I'm searching for a replacement to the QT Animation codec I used to use for video files needed with an alpha channel on a Windows system.Apple QuickTime does not support Windows anymore and I'm scratching my head to find a good intermediate video container/codec that supports alpha channels for graphical overlays. I'm looking for something that exports a 10 minute clip to smaller than or around 1 or 2 gigs. Compression is acceptable. I reuse these overlays on every video I export and I found there was a large time reduction in exporting RGBA footage rather than Dynamic Link to After Effects.My best guess is to use JPEG 2000 Level 1 in an .MXF wrapper? Any other suggestions or thoughts?

JPEG 2000 lvl1 it is. I receive an error in premiere when importing JPEG 2000 MXFs, but somehow overnight the error went away. The 10 minute file came in at 976,326 KB which is ~1.5 GB smaller than the QT Animation codec. Should have been using that all along. I tried the PNG sequence, and it was the smallest (I think), but the fact it cannot be contained in a single file makes it unusable in our workflow.I tried Targa sequence, which was much larger 34k vs 8,000k.I tried GoPro Cineform, which although is listed as QT still worked without QT installed. It worked well, but the files turned out to be astronomical in size and much larger than QT Animation.I tried DNxHD, but the files were too large, and I didn't find any RGBA options for export even though the format spec supports it.I tried AVI (uncompressed), wow. File size would have taken a hard drive per clip.Thanks for the help and suggestions, if anyone reading this knows of a better way please share.

cliffclof

Inspiring

Answered

Alternative to QuickTime Animation - alpha channel & small size?

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
June 2, 2016
11 replies
25618 views

I'm searching for a replacement to the QT Animation codec I used to use for video files needed with an alpha channel on a Windows system.

Apple QuickTime does not support Windows anymore and I'm scratching my head to find a good intermediate video container/codec that supports alpha channels for graphical overlays. I'm looking for something that exports a 10 minute clip to smaller than or around 1 or 2 gigs. Compression is acceptable. I reuse these overlays on every video I export and I found there was a large time reduction in exporting RGBA footage rather than Dynamic Link to After Effects.

My best guess is to use JPEG 2000 Level 1 in an .MXF wrapper? Any other suggestions or thoughts?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer cliffclof

JPEG 2000 lvl1 it is. I receive an error in premiere when importing JPEG 2000 MXFs, but somehow overnight the error went away. The 10 minute file came in at 976,326 KB which is ~1.5 GB smaller than the QT Animation codec. Should have been using that all along.

I tried the PNG sequence, and it was the smallest (I think), but the fact it cannot be contained in a single file makes it unusable in our workflow.
I tried Targa sequence, which was much larger 34k vs 8,000k.
I tried GoPro Cineform, which although is listed as QT still worked without QT installed. It worked well, but the files turned out to be astronomical in size and much larger than QT Animation.
I tried DNxHD, but the files were too large, and I didn't find any RGBA options for export even though the format spec supports it.
I tried AVI (uncompressed), wow. File size would have taken a hard drive per clip.

Thanks for the help and suggestions, if anyone reading this knows of a better way please share.

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Dave_LaRonde

Inspiring

Your best guess sounds correct. However, I wouldn't 10 minutes at just 1 or 2 gigs. I expect the file size will be larger.

But I've been known to be wrong.

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