BW[A] is either BW or BWA. BW[A][Z] is any combination of BW, Alpha, and Z. RGB[A] and RGB[A,Z] are optional additions of Alpha or Z channels.
Note: Targa and SGI have different input/output options for Channels. When you write a BWA image, it is converted to RGBA. Also many options must be explicitly stated when in command-line mode. For example, Cineons and JPEG always write in RGB unless you specify every argument found in the FileOut node for Cineon or JPEG in the interface.
Compression Controls indicates any special compression techniques. Note Cineon and YUV have no compression.
A link indicates notes below the table.
Extensions | Image Format | Input Channels | Output Channels | Compression Controls | higher bit depth | |
iff, or no extension | Nothing Real TM native | BW[A,Z], RGB[A,Z] | Same | 16, float | No | |
nri | Nothing Real icon (only for GUI icons) | RGB[A] | Same | No | ||
iff, | Alias/Wavefront TM Maya TM (licensed from Nothing Real) | RGB[A,Z] | Same | 16, float | No | |
als, alias, pix | Alias/Wavefront Alias | RGB[A] | Same | 16 | Yes | |
alsz | Alias/Wavefront Alias Z buffer | Z | Same | float | Yes | |
avi | Microsoft's TM video file format. | RGB | Same | Lossy, from 0 to 1, 1 = high quality. | ||
bmp,dib | BMP | RGB | Same | Yes | ||
ct, ct16, mray | Mental Ray | RGB | Same | 16, float | No | |
cin | Kodak Cineon TM | RGB[A] | Same | None | 16 (10 on disk) | Yes |
dpx (read only) | DPX reader courtesy of Michael Jonas, Das Werk Gmbh. | RGB | - | - | 16 (10 on disk) | No |
.gif (read only) | GIF | RGB | - | - | No | |
jpeg, jpg jfif | JPEG | BW, RGB | Same | Lossy, from 0 to 100%. 100 = high quality. | Yes | |
pbm, ppm, pnm, pgm | PBM | RGB | Same | Yes | ||
pic | Softimage | RGB[A] | Same | Yes | ||
png | PNG | RGB[A] | Same | 16 | No | |
QuickTime | Apple's video file format | RGB | Same | Lossy, from 0 to 1, 1 = high quality. | ||
rgb, sgi, bw, raw, sgiraw | SGI | BW[A], RGB[A] |
BW, RGB[A] |
Lossless RLE | 16 | No |
rla | Alias/Wavefront RLA (supports Z buffer) | BW[A,Z], RGB[A,Z] |
Same |
16, float | No | |
rpf | RLA Rich Pixel Format. Use this type when saving RLA files with Z depth to be read into After Effects. Make sure the file extension is still .rla, but set the format to .rpf. | BW[A,Z], RGB[A,Z] |
Same | 16, float | No | |
sfx, sidefx, prism | Side Effects | RGB[A] | Same | Yes | ||
tdi | Alias/Wavefront Explore format (identical to .iff) | RGB[A,Z] | Same | 16, float | No | |
tdx | Alias/Wavefront Explore Tiled Texture Map | RGB[A,Z] | Same | 16, float | No | |
tga | Targa | BW[A], RGB[A] |
BW, RGB[A] |
On/Off | Yes | |
tif, tiff | TIFF | RGB[A] | Same |
4 options, see below.
|
16, float | Yes |
xpm | XPM | RGB[A] | Same | |||
yuv,qnt, qtl, pal | YUV/Abekas/Quantel | RGB | Same | Uncompressed files with YUV 4:2:2 encoding | Yes |
Extensions | Notes |
iff | The Apple/Nothing Real .iff format is not the same as the
Amiga format with the same extension, although they share certain structural
similarities. The .iff format is licensed to Alias/Wavefront for use with
Maya, so Shake is ideally suited to work with Maya. Since Shake deals
with this format internally, you get the best performance by maintaining
your intermediate images in this format as well. It can be 8-, 16, or
32-bits per channel, as well as maintain logarithmic information, Alpha,
and Z channels. Currently, not many packages support this format explicitly,
but if the package supports the old TDI (.tdi) format, it works with .iff
as well, as, for example, is the case with Interactive Effect's
Amazon 3D Paint. There is also a free plugin for Photoshop and GIMP for .iff files. It can be found on the Alias/Wavefront site at http://www.aliaswavefront.com/assistant_online/ entertain/maya/library/plug_ins/index.html or at the Highend site at www.highend2d.com |
cin |
Shake works with images bottom-up, meaning 0,0 is at
the bottom left corner. The Cineon and TIFF formats allow you to write
the files either bottom-up or top-down. Because of Shake's bottom-up
nature, the I/O time (actual render time remains the same) is four times
greater when dealing with top-down Cineon or TIFF files. You can set
which way you want Shake to write the images - reading either way is
no problem, except for the speed hit. This information is placed in
a startup .h file.
Add these lines to a .h file in your startup directory (see Customizing Shake for more information on setting up your own .h files). script.cineonTopDown = 1; You can also set environment variables in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc, or whatever): setenv NR_CINEON_TOPDOWN Set these variables to force Shake into top-down mode. By default, Cineon and TIFFs are set to the slower top-down.,
as there are many other software products which do not recognize bottom-up
images. If you write a bottom-up image and it appears upside down in
another software package, you have four choices:
|
jpeg, jpg jfif |
In the FileOut you can set the quality level, and determine
which channels are present in the file. |
mov, avi, |
The QuickTime format is available on the Macintosh and NT only. Avi's
are written through QuickTime. If you select either as your output format,
you have three additional options:
|
rgb, sgi, bw, raw, sgiraw | You have the option to set which channels are saved into the output file. |
rla, rpf | Adobe After Effects and AutoDesk 3ds
Max do not properly support the original Wavefront specifications
for the RLA file concerning the Z channel. Therefore, you have to write
the image in a specific format the rpf (Rich Pixel
Format) in the FileOut with the .rla file extension in the
file name, or else these packages will not recognize the extension. |
tif, tiff | Photoshop has a bug that trashes 16-bit TIFF
images if they are big endian (created on IRIX) and read on a little endian
machine (NT). Shake has an environment variable to write little endian
images that will be read properly by Photoshop. This only applies in the
case of images written by IRIX and read on NT. setenv NR_LITTLEENDIAN_TIFF |
yuv,qnt, qtl, pal | You have the choice to write out in NTSC, PAL, or 1920x1080 4:2:2 8-bit. When yuvFormat is set to "Auto," the resolution is automatically determined by the resolution of the input node. The selected resolution is the smallest possible to fit the entire image. For example, if the image is smaller than NTSC, it is NTSC, if between NTSC and PAL, it is PAL, otherwise it is HD. You can also manually select the resolution. The script.videoResolution is no longer used for this purpose. Additionally, the FileIn, FileOut, VTRIn and VTROut nodes have a setting to set the colorimetry of the image, which describes how the yuv is converted back and forth with rgb. The settings are "Auto", "Rec. 601-1 SD" and "Rec 709. HD". The default setting is "Auto", which assigns 601 to SD images and 709 to HD plates. |
Table of File Sizes
In the following table, all sizes are for 3-channel images. Note that many images support optional Alpha or Z channels, which add to the file size. A single channel image typically 1/3 the size. The two sizes listed in each cell are for a Ramp (an example of extreme compression), and a completely random image, each in MB. Normal plates tend to be inbetween, usually closer to the higher value. This can give you a very wide variation in an image. For example, an .iff goes from 2.5 MB for a 2K 8 bit ramp to 9.1 MB for the same size/depth with a random image. If only one entry is listed, it is an uncompressed file.
Ext | NTSC, 8 bits | NTSC, 16 bits | NTSC, float | 2k, 8 bits | 2k, 16bits | |
bmp | 1 |
9.1 | ||||
cin (10 bits) |
1.3 | 12.2 | ||||
iff | .74 | 1 | 1.7 | 2 | 2.9 | 3.9 | 2.5 | 9.1 | 11.5 | 18.2 | 22.5 | 35.8 |
jpg (100 %) |
.02 | .48 | 1.4 | 4.3 | ||||
mray | 1.3 |
2.7 |
5.3 |
12.2 |
24.3 |
48.6 |
pic | .9 | 1 | 1.5 | 9.1 | ||||
rla | .8 | .92 | 1.8 | 2 | 4 | 2.3 | 9.2 | 11.5 | 18.4 | 36.5 |
sgi | .74 | 1 | 1.8 | 2 | 2.3 | 9.3 | 16.5 | 18.5 | ||
tga | .48 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 10.6 | ||||
tif | .04 | 1.4 | .07 | 1.6 | 3 | 3.7 | .25 | 12.5 | .2 | 17.8 | 27.4 | 33.3 |
xpm | .68 | 1.2 | 6.1 | 10.6 | ||||
yuv | .68 | 4 (HD) |