4B brush have unwanted pixels around when exported

[maryam]

Hi everyone

I'm having difficulty working out what's wrong with my sequence.

Please look at the images.
I'm using the 4B brush, and for some reason when I export it with transparent background
it gets this horrible dirty pixalated edges. I export it as QuickTime RGBA with no background.
I also tried TGA. But it doesn't get any better
Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
I appreciate any help.
Many thanks.

[mox]

Export your footage to No-PreMultiply alpha, it should work like a charm

[Paul Fierlinger]

Or it's maybe because QT is not the best export format in TVP. To export to any other app, JPEG is always the best choice.

[ulrik]

Or it's maybe because QT is not the best export format in TVP. To export to any other app, JPEG is always the best choice.

Isn't the .png or .tiff format the best way to go? It's not compressed like jpeg.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Sorry. I meant png.

[maryam]

Thanks Jerome. It works.
Can't believe what an idiot I was!

Thank you Paul and Ulrik for the information.
I usually export to After effects, and QT is the quickest way.
But I'm going to use png now(as you suggested), as I have noticed the quality isn't very good generally with QT from TVpaint.

To ensure the best possible quality do I need to do anything in TVP before I start animating? Or all I do is in the exporting section?
Many thank for your helps.

[Paul Fierlinger]

All graphics made in TVP are uncompressed. To ensure the best quality it is recommended that you select large project sizes -- but not so large that your computer will not handle it well. For instance I work at 1920 x 1080, which is the maximum HD size, but ad in the New Project panel (TVP-10) 20% to allow for mild camera moves or composition shifts, so my typical project format comes to 2304 x 1296, and of course Progressive. I animate at 12 fps.

Later, when I export my clips as avi's to be edited in my NLE, I export them at 1280 x 720p and 24 fps, using an uncompressed codec (Uncompressed RGB 24, or 32bits if I need to include transparencies). I downsize only because my NLE doesn't handle 1080p well but works fine with 720p, which is still considered HD and my project is slated for the Internet. If slated for transfer to film, I export as 1080p but still edit at 720p and when the project is completed I replace the 720p files back to 1080p and convert to PNG sequences.

As you see, the selections for best quality in TVP all depend on what you want to do with your project once you are done.

[maryam]

Thanks for your guidance. I really appreciate it.

I work at 1920x1080 as well(12fps). I have the student standard version TVP10, so no cameras for me :'( I do regret not getting the professional one!

I then take it to After Effects with same 1920x1080 (12fps). I usually take sequences with transparency to AE. Will it be better if I take it uncompressed?Or can I take it uncompressed?
So you export AVI? I should still use png sequence for better quality?

Why do you change it to 24fps? I animate at 12fps, but I do get confused when I export, whether I should export at 25fps or 12s.

Then I export from AE and take it to FinalCutPro for the final edit with audio.

[Paul Fierlinger]

PNG is uncompressed and is used when you need to export an image sequence for specific purposes, such as filmout where each frame is individually scanned in the lab to individual 35 mm film frames, or special effects in other programs such as AE, but if there is no reason to have an image sequence, than an uncompressed avi is simpler with less trouble and takes much less memory space on your hard drives but maintains the same quality of images -- i.e. both formats are uncompressed. For what reason do you need to take your project to AE?

By the way, you can make camera moves with the KeyFramer in Standard TVP and then go directly to FCP, but if you plan on working professionally with TVP I recommend you upgrade to TVP 10 Pro because there are plenty of other features besides the camera that will greatly simplify your work flow.

I generally animate in 12fps and export at 24fps but there are cases when I also have to animate in 24fps. This might be because I have some very fast actions going on in the scene, or a very smooth pan, or critical lip-syncing, which requires animation in single frames, or I might be making a cross dissolve. There are probably more instance such as these that require animation in singles.

[maryam]

Great information, Thanks.

I'm quite confident with working in AE. So I animate different elements and BGs and take them to AE
for moving the around, different effects and using Graph Editor for changing timing, etc..
I can probably do these all in TVP, but I only started using TVP 1month ago, so its quite new to me.

For instance when I tried to pan something across in TVP, if you go a bit off the screen, it chops of the image which is off the screen when you bring back.
Because I'm a beginner for the moment, I make too many mistakes. Right now I'm making a short animation which I have to finish soon.
So I don't have lots of time for making mistakes. That's why I take everything to AE to play around when I finish animating each bit.

I love tvp so I'm thinking about working professionally with it, and I am considering switching to PRO. I should find out how much I loose by not getting the PRO version when I just bought it recently!

[Paul Fierlinger]

I understand your situation. As far as upgrading goes, I might be wrong, but I believe that all you pay is the difference between the two versions, but for accurate information you should send a Private Message from here to Fabrice at TVP.

[maryam]

Thank you Paul.

I emailed Fabrice now.

Just two more question, If my project size in TVP is 1280x720 and I take it to AE and add it to a 1920x1080 Comp, Am I affecting the
quality? Some of the animations I've done are mistakenly at 1280x720 project size in TVP.
I was wondering whether I could do something about them.

Also when I try to export AVI It says "Internal" and it doesn't allow me to change the configuration, and the exported
file isn't viewable in AE or anywhere. Can I not export as AVI to take to AE?

[Paul Fierlinger]

I doubt you will see any difference after 720 is blownup to 1080. Perhaps side by side you might be able to spot some pixels but both are High Definition formats so I wouldn't worry too much. If it bothers you, you can down rez to 720 in AE to make everything uniform.

AVI Internal in TVP means that TVP will select the best suitable codec and TVP developers recommend using this setting. If you want to assert more control (I do), then I prefer to select AVI Direct Show -- there you will be able to manually select amongst your options. Whether you can export AVIs to AE I wouldn't know because I've never used AE -- I do all my work from TVP, but there are plenty of people here who work between software like you do and they can answer this better than I can... most likely after the weekend.

[maryam]

I only have AVI internal. I can't find AVI Direct Show.

After it is exported, the actual file (.avi) can't be viewed. it's all black. Is it something to do with the mode I
used or compression (70). I wasn't sure what they were, so I didn't change them. I tried RGBA32 but it was still black.

[Paul Fierlinger]

OK, so Direct Show must be another TVP10 perk. So select AVI>Config>Video Codec Uncompressed (BGR 32), press OK and then in the Mode window select RGBA(32 Bits) Alpha PreMulti and click Background off.