Lossless Formats

[David Bogie]

[Steve Johnson] ” I prefer PNG, but if it’s not as good for some reason as TIFF, I’ll change to TIFF. BTW, need one of these two because I’m exporting alpha as well.
“

But you haven’t said where you’re going with these files or in what format you’re composing. Those are critical factors.
However, only you can decide which is right for your downstream needs versus your economic needs. Is one a faster render than the other? Is one more compact? does that matter? Is your next application more partial for one than the other?

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Chris Wright]

go PNG, its newer, faster, lossless, smaller, more compatible, and smells better! Here’s a good rundown.

https://morris-photographics.com/photoshop/articles/png-format.html

[Steve Johnson]

Why does this matter? Maybe I misunderstand your question. Why does a format for my source files matter? Why would it matter exporting to png or .mov, quality issues aside? Obviously space is a bit of an issue, otherwise we’d all go uncompressed 10bit. But I’m just looking for the best image sequence to render to. If Tiff/targa and png are about the only image sequence formats I know of. Is there a better one for different formats?

I like image sequence renders on long renders because if my system crashes or power fails or a harddrive crashes, you don’t have to start from scratch, you have the image sequence up to the last rendered frame. Big advantage in my mind.

CS3 – Mac
C4D

[Kevin Camp]

i think what bogie was getting at is that tif and png (along with tga, psd, or even pict) are pretty similar in the end, what would really matter is if one format worked better in the next step of your production…

that being said, i’m with chris, i would go png for the reasons stated, as long as png worked well for the next step in the process.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[David Bogie]

[Steve Johnson] “Why does this matter? Maybe I misunderstand your question. Why does a format for my source files matter? “

Well, your original question was posted without telling us why this decision was of any importance to you. So how could anyone make a suggestion that you hadn’t already figured out on your own?

Where you’re going with this image sequence is completely critical, difficult to imagine why you don’t think so but in your followup you clearly indicate you know what you’re doing.

Image sequences would be a waste of effort for everything I do. Re-rendering is no big deal for my projects since 90% of my rendering are tests and approval passes anyway and I cannot remember the last time After Effects failed on my machines.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”