Table of contents
Introduction
Per the Encoder Guidelines, all video clips must start with a two second logo unique to the encoder, prominently displaying:
- https://TASvideos.org/
- A notice that the movie is tool-assisted
- A distinct identifier for the encoder
Some examples of current logos can be seen at Encoders/Logos.
An example of an image that has the features of a non-animated logo can be seen here. The yellow highlights a decent amount of room given for pointing out that it is a Tool Assisted Speedrun. The green highlights the reasonably sized link to TASVideos. The purple highlights that the above link can be used to find out more information on the speedrun. The blue credits the video encoder for encoding the video, and finally the red serves as an eye catcher to bring peoples attention to the logo in the first place.
The highlights in the linked image can be used as a general guide, but can be mirrored if it is convenient (In the case of the lower half of the logo) and some overlap is allowed regarding the image as long as it isn't distracting (As demonstrated). Although we are all very proud encoders who love our artwork, the image inside the logo shouldn't steal all the attention away from the text.
Creating the image(s)
When creating your logo, you should keep a few things in mind. The most important thing to consider is that your logo is going to have to be the same size as your video. How large this is varies by what system you are dumping your video from, and what type of encode (downloadable, streaming, or high definition streaming).
It's fairly easy to resize large logos down to the target size of your encodes,
so you might consider creating a large logo (4000x3000) which can be resized down
to the target resolution. (Note that you may need to adjust the logo to account for
different aspect ratios; 4:3 happens to be the most common display aspect ratio.)
The simplest logos are still images; this guide assumes you are going to create a still image for use as your logo. If you are feeling ambitious you can created animated logos (the normal target for these is 120 frames, which corresponds to approximately two seconds on virtually all of the systems on this site.)
Once you're finished crafting your image, save it as a PNG and have the senior publisher or a site admin look at it for approval.
Creating a video from your image
If you're using AVISynth, you can skip this section. Otherwise, you'll need to create a video from your logo. First, make sure that the image is the same resolution as the video of the game you'll be encoding. Once you have an approved logo image, you'll need to create two seconds of video based on that logo.
You will need a
.wav sound file matching the intended length of your logo (usually two seconds, but this can vary depending on the system frame rate) and having the same sampling rate and number of channels as your target system. This information is platform-specific and is included as part of the emulator configuration information on the next page.
The next step depends on what software you wish to use to create the intermediate logo file:
Assuming your PNG is named logo.png and your audio clip is named audio.wav, use the following command line:
mencoder mf://logo.png -audiofile audio.wav -fps 0.5 -ofps 60 -vf harddup -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=ffv1:format=bgr32 -oac pcm -o logo.avi}}
Some notes on the options:
- mf://logo.png: instructs mencoder to read its input from the given input file(s). If you are using multiple frames, specify their names comma-separated, i.e. mf://logo1.png,logo2.png,...
- -fps 0.5: Tells mencoder what the input frame rate is. At 0.5 frames per second, one frame is two seconds, so for one image this yields an input lasting two seconds.
- -ofps 60: Specifies the target frame rate. This should be the same as the target console's frame rate, which is usually (but not always) 60fps; if in doubt, check a video dump from your emulator or consult the Video Dumping page.
- -vf harddup: Forces duplicate frames to be written to the file in their entirety; this is important for the above frame rate conversion to ensure that enough frames are written to satisfy the two second target.
- -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=ffv1:format=bgr32: Specifies that the output should be in the FFV1 lossless codec in the BGR32 colour space. Any other RGB lossless codec would work as well.
- -oac pcm: Specifies that the audio output will be in WAV format.
- -o logo.avi: Specifies the target file name.
If you are using mencoder from Windows, you can place the above command in a .bat file using your preferred text editor or run it from a command prompt.
Once you have run the command, you should have a usable logo.avi and can proceed to the next step in the process.
- Start VirtualDub.
- Select File -> Open video file, and select
logo.png. - Press Ctrl-A to select the one frame, Ctrl+C to copy that frame, and finally Ctrl+V multiple times to create duplicate copies of that frame until there are 120 frames in total. If you go over 120 frames, press Ctrl+Z To undo them until you have 120 frames
- If applicable (i.e. if you are not going to be using AVISynth), select Audio -> Audio from other file and select the
.wavfrom above. - Select Video -> Frame rate, then Change frame rate. Set the frame rate to the target console's frame rate, which is usually (but not always) 60fps; if in doubt, check a video dump from your emulator or consult the Video Dumping page.
- Select Video -> Compression. Either:
- select FFDshow video codec, click configure, set FFV1 as the video encoder and 'RGB32' as the colourspace; or
- Use any other lossless RGB codec, such as CamStudio.
- Under Audio, select direct stream copy.
- Under Video, select full processing.
- Select File -> Save as AVI and save your logo as logo.avi.
After all that, you should have a usable logo.avi and can proceed to the next step in the process.