No 16-bit EXR

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
March 8, 2019
2 replies
7299 views

In After Effects, there is no option to output 16 bit for EXR. It always default to 32 bit. Our work does not need 32 bit especially our resolution is huge (14,000 x 14,000) so 32 bit will create a huge file.

Thanks.

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F

fnordware

Inspiring

AE writes out 16-bit EXRs by default. If you want 32-bit you have to check the "32-bit (not recommended)" box in the OpenEXR options.

Maybe you're confused because the output module is always 32-bit float. EXR files appear to AE as 32-bit float even when the file itself is 16-bit float. This is not the same as AE's 16-bit color, which is integer, not float.

J

Jaydude-wb

Inspiring

Not true, even when the checkbox is off, and Ae is in 16bit mode, at render time a warning pops up that 32bit is more than the project setting's 16bit.

And when choosing OpenEXR, all depths but Floating Point are grayed out. So 32bit is the only possible choice.

F

fnordware

Inspiring

After Effects's 16-bit mode is 16-bit integer. EXR's is 16-bit float. That's why EXR only lets you use Trillions (32-bit), because that's the only floating point mode in After Effects.

Unless you have a good reason, you'll want to stick to 16-bit in EXR. Good reasons would be 1) you have pixel values greater than 65504.0 or 2) you're writing data like z-depth that reqires full 32-bit precision. For conventional images, 16-bit is plenty and makes a smaller file.

You can save EXRs from an 8- or 16-bit AE project and AE will do the linear conversion for you. Naturally you won't have the same fidelity as a 32-bit project and won't have any overbrights.