Supported File Formats

Jump to Table of File Sizes

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;
script.tiffTopDown = 1;

You can also set environment variables in your .cshrc (or .tcshrc, or whatever):

setenv NR_CINEON_TOPDOWN
setenv NR_TIFF_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:

  • Reset the TopDown switch/environment variable, and re-save the image in Shake.

  • Flip the image in Shake before saving it.

  • Flip the image in the other software.

  • Call up the other vendor and request they properly support the file formats in question.

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:

  • codec - popup menu with a list of all available compressors. The default codec is Animation (RLE compression).

  • compressQuality - 0-1. A high value sets high quality and a larger file size.

  • framesPerSecond - this is embedded in the file.


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  
2k, float
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)