I was trying to convert an animation to avi (using Quicktime)for use in a movie editor (Pinnacle) but the resolution on the avi was quite poor. I tried creating an image sequence, importing that into another animation program to create an animation, and then coverting to avi and the resolution was better but not great. I finally created an image sequence and dropped it directly into Pinnacle designating a very short duration for each image and thus, in effect, making the movie editor work as animation software and bypassing the avi conversion altogether. The quality is much better but I’m curious as to whether anyone else has had problems with the resolution qualities of conversions to avi and how you have solved it.
Laurie
Hi Laurie.
I don’t know about Pinnacle, (other than know it’s problematic) but you should be able to bring in an image sequence.
If you look on your video editor’s help, maybe you’ll see how your files need to be named for it to recognize them as a sequence.
I normally render out targa sequences, named like…
filename.0000.tga
filename.0001.tga
etc.
Another way would be to see if you can import a Quicktime .mov file directly.
That is normally the best way for my workflow. I use QuickTime uncompressed, millions + colors (to retain the alpha transparency).
Is there some reason you have to use AVI’s?
If you must use them in your video editor, can you create an uncompressed .avi file?
Brian Hoard
BHH Studio
www.bhhstudio.com
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I can’t import a Quicktime or shockwave animation directly into Pinnacle – it has to be converted first. However, I did just finish burning a DVD in which I created an image sequence of my animation instead of an avi and placed the sequence into Pinnacle as individual frames at a very short duration and they animated great on the DVD so I guess I’ll do that from now on. The only problem is that I’ll have to adjust my frame rate on Toonboom because the resulting animation in Pinnacle is a little faster, and, of course, an image sequence is much much bigger than a shockwave or Quicktime file. Fortunately, I’m not creating Disney movies so my animations are still reasonably sized.
By the way, Pinnacle’s Studio 8 did have a lot of stability problems but so far Studio 9 seems better.
Laurie
I’ve seen other editors do what you’re talking about…"set each image for a certain duration…"
But what you should have better luck with is to import the sequence as a sequence, rather than a bunch of stills.
It’s the same to us humans, but a big difference to the video software.
For instance, in Premier or AfterFX, you get an option to tell the program that you’re importing a “sequence”. That way, the program treats it as one element on the timeline, with a given length based on framerate.
It sounds to me like you’re treating it like a bunch of individual still images.
Which may be why your timing is off?
At least you have a solution, so that’s good.
And in case you do end up using Premier one day, there’s a 3rd party software that does allow you to import Flash files directly, and edit them like video.
So, you get the best of both worlds.
So when are you going to post your masterpieces so we can see them???
Brian Hoard
BHH Studio
www.bhhstudio.com
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When I get to a point where I’m actually creating masterpieces!