Questions About Exporting

Thrashador · Post by **Thrashador** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:56 am

Hi everyone,
I'm somewhat of a newbie to animation and AS, but I've been working hard to rig a character and animate a quick little scene.

Now that I've finally got it the way I want it, it's occurred to me that I have no idea what the optimal settings are for exporting the animation—or even which project settings are ideal.

I want to make semi-realistic cartoons that can be uploaded to YouTube in HD, but aren't so big in file size that it's outrageous.

I have a pretty fast Mac with a lot of disk space, but when I exported a 4 second "uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2" clip, I found out it takes up 269 MB! That won't work...

If I want to export exactly what I have in AS and upload it straight to YouTube, which format is recommended? If I want to take the animation and import it into iMovie for editing first, which format should I use (and what would format would I export from iMovie when I'm done editing)?

On that note, do you guys have a suggestion for an ideal "stroke width" for characters, because I want the facial features to be visible, and right now, they're kinda blurry and hard to see at .5 and 2.5. I can make the stroke width bigger; I just thought that it would be weird to have the eyes, nose, and mouth drawn with a thick black outline.

All right, well, thanks in advance for the advice. I'm excited to be a part of the community here!

Thrashador

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:18 am

The "uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2" codec is only used for transferring work to digital video tape, for broadcasting, or for archive purposes.

For publishing your work yourself in HD you don't use any lossless codec. You'll better choose mpeg4 or H264 for that. (When using H264, you need to un-check the "keyframe" option completely.) Experiment with different quality settings, but most of the time "medium" gives you good results with small files.

Facial features: there's no ideal line. Have a look into some underground comics, you'll find that there's everything from thick strokes to no outline at all. Also there's many ways to create faces just with colour, without any lines. Experiment! Go wild!

Thrashador · Post by **Thrashador** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 6:25 am

Hey slowtiger,
Thanks so much for the advice! I've got a much better quality video now.

I've heard that if you want to import your animation into an editing program like Final Cut, it's a good idea to use a sequence of frames. What do you think about that?

Thrashador

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 9:55 am

Some people swear on that method, others not. I can only say I've had no problems ever to work with Quicktime files (PNG codec, Millions+ of colours) between programs.

Exporting to a PNG sequence is recommended if your render stops in mid-scene, or single frames turn aut to be faulty. In that case it's much easier to render that frame again.

Thrashador · Post by **Thrashador** » Fri Dec 02, 2011 6:12 am

Okay, great, thanks! I'll be sure to give it a shot.

Thrashador · Post by **Thrashador** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:13 am

So, I've been trying to experiment with some different export formats.

The PNG sequence shows up weird in Final Cut Pro for me. It has all of the frames, but it doesn't play each of them as 1/24 of a second... It plays them at several seconds per frame (which is backwards).

As for exporting a Quicktime movie, I used the PNG codec at millions+ of colors, and the shading shows up weird. The clip has a black background with a gray outline behind the character, which isn't what it looked like in the Preview in AS Pro.

What I want is a format that I can import into Final Cut Pro that retains full quality and preserves the effects I use (like shadows, particles, shading, etc.).

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Thrashador

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:54 am

Have You tried QuickTime with animation codec at full quality, it is not uncompressed, but very close.

As far as single frames playing for several seconds, it is obviously an import setting of FCP.

Also, the Targa format is an old but well supported format that plays well with transparency and the such, it was the preferred render format for rendering for over 20 years, You might want to try that.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:12 am

PNG sequence: there's a setting in FinalCut where you determine the length of a single image.

Shading: could you post an image so we see what exactly you mean by that?

Thrashador · Post by **Thrashador** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:34 am

Thanks for the help, GCharb and slowtiger!

I have linked to two images... One with a weird shadow effect from the PNG codec, and one that looks the way I want it to in MPEG-4, but compressed.

I tried using the Animation codec, and it does the same thing the PNG does. Even though I selected shading, it ends up without shading and a grayish shadow in the clip... even when I import it into FCP.

Here's the link to the images:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ef12hjh2bbzbh ... h59lxaxxx0

Thrashador

GCharb · Post by **GCharb** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:39 pm

Have you checked if you have double fill on that character, as it would explain the white edge on the contours.

PNG QuickTime are usually used for composition and do not look good on their own.

I would like to have a look at the file if possible!

neon22 · Post by **neon22** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:41 pm

When exporting - do you need the alpha channel - will you be doing any compositing elsewhere.

If not then AVI, MOV or single image export is all good. Choose one that your other program can read.

If you need the alpha channel matte for external or later compositing - then you probably want to turn off pre-multiplied alpha when exporting. This will give you more freedom when compositing in external packages.
Some compositors will take premultiplied images and do the right thing (They will have a premultiplied switch on their compositing nodes) but its generally safer not to. (no thin sparkling borders)

I am very impressed by AS8's ability to read a mov file with alphas and do its own nice compositing.

I use Quicktime Pro (30 USD IIRC) which does an excellent job (alas all manual) of importing rendered image sequences (perhaps from a 3D program) and exporting mov files with the alpha channel intact.

AS8 does a great job of creating mov files - also with alphas and with the audio included (if you have that).

So its easy to comp the results with others - or even comp in AS itself and deliver final sections that way (QuictimePro will also append cut and pasted mov files made in AS8 into a final movie with sound very straightforwardly - making for easy assembly of shots).

So IMHO I'd recommend using Quicktime mov files for AS8
- choose the Animation codec for all intermediate work and H264 for smaller delivery files

I know many people also use Virtual Dub for this purpose (cheaper - more features) but I have yet to try that in my workflows... I should...