I just spent all day rendering a piece of animation. I saved the image sequence both as JPGs and TIFF formats (2500 frames). However, the JPG is very lossy with a lot of artifacts. And the TIFF files don't seem to be recognized by after effects, but I can open the JPGs. Also, when I try to reopen the saved sequence in houdini's image viewer, whether the JPGs or the TIFFs, it gives me an error saying it can't open either sequence. I had set the original render rez as NTSC (720x486) for final tape output.

I would appreciate some help.

If you're using Houdini 6.1, when you save a sequence, change the Image Format to TIFF. Now click on the arrow to left of that. This should give you further options for TIFF compression. As I recall, After Effects doesn't seem to accept “Adobe Deflate”, however, only Photoshop would recognize that compression type (and AFAIK they're both owned by the same company?). For After Effects, you need to write out your tiffs as “Standard Deflate”.

Do you have the image sequence saved to a path that has a space? That might be the reason why the image viewer cannot see the sequence. Did you try bringing the sequence into COPs? That would give you experience in Houdini's compositor as well.

Ok, I seem to be able to open the tiff format and jpgs in image viewer. For some reason when I go to the correct directory and load the sequence in the directory widow of houdini or image viewer, I have to delete the frame range indicator “ (1-2500)” next to the file name in order to open it. So I can't open Filename$F.JPG (1-2500) untill I delete the range next to the name.

I did import the sequence as tiff into COPS fine, again by having to delete the sequence range next to the file name.

Also, what is the best way to reduce jaggies in the final mantra render when rendering NTSC format (in camera parameters)? It seems my renders always need some serious ani-aliasing. How much should I increase super sample for a 720x486 image? :? I try to save the sequence at a rez of 720x486 in Mplay, but keep getting lack of memory errors.

Do you have the image sequence saved to a path that has a space?

I am not sure what you mean. Do you mean space in the name of the image sequence? If so, yes I do have spaces between the words in my file name.

Houdini hates spaces….
this is bad:
cmy folder/my picture.tif
this is good:
cmyFolder/myPicture.tif

the same is true for geometry on disc etc

get rid of the spaces first..if you like to have spaces, then use _ instead of an actual space. if you need to rename all of them at once, a good prog is ‘Renamer’ by Albert Bertilsson.
http://www.albert.nu/default.asp?sub=programs/default.asp?sub=renamer/main.htm [albert.nu]

After spaces are gone, then get your tiff sequence in to houdini image viewer.. after that, resave your sequence as a tga sequence. After Effects will see the tga sequence.

Other option is to do a batch convert in Photoshop. Yes, it is completely retarded that PS sees adobe deflate compression but AE doesn't.

Thanks for all the tips. Renamer does sound like the perfect solution, especially when dealing with thousands of frames!

I have started saving renders as TGA format. It seems to work fine with all the apps.

Cool… 8)

PS. Can someone explain what is Adobe deflate versus standard?

Can someone explain what is Adobe deflate versus standard?

It's evil incarnate - oops I mean it's a typical legal bit of tripe that's becoming more and more prevalent nowadays. Essentially Adobe decided to use a common compression method being used by almost everyone else out there - and rename it to something they could call their own. So even though software may have been able to use the actual algorithm to decode it, the fact that it's called “Adobe Deflate” means the software won't work…this happened back during the last major release of renderman too - something about adobe deflate is mixed up in there. I believe it's an incarnation of the lzw compression, which is what's got a lot of software companies tied up in knots nowadays.

Like I said, evil incarnate… :evil:

Cheers,

J.C.

Another method for image conversion is to read all of your images into the Houdini image viewer ‘mplay’ (although some places it is called ‘hview’) and then save them out from there in a different format.

It works quite well, and if you have Select (like me) and don't have COPs it can save you a lot of frustration.

-Craig

Does anyone have a means to force Houdini to render TIFFs using LZW instead of Adobe Deflate by default? I mean, it's not a big hassle to change it from the UI, but I'd prefer not to have to think about it.

Any hints would be most appreciated.

Klaus

LZW is not supported in Houdini.

Sorry, my apologies. I meant the other TIFF compression (or rather, any compression that's NOT the Adobe Deflate flavour).

It's possible it seems to adjust this behaviour by editing the FBoptions file in the $HFS directory … but we're talking a lot of machines here - has anyone tried/found environment variables/scripts to force Houdini to use a different compression algorithm my default, or am I going to be stuck revising all these FBoptions files (and for every new Houdini install to boot)?

Klaus