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Compression, file type, size
I need some help, I’m working with a large amount of animation files and I want to compress them down but keep the quality high and also have them be usable by as many other editing systems as possible. I want to use Quick Time, I have tried a few types of compression with mixed results. I also need a file type that supports alpha. I don’t want to have a separate alpha file included I want them to be together. I’m thinking PNG is my best bet but I’m having some issues with the quality setting staying at 100% and the files being large is there a way to lower that setting? Also if anyone knows of a better option file type compression and so on that does what I need it to do please let me know.
Thanks for your time and help
Bryan -
8 Replies
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Microcosm is a lossless codec with alpha that gives you a decent file size reduction and automatically comes with both mac and windows versions. It’s about $100, but could be handy…
https://www.digitalanarchy.com/micro/micro_main.html
I might add that it does unfortunately come at a slight speed premium, slowing renders just a little, but the file savings are pretty significant.
Brian
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If you really need a standard codec so that the files can be passed off to anyone out there, your best bet is the Quicktime animation codec.
It’s one of a few Quicktime codecs that will support an embedded alpha channel, and it’s lossless meaning it operates like ZIP files – it will compress any information it can without causing visual damage.
The files will still be large, but anything less than a lossless codec and you are tossing valuable data, not exactly smart archiving. You’re much better off just spending the measly $80 it costs to buy a 500GB hard drive so you have adequate space to properly archive your files.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Is there any way to change the PNG to not be 100% the Animation codec makes for some large file sizes I want to put 40 animations on one DVD if possible. The loss is not to great with the lossless if you only do 5%. I just don’t see a slider or any thing to lower it.
Also I will look into the 100.00 option and see how that is do you know if you can send that file type to pretty much anyone and have it be useable or will they need to decode or have the codec? Is it a cost to the end user to just get that codec?
Thanks for your help!
Bryan -
Also please send me a link to the $80.00 500 Gig drives
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Nice try but it’s $83.88 not including shipping (9.99)… Also no SATA cables from what I hear in the review. To top that off it looks like it’s coming from Canada (A?) And we all know there drives spin backwards, also the water in the toilet goes backwards when you flush there… Mind bottling…
Really though I would rather have a great answer to my question then a 500 Gig HD. I have about 750 gig’s on my computer and 5 or 6 externals laying around..(I think that means I’m the balls). If I was trying to ship a product to a customer and keep the cost low I would do it on DVDs with at least some compression, you have to.
Any way thanks for any and all help I appreciate it.
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Large files are a fact of life when doing video work. Archiving your projects or animations in a lossy codec is incredibly penny-wise, pound-foolish and you will eventually regret it.
If you insist on doing so, maybe try using the motion-jpeg Quicktime codec. It’s crap for archiving, but any lossy codec is.
As for the hard drive, a basic Google search will turn up many options in the $80-$100 range.
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You cant even tell the difference in an uncompressed and a 10% compressed with a decent codec. It’s not like I’m talking about compressing things down 30% or even 20% for that matter.
Large files are a fact of life, but when you can save allot of room when your goal is to get some thing on a DVD do you go out and buy a HD? For what I have plenty of HD space, it’s not even about archiving, why do you assume that? If I was archiving I would be fine with large files. De de de…
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