mp4 Render Butchering Colours?

[catlover8976]

Hey, I'm using my old account I made when I was about 14, so sorry for the cringy username but I don't think I've ever had this issue with the MP4 render having colours this badly altered before? I'm assuming it's a codec issue but I have no idea how to change it or get around it.

Also I'm using Anime Studio 11 Pro because I am poor and can not upgrade, please don't offer upgrading as a solution.


I swear it's never been 'this' bad before.

[Maestral]

Do you have the correct colours when you render a single frame?
If so, there's the solution - export png's or similar (with correct colours) and wrap it up outside Moho by some video editor of your liking. Import img sequence and apply the proper export settings/codecs...

On a side note...
That blue, the main colour of the character looks somewhat familiar and I think you'll have a lot of trouble in preserving it as it is. Check its gamut and try to find some other close match or just don't give up trying.

[catlover8976]

Yes it's correct when I render a frame as a PNG, but it feels rather impractical to do it that way when I'd like the program to just render mp4 correctly. Or at least I'd like the chance to understand why this is happening in the first place? Rendering as an AVI has the colours fine but the frame rate and quality diminished so I'd rather not use that option.

I'm unsure what you mean when you're asking me to check it's gamut and not sure what I should be looking for. Is there specific shades I should be avoiding? If so how do I find out which?

[Maestral]

There's really no just one answer to fit them all.
PNG is an uncompressed file format and most (if not all) video formats are somewhat compressed. That's where some colour info is lost or simply changed/adjusted to the given/available colours for each specific codec, format...

In order to preserve this particular shade of blue, you'll need to adjust the output settings. Either through the format or more likely through choosing and adjusting the available codec/s. Moho is not really meant for such tasks (even After Effects can't properly export h.264) hence my recommendation for Img sequence export from Moho and final rendering done in some video editor, where you can adjust all of these things towards your liking.

On the other hand....
As you may see here, I've used your uploaded image and rendered it through the Moho (mp4/h.264 - aac) and the colours remained pretty much the same. This is a screenshot with video player in top half and your image in the bottom half But, this is a still image video where compression in video rendering is not the same for still and moving images/shapes.


And one more thing, which is quite indicative - note how's the shading on the character's neck rendered without that gradient. The colour space is pretty much narrowed in the mp4 hence the lack of gradient and all of the colours needed for proper display of that main blue.

[Greenlaw]

Yes it's correct when I render a frame as a PNG, but it feels rather impractical to do it that way when I'd like the program to just render mp4 correctly.

For a variety of reasons, I never bother with rendering final animations as a movie file from Moho. As a matter of fact, I rarely do that from any animation program.

It's better (and arguably more efficient) to render an image sequence from Moho and then compile the frames in another program that has better video support. For me, this is usually done in a compositing program like After Effects, Fusion, or Nuke, but video editors and some media players can do this too.