Cleaning up sequences

[JoHanna]

Hello you great animators out there in the land of pixels!

I am so old school and a beginner with all kind computer programs. I would truly appreciate some tips to my problems. I have drawn my animation traditionally on paper and scanned it as tiff-files. I am now trying to start coloring my clips and putting the layers together.

I am having trouble with cleaning up sequences in the TVPaint. The white or grey pixels remain white or grey and the paper won’t turn transparent. When I import pictures through “file-open” they do appear on the time line perfectly like I think they should. However, then I really do not know how to apply these ”Lumakey” or “FX-stack”- effects on the pictures. I have even tried to import them through the FX-window and bin, but that way the maps in which the pictures are seem empty. Could anyone please be able to give tips how I could get rid of the grey pixels and turn that white paper into transparent?

The other strange thing that I have encountered is that I can’t put pictures on different layers at once. I have managed to create and name different layers but when I have pictures on one layer and try to put them on another layer, they will disappear from the one that was created before. I have now idea what that is about but maybe it is just something simple that I have not understood yet?

Once again, I would be delighted if I could get any kind of an answer or tips. Thank you so much for your kindness already.

Sincerely,
Johanna

[slowtiger]

Scan cleaner.
Under FX.
It's the best thing since sliced bread.

Of course you know how to apply FX: select all frames of the layer, then hit apply.

Do you import the different layers separately? Those should create their own layers automatically. Take care of naming, something like a01, a02,a03 will be one layer, b01, b02 etc will be another layer (and you have to start that import again).

Do you want to duplicate layers? That's an own command in the layer menu.

For just some frames I select the frames, use cmd-C or cmd-X, then go to the destination layer and us cmd-C.

[Paul Fierlinger]

A question of my own: is TIFF the best format for importing scans? Wouldn't JPG or TARGA or BMP (TVP's native format) be better? Mind you, I've never done this before, but others have asked me and I don't have the answer.

[slowtiger]

JPG not because it's a format which looses information.
BMP not because it makes unnecessarily big files.

TIFF is a good format because it is lossless but still can be compressed. PNG would do the same job.

[Paul Fierlinger]

AH! I meant to say PNG; I know about JPEG's, which I use for easier uploads. PNG is what I use whenever I am asked for uncompressed stills. I've been told that TIFFs are not as reliable because they come in different variations and do not work well with all applications, particularly not video files because they were developed for print. Is there any truth to that?

[malcooning]

I'd say go PSD.
TIFF is good but I think it's a bit of an old fashion now by now. It is traditionally the format of choice for professional places to use. But it generates huge files usually, for no apparent reason. As slowtiger mentioned, PNG would serve the same function but just to be on the safe side, when I do stills I tend to save as PSD.

[ZigOtto]

Scan cleaner.
Under FX.
It's the best thing since sliced bread.

+1, ScanCleaner is the FX you need here to turn the paper transparent,
but take care, you probably will have to tweak the (default) luma curve, specially if your scans paper BG is not a pure white.
set and try it on one frame, if satisfied with the result, Undo, select all, ReApply (Enter key) to process the whole sequence.

[JoHanna]

Hi!

Thanks to you all! You are all very kind.
I'll do what you suggested.

However I have already scanned a couple thousand pictures at my old work and do not have a proper scanner myself yet. If I should "scan clearer" does it mean I can not change the old picks to clearer anymore? I will try to change the format and do what you all sayed first.
If it is not enough I suppose I will rush into a scanner shop and invest..

Have a good day!

P.S. I can not believe that such places like this exist..! People from different countries are talking to you and you are not quite so alone with your profession anymore! Wow!

Johanna

[slowtiger]

The TIFF format is pretty reliable in our community. When I was doing mostly print jobs, I stumbled across the odd "multipage TIFF" every other year or so. It's because some part ot the TIFF specification allows several pages in one file, like for a fax. But I haven't met any of those for more than a decade out in the wild.

PSD doesn't have any advantage over TIFF or PNG, it just makes for bigger files.

******

JoHanna:
The ScanCleaner FX is applied to whatever image files you import into TVP. It doesn't require a scanner.

[ZigOtto]

Johanna, if you don't success in your attempt, you may post a link to a sample (one of your tiff image), so we can make a test and report you the best scancleaner's setting for your specific scanned material.
mutual aid is one of the characteristic of this forum, so, don't hesitate to come and ask anything you need, technical tips and so ... you always will be welcome.

[malcooning]

PSD doesn't have any advantage over TIFF or PNG, it just makes for bigger files.

PSD does indeed have an advantage over TIFF. Both formats are lossless, but PSD makes smaller files. PNG is of different class, as it does apply compression, albeit a quality compression. Try for yourself: take an image, save it in the 3 mentioned formats, and you'll see that the TIFF is is the largest file, followed closely by the PSD, while the PNG is almost a third in size.

[ematecki]

What you call a "quality compression" is called a lossless compression.
That means you get EXACTLY the same pixels when reloading the file, up to the last bit ('computer' bit, I mean).

PNG is the best, because it has good compression and its specs are 'open'.
TIFF is second because its specs are 'public', but very complicated.
PSD is last because it is a PROPRIETARY format, if adobe decide to not publish the specs anymore, what will you do with your files ? You are up to buy an adobe product to convert them back to some 'open' format !!!
BMP is out of competition, it is THAT bad/stupid/nonsensical.

Most other everyday formats have lossy compression, meaning there are some detail losses EACH time you save it.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Thank you, Eric, for the clarification. But I had an experience once with PNGs (which I posted here a couple of years ago) that suggests not all PNGs are of the same feather. When I was converting Tulip to image sequences in preparation for filmout, the completion lab asked me to make a test between their PNG, the Vegas PNG and TVP's PNG. They were astonished (perhaps horrified) to see that TVP's conversion came out best, which is the one we then used. Is this because the conversion was done at the source, and if so what does it say about TVP's export of files as uncompressed AVIs, which is what I use to export my clips to Vegas and what I gave the lab to use? And if BMP is such a stupid format, why is it the core format of TVP, or is this not the case?

[slowtiger]

One word: Legacy. Software which don't provide users with a great range of possible file formats for import and export restrict certain user's workflow. And some older formats are still in use, somewhere.

[ematecki]

And if BMP is such a stupid format, why is it the core format of TVP, or is this not the case?

BMP isn't the 'core format' of TVPaint, thank's dog !
DEEP is TVPaints 'prefered' format, but it is a proprietary format, and as such not suited for exchange with other software...