HDV 720p codec for animation

Hi,

I'm making an animated film that combines Cinema 4D and traditional hand-drawings. In the past, I used the codecs Animation, Photojpeg, or PNG in Quicktime. Files sizes were always large.

I'm working in a 1280/720 format for the first time and tried the HDV 720p 30 as an experiment. Everything looks great and the file sizes are small compared to the others. Also, I'm compositing in After Effects and the alpha channel looks clean. I do not know anyone who uses this compression so I thought I would ask if there are any drawbacks to this codec that might bite me late down the line.
Thanks

>so I thought I would ask if there are any drawbacks to this codec that might bite me late down
>the line

Yes. Huge drawbacks. HDV is an extremely lossy format, and footage won't look as good after subsequent renders.



www.strypesinpost.com

Plus it's an incredibly computationally intensive codec, so you'll spend way more time rendering than you have any right to.

Thanks for the information.
I did not know that.
I'll stick with the codecs I have had success with in the past.

You can try working with ProRes 4444 if you have FCP 7 installed in the machine. That flavour of ProRes supports an alpha channel, and although it isn't a lossless codec like png or animation, the footage is able to hold up quite well after subsequent renders.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks again.
Shortly after my last post a friend turned me on to this site:
[codecs.onerivermedia.com]

It may not be up to date but it has a lot of great info.

I always used Animation, PhotoJPEG or PNG but the Three/d environment(Cinema 4D) is making me look around at other solutions.
I am working on FCP 5.6 / dual Mac powerPc.

Maybe the ProRess444 will inspire me to upgrade.

Gerard writes-
[You can try working with ProRes 4444 if you have FCP 7 installed in the machine. That flavour of ProRes supports an alpha channel, and although it isn't a lossless codec like png or animation, the footage is able to hold up quite well after subsequent renders.]

It looks great but I tried using it in After Effects CS3 and CS4 and believe it or not, sump'tin didn't work and the alpha didn't respond (It was not premultiplied). We reverted to Animation and that's worked fine. Haven't figgurd it out. That may be your best route. Tried and true.


- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Cycle your timeline track size with Shift-T !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Quote

It was not premultiplied

Not to get too far off the topic, but what'd the rest of your pipeline look like? I know After Effects can, in theory, output either a premult or a straight alpha, but even if you get locked into one or the other via a bug (Hi, Adobe! You guys really suck!) you should be able to work with it, yeah?

Which codec is good? Test, test, test.


[thomasberglund.no]



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