bit PERIOD!
4 messages in this thread
You know I am really beginning to hate this program! I have been using 3D
Studio since release 1.0 came out, including teaching for the local ATC, and
established it as an MTC. I was present at the first annual MTC managers
meeting, and though I am no longer with the ATC, I still teach, and do 3D
Studio work for my employer.
I have never had as much problem with the program as I have in the last couple
of months! I have two simple animations to complete by the end of the week, and
I CANNOT!
I have tried everything possible to get a good 256 color output from the
program to no avail. My recent tries were still .gifs from the animation as a
check before final rendering. Besides the problems I have had before, I now
have complete blockage of pixels in my still frames. I do not feel that it
should be necessary to render to .tga and convert to .gifs, just to get a
simple animation made!
I used DTA to convert a group of .gifs to a .fli(640×480), and the output came
out a hell of a lot better, but with simple problems in ANI pro. I keep getting
the x's at the end of the 256 palette, and compressing to one palette ruins the
resolution. WHY? Even my still .gifs exhibit poor quality. TGA seems to be the
only good solution.
Please give me a hand. There is no local help, and by the way, I will not
simply disapear. If I had the time, and it was available, I would use another
program. WHAT GIVES?
-Kevin
Kevin, can you be more specific about the problems that you are having? Is it a
color problem in the flics? We can't really help you until you give us some
specifics.
Yann Bertaud – I.D.L. Autodesk.
– What palette mode are you rendering in?
– Is DITHER-256 on or off?
– What is the color content of your scene like? How many different-colored
objects do you have in the scene?
– What version of 3DS are you using?
– What does "complete blockage of pixels in my still frames" mean?
Note that the X's in the bottom of the palette in AA Pro ARE NOT REALLY IN YOUR
COLOR PALETTE. They are just temporary colors that AA Pro uses while the menus
are displayed. When you switch to full-screen mode, those color registers are
restored to their correct values.
You will get the best 8-bit color results by rendering with DITHER-256 set ON,
and with version 2.01 or 2.01A. It's also important not to max out the color
bandwidth in the scene if you only have 256 colors.
– G
Also in addition to what Gary said, I find that the best 256-colour
flics are achieved by doing the following (you wanted it spelled out so here it
is):
– Set your 8-bit Colour Palette Mode to HIGH – Render in Phong/None/ALL for
about every 5th frame or so (to get a good feel of the colours being used
throughout the entire animation) – Load the FLIC just created into AAPRO and
save the PALETTE in a .COL file – Get back into 3D Studio and render the
animation again this time
with with the Colour Palette set to CUSTOM (specify the .COL file here) –
Turn on 256-Colour Dither – (Turn on the Floyd Dither if you want too in the
3DS.SET file) – Render! Phong/High/ALL
I guess the only thing I'm stressing in all this is the colour palette
CUSTOM. Not only is it faster in the long run but it eliminates the "colour
flickering" which occurs sometimes when rendering in other palette modes. Does
that help any?
— Steve