Moho Forum

Hi,

I've noticed that when you import an image into AS and render, it always looks of worse quality then the original (a little blurry). For some reason, it looks clearer when you use it as an image texture. Are there any ways to make images look as good rendered in AS as they do originally?

Thanks.

To be sure that the resolution of the imported image file is better than the rendered camera view. You must ensure that the resolution of the imported image is same or better than the project settings.
For example, if the project size is 1204x768 and the image is going to fill the camera rectangle, the image must be 1024x768 minimum. Use the rescale layer to fit a bigger image into the camera rectangle.
Remember image should av always a bigger resolution than the project settings.
Also use PNG format for a better definition (not use jpeg).
Also try to avoid camera zooms.
Use always the best resolution for the "master" copy of your animation. Later compress it with a video converter.

Good luck.
Genete

When I import an image, it is initially a certain size. I suppose that that is the ideal size for the specified image. I made two versions of the same image, one as an image and was as an image texture. The image is always more blurry. The image texture is not as convenient because it can not be rotated along the Z axis and you cannot see the texture in the AS view.

Here are some examples:

This is Touched's avatar as an image rendered in AS:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2339 ... agegp0.png

This is the avatar as a image texture
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/1971 ... ge2xk3.png

And here is the original image
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/6137 ... 867rm9.gif

As you can see, the image texture is a lot clearer and looks a lot more like the original then the rendered image. Anyone have suggestions on how I can make the first one clearer when I render it in AS?

Help would be appreciated.

You are absolutely right. I have not answer.

I spouse that the gif file have less colors in its palette (it means more sharpness). Later exported to PNG it have a 16 bit color space and aliases the edges.

AS should have an option to define the color space of the animation .
Genete

Then why does the image texture look more like the original?

Nephilim wrote:Then why does the image texture look more like the original?

Mmmmm good question. Could be that the image texture is a direct dump of the image into the render without aliasing manipulation. Anyway is not as sharp as the gif file.

I just finished a project with lots of imported images. They were done in Flash and exported as PNGs, then imported into AS (reasons for that in that other long thread about workflow viewtopic.php?t=7967).

As long as I kept the images untouched, meaning no rotation and no change of size, the rendered output had the same quality as what went in. But even a small change of size means that everything must be interpolated. From experience I recommend to interpolate bigger differences in size rather than small ones.

Example: if I need to zoom in a bit, normally this would be a size change from about 110 % to 100 % (of course I prepare my imported image for the closest close-up to be 100 %). But the result is much better if I prepare my imported PNG to be at least 150 %, better 200 %. This way, every frame is interpolated from 150 or 200 % down to 110 or 100 %.[/url]

This is the second time someone has used my avatar as an example of something (first time was with my previous one). Genete's correct, I reduced the colours to the minimum possible number (without losing quality) for my avatar both for file size reasons and sharpness reasons.

Touched,

Were both of your avatars created in AS. They are very artistic and would show that you can create very realistic characters in Anime Studio.

I tried testing out other images and they seem to render a bit sharper but still not as great as the original. There should be some way for images to look identical to the originals.

This current one was done in AS. The previous one was from last year's Drowtales animation, which I did in Flash.