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Using ripped paper (AKA Images not vectors)
Hi,
My client wants a ripped paper effect for the latest animation we’re working on.
My first concern was that the size of the image would be comprised in a HD comp, but actually, the test image (taken on the customers phone) was excellent and at 100% size was actually bigger than the comp.
I have played around with different techniques to get rid of the paper including using multiply mode, but this causes undesirable effects when using say CC Page turn.
So instead used magic wand in Photoshop and saved as PNG so when I brought into AE the background was transparant. I had previously made the canvass comp size in PS match AE, so when I now appy the CC Page Turn Effect, the result is nice.
Anyway, my question is that, leaving aside not being able to continuously rasterise, is there any foreseeable dangers to be aware of with bringing in PNG’s with a transparant background and precomping each one to edit with? Do I have any other limitations over using vectors?
Thanks
Olly Lawer
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5 Replies
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Not that I’m aware of. PNG images are excellent to work with and are supported by most NLEs and of course AE. The quality is great, the file size is usually small, they support an alpha channel and almost any image viewer/editor app can handle them, even powerpoint supports PNGs with alpha!
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[Olly Lawer] “Anyway, my question is that, leaving aside not being able to continuously rasterise, is there any foreseeable dangers to be aware of with bringing in PNG’s with a transparant background and precomping each one to edit with? Do I have any other limitations over using vectors?”
As long as you’re working at high enough resolution, you’ll be fine.
Remember that precomps are rasterized within their containing comps, so be sure to keep your precomps at the same high resolution as the PNG sources.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Great. Thank you.
Olly Lawer
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The only downside I’ve found with PNGs in AE is that they are a bit slower to read & write than TIFFs (not sure about TGAs; haven’t tested yet). A small issue if you are using file sequences. The upside of PNGs is efficient lossless encoding, plus the alpha channel.
-jeff
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The difference between different lossless still image formats is less important for a single image (as Olly is using here) than for image sequences. Here, it won’t impact Olly’s render time at all.
As you said, PNG is slow to compress, but decompresses pretty fast and creates smaller files. TIFF and TGA are faster to compress, and generally create larger files.
I am highly anti-Targa. It’s limited to 8 bpc and Photoshop doesn’t treat its alpha channel as transparency.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
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