of that.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

Bean

On the question of HD vs normal def, I'd stick with normal def for now Brikar. If it works out well, then you can look at HD. As it is, HD sounds like it'd be one more problem to worry about.

__________________
"I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."

--James T. Kirk

Brikar

True enough, but if I wanted to do HD again later, I'd have to re-render all the LW shots.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

Bean

I get that, but if you do it in HD, it seems to me you're going to have to be very meticulous about the quality. Every little glitch or rough edge is going to stand out ten times more than if it were normal def. I just think it'd be easier on you to do it in standard. And even if you did decide later to do it in HD, then you've got yourself another project lol

__________________
"I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."

--James T. Kirk

Cymro

Yeah, I kind of agree with Beano, you're talking about mega rendering times combined with an even tougher job of tweaking the lights and surfaces.

__________________
"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."