Can single Anime Frames be Exported at 300 dpi?

[sceech]

Hi everybody,

I want to export some single frames from some of my animations to be printed out on cards as promotional materials for my animations, but the printer wants me to deliver artwork at 300 dpi for print, as 72 dpi pixilates. Everytime I export a frame from Anime as a PSD and take it into Photoshop, it always shows up in Photoshop at 72 dpi. Is there a way to export from Anime as a /png or .psd at 300 dpi? Thanks all.

Dave

[heyvern]

Very easy. I do 300dpi all the time from Anime Studio.
Actually 300dpi is incorrect it should be 300 ppi (pixels per inch). Most likely if your printer requested 300dpi he is printing at 133dpi and wants an image that is 300 ppi.

The trick is don't think about the dpi or ppi, think instead about how many pixels you need to EQUAL 300 ppi or dpi or whatever for the document size is in inches. Remember that DPI is "dots per inch". You might think dots are pixels but the "dots" in DPI isn't pixels it's something else entirely. It's the number of those little dots you see in magazines and newspapers in a photo. Your printer is probably printing 133dpi. They just round it up to 300ppi to get a bit "extra". Generally you double the DPI of the print line screen (133) which is 266 ppi. Most times it's easier and better to simply round it up to 300 ppi. The pixels never change only how many are "squeezed" inside an inch when printed.

For example an 8.5 x 11 inch image at 300 ppi is 2550px x 3300px. Those are the pixels you need. It doesn't matter what the dpi is those pixel dimensions will never change, only the size in inches when printed. Those 2550px across will either be squeezed to fit 300 inside an inch or expanded to fit only 72 in an inch. Same pixels. Pixels don't change.

If you change that same document without resampling to 72ppi it would print at 35.417 x 45.833 inches! Humungous! The same number of pixels, they just aren't packed into a letter size area. The pixels print larger but are the same pixels.

So once you figure out how many PIXELS your export from Anime Studio needs to be, render it out. Open it in Photoshop. Go to image size. Uncheck "Resample" (THAT IS IMPORTANT! Uncheck RESAMPLE) and change the resolution from 72ppi to 300ppi and click okay.

Nothing will change! The document won't change size or appear to be any different in Photoshop. But now it's size in inches is 8.5 x 11 when printed because more pixels are "squeezed" to fit inside an inch.

Forgive if I got any of this wrong as far as terminology. It's been years since I was in the print world. Did it for 12 years. Knew this stuff inside and out. Was there before they came up with all this stuff.

[heyvern]

Additional info:

If your printer is really really really printing 300 lpi (lines per inch)... and not asking for 300ppi or dpi... then you would need 600ppi (pixels per inch)

I doubt this is the case. 133lpi or 150lpi line screen in printing is the standard. Some offset printing though is done with a 300lpi line screen which requires doubling that for the pixels per inch.


p.s.
Years ago I did a poster that was printed using a "brand new" cutting edge 6 color process at 300 lpi (this is funny now. Today you can buy a 6 color inkjet for $300 with higher resolution) . This required a photoshop image that was 600 pixels per inch and 24 x 36 inches with 6 channels (CMYK plus two extra colors I think were "red" and "yellow"). This created a humungous color gamut not available with traditional 4 color printing.

The final flattened image delivered to the printer was over 1 gb. Back then there weren't cheap portable drives with multi gb's of storage. The design firm I worked for didn't have anything that big. We had to save the image as a multipart zip archive split onto 3 or 4 external drives and send them to the printer.

[sceech]

Hi

So, it seems there might be a workaround, but I'm not 100% clear on the steps. I am trying to take frames from Anime and end up with a printed postcard that is 5 inches wide, 7 inches tall, printing at the "300 dpi". Is 300 ppi the same resolution as 300 dpi when printing, and how do I calculate this out, where and what settings do I make in Anime to achieve this, as Anime is vector-based? Thanks for the follow-up info, I'm just a bit unclear on the steps. Thanks.

Dave

[jamesg]

Photoshop
New Document
Custom
Width 5 inches
Height 7 inches
300 pixels/inch

now change the measurement to pixels instead of inches.
result
1500x2100

[heyvern]

Photoshop
New Document
Custom
Width 5 inches
Height 7 inches
300 pixels/inch

now change the measurement to pixels instead of inches.
result
1500x2100

jamesg is correct. Those are the steps to find the pixel dimensions.
Now just set your Anime Studio project settings to that same width and height.

Do a render, then in the render window save the file. That's how I do it rather than exporting animation.
Open the rendered file in Photoshop.
Select Image Size.
Uncheck "Resample" and change the resolution to 300 ppi.

When you change the project settings it's based on the height. It will keep everything the same size relative to the height so the width will close up and crop left and right. You may have to translate and zoom the camera to get your image to fit a portrait layout rather than the original landscape layout for animation.

[sceech]

Hi again,

I was able to get the 5x7 size (1500 x 2100) set up in the Anime workspace, scaled the drawing to properly fit, etc, so now to the next phase, following your workflow map...

Should I be rendering via Command/Control R, or Command / Control E, and "Saving As"?
I ask this because when I use Command R (render), the Save As options in the lower left of the render window do not include .PSD as an option, but when done via Export Animation, there is ".PSD" Save As option?

In effect, am I trying to output from Anime as a .PSD?

Thanks

[Danimal]

Render the one frame and save it as an image. If you're just using this for printing, there's no need to make is .PSD specfically.

[heyvern]

I don't think you need a PSD unless you plan on editing layers in Photoshop. Just save as PNG using CMD+R.

Do you plan to edit layers of the image in photoshop? Is there more than one character or "layer" that you plan to move around in Photoshop after export?

The benefit of exporting to PSD is that it will put each top level layer in Anime Studio on a layer in the PSD file. this won't work If all your layers are inside a group layer, that group becomes a single layer in the PSD. Unless you have set up your file for this purpose exporting to PSD will be the same as any other file format,

For example when animating a project, I usually put all my layers of a character into a single group or bone layer, if I were to render a single frame to PSD the file would be the same as a PNG saved from the quick render window.

For some print projects I do intentionally put a bunch of layers at the top level specifically to get layers in Photoshop. Normally this doesn't work for a single character because it's usually in a bone layer.

For example I used a character recently for a website. Just rendered stills in various positions. I needed the head, body, arms, hands etc on different layers so I could layer them with other artwork. I was also able to say, flip the head, or rotate it slightly in photoshop without having to re-render. The character was in a bone layer and there was no way to export to PSD and get layers.

Instead I just animated visibility or used a mask for different sections I wanted to be separated. I place keys to turn layers on and off on sequential frames. Then I export animation to an image sequence instead of a movie file spanning those frames, either PSD or simply PNG. I end up with a series of files with each separate part. They are all exactly the same dimension and can easily be dragged into a new PSD file with each part on its own layer.

[sceech]

Ok, I'll toy around with it and see if the work flow is there. What I'm doing I think is fairly basic, just want to turn single frames to print, so I think I'm headed in the right direction, just...

Render as .PSD at 300ppi from Anime
open in Photoshop (1500 x 2100)
uncheck Resample box, set Image Size to 5x7, 300ppi
Save

The preliminary test run seemed to work, now I will see if I can do it again for real. Thanks.

Heyvern, what kind of stuff do you do? Anyplace to see your creations?
Cheers,
Dave

[heyvern]

Heyvern, what kind of stuff do you do? Anyplace to see your creations?
Cheers,
Dave

I do mostly web design but occasionally get a chance to do animation. Mostly I use Anime Studio for my own projects.

In this topic posting linked below, are links to print work I did with Anime Studio using all of the instructions I posted here. These are posters that range from 11 x 17 to 24 x 36. It all depended on what the marketing budget was for the plays . All the characters and "main" artwork was drawn entirely in Anime Studio.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25674#p144007

Here are animation examples of Anime Studio:
http://hubumedia.com/animation-samples

And some 3D stuff done in Animation:Master
http://hubumedia.com/portfolio/animation/3d-animation

[sceech]

Hi Vern,

I checked out your animations and posters, very good stuff, very polished and high end, well done. You've obviously got chops, and solid experience. Nice work, and thanks for nudging me along through my speed bump.

All the best,

Dave