Animation file formats

You should keep all of the components for the animation you are working on in one folder which is completely seperate from folders for other animaions. Doing this will make it easier for you to work and easier for other people to find what they are looking for should they need to. To save space you should keep files compressed and delete anthing you are not using or is no longer usefull, it is also a good idea to keep back ups.

Remeber to save your work often as you may lose hours of work if the computer of software was to crash. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email.

Converting Files It is often nessary to convert from one format to another, this is often quite difficult, essesially if the format uses comppresion. Importing Files Often people wish to include images and other animation into their animations. Exporting Files When you have finished creating an animation using computer software it is important that you export the file so that it can be watched without using the editing software.

File Managment In eveything you do using a computer it is very important to keep your files organised correctly and easily. In Max, the file format is. However, an artist will commonly use other programs for specific tasks. For example, to give a character model details such as muscle, the artist could transfer the file to Z-Brush.

To move the file between the two software, you must select the correct transitionary file format. Remember that each file format has its own needs and functions. That means you will need to use specific file formats for specific animation work.

This is very similar to how image file formats are handled, you may be familiar with that as it is more common. How Technology Has Changed Animation.

If you pick an inappropriate file format, then essential data can be lost during the transfer of files, or worse still, the data could even become corrupted. To avoid this, a basic understanding of file formats should help. Animators from wow-how.

The FBX file format is used quite a lot in the architectural field due to its massive file support matrix. It can support any file containing high geometry, textures, mesh and even high-end materials. FBX is a part of game creation pipelines and is also widely used in the movie industry. Gaming and movies industries are where this file format is widely used. Autodesk is renowned for its impact on the animation industry and rightfully so.

Max is still the industry standard for most architectural rendering companies and used by many animations studios. Probably the best thing about 3DS file format is that almost all 3D software programs can read it. It is used mostly in the architecture, engineering and education fields. The OBJ file format is specific to 3D design and does not support animation, transformation or hierarchy. Animators find it beneficial because it supports encoding of surface geometry in both its formats, i.

The transfer of files with this format is seamless, which makes it very easy to use. STL is used in transferring files that are particularly used for 3D visualization and 3D printing. JPEG compression uses complex mathematical algorithms to attain compression ratios of up to This means that some information is lost as the file is compressed.

The higher the compression ratio, the more image detail that is lost. The lower the compression ratio, the higher the image quality that is retained…. Unlike JPEG this venerable old format can include an alpha channel for transparency. Older versions of Photoshop lacked the ability to separate the transparency from a PNG out to a separate channel.

Newer versions allow separating the transparency out into a channel mask. Older versions of Photoshop and some other programs read the alpha channel into the transparency of the RGB layer itself, losing the background, when reading PNG files but keep the alpha as a separate channel when reading TGA files.

The TARGA image format is a lossless format so it retains all the image detail of the render without any loss from compression. The chapter included a description of various image file formats including PNG. This was back when the PNG format was brand new and not yet supported by web browsers.

I was testing it with a beta version of a third-party plugin for Netscape Navigator 3. This format was specifically designed to transmit graphics over a network such as the Internet. As soon as the format is in widespread use it should quickly take over as the dominant raster image file format on the Web… It should soon become the standard format on the Web. The PNG format is capable of compressing both indexed color 8 bit or less and true color above 8 bit images.

The progressive feature enables browsers to load the first pass much quicker than the first pass of an interlaced GIF file. Not only does the PNG format support transparency but it also supports full alpha channel blending….

The OpenEXR format is a floating point image file format which drastically expands the number and range of colors capable of being represented. Rather than being limited to integers from 0 to for each of red, green and blue, floating point formats allow any number beyond and between those numbers so that it can account for everything from very deep shadows to the brightness of the sun or beyond. This is called high dynamic range HDR.