Previewing Codecs?

[Sean Falcon]

First off....there is a great discussion on Float Linear and 3D on the shake listserver (I know most of you are already on there, but just a heads up). 

So we are running some customized pipeline/assest management software that does some really helpful things at render time, such as converting multiple renders to multiple resized formats for previewing and other tasks.  We are mainly working with 1080p full CG renders. We are fortunate enough to have deployable MacBooks and IMacs, config'd to our standards by IT, to give to clients for communication and previewing purposes as well.

  My question is, why type of QT codecs do you prefer for previewing? Speaking in terms of size, H264 is great for that, but it introduces that gamma bump which washes everything out (especially on these hazy mid-day shots. This is fine for previewing models, anim and things that do not need to be color accurate, but once we arrive at the comp stage though, the issue of color always comes up. Sorenson is usually pretty good, but that crushes the lower end down sometimes as well. For uncompressed, we've found that Blackmagic retains the most accurate color information versus the rest of the qt codecs, which works for for delivery, but not previewing.  We have a bajillion seats of shake, but we are in the process of transitioning to Nuke (if that matters and yes this will be on that list too). These renders are for game cinematics which will be encoded on a blu ray, but that conversion process is done by the developer, so it is out of our hands. Our final output usually a 16 bit img seq of some sort depending on the client. 

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good previewing codec or encoding practices that retain accurate or as close as possible to accurate color data......or maybe some CC'ing method that I can stick at the bottom of the tree before render?

Thanks,

Sean

[Randy Little]

If they are all on Macs.    pixlet   or  jpeg2000 (which is what redcode is based on) Don't go below high on the compression slider. 
Having the client review compressed data is always a bad idea its just sometimes the least bad idea of the options available.   You can also use tif in Quicktime and use RLE.  


Randy S. Little
http://reel.rslittle.com

[Deke Kincaid]

The solution is to use a 3rd party h264 codec which is not from Apple
(sorenson squeeze 264, x.264, ffmpeg, etc...). H264 standard had a
gamma flag embedded but you can surpass that if you don't use the
apple one.

Also there is this other secret. Color correct your final output
movie to compensate for the shift in color, gamma, etc.... We always
do this when we compress stuff to the Avid codecs or just about any
other codec going to editorial. Oh and I just reread your post and
see that you already suggested this. The thing is you shouldn't use
nuke, shake, etc... to compress the quicktime. Use a 3rd party
compression application dedicated to doing this type of work that
produces far superior results. Your never going to get 100% color
representation with 8 bit and lossy when your source is 16 bit float.

-deke

[Sam Cole]

> The solution is to use a 3rd party h264 codec which is not from Apple
> (sorenson squeeze 264, x.264, ffmpeg, etc...). H264 standard had a
> gamma flag embedded but you can surpass that if you don't use the

I've only been scanning this thread so I might be way off base here.
We have a 'gama' atom remover on www.fuelvfx.com, click software and
there is ppc/win32. It's not supported, maybe buggy, but definitely
useful.

./sam

[Deke Kincaid]

Yes but doesn't that only work on quicktime movies? H264 is not
quicktime, it is it's own container format like mpeg 1, 2, 4, avi,
mov, etc... Apple doesn't even control the standard, the MpegLA group
does, which is why h264 exists in flash, avi or quicktime extensions.

-deke

[Randy Little]

h264 is a subset of mp4 which is based on an Apple technology or something else that convoluted.  

Randy S. Little
http://reel.rslittle.com

[Deke Kincaid]

yes, but it still isn't a quicktime container even if it has a .mov extension.

-deke