Video Export Format

[Noisefever]

Hi!

Until Moho 14 I exported my videos with "AVI (Video for Windows). With this option I can choose my video codec and I chose the "Lagarith Lossless Codec", which uses PNG compression (as far as I know). The result is much smaller than uncompressed AVI, but lossless.

Now this option is vanished. I assume the "AVI (PNG alpha PCM)" is sort of the same thing, but my video editing software isn't able to read that. That's pretty annoying. Why not continue to allow you to choose your own codec? I don't understand this decision.
So my question is: how do you export your videos to solve that compression problem? Or is there a solution to choose a codec hidden in the config file or so?

Regards, Daniel

[Greenlaw]

Moho received internal changes in recent versions to prepare for significant improvements later on. This change has already resulted in better performance, but unfortunately, they had to scale back some of the options, like output choices. I believe this is a temporary setback, though.

That said, the changes haven't affected my rendering workflow very much because I typically export to PNG image sequence and then compile the frames in another program for editorial use. Rendering to an image sequence first and then compiling it as a video clip using a compositing or video editor is common practice for working with any animation program, 2D or 3D, and not just Moho. I know that's not satisfying to hear, but this is a good, reliable way to work, especially for larger productions.

There are other ways to compile image sequences to movie files. Years ago, when I was starting out with Moho making Scareplane, I used to use a free file conversion utility and set up a batch script to process my PNG image sequences to Lagarith AVI. I haven't had to do this for a very long time, but Handbrake is a good tool for this sort of thing...and it's free! FWIW, I used Handbrake recently to convert over a dozen video files to another video container for editorial compatibility, and it was very easy to use.

If you have no option but to render a movie file directly from Moho 14.2, and PNG .avi isn't working for you, try PNG .mov or PNG .asf.

Another option is to render the PNG image sequence from 14.2 and compile the footage to video in an older version of Moho. (I always keep Moho 12.5 on-hand in case I need compatibility with an older asset.) Try setting up a template file in the older version to 'load-and-go' your shots using Moho Exporter.

Anyway, I agree that Moho's export options need improvements. Hopefully, this will happen before too long. (I'm pretty sure it's coming.)

[synthsin75]

Yeah, I swear by Handbrake. It's worked great for all my needs.

[Noisefever]

Thank you both for your answers!
The downside is that this now is an extra step to do. I am not a professional, it's just a hobby. So an extra step is consuming time, I rarely have but I admit: there are worse things. Thank you for the Handbrake tip! Will try it out.

Regards, Daniel