Best Codec For Exporting 16 or 32-bpc With An Alpha Channel on Windows

[Ryan Paterson]

Really? So what’s the output option in AE for “Trillions Of Colors”? I always assumed that was 16-bit?

And yes I am currently using the QuickTime PNG codec so I guess I’ll stick with that

[Ryan Paterson]

Awesome, thanks. But just out of curiosity- in general what does the “trillions of colors” option represent?

[Walter Soyka]

[Ryan Paterson] “Hello, recently switched from a Mac to a PC and without the use of ProRes now I’m trying to find a suitable replacement for rendering high-quality footage. Can someone recommend a codec that fits the specs in the title please? It seems AVI & Animation only support 8bpc, and I’m just plain unfamiliar with anything else really. Any resources regarding this topic are also welcome, wouldn’t mind doing a little research.”

Creative Cloud includes support for CineForm, a cross-platform, high-quality mezzanine format comparable in quality and compression ratios to ProRes. CineForm supports 10-bit YUV and 12-bit RGBA.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[Ryan Paterson] “But just out of curiosity- in general what does the “trillions of colors” option represent?”

“Trillions of colors” in this context means that the output module will pass a 16bpc RGBA image to the encoder. To output 10-bit ProRes or CineForm, for example, you’d need to render with Trillions of colors. Rendering with “millions of colors” would only provide 8-bit renders from the output module to the encoder.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]