animation codec with millions plus alpha channel missing?

[Brian Jones]

yeah, R19 now uses the “Media Core” and not quicktime. You can still render alpha using ProRes4444 but the Depth has to be 16 bit

[Chad Demoss]

Thanks Brian

I’m not sure what media core is, do i need to purchase it? and where do I change the ProRes422 to ProRes444. I only see these options in the picture viewer “save as” MOV options. which seems to only save the current movie.

[Brian Jones]

no, media core is something Maxon developed for R19 – to ‘modernize’ and Apple hasn’t been doing much development on QT for a while (at least the old QT 7). You can check out their explanation here https://www.maxon.net/en/products/new-in-release-19/workflow/ – down at the bottom

As to choice, in mine (Studio on a Mac), ProRes4444 is there if I select Render Settings/Save/Format – MOV then twiggle the arrow beside Format gives ProRes422, ProRes4444, H264 and JPG as Codec choices.

[Chad Demoss]

Oh I didn’t even notice that drop down arrow there.

Thanks.

[Gary Reisman]

Discovered this myself this week when we upgraded to R19 here.

But also noticed that it’s rendering out an additional alpha matte movie, “A_ xxx” regardless of what checkboxes are checked or not. Anyone else experience this?

[Chad Demoss]

Yes. not sure why though.

[Gary Reisman]

I’m going to guess.. it’s a programming error we’ll just have to deal with until the fix it

[Steve Bentley]

One of the best reasons to use QT Anim Best plus Alpha was the run length encoding. The mostly black (or white) alphas and RGB channel with stuff only existing inside the alpha were a godsend to keep the files small. Is there a reasonably low mb option now that every one is tossing QT overboard?
Are we all a victim of cheap harddrives? No need to innovate when storage is cheap? Its kind of a like the coding arena – code is pretty sloppy these days because the procs are numerous and fast. Who needs elegantly fast algorithms when you can just make it fast through sheer horsepower. Whats next? The return of the boxy-but-good Volvo?

[Mike Bu]

This is still super relevant now. Just saved me…

Mike Burnett
Dog House Animations