What Will It Look Like?

[Sergeant Karma]

A simple question, maybe. (From someone who is working with the demo version.)

I've imported an image, a .PNG file of a scanned drawing, into TVP. In there, it looks good, exactly like it should look. But how do I know what it will look like once I've exported it? Is there a "Render preview" feature, or something similar?

(I'm asking because if I do the same thing in Anime Studio Pro, the image quality suffers: gradients appear to have bands, and the image becomes too light.)

Thanks in advance for your help.

[slowtiger]

The image will appear exactly as you specify in the render settings. You can render single images from TVP, preferably as PNG which seems to be the best interchange format between programmes.

If you get gradients in AS, I'm sure you've chosen some quality-reducing video codec or setting, because I don't get those.

[Sergeant Karma]

Are you sure? Not even when you do a gradient in AS itself, then check the Render Preview? The codec I use is Animation, at least when I export. *In* the application the image looks alright, but when I preview it, the bands appear. That's why I wanted to know how I can preview my stuff in TVP.

[malcooning]

Are you sure? Not even when you do a gradient in AS itself, then check the Render Preview? The codec I use is Animation, at least when I export. *In* the application the image looks alright, but when I preview it, the bands appear. That's why I wanted to know how I can preview my stuff in TVP.

The TVP playback draws it's images from the cache and from the RAM, and its quality is decided by the settings you set in the preview panel. If you want to preview what the animation will look like once it is encoded by a set of algorithms (exported) then there's no way around making a test export of the footage. There are no applications I'm aware that give the option to preview a rendition already encoded. Maybe some very high-end systems do, but whoever uses those systems don't even use lossy encoders (such as animation encoder).
The best way to do so is to export a portion of a few frames (use the mark in mark out buttons in the export panel), and then just watch it. You could make it easier by automating the export process with a custom button running a script, but then you will miss the point of testing different encoding options.

[Sergeant Karma]

Well, as I said, I'm a demo user so I can't export. That's the reason I'd like to have a preview. Also, the Animation codec is supposed to be lossless at 100%, but even if it wasn't it shouldn't make such a difference.

I have a 20" iMac, and I'm starting to believe it's that model's display that isn't right.

[malcooning]

You're right, Animation codec is lossless. But it is not suitable for all cases, as it can add noise and create banding in highly gradient areas. Anyway, this codec, at it's right settings. is not supposed to bet be the weak-link in the final result.
Even though you can't test exportation now, TVP exports with such a big range of codecs that you'll find your suitable one when you get to it. Basically, if you can get animation running nicely inside your TVP, then you will be able to export exactly the same. If you want to check your animation properly, set the preview settings to work with a proxy. This will render (either on request, or upon no activity) your frames to your hard drive at your chosen level of quality, and will play it back from your drive without having to read the full frame data in realtime. If you are not managing to preview the animation even then, then your hardware might not be up to it.

[Sergeant Karma]

Thanks. I can't imagine TVP exporting poorly really, given its reputation, but I've had a lot of trouble with exporting in the past so that's one of those things I always zoom into.

I still think it's strange that gradients should appear so banded on my screen, though. Surely an iMac can handle gradients... The issue seems less bad in TVP, but as I said that could change after exporting. It's an annoying little problem.

[slowtiger]

Banding is a problem I know from printing mostly, and it only appears under certain circumstances:
- The gradient must cover a long distance (on paper or on screen)
- The colour difference within the gradient is very small.

Since we work with 8-bit-colour here, which is 256 possible values for each RGB channel, it's obvious that a blue value range between 5 and 15 only can have 10 different values during the gradient, and at some point the value steps up one number, which can be visible to the eye. This is especially a problem when using any gradient tool since the same values form a thick line across the screen - thus the banding appearance.

If you don't see banding in your gradient while working within TVP, then there should be no banding in the output - if there is, then it's most likely fault of a wrong codec or an unlucky setting.

If you see banding while working in TVP, you have several choices:
- Increase the colour range. Don't move just one colour slider, use all three of them - the more different values you wll get.
- Decrease the screen distance, if possible.
- Add noise. This is the trick mostly used in printing: if the perfect gradient shows banding, apply a noise filter to each separate colour channel independently.
- Don't use the gradient tool. Instead paint your colour range by hand.
The last one is what I prefer anyway: slightly visible brush strokes add a painterly quality, and the whole appearance is more lively than any generated gradient.

[Fabrice]

Markus answered very well.

nb : the dither/spread options are here in TVP Animation