Render Problems

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Render Problems

Postby ma3ry » Sat Jul 14, 2012 8:37 pm

I created some practice morphs using the Standard app and successfully rendered them for use in a Flash project, however now I have purchased the Professional app for the transparency feature, and have used the same 400 x 400 .gif files to create my new project.

In the preview window there are two boxes (with gradients) in the top left corner. From what I am reading I think the one on the left is proof mode and the one on the right is draft mode.

In the draft mode the images are perfect, and this is exactly what I would like to export (render). In the proof mode the images are pixelated beyond recognition.

I have tried exporting using all different formats with different options within the formats and it keeps rendering as the proof mode, not the draft mode, whereas when I created it in the standard version, it rendered just fine.

Can you tell me please what I'm missing here.
Thanks.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby Ark » Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:05 pm

Proof mode is exactly what is rendered. The draft button is useful if the actual size of your animation is larger than the preview window in pixels, or you have an old machine that can't render as fast.
It sounds like you have the render speed/quality tradeoff option set to a value higher than 1. That will render only some of the pixels, which is useful for very long animations to get a general idea of how it will flow once rendered to a movie file. Set that option back to 1 for full quality.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby ma3ry » Sat Jul 14, 2012 9:49 pm

Thanks for your help. It's much appreciated. I found that if I used .png 8 images, that it rendered correctly, except that I am unable to preserve the transparency using the .png 8 images. I tried changing the Transparent Threshold from 0 to 221 but I still have a solid white background.

I've just come in now and read your post so changed the render speed to 15. (I have a powerful Mac with 16 GB RAM) and the interesting thing is that I got the same pixelated image as I had before when using the png-24 and .gif images.

I've read the tutorials but obviously I'm missing something.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby Ark » Sat Jul 14, 2012 10:35 pm

If you want to morph the entire alpha channel, and render to a format that supports alpha channels in the animation, you probably want to set the threshold to 0. Please see http://www.morpheussoftware.net/morpheu ... ne-options for more information.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby ma3ry » Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:17 am

Thank you. I had read that whole section which is why I mentioned that I had tried it at 0 as well as other options. I just tried rendering it again with threshold of 0. It still shows a white background.

Any other ideas? The images that I'm creating it with are png-24 and I'm saving it as a .swf.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby Ark » Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:22 am

If your images you're starting with are only 24-bit, then you don't have an alpha channel with any transparency information to begin with.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby ma3ry » Sun Jul 15, 2012 12:03 pm

Ahhh, this makes sense. But the png-24 seems to give the best image, without ragged edges, and according to your help page it says:

PNG, TIFF, and Targa files fully support 32bit images with alpha channels.

Am I saving my images incorrectly from Photoshop? I'm somewhat confused. Sorry
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Re: Render Problems

Postby Ark » Sun Jul 15, 2012 7:21 pm

If you save a 32-bit PNG from Photoshop which includes the transparency in the alpha channel, then you also choose to morph the alpha channel and render to a file format like SWF or PNG that supports including the alpha channel, then it will be in the file just fine.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby ma3ry » Sun Jul 15, 2012 7:46 pm

My basic options for saving are only PNG-8 or PNG-24. If I change the mode to 32 bits/channel then I can't save at all for web and devices.

The thing is, I know it's saving with the transparent background because I can see the gray boxes when I open the png files.

Transparency works just fine if my original files are .gifs but not if they are .png-8 or .png-24

I think that I must be importing it wrong into Morpheus somehow.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby Ark » Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:36 pm

There are no issues with importing images with transparency or alpha channels into Morpheus. Morpheus does not display transparency in the program like Photoshop does (by making up a checkered background). It instead shows the RGB channels exactly as presented in the file, but maintains the alpha channel in memory entirely.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby ma3ry » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:12 pm

Then why does it work for me using gifs but not pngs?
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Re: Render Problems

Postby Ark » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:46 pm

It would depend on the file, but I'd have to assume the PNG files just don't contain any transparency information.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby ma3ry » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:03 pm

I create the images from scratch in Photoshop, selecting a transparent background to begin with.

If I save to jpg or tiff then the transparency is lost and it shows a white background, but if I save if as a png-8, png-24 or gif then the transparency is retained. It's very obvious in Photoshop when you're creating the file whether or not the background is transparent because it shows gray squares/pixels if it's transparent.

When I drag the images into Morpheus the transparency feature appears to be lost, and it appears on a white background, so I don't know if I have a transparent image or not until I save it to a swf and put it into flash. At that point, it either shows a transparent background, as with the gifs, or it is a white background for the pngs.

Has nobody else ever had this problem?
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Re: Render Problems

Postby Ark » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:13 pm

SWF supports transparency, but it may depend on how you are viewing the SWF file. Use the sample HTML Morpheus generates for you to ensure the proper plugin settings. If you still cannot see the transparency, please email the PNGs and AML layout file to support and they can look into the files in detail to determine if they contain any transparency information.
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Re: Render Problems

Postby ma3ry » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:13 pm

Well I tried it again with the same png files I was using before and it seems to be working now. I don't know that I did anything differently, but it seems to be working. Hallelujah!

I'm sorry to have taken up your time, but I do appreciate all your help so much!

Many thanks!
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