Software for compiling animations?

[TomA]

Hi,

What software do you use for creating / compiling animation files from network renders from Max, i.e. which program do you use to compress the images files: Combustion, After Effects, Premier, any of these / which is the most straightforward for this?

What is the best output file type from Max for this: jpeg, bmp...?

Also into what format do you prefer to compress them and why: avi, wmv...?

Thanks

T

[Ray]

I use the 3dsmax ram player to put the individual frames together into a quicktime file. I then use Sony Vegas to edit the clips together, etc.

[jaclyn_t]

i also use Sony Vegas, and i love it! i prefer it over final cut pro.

i render out a series of jpg's, and Vegas lets you bring in the whole series as a video clip.

[beestee]

There is a newish sequence processor from chaosgroup:

 

http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/pdplayer.html

[TomA]

Thanks! I'm going to look into all your suggestions.

 

I actually have Combustion though, can it be done in that?

[beestee]

Combustion is one of the more powerful digital composition tools available. You should be able to accomplish what you are after with that.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

What is the best output file type from Max for this: jpeg, bmp...?

 

If you mean best in terms of quality, then you will want to stick to a floating point, 32 bit image type. That may not be the way you want to go because of network speed, and amount of physical drive space needed.

 

For medium quality, you can use Tiff or Targa, possibly Png.

 

If you mean best in terms of network speed, and file size... Jpeg, or something else with a reduced footprint will work.

 

However, realize that if you are saving to a lossy format, your final project will not look as nice as if you were saving to an lossless format. This is because you are removing informationfrom the image when you save as jpeg, even if you are saving at the highest quality compression. Then you are removing information a second time when you compress to you final movie format.

 

About 60% of my work is saved as Tiff, but I am trying to get away from relying on it so much just because it is not fully supported across all applications.