PNG vs TIFF vs Uncompressed - Video Export

frank beckmann said:
HitFilm can do 128-bit from Cheetah3d´s OpenEXR image sequence.
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I was just going to also suggest Hitfilm. They're having a sale till Dec 4th but even at $299.00 it is still a bit expensive. It can bring in 3d models as well. But I don't know much about it having tried Hitfilm only briefly some years back when they were offering a free version.
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EDIT:
Looks like they still do have the Free Express version available (and only the entire studio package is currently on sale). Can the free express version also use EXR?
 
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pegot said:
I was just going to also suggest Hitfilm. They're having a sale till Dec 4th but even at $299.00 it is still a bit expensive. It can bring in 3d models as well. But I don't know much about it having tried Hitfilm only briefly some years back when they were offering a free version.
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Yes - HitFilm Express is still free and is what I was using. For 3d stuff you´ll need to bite the bullet. :frown:

Cheers
Frank
 
frank beckmann said:
HitFilm can do 128-bit from Cheetah3d´s OpenEXR image sequence.
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Thanks Frank!

Now I tried to check it out but apparently the code for the free version is only obtainable over Twitter, Facebook or Google+.
I'm not going to open an account for that.

It's rare that I really need 16 bit video from Cheetah and in those cases i'll stick to what I have, PS CS4 and wait for Martin to bring on ProRes in a future version.

The fact that we need a different software for every other format is really annoying :frown:
 
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To be honest with you, I've never seen any good reason to work in 10-bit (or higher) color. Why should I? The final result will always end up on websites like YouTube anyway. I work a lot with composting in After Effects, especially Green Screen, and I'm able to achieve really good results without going higher than 8-bit.
Please, if someone would tell me why and when I should go higher I would really appreciate it.
 
Just for starters: In After Effects better gradients (less banding) and better glows and blurs - brighter more vibrant. When I am back on my Mac I will post a link to a very good tutorial on why to work in 32bit mode I have bookmarked.

As for 10bit Color - this is especially useful when doing a lot of heavy grading. More data to push around and manipulate. Also good for Green Screening, but you say your current 8bit work flow works for you on that.
 
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Filip said:
Please, if someone would tell me why and when I should go higher I would really appreciate it.
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Very good question, turned out to be very helpful and will help me save a lot of hassle in the future :tongue:

I tried to make a setup to demonstrate how 16 bit PNG (out of EXR) helps avoiding banding artifacts.

Only it didn't :rolleyes:

On my retina screen the 16-bit PNG from the Cheetah EXR showed similar banding as the original 8-bit PNG.

Only ramping up the exposure made a difference (but that should be done while rendering and not in post), see image below (16-bit grayscale PNG, right half from 8-bit, if your browser doesn't display it properly, download and open in preview.app).

Now the banding can be dealt with by increasing the dithering parameter (f.i. from 0,001 to 0,003). That may produce some noise visible in a still image, but not in a movie (given you turned on seed animation).

I'm so used to preferring 16-bit from my workflow in Lightroom with photos from digital cameras that I totally forgot that stronger dithering in movies is basically never a problem!

No more wrestling with EXR files needed!

Thanks again for that lesson, much appreciated :tongue: :wink: :smile:


image.png
 
I made a small mistake. The article I alluded to earlier wasn't so much about working in 32bit mode in After Effects as it was about the benefits of working in Linearized Color space - worth watching, some good info here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCVIqG-D2Vk&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop

When combined with a 32bit workflow and using Linearized Color space there is a dramatic difference.

Also this link - though pretty old now - gives a good explanation in paragraph three on benefits of 32bit work flow:

https://www.fxguide.com/featured/After_Effects_32-bit_Workflow_In-Depth/
 
Hi,
after working with the AVFoundation framework for some days I'm quite exited. The video codecs are light years better than in QTKit.

For content delivery there is H264 and HEVC:
H264 encoding is amazingly fast. The new HEVC codec in High Sierra creates superior image quality while creating even smaller files (compared to H264).

ProRes422 and ProRes4444 for content creation workflow:
Both file formats are widely supported on the Mac and since ProRes4444 supports alpha channels it can be even used for compositing work.

Also worth to mention in the fact that the new movie exporters will be multithreaded in v7.2. No beachball anymore!!!

For a 32bit High end workflow I still recommend OpenEXR. It's the defacto standard for that kind of work. Especially if you are interested in color grading and compositing there is nothing better.

So v7.2 will cover the full rage of movie workflows with state of the art codecs.:smile:

Bye
Martin
 
Martin said:
Hi,
after working with the AVFoundation framework for some days I'm quite exited. The video codecs are light years better than in QTKit.

For content delivery there is H264 and HEVC:
H264 encoding is amazingly fast. The new HEVC codec in High Sierra creates superior image quality while creating even smaller files (compared to H264).

ProRes422 and ProRes4444 for content creation workflow:
Both file formats are widely supported on the Mac and since ProRes4444 supports alpha channels it can be even used for compositing work.

Also worth to mention in the fact that the new movie exporters will be multithreaded in v7.2. No beachball anymore!!!

For a 32bit High end workflow I still recommend OpenEXR. It's the defacto standard for that kind of work. Especially if you are interested in color grading and compositing there is nothing better.

So v7.2 will cover the full rage of movie workflows with state of the art codecs.:smile:

Bye
Martin
Click to expand...

Sounds great, I'm super excited - especially for ProRes 4444! :D
 
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